LOTRO: Book 13 Interview - Page Two

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Posted April 17th, 2008 by Cody Bye

Ten Ton Hammer: Are there any major class updates like what we’ve seen in the last few Books? Did any of the classes get an upgrade in this Book?

Matt: There’s nothing really specific for individual classes. We certainly did some bugfixing and minor tweaking. But we’re really saving a lot of our major reshaping for the Moria expansion.

Ten Ton Hammer: Along with the new classes that are going in?

Matt: Yup.

Ten Ton Hammer: How many content developers worked on Book 13? You mentioned that you’re adding over 100 quests to the game – how many people does that take to accomplish?

Matt: That’s at least five content people working full time. It’s a lot of work.

Ten Ton Hammer: How many hours of game time do you think it would take someone to cut through the entire epic storyline of Book 13?

Matt: There are twelve or fourteen quests that are chained together, along with several group sections, so I really couldn’t pin a number on it.

Each development team has their own goals when building a book.

Ten Ton Hammer: As designers of the major content in this section, what was your major goal behind Book 13? Was it to bring the environments to life more than previous Books and MMOGs had done? Or was it something else?

Matt: I think each team has their own goals and interests when building a book. For the world team, it was really an opportunity for us to do something different. We could go on adventures that we hadn’t gone on before, and really explore areas that were cool areas that we really wanted to go to before we had to step back on the path of the Fellowship.

I can’t speak for everyone, but I know that – for us [the world team] – it was really an opportunity to explore new parts of the extended history of the world. There are often times when we get focused on this big adventure with the Fellowship, and this really allowed us to go beyond that and explore some of the other cultures.

Tolkien was really and anthropological genius, and we don’t often go into all of his cool areas that he thought up. It was a good chance to really dig into some of that.

Ten Ton Hammer: When you make content like this, areas that Tolkien didn’t necessarily pave the way for content, how do you approach it? Do you have a completely open mind – anything goes – or do you have to be strict about it?

Matt: You always have to keep the lore in mind. But we definitely drew influences, just as Tolkien did, from a lot of different cultural references and a lot of things that he would have been familiar with in the way he approached developing these cultures. He was very well read on the attire of other cultures in different parts of the world, on top of their various languages.

Ten Ton Hammer: Does the Tolkien estate still look over stuff like this?

Matt: Absolutely. Every bit of it. They are very deeply involved with how we work, what we are working with, and staying true to his legacy.

Ten Ton Hammer: How does that process work?

Matt: We send them summaries, copy down our ideas, have straight forward discussions, engage in play sessions with them, and all sorts of things.

Ten Ton Hammer: So you don’t just show them the finished product and say “Hope you like it!”

Matt: They definitely are involved and give feedback at every step.

Nothing going into LOTRO is ignored by the Tolkien estates.

Ten Ton Hammer: There are multitudes of new trophies to decorate a house with available in the new Book 13 update. How do players receive these new trophies?

Matt: They’re really a combination of things. Some can be achieved through reputation. Still others can be caught via the new fishing skill and take the fish to a taxidermist. You can catch everything from a goldfish to a 50 pound salmon.

Ten Ton Hammer: What sort of new crafting options are available in Book 13? Have any changes been made?

Matt: We’ve done a few things with drop rates. There were some issues with tailoring items being more common simply because of the vast number of recipes that were available. We’ve tried to equalize how those are dropped.

Aside from that, not a lot of new crafting recipes this time around. There are more included with the reputation enhancements, but that’s it!

Ten Ton Hammer: Thanks for your time, and we hope that LOTRO continues to improve and impress!

Are you excited for the new Book 13 expansion? Or are you simply waiting for Moria? Let us know on the forums!

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