PvMP changes coming with LotRO: Mines of Moria

by Shawn Schuster Sep 8th 2008 at 7:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Culture, Expansions, Game mechanics, Lore, PvP, Opinion

Often times, players want to know why there's no open or "proper" PvP in Lord of the Rings Online. The system they have in place now is very unlike what most other games consider a player vs player environment. To many, this is a good thing, but to others, it detracts from the game. To fully understand the reasoning behind no open PvP system in LotRO, one must first fully comprehend the lore. J.R.R. Tolkien's world is extremely important to Turbine (despite what some may think with the introduction of the Rune-keeper), so the way they incorporate popular game mechanics into their heavily lore-based PvE game is a constant battle.

Over at Pumping Irony, Scott gives us his impressions of how this could all work. He talks about all of the reported changes coming to PvMP with Mines of Moria, and mentions his understanding of the lore and how the current world of Eriador is mostly unaware of their impending doom from the forces of Sauron. This is an excellent point as many players have no idea that this is the case. Scott also brings up some great points about the future of LotRO PvMP and how Jeffrey Steefel himself has hinted at an expanded system coming after Moria. Check out Scott's post and let us (and him) know what you think.

Tags: ettenmoors, jeffrey-steefel, lord-of-the-rings-online, lotro, mines-of-moria, monster-play, pvmp, turbine

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Tony said on 12:01AM 9-09-2008

They are adding some sort of capture the flag style mode, so it's not all bad.

Personally, I get the lore stuff... what would be nice is some sort of expanded sparring mode, if nothing else. I would love to be able to have my character fight another character in some sort of official capacity. I have to imagine somewhere in Middle Earth they have tournaments or something of that nature.

I think that would be fun, personally.

Mythic said on 1:50AM 9-09-2008

I think some sort of arena for 4v4 PvMP would be awesome! It could be lore appropriate if it involved "captured" Freeps entering the arena gladiator style to escape the 'Moors.

Skypp said on 7:56AM 9-09-2008

The "Capture the Flag" thing is actually a adaptation of "Relics" from DAOC. There will be items, flags, whatever that one side will be able to capture to gain buffs for their entire side(even outside the PVP area for the Free People). This isn't the first time(or the first game) to go this route, as the Delving is very much like Darkness Falls from DAOC. Whoever controls the most real estate gets access to the special dungeon, just like Darkness falls.

Truly there's more to the PVP in LOTRO than some give it credit for, its not a hap-hazardly put together thing. In many ways its well thought out and full of features you wouldn't expect from only being 1/2 a realm.

Talyn said on 9:52AM 9-09-2008

The Delving Raid, the new Artifact CTF system, indeed the Ettenmoors itself is all derivative of DAOC. Turbine has said they were fans of that game, but if I remember from some dev chat interviews they only have *one* kinda "hardcore-ish" PvP fan on the team so he usually gets over-ruled with more important things on the "to do" list.

PvMP seems to be getting more popular even on my small-ish server, and we have entire guilds who *only* play the PvP game, so hopefully we'll start seeing more attention put into this sphere of the game.