by Stacy Jones on Sep 11, 2007
The good people at Stratics have done it again, hosting another edition of the House of Commons chat with the Developers of Turbine. The discussion offered a look into some of the coming changes for Lord of the Rings Online, including housing, character customization, and the battle for the Ettenmoors, and new content for level 45-50. It was an insightful chat leaving you wanting just a bit more.
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What better way to get things rolling than with discussion on Player Housing? Last night we learned quite a few things about the upcoming implementation of Player Housing. Each race will have their own distinctive style of housing and there will be no restriction on what kind of houses you can buy. If you are an Elf longing to live in a Hobbit hole, so be it.
The neighborhoods will consist of thirty houses. Sixteen Tier 1 houses which are said to be the easiest for players to acquire, ten Tier 2 houses, and four Kinship houses will make up each neighborhood. The houses will be customizable through a variety of items purchased, crafted, and gained from combat. You will even be able to choose the color of the material used to decorate your house, but if you think that is good, you havent heard the rest. Players will also get a yard with their houses allowing them to decorate not only the inside of the house, but the outside as well.
Inhabitants of Middle-earth will also gain additional storage space with their houses, but exactly how much, the developers couldnt say. The possibility that housing might accommodate crafting areas was also discussed, but the specifics were a bit sketchy. It could be a part of the neighborhood setting to give it a neighborhood feel as a community outlet or it could be a feature within the Kinship Homes. Which one it is, we will have to wait and see. One thing we did learn for sure is that Player Housing will have a level requirement, but what the level requirement will be is anybodies guess.
Customization
Character Customization will be getting looked at in a coming update. One thing mentioned during the chat that peaked my curiosity, was the possibility in the future for Kinship specific clothing. When Brent Keth Schmidt was asked about this he mentioned it did fit into the theme of their future character customization plans. While nothing specific was given, it was most certainly a topic of curiosity.
Level 50ish Content
One thing many people have inquired about is the higher level content and when we might see more of it. The developers made mention of three instances designed for high level groups in Annuminas that have not been used greatly by players. These new dungeons are apparently accessed by holding certain areas within Annuminas to gain access.
There will be some additional higher level content with the release of Book 11. The Epic Quest Story-line will continue and add additional content for levels 45-50. Higher level players will also be seeing some of the higher end areas getting an expansion that can provide a boost of content such as Trollshaws, the High Pass, The Misty Mountains, and even a new dungeon raid instance.
Miscellaneous
There were a lot of other topics touched on during this discussion and the future possibility of players participating in PvP conflict as part of the War of the Ring was one of them. Allan "Orion" Maki mentioned that this is part of a long term plan and will have the players participating in the war as both Free-peoples and Monsters. This could be some new form of play or perhaps an evolution of the Ettens. It was mentioned during the discussion by Allan "Orion" Maki that in the future we may be able to choose the dark forces as playable characters, so this could go anywhere.
Other changes you will see in Book 11 will involve the Lore-master getting a work over. Constant a Staff Designer for LOTRO offered up a bit of information on some of your coming changes, including the ability to impact the dead. Look for a Month of the Lore-master update at a later date on the official forums.
Seasonal festivals are coming again. If you enjoyed the first event, rejoice in the knowledge that another is on the way and according to Patience, we should keep a weather eye on the horizon for September 19th. It sounded very piratey.
The first expansion pack was mentioned, but no date or details were revealed as someone from marketing was holding a Katana to Cardell "Annuvin" Kerrs side. The only thing we did learn was that it will follow the footsteps of the fellowship.
While this answered some questions, it created a whole list of new ones. It was one of the more informative House of Commons for LOTRO and it provided some great news and details on many coming features, but like most developer interviews it left us wanting more. That is part of the mystery and what keeps us coming back and constantly looking for that next bit of info.
You can read the full House of Commons transcript Here.
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