The Riders of Rohan Introduction

WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT AND TURBINE
UNVEIL THE LORD OF THE RINGS ONLINE™: RIDERS OF ROHAN™



New Expansion to The Lord of the Rings Online™ Launching Fall 2012

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment unveiled today The Lord of the Rings Online™: Riders of Rohan™, the latest expansion to the award-winning free-to-play massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) developed by Turbine. Riders of Rohan expands the online world of Middle-earth where players join forces to ride into the Plains of Rohan. Riders of Rohan launches in the Fall of 2012 with an increased level cap, the vast plains of Rohan including iconic locations such as Amon Hen and Fangorn Forest, the new Mounted Combat system and much more!

“2011 was another banner year for The Lord of the Rings Online with consistent growth for the game, a successful unification of our European and North American services and the success of Rise of Isengard, our best selling expansion to date.” said Kate Paiz, Executive Producer of The Lord of the Rings Online. “This is going to be another outstanding year as we celebrate our fifth anniversary and introduce a wealth of new content throughout the year, ending with our arrival in Rohan. One of our largest expansions ever, Rohan is expected to be twice the size of the recent Rise of Isengard expansion and includes the most new game systems and technology we've introduced since 2008's Mines of Moria.”

NEW FEATURES:
•Experience the Riders of Rohan – Join with the Rohirrim and ride across the sprawling Plains of Rohan; witness the breaking of the Fellowship at Amon Hen; forge alliances with the Ents of Fangorn; and aid Éomer, adopted son of Théoden, as he seeks to protect his homeland from the growing Shadow.
•Introducing Mounted Combat – Ride into Combat atop your loyal War-steed as you defend the people of Rohan from the forces of Isengard and Mordor. Customize your War-steed’s armor and level its skills over time to aid you in mounted defense of King Theoden’s lands. Mount your steed and gather your fellows to fight against Warbands, contingents of roving warg riders that have been scouted all over the Plains of Rohan! It falls to you to head off and defeat this new threat before they over take the land.
•Advance to level 85 – Continue your legend in the next chapter of The Lord of the Rings Online. Experience new adventures in the epic story, and gain new skills and deeds as you face new challenges on your journey to 85!

The Lord of the Rings Online is the ultimate adventure. This award-winning massively multiplayer online role-playing game delivers an interactive experience brimming with life and filled with the familiar people, places and monsters from the most famous fantasy of all time. From the picturesque surroundings of the Shire to Moria, the most fearsome underground realm ever imagined, players can experience the world of Middle-earth for free! For more information, visit www.lotro.com.

Posted on January 25, 2012, Ron Whitaker
Lord of the Rings Online to Add Mounted Combat in 2012

Turbine’s gearing up for a big year in 2012. In addition to all the new additions coming to Dungeons & Dragons Online, they’ve got an impressive lineup of content for Lord of the Rings Online. Last week, we sat down with LotRO Executive Producer Kate Paiz to get all the juicy details of what’s on tap for Turbine’s Tolkien MMO.

2011 was a big year for Turbine as they were finally able to unify their global playerbase. In case you didn’t hear, Turbine took over control of the EU version of LotRO from Codemasters. That’s a huge boon for EU players, because they’ll now receive updates, expansions, and additions to the game simultaneously with US players. Those of you playing in EU should be really happy about this, because 2012 is full of content that you’re going to want.

The biggest news to LotRO players is that Turbine is planning another expansion for this fall that will bring them into the kingdom of Rohan. We’ll talk a little bit more about that later, because the first thing that’s on tap is the Spring update.

Spring Update

The first look players will get at the wilds of Rohan is in the Spring Update, which will open up the Great River region. Situated just south of Lothlorien, this region will give players their first taste of the Rohirrim content. A new region isn’t all that’s coming in this update; no, Turbine’s also including a few changes to game mechanics as well.

In an effort to help players who may need a little aid in completing some quests, Turbine has decided to allow players to use their Skirmish soldiers anywhere on the landscape, as well as in Skirmishes. The only place they won’t be available is inside instances. Paiz also told us that they’re planning to have monthly or near-monthly patches to give players a more regular schedule of bug fixes, new cosmetics, and new rewards. It’s little changes like this that show how Turbine’s listening to concerns they’ve heard from players, and how they’re trying to, as Paiz says, “Never take our players for granted.”

This spring will also bring the Fifth Anniversary of LotRO, and Turbine is planning a huge celebration. While they wouldn’t give us any concrete details on what the celebration will entail, they did say that no fan of the game will want to miss it. They’ll also be adding a new festival later this year, although they wouldn’t reveal just yet what that festival will be.

Riders of Rohan

This fall, Turbine’s bringing the next expansion to LotRo. Titled Riders of Rohan, the new expansion will encompass the largest landscape of any zone Turbine has ever released, covering twice the area that Moria did. Believe it or not, that’s only the Eastern side of Rohan! Players will visit places like Amon Hen (where Boromir dies in the films – and the books!), the Eaves of Fangorn (where Merry and Pippin escaped Saruman’s Uruk-Hai), and the eastern plains of Rohan.

With that much space to move around in, it only makes sense that Turbine will also be introducing one of the most requested features of all time: Mounted Combat. Yes, you’ll finally be able to fight from horseback in LotRO, and you’ll need a new horse to do it. Your war horse will be stronger than the current mounts, and will come complete with in-battle abilities like Trample (we love the sound of that). Of course, if you can fight while mounted, you’ve got to expect that your enemies can as well. Paiz told us that players will be encountering ‘Warbands,’ mounted groups of enemies (think about the Warg riders Saruman employs).

The Rohan expansion will also bring along another raising of the level cap, this time to 85. Future content updates are planned that will link up the Rohan expansion to the Rise of Isengard areas, as well as adding in iconic areas like Helm’s Deep.

Turbine’s plans for 2012 are impressive, especially since they’ll be answering a long-time request of players and letting us fight from horseback. As the MMO population of Middle Earth marches on towards Mordor, it sounds like they’ll be making a fairly significant and enjoyable stop in Rohan. I’ll be honest, I can’t wait to see what they do with Helm’s Deep.

Follow Ron on Twitter: @ffronw