Tony posted this on July 12th, 2008. It has No Comments »
Categorized as Mines of Moria, News, Rune-keeper, Shadows of Angmar, Warden.
Tagged as Book 14, Mines of Moria, Rune-keeper.
Shorthand Link: http://mmeow.net/tw35
Massively’s Shawn Schuster has a new interview with Jeffrey Steefel, Adam Mersky, Meghan “Patience” Rodberg and Aaron Campbell at Turbine that deals both with Book 14 and the upcoming expansion, Mines of Moria.
The interview echoes a lot of the ideas we’ve seen in other interviews. However, there are some interesting tidbits worked in about how Turbine is dealing with the upcoming Korean release of the game, the success of their anniversary pricing, social interactions and the two new classes.
I thought this bit about the Runekeeper was particularly interesting, as we’ve gotten very little direct information on the new classes:
“They also introduce some really interesting new mechanics, such as with the Rune-keeper where you can actually tune the role of that class during combat. You can go from starting the experience of that particular combat as heavy duty DPS killing machine, and then eventually use the right skill, if you know how, to push yourself more towards a healing-buffing class. So it doesn’t force you to go find a bard to re-equip some traits, jumping out of gameplay, but at the same time it doesn’t create somebody that has every power on the planet who can overpower everybody.”
Be sure to check out the full interview on Massively.
Tony posted this on July 12th, 2008. It has No Comments »
Categorized as Minstrel, News, Shadows of Angmar.
Tagged as Book 14, Instruments, Minstrels.
Shorthand Link: http://mmeow.net/tw32
Minstrels have had access to several instruments for quite a while now. Unfortunately The Lord of the Rings Online never really took into account which one was equipped when using their music-based skills.
With the upcoming release of Book 14, minstrels can look forward to new animations and sounds for each of their skills based upon every equippable instrument in the game. Massively came across a video by sabacao that shows all of these off with various Minstrel skills.
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Tony posted this on July 12th, 2008. It has No Comments »
Categorized as News, Shadows of Angmar.
Tagged as Book 14, NPCs, Sage, Town Crier.
Shorthand Link: http://mmeow.net/tw33
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.
Tony posted this on July 8th, 2008. It has No Comments »
Categorized as Mines of Moria, News.
Tagged as Eregion, Legacies, Legendary Items, Level Cap, Lothlórien, Mines of Moria, Moria, Session Play, Shadow, The Lord of the Rings Online, Traits, Turbine, Zones.
Shorthand Link: http://mmeow.net/tw24
The Lord of the Rings Online is my MMORPG of choice currently and so you’re probably going to be subjected to a lot of posts about it. Deal with it!
Allen Raucsh of Gamespy visited Turbine to find out more about the game’s upcoming expansion, Mines of Moria. The resulting four page article reveals some pretty interesting information about the game. While not all of it is totally new per se, it is more fleshed out than what we’ve heard previously. Here’s a list of what I thought was interesting:
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Tony posted this on July 5th, 2008. It has No Comments »
Categorized as Editorials and Thoughts.
Tagged as Mines of Moria, Patch, TDM, The Lord of the Rings Online, Tiered Downloads, Turbine, Turbine Download Manager.
Shorthand Link: http://mmeow.net/tw20
With MMORPGs, patching is a necessary evil. After all, when you have to consider the sheet amount of possible device combinations on computers problems are inevitable. Of course, there’s also major content updates that come through patches, as fans can attest to for the more successful MMORPGs out there.
Still, waiting for these downloads sucks. It especially sucks for those getting in on the game late or those who have to reinstall for whatever reason (both of which have happened to me numerous times). After installing from a disc for a decent amount of time, patching for hours simply isn’t fun. If anything, it kills some of the buzz you might have had from the excitement of getting to play a new game.
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