A look at LotRO's Book 13 LFF and group questing improvements
The latest developer diary at the Lord of the Rings Online site provides a detailed rundown of the fellowing and quest log improvements that will be included with Book 13. The quest log itself will be getting a face-lift, but the proposed changes aren't just skin-deep. One of the handy new features will let you see which step group-mates are up to in a particular quest chain, and also if they are ready to hand in a quest (as noted in the diary, the constant spamming of fellow chat with quest completion status will be a thing of the past).
As well as these things, actually finding people to help with a quest should be a great deal easier, with a feature that will allow you to flag a quest with a new "Find a Fellowship" button. Other people that have the same quest flagged will be able to see that you're interested and easily get together. From what we can tell, it sounds like you will only be able to flag a single quest at a time, which is a little disappointing, but it's still an excellent feature.
When you do get invited to a fellowship in Book 13, you'll be able to see the name, level, class and location of everyone before you join. This will stop those random invites from being so random in the future, and also allow you to make an informed decision about the group you're considering becoming part of.
The final improvement to fellowing in the upcoming patch is aimed at cutting the time it takes to get the party together. This is accomplished with the introduction of "Mustering Horns". Using one of these horns at a Campsite, a player can summon his or her fellows, which will certainly allow the team to get down to business a lot quicker. There are of course limitations with this method of summoning, and the Captain's version is still superior, but this should still prove very useful for group setup. Check out the developer diary to get the full scoop on all of Book 13's fellowship updates.
