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Lord of the Rings Online: Forum Topic

Lord of the Rings Online: does anyone know what crafts will be available?

Forum >> Main >> Crafting, Player Housing and Hobbies. >> does anyone know what crafts will be available?

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Almarea

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does anyone know what crafts will be available?

I'd really like to know what crafts will be available to which races! I am assuming some kind of herbalist craft will be available and maybe cooking? I hope there is a weapon and armor craft! :oD

04/18/06 00:58

Meldarion

Posts: 511
Joined: 08/30/2005
Credibility: 3623 pts

RE: does anyone know what crafts will be available?

Mum has been the word on the lips of the Overlords of Dev, particularly concerning Crafting and it's context within the game. Hopefully they'll release something soon. E3 is next month so I'll keep all 14 of my fingers crossed =)

Lord Meldarion, son of Beinion
Mith Tur, GCoA

“I do not love the bright sword for it's sharpness, nor the arrow for it's swiftness,
nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend” -J.R.R. Tolkien

04/18/06 01:02

Almarea

Posts: 54
Joined: 04/06/2006
Credibility: 0 pts

RE: does anyone know what crafts will be available?

LOL, you have 14 fingers??? where did the other 4 come from? or did you lose 6 toes and count the remaining toes as fingers? :P

Almárëa
Elven Huntress

04/18/06 19:24

Beinion

Posts: 198
Joined: 03/12/2006
Credibility: 94 pts

RE: does anyone know what crafts will be available?

he had two extra fingers surgicaly attached to each hand so he can type faster =P

heres what he looks like now....

***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***

04/18/06 19:32

Almarea

Posts: 54
Joined: 04/06/2006
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RE: does anyone know what crafts will be available?

lol, that was a funny movie, hehehe

Almárëa
Elven Huntress

04/18/06 20:16

Beinion

Posts: 198
Joined: 03/12/2006
Credibility: 94 pts

RE: does anyone know what crafts will be available?

that, it was... lol

04/18/06 20:57

Meldarion

Posts: 511
Joined: 08/30/2005
Credibility: 3623 pts

RE: does anyone know what crafts will be available?

HAHAHAH nice... never even crossed my mind when I said that... I tend to run at the mouth like that so it's funny when someone can pick right up where I left off... good one Beinion =)

Lord Meldarion, son of Beinion
Mith Tur, GCoA

“I do not love the bright sword for it's sharpness, nor the arrow for it's swiftness,
nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend” -J.R.R. Tolkien

04/18/06 21:48

Rion Bregolach

Posts: 28
Joined: 04/10/2006
Credibility: 30 pts

RE: does anyone know what crafts will be available?

seems as if there would be 9 professions:

Jeweler
Prospector
Forrester
Scholar
Cook
Weaponsmith
Woodworker
Metalsmith
Leatherworker

~An i amar no ce mellon, dan am mellon no ce i amar.~

04/25/06 03:25

Beinion

Posts: 198
Joined: 03/12/2006
Credibility: 94 pts

RE: does anyone know what crafts will be available?

QUOTE

Jeweler
Prospector
Forrester
Scholar
Cook
Weaponsmith
Woodworker
Metalsmith
Leatherworker

what kind of work would a scholar do?...

what would the difference between a weapon smith and a metal smith?

04/25/06 05:22

Rion Bregolach

Posts: 28
Joined: 04/10/2006
Credibility: 30 pts

RE: does anyone know what crafts will be available?

no idea sorry .. at the moment im trying to find the original article .. i somewhere lost the link to it so i cannot read it :( would also like to translate it if it is not already ..

~An i amar no ce mellon, dan am mellon no ce i amar.~

04/25/06 06:23

thejeni

Posts: 645
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Credibility: 1063 pts

RE: does anyone know what crafts will be available?

QUOTE

what kind of work would a scholar do?...

what would the difference between a weapon smith and a metal smith?

Scholar could make scrolls or potions?

And maybe the different betweek the smiths are weapon make weapons and metal make armor?

These are of course just guesses, but they sounded good.

Siggy created by DeathFetish.

04/25/06 11:51

blackphoenix

Posts: 86
Joined: 09/23/2005
Credibility: 38 pts

RE: does anyone know what crafts will be available?

QUOTE

And maybe the different betweek the smiths are weapon make weapons and metal make armor?

Hey, that's what I was gonna say. Guess I'll just have to think of something else to say...

I know, the scholar could identify items. You know, like when Gandalf went to research on the one ring, the scholar could be the one that does the item identificaton, or something like that...

