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The Road to Mordor: What to do with Destiny Points?
To say that Lord of the Rings Online has many types of currencies is like saying that Firefly has a couple fans out there. My characters' homes are like those houses you see on Hoarders, except that instead of collecting used newspapers and bobbleheads, I've stuffed every nook and cranny with tokens, barter chips, gold, and the odd Orc head. Yet there's one type of currency that always seems to fly under the radar in my gaming experience: Destiny Points. I'm forever forgetting they're there and I almost never use them. To be honest, I'm not quite sure why they're in the game in the first place. Destiny Points are a shared currency between your characters that seem to be vitally important to PvMPers (monster play) and vastly less pertinent to your average PvE adventurer. Still, as they exist and offer you an opportunity to get an edge -- however slight -- in the game, I figured it was about time to dive into the subject and see if they're worthwhile or just more junk for the closet.
The Road to Mordor: Will our journey take us back to The Hobbit?
The next few years promise to be exciting ones for fans of Middle-earth. Ever since The Return of the King debuted in theaters in 2003, audiences have clamored for more of Tolkien on the big screen -- specifically, The Hobbit. After nearly a decade of back-and-forth negotiating and legal entanglements, it appears that this The Hobbit movies are finally going to happen, with Sir Peter Jackson once again in the director's chair and Martin Freeman taking on the lead role as Bilbo. That's smashing news for movie buffs, but what does this have to do with Lord of the Rings Online -- y'know, that MMO we sometimes talk about in this column? It could be "very little," with Turbine proceeding on its merry way and perhaps enjoying the free boost to playership as movie buffs hunt around for a game to extend the experience. However, if the company were smart, it would be laying out the groundwork right now to synergize the heck out of the movie with a similar in-game experience. For a while now, I've been chewing on the notion that Turbine could incorporate the events, locations and characters of The Hobbit into LotRO -- in fact, several of the key pieces are already in place. Could our journey in LotRO eventually take us back to the era of Bilbo's grand adventure? How would such a thing even work? Hit the jump and I will smack your brain so hard with ideas that you'll forget all of your piano lessons. It's OK -- you didn't really need them.
Massively's exclusive tour of LotRO Book 14
As we announced earlier, Massively recently participated in a hands-on play session for Lord of the Rings Online's newest patch, Book 14: The Ring-forges of Eregion. In this session, we were able to play through some of the exciting new content and document it for you, the faithful readers.In this five-part article, we will explore the initial storyline where the Fellowship finally leaves Rivendell for Moria, a new type of Critter Play that takes you back through history, battlefield defense instances, housing upgrades and a complete new set of screenshots for you to enjoy. Plus, if reading and galleries aren't your thing, we also grabbed some wonderful video of the experience as a brief summary, which you will find just after the jump. Follow along on our journey through the Ring-forges>>
LotRO Book 14: Leaving Rivendell
As Lord of the Rings Online's newest book approaches release date, we can't help but get excited by every ounce of news that abounds. Book 14: The Ringforges of Eregion will expose players to many new concepts and improvements on older gameplay features that have proven popular.By finally getting the Fellowship out of Rivendell, we can start looking forward to that trek to Mount Doom. This lets us explore the tremendous lore of Eregion and eventually Moria, just in time for the release of LotRO's first expansion Mines of Moria which is set to release later this fall. Session Play will make an expanded comeback for Book 14, with promises of more involvement as other creatures (think Chicken Play and Ranger/Troll Play in the Ettenmoors) on the horizon. Large-scale battlefields will also be introduced, as these server-wide events will immerse players into the on-going war in Middle-earth.Be sure to read more on this latest info from Gamespy's trip to Turbine.
Troll and Ranger PvMP reinstated again
Wee! The PvMP session play see-saw has flipped once more, and Lord of the Rings Online players can assume the form of the mighty Trolls and Rangers out in the 'Moors again. Community specialist Saffron made the announcement in the forums, but also included a warning that may just cause our fun little see-saw to rust over: Please remember that running more than two Ranger or Troll sessions within 12 hours is considered an exploit and may be subject to disciplinary measures. Enjoy!That's a fairly clear message for anyone who wants to mess around with session play in the future, but does that mean that people won't still try? Of course not.
LotRO's Troll and Ranger session play down yet again
A note in Lord of the Rings Online's patcher hints that Troll and Ranger session play has been disabled, yet again. Sure enough, a post in the forums confirms the situation, so these giants of PvMP are unavailable once more. There isn't any explanation readily given, but looking at the Monster Play forums, a thread can be found with a response from a Turbine official in the first page: "An exploit was discovered that enabled sessions to be nearly limitless. It was decided that the sessions should be shut down."Troll and Ranger session play has been taken out before, and another time after that. The second time they were disabled was actually due the exact same reason that they are now, which leaves you to wonder whether people had managed to continue the old exploit somehow, or whether there's an all new way to rip off the system. The best thing about the see-sawing status of PvMP session play is that I get to keep using my troll doll picture.
Troll/Ranger PvMP disabled once more
A post on the official Lord of the Rings Online forums today announced that Troll and Ranger PvMP Session Play will be disabled for the second time. However, unlike last time, we've got a clearer idea about why they are being taken down.Curse.com's developer tracker picked up on a forum thread where someone was complaining about an exploiting Ranger. Apparently this character was able to reset their Ranger timer to continue playing it as long as they wanted, as well as having the ability to despawn, even while people were attacking, and reappear elsewhere with replenished health. The official response to this post confirmed that the Trolls and Rangers will be disabled due to this.As a lot of Turbine's staff have already left the office for the holidays, they have disabled the quests for now and will reinstate them once they have fixed the exploits.
Downtime for LotRO will fix Troll and Ranger PvMP
The Lord of the Rings Online forums have spilled the beans on what will be getting fixed with the game's imminent update. The downtime will occur on December 6th, from 6:00AM (ET), and is expected to last until 12PM. This patch does not really contain any new content, however, one of the fixes will open up another option for PvMP players -- or rather, re-open.The update should bring back the option to choose Trolls and Rangers in session play, which we reported on a few weeks ago when they were disabled. At the time, they did not say how long it would be before they were reintroduced, so it's good to see this feature back in the game before Book 12 is out. The question is, will there have been other tweaks to how they play, to address the balance issues many have been complaining about? Or, looking at this thread -- do people even want them back? The scale seems to tip heavily towards 'no', with the topic-creator keeping a tally: 12 for them, and 25 against.Other notable fixes for this update include some DirectX 10 performance improvements with shadowing. Full pre-patch notes can be found after the break.
LotRO: Troll and Ranger Session Play out for now
Session Play in Lord of the Rings Online is a feature that allows you to take the form of a different character, and experience Middle Earth from a new perspective. From the official website, "You could play as a Ranger, a Troll, or... a chicken." Well, it looks as though your only option for now may be of the feathered farmyard variety, according to this post on Turbine's official LotRO forums.The announcement from Turbine Community Specialist Saffron tells us little other than that there have been unspecified issues with Trolls and Rangers in Session Play, and that they will not be available until further notice. These two character types were formerly playable in the Ettenmoors Monster Play (PvP) zone, with Rangers for the Free Peoples and Trolls for the Monsters. A quick visit to the Monster Play forums shows that Trolls and Rangers have already been a topic of hot debate, with many feeling they were overpowered. Perhaps they will be tweaked along with other PvMP updates due with Book 12 -- we will have to wait and see what changes have been made when they are made available for play once more.
