The system is a familiar one: you play for free but you can enhance your game by purchasing items. A new currency known as Turbine Points can be earned in-game at a slow rate or purchased at a fast one. Those points can be used at the LotRO Store. The FAQ states there will be over 2,500 items and lists some examples of what you can purchase:

• additional storage slots
• extra character slots
• cosmetic items such as clothing and emotes
• expansion packs
• premium content
• health potions
• character-customization options

They state that premium loot and rare gear will only be obtainable through gameplay.

You can choose to subscribe to the game for VIP status (given to all Lifetime subscribers) which will net you 500 Turbine Points each month, two additional character slots, five slots in your inventory, and there is no limit to the gold you can carry.

Somewhat worrying is the LOTRO Free to Play Plan Comparison showing that Chat, Auction and Mail will be limited access for free players. Apparently, it will not be possible to spend destiny points nor take part in Monster Play. Customer Service for the free player is described as “Self-service online” which I presume is a polite way of saying RTFM.

Free Players can only carry 2 gold while Premium Players are limited to 5 gold. Once you reach that limit, any gold you earn will be placed in escrow and you will not be able to access it unless you purchase a higher gold limit in the LOTRO Store or upgrade to VIP status.

This new version of Lord of the Rings Online (I refuse to call it LOTRO F2P) is going into beta “in the very near future” (sign-up here) and is expected to go live this fall along with Volume 3, Book 2.

If you want to know more about the considerations that led to this decision, GamePro has a detailed interview with Warner Interactive President Martin Tremblay and Turbine CEO Jim Crowley.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

Unlock the Mines of Moria has updated and now you can complete the puzzle with one last easy step:

Apply for the Mines of Moria beta and you will receive the fifth and final star.

You should notice a pulsating star in the gateway. Click on that and a new window will come up with a form so that you can apply to take part in the beta.

As a reward for applying, you will gain a high resolution image (click on the star after you’ve finished submitting the form). If you have completed the other four stars already, you will receive your final reward in your email after you have registered.

You do not need to have completed the other stars in order to apply for the beta but with our step-by-step guide, it’s easy!

The first star is gained by registering on the site.

Then you need to play the three mini-games. Each of the mini-games has three deeds, all three of which must be completed for the game star. Once you have completed the three deeds for any given game you will unlocks a high quality image to do with the Mines of Moria expansion.

Here is a full list of the mini-games on Unlock the Mines of Moria, links to our helpful hints and tips and the individual deeds per game.

King Under the Mountain

Gameplay Spoiler
Deeds:

• Warmonger: Take a total of 300 territories
• Dwarven Crown: Conquer all the territories seven times
• High Roller: 20 rolls of 30 or more

All the deeds can be completed in single-player mode.

Swig and Toss

Gamplay Spoiler
Deeds:

• Dead Eye: scoring 35,000 or higher in a single game
• Last Man Standing: 10 multiplayer victories
• Mead-iator: 99 swigs

Dead Eye and Mead-iator can be completed in single-player mode.

Eleventy-Seven Morsels

Gameplay Spoiler
Deeds:

• Stuffed Hobbit: win ten snack-sack victories
• Fourth Meal: a four-move chain
• Reap What You Sow: win ten score-bin victories

All the deeds can be completed in single-player mode.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

Level 15

The Hunter’s Path is your first class quest. You will be asked to find Gytha Lainey at Adso’s Camp who will take you into a solo instance of the forest. Use tracking to find Yellowfang. Kill the other wolves wandering about to keep them from helping him (and to get pelts) and make your way to Yellowfang and kill him. There is a detailed quest write-up here:
http://www.thebrasse.com/lotro/quest/355

Level 26

Wilderness by Ost Guruth is an additional class quests for Hunters which rewards the ability to port your group to Ost Guruth. You need to speak to Gaellant in Esteldin in the North Downs. He will send you to speak to Trumswith in Ost Guruth, who will give you a quest to find his sister. Talk to Unni and follow the directions to find the sister. There is a detailed quest write-up here:
http://www.thebrasse.com/lotro/quest/702

