Lord of the Rings Online lead systems designer Allan “Orion” Maki hosted this weekend’s regularly scheduled developer stream to share more details on some of the new features and content teased in their 2024 development roadmap.
During the stream, Orion dove deeper into Corsairs of Umbar’s upcoming Catacombs of Umbar time-released quest series. The quest pack will have players follow each member of the Kindred of the Coin for a set period of time as they hunt down various groups planning to undermine their authority in Umbar. Quests will be unlocked over several weeks on each server The Ballad of Bingo Boffin questline.
Orion also revealed that the new hobby teased in the roadmap will not be golf and will have something to do with exploring the game world and collecting stuff. There’s also the chance that the fourth profession will be released earlier than expected if the team can complete it ahead of schedule. The same goes for the new legendary server which will feature a different ruleset with a “special sauce” to keep things fresh. Don’t keep your hopes up for a classic era server though.
As for the fall expansion, three zones are currently in the works with a fourth zone still up for debate. It will also come with new instances and raids at launch along with a boatload of new quests but without the level cap increase typically associated with expansions.
A new instrument called a hurdy-gurdy is also in the final stages of development. It was apparently supposed to be added into the game with Corsairs of Umbar but the developers didn’t have time to add the new animations and sounds. Also, coding doors is a nightmare.
You can learn more about Standing Sone Games plans for the MMORPG this year from Orion himself in the full dev stream below.