04/25/06 14:14

Meldarion

Posts: 511
Joined: 08/30/2005
Credibility: 3623 pts

RE: does anyone know what crafts will be available?

thejeni and BP are most likely on the right track. Hard to tell until we get a full explanation from Turbine, but I've a feeling that it is coming shortly. Things are looking up! =)

Lord Meldarion, son of Beinion
Mith Tur, GCoA

“I do not love the bright sword for it's sharpness, nor the arrow for it's swiftness,
nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend” -J.R.R. Tolkien

04/26/06 01:11

thejeni

Posts: 645
Joined: 08/12/2004
Credibility: 1063 pts

RE: does anyone know what crafts will be available?

QUOTE

thejeni and BP are most likely on the right track. Hard to tell until we get a full explanation from Turbine, but I've a feeling that it is coming shortly. Things are looking up! =)

I would love Turbine to get us some more info soon!

Siggy created by DeathFetish.

04/26/06 09:55

Rion Bregolach

Posts: 28
Joined: 04/10/2006
Credibility: 30 pts

RE: does anyone know what crafts will be available?

scholar "could" also be the one who creates paper and ink .. since this material will be rare maybe they make a craft out of it ..

***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***

~An i amar no ce mellon, dan am mellon no ce i amar.~

04/28/06 03:07

Rion Bregolach

Posts: 28
Joined: 04/10/2006
Credibility: 30 pts

RE: does anyone know what crafts will be available?

Translation of the german article by Andranneth ( EoI )

No female dwarves, but Chubby Hobbits

We used the free time during the presentation, and of course also that during the personal interviews with Jeffrey Steefel to as many questions our community had. For example, the question how LOTRO will handle female dwarves has been around for a long time. Do they, like Gimli tell in the movies, really have beard and therefore are inditinguishable from males? Yes and no, because in LOTRO there simply will be no female dwarves. Whether they really don't exists or whether they look so similar ot the males that the difference can't be seen, that will be left to the players' creativity.
Otherwise there will much choice during character creation, though, for the the player should be able to influence the looks of the character in many ways. Besides details like the color of the eyes and the like the build of the character can be changed. After all, a true Hobbit of Dwarf would have a rounded belly that shows at first glace how much beer and cakes he has already seen in his life.
Another detail that should be mentioned is for example the display of active Quests at the bottom right of the user interface. That was the present job will never be forgotten, and with one click one can get all other available information about the quest. All in all, the interface looks very clean, not over loaded, and should be easily understandable for both beginners and experienced players, because it much resembles the time-proved UIs of other games.
At lauch Kinships will have relatively few support features, merely those found in other MMORPGs.

It it not yet decided whether Kinship cloaks will be available at realease or be added with the regular updates. Jeffrey Steefel assured us, though, that there are big plans concerning Kinships and that those would be put into the game with those updates.

Some clarifications

For a long time the morale system was a mysterious feature that caused much speculation, but these, too, are now in the past. The morale in LOTRO is nothing else but a different for hit points. So, instead of a Health bar the character has a morale bar. Once it is depleted the character is defeated - explicitly not dead. Characters cannot die in the game, they merely awake in a safe place after a defeat. That is also the only "death" penalty: the loss of time. XP, Items and the like will not be lost. This system will thoroughly be tested in Beta, which leaves open the possibility that some changes might still be made to the death penalty.
There will also be no Mana in Middle Earth. The Devs call it plainly 'power' instead. It's use stays the same: It is a measure how many special skills the character can use.

Only 60% but still somehow more
All in all we spent more than two hours seeing parts of the virtial Eriador. All the more we were surprised to hear that the game world at lauch will be 'merely' 60% of the WoW world. This piece of information can hardly be believed Once you've seen the vast open landscape in the game. On the way along the roads of the Shire we passed fields and gardens, we could jump over every fence and no stream ever presented an obstacle, so that there was truly the illusion of a large game world. Villages and towns did not consist of a mere two or three houses, but felt harmonious and authentic. To fully walk through Bree, the biggest urban center in LOTRO you will nee, according to the Devs, about 30 minutes, which again gives the feeling of a vast and freely accessible world. Open and accessible Eriador will be indeed, because 95% of it will not be instanced. The best example for the size of the world is probably the old forest.For at least 15 minutes Jeffrey Steefel tried to show us a certain mob (a Huorn). But even the Dev himself managed to nearly hopelessly get lost in the maze of the wood. Thus, waiting for us is a world to literally get lost in.

To cross such a world on foot would after a while get rather tedious and time-consuming, which is why in LOTRO there will be a fast-travel system. Gryphons, cars and magic are of course no options in Middle Earth, so that we are left with the time-honored use of horses. There will be stables in every larger town, where a character for a small fee can rent a mount which will swiftly take him to the other settlements in Eriador. That will not be shown in game, but will happen like a teleport between the hubs.
As had been known for some time, mounts will be added in a later expansion. The most likely scenario is that this will happen in the Rohan expansion.

