bree-land posts

LotRO dev diary looks at Bree-land overhaul in Volume 2: Book 8

by William Dobson Jun 11th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Patches, Leveling

One of the features of the next Lord of the Rings Online update, Volume 2: Book 8, is a revamping of some of the game's low to mid-level quests. The latest developer diary on the official site elaborates on the methods through which this will be achieved. A great deal of the overhauling will focus on the Bree-land zone, including Bree-town. Come Book 2.8, the area will be changed to be of more use to players between the levels 14-22, and we're promised two distinct questing paths that will lead to different places in the zone, and hopefully highlight some of the bigger storylines of Bree-land.

As Bree-land will become more commonly used by Tier 2 players, the crafting nodes in the area will also be changed to their Tier 2 versions. New repeatable "bounty quests" will be available, and existing quest rewards have been completely revised to ensure their usefulness for players in the adjusted level range. To learn more about all of the above changes, make sure to read the full dev diary.

Tags: bree-land, bree-town, dev-diary, developer-diary, lord-of-the-rings-online, lotro, lotro-book-2.8, new-player-experience-take-2, turbine

Anti-Aliased: Sometimes, it's the little things in (virtual) life

by Seraphina Brennan Feb 26th 2009 at 4:30PM

Filed under: Culture, MMO industry, Opinion, Virtual worlds, Anti-Aliased

After playing so many games, there are moments that stick out in my mind that make me smile. Some of them are these really epic stories about boss battles, or hard fought PvP moments, or personal notes of glory and triumph. Yet others are drastically different. They're calm, touching moments, where the game either really affected me on an emotional level or wowed me with some attention to detail.

In the frantic picture of game design, balancing, art direction, content, and bug squashing of making a highly complex MMO, development teams begin to miss things. Who cares about how a daisy moves when there's serious issues at hand, like item drop rates not working out the way they should be? Yet some development teams do see these little issues and they do take the time to program them in. Not every user may notice them, but some users will, and appreciate them.

This column is dedicated to the little things in our virtual lives. Come with me as we look through some popular and some unpopular MMOs, and highlight some of the things that development teams have done to really hook us into their world.

Tags: anti-aliased, bears, birds, blizzard, bree, bree-land, featured, fish, grizzly-hills, joystiqfeatures, lotro, the-lord-of-the-rings-online, turbine, world-of-warcraft, wow

LotRO Summer Festival goes live

by Shawn Schuster Aug 1st 2008 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Contests, Events, in-game, Game mechanics, News items

Way back in early July, we wrote up a complete guide to this year's Summer Festival in Lord of the Rings Online, and now players have the chance to experience this festival on the live servers!

This festival comes about 6 weeks later than it did last year, but is packed with much more to do and see. There's Horse races in Bree and The Shire, there's the Inn League initiation, there's dance-offs, fireworks and much more. Just remember to talk to the Town Crier in any major town for more information on the specific events. He's the one with the giant purple flag on the radar map. Also be sure to check out our complete Summer Festival guide and most importantly: have fun!

Tags: bree-land, codemasters, lord-of-the-rings-online, lotro, summer-festival, the-shire, turbine

The Ranger Amdir featured in latest lorebook entry

by William Dobson Mar 31st 2008 at 11:30AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Lore, Quests

Amdir, a Ranger found in the town of Archet, is the subject of an update to the Lord of the Rings Online lorebook.
The Nazgûl entering the Shire seemed to cause an increase in the Blackwold brigand troubles in Bree-land, and so Amdir was sent to Archet to investigate. Here he attended to the problem of some missing Hobbits, and got himself deep into some nasty business because of it.

He should be familiar to those whose adventure began in Archet, and he is featured in both the Hobbit and Man starting instances, as well as the Epic prologue quest for Bree-land. Without giving too much away, we'll say that he is very involved in this storyline. View the lorebook entry to see some of the quests he's involved with, and the map of his location.

Tags: amdir, archet, bree-land, epic-prologue, lorebook, lotro, nazgul, ranger, the-shire, turbine

TTH resource gathering guide: Bree-Land

by William Dobson Dec 29th 2007 at 8:28PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Guides, Crafting, Tips and tricks

In this next installment of TenTonHammer's Lord of the Rings Online resource collecting guides, the focus shifts to Bree-Land, which contains tier 1, 2 and even tier 3 materials. The guide informs us that Bree-Land is a veritable gold mine (so to speak) when it comes to finding tier 1 and 2 resources, but although it does contain some tier 3 nodes, it is best to think of these as a nice bonus rather than to visit the zone particularly to find them.

There are once again some notes explaining different areas in-depth, but here are the real pro tips: for tier 2 resources, head to the Eastern Bree-Fields, and for tier 1, the Midgewater Marshes have what you need. Of course, on most resource runs you'll need to hit more than just a single area, especially when you're not the only one out there collecting, so check out the Bree-Land guide for another handy table and the rest of the hints for harvesting there.

Tags: bree-land, eastern-bree-fields, harvesting, lotro, midgewater-marshes, resource-gathering-guide, resources, ten-ton-hammer, tentonhammer, tier-1, tier-2, tier-3, tth, turbine

More LotRO house brokers added to meet demand

by William Dobson Oct 28th 2007 at 8:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Economy, Patches, Player Housing

Following Book 11's update and the addition of player housing, the allure of one's own Hobbit-hole or sturdy Dwarven lodging has brought droves of people to the brokers -- so much so, in fact, that Turbine has made a post on their official Lord of the Rings Online forums to say that there will be a few more brokers on the way.

The extra auctioneers will be showing up to assist their overburdened co-workers in Bree-land, The Shire, and both the Dwarven and Elvish regions of Ered Luin homesteads. However, take note that these guys are temps -- the post states that they "may depart at any time" -- so it is likely that once demand dies down, they will be out of a job. Click below to read Turbine's post and find out the exact locations for the brokers.

Tags: book-11, breaking, bree-land, brokers, dwarven, elvish, ered-luin, hobbit, housing, lord-of-the-rings, lotro, player-housing, shadows-of-angmar, shire, the-shire, turbine