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LOTRO
The Lord of the Rings Online News
Legacy tier upgrades FIXED!
Jan 19th
As confirmed by Graalx2 here, the issues with legacy upgrades are being fixed.
Unaware of what the issues were? A number of legacies (at least eight of them confirmed for Wardens!) did not reduce in cost at certain upgrade levels. (In particular, T4>T5 and T5>T6 were being miscalculated.) That means that, given a rate of something like 500SM/hr (taking into account dailies), you were looking at about four hours of wasted gameplay upon purchase of a Scroll of Entitlement, because your legacy tier upgrade would net you zero points. Oops.
Glad to see this is being fixed. Doubly glad to see the devs communicating with us.
Lord of the Rings Online: Roads Goes Ever On – Returning to LotRO
Jan 19th
MMORPG.com Lord of the Rings Online reporter Jason Parmele writes this report on his decision to leave the popular World of Warcraft for Turbine’s adaptation of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings franchise.
I’m ashamed to admit this. I’ll say it once and then we’re going to move past it. I did not read The Lord of the Rings until after seeing Peter Jackson’s: The Fellowship of the Ring. I eventually went back to read The Hobbit, The Simillarion, Unfinished Tales and The Children of Húrin. As an addicted MMORPG player and fan of Asheron’s Call I was excited when Turbine announced they had purchased the rights to develop Middle-Earth Online, now called Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO). As an early beta tester I was impressed with Turbine’s re-creation of Middle-Earth and when I found Gandalf’s stone on Weathertop I knew this game would be special. However, it took me nearly three years to rediscover that.
Read Roads Goes Ever On – Returning to LotRO.
Don’t cheat. Please.
Jan 13th
In case you missed the big letters on the LOTRO site or at login:
We are aware of an exploit that can allow a player to acquire more skirmish marks than intended. This issue is very easy to track, and any player found using the exploit will have their account immediately banned without appeal. Our GMs will be extra vigilant in monitoring this issue; please remember that the Code of Conduct expressly prohibits exploits. Thank you for your cooperation!
So, don’t cheat. ’kay?
Turbine want you to change your LOTRO password. Now.
Jan 7th
From Sapience:
Due to an increase in the reports of compromised LOTRO accounts and hacked accounts in other games, we strongly encourage all players to change their passwords immediately. To help reduce the likelihood of having your account compromised we suggest players create a different username and password for each site they visit and each game they play. To change your password, please visit http://myaccount.turbine.com
I have only this to say: Muahahahahaaa, you’ll never guess my password, suckers! (You might have a chance if you speak Sumerian. But probably not.)
Happy New Year; here’s a January wallpaper for you
Dec 31st
Did you know that it’s been ten years since the Y2K scare? I remember sitting at my best friend’s house, calmly explaining to both her and her brother that the real trouble was coming in 2038. And, just as expected, nothing happened.
Anyway, that’s the past, and 2038 is still almost three decades away. For now, take solace in the fact that Millennials have not yet taken over the Internet. (Does it scare you that <a href=”http://xkcd.com/647/”people born post-9/11 are old enough to use the Internet?) And, you can put our new wallpaper on your desktop! Check it out:
(Click the picture for a big version, or click the link above to get other resolutions.)
Are you familiar with that firework? It’s from the Summer Festival. It’s also directly from the books:
There were green trees with trunks of dark smoke: their leaves opened like a whole spring unfolding in a moment, and their shinin branches dropped glowing flowers down upon the astonished hobbits, disappearing with a sweet scent just before they touched their upturned faces. (from The Fellowship of the Ring chapter 1, at Bilbo’s Party)
Now, go. Have a good night. And, if you’ve got the time yet to do so, make some eggnog. (That’s More >
Eregion: Our path to Rohan?
Dec 29th
Given that I managed to miss this when it came up on the forums a few weeks ago, I have no doubt that a number of you are yet unaware, too. Check this out:
See that yellow line? That’s the southern border of Eregion. See that grey line between the yellow one and the Misty Mountains on the right? That’s where any prior development stopped.
If you want to have a closer look, check out the interactive map at the official site. Curious just what’s changed? Check it against the old map over at Arda Online.
Hmmm. Looks like there’s a new town there. And some ruins. Wonder why that is.
Perhaps we’re heading south in the near future?
The Inner Works of an MMO Server Farm
Dec 17th
This post, in which Spartikus3 discussed how MMO server farms work, has been up on our site for well over two years now. Given the recent data center move Turbine made, and all the crazy talk flying around your Tubernets and Interthings, it may be a particularly relevant read. Especially this part:
Configuring servers the first time is tough. I’ve been there Optimizing the servers and software for maximum data throughput and performance levels takes time but once it is done, replication is accomplished in minutes / hours not in days or weeks. Having a server farm of xxx servers, a good network team can configure the appropriate database/world servers in hours. If release is a raging success and they STILL end up swamping their entire overflow pool of servers it’s a matter of mere hours to load their software and configure NEW DB and world servers once they are made available from the service provider.
See, some people have been reporting an increase in lag since the move. And, while it’s not really something Turbine like to see, it’s something that ought to be expected. There are always kinks in processes like this, and it’s a good idea to give Turbine More >
Yule Festival opens tomorrow; to prepare you, a dev diary
Dec 14th
Lauren ’Budgeford’ Salk is back with another dev diary, this time about the fun new content you’ll see in 2009’s Yule Festival. On the list: Some updates of old content, a new horse race, and a brand new event — one which involves GLORIOUS BEER and a large bat:
Theres this bat, you see. We devs feel powerful when we use it, but its supposed to be a secret. Why a secret? Because its mean to use the bat on fellow players. Unleashing the power of the bat would be a terrible thing indeed; it would be like giving The One Ring as a reward for completing the Epic storyline. But Rask promised that if I unleashed the beast, he would do his best to contain it.
I got a chance to check out much of the new Festival (sans horse race, alas) during beta, and I’ll work on getting some of that data uploaded later today. For now, though, we do have a Yule Festival rewards guide available on the Festival page, and the new cosmetics are AWESOME.
Scratch that. Yule Festival opens tonight at 9pm EST. Information on GLORIOUS BEER will be up in a few. I’ll get info about other fun More >
Lord of the Rings Online: Skirmish Screenshots
Dec 10th
A new "Skirmish" system was introduced to the The Lord of the Rings Online with the recent release of the game’s latest expansion, Siege of Mirkwood. Today, we’ve got a batch of new screenshots of some of the encounters and environments you will be able to experience while adventuring in a Skirmish instance.
Check out the new shots in our LOTRO gallery.
For more information on the Skirmish system, go here.
Server hardware upgrade, free stuff, and a patch
Dec 9th
First up, yesterday’s news: Turbine a upgrading server hardware, and this means a stress test + preview event. How is it a preview, you ask? Well, if you haven’t purchased Mirkwood, this stress test will give you a chance to check it out. Sort of. Remember, it’s a stress test, so it’ll be, uh… stressful. But, for participating, you get a chance to win a $250 gift card, so that’s nice!
And today’s news? There’s a patch tomorrow. On the plate are some fixes (like that radiance cloak having its radiance removed), removal of the Sprig of Wooly Mint raid reward, and the addition of the Trouble in Tuckburough skirmish.
Who wants to go save some Hobbits tomorrow?