Lord of the Rings Online Book 10 Update

Posted by Stropp on August 15, 2007

Turbine is releasing the next free content update for its Lord of the Rings Online MMO next week on the 21st of August. The following features will be included:

• The Epic Continues! - Amarthiel, introduced in Book 9: Shores of Evendim, has reclaimed the palantir of Carn Dûm and is now seeking to make Annúminas her new seat of power as she searches for her lost ring of power: Narchuil. The Dúnedain stands against her as the Rangers mount a last, desperate attempt to wrest the palantir from Amarthiel. Before she can find Narchuil, a most dangerous opportunity presents itself that may give the Dúnedain the advantage they need to blind the eye of Angmar.
• Legendary Play - Once in the Ettenmoors, players can experience monster play in a completely new way by spending their Destiny Points to play as a powerful Ranger of the North or a terrible Troll to offer a strategic advantage to their allies in the battle for control of the Ettenmoors.
• Critter Play - Friendly barnyard animals love squawking around the landscape, exploring chicken coops, hunting for worms and more! Players can now explore Middle-earth from a different - and sometimes unexpected - viewpoint as a chicken, the first of many new playable critters that will be added to the game in the future.
• New Reputation and Bartering Systems - Book 10 introduces the Reputation and Bartering systems. The Reputation system enables players to earn positive and negative standing with different races and groups in Middle-earth based on both monster kills and quest completions. The Bartering system allows players to trade trophies earned in battle for rewards such as armor sets or mounts.
• Over 100 New Quests - The story continues for players as they aid the Fellowship and encounter new adventures, new dungeons and over a dozen new monsters.
• Enhanced User Interface - The game’s UI is now customizable. In addition to being able to skin your UI with a unique look, Book 10 will enable players to access sliders in their ‘Options’ panel to scale the size of individual elements of the UI to their liking.

It looks like Turbine have been hard at work. One of the complaints that I have heard the most about LotRO is the lack of content, especially at the upper middle levels. It seems though that they are addressing these concerns by regular new content. So far the game has been out for nearly four months and Turbine have released two fairly major content updates. Okay, they haven’t released the second yet, but it’s only a week away.

At this rate, expect Books 11 and 12 to be released before the year is out. And I doubt it will be much longer than that before the first major expansion. Probably around next April.

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