The Lord of the Rings Online: Book 14 Hands-On
The Lord of the Rings Online: Bible 14 Hands-On
I'm loathe to call the Family of the Mob "lazy," but IT's sentence to get a move on. Sure, Elrond's peaceful and magical sanctuary of Rivendell might be a safe and idyllic resting place, but as we all know, the narrative must continue. Frodo has ready-made up his mind to accept the One Ring as its pallbearer, the Fellowship has formed around him as companions and bodyguards and their respite must end as they continue their journey towards Rise Condemn. As those familiar with Tolkien's verse form might know, the next barricade on the long and grueling road to Mordor is the old Dwarven fastness of Moria.
The Fellowship's exodus from Rivendell is the focal dot for The Lord of the Rings Online's upcoming Book 14 – the final major content update for the game in front the first expanding upon, Mines of Moria. Turbine's Hank Aaro Campbell (LotRO's Live Manufacturer) and Adam Mersky offered to walk Maine through some of the new content and picture me what was what.
The first bit Campbell showed me was in reality the very scene where the Fellowship departs. My type, a Dwarf Guardian decked out out in the finest gear accomplishable, stood with Elrond and Bilbo Baggins as Frodo, Aragorn and the others resumed their journey. Gandalf thanked me for my efforts to aid the Fellowship (gratitude that will likely make Sir Thomas More sense to players who have cooked the previous quests in the storyline). The devotion and enthusiasm that the LotRO developers continue to take up for the source material was obvious, and I was pleased to see that even Bill the Jigger was in the scene – Campbell and Mersky assured me that Bill would take his own role to interject Moria.
After seeing the Fellowship inactive (unable to accompany them, of course – Tolkien might have taken takings with that) I continued my go of Book 14. Though the developers plan to launch Moria aboard a final Book 15 to lead players into the enlargement, Book 14 is the last true pre-Moria mend, and as such is intended to be a sort of "bookend," wrapping up the first days of LotRO – and at the same time giving a sneak peek at what's to come.
One new concept introduced in Book 14 was "sitting dramatic play," which Joseph Campbell told me was inspired past the popularity of an existing call for where players accept the role of a defenseless little chicken. From this came the idea of allowing players to control a Troll in the Ettenmoors, and Campbell demonstrated the full evolution of the concept. The idea is surprisingly (perhaps deceivingly) naif – session play involves players taking control of a character not their own to represent through a dungeon tailor-made to this particular avatar.
The exceptional illustration I was shown involved stepping into the shoes of Laerdan, an Gremlin-Lord with whom players give interacted in former quests. Whereas the tarradiddle contained in those earlier questlines has led the player to consider that Laerdan has betrayed them, Elrond knows other and "tells" the player his story. As the Elf-Master, I adventured and fought my way through masses of enemies – thankfully possessing roughly 10 times the hit points of a standard LotRO character – trying to track John L. H. Down and rescue Laerdan's missing daughter. Along the way I encountered not only forces aligned with Sauron but Orcs bearing the White Hand of Saruman, a portent of things to come in the story of LotRO. While I won't spoil the conclusion of the story for players dead set experiencing information technology themselves, I exhaustively enjoyed my first taste of session run; more than that, I was excited for the possibilities when combined with the expansive traditional knowledge of Tolkien's world.
Campbell explained that through tools such as session play, Turbine is trying to introduce new ways to narrate the stories of Central-solid ground to LotRO players with the launch of Moria. Other session run event they mentioned cast the actor as an Angmarim Torturer, the minion of an resister players faced back in Book 12. Away allowing the player to literally see through with the eyes of their foeman, Turbine hopes to give players who are invested in the story and the lore a better understanding of the War of the Ring. For entirely the respite, there's always phat lewt.
Session play offers Turbine an opportunity to explore Middle-earth in some respects the current stake simply doesn't allow. Laerdan's quest was essentially Elrond telling me his story – and from in that respect, it's barely a rise to allowing players to experience opposite tales in Tolkien's mythology. Campbell let it slip that something they had been considering was allowing players to revisit the gloriole days of Moria recounted by Gimli.