Level 30

A Hunter’s Charge continues on your initial class quest storyline. You will be sent to speak to Gytha Lainey at Adso’s Camp again. She will send you to a solo instance of the Shire to intercept a party of Wargs. Head north and wait for the wargs to gather. Kill Laugzok first and then take out the other four wargs one by one, keeping them from ever reaching Gytha Lainey. There is a full quest write-up here:
http://www.thebrasse.com/lotro/quest/558

Level 36

Tracks through Evendim is an additional class quest for Hunters which rewards the ability to port your group to Evendim. Speak to Torogethir in Tinnudir in Evendim who will send you to speak to Horace who will send you to find an arrow-head that he has hidden. Follow his instructions and the trail until you find the arrow-head.
Full directions and locations are given here:
http://www.thebrasse.com/lotro/quest/709

Level 45

Articles of Discovery and Implements of the Hunt: Speak to Fenton Marshley outside the Hunting Lodge east of Archet and collect the components.

• Zorrgolug’s Matted Hide – Named in Fasach-falroid (Angmar)
• 5 Brimstone tinged Tarkrip helmets – Goblins in Western Malenhad (Angmar)
• 10 Glossy Cave Claw Skins – Cave Claws in Nan Gurth (Angmar) and in Isendeep Mine
• 15 Corroded Neekerbreeker horns – Neekerbreekers/Borbolg’s in Western Malenhad (Angmar)
• Rune of Winged Dominance – Mormoz or Azgoth in the Carn Dum instance (Angmar)
• Insignia of Battle – Sorkrank or Burzfil in in Urugarth Instance (Angmar)
• Driftclaw’s Razor-sharp Claw – named bear roams around 30.4S 3.6E in the Giant Halls (Misty Mountain)
• 5 Corroded Iron Crown Staves – Angmarians (Evil Men) in Western Malenhad and Fasach-falroid
• 20 Clouded Worm-Eyes – Fire worms in Malenhad (Angmar)
• 5 Venomous Dread Turtle Beaks – Dread Turtles in Malenhad (Angmar)
• 5 Putrid Fingernails – Crawling Arms in Imlad Balchorth and Nan Gurth and the Carn Dum instance (Angmar)
• Medallion of Passage – Urro, Uruk Hai boss in Carn Dum Instance (Angmar)
• Putrid Slime of Helchgam – named watcher in Carn Dum instance (Angmar)

Level 50

A Lesson from Legolas is straight-forward. Travel to Rivendell to speak to Legolas. This requires you to have completed the level 45 epic quests. Legolas will reward you with the ‘Bow of the Righteous’ Legendary Trait, which returns 10.9-14.9 power on every successful bow/crossbow hit (not including auto attack).

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

You’ll receive your first deed and light up the center star simply by registering for the game. Then each of the mini-games has three deeds, all three of which must be completed for the star. Completing the three deeds also unlocks a high quality image to do with the Mines of Moria expansion.

Here is a full list of the mini-games on Unlock the Mines of Moria, links to our helpful hints and tips, and the deeds available per game.

King Under the Mountain

Gameplay Spoiler
Deeds:

• Warmonger: Take a total of 300 territories
• Dwarven Crown: Conquer all the territories seven times
• High Roller: 20 rolls of 30 or more

All the deeds can be completed in single-player mode.

Swig and Toss

Gamplay Spoiler
Deeds:

• Dead Eye: scoring 35,000 or higher in a single game
• Last Man Standing: 10 multiplayer victories
• Mead-iator: 99 swigs

Dead Eye and Mead-iator can be completed in single-player mode.

Eleventy-Seven Morsels

Gameplay Spoiler
Deeds:

• Stuffed Hobbit: win ten snack-sack victories
• Fourth Meal: a four-move chain
• Reap What You Sow: win ten score-bin victories

All the deeds can be completed in single-player mode.

