The Lord of the Rings Online: A Look Ahead

MMORPG.com recently had the opportunity to chat with Turbine’s Jeffrey Steefel about the company’s plans for The Lord of the Rings Online in 2008.

Steffel says that the team will be working toward adding more solo content for all levels of play. They knew people would want a significant amount of solo content from the start, but as it turns out, people want more. Another element that we’ll be seeing more of is elder game content and raids. When a game first launches, there is less demand for end game content as everyone is low level, but as the game matures, and the player base advances, more high level content becomes an obvious necessity. Exploration and achievement players will also see more content directed at their style of play in the coming year, but no further details were given, except that achievers will get their due in Book 12.

Other improvements to the game that are specific to Book 12 will be a focus on character customization, some major class balancing, an overhaul of Angmar, and extended monster play which will include a high end dungeon under the Ettinmoors called Ettindeep. As mentioned earlier, most of the details on the upcoming features are somewhat nebulous. Few details about specific customizations have been released but we can say that characters will soon be able to wear one piece of clothing for display purposes, and another piece for statistical purposes, which will complement LotRO’s equipment system nicely. Another convenient addition to the game will be the ability to access the LotRO Lorebook from inside the game, giving players access to a wealth of information at their fingertips. Recent books focused on improving and rebalancing specific classes, although each class usually gets a little love if they need it. In Book 12, the focus will be on improving the Burglar and the Guardian. Angmar’s overhaul was announced a few months ago, and while details are still sketchy, we do know that their goal is to make Angmar feel like a dark and vile place rather than a place to kill those pesky evil boars. Beyond Angmar and Book 12, there will also be a general focus this year on finding ways to improve gameplay wherever it’s needed in several other unnamed zones.

In addition, they’ve also tossed up a few images showing off the difference between the game’s DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 clients.