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The Road to Mordor: Digesting the LotRO dev chats
Apart from the nightmare of Twitter spam that the recent two Lord of the Rings Online dev chats have produced, I'm pretty happy that Turbine's being more interactive with the community and taking on some of these topics head-on. Of course, everyone has his own areas of interest that were probably not covered to satisfaction, but looking through these two chats (December 20th and January 24th), we can deduce a lot of useful information about where LotRO is headed in the future. Personally, I am pretty excited about 2013 for the game. It feels as if the team isn't slacking at all, and while there are always my wish list items that go unfulfilled, often the devs add cool changes (like the Bree update) that are equally welcome. So let's sift the wheat from the chaff and see what we come up with from these dev chats as well as the recent producer's letter!
The Road to Mordor: The mounted combat verdict
It's been months since Riders of Rohan greatly expanded Lord of the Rings Online in several ways, and I have yet to touch on its most central feature. I've been putting off having "the talk" about mounted combat due to wanting to spend enough time with it. Every week I thought about putting down my opinion, and then I'd be like, "No, I should give it some more time. More time." Mounted combat is a tricky system to judge, I'm finding. It's so incredibly central to the newest expansion, and it's clear that Turbine has big plans to expand upon this system for the future. It certainly was a gutsy risk to introduce a new mode of fighting into the game at this juncture (because we all know how much people like change), and I've seen people all over the spectrum on it. Some love it, some loathe it, some resent it, and some gamely accept it. I think I've clocked enough time on horseback at this point to deliver my own verdict on mounted combat. Well, a partial verdict at least. It's never a good thing to settle on a final opinion on something that's constantly growing and changing, right?
LotRO explains history of mounted combat
As the core feature for Lord of the Rings Online's upcoming Riders of Rohan expansion, mounted combat is understandably the focus of many player concerns and questions. To hopefully answer a few, Turbine's unleashed a horse-sized developer diary about how mounted combat came to be and how it functions in the game right now. The diary begins by recalling the history of mounts in the game, back to the very earliest days when they were barely implemented in time for launch. The notion of mounted combat went from insurmountable to a strict on-rails system to a much more free-form system. It also dropped several ideas along the way, such as momentum, horse attacks, and purely generic combat skills. War-steeds will take some getting used to, according to the devs: "Probably the very first thing you notice when you ride your War-steed for the first time is that it moves completely differently than your standard horse or goat. The War-steed is a large creature and its part of a much larger system, one that requires some skill, time, and practice to master."
Newest LotRO dev diary showcases customizable warsteeds
As Lord of the Rings Online's expansion Riders of Rohan gallops closer, Turbine has released another video developer diary, this time focusing on the look of the warsteeds. The major revelation in this dev diary is that the warsteeds will be customizable in both appearance (with slots for individual armor pieces) and skills. And the three different types of warsteeds -- light, medium, and heavy -- will have different strengths and trait trees; as players level, they will gain points to allocate into those trees. The studio also released a host of screenshots showcasing the epic story of the fellowship. In the expansion, players will be able to take part in the iconic moments that lead to the breaking of the Fellowship as well as take up arms to help the Lords of Rohan defend their lands. Players will witness Frodo Baggins wrestle with the decision of which path to take on his way to Mordor and experience the fall and then redemption of Boromir. Visit the familiar places of Middle-earth in the screenshots below and then watch the full video ofter the break. [Source: Turbine press release]%Gallery-158706%
Rohirrim war steeds highlighted in LotRO: Riders of Rohan behind-the-scenes video and screenshots
Turbine understands that in an expansion based on the Rohirrim, you need more than just your average horse -- you need strong war steeds. In the third episode of the behind-the-scenes video series for the Lord of the Rings Online expansion Riders of Rohan, Equestrian Specialist Chris Poller shows off the horses used to model for the storied steeds in the game. Online Art Director Todd Demelle and Design Director Linda Currie also talk about the history and importance of horses in Rohan. Check out the the new screenshots showcasing the war steeds in the gallery below and watch the inspiration behind them in the video after the break. [Source: Turbine press release]%Gallery-158706%
The Road to Mordor: Ride to ruin and the world's ending!
Mounted combat's been on my mind a lot lately, particularly when I was galloping around Dunland and various clansmen knocked me off my horse. It was then that I wished I had a skill called "Trample to a Bloody Pulp -- For Rohan!" and that Turbine would finally earn that AO rating it's always craved. Barring that skill, I would just love a massive war horse that would send enemies fleeing from me instead of making a beeline for my knees (which are a prime target for arrows). I'm both excited and nervous about the mounted combat system coming in Riders of Rohan. I'm excited that it will open up a new style of gameplay in this five-year-old game and nervous that it'll drag Lord of the Rings Online down if it's not done right. Whatever type of horseback combat we might envision will surely be different than the final product, and that uncertainty leaves me feeling in limbo. More than anything else, Riders of Rohan is about mounted combat. Turbine's centering the expansion around it, dedicating an entire zone to it, and developing loads of assets and skills for it, and the company will undoubtedly be hyping it strongly over the course of the summer. It's a bold step to take but a necessary one as well, as the IP and nation of Rohan are steeped in mounted combat, and it's been a little weird that we've had to dismount to swing a sword ever since leaving the shire. So will mounted combat prevail, fail, or muddle in the middle?
