The Lord of the Rings Online is previewing some of the content players can expect to see in the coming days, as a new crafting event is set to hit with Update 37 and a first look at the new Hobbit housing neighborhood that is soon to come.
Last Friday, The Lord of the Rings Online Lead Systems Designer Allan "Orion" Maki took to the forums to break down the new crafting event coming to the Breeland town of Combe. The small hamlet situated just outside Bree proper is a location most players will be familiar with as it's a hub for quests early on in a LotRO player's journey, and it will become home to the MMO's first crafting event.
Maki breaks down why the team chose Combe as the event's location instead of the bustling town of Bree, with the lumber camp next to the Chetwood being a clear choice. The overall goal was to ensure this was an event everyone, regardless of level, could participate in.
"As stated above, the goal was to make the first crafting event something accessible and useful to all players and we wanted to ensure that all players understood that the goal with these events is not to lock out lower level players, rather, these are meant as accessible pieces of content that are agnostic to all levels. What better way to do this than place the first event near the hub of everything Bree.We knew that we could not put this in Bree proper, and while there were other locales that did vie for the honour, ultimately Old Bauman and Mason Thorne convinced us that their quaint little lumber camp on the edge of the Chetwood had broad appeal to the masses. We set about enlisting the aid of Thorne's family and suddenly, the Combe Event took shape."
The event will follow a schedule of 14-21 days off and 4-5 days on, with daily limits that can be reset using the MMO's in-game premium currency, Mithril Coins. Once you've accepted the quest to become a Competitive Forester, you'll need to stay near the Combe Lumber Camp to complete the objectives using the tools provided (no high-end harvesting materials allowed to give a level playing field). You'll harvest wood, refine it, gather skins, and do all the things Foresters typically do as part of their daily lives as a crafter in Middle-earth.
Update 37, which should include the new Combe crafting event, is slated to hit the Bullroarer test server on Wednesday, July 19th, or the week after, according to community manager Jerry "Cordovan" Snook in the latest Cord of the Rings stream.
Speaking of, The Lord of the Rings Online is also getting ready to showcase the next premium housing neighborhood in the MMO, the Hobbit neighborhood of Lyndelby. In last week's Cord of the Rings dev stream, Cordovan gave a first glimpse at some screenshots in the area and teased that the studio will be hosting a housing preview at 2 pm ET/11 am PT on Wednesday. This would add yet another premium housing neighborhood alongside the two neighborhoods after the fashion of Men (Belfalas and Rohan) and the Dwarf premium housing added most recently.