The main conversation on the forums are based on whether collecting the deeds are worth it – hard to answer when we don’t have any information as to what the final reward will be! Personally, I found the mini-games diverting enough that I didn’t mind chasing after the deeds but it probably is not worth slaving over for the unknown in-game reward alone.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

Why not just settle for that and eat your half? Well, that just shows you aren’t a hobbit: a love for gambling and an innate greediness when it comes to food combine in these hairy-toed fellows to make Eleventy-Seven Morsels a game worth winning. So no, you can’t simply have your half and eat it too – you have to earn your morsels, if you can.

And then, to keep you on your toes, there are two methods of keeping score. At the beginning of each game you will flip a coin to decide whether you are scoring from your snack sack or from your score bin. Your goal is to be the person with the most snacks in the container chosen by the coin.

Playing the Game

Regardless of which stack of snacks is being counted, the basic gameplay is the same: you choose a pile on your side and move them clockwise around the board: the first one goes into your snack sack (hopefully for later consumption) and then the pile marches around the board, dropping one snack per spot until you run out.

At your left is your score bin. If the last piece of your pile lands here, you can go again, so it’s well worth timing your stacks of snacks just the right size to land on the bin so that you can get another go.

The snacks in the snack pack and the snacks in the score bin stay there – you can’t move them.

The game ends when the first person runs out of snacks to distribute. If you are scoring based on the snack sack, you want this to be you because every snack still left on your opponents side will go into your snack sack. If the scoring is based on the score bin, you’ll have to be a bit more careful to make sure you stay in the lead.

Watch your counting if you loop right around the board, you get to skip your opponent’s score bin. But you can fill up your own score bin by landing on an empty pot on your own side. This move will give you all the snacks on the opposite side of the board – one for your snack sack and the rest in your score bin. Goal!

Winning the Game

Your strategy will change slightly depending on the toss of the coin at the beginning of the game. If the score-keeping is based on the snack sack, then you’ll be looking to clear your side of the board as quickly as possible to try to gain your opponents snacks for your own bag. If the score bin is what counts, then you’ll be looking for big piles to allow you to loop round and get back onto your own side – preferably to land on an empty square opposite a big pile of snacks. The initial snack on the opposite side will go into your snack sack but the rest will go straight into your score bin. Once you get ahead, try to clear your side quick to seal the deal.

The Deeds

Like the other mini-games on the Unlock Mines of Moria website, King under the Mountain and Swig and Toss, there are three deeds to be won:

• the Stuffed Hobbit deed for winning ten snack sack victories
• the Fourth Meal deed for a four move chain
• the Reap What You Sow deed for winning ten score bin victories

Reward

Once you’ve completed all three deeds you will gain access to another piece of wallpaper.

Now there is only one star left to complete the entire set and find out what the in-game reward will be for sticking it through to the bitter end. All we know so far is that the final star will not be a further mini-game but you can subscribe to the feed to find out as soon as we do.

Make sure you’ve got your deeds for King under the Mountain and Swig and Toss so you are ready for the final round!

Edit: I’ve added full list of the mini-games on Unlock the Mines of Moria, links to our helpful hints and tips, and the deeds available per game.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

Deeds for Swig and Toss

• Dead Eye: scoring 35,000 or higher in a single game
• Last Man Standing: 10 multiplayer victories
• Mead-iator: 99 swigs

Gameplay tips

Keep the mouse moving – that helps you to keep control of the axe. The huge swerves to the side can be ignored if you continue to make minor movements with the mouse rather than chasing the axe around. One person recommended small circles but I found a tiny back-and-forth movement worked best.

Get yourself into a timing rhythm with the green bar. You shouldn’t have to watch it – once you get into the swing of it, it becomes almost automatic.

Get your drinks to 60-70% (6 drinks) and take the max bet every time. That will get you the 35,000 needed for the Dead Eye deed.

Don’t drink more than 6 drinks, especially not in multi-player. You’ll look silly.

If you miss the timing with the green bar, don’t panic and don’t waste the shot! You can still gain a benefit by hitting the left hand plate! You may wish to avoid the other crockery though!

Results of smashing up:
Either mug: +1 or -1 drink (random)
Plate on wall to the left: x2 next toss
Plate on wall to the right: 1/2 next toss
Vase on left of the target: x2 meter speed

Unlocking the Mines

Once you have achieved all three deeds you will see another star in the doorway. Your reward is an in-game promotional poster to go with the wallpaper you have hopefully already won from King Under the Mountain.

