An article by Ten Ton Hammer was released today centering on what they saw of the new Riders of Rohan expansion at E3. The main focus of the article is on one of the biggest features of the expansion: mounted combat. They confirm much of what we have heard from Turbine, such as:
- Mounted combat will only be available in certain areas
- The war steed will be useable in all areas (that horses are allowed)
- Mounts will have their own set of skills that replace the standard combat bar
- The skills will be dependent upon the traits that you utilize
However, they do include some new information on mounted combat such as:
Trait trees will have three main categories split as offensive traits, defensive traits, and support traits. The final version of these traits was not available during our play session, but needless to say it will allow for some very specific customization of the mount…
They also state that mounts will also have abilities that will assist players in maneuvering them so that they are free to perform other tasks before the battle even begins.
Instead of relying on players to be able to grow a third hand, the mounts come pre-equipped with abilities that will charge the steed directly toward the targeted enemy. This will free up the player to prepare their attack and strike hard and true at the precise moment that will inflict the most damage. The damage is not only calculated from the type of ability that was used but also by the speed of the horse; so the faster you ride into your opponent, the more damage you’ll do.
This actually sounds pretty cool to me. Ever since I played a “Warrior” in World of Warcraft I’ve been a huge fan of charging skills. If these skills will bring me into battle and at the same time allow me to queue skills and prepare myself for the actual fight, then I’m happy.
TenTonHammer goes on to discuss briefly the new technology being utilized by Turbine to increase the graphical appearance, but ends up with some cool information about some of the ways that Turbine is making daily quests more interesting.
During their travels, players will come across the town of Snowborn, which has been burned to the ground. The daily quest will have players rebuilding the city. At first glance the premise may sound a little old-hat, but the implementation is anything but. Every day as players perform these quests they will see a little bit of the town rebuilt which will happen dynamically right in front of them in a phasing-sort of concept.
To me, this sounds pretty cool. Especially since Ten Ton Hammer reports that after the town is rebuilt that the daily quests will be complete and the players will get a final reward. The downside though is that this is apparently not coming out with the release of Rohan, but sometime after it; and of course that means that the information on these quests could change. Hopefully though we’ll all be assisting the town of Snowborn rebuild themselves to their former glory.
June 8, 2012 at 4:44 pm
Turbine owes Ten Ton Hammer money, because TTH just sold me on the xpac.
June 8, 2012 at 4:53 pm
Love the idea of ‘Snowborn’. If turbine is smart, once the town is finished, another will take it’s place. Hopefully they have some form a rep system associated with how much a toon helps out with the rebuilding.
June 8, 2012 at 5:00 pm
That’s pretty much what sold me on this xpac. This is the kind of dynamic content usually restricted to PvP in most games (though GW2 is doing something similar).
If this works out well, maybe they’ll add quests to Thornley’s Worksite so that building that they’ve been working on for the past 5+ years will finally get done!
June 8, 2012 at 6:14 pm
This isn’t a new concept FYI, WoW for one did it with the molten front hub.
June 8, 2012 at 6:35 pm
*shrug* Don’t play WoW and it’s the first time they have done it here.
June 26, 2012 at 4:50 pm
And Adso’s camp! Maybe he’ll have somewhere to stay outside the tent now
June 8, 2012 at 4:59 pm
It certainly is helping to swing the pendulum back in the direction of ‘purchase’.
There are only a few more answers I’d like to see before I make my decision to purchase.
June 8, 2012 at 7:17 pm
Rebuilding a town through questing is always fun, can’t say I have done anything like that in years.
June 10, 2012 at 5:33 pm
It’s still not worth it to me.
If you look at the recent poll, 14% of the playerbase not buying should tip turbine off to the fact they are doing it wrong.
June 19, 2012 at 11:59 pm
I <3 LOTRO!
June 20, 2012 at 1:02 am
Nobody’s helped Archet.
I was just over there today picking up a low-level bow for my level 75 hunter, and it’s as burnt to a crisp as ever. And I’ve been away from Archet for a LONG time.
September 5, 2012 at 2:53 pm
Since the NDA is dropped and you just linked to this post..
Just to clarify. Snowborne isn’t the town that gets burned down. Snowborne sends aid to the burnt down town.