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E3 2010: Lord of the Rings Online Vol 3 Book 2 preview of Enedwaith [Updated]
Massively sat down today with the Turbine team at E3 in Los Angeles to take a look at the new Lord of the Rings Online free-to-play content that went into closed beta earlier today. Along with the new cash shop, we got a look at the new playable area Enedwaith that will go live with the Volume 2, Book 3 launch this Fall. The blurred version of the new land map is for those of you who don't like spoilers. Full map and all the details about the next patch after the jump!
The Road to Mordor: Shopping for your skirmish soldier
Every Friday, The Road to Mordor brings you the latest in Lord of the Rings Online news, guides and analysis. Breaking up, as the song goes, is hard to do -- but sometimes very, very necessary. I'll admit that I have recently settled into a bit of a skirmish funk, firing up a session here and there merely for the XP and the privilege of filling my bags with 576 different types of marks (seriously, Turbine, couldn't we switch from this confusing British-like currency to something more streamlined, like the Euro?). When I couldn't find a partner for a skirmish, the sessions seemed like a drag, and even though I dutifully stabbed my way through them, I grew to resent their length and my death-prone Herbalist soldier. It wasn't until the other day that a friend challenged my choice of soldier, and in so doing, freed me up for a more enjoyable skirmish experience. "Why are you sticking with the Herbalist?" he asked. I shrugged -- I thought that's what you picked when you were DPS-y and lacked a lot of self-heals. After doing a bit of research on the forums, I made the switch from the decaf healbot to 100% caffeinated Archer goodness, and I couldn't be happier. Pew pew, stab stab, win win. The choice of a soldier companion for skirmishes may be the tipping point between a painful slog and a joyful battle, as it was in my case. If you're still trying to figure out which soldier might work best with your class, then hit the jump and see what other players recommend you try.
The Road to Mordor: 10 reasons why LotRO is worth picking up over shiny new MMOs
Every Friday, The Road to Mordor brings you the latest in Lord of the Rings Online news, guides and analysis. Hey dol merry dol, Lord of the Rings Online fans! My name is Justin Olivetti, and I have the pleasure of joining you on this winding, epic road to Mordor. I play a Captain on the Gladden server, and some of my favorite activities in LotRO include wandering accidentally into signature mob camps, exterminating the local fauna in the name of Deeds, and trying to cobble together the perfect pirate costume for show. So I know that LotRO is one of the best MMORPGs out there, and you know that as well, but with all the newer MMOs bursting out of the gate on what seems like a weekly basis, how can you convince your friends, loved ones and everyone in your social network that a three-year-old title is worth giving a try if they missed it the first time around? Never fear -- I am on your side, and ready to equip you with ten terrific reasons why the lovechild of Turbine and Tolkien deserve an even greater number of folks exploring the lands of Middle-earth. So hit the jump and let's spread the word!
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.
How consistency softens the grind
"Grind" is on the verge of becoming what "nerf" already is -- a word thrown around so frequently and with such broad possible meaning that it's essentially meaningless. After all, the word now gets used for any part of a game the player finds boring and repetitive, rather than the process of repeating something over and over. It's the latter meaning that Kill Ten Rats discusses with an intersting thesis -- we don't mind a grind so much as we mind one we can't advance without breaks. Using the Guild Wars Wintersday redux as an example, the point is made that the holiday events are a straight-up grind -- but they're a constant one that you can pick up and start with no downtime, then stop whenever you want. Lord of the Rings Online and World of Warcraft have both taken the same approach with Skirmishes and the Dungeon Finder, taking the slow march to being ready for an instance out of the equation. It's an interesting idea, that what we really dislike aren't the grinds but being stuck unable to make much progress in them. If you tend to think that grinds are the worst thing in MMOs today, it might be an opportunity to re-examine that stance.
Why You Should Be Playing City of Heroes: Content on demand
With all the talk about the Skirmish system in Lord of the Rings Online and the World of Warcraft dungeon finder, it's hard to argue that people don't really like having the option to simply pick up and start playing something. Both of these systems thrive on the strength of their pick-up-and-play nature -- you don't have to wait to find a group, you just jump right into content without any slowdown. The obvious question, then, becomes "why didn't someone notice that people like to just jumping in and playing the darn game?" Of course,the full answer is a bit less obvious but no less true: someone did. Several someones, in fact. Paragon Studios and Cryptic before them both realized how much people like to just pick up and go. That's why City of Heroes currently sports three different systems to allow you or a full team access to content quickly, ranging from reliving your character's greatest triumphs to fighting Nazi vampires on the moon.
