LotRO Ring-forges of Eregion :
What is Coming With Book 14

By Darkgolem



Tomorrow, Book 14: The Ring Forges of Eregion will be released for the
public for Lord of the Rings Online.  The 23 page update listed
for this update is a bit daunting in it’s volume.  While Book 14
has the feel of a filler before the Mines of Moria paid expansion
coming in a few months, there are a lot of great items you will want to
note coming with Book 14 that you should pay attention to. 
Recently I spent an evening with Cody “Micahah” Bye of Ten Ton Hammer
and Turbine employees Aaron Campbell (Live Producer) and Brent Schmidt
(Lead Content Designer), and will speak about some of the highlights of
that time and some of the highlights of the release notes.  There
are a lot of cool things to be mentioned.

New Landscapes

href="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?full=1&set_albumName=album28&id=Trout_Group_Trophy&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> alt="Fish Group Trophy"
src="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album28/Trout_Group_Trophy.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 250px; height: 174px;" align="left">One
thing players should pay attention to with Book 14 are the new
landscapes.  The areas around the ring forges include the same
architectural style you will be seeing in the Mines of Moria
expansion.  The place around the Ring Forge has a feeling of years
upon years stacked upon the land.  Unlike the similar brown ruins
you see throughout the game, these areas have a completely different
feel.



Another item that has a subtle appeal is the very elvish feel around
the ring forges.  I don’t know that this will translate to the
Mines of  Moria, but when you are around the ring forges, you feel
as if you have stepped out of time, into a place on the border of
things.  The sky has a look of sunrise or sunset, and the land has
a look of accidental beauty that one would expect of such a place.

Decorations and Appearances

href="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?full=1&set_albumName=album28&id=Pumpkinghead&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> alt="Pumpkinghead"
src="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album28/Pumpkinghead.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 250px; height: 174px;" align="right">One
of the little things I thought was kind of cool with the new book were
some interesting new fishing trophies (groups of the same types of fish
all mounted on the same trophy), and other things for your
housing.  The new minstrel instrument looks are cool, and really
add a nice touch to the game, but there are other changes to
appearances in the game.  Probably the neatest of the costumes I
saw was the pumpkin head mask, which is great, and will be in great
demand.

Storytelling

A lot of different approaches are made in Book 14 to tell the story of
Lord of the Rings Online and “bridge” the Shadows of Angmar to the
Mines of Moria.  Some of them are using session play, some are
using instances and otherwise.



One approach is made with the fellowship to maintain a continuous
storyline with players after the fellowship departs Rivendell.  A
separate instance allows one to enter a “flashback” similarly to a
movie, sort of a “remember that time when I was talking to Aragorn?”
flashback, allowing one to interact with the fellowship though they no
longer are in Rivendell.



href="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/modules.php?full=1&set_albumName=album28&id=ScreenShot00018&op=modload&name=Gallery&file=index&include=view_photo.php"> alt="Session Play Story of the Past"
src="http://lotro.tentonhammer.com/files/gallery/albums/album28/ScreenShot00018.jpg"
style="border: 2px solid ; width: 250px; height: 174px;" align="left">The
fellowship leaving Rivendell is also an instance, and a cool one. 
Everyone is there, and acting to their nature, even Bill the
pony.  It’s a really cool scene.  There are also some new
quests leading to preparation of the fellowship to depart for their
quest.



There are some new approaches to session play which should be looked
at.   Session play is being used as a way to telling stories
you could not otherwise experience, such as the side of the Enemy or
something that happened long ago in the timeline before the times of
Lord of the Rings Online story.  Overall the approach to
storytelling in Book 14 is sophisticated and fairly well done.  It
is not easy to rewrite the end of the Shadows of Angmar story without
disrupting it, and to match it to the canon of the works of J.R.R.
Tolkien, and the developers did a good job of it.

The Little Things

The little things that are coming with the Ring-forges of Eregion are
pretty neat too.  One thing I really like, for example, is being
able to drag items to the item name field of the auction tab in the
Auction UI, allowing for easier searches.  Horses and ponies have
walking animations (which I imagine the roleplayers will like when they
ride their horses very slowly around).  Monsters have some more
emotes, which is interesting.



In crafting, cooking bonuses have been reworked, smelting recipes are
standardized, as are refining recipes.  It gets old for ones
platinum to not go very far when refined.  Scholars recipes have
had new dyes added, and you can see them ahead of time in the dressing
room window.  Woodworking has clubs.   Woodworking
really needs these improvements, and adding clubs does
that.   Another nice improvement is with fishing.  Aside
from the new fishing trophies, fish descriptions say if they are used
for cooking (which will make the disposal of those types of fish less
common).

Overall

In general, Book 14 has a lot to offer players, aside from being a
bridge to the Mines of Moria.  While perhaps not as flashy an
update as others, the Ring-forges of Eregion has a more subtle and
overall increase in quality of the game which is very genuine, if not
so in your face as the “class improvement” books seen previously.



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