Keith Cross of MMORPG.com had a chance to visit Turbine’s offices recently, where the developers showed off the upcoming Book 14: The Ring-Forges of Eregion. The article focuses pretty heavily on the new NPCs we’ll be dealing with as well as enhanced session play.
We’ve heard a bit about the upgraded Town Crier NPC in previous updates for Book 14. Instead of being essentially useless, speaking to Town Criers will now open up a menu that displays all current events and information on how to reach them. This is going to be very helpful considering that during previous events I always felt like I was forced to check the forums to find out exactly what was going on. I think this is made more exciting by the news that the team will be adding more live events in the future.
Cross also discusses the Sage NPC. Apparently Sages will now give out new repeatable quests and session play options. These new session play quests will allow you to play through story arcs as both good and bad characters, getting a new perspective on the story. Players will be given special tokens from some of these quests, which can be traded in for items and equipment. Interestingly, according to Cross, the more high end gear offered by the Sage has been available previously in the game .… It’s mostly meant as a way to get equipment you might have messed (and, I assume, equipment you might have been interested in, but only one of several was selectable upon finishing a quest).
Turbine is wrapping up Volume I of The Lord of the Rings Online with Book 14, so it seems to make a lot of sense for them to focus on really enhancing the existing story. This game is pretty much the only MMORPG where I’ve bothered to read the quest text, so it’s something I will certainly appreciate. I think this approach to story, something that is a regretfully passive experience in most MMORPGs, will only bode good things for the release of Mines of Moria.
You can check out the full article at MMORPG.com.