New developer chat transcript for Lord of the Rings Online
There's only a little time left until Lord of the Rings Online launches its next expansion, Siege of Mirkwood, but the players still have questions and the developers are thankfully quite happy to answer them. Not so long ago, WarCry had their first developer chat transcript up for fans of the game to digest. A fair bit of new information has come out since then, and so a new chat transcript is available with more information for the playerbase to mull over for the next week. Unfortunately, it's rather negative, since there are an awful lot of questions whose answers just so happen to be "no." In no particular order: there are no current plans for expanding the housing system, there are no plans to convert Lorien tokens to Mirkwood, no player-created content systems in the works, no way to send mail with more than one attachment. On the other hand, there's more discussion of the Skirmish mechanics and their comparison with Dungeons and Dragons Online's difficulty-tunable instances, talk about how levels and items will be affected, and the expansive amount of content promised within Mirkwood itself. The full transcript is going to be a bit of a read, but it should tide over anticipation for the fast-approaching launch date.
Lord of the Rings Online developer chat transcript available
There's a lot of interesting material coming with the Siege of Mirkwood expansion for Lord of the Rings Online, not to mention a large number of player questions and curiosity about where the game is headed. Luckily for the playerbase, WarCry was recently lucky enough to get a chance to chat with the developers, with a full transcript now available for all who missed the live chat. As is par for the course for developer chats, there's the occasional question that seems rather out-of-place or unnecessary, but on the whole it's full of tidbits that should excite the game's fans. The discussion ranges from the tangible issues with the upcoming expansion such as class upgrades (each class will get one new skill upgrade at level 62), meta-issues (there will be a Skirmish sneak peek coming soon to let players try the new format), and some wholly random bits (the developers will not add your farm on Facebook as a neighbor). It's a weighty and lengthy chat that can't be summarized easily, so it's best to take a look, digest, and start thinking about the first thing you want to do in Lord of the Rings Online when the expansion goes live.
Lord of the Rings Online explains skirmish rewards
"Let's be honest, people play new content for the rewards." Perhaps not the most uplifting or metaphorical way to start off a developer diary, but if nothing else you need to give Lord of the Rings Online credit for being so direct about it. But with the most recent developer diary regarding the Skirmish system coming in the Siege of Mirkwood expansion, they really deserve still more credit than that. One of the larger new features of the upcoming expansion, the Skirmish system has had a number of diaries devoted to it, but this one is focused on exactly what the opening would suggest: the meaty rewards from taking part. Some of the specifics might seem a bit arcane to people unfamiliar with Lord of the Rings Online, but the short version is that the various bosses and so forth will be devoid of any loot except for what's referred to as skirmish marks. Accumulating them as well as special tokens depending on group size and skirmish difficulty will allow purchases from a wide variety of powerful items. However, the system is balanced so that even consistently solo players can still work toward the highest tier of rewards, although the road will be quite a bit longer. There's only so much we can get across in a quick overview -- it's better to take a look at the actual diary and get ready for one of the more dynamic systems coming with Siege of Mirkwood.
PAX 2009: Turbine tells us all about Siege of Mirkwood part 2
Basically, Turbine is doing everything they can to make these just as fun on the hundredth time as they are on the first. There are limitations to how often you can do some of them, because Turbine doesn't want them to become too grindy. The first time you summon your horse after getting Siege of Mirkwood, the game will prompt you to turn it into a skill.
PotBS to hold ship skirmish testing event today
Today marks a very special event for the players of Pirates of the Burning Sea. Starting at 3:45 PST / 11:45 GMT, a ship skirmish event will take place on the Testbed server to analyze the effectiveness of the ship skirmish system. Named "The Battle of Gull Point", this event will match four teams of twelve players each to battle it out using "all of your ship combat skills to defeat your opponents".Simply meet up at the Marsh Harbour and the devs will auto-level you to 50 before the actual skirmish starts at 4pm PST / midnight GMT. The spots are first come first serve, but all participants will receive the special title "Gull Point Veteran" once the new patch 1.13 releases on the live servers.
