rowan
Latest
LOTRO maps out 2015, vows to address server populations [Update]
Lord of the Rings Online has a new head honcho, as former Executive Producer Aaron Campbell has transferred to "a new project" at Turbine. Stepping into his shoes will be former DDO Franchise Director Athena Peters. Peters delivered her 2015 producer's letter today with six major initiatives for the first half of the year. These include improvements to legendary items, new fellowship challenges, a possible new PvMP map in Osgiliath, and quality of life fixes. She said that the team will also be delivering episodic content during the year: "We are currently in development on a new type of quest content that will roll out like an episodic TV show, a little at a time, as you follow a new friend across Middle-earth seeing familiar places in a new light." Server merges of a sort are also in the works: "We're taking measures to get everyone onto the more populous servers, so that finding parties is easier and festivals and live events are more fun. We are working on both improved server transfer tools and upgrades to our environments to improve playability. Also we will be moving our European servers back to the EU!" In other LotRO news, an exploit that allowed players to create an overpowered character in the game has been addressed and fixed in a patch that went out earlier today. The hotfix puts level restrictions on a slew of reputation items so that players cannot use them at a lower level and gain access to gated vendor items before the devs intended. Update: Peters penned a follow-up post to clarify certain items in the producer's letter.
LotRO Update 14 is now live
Today marks the official release of Lord of the Rings Online's Update 14, and with it comes the highly anticipated West Gondor content, as well as Epic Story Volume IV, the new Essence System, the level 100 cap, inventory tweaks, class balancing, bug fixes, and more. While none of this is a surprise to players, what did come as a surprise was some changes mentioned in executive producer Aaron "Rowan" Campbell's letter in the forums. First off, there will be no more level cap increases for this year to allow players to take their time and explore the new content. In addition, a new advancement system is being added to legendary items allowing them to grow with you without deconstruction for a new item at level cap. And lastly, the upcoming Beorning class will start at level 1 and include its own starting experience through Eriador. Be sure to check out the complete Update 14 patch notes as well as Rowan's Producer's Letter in the official forums.
New Lord of the Rings Online video is all about warbands
Riders of Rohan is introducing several new mechanics to Lord of the Rings Online, including the brand-new warbands. But what are warbands? How do you interact with them? Can you join them, possibly on the strength of rocking a sweet lute solo? A new community video with community manager Rick "Sapience" Heaton and Senior Producer Aaron "Rowan" Campbell addresses all of these concerns and more. Except for the lute solo. You're on your own with that one. Campbell explains that warbands are essentially rare enemies taken up to the next level. Instead of just finding the occasional notable spawn, you'll see groups of enemies roaming the world, marked on your map and just waiting for you to ride off and challenge them. These bands will vary in size, with some requiring only a single player and some potentially requiring a full raid to defeat. The bands are also subject to a new "open tapping" system, which allows players to work together and receive rewards without being in a full group and encourages players to challenge these bands without worrying about competition. Check out the full video just past the break for more information on this upcoming addition to the game's mechanics.
LotRO devs show off its mounted combat system
While the upcoming Riders of Rohan expansion for Lord of the Rings Online promises a great wealth of content for players, undoubtedly its keystone feature is mounted combat. This system became the centerpiece of a filmed discussion between CM Rick Heaton and Producer Aaron Campbell. One of the concerns that Heaton addresses is how player classes will translate once on horseback. Campbell says that the team has created ways for those roles to continue, albeit in a slightly different form. One example given was how Guardians can taunt, except that on horseback, it means that the enemy will then start riding alongside of you. "You can bring them in and control the battlefield," Campbell says. Other points of discussion include how Fellowships work while mounted, the different stances (aggressive, utility, and defensive), the speed of combat, and situational awareness. The pair also gives us a first glimpse of mounted combat in action. You can watch the full dev video after the jump!
LotRO: Siege of Mirkwood developer tour
If you've been faithfully following along with the Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood beta, you may be excited by what you've heard -- or even seen yourself -- so far. The new expansion, which is set to launch on December 1st of this year (December 3rd for EU), centers around the forest of Mirkwood, just to the east of Lothlorien. It introduces us to a large new map of Mirkwood, the skirmish system, five new instances and much more. On top of this officially-released news of these features, we were able to get together with Turbine's Aaron "Rowan" Campbell for a sample tour of the new content. Follow along after the jump for what we saw. %Gallery-76474%
LotRO dev tour: Massively's look at Book 8
Once again, Turbine has been kind enough to offer us a sneak peek look at the newest Book update to Lord of the Rings Online. This newest one, Volume 2, Book 8, introduces two new 3-man instances, a 6-man space and their largest instance to date: an enormous 12-man instance with six bosses! In addition, there's a revamp of quests in the 15-25 level range, many crafting system improvements and the Summer Festival, complete with new events and a different way to win the festival horse.This dev tour was given by Aaron "Rowan" Campbell, Live Producer for LotRO and Adam Mersky, Turbine's Director of Communications. It focused mainly on the new instances, as we were shown the highlights of each space, including the incredibly difficult bosses at the end. Follow along in our 26-image gallery below for more on what we saw in Book 8.%Gallery-64417%
