Turbine announced the details of Volume II for Lord of the Rings Online. This expansion marks the first milestone in what I consider true development for the game. I no longer play the game and my dislike for the game’s direction and lack of content has been no big secret. That being said, I am really excited for Turbine and those who are still playing the game. There are some really fun sounding features coming in the expansion.
- The Mines of Moria – For the first time, players of The Lord of the Rings Online will enter this ancient city to battle the hordes of goblins and the Nameless of the Deep and journey through hundreds of new quests within six new kinds of stunning environments.
- More of the Storyline – Players can experience six new books as part of this update and participate in the release of Durin’s Bane, battle the Watcher, aid Galadriel and more!
- Increased Level Cap – Players will be able advance their characters up to level 60, gaining access to new traits, virtues, skills and class quests. The crafting system will also expand, giving players the ability to craft even more powerful items.
- Two New Classes – The Rune-keeper and the Warden,
- Legendary Items – A new item advancement system. Players will be able to forge weapons and class-related equipment and evolve them to build a legacy the likes of Bilbo’s Sting and Gandalf’s Glamdring. These legendary weapons will level-up along with the player, allowing customization by advancing the item’s virtues, adding runic legacies, modifying its titles and forming fables.
That’s the quality content that LOTRO needs. Two new classes will be a huge breath of fresh air for the game. More levels forces them to create more content which, again, LOTRO needs in mass quantities. And the Legendary Item system sounds like it could be a lot of fun. If they make the customization system a fairly detailed process I can imagine players having a lot of fun collecting these customizations for their weapons and in the process perhaps having unique items – that sounds very cool.
I’m optimistic! I think Turbine could have a real winner of an expansion in the making. Unfortunately it’s probably too late for me since I can’t find the time or money to subscribe to multiple mmorpgs, but this is definitely something that will allow me to place LOTRO back onto the list of possible re-subscriptions.
I linked this on my blog but nobody reads it yet so I’m glad you did Keen. 😉 I am cautiously optimistic as well 🙂 Will still be trying out Warhammer too.
I’m a little disappointed about the choice of setting. Will the whole expansion be set underground? Even though my main character is a dwarf I have always liked Lotro’s outdoor scenery so I hope we get a bit more of that too.
I think they’re naming it the Mines of Moria because that is the next natural step in the Lord of the Rings storyline. With the mention of Galadriel, I think Lothlorien could be a possible location as well. That’s a fairly large forest realm.
Dang, part of the reason I quit Lotro was none of the classes really appealed to me. If either of the new ones sound interesting I might have to reinstall and give it a try. Assuming it comes out before WAR of course, which it probably won’t.
I think they are aiming for a fall release… so sometime next year yeah 😛 And no its not just the mines of moria, thats just a key feature, its the entire Eregion region too (The first game covered Eriador)
LOTRO was a great game for me… until I hit 50.
The endgame content of LOTRO basically consists of: Spend 2 weeks grinding traits and cash to get good gear. Then, you have about 5 instances to do… And 3 of them take about 3 hours max to complete. It really is a shambles. PvMP was fun for about 20 mins or so, until book 12, when every single level 50 character flooded there to grind infamy for the sets. You need to spend literally weeks there to get the rank required, then you spend about 15 minutes in the Ettendeep to get all the stones you need. So you join the zerg at camping the (ever decreasing amount of) creeps at Gramsfoot.
I enjoyed levelling so much, but was drastically disappointed at endgame. All they seem to add in each patch is some stuff for the ‘Hardcore-casual’ player as I like to call them… ie stuff that you can do for 15 minutes for fun, but after that, gets boring very fast. And I’m sure people who play for 15 minutes are the absolute minority of the game.
It really is a tragedy… they had such a good license, made such a clean start… it seems to me Turbine said ‘Well guys, you concentrated 100% on stability like I told you to, and we got a smooth launch. Now, let’s sit back and let the money roll in.’ And that is not how Blizzard did WoW. And WoW is the example to look to for how to run an MMO. Regular additions to endgame content, options to progress both level-wise and laterally. Turbine need to wake up and smell the coffee as far as I’m concerned.