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LotRO Update 9 launches today, Yule Festival begins [Updated]
Over the past week, you've heard about the upcoming features in Lord of the Rings Online's next update, including three new level-scaling three-man instances and a travel to quest-giver feature. Today, you can experience them for yourself! Update 9 is now live, offering players these new features and more. Besides some combat revisions and a graphical update to Bree-town and Archet, players will also find that open tapping and remote looting are available throughout all of Middle-earth, not just Rohan. Chests in the new instances will also reward loot to players independently of others in the group and based on their class. More changes include getting experience for using craft nodes and completing recipes and the ability to turn off XP gain. For more details, check out the official patch notes. Along with the launch of the update, the annual Yule Festival has begun; denizens of Middle-earth can jump in and enjoy the usual festival activities. Once change players will note is that currencies from all the various festivals will now convert to a single currency to be used throughout all the different celebrations. [Updated: The team has now released a dev diary about the festival.]
LotRO details remaining Moria revamp
Way back in May, Turbine expended a fair bit of resources to revamp half of Moria, the large underground complex that was the centerpiece of Lord of the Rings Online's second expansion. With Update 9, the team is completing the task, paving the way for better transportation and a smoother questing experience. In a new dev diary, the team shares a few of the pertinent details of the remaining revamp. The bottom line? "Each zone now has many more quests, a simple questing path, fewer monsters, and hopefully no more frustration with excessive back-and-forth questing." Update 9's revamp covers the areas of Zelem-melek, The Redhorn Lodes, The Flaming Deeps, Nud-melek, The Dimrill Dale, and The Foundations of Stone. The team added 70 new quests, removed some deadwood, and added the remote quest bestowal system that is being used in Riders of Rohan.
LotRO talks Update 9 instance cluster
The first half of Riders of Rohan's instance cluster is arriving with Lord of the Rings Online's Update 9, and the devs are excited to talk about the variety of experiences and challenges that went into making the trio of three-man dungeons. A new dev diary on the site gives the story overview for Webs of the Scuttledells, Seat of the Great Goblin, and Iorbar's Peak as well as a few behind-the-scenes notes. Developer Pinion discussed how the team wanted to make the return to Goblin-town special: "I wanted to ensure that this new interpretation stayed true to the source material while still providing a very different experience from our existing instance in the Misty Mountains. With all the different varieties of goblins that make their home here, I felt it greatly important to distinguish them both in appearance and in drastically varied abilities." A major change coming to these instances deals with loot. Not only is there remote looting for these dungeons, but each treasure chest will automatically reward class-appropriate gear for each player.
Get a good look at Lord of the Rings Online's Update 9
You might not be playing as the Hobbit in Lord of the Rings Online, but that doesn't mean you can't follow in his footsteps! We're here to whet your appetite for LotRO's upcoming Update 9: Against the Shadow with some screenshots. If you're impatient to see the webs of the Scuttledells in Mirkwood, kill your very own Goblin in the depths beneath the Misty Mountains, or talk with some Stone Giants, this is your lucky day. The gallery below can give you a taste for what lies in store. %Gallery-173011% [Source: Turbine press release]
Massively tours LotRO's upcoming three-man instances
Although the canon Fellowship of the Ring was substantial when it set out from Rivendell in Tolkien's epic, the group's size diminished in time as members went their separate ways. So, too, can Lord of the Rings Online players split off into smaller groups for different adventures. Such is the case with the new Road to Erebor instances coming in Update 9, due to release some time in December. This trio of level-scaling instances lets a team of up to three dive into The Hobbit-inspired locales to do their part to prevent Mordor from gathering more and more power. LotRO Senior Producer Aaron Campbell unlocked the secret back door and let Massively romp through the snowy hills, trash-strewn halls, and dark caverns of Iorbar's Peak, Seat of the Great Goblin, and Webs of the Scuttledells so Justin and I could share those experiences with you. We faced down massive stone giants, filthy goblins, and emaciated trolls so you'd know what to expect come release. And trust us when we say, there are a couple of hints you'll be glad to hear before tackling these new adventures.%Gallery-172923%
The Road to Mordor: Hobbits, hobby horses, and holidays
Whether you've finished Lord of the Rings Online: Riders of Rohan, are still trotting your way through it, or haven't yet touched the new high-level content, Turbine's got more goods coming your way. Update 9 should be here relatively soon(tm), as it is currently finishing up frenzied testing on Bullroarer. I'm definitely excited about the changes coming with the update. Unlike the expansion, this update has something for everyone, whether it be worldwide open tapping, a much-improved stable interface, a new player theater in Bree, lootable players in PvMP, the second half of Moria's revamp, the updated Yule festival, or three new scalable dungeons. On the whole, this update looks as if it will go a good way to shoring up some of the weaker spots of the game. However, three things have really caught my attention this week, and not all of them are as positive. I want to talk about the tie-in to the Hobbit, the new festival grind, and a certain $50 cash shop item that's been the buzz of the community. Let's get started!
