Book 11, OH MY!!!!!!!!

[Ozgafen]

Just when I thought I could like this game any better along comes this article from IGN.com. I will be posting a housing thread in the coming days so be on the lookout for that.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/827/827119p1.html

Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar has proven not only to be one awesome game, but one that is constantly expanding with new contentand all for the price of your monthly subscription. Book 11, the third major update, is one big book. Adding two new areas, a 4-6 hour raid, improvements to the Lore Master and Minstrel classes, player housing, and Direct X 10 support (a first for MMOs), it's the biggest and most exciting yet.

The first new area is part of the Misty Mountains: the North High Pass. This is where, in The Fellowship of the Ring, bad weather forced the party to turn back and take the dangerous path through Moria. During your quests, too, you'll experience a very harsh blizzard. The Trollshaws also have a new quest hub near some ruins above the valley. Watch out for lizards that tail-whip and even swim after you if you try jumping in the lake as a last ditch escape plan.

The epic quest continues with the search for the lost ring of power, Narchuil. One instance we got a peek at, called Prisoner of the Free Peoples, includes a hunt for artifacts that trigger ghostly flashbacks to events long past. It's one example of how the developers are trying to keep the storytelling devices fresh. During another arc you can expect a cameo by a familiar "Sneaking Creature" with glowing eyes.

The big new twelve-man raid takes place in three areas known collectively as The Rift: the mines, the city, and the chamber. Angmarians are muscling in on the Eldgang (fire giant) race, who have been living peacefully in these mines for some time. Why? Well, a long time ago an elf and some wizards locked up a real live Balrog and they want to have that kind of insane power on their side. Thaurlach's his name, and after battling past fire-breathing Drakes, lunky World-Eaters, and "the dust bunnies of Angmar," the Darklings, your ultimate mission is to defeat him with the help of Glathlrel, the original elf who sealed him away. She'll be able to purify the poisoned water, but once he breaks free and starts whipping you with his chains and slashing with a huge sword-- why didn't someone take that away when they imprisoned him?-- it'll be all the twelve of you can do to not cower in what experienced players will recognize as in-game fear.

Two new raid mechanics also go into play. First is the opportunity to barter with NPCs in the area rather than always grinding for those massive drops. Sometimes you'll get loot, but sometimes you'll get obsidian shards, which are apparently worth a lot to the Eldgang. It adds an element of choice, and might lessen the amount of repetition necessary to score the item you're looking for. Second, they've thrown in AI patterns that change depending on what order you tackle the different parts in, so in addition to flexible difficulty (which you'll have to feel out as you go) it will also make the raid more interesting to replay if you did happen to miss out on that one must-have drop.

The Minstrel and the Lore Master are the highlighted classes in this book. Besides making an effort all around to make especially the epic story more solo-able, the Minstrel is receiving specific attention. Their new skills also include the ability to teach other classes musical instruments they wouldn't otherwise be able to learn, and if you feel like there's never enough cowbell, set your mind at ease because we're sure there will be plenty once that new instrument hits. Bagpipes are another option.

Lore Masters get a new cloakable Lynx pet. New powers include the "Bane" family, which are effective over time according to what type of enemy you're dealing with. They'll help enhance the crowd controlling role of the Lore Master. Then, just for some wicked awesome, Lore Masters can now call down some impressive lightning bolts to take out enemies. Finally, there are a bunch of new "cosmetic pets" meant just for companionship rather than battle. A cat, dog, rat, or squirrel can accompany you anywhere, including your new house

Your new house, in your new neighborhood, near the big cities you've already grown familiar with in the game. Each race has its own building style, but you can live in any neighborhood you like once you purchase a house either by speaking with a broker or examining the for sale sign. Housing is meant to be accessible to all, so the minimum level is 10. Standard and deluxe models are available, plus bigger houses for lifespan rank 7+ kinships. Bringing up a map of the village, you'll see that it's "not just a cul-de-sac," but very in keeping with the design of other areas. Being a resident of one of these suburbs will grant you privileges in the city (The Shire, Thorin's Gate) such as discounted shopping. Each house has its own address (with a mailbox out front) and a yard to landscape with bushes, trees, and even trophies of the peskiest enemies that you can have made at the taxidermist's after a particularly rewarding killing spree.

Standard houses come with one chest to unlock, which grants extra storage space. So far there are no functional objects with regard to, say, farming in your garden, or cooking in your kitchen, but we shouldn't rule out the future possibility. In the meantime you can satisfy your interior designer soul by taking advantage of hundreds of items including beds, drawers, chairs, and chandeliers. Decorating your house inside and out to show up your friends and neighbors will take up the majority of your time here, although there are also areas meant for town meetings or other events. It'll be interesting to see how involved players get with their local culture.

