joe-barry
Latest
LotRO goes to the Lonely Mountain: Update 10 raid preview
If you haven't heard the garment-rending woes of Lord of the Rings Online players who have had to wait and wait for the promised second half of Riders of Rohan's instance cluster (now with raids!), then you haven't been anywhere near LotRO in the past half-year. Fortunately, the imminent Update 10 will soon swoop in and provide the populace with a trio of raids as well as a six-person instance to tackle. We got on the phone with Turbine for a tour of the new raids. Senior Designer Joe Barry opened the session by explaining that eastern Rohan just plain did not work for a location of instances due to lore restrictions, a lack of a big bad guy, and no iconic locations. So the team decided to tackle the IP-supported tale of the Easterlings' siege of Dale and the Lonely Mountain through the second half of this instance cluster. Join us as we take a look at just what is up with the Lonely Mountain now that Smaug has vacated the premises!
LotRO's team fields live dev chat
A gaggle of Turbine developers sat down this afternoon to field scores of Lord of the Rings Online questions from the community in a live dev chat. Among the topics discussed were mounted combat, earlier zone revamps, class updates, and PvMP options. One of the burning topics concerned possible player housing improvements. Turbine said that it needed to address the vacant neighborhoods first, but was moving in that direction: "All I can say is that we have a lot of devs interested in doing some serious home improvement." We have the full chat transcript for you after the jump, starring Senior Producer Aaron Campbell, Lead Systems Designer Matt Zimmitti, World Designer Matt Fahey, Senior Content Designer Lauren Salk, Senior Content Designer Joe Barry, and Community Manager Rick Heaton.
From warhorses to hobby horses: A ride through LotRO's Rohan
I have to admit, every bit of news for Lord of the Rings Online: Riders of Rohan that has come out has been a little stab in my heart. Is the news that bad? On the contrary, it is too good! But because of my notorious uber-casual gaming style, I had little hope of seeing the content anytime before the 2016 presidential elections; stalled in my low 60s, I am ineligible to participate in LotRO's upcoming content. Suddenly, all of my time spent wandering the beauty of Middle-earth, playing music, visiting player-run events, and participating in festivals seemed a less-than-ideal way to spend my time. But then fate intervened: I received an invitation to get a first-hand look at Riders of Rohan with a tour guided by Senior Designer Joe Barry and Senior Producer Aaron Campbell. Knowing that participating would be a double-edged sword (getting a taste only to know I couldn't have more), I still jumped at the chance. I'll just deal with the disappointment later, I thought. For a brief time, I got to immerse myself in Rohan and get a look at what awaits players when the expansion launches on October 15th. And between rebuilding an entire town, hobby horse races, and riding warsteeds, I am psyched-up to actually level and take part in all that RoR will offer.%Gallery-158706%
LotRO's Habitat for Hobbanity is its new endgame [Updated]
Lord of the Rings Online has a brand-new endgame activity coming with next month's Riders of Rohan, and it's called "Hytbold." Senior Designer Joe Barry penned a dev diary to explain just how and why Hytbold won't be like anything players have seen before. Hytbold is the name of a burned-out village that adventurers will rebuild and restock. Through the use of instances, open tapping, remote looting, and phasing, LotRO will allow each player fix the town up and get it back into shape over time. Players have over 150 repairs to make to over 24 buildings in the town, which is accomplished through daily quests, participating in mounted combat, and even fishing. The rewards for coming to the aid of Hytbold are significant. Turbine's prepared to hand out class and trait-specific armor sets that are comparable to raid gear, a big ending to the region's story, and the honor of being named a Thane of Rohan. The best part of this is that players can rebuild the entire town solo if need be, although there are grouping options as well. [Update: The team also released a big batch of Riders of Rohan enemy screenshots today; we've included them within our LotRO gallery after the break.]
