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Turbine offers up a dev diary and screens for Oath of the Rangers

Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Lord of the Rings Online, Patches, News items

We got the first details on the upcoming Lord of the Rings Online book, titled Oath of the Rangers, earlier this week. Now, to add to the excitement, Turbine has followed up on the initial information by releasing a handful of screens and an excellent developer's diary.

Flowing mightily from the keyboard of Jeff 'MadeOfLions' Libby, the diary gives Lord of the Rings Online fans much to discuss. Aside from the talk of storylines and a new skirmish, there's a really great behind-the-scenes portion about how precisely the LotRO team sets up something called "drama sequences." Essentially, these scripted sequences tailor NPC dialogue to you based on your own personal quest history -- bringing you info the story. There's also some information on ways the team is seeking to make travel a bit easier for the casual players, or more rewarding for those who take the long path.

If Middle-earth is the place you call home, then you'll definitely want to check out the new screens we've gathered up for you as well as the enlightening developer diary over on the LotRO site.

LotRO Dev Diary: Moving the Fellowship

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


As we reported last week from our Lord of the Rings Online Book 14 tour, the time has arrived for the Fellowship to finally leave Rivendell. For the players who enjoy the game's connection to Tolkien's work, this is truly an exciting time. For the game developers, it's a fairly unique challenge.

In a recent dev diary entitled Moving the Fellowship, Jeff "MadeOfLions" Libby discusses the problems faced by the development team in regards to this challenge, and how they solved them. For example, throughout the game as it stands today, the nine Fellowship members are not all together waiting for their big move. Some are in various locations throughout Rivendell, while Gimli is in the Misty Mountains. Each member is simultaneously involved in dozens of quests throughout the game, which poses its own set of challenges. Check out the complete dev diary to find out how they overcame these obstacles, and how they will continue to implement these ideas in the future of the game.

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Events Calendar

Name Date
GenCon Indy
Aug 5-8, 2010
SOE Fan Faire
Aug 5-8, 2010
Xsyon Prelude Launch Aug 15, 2010
GamesCom Expo
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Earthrise Launch Q3 2010
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Sep 3-6, 2010
PAX Prime
Sep 3-5, 2010
Final Fantasy XIV Launch
Sep 30, 2010
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Oct 5-8, 2010
LEGO Universe Launch
Oct 26, 2010
DCUO Launch
Nov 2, 2010

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