But let us return to instances. These, too, are kindof special on LOTRO. Most instances will only be entered while doing specific quests, which also means that the infamous 'item farming' will not play a big part here. One feature that we know from DDO is the direct teleport to the instance. In case of the demopnstated instance of weathertop things went like this:

We enter the inn of teh Prancing Pony in Bree. Instantly we recognize the slightly podgy and well-known innkeeper Barliman Butterbur. Yet something else also seems stragely familiar: The sight of a hooded figure in one of the corners at the back or the common room. Those thinking of STrider now are pretty close to the truth, even though it is not Aragorn himself but a rather unknown Ranger who is watching the fire in the fireplace. He tells us about Orcs and Goblins with the sign of the White Hand, who are up to something on weather top. We instantly agree to aid in solving this problem. As soon as we accept the quest there is a short loading screen and a change of scene: On a stromy night, we see weather top right ahead. The mission starts and together with that Ranger we head out to fight our way through the Orcs and up to the top. That is easier said than done, because the instance is designed for four players and as such impossible to do solo - unless that single character is played by Jeffrey Steefel, who knows enough cheats to be invincible.

What especially catches the eye is the tactically intelligent behaviour of the opponents. A group of Orcs does not just consist of five identical creatures who all charge into close combat. Instead, some of the evil creatures chose close combat while two more shoot at us from a safe distance. Andother example for the interesting opponents is a small goblin whom we thought we had caught on his own. But we had not calculated the cowardice of those sneaky creatures. As soon as the green beast spotted us, he turned around and shortly after returned with a bunch of friends to back him up. Further up there was a similar surprise when the Orcs lay a trap for us at a narrow alleyway.
So far the NPCs for the most part are standing around unmoving and bored, but that should change considerably until release. Then the Orcs will not just be standing around the campfire, but they will tend the fire, walk to and fro, communicate with each other etc. The goal is to give the player the impression that these NPC were not put there for him to see, but that the NPCs and opponents truly have a reason to be where they are.
What awaits players on top of Weathertop, however, we will not tell at this point. After all, we do not want to spoil the surprise.

The world of LOTRO is also not going to be fixed and unchanging, but will be influenced by the players. Here is where the announced 'layered instancing' will be put to use. That creates a private storyline for the player that allows to change the appearance within instances after the completion of quests. That way a second visit to the instance might turn out completely different than the first and the instance might even turn into an 'open game world' for the player. The player will see the results of his deeds and will not get frustrated by having to watch how with every new visit in the instance the same old monsters are waiting for him. The cooperation with characters on a lower level should not be hindered by that, though, as it should be possible to 'turn back' the personal storyline at any time.

Of blacksmiths and bowyers

One feature that has been announced quite a while ago is crafting. So far nothing was known about it, though, except that it will be in the game. But Jeffrey Steefel could tell us quite a bit about this, too. To start with, there will be nine professions among which the player can chose. These professions are not the usual ones that can be found in many other MMORPGs, for besides weaponsmith and leatherworker you can also play a jeweler, forrester, prospector, scholar, cook, woodworker or a metalsmith.

The crafting system itself is divided into two parts. One will be the 'normal' crafting, where one can make the usual items. That will not provide much challenge and should offer something for the casual players as well. On the other hand there will be 'Master-Crafting'. This second layer can only be reached after mastering the normal profession. Then it gets far more difficult to perfect the crafting skills, but the pay-off is that the thus crafted items will be able to keep up with the best loot. A true master of a profession will therefore be able to make useful and sought-after items and doesn't have to fear that potential customers might rather look for equipment at certain mobs.
Items that have been made by a 'Master-Crafter' are the only items in the game that will be 'soul bound'. All other items, according to Jeffrey, will not be bound to the player on equip, but can afterwards still be trades and passed on.
Items in LOTRO will be damaged through use in combat and thus be rendered useless after a while, unless the character regularly visits an NPC smithy to repair his equipment. This task can only be done by NPCs, though, and not by player controlled smiths.

Conjunctions and Traits

If someone asks what will be in LOTRO that has never been there before in this form, then the answer would be: conjunctions and traits.
Conjunctions are supposed to make playing in a group really interesting. Jeffrey Steefel couldn't show us how exactly this feature works, because it would have needed a group of players, however, he tried his best to explain it. Whenever a group member starts a conjunction by an opening attack move a kind of disk (maybe more in the form of a gambling machine) with four different colors appears on the screen of the other group members. Now everyone has the opportunity to click the colors in a certain order within one second. Depending on which combination was chosen and which attack moves were done before, the character will now execute an especially stong attack combo. This system does not only make playing together more interesting, but it also leads to more action during combat. Merely clicking on an opponent and then, cup of coffee in hand, watching will not lead to success in LOTRO.

