Turbine and Codemasters announced today that they will kick off a major promotion that invites everyone to unlock the Mines of Moria by visiting http://www.unlocktheminesofmoria.com. Visitors can learn more about Mines of Moria and play special mini-games that will be periodically released over the coming months. Certain players who participate can complete special deeds through game play and other means to unlock exclusive previews, assets and special in-game items that may help them when they delve into Mines of Moria this fall. The Unlock the Mines of Moria promotion is scheduled to begin at the end of this month.

See our other screenshots.

CLICK HERE TO SEE MORIA ART CONCEPT
CLICK HERE TO SEE SCREENSHOTS FROM UNLOCK THE MINES OF MORIA

Today, at Connect 08 in Birmingham, executive producer Jeffrey Steefel revealed the second volume of the Tolkein-licensed massively multiplayer RPG, The Mines of Moria. The first official Lotro expansion will be released later this year.

The Mines of Moria will take Lotro players into the goblin underground world with new famous bosses from Tolkien lore - The Balrog and The Watcher. The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria will expand the online world of Middle-earth to let players explore the ancient underground cities of the dwarves, battle epic characters in the depths, face off with the Watcher, be a part of the fateful release of Durin's Bane and more! The Lord of the Rings Online expects to open Volume II of its epic story in the fall of 2008 with an increased level cap, two new classes and the introduction of a unique item advancement system.

From: KaTHoO

"The Mines of Moria is one of the most epic settings in all of fantasy fiction," said Jim Crowley, president and CEO of Turbine, Inc. "No one delivers more quality content than Turbine and with our journey into Moria, we will raise the bar even higher. We are adding vast amounts of content, debuting massive new environments and unveiling numerous unique feature sets, like item advancement, which will create entirely new dimensions of compelling game play and social interaction which are unique to The Lord of the Rings Online experience."

Ten new levels will be added to the game. Two new classes, the Warden and the Runekeeper, a large number of instances for smaller groups, new monster player scenarios, a chance to join the Fellowship in Lorien and get gifts from Galadriel, a new Legendary Items system (objects that will evolve as the player progresses).

Steefel also mentioned that LOTRO would be launched in Russia, China and Korea this year. The next free update to the game - Books 13,  "Doom of the Last King", will offer a new region to explore, a hobby system with fishing. The developers confirmed that Book 14 will arrive later in this summer.

NEW FEATURES:

• Speak Friend, and Enter - Moria, called Khazad-dûm by the dwarves, was their capital and the grandest of cities. This enormous underground cavern in north-western Middle-earth, comprises an immense network of tunnels, chambers, mines and huge halls that run beneath and ultimately through the Misty Mountains. For the first time, players of The Lord of the Rings Online will enter this ancient city which has served as the foundation for the modern-day dungeon-crawling adventures to battle the hordes of goblins and the Nameless of the Deep and journey through hundreds of new quests within six new kinds of stunning environments.

• The Epic Continues! - The Mines of Moria represents the beginning of Volume II of The Lord of the Rings Online. Players can experience six new books as part of this update and participate in the release of Durin's Bane, battle the Watcher, aid Galadriel and more!

• Increased Level Cap - Players will be able advance their characters up to level 60, gaining access to new traits, virtues, skills and class quests. The crafting system will also expand, giving players the ability to craft even more powerful items.

• Discover Two New Classes - The Rune-keeper and the Warden, the first new classes to be introduced since the launch of the game, allow players to build exciting and powerful new characters in The Lord of the Rings Online in diverse new ways.
• Forge Legendary Items - The Mines of Moria will introduce Turbine's new item advancement system to The Lord of the Rings Online. Players will be able to forge weapons and class-related equipment and evolve them to build a legacy the likes of Bilbo's Sting and Gandalf's Glamdring. These legendary weapons will level-up along with the player, allowing customization by advancing the item's virtues, adding runic legacies, modifying its titles and forming fables.

To celebrate this exciting news, Turbine and Codemasters also announced today that they will kick off a major promotion that invites everyone to unlock the Mines of Moria by visiting http://www.unlocktheminesofmoria.com. Visitors can learn more about Mines of Moria and play special mini-games that will be periodically released over the coming months. Certain players who participate can complete special deeds through game play and other means to unlock exclusive previews, assets and special in-game items that may help them when they delve into Mines of Moria this fall. The Unlock the Mines of Moria promotion is scheduled to begin at the end of this month.

"We included a fix for the terrain in this patch. I certainly hope anyone who decided it was a good idea to sneak in and then log out there isn't stuck until Book 13; you know, if the server won't let them log in or something.

If it was supposed to be open and ready for players, it would be. It's not. Spending an hour or more trying to get through a glitch in the terrain and then claiming that because you managed to get in it makes everything okay is incorrect".

