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?
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?
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?
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?
twelve or fourteen quests that are chained together, along with several
group sections, so I really couldn’t pin a number on it.
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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?
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?
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?
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?
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!”
definitely are involved and give feedback at every step.
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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?
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?
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.
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!
new Book 13 expansion? Or are you simply waiting for Moria? href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?p=228798#post228798">Let
us know
on the forums!
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Lord of the Rings Online Game Page.
