Dev Diary: Volume 3, Book 5

A Developer Diary was released by Jeff “Made of Lions” Libby who touches on the upcoming Epic Storyline that is coming with Update 5.

Let me state this right from the start, if you do not want to know anything about the plot and storyline of the book, you should probably skip our article and the diary; it is spoilerific.

You’ve been warned!

As we learned in Ten Ton Hammer’s article, this Book will focus on Prince Théodred who was introduced to us in Book 4.  The goal of the book?  To help Prince Théodred in his facing off against the forces of Isengard.  Also, unfortunately we will be also parting ways with the Grey Company as they proceed on their mission of aiding Aragorn.   But no good deed goes unrewarded, and much like Syp stated in his article on Massively, you will also be granted one of two cosmetic outfits: the Grey Company’s “classic” cosmetic gear from Shadows of Angmar (below on the right), or their current cosmetic design (below on the left).

And if one just won’t do, then you can do as Syp suggests and take two characters through the quest chain and get both!

Made of Lions closes with a discussion on what date we are currently on when it comes to the story.  In fact, we got an email this week specifically wondering what date it was since we still can see the Fellowship in Lothlórien. Made of Lions graciously answers this question in the diary:

But now, things in the story are about to hit fast and furious mode. You haven’t really been able to set a specific date on locations in LOTRO for awhile now, but in Book 5 you’ll be able to: we’re at the end of February, 3019, and Frodo will arrive at Mount Doom in one month.

But what does that mean for us, the gamers?

Clearly it will take us more than a month to advance the story to that point, but it does mean that we’ll be making liberal use of the pause button so you can see as many exciting places and have as many adventures as possible before the Ring-bearer comes to the point of decision. And after that? Well, there’s a whole new world of possibilities!

It will be interesting to see where the story takes us.  I for one am OK with Turbine hitting the pause button as much as possible, really.  I’m in no hurry to get to the end of the story (although the books do continue quite a bit after the ring has been destroyed… Or so I’m told).  But does this mean that we will see the Fellowship in 20 more locations before moving forward?  Not necessarily.  Remember we now have a phasing system that could be used to make them appear and disappear depending on where your character is in the story.  Although personally, I’m also OK with supplying a bit of “suspension of disbelief as well on my own part to help Turbine out a bit.  What are your thoughts on the matter?

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