Next week we’ll take on the hobbits at Eleventy-Seven Morsels.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

I regretted it almost immediately.

I knew we would be forced onto a specific server set which annoyed me – I’m used to Sony games where some servers are designated with an intended audience (by language or play-style) but as a player I get to choose the server which will best suit me. The recent trend is to force players into a limited server choice based on location whether it’s appropriate for them or not.

A much bigger issue was that I wasn’t permitted to log into the official website. As someone who enjoys writing things up, I’d have liked to take part in the information gathering, but I couldn’t. At first, I thought it was an oversight.

I contacted Turbine to say that I would love to take part in discussions on the LOTRO message boards but I could not because I bought the game in Europe. They responded to let me know that US customers couldn’t post on the (totally underutilized) Codemaster boards, so it was fair. I asked about the Lorebook and other functionality which are only on the official site and thus not available to us. I was told it was “coming soon.”

That was over six months ago and it’s still “coming soon”. Ignoring the bizarreness of having two separate knowledge bases for your fans to populate (what a waste!), there doesn’t seem to be any intention to include the European customers in the community.

Why do this? Why arbitrarily split up your English-speaking user base?

And now this:

Book 13: Doom of the Last-king – Coming soon!
25-Apr-2008

Dear players,

Some of you were expecting to see Book 13 patched up in today’s regular weekly maintenance and were disappointed when it was not.

We are sorry to report that despite best efforts, we were unable to bring you the update within the usual day or two delay after the US update goes live. This was due to a series of last minute problems that meant that the EU version was not ready to go live.

We’re working furiously behind the scenes to bring it to you as soon as possible. We’re unable to give you a firm date right now as this will depend largely on how testing goes over the coming days. I will keep you updated as regularly as possible.

We understand that the previous in-game splash screen said Book 13 was coming in April however we’ve looked at the schedule and will not be able to make that date, for which we apologise. We’ve swapped out the splash screen so as not to further confuse anyone.

As soon as we have more information regarding the EU standalone patch availability and the final date that we will go live with Book 13, we’ll post announcements to the launcher, website and forums, so look out for those.

Thank you for you patience.

You know, I think I’m just about all out of patience. I’m sorry but I’m furious. I think I’ll stick to games where I don’t feel like a second-class citizen because I’m not currently in the United States.

Someone let me know when Turbine is ready to join the global community that the rest of us have been enjoying for over a decade, ok?

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

I lost the entire evening on Unlock the Mines of Moria, the new “social gaming web site” promoting the upcoming Lord of the Rings Online expansion. I was immediately relieved to see that US and European players were not herded into separate pens but instead were allowed to mingle – although they have to go to their respective message board systems if they want to post tips and tricks.

The Flash website promises three mini games and the first one went live on March 31st: King Under the Mountain. If you want to earn deeds (or play multi-player, for that matter), you need to register with an email address. This does not tie in with your LOTRO account although speculation is that you will be rewarded a key that can be used to gain in-game rewards once the promotion has finished.

Once you’ve registered, you’ll receive an email:

You have earned your first Deed and unlocked the first piece of the Moria gate.

Start your quest to earn more Deeds, and unlock other pieces of the Moria gate, on March 31st when the first mini-game becomes available. There is a preciousssss reward for those who can unlock the entire gate.

There will be a total of 13 deeds to unlock with four available now (one for registering and three earned in King Under the Mountain). The only clue given is that “the more you play, the better your chances” – but once you gain a deed it tells you what actions caused you to earn it, so information is being shared quickly.

Now get playing! Click on the Mini-Games tab and select King Under the Mountain. It may take a moment for the single player option to come up – either single player or multi-player will work for the deeds. The game is simple enough – you are the red player and aiming to spread your dice all over the map. You can attack any territory that touches any of your territories with more than one die on it. All but one of your dice will attack the dice on the territory you are attacking and the highest total dice roll wins. At the end of the round, new dice are distributed among your territories with enemies adjacent – you get one die for every two territories that you control.