Dungeons and Dragons Update 9 is live
It's update time in the world of Eberron, and Turbine has issued a press release that hits the highlights of Dungeons and Dragons Online's latest patch. Update 9 (subtitled Harbinger of Madness) brings a bevy of changes to the free-to-play fantasy title, including an extensive crafting overhaul, a new adventure pack, and new animations, spells, and prestige enhancement lines. The Harbinger of Madness adventure pack is designed for levels 15 and above and brings a bit of detective work to the fantasy genre as players are tasked with tracking down the those responsible for a series of abductions and gruesome fleshcrafting experiments. In addition, Update 9 should make casters happy since they're now more powerful at lower levels thanks to a spell point re-balance, and epic difficulty dungeons have been "updated for more efficient game play." Head to the official website for more details.
Dungeons and Dragons Online's state of the game letter talks crafting, Update 9
It's time for the April version of Dungeons and Dragons Online's State of the Game address, and striding toward the teleprompter is Turbine executive producer Fernando Paiz. First up is a shout out to the newly assimilated French and German DDO communities. Paiz also says that all DDO clients and servers will support multiple languages via a launcher toggle. There's also some discussion about Update 9, in particular the "major balance pass" that all the game's spells have undergone. Epic content is getting some attention, as are DDO's animations. The new crafting system gets some virtual ink as well, and Paiz says that Turbine will be "incrementally releasing more crafting levels and recipes through Update 9 and Update 10" as well as soliciting feedback over time. Finally, there's talk of challenge quests and how the new content will play out over the next few months. Overall, there's a lot going on, and you've got a fair bit of reading to do, so head to the official DDO website to get started.
Introducing Dungeons & Dragons Online Update 9: 'Harbinger of Madness'
Strange things things are happening the Saltire District of Dungeons and Dragons Online. Why have several citizens completely disappeared? What is this madness? It is time to don your DDO detective hat and begin your investigation at Stormreach Harbor. Update 9: Harbinger of Madness introduces players level 15 and above to the world of the grotesque, where fleshcrafting and galleries display body tissue as art. In addition to the new quest content available through the adventure pack, Update 9 introduces new crafting features, which are currently in beta if you are interested in testing them out. These features allow a player to customize the effects of his weapons or armor. Deconstruct a weapon to make it craftable or just keep the best component for new weapons or armor pieces. A release date has not been set, but check out the official DDO website for more information on the upcoming new content, new crafting features, new beast armor kits, new inventory packs, new combat balances, and new attack animations -- it seems everything is new in DDO!
Turbine posts DDO Update 9 patch notes
It's update time in the world of Eberron, and Turbine's Tolero has posted the substantial patch notes on the official Dungeons and Dragons Online forums. Update 9 is currently strutting its stuff on the Lamannia test server, and among the new features are updated combat animations, a Saltire District adventure pack, and a host of tweaks to a lengthy list of spells and abilities. The list is so long, in fact, that we couldn't reproduce it here, so head to the boards and see for yourself. Update 9 also boasts a couple of class changes, notably additional early level spell points for Rangers and Paladins as well as a new Echoes of Power effect. When a player with the magical training feat is low on spell points, Echoes of Power will automatically come to the rescue with a regeneration effect.
PAX East 2011: Stalking through DDO's Update 9
One of the scariest games I ever played has to be the original Silent Hill. A nearly empty town shrouded with fog and featuring one of the most terrifying elementary schools ever devised? Yes, this is why I didn't sleep much in 1999. So when I started to get flashbacks as Fernando Paiz took me through the creepy alleyways of Dungeon and Dragons Online's upcoming update, I had to excuse myself and run around the PAX East show floor for a few minutes while shrieking like a tormented cat. OK, it wasn't that frightening, but I definitely was getting a Silent Hill vibe from the latest adventure pack that Turbine has crafted for the game. Coming "soon" (TM, all rights reserved, void in Utah and the Yukon Territories), DDO's Update 9 promises to bring a wide assortment of lavish treats to a hungry populace. At the center of it is a level 15 quest chain that centers around mysterious abductions, a skittish population, and nightmares made flesh. Hit the jump as I recall my brush with certain death in these adventures and relate the other jewels of Update 9!
