Deutsche Version
		Bilder

It is not sure if guild specific capes will be in the game directly at launch or if this feature will be included in one of the periodical updates which come at no extra charge. But Jeffrey Steefel assured us that there are already great plans concerning the guilds which will be added to the game through the regular content-updates.

Only 60% and somehow it felt like more

Altogether we were able to have a two hour look on the virtual Eriador. All the more amazed the statement that the game’s world will “only” have a 60% of WoW’s game size at launch. Something you can hardly believe when you have seen the gigantic open landscapes.. On the way through the shire we passed huge fields, could jump over every fence and no creek was a barrier, which gave us the impression of a really huge game world. Villages and towns besides didn’t exist only of two or three houses, but seemed coherent and authentic. To traverse Bree, the biggest centre in LotRO, you will need about 30 minutes according to the Devs, a fact intensifying the feeling of a huge world free to walk in. And Eriador will indeed be free to explore, for about 95% of the game world won’t be instanced. The best example of size of the world is for sure the Old Forest. For at least 15 minutes Jeffrey tried to find us a certain enemy (a Huorn). But even the developer managed to get thoroughly lost in the labyrintic Old Forest.

To travel this world only on foot certainly would be a little burdensome and very time-consuming, wherefore there will be a fast-travelling system in Lord of the Rings Online. Griffins, cars and magic are surely dropped in middle-earth so that the good old horses will have to serve. In all bigger cities will be stables where you can borrow a mount against a little fee, which will take you to all the bigger towns in Eriador. However, this won’t be displayed in the game directly, but act as teleport between the different places. As it is known, real mounts will be introduced in later AddOns. Most likely it will be with the Rohan extension.

But back to the instances again. These have some peculiarities, too. Most of the instances you will only enter because of Quests, which means that the well known Item-Farming won’t play a big role here. A feature known from DDO is direct teleporting to the instance. In the weathertop instance shown to us it was like this: We enter the The Prancing Pony in Bree. Right away we notice the fattish and generally well known host, Barliman Butterbur. But something different seems familiar, too: the sight of a hooded guise in one of the posterior edges of the tavern. Thinking of strider now, you’re not to wrong, even if it’s not Aragorn himself, but a rather unknown representative of the rangers. He tells us about Orcs and Goblins, concocting something of the weathertop under the sign of the White Hand. We agree immediately to help him with this problem. Scarcely the quest is accepted, a tracking shot follows after a short loading screen: in a stormy night we see the weathertop in front of us. The mission starts and together with our ranger we begin to fight our way up to the top through the Orc infested path. Easier said than done, for this instance was made for at least 4 players, and so impossible for a single player – unless this single player is controlled by Jeffrey Steefel, who knows enough cheats to be invulnerable.

Especially the tactically intelligent acting enemies attract attention. A group of Orcs does not only consist of 5 identical beings, all throwing wildly into the fight. Instead, severally bother the character in melee fight, while two more take him under fire from distance. Another example for interestingly designed enemies is a small goblin we thought to get on our very own. But we didn’t make the bill with the cowardice of these artful beings. He had scarcely seen us when he turned about and shortly after returns with a mob of friends. A similar surprise effect was some way up to the top, when some Orcs ambushed us in a narrow passage.
Still the NPCs stand for the most part quite stiff and bored on their places, but that shall change obviously till release. Then the Orcs shall not just stand around the campfire, but poke the fire, walk up and down, communicate among each other and so forth. The player should get the impression, the NPCs are not placed specially for him, but the NPCs and enemies in fact have a reason to stand there.
What awaits the player up on the weathertop won’t be told here. We don't want to take the tension.

About blacksmiths and fletchers

A feature that has been firmly announced is crafting. However until now almost nothing was known, apart from the fact that it would be in the game. But also on this point Jeffrey Steefel could tell us bit. The player can chose from nine professions. These are: Jeweler, Prospector, Forester, Scholar, Cook, Weaponsmith, Woodworker, Metalsmith and Leatherworker.
The crafting system itself has been divided in two levels. First there will be the "normal" crafting through which you can make regular objects. That will not require anything extra ordinary and should also be something for the casual player.
Secondly there will be the so called Master-Crafting. You will reach the second level only when you have mastered the normal professions. From then on it will become much harder to further perfect your crafting skills. But, to compensate, the items you craft can measure themselves with the best looted items. A true Craftingmaster will therefore create truly wanted and useful items and does not have to fear that potential buyer will prefer to camp specific mobs.
Objects created by a Master-Crafter are the only objects in the game which are soulbound. All other items are not bind to a player and can be traded or given away.

In LOTRO objects weapons will be subject to wear and tear through use and will eventually loose all usefullness, unless you regularly visit a NPC blacksmith who will bring your gear back to full use. Reparing items is something only NPCs can do: players cannot do this.

Conjunctions and Traits

If somebody asks, what’s new in LotRO and has never been there in this form, this would be the answer: Conjunctions and Traits.
With Conjunctions team play is to be made interesting. Jeffrey Steefel couldn’t show us how exactly this feature works, for it would have needed a group of players, but he tried to explain it as good as possible. Whenever a comrade-in-arms from the own group starts a conjunction with a introducing attack, a kind of turntable (maybe even more a game of chance automate) with four different colors appears on the others’ screens. Now everybody has the chance to click a certain sequence of these colors within a second. Belonging to which sequence you chose within the time and which attack preceded the own one, the character will perform a specially strong combo-attack. This system not only makes team play more interesting but also provides more action in fights. Just clicking the enemy to watch the fight with a cup of coffee in your hand won’t lead to success in LotRO.

But you don’t have to fear to have no chance because of slow reflexes. Conjunctions will be, according to Jeffrey Steefel easy to learn even for beginners, and no matter how fast you react within this first second, your Char will perform a stronger attack than normally. However, for really mighty attacks you need some more skill and especially a good sense for interaction of the various classes and attacks for being able to exactly align with your comrades attacks.
The Beta will show with how many players in one group this system works best. Currently the maximum size of a group is limited to six players. But if the Beta shows that Conjunctions do properly with up to eight players, this number could increase during Beta. So called Raids (groups of players broadly surpassing the normal number of players in one group) won’t exist in LotRO. With this high number of players Conjunctions won’t work properly anymore and the instances are not designed for such masses of players, too. It will rather depend on individual skills in smaller groups.

"Traits" – what’s that actually? That’s what we’ve asked ourselves, when Jeffrey Steefel used this term for the first time during presentation. But an explanation followed promptly. By this expression you have to imagine small artifacts and remains from partly completely forgotten times. Those are to find everywhere in the world and have two different functions. On the one hand you will learn much more about the history of Middle-Earth and the backgrounds of this world, which makes them very interesting for Tolkien-Fans and Role-players. On the other hand they will make your character unique to others apart form your class, skill and equipment. If you have found such Traits you can wear them like other Items and give your Char special faculties or special knowledge.
In the weather-top instance for example we found a part of a Palantiri-artifact – but only one of the three parts, as the notification told us picking it up. This artifact could teach the player more about the black language, explained Jeffrey Steefel to us. But he didn’t tell us how exactly you can harness this knowledge later on in the game.
According to what we learned about this feature it provides another interesting possibility to individualize your character and adds more "Middle-Earth-Feeling"