The Lord of the Rings Online – December 2021 Producer’s Letter

With a new year starting soon, this here producer’s letter for The Lord of the Rings Online lets us know what to expect from Standing Stone Games’ MMORPG in the nearest future. In short, we’ll be getting a new 12-player raid, an updated player housing system, a new area, some seasonal events, and more.

Here’s the full thing:

Hello! For those of you who may not know who I am, I’m Raninia, the producer on The Lord of the Rings: Online. Severlin hasn’t gone anywhere, but I’m now picking up the duties of writing these letters and keeping you all abreast of the goings-on with the game.

Which brings me to another change being made to these letters – moving forward, these letters will come quarterly, and they’ll cover the next quarter. So today, I’ll be informing you what we’re planning to do from January through the end of March. Next time – which should be around March – I’ll give a preview of what’s coming between April through the end of June, and so on.

Ok, on to the meaty stuff you’re here for!

Our first big update of 2022 – Update 32 – is expected for mid-February, and will begin our celebration of our upcoming 15-year anniversary, and bring with it several things:

First, beyond the Falls of Amgaruslun in the Clovengap lies Abnankâra, the Hiddenhoard. Once a grand treasury housing the golden coffers of Durin the Deathless, it has been claimed by Hrímil Frost-heart as her lair within Mount Gundabad. Within this frozen retreat, Hrímil tends her wounds and slumbers, dreaming of vengeance upon Prince Durin and the Dwarves of the Gabil’akkâ. We’re really excited for you all to experience the awesome conclusion of this storyline as we look towards the future. Look forward to seeing this 12-player raid on Bullroarer soon.

Second, we’re bringing player housing to Erebor! One of Smaug’s last treasure hoards has been opened and the Dwarves of Erebor have moved to reclaim it. Join them in owning a piece of Middle-earth, in the Great Hall under the Mountain! This new premium neighborhood will include 12 Base Premium Houses, 1 Special Base Premium House, 6 Deluxe Premium Houses, and 1 Premium Kinship house, along with a full suite of town services and social spaces for you to enjoy with your kinship and neighbors! In addition to the new neighborhood, Erebor housing introduces new exterior music and dayfile hook types to allow players even more customization options for their homes! We also intend to extend the usage of housing permissions to allow players to make their yards fully private from uninvited guests.

Third, and long awaited, is our Legendary Item Reward Track! Each season of the Reward Track is planned to run for three months, and will give rewards based on your play that will help you progress your Legendary Items and a few other goodies as well. After each season, the rewards will refresh and you’ll be able to progress anew. All of your characters on a world will contribute to your reward track progress on that world –that means your main and your alts all help towards earning awesome rewards!

Fourth, we’ll also introduce a new area: the Angle of Mitheithel. Stretching south from the Trollshaws to the junction of the Bruinen and Mitheithel rivers is a wild land of rocky hills and deep pine-woods, and a graveyard of ancient kingdoms. The ruins of Elves and Men alike crumble among the trees, and the Rangers steal through the shadows of the trees, ever watchful, carrying out secret assignments as the north grows more dangerous by the day. The Angle of Mitheithel will be for levels 40 to 45.

Finally, Update 32 will see the return of the Spring Festival with new pets and housing rewards!

During this time, we’ll also be making progress on our Legendary Worlds of Shadowfax and Treebeard. On January 5th, Treebeard will be making its first jump, entering the fabled Mines of Moria, and Shadowfax will continue progressing, this time to the dangerous lands of Isengard. Two months later, on March 2nd, Shadowfax will be entering the vast plains of Rohan! We’ll have more news on when Anor will be making its way to Minas Morgul in my next letter.

Besides all that, we’ll continue with our ongoing work to improve performance and lag, make adjustments to class balance, continue fixing bugs, and further refine the new Legendary Item system. These various things will arrive just about every patch.

I’m really excited for you all to see all of the progress we’re making and the updates we’ll be releasing in this quarter, and I’m also excited to hear how folks feel about the new format of these letters. We’re extremely thrilled to celebrate our 15-year anniversary this year, and we’re working on fifteen more!

-Raninia