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Lord of the Rings Online spills the beans on Rohan's epic story
It's not just enough for Turbine to release a new war-pony expansion for Lord of the Rings Online and call it a day. No, the team has to maintain its high standards of storytelling, which is why Content Designer Jeff Libby wrote the latest set of quest notes for the upcoming addition to the epic tale of the game. According to Libby, Riders of Rohan will contain three new books of the epic story, titled A Fellowship Endangers, Into the Riddermark, and the Third Marshal. He paints a few broad strokes about the writing process, and then goes into spoiler-heavy territory for those who like behind-the-scenes explanations. The writer is excited to the point of needing sedation about finally entering this area of the books. "Rohan is a land that we knew we had to get right," Libby said. "For that reason alone, we've spent a great deal of time ensuring that we could do it justice. After all, the stretch of The Lord of the Rings that we have gotten up to is often cited as the favorite of readers and film-lovers alike. We need our version of the Riddermark to be equally as beloved."
The Road to Mordor: An Update 6 play date with Turbine
This past week, Turbine called my parents and asked if I could come over to play Lord of the Rings Online. "Sure he can," my mother replied. "As long as he wears his galoshes. What? It's wet outside!" And thus I ended up hanging out with the Turbine crew -- Aaron Campbell, Jared Pruett, and Jeff Libby -- as they walked me through Update 6 with the optional developer commentary mode set to "on." I highly recommend you rent a developer for the same experience, as it helps to have someone giving you a Cliff's Notes version of the game's complicated lore. Pruett first caught me up on the major PvMP changes of this coming Monday's update. The team wanted to increase rewards and turn progression into a seasonal mechanic to keep players coming to the Ettenmoors. As such, PvMP now has a universal currency -- that's account-wide, by the way -- that will allow players to purchase top-end gear. The team also tweaked down what the devs saw as a DPS race in order to give players time to deliberate and make strategic choices during fights. Beyond PvMP, the devs marched me right into the next epic storyline book that whisked us away to a strange new land: The Great River. What did I find waiting for me there?
Rings and words of power: Going inside LotRO's Update 5
It's been a couple of days since the news broke that Lord of the Rings Online's Update 5 is going to be bigger than previously thought, with not only a new instance cluster but an additional book in the epic storyline and an Instance Finder system. As Update 5 goes up on the test server for the remainder of the week, we got in touch with Turbine to talk about the details of this mountain of content heading our way, including an epic confrontation with Rise of Isengard's big baddie himself, Saruman. It wouldn't be a conference call without a few notable surprises as well, and Adam Merskey, Aaron Campbell, Jeff Libby, and Joe Barry were eager to share what the team has been working on for the first update after the expansion. It's time to wave goodbye to the Rangers, stop putting off instance runs, and take the fight to the bearded dude himself. It's time for Update 5. Get all the skinny after the jump!
Lord of the Rings Online dev diary outlines Epic Story design
Lord of the Rings Online fans, we know you've all probably been quite busy adventuring through Isengard, but perhaps it's time you take a break. We've got just the thing for you to read while you relax, too. Light up some pipe-weed and have a seat as Turbine's Jeff Libby takes you on a tour of the design of Rise of Isengard's epic questline. Libby expounds on the "T-Factor," or the Tolkien Factor, which governs the design of the game and the Epic Story in particular. In essence, the iconic characters and locations from Tolkien lore are said to have a higher T-Factor, and the devs aim for the Epic Story to have a particularly high T-Factor. The devs also introduced phasing with Rise of Isengard, which allows the environment to change based on players' actions. For the full, spiffy details on Rise of Isengard's Epic Story, head on over to the official dev diary.
Turbine offers up a dev diary and screens for Oath of the Rangers
We got the first details on the upcoming Lord of the Rings Online book, titled Oath of the Rangers, earlier this week. Now, to add to the excitement, Turbine has followed up on the initial information by releasing a handful of screens and an excellent developer's diary. Flowing mightily from the keyboard of Jeff 'MadeOfLions' Libby, the diary gives Lord of the Rings Online fans much to discuss. Aside from the talk of storylines and a new skirmish, there's a really great behind-the-scenes portion about how precisely the LotRO team sets up something called "drama sequences." Essentially, these scripted sequences tailor NPC dialogue to you based on your own personal quest history -- bringing you info the story. There's also some information on ways the team is seeking to make travel a bit easier for the casual players, or more rewarding for those who take the long path. If Middle-earth is the place you call home, then you'll definitely want to check out the new screens we've gathered up for you as well as the enlightening developer diary over on the LotRO site. %Gallery-84675%
LotRO Dev Diary: Moving the Fellowship
As we reported last week from our Lord of the Rings Online Book 14 tour, the time has arrived for the Fellowship to finally leave Rivendell. For the players who enjoy the game's connection to Tolkien's work, this is truly an exciting time. For the game developers, it's a fairly unique challenge.In a recent dev diary entitled Moving the Fellowship, Jeff "MadeOfLions" Libby discusses the problems faced by the development team in regards to this challenge, and how they solved them. For example, throughout the game as it stands today, the nine Fellowship members are not all together waiting for their big move. Some are in various locations throughout Rivendell, while Gimli is in the Misty Mountains. Each member is simultaneously involved in dozens of quests throughout the game, which poses its own set of challenges. Check out the complete dev diary to find out how they overcame these obstacles, and how they will continue to implement these ideas in the future of the game.