-Meghan

Yes, we know New Years was three months ago. Yes, we know Gandalf is still wearing his Christmas hat (in the picture in our header). Yes, we are getting rid of it. But, we wanted to do it in a more original way so in the next few days you'll be able to watch LotRO version of "How Grinch stole Christmas" the LotroLife way, by looking at our header pic. We will be changing the header every day or two for the next couple of days and will post it as a comic at the end. We are also approaching one year of LotRO and our site and will be making a whole new header for "Season 2" :). To make sure you get the latest header picture "force refresh" the home lotrolife.com page (this can be done by holding CTRL and pressing F5 if you use Internet Explorer, or by holding CTRL+SHIFT and presing R key on your keyboard in Firefox).

Yesterday, Shawn Andrich, (gamerswithjobs.com) had a great session with Cardell Kerr and David Lennon, both who work at Turbine on Lord of the Rings Online. They talked about the game's new features and some very interesting stuff about the MMO industry as a whole and the viability of the standard WoW formula moving forward.

Also, they talked about little secrets like:

* their favorite games
* their favorite class in Lotro,
* playing in Ettenmoors,
* a console version of LotRO,
* Turbine's biggest the Lord of the Rings fans
 

Edit by Beleglin:

The article on gamerswithjobs.com can be found at:
http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/38088. We have removed the direct link to the mp3 file so gamersatjobs.com get some traffic and not like it was before. We sincerely apologize for this mistake. The news editor that did this will be scrubbing floors in our bathroom for the next 2 weeks.

See the latest Dev Chat Transcript, and find out more about Book 13, and new area Forochel.

- There are a number of routes around the Bay of Forochel, so hopefully you will find getting around it a bit easier than Lake Evendim.

- The area you can walk on is around the size of the North Downs

- It's level 44-50 content. Mostly solo as well.

Auction House

• Rejoice! We returned auction string searching functionality.

Classes/Skills

• Ranged auto-attacks have had their miss rates increased when on the move.
• Quest items will no longer drop while in a raid unless the quest items are used for a raid quest.
• The range for melee conjunction skills has been increased to 2.5 meters to match the standard distance for all other melee attacks.
• Guardian Skill Updates:
  • Movement effects have been prioritized to prevent lesser effects from overwriting more powerful effects.
  • “Thrill of Danger” has been fixed to drain power from monsters again instead of fellows (unfortunately it will also break mez again).
  • “Overpower” will no longer toggle off when a Guardian is silenced.
• The trait “Grim Challenge” will no longer reduce the cooldown of the skill Engage.

Crafting

• Re-added the missing Tailoring, Weaponsmith, and Woodworker crafting recipes to treasure tables. These recipes should once again be available via treasure drops.

Items

• Crafted Shields will now properly sheath on the player’s back during ranged attacks, and will properly display the visual FX during combat.
• Ashûrz's Adornment has been converted back to a necklace as it was originally introduced into the game as. If the item is currently slotted into an earring slot it will remain there until unequipped.
• The sixth bonus on the Hunter's “Armour of the Aurochs” has been switched back to “Penetrating Shot.”
• The Captain's Rift gear now grants the wearer the shadow mitigation bonus when the improved trait is slotted.
• Dwarf medium short sleeve armor appearances are now using the correct textures and dyemaps. Dyemaps of dwarf medium upper and lower body textures have been adjusted.

World

• Certain Elites managed to sneak into the Angmar landscape spawns, but they are now appropriately Normals.
• Players should see fewer instances of monsters entering anti-exploit mode.

User Interface

• Pressing Delete in the crafting panel's search box will now refresh the list just like any other key.
• Fixed an issue with the spar timer where it would sometimes appear to stop while sparring.
• Fixed a bug in the dressing room where body parts could vanish.
• If you try on an item in the dressing room it will now be displayed even if that slot has been toggled off on the character journal.

Graphics/Animation/FX

• Mount animations have been adjusted to reduce the jarring nature of run turns using mouse-look.
• Avatars will no longer play their hit animations when hit while riding a mount.
• Idle emotes will now activate less often. No more itching!

Miscellaneous

• Fixed the issue with losing the trail of a fellowship member's companion.
• Fixed an issue where newly-added swift travel routes would be unavailable until you talked to the destination stable-master again.
• Fixed an issue with Fellowship Maneouvers breaking pets’ vitals.
• When distributing items via Master Looter, the character receiving an item must be in the immediate vicinity of the fellowship or raid leader who assigns the item when the chest containing the loot is opened. Please make sure all members of the fellowship or raid are close to the Master Looter before opening the chest and beginning the assignment of loot.