Finally, (It's Defenders of Eriador, not The Never Ending Story!) this book rounds out with something pretty exciting for those who can muster the graphical power: DX 10 support. The work has been done to make the game compliant, and they've been doing systemic changes to the graphics engine. While the LOTRO is fairly realistic to begin with, having dynamic shadows being cast by everything from leaves in the trees to barrels and roof overhangs will add some of those small details that make so much difference. The next update will include even more DX 10 perks, so it's something for people with beefy systems to look forward to.

No release date yet, but the announcement should come next week. Time to start prepping your characters for that Balrog fight, and if you haven't given LOTRO a shot yet, it's always the perfect time to start.

[Syro]

Whoohoo! ty Ozzy

[Inquisitor]

That's cool sounding. If I ever manage to get back in and play, that is

[Jeredoc]

From this topic (http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=93413) Under the loremaster changes you'll see "Examine Enemy Weakness ability". Maybe we'll finally get some definitive info on which damage types to use when.

EDIT: The skill is called Knowledge of the Lore-master (full list of LM skills here: http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=94880).

EDIT: Screen Shot http://turbine.fuzeqna.com/lotro.suppor ... 5&start=21

[Ozgafen]

More from LOTRO website:

http://www.lotro.com/article/424

Book 11: Month of the Minstrel
[16-Oct-2007]
Overview:

Welcome to the Month of the Minstrel! It's the Minstrel's turn in the spotlight, as we reach the latest part of our continued updates and additions to all of the classes in LOTRO. To identify the aspects of the Minstrel class we should focus on, we referenced player feedback, data collection, and our own experiences, and decided on the high-level goals of increasing a Minstrel's ability to play solo, diversifying a Minstrel's buffing/support role, examining and improving healing, and adding some fun treats for our players. These goals were addressed by adding new skills, modifying existing skills and traits, and by adding new items to the game.

Solo Play:

Minstrels have always been most effective while supporting other players, but haven't been at the top of their game when playing alone. We gave them some abilities that will let them solo better.

New Skill: War-Speech - This skill is the first in the new "Words of War" skill category. It is a toggled stance that powers up both "Piercing Cry" and "Chant of the Oathbreaker" (read on), but decreases a Minstrel's ability to heal. In addition, it limits usage of two other powerful skills. The overall intention of this skill is to give the ability to defeat monsters faster to those players who are comfortable with the amount of damage they are taking. While in Fellowships, most Minstrels will want to keep this power toggled off, but if there are multiple healers available, the Minstrel may wish to begin chanting words of war!
New Skill: Call to the Elder King - Gated behind War-Speech, this call to the chief of the Valar will damage your foes and make them more susceptible to further attacks.
New Skill: Call to the Second Age - Gated behind War-Speech, this call to ages past will greatly damage your foes and increase the movement rate of your Fellowship.
New Skill: Chant of the Oathbreaker - This skill calls upon the spectral weapon of an Oathbreaker to harry a foe. It will deal damage and decrease the foe's resistance to Songs and Cries. While in War-Speech, the damage and resistance debuff will increase. This skill is intended to be a new hallmark of a Minstrel. Using it in solo play will increase the speed at which you can defeat foes and make more of your Ballads connect. In group play, your tanking allies will appreciate the resistance debuff, which will make their taunts fail less frequently.
New Items: Damage-type Instruments - New instruments have been added to crafting and reputation which will change Chant of the Oathbreaker's damage type.
Buffing/Support:

The buffs of a Minstrel are strong and varied already. We wanted to provide more options without turning the Minstrel into a primary buffer, so the new skills added tend to have longer cooldowns and very potent effects. This way, while the skills are strong, they cannot be used often.

Trait: Strength of Voice - This trait now increases the duration of all ballad buffs.

Skill Revamp: Song of Aid - The combat events that this skill triggers now only show up on a class if it benefits that class. No longer will Guardians gain critical events, nor will Burglars gain block events.
Skill Revamp: Tale of Heroism - This skill was made into a proper aura toggle skill, and is joined by two new aura skills, only one of which may be used at a time. A power upkeep cost was added to the Tales to emphasize that the Minstrel, while a strong buffer, must work more than other classes to maintain such effects.
New Skill: Tale of Battle - A new aura in the Tale family, this increases Vitality and Wound Resistance.
New Skill: Tale of Warding - A new addition to the Tale family, this aura increases Armour and Hope.
New Skill: Call to the Fellowship - A shout to your whole Fellowship that increases the effectiveness of your next Fellowship Manoeuvre.
New Skill: Call to Greatness - A word of power that bestows a class-specific buff on a target. Each class gains 15 seconds of benefit in a way that helps them. For example, a Call to Champions gives an immediate defeat event (to activate skills like Red Haze) and two Fervor pips. For the next 15 seconds, a point of Fervor will be granted every 5 seconds.
Healing:

Minstrels are, without a doubt, the kings of healing in LOTRO. We're very happy with the amount of morale a Minstrel can restore and the amount of time it takes them to restore it. No new heal-over-time skills will be added, since the Captain is more focused on morale-over-time, and the Minstrel up-front heals. We also feel that the power cost of that restoration is too low at higher levels.

