Update6: Shores of the Great River

Palantir

Member #86
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Messages
4,877
Reaction score
1,706
Location
The Heartland
Country
llUnited States
Well this is certianly interesting information & news.

.View attachment 35449
New Region The Great River Comming to Lotro in Spring 2012

Today Turbine announced the release of the new expansion Riders of Rohan and some major changes and new features to the game that we can expect this year:

■ A new monthly update model with smaller content updates between the major updates

Starting this year, players will be seeing LotRO adopt Asheron's Call's monthly update model.

This means that we'll be seeing smaller, frequent content updates between the major rollouts. These smaller updates will be designed to give players something to look forward to and should include bug fixes, store additions, quality of life improvements, festival tweaks, and additional epic storyline content.

■The Spring update - A completely new region to the game: The Great River.

This spring we’ll take our first steps along the path as we add another new region to the game and allow players to explore the shores of the Great River (Free for VIPs!). In terms of the game map, it will serve as a gateway between Lothlorien to the southern country of Rohan (and more on that later!), much the same way that Enedwaith led in to Dunland. It begins at the mouth of the Anduin Valley and travels down to the area right before Fangorn.

■Skirmish soldiers will become your character's companion

We’ll also introduce the option to bring Skirmish Soldier along to aid you on your adventures throughout Middle-earth. This feature is still deep in testing and that while skirmish soldiers will make it out into the gameplay world, as of right now they will not be allowed into instancing

■New Summer Festival
■Mounted combat

Players will be able to customize their War-steed’s armor and level the skills over time. The East Plains will be the only place in the game (for now) where mounted combat will be allowed, and the devs emphasized that it would not be wise to travel the zone on foot due to the size and danger.



Hmmm,

I like the new area & the quicker if smaller areas between major releases. Getting across the Anduin sounds like we might be questing to clear a path for Frodo and Sam as they head south. {Edit- some where else I read we'll be battling Easterlings so I assume we "cross" the river to do so and not just hug the western shore...}

The war steed deal sounds interesting too & a "new" Summer Festival can;t be a bad thing.

However. Skirmish Soldiers "in-game?"
Not so sure I like that idea as it just leads to more solo & less co-op play. That or the content will now be geared to "more" players and if you don't take a skirmish soldier along you'll be "under powered." They sound like "pet-soldiers" ala Diablo II.

No matter at least Turbine is keeping the game fresh & rolling towards Mordor.

Any comments?

http://www.lotro.com/gameinfo/1775/1775-update-6-great-river
 
Last edited:

Redwolf

Member # 3665
Joined
Sep 2, 2002
Messages
5,113
Reaction score
43
Location
MA, USA
Country
llUnited States
There's also the question of whether pet classes (LM and Captain) get to run around with the Skirmish soldier, and whether there is (hopefully) a bit of an interface mix between the overly primitive skirmish soldier control and the real pet control.

The intention is obvious: they want people to buy crap for their skirmish solider and for the warsteed. I like the concept, it finances the game without changing my gameplay experience too much. Well let's see how many skirmish soliders get in my way all the time, hopefully they'll be excluded in town.

Overall this is good news. It is obvious that a decision has been reached to continue this game well-funded. While much of the development money goes into crap I'm not interested in there is still new things. And the lame summer festival needed a brushup.

My problem remains that I don't have the time to level up to top level which pretty much excludes me from all the new content.
 

BlitzCanuck

Pretend Command Sgt. Maj.
Joined
Aug 19, 2006
Messages
228
Reaction score
5
Location
Great White North
Country
llCanada
However. Skirmish Soldiers "in-game?"
Not so sure I like that idea as it just leads to more solo & less co-op play. That or the content will now be geared to "more" players and if you don't take a skirmish soldier along you'll be "under powered." They sound like "pet-soldiers" ala Diablo II.

http://www.lotro.com/gameinfo/1775/1775-update-6-great-river
There is a lot of potential for Turbine to screw this up. I can't imagine how this will be implemented without wholesale changes if they're planning on this being enabled throughout the general landscape (as opposed to instances).
I mean, the landscape is easily soloable now. I suppose they would have to tweak all the mobs to make them harder to kill. But then what if you don't want to use a skirmish soldier? You shouldn't be forced to use it if you don't want to.

Like i said, lots of potential to eff this up.
 
Last edited:

Redwolf

Member # 3665
Joined
Sep 2, 2002
Messages
5,113
Reaction score
43
Location
MA, USA
Country
llUnited States
They now also sell you a wallet upgrade that holds more. I would even be willing to pay for that if it was holding all these crazy currencies Turbine came up with over the years. Maybe even rep items?
 
Top