Hayoo over on Visions of the Ring has created a dynamic map of likely expansions to LotRO up to 2015. It's all speculative, of course, but based on the known story and the existing maps. An eight-year plan for an MMO would be very ambitious, but I wouldn't think it's impossible, either.
Patch notes are now up for Book 11 of Lord of the Rings Online, and I approve greatly. Here're some highlights:Housing!
Finethalion the Elven Loremaster is already saving for his Dwarven House.
Customizable Chat
" User-defined chat channels (up to 4 slots) are now available!" - This is something I really missed from WoW; the ability to create channels for specific groups of people, not necessarily in the same guild, fellowship, or whatever.
Lore-master
New lynx pet! And non-combat critter pets as well. I've always ended up playing pet classes (well, ever since I gave up on tanking when I left DAoC).
Pet rez! Although I'm not sure how often I'll get to use this; usually when the bear goes down, I'm next. And I'll be interested to see what the benefits of the "Back from the brink" spell have over just re-summoning.
And also very important: "It is now possible to change the appearance of your lore-master pets!" - so I'm looking forward to that too.
Other
And there seem to be pile
In anticipation of Thursday's release of Book 11, the new content patch for LotRO, I figured I should make some effort to get some cash together. I won't be able to afford a house immediately, but I'd like to have more than a couple of coppers when they become available.So I logged on on Saturday evening, and spent a bit of time charging around the near edge of the Lone Lands doing kill-ten-rats style quests, and then going through my vault (already jammed, since I'm a packrat in any game) to see what I actually needed to keep, and what could go to the vendor or the auction house.
There's some auction house behaviour there that I don't understand - or rather, I understand it, I just can't see why people are so dim about it. When you go to post an auction, the system provides you with a base price. For an apprentice-level recipe, for instance, that's 1 silver and 67 coppers. This is the same price as you would get if you sold it to a vendor, which is fair enough; if they have to list
Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar will be getting its next content patch, Book 11, in November. While there are many aspects of it that are interesting - the addition of the Balrog, and new pets for the Loremaster class - the one that really grabs my attention is Player and Kinship Housing. This is something I really enjoyed in DAoC, and always missed in WoW - it's been "coming soon" since WoW was released.There's an article on Book 11 on TenTonHammer, from which I quote:
"...not only will player housing be available, but Kinship housing as well. In my mind, I could hear LotRO fans everywhere cheering with glee; player housing is amazingly appropriate for the gameplay style of LotRO and I imagine a vast majority of the LotRO players will be interested in any sort of housing available to them, Kinship and player alike. "We've established a place where people love to be," Steefel said. "Now we're trying to give the players a chance to live there."
Cody "Micajah" Bye listens i
The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar team has updated the Lorebook with a new landmark, The Last Bridge.This historic site is where Strider found the Elf-stone, an emerald left as a token by Glorfindel. What is impressive abut these entries is not only the pictures and the history of the places depicted, but the accompanying Google maps. Check out The Last Bridge and other mythic locations in Middle-earth at the Lord of the Rings: Shadows of Angmar Lorebook.Source: Gaming Today Online Games Middle-earth LotRO MMORPG MMO The Last Bridge Lorebook PC games
Don't get me wrong, I really like Lord of the Rings Online, and I'm not about to stop playing. There is, however, something oddly... missing. I'm not even sure that it's a bad thing that it's not there. That something is the drive to progress, to level up. I don't mind, at all, that Finethalion the Loremaster is level 16, and has been level 16 for two weeks, and doesn't look likely to progress to level 17 for at least another week.This is unfamiliar. My experience with other MMOs has been a drive to level up, to get to the next benchmark level, to get to the next cool thing. The level where you get a mount, the level where you can teleport, or summon people to your location, or get the next cool pet. There was a little of this in LotRO; I wanted to get to level 10 to try the Monster Play option, and wanted to get Finethalion to 14 so he could summon a bear.
Now, however, I'm not aware of any other threshold point like that. I have the raven and the bear; there are no other pets. I'm n
Codemasters Online y Turbine han anunciado detalles de la secunda actualización de contenido gratuita para los abonados a El Señor de los Anillos: Las Sombras de Angmar Episodio 10: La Ciudad de los Reyes continúa la historia, añade más de 100 nuevas misiones, implementa mejoras significativas al juego referentes a los monstruos e introduce los sistemas de Reputación y Trueque. “Nuestra primera actualización aumentó significativamente el mundo de La Tierra Media, con nuevas historias, misiones y nuevas y emocionantes formas de jugar,” dijo Jeffrey Anderson, Presidente y Consejero Delegado de Turbine, Inc. “En Episodio 10 continuamos con la historia épica e introducimos un montón de nuevos contenidos, pero también estamos introduciendo jugabilidad legendaria, una forma innovadora de experimentar el juego contra monstruos que permitirá al usuario jugar como un poderoso Ranger del Norte o un terrible Troll.”A partir del 21 de agosto, los héroes podrán unirse a la
Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online is getting another free content update with Book 10: The City of the Kings on Aug. 20.Turbine has been pretty solid in delivering content updates for their games on a regular schedule, releasing Shores of Evendim shortly after launch. The new content includes:Spending Destiny Points to play as a Ranger or Troll during monster play in the Ettenmoors.Playing as a "critter," the first of which is a chicken. LotRO players can now explore Middle-earth from the non-humanoid perspective.A reputation and bartering system, which allows players to gain rep. for rewards with factions and the bartering system allows players to trade trophies for gear.100 new questsUI is now more customizable Although Turbine won't talk about how many players they have, they're boosting US publisher Midway's bottom line so they can't be doing all bad. LotRO game looks to get continual updates leading up to the expansion, which should be announced early next year.Source: Joys
Probably the most ingenious addition to an MMORPG to this date. Lord of the Rings Online has recently announced that they have a new feature in their “Lorebook” section…
Google Maps for the realms of Middle Earth. Coolnezz!
Check out this sample below called Frodo’s Path to Rivendell
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MMORPG News, Online
So there's a "sneak peek" on the Lord of the Rings Online site concerning a form of play in which you can play a chicken.No, I'm not joking, it's there. There will also be options to play as rangers, trolls, and other "NPCs". It's called "session play". They're not permanent characters, but if you finish out certain deeds, you can get items and destiny points for your main characters.
I have to say that this is a truly brilliant idea. Not the chicken, per se, but the notion of playing an NPC for a bit. LotRO already seems a very casual friendly game, and this will give casual players another short-term, high-fun pursuit. It won't impact the hardcore folks in any negative way, and it adds options. What's not to like?
Between this and the monster play option - which I've really only scratched the surface of - it looks like LotRO might have considerably more lasting power than WoW, simply because there's more to do than just levelling and then an endgame.
Almost exactly two years ago, I wrote a post like this about World of Warcraft, in which I wasn't all that impressed, and saying I was pretty damn sure I'd stick with Dark Age of Camelot. Two years of playing WoW later, in this post, I shall be saying that while I am fairly impressed with Lord of the Rings Online, I'll probably stick with World of Warcraft. Note the less extreme positions: LotRO is a good game. The first thing that strikes me, coming in from World of Warcraft, is that the graphics are not cartoony. And, annoyingly, I'm not as pleased by this as I might be - I'm very much in favour of it in the landscape and objects, but character animations in particular look unnatural when they're aiming for realistic. The landscapes and towns look very fine, though, and I note that the Elven starting area looks rather like WoW's Blood Elf architecture, minus the floating bits. The lands of Men are perhaps a little dull in comparison to Elf and Dwarf areas, but that's somethin
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