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Teaser Site
http://www.lotro.com/mirkwood/
Official Press Release
http://www.lotro.com/news/pressreleases/459-the-lord-of-the-rings-online-siege-of-mirkwood
The Lord of the Rings Online™: Siege of Mirkwood™
TURBINE UNVEILS
THE LORD OF THE RINGS ONLINE™: SIEGE OF MIRKWOOD™
New Digital Expansion to the 2008 MMO of the Year Launching this Fall
WESTWOOD, MA – September 4, 2009 - Turbine, Inc. today unveiled The Lord of the Rings Online™: Siege of Mirkwood™, the digital expansion to the award-winning massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG). Siege of Mirkwood will expand the online world of Middle-earth where players will join forces to press further eastward into the dark, foreboding and treacherous forest of Mirkwood and take part in the epic conclusion to Volume II of The Lord of the Rings Online. Siege of Mirkwood will be available as a digital download this Fall with an increased level cap, a new region including the legendary evil fortress of Dol Goldur, major enhancements to combat and Legendary Items and the introduction of Skirmishes, a new system where players will train customizable soldiers and take them into battle as part of the War of the Ring.
“2009 has been a year of unprecedented growth for The Lord of the Rings Online and the launch of Siege of Mirkwood will end the year with a bang,” said Jeffrey Steefel, Executive Producer of The Lord of the Rings Online. “As the game expands east of the Misty Mountains, players will face the raging war and shadow that has spread across Middle-earth and the new Skirmish system will thrust players and their soldiers into the War of the Ring.”
NEW FEATURES:
* The Epic Conclusion to Volume II: Mines of Moria™ – Under the command of Celeborn and Galadriel, players will fight through vast armies of Orcs alongside the Elves of Lórien in a battle that will take them to Dol Guldur, the fortress of the Ringwraiths. This update includes Book 9 and the Epilogue to the sweeping epic tale begun with the award-winning Mines of Moria expansion.
* Increased Level Cap — Players will be able advance their characters up to level 65, gaining access to new traits, virtues, skills and class quests.
* Answer the Call of War! – Jump into the heat of battle with the new Skirmishes feature. Skirmishes offer endless action in repeatable, randomized instances where players can create and lead customizable soldiers into battle, training them to greater skill as they earn victories against the forces of shadow. Answer the call of war wherever violence erupts with the new “World Join” function that lets players and their fellowships band together to fight in various locations throughout Middle-earth.
* Take up Arms! – Infiltrate the dark jails, deadly arenas and savage stables of Dol Guldur, the fortress of the Ringwraiths, and strike a blow against Sauron’s forces in new 3 and 6-player instances. Call upon your fellows to adventure into the most deadly 12-player raid yet and face the ultimate challenge – the Nazgûl Lord!
* Major Gameplay Enhancements – Turbine continues to improve the award-winning experience of LOTRO with major improvements to the combat and Legendary Items systems. Players will experience improved responsiveness when in the heat of battle. Players will also be able to create and craft their own customized Second and Third Age Legendary Items from raw materials and grow their weapons’ power to level 60. Achieve new Legacies, new titles, and a fourth Runic slot that will make Legendary Items even more unique and powerful.
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Pricing Information
Quote:
Originally Posted by marketroid
The announcement today didn't contain pricing since we're focused on announcing the game features and doing previews at PAX. A subsequent announcement with those details will be out later. But since it's being asked, here's the scoop:
* Siege of Mirkwood will have a base price of $19.99. As with Moria last year, we're going to have a set of early upgrade offers that are very compelling. We're not quite ready to unveil those details yet, but we'll keep you posted.
* The epic story continues on in Volume 3 as a regular content update early next year.
* Some of the improvements to the game coming with Mirkwood will benefit everyone, but the key features will require the Mirkwood upgrade.
Hopefully this clears things up a bit.
End of Quote
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LokiCaprion
A question from a horse collector! I made it a point to get each of the seasonal horses, the Book 15 horse, and I have been saving and grinding to get each of the Reputation horses, too. Does this quote mean that we'll only be able to use two horses in total, or will each horse become it's own passive skill (a la Lore-master cosmetic pets)?
You can have multiple horses. Each is a seperate skill, but there is no limit I am aware of on the number you can have. There will be a Dev Diary on the new system, so that should give you a ton of info when it's published.
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author: Sandriel
quote
A better summary of information- sorry Sapience...