Skill Revamp: Healing skills - We've increased the cost of healing skills at higher levels. No change has been made to lower-level players, but at a high level, the costs increase.

New Skill: Chord of Salvation - The Minstrel now has an instant cast heal! Chord of Salvation heals more than Raise the Spirit but less than Bolster Courage. However, the price for being an instant cast skill is higher power usage, and a 30-second cooldown.
New Skill: Gift of the Hammerhand - Minstrels can now put a shield on an ally, similar to their own Lay of the Hammerhand. This skill makes incoming damage reduce Power instead of Morale. The shield is instant cast, so combined with Chord of Salvation, a Minstrel can very quickly save a fellow who is about to fall.
Fun Stuff!

It's fun stuff, and it's full of surprises! We've also made the following non-combat additions:

New Skill: Irresistible Melody - Playing a melody of such beauty, a Minstrel can now inspire those nearby to break into dancing.
New Instruments: Bagpipe, Cowbell and Moor Cowbell - Minstrels can now play the bagpipe, cowbell (because too much cowbell is never enough) and the Moor Cowbell. All players will be able to learn the Cowbell, but the Bagpipe and the Moor variety of Cowbell will be Minstrel exclusives. Until they use the next skill, that is...
New Skill System: Mentor system - A Minstrel will now be able to teach other players how to play any of the Minstrel-specific instruments. Yes, you read that right: now anyone can be taught how to play any instrument in the game! Once a Minstrel has acquired the ability to teach an instrument (keep in mind, this will require more work then just going to a trainer), they'll be able to teach it to any other player, but with a very long cooldown. All Mentor skills share the same cooldown, so once you've taught someone an instrument, you won't be able to do so again for five days.

Conclusion:

Well, these are the big things you will likely notice in Month of the Minstrel. There are more changes, but none as big as those described above. We think this will make an already fun and functional class even more interesting!

[Ozgafen]

Even more details on housing!!! Looks like we can return to both our individual house and our kinship house! Read on.....

http://www.lotro.com/index.php?page_id=150

Making Houses into Homes
[16-Oct-2007]
When we sat down to design a Housing System for The Lord of the Rings OnlineTM: Shadows of AngmarTM (LOTRO), we wanted to make good on the promise made an age ago: "Now You Can Live in Middle-earth."

Houses are more than an apartment interior floating in the ether. Houses in LOTRO live in gorgeously landscaped neighborhoods, where they have yards, sit along water, or nestle under cliffs.

One size does not fit all! Players want choices about how their house looks, where they want to live, and who they want to live with, so we are offering a variety of options to fit many tastes.

Houses are decorative and beneficial. They are fun to dress up and host parties at, but they also give the owner tangible benefits.

We set out to give choices to the Men, Hobbits, Elves, and Dwarves of Middle-earth. In LOTRO Housing, you choose from...

Four different racially-styled homesteads (landscaped areas containing many different houses). Each homestead has a distinctive architectural style and environment.
Up to 250 instanced neighborhoods to each homestead, so you can settle down near your friends.
Thirty different houses per neighborhood: 4 kinship houses, 10 deluxe personal houses, and 16 standard personal houses.
Over 250 decorations to mix-and-match, including paint for walls and floors, rugs, bookshelves, welcome mats, scenic paintings, even background music!
You can be the elf who chooses to live amongst the Dwarves, but still decorate the interior of your home in the style of your homeland. Next door might live a hobbit who likes living close to Thorin's Halls for easy access to crafting forges. And a Kinship of stout Dwarves might own a great hall and host parties and recruiting events.

Who Are The Hobbits In Your Neighborhood?
Four homesteads will become available with the release of Book 11, each one in a different part of the world with a different neighborhood layout of houses, different building styles and appearances, and different natural settings. Each homestead expresses a different racial style, but don't worry-you don't have to be a hobbit to live in the Shire.

