Category: Lord of the Rings Online

A fine day for travel!

I awoke with a great desire to cast my eyes upon new places. Therefore I sold some of my vast collection of hooves, paws and teeth to a vendor and purchased a ride out the Great East Road to the Lone-lands. On my way, I passed by the appropriately named Forsaken Inn.

I reached the destination stable and could see Amon Sûl way off in the distance. Amon Sûl is also known as “Hill of the Wind” or Weathertop. Weathertop used to have a watchtower on top of it, which held a palantíri. I bet you didn’t know I was such a historian. Truth be told, the stable master wouldn’t shut up about it.

I decided to travel to the top and see what I could see. Finding the right path took a few tries but I eventually found my way. I decided I had done enough hiking for one day and chose to make camp for the night on top of Weathertop. Not a bad day’s work. Didn’t hunt anything other than some birds, but at least they were tasty.

(Previously…)

– Ethic

Today I was riding a horse and some weird guys in black robes started chasing me near the Brandywine River. I got away, but during the escape through some trees I got poked square in the eye with a small branch. I have to wear an eye patch for a few weeks now. It’s me shootin’ eye too! I don’t feel like writing anything more in my journal today. Mood: frustrated.

(Previously…)

– Ethic

This day was just like most any other. I went swimming in a swamp, had to prove myself worthy of wearing a silly hat, and met with a peep of chickens.

Continue reading Hunter Journal: Page 16

Some days it just doesn’t pay to go outside.

I shook out the cobwebs of my beer-induced haze. Gunderic Grubb had been pushing pints of Old Withywindle in front of me all afternoon. “Best beer in the Eastfarthing,” he’d claimed, “or at least it used to be.” He’d offer no further explanation but that was good because I really didn’t care, the beer was cold and properly scrambled my worries. But anyway, where was I? Oh, right – going outside.

I stumbled out of The Golden Perch and into the bright sunlight. Deciding to head towards Bree (no other idea had occurred to me), I leaned in the direction of the Brandywine Bridge and moved my feet just enough to keep from falling on my face. Unfortunately before I got to the bridge, Postman Smallburrow hailed me over.

Continue reading Hunter Journal: Page 14

The gigantic Book 12 patch notes have been released and I thought I’d highlight the interesting stuff.

The Burglar and Guardian classes get major updates, with the Champion getting a “part 2” lighter update. All the other classes get minor updates.

Outfit system and a barbershop to make cosmetic changes. Includes new social clothing and cosmetic weapons. Examples: backpacks, quivers, hauberks, dresses, tunics, shirts and pants. Look how you want to look!

Additional level 10-20 content with solo focus, some quests being redesigned for solo as well.

Lots of Angmar changes.

Housing changes including allowing all of your characters to share ownership of your house including fast recall. Also: usable items (light your candles), object rotation, and housing owner name displayed as you approach.

New anti-spam tools.

Over an hour of additional music added.

I have to say, they are really cranking out the updates. There are lots more, visit the LotRO site for the full patch notes.

– Ethic

Turbine has wrapped up some holiday presents for players of Lord of the Rings Online. Current players subscribed at the normal $14.99 per month have the option to sign up for $9.99 per month if they pay via 3 month chunks at $29.97, not a bad deal if you are enjoying the game and missed out on the Founder’s pricing plans.

Speaking of Founders, Turbine has put a horse under the tree. This is a special horse to be used by level 25 and higher players. The normal horse was not available until 35, so this is a nice step up. Currently, it is only available to Founders and Lifetime account holders. I’d like to see it offered to all players and perhaps it will down the road. Since I have a Founder account and I’m almost level 22 right now, this is a perfect present for my Hobbit. Naturally, the level 25 horse is slower than the level 35 horse – but it’s got to be better than running everywhere.

More details can be found here and here.

– Ethic

Thanks to some leg work by one of my Kinship members, I have some housing numbers to share from Lord of the Rings Online. This study took place on 11/02/2007 @ 8:30 pm EST on the Landroval server. Standard and Deluxe houses are purchased by individual players and you can only purchase one house per account per server at this time. Kinship houses can only be purchased by a Kinship leader with a Kinship rank of 7 or higher. The stats are broken down by race/location for Man, Elf, Hobbit and Dwarf. The numbers are the total number of houses sold. Considering houses are not cheap, these numbers do not represent the total number of players at all. From my impressions, the majority of players do not own a house yet.

Continue reading Housing by the Numbers

I wish. Take a look at the screen shot and you’ll see how Turbine messed up housing (I know you are all shocked). This is a listing of the available neighborhoods. The first column is standard houses, the second is deluxe houses and the third is Kinship housing. I can only afford a standard house. See all those zeros in the first column? The only two houses that are still available are the same house lot and I don’t like it (it would seem nobody else does either). I’ve got a list of 5 or 6 houses that would be nice to have, but until the deluxe and Kinship houses start selling, I shall remain homeless because they will not open a new instance until the old ones sell (clarification: ALL the houses do not need to sell before they open new neighborhoods. I’m not sure what method they use, but that is not it). I don’t understand why they thought it was wise to put that many Kinship houses in each neighborhood.

Still, the neighborhoods are very well done and it’s fun to run around in them. I just wish they would have put them closer to a real town. Also, the fact they put farmland and a town center in each neighborhood means they are seriously considering adding crafting abilities to them, which would be a Very Bad Idea.

– Ethic

Female-Gamer has recently put up maps to the housing zones coming soon to Lord of the Rings Online. Here is a link to the Breeland homesteads and also the Falathlorn homesteads (I’ll add the link for the Dwarf and Hobbit homesteads when I see them up). Take note that you may click on the map for a screenshot of each particular home. Nice work! Here is a link to some videos of the neighborhoods and the insides of some of the houses. Pricing has been rumored to be 1 gold for a standard home, 7 gold for a deluxe home and 17 gold for the kinship hall with all three having some upkeep fees.

The way they appear to handle availability is still of a concern to me. They claim to be spawning copies of these homesteads as needed. But what if people only want deluxe homes? Will there be a bunch of empty houses because nobody is buying standard homes? The same goes for kinship halls, how can you insure there are enough for every kinship that wants one, without having too many neighborhoods? We will find out soon.

I am looking forward to this, as having a place to call home is a big deal to me. It appears we will be able to decorate the inside and outside as well as adding ambient music to set a background mood. The additional storage will be nice, and being able to recall to my home and the kinship hall will be helpful for getting around.

– Ethic