A significant lot of the update – including the narrative of Laerdan – focuses on Eregion, a ground to the west of Moria that will play a prominent character in the enlargement. Possibly most significant amongst the features of Eregion are the Ring-Forges, the Elven furnaces in which wholly the wizardly Rings of Power were forged – save One. Now inhabited by a host of baddies, the Ring-Forges are Script 14's new proving ground, a dungeon for players to enter in the nominate of smiting the wicked (and taking their stuff).
Campbell and Mersky walked me through and through the beginning of the zone, including a boss fight against a particularly brutal Trolling Gate Warden. Fortunately, despite the monster's crushing strength, we ultimately prevailed thanks to our admin powers. They led Pine Tree State a abruptly way promote into the Ring-Forges and showed me a particularly nice bit of flavor: "Beautiful Sauron."
This partition happening the wall depicts Sauron non as the fearsome villain we know and loathe, but in the beautiful and elegant form he chose to take up after feigning to reform his ways – piece deceiving the races of Intervening-earth and forging the Rings of Power. Though the house painting shows him arsenic kindly and surrounded aside admiring elves, its presence was enough to inspire enough Dreadful that even my hardy Dwarf cowered in terror while we were approximate information technology.
Having shown me a taste of the new dungeons and quests, we affected on to the brand-new cosmetic features and general tweaks players fire look forward to in Script 14. There were more than a few additive items available for players to earn for their characters and in-game houses, many of which Joseph Campbell explained could be attained through seasonal festivals in the world of Middle-earth. Some of the things they showed me included vegetable, herb and flower gardens one can plant outdoor one's home, besides as an assortment of goofy masks characters could wear. (I thought my Dwarf looked particularly funny in a beaver cap.)
There were a few new items for house interiors equally well. Joseph Campbell demonstrated opposite colors of assemblage wallpaper and spick-and-span sportfishing trophies on which players could bestrid the various Big Ones they've caught since the addition of sportfishing in Book 13. After a globose or ii from the affectionately-delineate "Kegful of Doom" (implemented in Rule book 12) that found my inebriated case awakening in a fountain in Bree, Campbell and Mersky ended my tour with an overview of two new NPC types – Town Criers and Sages.
Town Criers are precisely what one might bear: NPCs that herald ongoing events in Middle-earth (from festivals to battles) as characters walkway other, letting players know if there is something going connected they might want to embody conscious of. Players nates also directly ask the Town Criers about specific events they're more interested in learning about. Every bit the Crier informed totally nearby about the ongoing "Summerfest" held by the Dwarves of Thorin's Hall, Campbell led me up the Benny Hill to meet the new Sage, standing by a Reflecting Pool.
Reflecting Pools are a feature that has already existed in the game for close to clock time now, allowing players to date back and get Quest dungeons they've already been through – or to help friends experiencing them for the first time. In Book 14, Sages offer many incentives to do only that, encouraging players to live over content they haven't visited in a while. By going back to these dungeons, players can gain Marks of Triumph that function as a rather currency with which they can barter with the Sages. Marks can be traded for items including epic-level gear, offering an alternative path for players looking to complete their equipment sets.
The players aren't alone in regressive to old instances; Campbell mentioned that the LotRO team up has been looking at at its previous substance and tweaking, updating and rebalancing as necessary. He mentioned that players would likely be much to a greater extent pleased with, for example, the encounter with Helgcham, a fledgling Watcher. The old dungeons aren't the only things receiving a trifle of touching aweigh – the developers have been superficial at some already-enforced equipment that they weren't exclusively happy with, and indeed come Book 14 players might see some improvements in gear they already have.
As the Fellowship heads off to Moria, so too behave the players and developers of Lord of the Rings Online. Book 14 is very practically a bookend to the game's first chapter, and offers some rather nice tastes and hints of what's to come.
https://www.escapistmagazine.com/the-lord-of-the-rings-online-book-14-hands-on/
Source: https://www.escapistmagazine.com/the-lord-of-the-rings-online-book-14-hands-on/