Book 12: The Ashen Wastes will also go down in history as introducing The Month of Avatar Customization! New system will give players complete control over how they look in the game, without impacting the gameplay benefits they gain from their currently equipped items.

Barbershops feature will allow you change a subset of your avatar's hair and facial options for a small fee.

Details...

Overview

Although the Champion was one of the first classes to undergo the "Month of" design process shortly after LOTRO’s launch, we didn’t yet have the wealth of feedback we’ve since received. In Book 12, we’re taking the opportunity to address some of the issues that have been voiced since LOTRO went live. Since this is the second time we’re looking at Champions, the update won’t be as involved as the full-on "Month of" updates that Guardians and Burglars are receiving, but we hope to address most of the issues brought up by the Champion community as well as giving them the tools necessary to fulfill their class roles in LOTRO.

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The latest Dev Corner thread is now open. The topic this month is the Angmar Revamp.  What's new? What's changed? Ask your burning questions about the improvements to the Witch-King's land here. Click here to join in the discussion.

But first we would like to remind our visitors about the last Developer Diary: The Great Angmar Revamp

Join Content Designers Amlug and MadeOfLions in their quest to improve and revamp the Angmar region! If you've been exploring or questing in Angmar, this update is for you. The Great Angmar Revamp will provide insight on the challenges of improving an existing area, as well as a window into the exciting world of content design!

by Jeff 'MadeOfLions' Libby and Jared 'Amlug' Hall-Dugas

The yellow sun slipped beneath the rim of the encircling hills, and the land was shrouded in shadow. In the dim half-light, two figures could be seen, walking north along a dusty road. They made no attempt at stealth. The pair could be seen for miles in every direction, but if this troubled either of them, they made no sign.

Amlug: If this is another boar quest....

MadeOfLions: It won't be. Angmar was the realm of the Witch-king, and that means Evil.

Amlug: You're right. I'm probably worrying for nothing.

MadeOfLions: Probably!

As our intrepid heroes arrived at the crest of the hill, a warm and fetid wind blew out of the east, from the great swamp of Malenhad. Amlug scowled, but not at the swamp-odor.

Amlug (pointing at a charging boar): Doesn't he know where he is? If there's one place that we shouldn't be fighting boars, it's the Land of Angmar!

After a flurry of blows, MadeOfLions squinted down at the corpse of the porcine beast, and absentmindedly kicked the dust from one of his boots.

MadeOfLions: Well at least it was an evil boar...

Amlug: That's just not good enough! And it's not just the boars, either. Angmar is entirely too much "wild kingdom" for its own good. I think that there should be much less in the way of livestock and much more in the way of evildoers. Do you remember what we're supposed to be doing?

MadeOfLions: The chieftain of that town we passed said he wanted us to defeat some orcs, and that they should be wandering around somewhere out here. You know, like orcs do.

Amlug: All right, then. Do you see any orcs?

The movement of the crimson moon betrayed the passage of long hours as our heroes sliced and diced their way through Angmar.

MadeOfLions: I see a lot of aurochs. And that's aurochs plural, not aurochs singular.

Amlug: Me too. You don't think that those aurochs might be 'taking the spot' of our orcs, do you? Should we try and take one out?

MadeOfLions: I doubt it. After all, it would take a whole fellowship of heroes to bring down even a single aurochs, and that chieftain assured us that we'd be able to take on the orcs by ourselves.

Amlug: He did say that. Of course, he also told us to get twenty-four silver nuggets from that cave...

MadeOfLions: I still don't know what that whole garrison of orcs was doing in there. It was a little cramped to be filled with enough orcs to overrun the North Downs thrice over. Barely any breathing room at all!

Amlug: ... and to then go into another cave to get gold dust...

MadeOfLions: Do you think maybe that chieftain was just trying to waste our time?

The two considered this notion for a few uncomfortable minutes, and then started down the slope, in search of fame, glory, and experience points.

---

Content Design Gained a Level!