If you conquer all of the territories, you have won. If all 15 rounds are played without anyone gaining full control, the person with the most territories wins.

You can play single-player against five computer foes or play against other people in a multi-player game on the website.

The game rewards with three deeds which will unlock more of the gate to Moria. The titles are just for show and do not show in-game. When you have earned a deed, you will get an in-game notification (which includes which deed you completed) and an email.

Deeds for King Under the Mountain:

• Warmonger: Take a total of 300 territories
• Dwarven Crown: Conquer all the territories seven times
• High Roller: 20 rolls of 30 or more

Once you’ve earned a deed, you will see a star light up on the door – hovering over the lit stars tells you which deed earned you the star.

There’s a global chat for discussing strategies and planning games. Recent discussion has focused around the High Roller deed, which people fear may require rolling eights on eight dice – ouch! Note the chat system has a rather bizarre filtering system which blocks the hell in hello, along with sm, tit and other such useful morphemes – so don’t you go trying to talk about [FILTERED]elly black[FILTERED]iths pe[FILTERED]ioning tailored s[FILTERED]ching – let alone buttresses, you little devil….

Update: Looks like High Roller is 50 rolls of over 40 points! I’ve not personally confirmed this one. To be honest, I’m still playing with the chat filter for the amu[FILTERED]t value. Much more fun than pressing [FILTERED]ons.

Update 2: I’ve now personally confirmed the High Roller deed as 20 rolls of 30 or more. Thanks Aeothilia!

Still playing? Have a go at Swig and Toss and Eleventy-Seven Morsels!

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

While you are waiting for the servers to come up, take a look at Massively’s gorgeous screenshots series on One Shots, with a heavy Lord of the Rings bias (because Middle-Earth is as pretty as it gets, you know).

Or drool over the real photographs of the Ultimate PS3 set-up – all six million dollars worth of it.

If you want more intellectual interests, take a look at the write-up from Project Horseshoe, the second annual Game Design Think Tank and see what the industry movers and shakers are thinking about.

If that’s all too much, then just veg out and watch your monitor getting cleaned from the inside out. I’m sure it needs it!

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

This deed is always the second in a set, so you must complete the initial deed (slaying 50 of the same monsters) before you will see the deed appear in your deed journal.

You will have to kill 150 of a specific monster, as listed below. You can kill these monsters in any zone in the game and they can be any level. So you may wish to rush through the quest by choosing the lowest level monsters you can find – or increase your experience rate by choosing the highest level monsters that you can take on.

The other issue to take into consideration is whether you can complete a virtue deed at the same time. You can combine the two and be rewarded twice for your mass-slaughter by choosing a zone which offers slayer deeds for the same quest.

Personally, I start by looking at the details of the virtue traits and considering which traits of those offered would be most useful to that character. Then I choose the lowest level zone which offers a deed for that reward.

Dwarves need to complete the deed Enmity of the Goblins II by killing 150 goblins to receive the ability to fast-travel to Thorin’s Gate. There are slayer deeds for goblins in the following zones:

• Shire: +1 Valour
• Ered Luin: +1 Zeal
• Lone-lands: +1 Valour
• North Downs: +1 Zeal
• Evendim: +1 Justice

Elves need to complete the deed Enmity of the Orcs II to receive the ability to fast-travel to Rivendell. There are slayer deeds for orcs in the following zones:

• Bree-land: +1 Valour
• Lone-lands: +1 Valour
• North Downs: +1 Justice

Hobbits need to complete the deed Enmity of the Spiders II to receive the ability to fast-travel to Michel Delving. There are slayer deeds for spiders in the following zones:

• Shire: +1 Honour
• Ered Luin: +1 Zeal
• Bree-land: +1 Honour
• Lone-lands: +1 Honour

Men need to complete the deed Enmity of the Wargs II to receive the ability to fast-travel to Bree. There are slayer deeds for wargs in the following zones:

• Lone-lands: +1 Fortitude
• North Downs: +1 Determination

This deed is a precursor to the level 35 racial deed and must be completed for the next deed to show in your journal. See our full list of racial deeds for details.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.