Quests

• “The Matron and the Master” is no longer restricted to solo players, and the instance can now be completed as part of a fellowship.
• Fixed the pathing for monsters in the final boss room of “Book 12 Chapter 6.”
• NPCs will no longer spawn in the ground in “Book 12 Chapter 9.”
• The boss of “Book 12 Chapter 3” now spawns in his adds correctly.
• The issue blocking more than one player from entering the “Seven Swords” instance has now been fixed.
• The quest, “Bullroarer’s Challenge – Advanced,” is now available to players. Party on!

Some interesting information about fishing. Enjoy! Special thanks to Rick.

-         You can fish from just about any location that has water, including steams and lakes in neighborhoods.

<DBSRick> hey I just realized, a whole dev chat went by with no Fishing comments!
<+Keth_Turbine> Fishing is pretty sweet, actually, I saw it up and running the other day.
<DBSRick> I bet. without getting attacked by marketting ninjas, any details you can share about fishing? I was fond of the FFXI system, despite it being punishingly boring.
<+Keth_Turbine> hrm, I'm not the designer on fishing, and I think we've got a dev diary coming, but anyone can be a Fisherman, no matter what.
<+Keth_Turbine> and you can fish just about anywhere, although the pulls will be different depending on what region you are in.
 <DBSRick> Cool. was just curious as to how it would work. Is it a leveled ability, that kind of thing
<+Keth_Turbine> yeah, your skill level will increase and it will affect the pulls.
<DBSRick> nice. sounds good to me. Hopefully the things we pull have a use?
 <+Keth_Turbine> they are fish! They have thousands of uses!
<DBSRick> lmao
<DBSRick> can we put one on the wall and make it talk? Or sing Achey Breaky heart?
 <+Keth_Turbine> I'm honestly not sure what you can fish up, but I have heard some interesting things.
<+Annuvin_LOTRO> Boots.
<+Annuvin_LOTRO> Rings.
 <+Annuvin_LOTRO> Nazgul.
<+Annuvin_LOTRO> You'd be amazed what's just laying around down there.
 <+Keth_Turbine> you can actually fish up an empty bottle to store potions in...
 <DBSRick> oooo! If we fish up a Nazgul can we keep it?
<+Keth_Turbine> (little Zelda reference there.)
<DBSRick> we need someone to serve the beer in the kin house
<+Annuvin_LOTRO> Okay... I'm off to lead the glamour filled life of getting peed on, and changing diapers. Wish me luck!
<+Keth_Turbine> I best take off as well, I want to fish up this exciting spec called "Amarthiel Ascendant" for Book 14.
<+Keth_Turbine> er finish up
<+Keth_Turbine> I've got fish on the brain.
<+Keth_Turbine> remember, all the instances will be boring.
<DBSRick> lol

In general,  there are a couple of problems in this area. In Book 13, Turbine is  trying to make a few tweaks to make this area to try and address those issues.

Accessibility
- Accessibility is one of those issues, so in Book 13 we are providing a reputation gated travel route from Tinnudir to Echad Garthadir. This route will make it easier to get across Lake Evendim to this area.

- We've also added a Milestone, just in case you'd like to recall here easily from any where in the world.

Flipping the Camps
- Another problem is conveying better what is going on at the 3 camps found in Annúminas and how they relate to accessing the 3 instances there. What we're doing is providing some in-game items to both Tinnudir and Echad Garthadir that, when examined, will help explain the current state of the events and how camp control affects instance accessibility.
- We've also added some region broadcasts when the camps flip state, just to further let people know something is going on out in Annúminas.

Rally Points
- We've also added a new Rally point for the Annúminas Tombs and Palace instances. This rally point will be on the island, so if you are defeated in one of those instances, you will not have to cross back over the bridge. This should make getting back into those instances a lot easier.

Annuminas Quests
- The biggest change coming is to the quests that go into Annúminas. We've decided to make those quests "dailies," or quests that reset everyday. Since you can now do these everyday, we've removed the experience rewards and tweaked the other rewards a bit. Our hope though is that this will help you get more of the barter tokens, the "Arnorian Armour Fragments" and the "Battered Arnorian Armour" items, that you need for the armour sets.

Annuminas Barter Tokens
- Due to the quest change above, we've decided to make the barter tokens bind on acquire. This means that you will no longer be able to trade them once Book 13 is available.
- This means that if you've stored any of these items on Alts, you'll want to send them to whatever character you want to eventually get the armour.
- In addition, if you have any stored in your house, those items will be bound to the first character who picks them up from storage.
- Items that are on the Auction House will be, again, bound to the first person who receives them in their inventory.
- If the items are in your Vault, they will be bound to your character when you take them from the Vault.

Thanks to Kryptix and his kin members, we saw new Screenshots of Forochel. We just hope there will be more official screenshots soon 🙂