(quoted for those that can't see the official forums at work, where you see [source] is a link, but you will need the original post to follow those)
A better summary of information- sorry Sapience...
To start, here is a summary of the quick and dirty details:
* Siege of Mirkwood will have a base price of $19.99. As with Moria last year, we're going to have a set of early upgrade offers that are very compelling. We're not quite ready to unveil those details yet, but we'll keep you posted.
* The epic story continues on in Volume 3 as a regular content update early next year. Sounds like a standard free book update, but hasnt been confirmed.
* Some of the improvements to the game coming with Mirkwood will benefit everyone, but the key features will require the Mirkwood upgrade.
* Skirmishes are PvE, and should not be directly competing with PvMP.
* The new raid is not a one-boss raid. Nuff Said.
* 100+ hours of new content
* Level cap increased to level 65 with access to new traits, virtues, skills and class quests
What is "Enhanced Combat Responsiveness"? Here is a quick explanation from Floon:
Autoattacks will not delay firing a skill. What this does mean is that animation have a chance to preempt autoattack anims in such a way as to produce a pop in the anim transition that isn't there right now. [source]
What the heck is "World Join"!? Zombie Columbus goes in to details about what it is, and what it will actually be called:
World-join is a bit of a misnomer. The name of that part of the overall Skirmish system is likely being changed to the more informative "Skirmish-join." Remember the way half the community calls Fellowship Maneouvers Conjunctions because that's what it was in beta? This is one of those situations.
Well, what IS Skirmish-join? There will be a dev diary on it (I'm working on it now) but the short version is it will be how players can enter the new Skirmish spaces. It's a UI that will allow players to select the group size, level, and difficulty of a Skirmish, and then be instantly transported to the Skirmish. Emphasis on "Skirmish", the system does not, as of now, interact with Instances, PvMP, Battle Instances or anything else. [source]
For more details, see our article on Skirmishers found here.
Where is the epic story going to go in Book 9 and possibly beyond?
Under the command of Celeborn and Galadriel, players will fight through vast armies of Orcs alongside the Elves of Lórien in a battle that will take them to Dol Guldur, the fortress of the Ringwraiths. This update includes Book 9 and the Epilogue to the sweeping epic tale begun with the award-winning Mines of Moria expansion. No word yet on just how many chapters, or possibly books, the "epilogue" will contain. [source]
And now for some things not mentioned in the press release, mounts are getting a very nice overhaul and new shared storage:
Mounts are being changed over to skills, not items. This means you will no longer be required to carry a mount in your inventory. In your skills panel, there will be a "mount" tab, which will list your current stable of mounts -- your horse, your other horse, your goat. And, because of mounts becoming skills, a number of issues with mounts will simply cease to exist: You will now be able to pass into instances and new zones while on your mount; you can now interact with NPCs (including vendors) from your mount; and you can now use emotes on your mount. In other mount news, there's a brand new goat -- the Wild Goat -- available in Siege of Mirkwood.
Also on the list of changes, and an answer to the prayers of many LOTRO players, is the addition of shared storage space for accounts. This means that you no longer have to deal with mailing items to your alts; Jeffrey Steefel kept mum about whether or not this meant a new "bind on account" system, so no word on that yet, but having shared storage at all will be a boon. Currently, shared storage space appears to be limited to 50 items, though Mr. Steefel said this was likely to increase over time in a similar manner to purchasing further storage space for your character's Vault. [source]
Anything known about the new raid yet?
Yes, though the burning question I am sure on everyones mind, radiance, has not been addressed- so no word on if and how much is required. The primary raid will be in Dol Guldur, and will feature a multi-boss culminating fight featuring both a battle against a Fell Beast (which is quite terrifying to see!) and, finally, the Lieutenant of Dol Guldur, second-in-command among the Nazgul. [source]
And finally...
It was hinted that we should all make sure we are signed up for the Turbine Beta Rewards program. You can sign up over at
http://myaccount.turbine.com/I had been thinking we were getting book 9 then the expansion... but it appears that book 9 is part of it.
