More social engineering - er, features!

Turbine has just launched the latest social feature for The Lord of the Rings Online™ (LOTRO) players, the Player Feed.

The Player Feed application allows players to share their in-game status and achievements with their online friends via Facebook, extending the social experience for active LOTRO players. This new application is powered by the my.lotro.com social network and allows players to easily share their adventures with friends worldwide.

You can check out this new doohicky here!

Turbine, Inc. announced today the release the newest Volume in the epic story of The Lord of the Rings Online™ (LOTRO). Volume III: Allies of the King begins a new adventure for subscribers of LOTRO who can now experience Book 1: Oath of the Rangers, the latest of Turbine’s frequent and substantial updates to the award-winning MMORPG. Book 1 builds on the success of the critically acclaimed Skirmish system with the introduction of Duo Mode and four new 12-player Skirmishes, new high-level skills and recipes and the Spring Festival. Book 1: Oath of the Rangers is now available to subscribers of The Lord of the Rings Online.
“2009 was another outstanding year for LOTRO with Siege of Mirkwood™ earning us another game of the year award while driving solid growth in the population of Middle-earth,” said Aaron Campbell, Live Producer of The Lord of the Rings Online. “Today we continue our journey with the introduction of the third volume of our award-winning story and the addition of new epic battles as we expand our popular Skirmish system. There has never been a better time to play LOTRO!”
NEW FEATURES IN BOOK 1: OATH OF THE RANGERS:
 Introducing Volume III: Allies of the King – The epic story continues with Volume III which will introduce players to new lands, new threats, and new adventures, as the tide of destiny pushes them ever onwards into danger. Book 1: Oath of the Rangers begins in Rivendell, where Elrond and his sons try to decipher the meaning of Galadriel’s mysterious message. One thing is clear: if Aragorn has need of the Dúnedain, they will have to be found throughout the wilderness of Eriador and summoned forth with as much haste as can be managed. Players who have experience with the wide lands west of the Misty Mountains are called upon to bring word to the Rangers of the mission that awaits them.
 More Skirmishes! – The critically acclaimed Skirmish system introduced with Siege of Mirkwood™ has been a huge hit for LOTRO players. With over ten million Skirmishes completed, Book 1 will introduce a brand new Skirmish that will take players back to the Rift of Angmar as well as several new additions to the system. Until today, players could only experience Skirmishes in Solo, 3-player and Small Fellowship modes, Book 1 introduces the new Duo Mode which will now let 2 players and their soldiers team up for epic battles throughout Middle-earth. Additionally, players will now be able to experience four new 12-player Skirmishes.
 Celebrate the Spring Festival! – The Spring Festival returns to Middle-earth from March 22nd through April 19th. The world will come together in celebration as the free people of Middle-earth enjoy the season with special decorations, festive costumes and special quests including the return of the Hedge Maze and the introduction of the new arena in Duillond.

Check out all the new screenshots in the gallery, too!

In anticipation of the upcoming content update "Volume 3: Allies of the King, Book I: Oath of the Rangers", Turbine's released a bunch of screenshots, showcasing some Epic skirmishes, and taking a look at some of the Epic storyline from a solo perspective.

You can check out all the pics in our Gallery dedicated to Book 3, here!

Well, my first hurdle is the lag. Even when I have a decent connection this game can rubberband me all over, which is no fun in places with bottomlless pits like Moria... My girlfriend cannot play at all. The joys of the rural life.

Now that Turbine has updated the UI I feel even more out of touch. I am not even sure what some of my skills do anymore. I love being able to nodify my UI, but this just lets me rearrange some buttons, kind of...

Hopefully me and my girl will have a "high-speed date" (no, not that -- we'll get together some place that has high-speed internet, guttermind). And then we can play for a few hours. I can help earn reputation to get into Lothlorien at least...

I have a lifetime subscription. I will get back in sometime.

As Cronus pointed out, Siege of Mirkwood has gone live. I finally finished downloading the update this morning and played for a bit.

I played my twenty-fifth guardian long enough for him to make symbols for reputation for the jeweler's guild. Then I ran him around to kill some spiders and wolves to watch the "new" combat-animation. Well, not new animations, but a new pacing for the different attacks. Some attacks will initiate sooner, interrrupting the animation of a previous attack. And the effects of certain attacks occur more consistently. I didn't really notice a difference.

He did explore a Skirmish camp. Lots of barterers for skirmish items: some of it is cool gear; some of it is cosmetic gear, some of it is for soldiers that accompany the skirmisher. I did not find a anyone that handed out skirmishes though. My guardian's level probably wasn't high enough for anyskirmishes around Esteldin.

