Turbine just posted Vastin’s Developer Diary today. It’s all about the Mirkwood region and what’s gone into it.
I really enjoyed this diary as it gets into what I’ve wanted to know most. You know, little things like quest types, descriptions of atmosphere, details on friendly and not-so-friendly beings we’ll run into. A lot of that is covered here. Here’s a few tidbits:
We also got to play with some new lore–friendly monsters, like Mirkwood spiders, Olog-hai, and Fell Beasts, as well as some nasties the Fellowship never came across. New monsters always make us happy, and some of us were particularly giddy that we got a shot at the Olog-hai in particular. Those guys are scary.
I love seeing what Turbine does with mobs. Some of their “skins” have been nice for repeated enemies, but anything totally new really gets me interested.
We’ve also been trying out a number of new quest formats (patrols, point defense, and a few others) that we have previously used rarely or not at all.
Vastin gets into more details about this, but variety is the spice of life. Definitely looking forward to new quest types.
In retrospect, we might have reduced the scope of the Mirkwood region in order to focus our resources more and go for a somewhat shorter experience with more color and depth, knowing that the Skirmish system was going to help fill in for quite a bit of hack-and-slash game play.
This is pretty frank and honest, but Vastin seems to be happy with the final result.
Be sure to read the whole thing. I have to say, I can’t wait to see what they’ve done with Mirkwood. Despite being involved on a LOTRO blog, I’ve admittedly wanted to be in the dark a bit about this expansion. Details like this whet my appetite without really ruining anything. Can’t wait to go after some of these new bad guys! 