Each homestead can have multiple instances of its neighborhood, each with its own unique name. Do you want to live in Stumphollow or in Overnotch? Hookworth or Holbroke? As the initial set of neighborhoods fill up, new ones will automatically open up to meet demand.

When you purchase a home, you're getting a yard and you're buying into a Neighborhood. Do you want a house by the water? On a hill? Underground? Near that cute windmill? Nestled in a cozy little corner? By a friend's house? Next to your Kinship House? We hope you like choices!

Bree-land Homesteads



In a quiet valley south and east of Bree, the Race of Man has created a settlement of houses and stores. A waterfall feeds into a swimming hole, and a brook leads off of it, winding through the center of the neighborhood where a few merchants have set up shop.

Falathlorn Homesteads



The Elves built in Falathlorn, on the bank of the river Lune and winding upwards of sheer cliffs. Across the river from Duillond, there is a spectacular view of Split-finger in the Blue Mountains.

Shire Homesteads


Ah, the Shire! Bucolic rolling hills, windmills, and freshly furrowed farmland fill these vistas. Find your own Hobbit hole, set a chair outside, and enjoy a pipe as the sun sets. Not to worry, tall folk, you're welcome too... Just mind your head on the door!

Thorin's Halls Homesteads



You can be happy underground in the Thorin's Halls homestead. Soaring caverns, natural rock bridges, stalactites and stalagmites, and houses built on stone columns surrounded by raging underground rivers.

The Personal Touch
Once you've made a tough choice between homesteads, neighborhoods, and houses, it's time to personalize your new home.

Neighborhood Furnishers
To get started, visit the Furnisher in your neighborhood and pick up a few things to place in your house or in your yard. Pick up some paints, maybe some new flooring, a bed, a bookshelf, or a couple of other pieces of furniture.

If you want to choose background music for your home, pick up a music box and place it inside your house. I recommend the Mathom Society's music box if you're fond of Tom Bombadil's musical predilections!

You can also buy crafting recipes from the Furnisher to make more decorations for yourself or your friends. If you want more options, pay a visit to the other three homesteads; each Furnisher has a few different items and recipes that only they provide.

Unique Reputation Decorations
For the intrepid crafter, each of our Reputation Factions offers items and recipes for crafting decorations. There's no better way to corner the market on a sought-after decoration than to be one of the few crafters with enough standing to learn these special techniques.

Taxidermy
If wildlife is more your speed, Clar Whitethorn will be offering his services as a Taxidermist. He's setting up shop in Bree not far from the bank. If you should happen to find any particularly well-preserved or intact animals, be sure to bring them to him if you'd like them stuffed and mounted for display. Visit soon -- his introductory rates may not last forever!

Residence Has Its Privileges
Say what you will about decorations and hosting house parties, some folks only care about the bottom line. I'm happy to say, housing has a few perks on that score, too.

Buy Local
When you own a home, you earn a Passive Skill which gives you a discount to purchases and repairs from the vendors in your neighborhood. What's more, if your kinship has a house in the same neighborhood, you get another discount which stacks with your personal house discount.

Go Home!
In addition to the discounts, you also receive a skill which allows you to travel instantly to your house. Kinship houses aren't left out, either-if you're in a kinship which has purchased a house, then you will receive a second skill to travel straight to your Kinship house.

Store Stuff
Every house can be outfitted with a storage chest-with bigger houses allowing you to have multiple chests. You can keep your chest secure, or you can give specific friends the right to take things out and put things in. Use it as a crafting material drop box or a "mini-fridge" for potions and food... you make the call!

Into The Future
Neighborhoods grow. Folks move in, unpack, and set down roots. They walk next door and introduce themselves; maybe they bake and bring a pie. People get together at the pub, they plan parties, go on adventures, and generally look out for each other. Your neighborhood can be like another family.

Neighborhoods grow, and so do features. We're got a number of ideas brewing to make your neighborhood better and help you and your neighbors to communicate, organize, and act together. Decorations that you can use, trophies from great achievements, public bulletin boards, collaboration on neighborhood improvements, events and parties, neighborhood chat...

It starts with choices. How will you live in Middle-earth?

[Syro]

Awesome! Ty for sharing more details. We should discuss a 10 percent pay increase or something very soon.

[Ozgafen]

Nah, that's OK. A key to the Executive Washroom in the new Kinship house will suffice.....

[Syro]

Nah, that's OK. A key to the Executive Washroom in the new Kinship house will suffice.....

Rofl!!! Consider it done!

[Wulfsmark]

Is it 12 edt yet??? What time is that pdt???


Just kidding, finally read some of the stuff here... woot!!! can't wait, this should be lots of fun to figure out....

By my clock, countdown is less than 2 hours!!!