Listen, I have no doubt that the Lord of the Rings Online devs have their project lists stacked to the ceiling, especially considering that they like to tell us this, repeatedly, on the forums. There’s so much they’d like to do and only so many developer hours and resources to make it happen.
So while it doesn’t appear that refreshing zones is high up on SSG’s priorities right now, it’s not going to stop me from adding a few more to-do items to for the team to consider. After all, there are some awfully creaky regions in this game that are begging for some TLC.
North Downs
A good zone has an identity — something that binds it together and exudes a “personality” that is well-remembered. North Downs deeply lacks that. It’s a zone defined by… ruins? An ancient battlefield? Probably the biggest enemy encampment in the game? A random Dwarf town? A random Elf town? A renaissance festival run by the Grey Company?
My point is that nothing here gels together. It’s not even consistent from a visual perspective. I think that this needs a top-down overhaul.
Angmar
Yeah, I’m going to get this one out of the way early. This old endgame zone is brutally ugly and an assault on the ears. Nobody likes being here — except you, Todd, and you can zip it — and having magic statues that insta-kill you if you haven’t done some questline is not cool at all. SSG has done better “evil” zones since, and I’d love to see what the modern team could do with reimagining this place.
Misty Mountains
Now that we’ve seen the eastern side of the Misty Mountains and been kind of impressed at the design that’s gone into those zones, the titular western region is kind of awful in comparison. This should be an awe-inspiring zone reminiscent of The Hobbit, but it’s kind of a blah snowfield these days. Keep Goblin Town and rework everything else, I say.
Eryn Lasgalen
I’m going to skip waaaaay ahead in the game to pick on Northern Mirkwood, aka Eryn Lasgalen. Visually, this zone nails the claustrophobic tone of Bilbo’s adventures through spider country, and even the elven cave city is cool. But it’s an abysmal experience trying to navigate through this place, especially since the map doesn’t help you see where you need to go half the time. Here, I would suggest that the terrain is modified so that there are more ways to a goal than one very, very specific path.
Deepscrave
And speaking of zones with horrid navigation and maps, I’m just going to put Gundabad’s Deepscrave here with its multiple levels and wave at it with increasing emphasis. Good luck trying to figure out where to go for any given quest. Vertical zones are the worst and need a lot more assistance than what we have here.
East/West Rohan
While Riders of Rohan is a Top Three LOTRO expansion for me, I’m not going to deny that it’s a huge, unwieldy beast that was predicated on everyone having and loving warsteeds. The two regions here are simply too big with too many towns (and quests). Some condensing and pruning would be wise — which is something that I might say for the extreme excess of quests elsewhere in this game. But that’s a topic for another column.
What do you think? Which existing zones in this game need the most developer TLC?
Every two weeks, the LOTRO Legendarium goes on an adventure (horrid things, those) through the wondrous, terrifying, inspiring, and, well, legendary online world of Middle-earth. Justin has been playing LOTRO since its launch in 2007! If you have a topic for the column, send it to him at justin@massivelyop.com.