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The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar

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Current event marker This article or section contains information about an unreleased computer or video game.
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The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar</td></tr>
Developer(s) Turbine, Inc.

<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Publisher(s)</th><td>Turbine, Inc., Midway Games, Codemasters</td></tr>

Release date(s) In development
Genre(s) MMORPG
Mode(s) Multiplayer

<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Rating(s)</th><td>Not yet rated</td></tr>

Platform(s) Windows

The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar (LotRO) is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) set in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth during the time of The Lord of the Rings. It is being developed by Turbine and, while the release date has yet to be announced, is expected to launch in the spring of 2007. It was previously called Middle-earth Online, and was a joint production with Vivendi Universal Games.

Contents

[edit] Setting

The Lord of the Rings Online is set during The Fellowship of the Ring after Frodo and company leave The Shire. Players will be able to meet the characters from Tolkien's story, including some of the Fellowship. The four playable races will be Dwarves, Elves, Hobbits, and Men. LotRO is explicitly based on the books, not Peter Jackson's cinematic adaptation.

[edit] Races

Image:796lotro.jpg

There are four races each with several subraces a piece. Subraces do not affect any aspect of the game other than appearance.

- Men start the game in Archet (in Breeland), while Elves and Dwarves start in Ered Luin (the Blue Mountains), and Hobbits start the game in Michel Delving (The Shire) .

[edit] Classes

In a similar approach to many Massively Multiplayer Online realms, Lord of the Rings Online will retain a class based system. It is not clear whether players will be able to have sub-skills or sub-fields within these classes, as the developers have remained silent to this effect. However, each of the separate seven classes apparent at launch have been revealed.

Champion

(Turbine's Champion Page)

Races: Man, Elf, Dwarf
Armor: Light, Medium, Heavy (Unlocked through leveling)
Weapons: Two Handed Swords, One Handed Sword/Shield Combo, Dual Wielding
Skills: Wild Attack, Flurry, Blade Storm, Champion's Challenge, Savage Strikes, Blade Wall

The Champion is a melee based combatant focused on offensive rather than defensive abilities, with the ability to deal large amounts of damage to single or multiple targets. The Champion has a 'Fervour' system that allows him more available skills the longer he is in combat. The meter is colloquially called the 'Fervometer' amongst Turbine employees. Some special strike abilities can cost you Fervour while you some can build your Fervour to the extent of a total burnout down to zero by use of a very powerful special attack. ( The champion is a sort of a running joke inside Turbine, due to its Overpower state in Alpha. Nerfing doesn't seems to take an effect on the class)

Guardian

(Turbine Guardian Page)

Races: Man, Elf, Dwarf, Hobbit
Armor: Light, Medium, Heavy (Unlocked through leveling). Only Class Proficient in Heavy Shield
Weapons: Two Handed Swords, One Handed Sword/Shield Combo
Skills: Challenge, Shield Swipe, Bash, Vexing Blow, Protection, Stamp

The Guardian is the typical defensive warrior, able to taunt monsters into attacking them over their more vulnerable teammates. It is mentioned that the most powerful attacks will be after making an opponent vulnerable, suggesting either several attacks based on either reacting to certain events or setting up combo style attacks.

Captain

(Turbine Captain Page)

Races: Man
Armor: Light, Medium
Weapons: Unknown
Skills: Rallying Cry, War-cry, Command: Make Haste!, Defensive Strike, Enraged Shout, Pressing Attack

Captain is a well balanced class, with the ability to both solo and group effectively. A captain's strength lies in beneficial effects to his party. A major focus in group combat is the captain's ability to use 'banners' which do various things among increasing the overall group morale. The captain will have a squire colloquially known as "mansam". The captain has a lot of things in combat that he can react to, he designates the main target, the captain can also do a victory cry which he can use when enemy mob dies. The captain is effectively the group leader.

Hunter

(Turbine Hunter Page)

Races: Man, Elf, Dwarf, Hobbit
Armor: Light, Medium
Weapons: Bow, and (Assumed One Handed Sword)
Skills: Quick Shot, Set Trap, Purge Poison, Barbed Arrow, Swift Bow, Rain of Arrows

Hunter is a ranged combatant, with powerful damaging abilities at range but very limited in close combat. The hunter will also have skills such as traps which can also be raised in proficiency with special traps. Hunter will not require arrows for normal shooting, due to it being an enormous inventory hassle. Instead the Hunter will be required only to carry particular consumables for special shots (flame arrows, for an example). The hunter has an aiming system that allows him to steadily increase his aim by avoiding damage, called Focus, the longer he goes, the more accuracy he has. Along with the Champion class, Hunter is the one of the main damage dealers.

