Lord of the Rings Online - Dev Diary

Aubrielle

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LOTRO executive producer Athena "Vvyvanne" Peters comments on what happened in 2015 and what's to come in 2016 for the popular MMO.


Hello all!

2015 was a great year for LOTRO, and we hope you agree! We had many large beats to cover this year as we built out more of Gondor including the two great cities of Osgiliath and Minas Tirith. Additionally we took on major service upgrades including building a brand new store and consolidating our servers to a core ten worlds which are buzzing with activity these days.

Unfortunately we also missed a beat this year with our plans to move into a brand new Datacenter. We wanted to have this new center launch by the end of this year, and while all of the hardware is up and ready to go. However, this upgrade in hardware also came with an upgrade in operating system from 32-bit to 64-bit. When we started load testing the new hardware, we learned that our chat system does not function properly on the new OS. As a result we have to architect a new solution for chat which will delay us into 2016. Updates to come as we work through the problem.

Our story continues in 2016 with Riding with the Rohirrim to the Battle of Pelennor Fields and then taking the battle to the enemy as we push towards the Black Gates! It is going to be an exciting year to be sure.

Major 2016 Initiatives:

Level Cap increase to 105: Build on your heroism and power with 5 more levels of character advancement. Your Imbued Legendary Items will not need to be replaced, but will continue to grow and level with you.

New Fellowship Challenges: The Battle of Pelennor Fields will contain a new instance cluster as well as a long awaited 12-man raid!

New Collections: We will be adding UI elements to help you see and catalogue many of the items you can already find in game. Our first collection system will be around emotes. Ever wondered what emotes are available to you, what they look like or where you can get them? Now you will know!

Quality of Life: Much like last year, we will continue to make quarterly patches that focus on bug fixing and general improvements to Quality of Life.

Thank you for your continued commitment to this team and to our game. We look forward to seeing you in Middle-Earth as LOTRO enters its 9th year!​

More information.
 
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good to see this still is going strong
 
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Been playing since 2008 and still love this game. Nice to see these changes happening.
 
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I'm not sure how strong it's going but it's still going. The take-over by Warner Brothers hasn't been without some sacrifices. I guess they figure they can make more money using the 'Nickle and Dime' model for literally everything. They used to sell major expansions that represented milestones in the storyline (and were a good value), now it's just a constant dribble of mediocre content that never seems to mean anything or go anywhere. (I haven't been playing as devotedly as I once did so my appraisals are probably superficial.)

And no, you can't buy the One Ring in the store, or Shadowfax or the black steeds of the Nazgûl but pretty much everything else has a price tag.
 
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The high point of the game was Moria - it's been downhill ever since, especially after the WB buyout. As a Founder, I'm sitting on 30,000 "LotrO Points" that I have no inclination to bother with because the game has turned into a shallow husk of its former self.
 
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I'm more interested in what happened in 2006 during development of LotR MMO... orcs used to be a playable race, and the game had a light vs dark aspect to it. That half of the game was axed so they could focus on a customer base that consisted of self-fapping elf fanbois.
 
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Probably my favorite experience with a MMO that I've ever had, right next to Vanilla WoW which I freely admit that I quite enjoyed at the time. (and for several yrs till the vision for the game notably changed)

Still playing LOTRO, more at the moment than in times past. Have a lvl 59 Captain (my main) currently nearing the end of Moria (i think lol)

Been a lot of fun. I play casually and mostly solo because of life issues/requirements, but I enjoy the community and the feel of a living game world with other RL players all contributing and furthering their adventures in Middle-Earth ;)

Though dated in some ways, I'd still highly recommend it to any interested in the Tolkien setting and story of the Ring and exploring some of that material in a MMO game.

As far as the In Game Store...you have the "option" to use it as much or as little as you choose. I've only purchased the Inventory Upgrades and a few Reputation boosts. I play to beat NPC enemies, complete quests and craft, I don't play the PvP (Freeps vs Creeps)

I sub so as to have full access to all content with no limitations. I do the 3 Month Preferred package which equates to basically $9.99 a month. The best bang for buck/time/entertainment ratio, and well worth it imo

Anyway, that's my .02 coppers as they say. Looking forward to moving out of Moria and into Gondor :)

Regards
 
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