A funny thing happens when you've been in game development for awhile: you start to get pretty good at it, and as you get more comfortable with the tools and better learn the scope of the playground, you start to develop more efficient ways of working. You learn new ways of accomplishing tasks better and faster, and you begin to push the boundaries of what you previously thought were stone-carved limits. In the realm of content design, this is a great thing; as we've gained experience, we've been able to make some of our most complex and interesting content in the months even after the game launched!

The flipside of this otherwise rosy occurrence for most game developers comes when they look back at some of their earlier content. In hindsight, they often can't help but ask themselves, "If I knew then what I know now, what would I have done differently?"

Which brings us to Angmar.

Room for Improvement

By the time development began on the Land of Angmar, the last region included in LOTRO at launch, the pressure was on: not only did we need to polish the rest of the game, but we needed to create an Angmar that lived up to its billing as the former home of the Witch-king. It was a period of late nights and early mornings, with all of us working at full speed to get everything done in time - and with a great deal of effort, we crossed the finish line and managed to avoid having to rename the game "The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of the North Downs"!

We spent a lot of time polishing the regions in our game; no matter how careful you are when you go about implementing quests, or how detailed a plan you write up before you begin, it always, always, always takes more than one pass at a region before it's really up to snuff. Still, there will always be things that can be found only by thoroughly hammering on the content in unexpected ways -- ways which only bona fide players can do. For all the pressure under which Angmar was created, there is a lot of content there for players to experience.

Six months after LOTRO's launch, what are some of the things we'd like to change about Angmar that have come up from player feedback and our own internal reviews? Here are some of the issues we've identified:

• Quest flow is sometimes inconsistent and doesn't send players to the correct level bands
• Quest difficulty is mislabeled in many cases, both for Suggested Levels and Suggested Group Size
• The spawns in Angmar feel out of place (boars again? Really?), and Elite mobs should not share spawn-points with Normal-statted mobs
• Spawn density in certain locations is too great, resulting in very frustrating gameplay
• The ratio of Full Fellowship quests to Solo quests is not correct; more Solo quests are required

What Angmar needs is a healthy scrubbing to bring it more in line with the rest of the game as far as consistency goes, and improve the experience for everybody.

Portions of the Plan

We've given Angmar some time to simmer, and after gathering feedback and data from our players and other sources, we've formulated a plan. The Reported Quest Difficulty Levels and Recommendations thread on the LOTRO forums has been particularly helpful in pinpointing some of the inconsistent quests. We also played through the entire region and took copious notes on improvements and polish we can add to Angmar. This is a small sampling of our notes from Lehma-koti, the first quest hub you reach upon entering Angmar:

Some Polish Tasks for Quests from LEHMA-KOTI, the Earth-kin Camp

We're not only looking at specific quests within Angmar, but also taking a step back and seeing where we can improve things on a larger scale. When playing through quests at Aughaire, the Nomad Moot, we decided that the seemingly random manner in which quests there opened up was less than ideal and could be made more intuitive. As a result, we'll be adding a new "Challenge" quest line (and removing the old one) -- as you complete the new quests in this line, quests in Aughaire will become available in clusters and you will be directed to each cluster. This diagram will show you the new structure for Aughaire's quest flow:

As you can see from the chart, the plan calls for more than just scrubbing existing quests: new quests will be added as well, and we hope to fill some gaps in coverage (especially those for solo adventurers) with these additions.

In some cases, our research revealed gameplay that was unintentionally frustrating. For example, most of the quests that lead you into Imlad Balchorth come from the quest hub of Gabilshathur, far to the south. In order to improve the experience of adventuring in this area, we'll be adding a new quest hub near the defeat circle at Imlad Balchorth. This serves two purposes: it means that you won't be bombarded with quests for the higher-level Imlad Balchorth until you're ready to tackle them, and you'll have the opportunity to focus on quests out of Gabilshathur when you arrive there, rather than being immediately vectored away.

The Impact

We're planning these fairly sweeping changes for Angmar during Book 12, and this means that your quest log will be affected. Almost every quest that belongs to the Angmar category in your quest log will be versioned, which means that these quests will be taken out of your log if you have them underway when the patch goes live. When Book 12 gets closer, we'll release a list of all the quests that will be removed from your log, and a more detailed breakdown of changes. Admittedly, when you collect the quest again, you'll be playing the freshly-polished and improved version, but if you've collected nine pea-plants and need ten, you might want to just get that tenth one and turn in the quest before Book 12 arrives.