Burglar

(Turbine Burgular Page)

Races: Man, Hobbit
Armor: Light, Medium (Unlocked through leveling)
Weapons: Unknown
Skills: Sneak, Surprise Strike, Burglar's Advantage, Diversion, Trip, Cunning Attack, The Riddle.

The Burglar is a group support character, with a variety of moves that weaken or expose an opponent, but little ability in and of himself to deal lethal damage. Presumably able to gain some form of stealth and open locked items. Burglar is a major conjunction starter. Burglars have a skill called "The Riddle" or "Riddle". The Riddle is a skill that works best on humanoid targets, it's a stun that turns into mez, you ask an Orc "What have I got in my pockets?" and he ponders this point, if you do not attack but simply walk away he will continue to ponder it for a while.

Minstrel

(Tubine Minstrel Page)

Races: Man, Elf, Dwarf, Hobbit
Armor: Light
Weapons: Unknown
Skills: Raise the Spirit, Clarion of the Valar, Tale of Heroism, Inspire Fellows, Soothing Song, Noble Cause

Minstrel, although initially thought only to be a support character can solo very well due to their coupled damage output and support skills (the main being healing.) Minstrels have beneficial songs to buff group members and harmful songs which debuff foes.

Lore-master

(Turbine Lore-Master Page)

Races: Man, Elf
Armor: Light
Weapons: Unknown
Skills: Raven-lore, Beacon of Hope, Blinding Flash, Cracked Earth, Burning Embers, Gust of Wind

Lore-master is considered to be the party's main buffer/de-buffer and also the best crowd controller ingame. With his knowledge of nature and lore he can befriend animals amongst which include Ravens (useful for distracting, and can make a ranged foe switch to melee), and Bears. The Lore-Master Will also have the ability to aid the crafting process by researching "bits of lost lore". The loremaster can use his mastery of ancient lore to produce simple magical and quazi-magical effects. He knows the ancient names and sings the ancient songs. The Lore-Master has a major heal known as "Lend Hope" which transfers morale from his Morale pool to another player's.

[edit] Setting

Eriador Although in the release only the following regions/zones will be playable: Blue Mountains (some speculation about Lindon being included in that region), the Shire (Old Forest included), South Downs (located east of the Old Forest and south of Bree), Breeland, North Downs Fornost included in this area, rumours of the ruins of Annúminas also), Trollshaws( Forests surrounding Rivendell) and Angmar. One rumor is that the player will even be able to travel into the ghostly Barrow Downs (an old marsh inhabited by the spirits of dead soldiers).

Rumoured expansion packs will follow the journey of the Ringbearer: Rhovanion, Rohan, Gondor, Isengard, and Mordor.

[edit] Development

Sierra On-Line first announced the development of a licensed, Middle-earth MMORPG in 1998. This caused some excitement among fans, who were awaiting The Lord of the Rings movies, and was also slightly controversial for a few design decisions. The most debated design idea was the planned use of "permadeath": When a player character would die in the game, that character would be permanently dead (most MMORPGs resurrect a dead character with minor penalties). Sierra had financial troubles in 1999 and replaced the staff working on the game.

Sierra continued to confirm development on the MMORPG was progressing, but did not release any development details over the next few years. Vivendi Universal Games, the parent company of Sierra, secured eight-year rights to produce computer and video games based on The Lord of the Rings books in 2001. Finally, Vivendi announced an agreement with Turbine in 2003 to produce Middle-earth Online (at that time expected to be released in 2004). In March 2005, Turbine announced that it had bought the rights to make massively multiplayer games based on Tolkien's literature and that Turbine will assume publishing duties on The Lord of the Rings Online from Vivendi. The release date was also delayed to 2007.

Closed Beta was announced on September 8th 2006,began on September 12th, 2006.

Codemasters, the company in charge of European publishing of LotRO, recently announced that LotRO will have a Spring 2007 release.

[edit] Facts

  • Turbine plans to introduce a form of PvP combat, called "Monster Play," into the game; players' characters will be temporarily replaced by Monster Characters, which they will control.
  • The main emphasis of the game will be PvE combat and storyline adventures.
  • The game will be based on the The Lord of the Rings universe, which includes but is not limited to the works: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King, and The Hobbit. Turbine does not have rights to The Silmarillion.
  • Camera angles will be available in both first-person and third-person options.
  • Players will have multiple options for obtaining "end-game" gear: Solo, Group, Raids, Crafting and PvMP. None of these methods will provide better rewards than any of the others.
  • A standard group in LOTRO will be called a fellowship and be composed of as many as 6 players.
  • Raids will exist, with the maximum player cap set at 24.
  • There will be 7 crafting professions and 3 gathering professions (which will also be bundled in pre-made groups of 3 professions called vocations).

[edit] External links

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