Before the real world intruded, I had time to sign onto my champion, briefly. Her legacies have been reset on her Legendary Items. I have yet to find a weapon I like, but she has two runes. Glory, her tank stance, and Ardour, her not-so-aggressive-as-Fervour stance, now share some legacies: fervour-pip generation and defensive bonuses. Both of those stances have been modified a bit. I like them both even more.

The stats on characters and weapons have been changed around. There are even more tabs in character windows, quest windows, deed windows, etc. Mounts are now skills and have their own tab in the skills window. It will take some time just to explore the changes to the UI. But there is now shared banking! There is a twenty-slot shared-bank that opens with a press of a button at any vault keeper. This is the coolest thing about the expansion, so far.

Turbine, Inc. today launched The Lord of the Rings Online™: Siege of Mirkwood™, the digital expansion to the award-winning massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG). Siege of Mirkwood expands the online world of Middle-earth where players join forces to press further eastward into the dark, foreboding and treacherous forest of Mirkwood and take part in the epic conclusion to Volume II of The Lord of the Rings Online. Siege of Mirkwood is now available as a digital download with an increased level cap, the new region of Mirkwood including the legendary evil fortress of Dol Guldur, major enhancements to combat and Legendary Items and the introduction of Skirmishes, randomized, repeatable instances where players will train customizable soldiers and take them into battle as part of the War of the Ring.

“Today we unveil LOTRO’s second major expansion and let players enter the legendary forest of Mirkwood and experience the climax and conclusion to Volume II of our epic story,” said Jeffrey Steefel, Executive Producer of The Lord of the Rings Online. “The response from our players and the press has been nothing short of outstanding and serve as a real validation of LOTRO’s position as one of the world’s premium online games.”

NEW FEATURES:

* The Epic Conclusion to Volume II: Mines of Moria™ – Under the command of Celeborn and Galadriel, players will fight through vast armies of Orcs alongside the Elves of Lórien in a battle that will take them to Dol Guldur, the fortress of the Ringwraiths. This update includes Book 9 and the Epilogue to the sweeping epic tale begun with the award-winning Mines of Moria expansion.

* Increased Level Cap — Players will be able advance their characters up to level 65, gaining access to new traits, virtues, skills and class quests.

* Join Epic Battles on Demand! – Jump into the heat of battle with the new Skirmishes feature. Skirmishes offer endless action in repeatable, randomized instances where players can create and lead customizable soldiers into battle, training them to greater skill as they earn victories against the forces of shadow. Answer the call of war wherever violence erupts with the new “Skirmish Join” function that lets players and their fellowships band together to fight in various locations throughout Middle-earth.

* Take up Arms! – Infiltrate the dark jails, deadly arenas and savage stables of Dol Guldur, the fortress of the Ringwraiths, and strike a blow against Sauron’s forces in new 3 and 6-player instances. Call upon your fellows to adventure into the most deadly 12-player raid yet and face the ultimate challenge – the Nazgûl Lord!

* Major Gameplay Enhancements – Turbine continues to improve the award-winning experience of LOTRO with major improvements to the combat and Legendary Items systems. Players will experience improved responsiveness when in the heat of battle. Players will also be able to create and craft their own customized Second and Third Age Legendary Items from raw materials and grow their weapons’ power to level 60. Achieve new Legacies, new titles, and a fourth Runic slot that will make Legendary Items even more unique and powerful.

In addition, they've released a very cool video go to with the launch. Check it out!

I lost count of how many times my champion had to perform 'Helping the Elves I-IV". I got to the point at which I didn't pay attention to the names of the quests. It's a shame that most of those intitial, Galadrim-reputation quests really need a group. They are not solo. They involve fighting multiple mobs, wandering adds and rapid respawns. At least one of the steps of each required me to go into orc camps: to steal weapons, burn trash in their fire or destroy their barricades. I mostly waited for a group to clear them out so I could go in and hit the quest icons.

But I am in Lothlorien now, well, my champ is. Now there are tons of reputation quests. Many of them are just errands. But Lothlorien is dangerous. Badgers, deer, moose, pigs, etc. all will attack. And they have some nasty attacks too. The deer can stun and will call more deer. I don't remember the Fellowship having to fight deer...

Soon I will have enough reputation to enter Calas Galadron, the elf city in Lothlorien. As long as I am not killed by badgers.

Turbine's released some screenshots focusing on the epic story that's continued and concluded in the upcoming (next week!) expansion, Siege of Mirkwood.

You can find the whole series over in the gallery!