You might ask what this means for quest loot, and you'd be right to do so! No changes are being made to any of the quest items that players have already collected. The new quests will have brand new loot while the updated quests will have the loot in them updated (increase/decrease to item level, change the names of the items etc.) Nothing already acquired will change, but items you were working towards may change if you do not acquire them before the Book 12.

We sincerely hope that the freshly-scrubbed Angmar region will be more fun and rewarding when we're finished, so put on your hard hats, hang on, and mind the dust!

---

And so, with an invigorated sense of purpose, our heroes gallantly marched toward the sunrise, confident in their plan to bring new light to Angmar. With unflinching steps, they strode forth to their destiny.

MadeOfLions (running off the path): Hang on a sec! I see blueberries!

Amlug (following): If we have to stop every five minutes for you to pick ingredients...

His voice echoed on the distant rocks and hung on the still air for a moment before it was picked up by a cool breeze from the south, and was gone.

This month, the Burglar creeps stealthily into the class update spotlight! Book 12’s Burglar update includes new skills and items to augment the Burglar’s established class abilities. Adding more to a class which already has so much versatility and depth hasn’t been easy. That means new skills and items that enhance or play on the Burglar’s established class abilities. Most of the new skills will be awarded in levels 40-50, but a few will go out earlier in a Burglar’s lifetime. The end result: A mix of fun skills and items that the shrewd Burglar can apply in the right situations to good (and sometimes humorous) effect.

So without further ado, here’s the skinny on what’s new for the sneakiest class in Middle-earth. Come take a look at what is in store for this clever, quirky, and fun class - www.lotrolife.com/month_of_burglar/

It’s the Month of the Guardian! This class update focused on providing interesting and viable alternative playstyles for the class while addressing core concerns such as repair costs and offensive stances. Take a look at what the Month of the Guardian has in store!

www.lotrolife.com/month_of_guardian/

Everything you want to know about Book 12 you can find on this page. We have been collecting all dev chats and other useful information about Book 12, during the last few months, and we hope these resources will help you to answer all your questions.

Read more ...

Codemasters Online are proud to announce that LOTRO has won Best New Game of 2007 and has come third in the Best Overall Game of 2007 over at MMORPG.com. Both Codemasters Online and Turbine would like to thank all those who voted for The Lord of the Rings Online and who have supported them throughout the year!

You can check it out by heading over to the MMORPG.com Readers Choice Awards 2007

Codemasters Online are pleased to unveil plans on a brand new global gaming event "Connect 2008". To be held on March 14th / 15th at the Omega Sektor, Birmingham, UK.

Connect 2008 is Codemasters Online’s premier gaming event spanning all of Codemasters Online’s gaming titles including The Lord of the Rings Online, ArchLord, RF Online, Dungeons & Dragons Online and much much more!

Visitors to this 2-day gaming extravaganza can expect to be able to meet with their fellow gaming communities and experience all of the latest games from Codemasters Online across 400 fully networked PCs! Lucky visitors will also get a chance to experience Codemasters Online’s yet to be announced persistent games and walk away with exclusive merchandise and game related freebies.

Codemasters Online Connect 2008 features 2 full days of gaming activities including opportunities to meet the teams behind all of the games and get involved in round table discussions, Q&A sessions and future game content presentations.

Tickets for Codemasters Online Connect 2008 will be extremely limited and will go on sale in the coming weeks along with the launch of the full event website. Tickets will be in high demand and Codemasters Online urge gamers to register their interest in attending Connect 2008 by visiting www.codemastersconnect.com

Why not visit the Myspace and Facebook Connect groups now at:

Myspace Group
Facebook Group

Codemasters Online are proud to announce that LOTRO has been nominated for Shackers’ Choice MMORPG of the Year 2007 Award.
Visit ShackNews to cast your vote!

Born on January 3rd, 1892 in Bloemfontein, South Africa, J.R.R. Tolkien has become one of the most famous authors of our times, influencing an entire genre of literature, movies and games. Happy Birthday, Professor!