To start, here is a summary of the quick and dirty details:
* Siege of Mirkwood will have a base price of $19.99. As with Moria last year, we're going to have a set of early upgrade offers that are very compelling. We're not quite ready to unveil those details yet, but we'll keep you posted.
* The epic story continues on in Volume 3 as a regular content update early next year. Sounds like a standard free book update, but hasnt been confirmed.
* Some of the improvements to the game coming with Mirkwood will benefit everyone, but the key features will require the Mirkwood upgrade.
* Skirmishes are PvE, and should not be directly competing with PvMP
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* The new raid is not a one-boss raid. Nuff Said.
* 100+ hours of new content
* Level cap increased to level 65 with access to new traits, virtues, skills and class quests
What is "Enhanced Combat Responsiveness"? Here is a quick explanation from Floon:
Autoattacks will not delay firing a skill. What this does mean is that animation have a chance to preempt autoattack anims in such a way as to produce a pop in the anim transition that isn't there right now.
[source: http://forums.lotro.com/showpost.php?p=3994799&postcount=8 ]
What the heck is "World Join"!? Zombie Columbus goes in to details about what it is, and what it will actually be called:
World-join is a bit of a misnomer. The name of that part of the overall Skirmish system is likely being changed to the more informative "Skirmish-join." Remember the way half the community calls Fellowship Maneouvers Conjunctions because that's what it was in beta? This is one of those situations.
Well, what IS Skirmish-join? There will be a dev diary on it (I'm working on it now) but the short version is it will be how players can enter the new Skirmish spaces. It's a UI that will allow players to select the group size, level, and difficulty of a Skirmish, and then be instantly transported to the Skirmish. Emphasis on "Skirmish", the system does not, as of now, interact with Instances, PvMP, Battle Instances or anything else.
[source: http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?&postid=3995719#post3995719]
For more details, see our article on Skirmishers found here:
http://www.bladesofanarion.net/index.php?page=167
Where is the epic story going to go in Book 9 and possibly beyond?
Under the command of Celeborn and Galadriel, players will fight through vast armies of Orcs alongside the Elves of Lórien in a battle that will take them to Dol Guldur, the fortress of the Ringwraiths. This update includes Book 9 and the Epilogue to the sweeping epic tale begun with the award-winning Mines of Moria expansion. No word yet on just how many chapters, or possibly books, the "epilogue" will contain.
[source: http://kotaku.com/5352670/lord-of-the-rings-online-expands-with-siege-of-mirkwood]
And now for some things not mentioned in the press release, mounts are getting a very nice overhaul and new shared storage:
Mounts are being changed over to skills, not items. This means you will no longer be required to carry a mount in your inventory. In your skills panel, there will be a "mount" tab, which will list your current stable of mounts -- your horse, your other horse, your goat. And, because of mounts becoming skills, a number of issues with mounts will simply cease to exist: You will now be able to pass into instances and new zones while on your mount; you can now interact with NPCs (including vendors) from your mount; and you can now use emotes on your mount. In other mount news, there's a brand new goat -- the Wild Goat -- available in Siege of Mirkwood.
Also on the list of changes, and an answer to the prayers of many LOTRO players, is the addition of shared storage space for accounts. This means that you no longer have to deal with mailing items to your alts; Jeffrey Steefel kept mum about whether or not this meant a new "bind on account" system, so no word on that yet, but having shared storage at all will be a boon. Currently, shared storage space appears to be limited to 50 items, though Mr. Steefel said this was likely to increase over time in a similar manner to purchasing further storage space for your character's Vault. [source: http://lotrovault.ign.com/View.php?view=CommunityArticles.Detail&id=18]
Anything known about the new raid yet?
Yes, though the burning question I am sure on everyones mind, radiance, has not been addressed- so no word on if and how much is required. The primary raid will be in Dol Guldur, and will feature a multi-boss culminating fight featuring both a battle against a Fell Beast (which is quite terrifying to see!) and, finally, the Lieutenant of Dol Guldur, second-in-command among the Nazgul.
[source: http://lotrovault.ign.com/View.php?view=CommunityArticles.Detail&id=18]
And finally...
It was hinted that we should all make sure we are signed up for the Turbine Beta Rewards program. You can sign up over at
http://myaccount.turbine.com/
end of quote
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quote:
Originally Posted by Sandriell
This update includes Book 9 and the Epilogue to the sweeping epic tale begun with the award-winning Mines of Moria expansion. No word yet on just how many chapters...