LotRO's Fornost 'joining the modern MMO world'
"Fornost was designed and built in a different era of MMO," Turbine's devs said about the newly revised dungeon. "It is time for Fornost to join the modern MMO world." With Fornost slated for a massive overhaul with Update 7, the team posted a developer diary to explain the history of the instance and its hopeful future. The third instance ever created for Lord of the Rings Online will be chopped up from its current super-long state to four manageable dungeons. The devs said that it was designed from an EverQuest mindset of long dungeon crawls, but so much has changed over time and most players no longer have the time or effort to conquer it. With Update 7, Fornost will turn into four element-themed six-person dungeons. Each of these dungeons should take well less than an hour to complete and scale from level 30 to 75 with two tiers of difficulty. The team's reworked positioning, bosses, and quests to reflect the upgraded experience. For those who might miss the old Fornost, the team says that playing all four instances back-to-back will replicate the grand tour that it used to be.
Lord of the Rings Online dev diaries discuss new skirmishes
Turbine has given us a two-for-one deal today with the addition of two new dev diaries. The diaries -- from Turbine's Bob "Maurath" Hess and Joe "jwbarry" Barry -- detail two of the new skirmishes being introduced in Lord of the Rings Online's Update 3. The first skirmish, Attack at Dawn, takes place in the North Downs and sees players dealing with multiple different mechanics simultaneously. The second, The Icy Crevasse, is the first skirmish to take place in Forochel and is described by Barry as "a quick bite-sized romp," with the skirmish taking about 10 minutes to complete. It's truly an interesting look into not only what the skirmishes themselves entail but the design process that goes into bringing them to players on the live servers. Whether you play LotRO or you're just curious about the work and thought process that goes into these skirmishes, the diaries are certainly a must-read. If you're interested in gaining a new degree of respect for the effort that goes into the game, both dev diaries can be found on LotRO's official site.
The Road to Mordor: Dungeon-running with Turbine
As we talked about last month, Turbine's toting around a double-barreled shotgun full of content that it's preparing to unload. While the biggest blast will undoubtedly be Lord of the Rings Online's third expansion, Rise of Isengard, the team is working hard to provide us with plenty to do between now and then. Part of that effort is directed at Update 3, which is currently scheduled to go live on May 23rd in North America and after June 1st for Europe when the LotRO Global Service takes effect and all of the accounts are moved under Turbine's purview. I eagerly sat down with Turbine's Aaron Campbell and Joe Barry for a play-through of Update 3's two new three-player instances, Halls of Night and Inn of the Forsaken. Both of these scalable instances will be available to a wide swath of players, and they feature mechanics and sights never before seen in the game. Also, they're wicked cool. So join me today as I take you on a brief tour of horrors and adventures beyond imagination. Has everyone used the restroom before we go? Are you sure? It's a long article; I don't want you leaving in the middle of it. OK, let's ride!
Reshaping a zone: LotRO dev diary covers Evendim revamp
Ask any Lord of the Rings Online player about Evendim and you'll get back one of two responses: "Evendim? More like EVERswim!" and "Nice place but too spread out for my tastes." LotRO's lakefront-themed zone was identified as one of the sticking spots in the leveling track, which is why the dev team went back to overhaul Evendim and bring it up to code. In a new dev diary, Joe Barry explains the purpose and execution of this revamp. Previously, Evendim attempted to cover too much territory as a level 29-50 zone, and as a result it was more of a hindrance than a help to players looking to get over the 30s hump. With next week's Echoes of the Dead update, Evendim will be transformed to a lean, mean leveling machine, tightened up to serve levels 30-40 exclusively. The team added over 100 quests and two new quest hubs in its attempt to streamline the experience. Additionally, Turbine's experimenting with different ways to deliver quests to you, such as having a journal unfold new quests as you complete previous ones. Finally, quest rewards are designed in a way to deliver class-specific gear, which can be augmented by a bartering system put in for this patch. You can read the full dev diary over at Lord of the Rings Online!
