The LotRO: Siege Of Mirkwood Preview

09 Nov 2009 at 12:02:02 by Nick Cowen

It may sound odd to have an 'emphasis on fun' as a main factor in the escalation of a war, but that was apparently the key aim for Turbine when it set about creating the latest expansion for its excellent Lord Of The Rings Online MMO. According to Turbine producer Jeffrey Steefel, the Siege Of Mirkwood, which is scheduled to drop 3 December, one of the areas the developer focused on was cutting away at anything that stood in the way of 'instantly enjoying' the MMO.

"The big aim was removing friction, removing obstacles to fun," he says, "If combat doesn't feel quite right, then let's fix that. I'm on a horse, but I can't talk to anyone while I'm on a horse - let's fix that. We've got this really cool Legendary Items system which allows you to build cool weapons, but it's too hard and the way that it advances forward is not totally fun - let's fix that."

To this end, the developer has been doing quite a bit of tinkering ahead of the arrival of its second expansion pack, which will looks set to end the current plot-line from The Mines Of Moria, as well as provide the faithful with some solid new features, but more on that in a moment. As far as the story content is concerned, the plot kicks off shortly after the events in the last Lord Of The Ring Online expansion pack, the Mines Of Moria. The elves of Lothlorian have discovered that the forces of darkness are rallying to the Tower of Dul Guldur deep in the forest of Mirkwood and that Sauron has placed three of his Nazgul lieutenants there. Plans are clearly afoot for a massive attack on Lothlorian, so the elves have turned to the free people - i.e. the players - to venture into the forest of Mirkwood and lay siege to the tower, mainly to try and staunch Sauron's efforts in the early stages of the War Of The Ring.

So the story's in place, but what else does Siege Of Mirkwood offer? In fairly general terms, the new expansion looks like it will deliver a shedload of new content, and a lot of it is what MMO players and longtime fans of the franchise would expect. There's the obligatory raising of the level cap (to 65), literally hundreds of new quests, new monsters - most notably the Olog Hai elite day-walking troll - new races and new classes of character. Aside from the level cap, there's the addition of a fourth runic slot which gives Master Crafters a slightly larger role in Middle Earth, as only they can create it. Players will be able to craft second and third Legendary items. They'll also have a better idea as to where their item is headed, which, as Steefel points out, will help them decide whether or not to invest time in it.

"We also wanted to give players a lot more information about the items at the beginning so they'll know where it's headed and what it can become, so you don't spend hours and hours grinding it up and at the end when you deconstruct it you find out that there's nothing there that you need," he smiles. "Because, once again, that wasn't fun. So, as the game advances and as your ability to level up your character advances, you have the same kind of headroom for Legendary Items. "

Riding a horse will now be a slottable skill and, as has been mentioned, players will be able to converse and barter with NPCs without having to dismount. Their mount will also no longer take up space in their equipment bags. The menu interface is largely unchanged, but a collapsable menu has been added to the left side of the hot-key thumbnails. These gaming tweaks, Steefel says, all come back to Turbine's focus on removing anything that stood in the way of advancing the game and, naturally, the new features are a continuation of that.

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