But one does not need to fear to lose any chance for success because of bad reflexes. According to Jeffrey Steefel the conjunctions should be easy to learn even for beginners and no matter how fast you react within that one second, the character will execute a better than normal attack. The truly forceful attacks, however, need a little more skill and above all a good understanding of the interplay between the classes and attacks, so that ones own attacks should be finely tuned to those of ones group mates.
Beta will show with how many players this system works best. At present the maximum size of a group is six. If, however, it turns out that conjunctions work just as well with eight players, then this number might change through Beta. Raids (groups of far more than the usual number of members) will not be in LOTRO. The conjunction system will not work with such a number of players, and the instances in the game are also not designed for such masses. The important thing will be the skill of each individual within smaller groups.

'Traits' - what is that? That is exactly the question we asked ourselves when Jeffrey Steefel used this word for the first time during the presentation. An explanation followed right away, though.
This term described small artifacts and left overs from times long gone and forgotten. They could be found all over the world and serve two different purposes. For one, they will tell about the history of Middle Earth and the backdrop of the world, which should be of interest especially to Tolkien fans and roleplayers. Second, beside the class, skills and equipment they will make a character different and stand out from others. Once such a trait is found it can be equipped like any other item, and will give the character special skills or knowledge.
In the instance of Weathertop for example we found part of a Palantiri artifact - but only one part of three, as the display pointed out upon pickup. Jeffrey Steefel explained that this artifact could teach players more about Black Speech. How exactly that knowledge can later be put to use in the game we didn't learn, though. From all that we could find out about this feature, it will offer an interesting way to individually form a character and creates a "Middle Earth feeling".

When will it finally arrive?

Turbine still aims for the set release date. In the fourth quarter of the year, more specifically in November this year Lord of the Rings Online will hit the shelves. Codemaster will also make sure that the European versions will be released at the same time as the US version. Given the amount of text that the translators will have to handle that is a huge project.
So far about 80% of the game is said to be finished, and the start of Beta is schedules for July, maybe even June. Codemasters also considers the release of a pre-order-version, which should include access to Beta about one month before release and some other extras.

How will it continue?
A question that many in our communit have asked is what will happen once Frodo and Sam manage to destroy the One Ring? For that question, too, we got an answer from Jeffrey. The Devs went through many possibilities, and the most likely scenario is probably that time in Middle Earth will be frozen in that moment. From then on the focus will be on new content, far from the story of The Lord of the Rings. But that is still a long way off, because that will happen at the earliest four years after release. Before that, the first expansions are already being planned. After Eriador we will be able to visit Moria, Lorien, Rohan, Gondor and at some point even cross the mountains into Mordor.

~An i amar no ce mellon, dan am mellon no ce i amar.~

05/02/06 02:25

Meldarion

Posts: 511
Joined: 08/30/2005
Credibility: 3623 pts

RE: does anyone know what crafts will be available?

Excellent job Rion! Thanks for the info... I can hardly wait =P

Lord Meldarion, son of Beinion
Mith Tur, GCoA

“I do not love the bright sword for it's sharpness, nor the arrow for it's swiftness,
nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend” -J.R.R. Tolkien

05/02/06 09:28

thejeni

Posts: 645
Joined: 08/12/2004
Credibility: 1063 pts

RE: does anyone know what crafts will be available?

Great job!!!! That helps a lot!

Siggy created by DeathFetish.

05/02/06 10:45

blackphoenix

Posts: 86
Joined: 09/23/2005
Credibility: 38 pts

RE: does anyone know what crafts will be available?

Yeah, I didn't get past the part about "no female dwarves", but good work! :)

05/02/06 14:04

Meldarion

Posts: 511
Joined: 08/30/2005
Credibility: 3623 pts

RE: does anyone know what crafts will be available?

My eyes soaked it up like a couple of sponges... I even got irritated when someone interrupted my reading. hmmm... confessions of an MMO addict

Lord Meldarion, son of Beinion
Mith Tur, GCoA

“I do not love the bright sword for it's sharpness, nor the arrow for it's swiftness,
nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend” -J.R.R. Tolkien

05/02/06 16:23

Beinion

Posts: 198
Joined: 03/12/2006
Credibility: 94 pts

RE: does anyone know what crafts will be available?

nice article....realy covers alot of info...

05/02/06 16:29

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