Developer diary outlines the goals for Lord of the Rings Online's upcoming raid
Raid design is as much an art as a science. Lord of the Rings Online is slated for a big update to its raiding game with the removal of the radiance mechanic, but that's hardly the only feature in the queue for the upcoming patch. Ost Dunhoth is en route, and in a new developer diary, Joe Barry talks about some of the major changes that are being placed in the raid to make it fun and challenging in equal amounts. Aside from the known fact that no radiance will be needed, the raid will also feature an automatic cooldown reset for each boss fight, ensuring that players won't be prohibited from a second try by a recharging skill. The raid is also divided into three wings, with progress through the first two needed to unlock the third and final wing. Take a look at the full rundown of features in the diary entry, which also includes a few previews of the loot. And if you're a Lord of the Rings Online player in Europe enticed by new content, well, there is a Welcome Back weekend running...
LotRO dev diary dishes on scaled instance rewards
Do you have a lot of questions about the upcoming scaled instances in Lord of the Rings Online? Good, because Turbine has a whole truckload of answers for you! In the second of a hefty five developer diaries devoted to the subject, LotRO's Joe "jwbarry" Barry tempts players with sweet, sweet candy. Metaphorical candy, that is, taking the form of instance rewards. The greatest problem that they had with rewards, Barry shares, is that itemizing a dungeon across a huge level range became a massive headache, requiring them to make "a prohibitive" amount of items. Instead, the LotRO dev team is taking a cue from its successful skirmish system, and reprogramming the scaled-instance mobs to drop tokens instead of loot. Players can then use these tokens to purchase armor sets, cosmetic items and even legendaries. Barry spends the rest of the article discussing the stat-tracking feature (again, similar to stat-tracking functions with skirmishes) and how the team went back through the dungeons to raise the quality of the entire experience where needed. You can read the full dev diary over at Lord of the Rings Online's site.
Newest LotRO dev diary explains instance scaling
The skirmish system in Lord of the Rings Online brought a lot to the table, but one of the most popular new features was scaling. It was a big hit, and the developers are now adding it to the rest of the game in the form of instance scaling. If you're curious about how it will work, Content Designer Joe "jwbarry" Barry has written out a developer diary explaining the system. One concern was making these instances available to the widest possible number of players, while still maintaining quality, challenging content. Joining instances like you would join a skirmish was another detail to be worked out, as was the overall method of scaling. The full developer diary provides some great insight on how instance scaling will work, as well as the thought process behind the design -- it's a must-read for anyone interested in trying instance scaling.
LotRO releases new skirmish dev diary for Volume III: Book 1
You'd be hard-pressed to find news on Lord of the Rings Online these days that doesn't talk about skirmishes. Probably the single biggest feature added in Siege of Mirkwood, these scaling dungeon fights are both an excellent way of expanding the game's content availability and a now-integral component of the ongoing epicc story in the game. The first skirmish of the upcoming Oath of the Rangers (Volume III, Book 1) is detailed in a new developer diary on the official site, where Joe Barry of the content design staff walks players through what they can expect. The Rift of Nûrz Ghâshu is the setting of the new Skirmish, with players guiding the ranger Corunir to the Coliseum at the heart of the molten expanse. Fellowship Manoeuvers are slated to play a major part in the escort, as well as being instrumental in navigating the most deadly encounters with bosses. But that's hardly all coming in the near future -- new raid versions are being added to four Skirmishes, a duo mode is being added, and rewards for taking on the Skirmish as a larger group are being scaled up. Lord of the Rings Online players will want to check out the full diary on the official site, and get ready for even more time in the game's dial-a-dungeon feature.
Massively goes Hands-on with DDO and the Shroud
It's pretty fair to say that Turbine's Dungeons and Dragons Online has never been one of the biggest players in the MMO space-- it was released with relatively little fanfare, and though the setting (Wizards of the Coast's Eberron setting from the pen-and-paper D&D game) appealed to a lot of roleplayers, Turbine's choice to make the game a real-time combat experience turned off many of the hardcore D&D crowd.But since release, DDO has definitely forged a small but strong fanbase. In the game's just under two short years of existence, they've already released fourteen major updates. The latest, Module 6, is due out next week, and Turbine offered us a chance to take a spin in the new content, and join Senior Producer Kate Paiz, Lead Designer Stephen Murray, and Quest Designer Joe Barry in a run through the brand new raid instance, The Shroud. Read on to learn where they took me and what it was like to take down a big red demon in the newest raid.%Gallery-14446%