Epic Book 9 has the most chapters of any Book so far, and the Epilogue serves to wrap up the stories for many of the characters you've met over the course of Volume II. There's quite a bit to these.
MoL http://forums.lotro.com/showpost.php?p=3996102&postcount=14
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from: http://lotrovault.ign.com/View.php?view=CommunityArticles.Detail&id=18
quote
MMORPG expansions have become rather predictable over the years. Each expansion brings some new raids, some new group content, some new solo content, and a level cap increase. For The Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood, however, we will be seeing the introduction of a new scalable instance system, the Skirmish system. Contrary to the status quo established by most major MMOs, the Skirmish system will allow all players -- raiders, casuals, mid-level, high-level -- access to the same content.
Siege of Mirkwood will be introducing twelve new Skirmish instances in addition to a pair of tutorial instances designed to introduce players to the system. Each of these instances is scalable on a number of levels: They each accept one, three, six, or twelve players at a time, with the deficit made up for by player-created NPC soldiers. Many of the instances are scalable by level; for instance, one skirmish which features an assault upon and defense of Weathertop will accept players from level 30 to 65. Each instance has nine optional challenges, each of which awards skirmish points -- more on those in a moment. These challenges are randomized, as are the enemies inside the instance (within certain logical limits, of course), so you will not likely have the same experience twice.
Jeffrey Steefel showed me the opening of one of these Skirmishes in which a number of NPCs have been locked within the Prancing Pony, and Sharkey's men are threatening to burn it down. Your job is to defend the Bree-town landmark. The Pony itself has hit points during this Skirmish, and you are awarded Skirmish points -- again, hang on a minute and I'll explain those -- based upon how well you defend the Pony. Let its hit points fall to zero and you fail your primary objective.
Now, Skirmish points: These are your rewards for completing your challenges -- primary and optional -- in each instance. They can be used to customize and advance your soldiers. Soldiers are quite customizable: You can assign them traits, just like a player character, and you can alter their cosmetic appearance. (Beardless dwarves appear to be off-limits, still! Drat!) The Skirmish point system will even be tied into MyLOTRO, where there will be leaderboards on which you can compare yourself to your friends.
At this point, you're probably wondering: If these Skirmishes are all over the game world, how much silver are you going to be spending on travel costs? Well, good news: none. In fact, you can enter a Skirmish from anywhere in the game world, as can your friends from their own locations in the game world. When you're done with the Skirmish -- each of them is designed to last thirty to forty minutes -- you will be transported back to your prior location in the world.
The Skirmish system is not the only change, though. There are a few other select changes Mr. Steefel showed me today. Perhaps my favorite is that mounts are being changed over to skills, not items. This means you will no longer be required to carry a mount in your inventory. In your skills panel, there will be a "mount" tab, which will list your current stable of mounts -- your horse, your other horse, your goat. And, because of mounts becoming skills, a number of issues with mounts will simply cease to exist: You will now be able to pass into instances and new zones while on your mount; you can now interact with NPCs (including vendors) from your mount; and you can now use emotes on your mount. In other mount news, there's a brand new goat -- the Wild Goat -- available in Siege of Mirkwood.
Also on the list of changes, and an answer to the prayers of many LOTRO players, is the addition of shared storage space for accounts. This means that you no longer have to deal with mailing items to your alts; Mr. Steefel kept mum about whether or not this meant a new "bind on account" system, so no word on that yet, but having shared storage at all will be a boon. Currently, shared storage space appears to be limited to 50 items, though Mr. Steefel said this was likely to increase over time in a similar manner to purchasing further storage space for your character's Vault.
Mr. Steefel said there will be something in the range of 100 hours of new content, so even with the smaller level cap increase of five levels, this should be an expansion well worth your money. The story follows the Elves of Lothlorien as they assault and fight back against Sauron's growing presence in Dol Guldur, his Mirkwood fortress where he prepares his armies for war. The primary raid will be in Dol Guldur, and will feature a multi-boss culminating fight featuring both a battle against a Fell Beast (which is quite terrifying to see!) and, finally, the Lieutenant of Dol Guldur, second-in-command among the Nazgul.
While Turbine are not ready to announce a release date yet, Turbine's Director of Communications, Adam Mersky, suggested that we'll see a date and more info in the next few weeks.
end of quote
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