It's official - next up is Mirkwood

Michael Dorosh

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TURBINE UNVEILS
THE LORD OF THE RINGS ONLINE™: SIEGE OF MIRKWOOD™

New Digital Expansion to the 2008 MMO of the Year Launching this Fall

WESTWOOD, MA – September 4, 2009 - Turbine, Inc. today unveiled The Lord of the Rings Online™: Siege of Mirkwood™, the digital expansion to the award-winning massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG). Siege of Mirkwood will expand the online world of Middle-earth where players will join forces to press further eastward into the dark, foreboding and treacherous forest of Mirkwood and take part in the epic conclusion to Volume II of The Lord of the Rings Online. Siege of Mirkwood will be available as a digital download this Fall with an increased level cap, a new region including the legendary evil fortress of Dol Goldur, major enhancements to combat and Legendary Items and the introduction of Skirmishes, a new system where players will train customizable soldiers and take them into battle as part of the War of the Ring.

“2009 has been a year of unprecedented growth for The Lord of the Rings Online and the launch of Siege of Mirkwood will end the year with a bang,” said Jeffrey Steefel, Executive Producer of The Lord of the Rings Online. “As the game expands east of the Misty Mountains, players will face the raging war and shadow that has spread across Middle-earth and the new Skirmish system will thrust players and their soldiers into the War of the Ring.”

NEW FEATURES:
The Epic Conclusion to Volume II: Mines of Moria™ – Under the command of Celeborn and Galadriel, players will fight through vast armies of Orcs alongside the Elves of Lórien in a battle that will take them to Dol Guldur, the fortress of the Ringwraiths. This update includes Book 9 and the Epilogue to the sweeping epic tale begun with the award-winning Mines of Moria expansion.

Increased Level Cap — Players will be able advance their characters up to level 65, gaining access to new traits, virtues, skills and class quests.
Answer the Call of War! – Jump into the heat of battle with the new Skirmishes feature. Skirmishes offer endless action in repeatable, randomized instances where players can create and lead customizable soldiers into battle, training them to greater skill as they earn victories against the forces of shadow. Answer the call of war wherever violence erupts with the new “World Join” function that lets players and their fellowships band together to fight in various locations throughout Middle-earth.

Take up Arms! – Infiltrate the dark jails, deadly arenas and savage stables of Dol Guldur, the fortress of the Ringwraiths, and strike a blow against Sauron’s forces in new 3 and 6-player instances. Call upon your fellows to adventure into the most deadly 12-player raid yet and face the ultimate challenge – the Nazgûl Lord!

Major Gameplay Enhancements – Turbine continues to improve the award-winning experience of LOTRO with major improvements to the combat and Legendary Items systems. Players will experience improved responsiveness when in the heat of battle. Players will also be able to create and craft their own customized Second and Third Age Legendary Items from raw materials and grow their weapons’ power to level 60. Achieve new Legacies, new titles, and a fourth Runic slot that will make Legendary Items even more unique and powerful.
Level 65 isn't that big a leap from 60; this sounds like a minor addition - as big as Moria was. Still looking forward to a new environment as big as all of Eriador to run around in - I wonder if we shall ever see such a thing?
 

Palantir

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Level 65 isn't that big a leap from 60; this sounds like a minor addition - as big as Moria was. Still looking forward to a new environment as big as all of Eriador to run around in - I wonder if we shall ever see such a thing?
I like the minor leaps in level caps, gives everyone besides the 24/7 hardcore players a chance to enjoy the game & not feel they have to rush to get to the next 10 lvl cap limit.

I doubt there will be such a massive area like SoA offered again, too much money to be made from offering smaller regions now that they have players hooked. This one sounds like a massive instance/raid update centered on Dol Guldur. However it depends on how much of "South" Mirkwood they include: if they throw in the areas up near the "Old Forest Road," and south & east of the woods then thats a good chunk of land.

I was heartened to hear that there would be "masses" of Orcs to fight & not some new alien Transformer like creatures popping up. The further from the Shire they get the more non-Tolkien the creatures seem to be. :OHNO:

The "skirmish" deal sounds like Diablo II where you could hire an NPC to help you out. You could equip them & they would level with you. But, I'd rather not see this extend past this area or at least be limited to specific instances. If everyone has a hireling you can bet the "fellowship" feel of the game will be lost. Also all the next quests and instances will be designed with X2 the number of players in mind since everyone will have a buddy. Those that don't...

The Fellowship was small for a reason so should most of the action to keep that LotR feel.
 
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Michael Dorosh

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Interesting about "hirelings"...I still haven't figured out where all these "allies" come from - the people running around with bears and birds perched on their shoulders...
 

Palantir

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Those guys are the Lore-Masters, they have "pets" like the Hunters do in WoW.

Although the term "pets" has been stretched to the extreme & is out of control now. The LM's went from having Middle-Earth-realistic "pet-companions" (bears/cats/birds) to some of the dumbest & completely non-M.E. "pets" ever: long-legged green bugs, squat bugs, huge turtles, spirits and others... :nuts:

To me it's just another attempt by Turbine to "twist" the LotR Lore to grab the WoW crowd with weird pet/creature-stuff they are used to seeing in their game. :cry: / :mad:

The LotR lore tie-in with having those pets in the first place was because the "Brown Wizard- Radagast" studied beast-lore and was friendly with birds thus, Lore- Masters having pets.

I did get a chance to do a LotRO survey recently and I pointed out that the "WoW comes to Middle Earth" trend was corrupting the game & not how they packaged it in the first place:mad: "Have fun in Middle Earth- follow the Fellowship, battle and defeat Sauron's Minions... ." Nowhere in their promotions did it say- outfit yourself with horse sized weapons, have alien pets and battle outlandish looking creatures just like those in WoW... :kotz:
 
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Michael Dorosh

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Thanks for the 411. I should give the Lore-Master a whirl, but I'm so used to the Hunter-specific functions, I don't think I'd do well. I tried playing a similar character type, and got frustrated at my inability to do ranged combat, just hand-to-hand. The inability to run fast was also a killer; I immediately went back to my trusty hunter.
 

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I now have bunch of alts and the Hunter is still the one I like to play. Although my burglar has the most options I like to do for combat (but I dislike having to "melee" instead of ranged!)
 
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