The New Newbie Experience: Ered Luin

By Lauren “Budgeford” Salk

For this update, the new player experience in Ered Luin has received a massive rejuvenation effort from several key members of our team. This is one of those times in which I’m thankful that we work on a “living” game. We can learn from our past experiences and continuously improve pieces of the game that don’t meet the standards we set as we move forward. We aren’t stuck with the choices we make, for better or worse; instead, we get to see what was successful and what needs improvement, and actually make those changes as needed. The Free-to-Play initiative was a wonderful excuse to go back and shine up the front end of our game as we readied ourselves for an influx of new players in the earliest levels.

I’m an avid LOTRO player and had a capped character before I came to work at Turbine. I have since made many, many alts over the years, and I have developed a sort of love-hate relationship with the beginning of our game. I think everyone at Turbine has played through the new player experience many more times than they’ve wished, making it challenging for all of us to see it with fresh eyes.

I came on late to do some work during the Archet revamp (the Hobbit tutorial and the public new player Archet quests) for the Free-to-Play launch, and then had the opportunity to continue to bring that work over to Ered Luin. I did a full story revamp on the Dwarf and Elf tutorials, replaced all quests in the zone, and Jared “Amlug” Hall-Dugas revamped the raid at the end of the experience (which, in my opinion, is now one of the most exciting dungeons in our game).

The Story

The Ered Luin intro storyline has always confused me, and I never quite knew why. I didn’t understand the importance of various characters in the quests and instances, probably because so many of them seemed like they should be significant. There was Ivar, Marrec, Skorgrím, Tvistur, Elladan, Elrohir, Dwalin, Dori, and Gormr, to name a few. There were Goblins, Dourhands, Elf-ruins, Dwarf-halls, and high mountain paths. There were many different mines, statues, Dwarf-doors, and stairs all throughout the region, none of which really seemed to go anywhere. There were lynx, aurochs, flies, and Goblin-spies roaming the landscape. But it was all leading to the resurrection of a long-dead dwarf by an old and powerful Wight, a “dead” creature. There were many, many pieces, and none of those pieces fit nicely together to make a clear picture of what happened at the end of it all.

The Elves had one backstory, and the Dwarves had another, while several quests tied the two together.

My first order of business was to understand what I was supposed to be cleaning up. I needed to know what the story was really about so I could pull out the important pieces and make them come across more clearly, and hopefully push the less important pieces into the background or out of the way altogether. I am a big fan of simplicity in the stories for this game. Quest text isn’t always the best place to tell a full history of an area or a people. crammed into three paragraphs and forcing the player to stand around while they receive a written tale, instead of playing their own role in the tale. I find the more memorable pieces of our game to be the ones where I was participating, chasing Mazog or making a stand on Weathertop or living life as a chicken for a day. After I figured out the exact story I intended to tell, I re-did all of the text and drama inside the Elf and Dwarf tutorials.

When you start a new Elf or Dwarf, you are a character in the story, and an important one. You’ll have to try them out to see them in full, but here’s a taste:

For Elves: You are an Elf from long ago, in a refuge that is under attack by Skorgrím’s forces. You stand in the eye of the storm, but you find that Elves greater than yourself will risk much to protect you. You are the student of Talagan, and he rues the danger that has been brought to your feet.

For Dwarves: You are a Dwarf working in a mine, and Gandalf demands your ear so that he can vent his frustrations about the stubborn tendencies of Thorin. It is the day of Thorin’s departure, and you witness the passing of the keys to Gormr, an innocent descendant of Skorgrím and the new steward of Thorin’s Halls. You also witness the frightful shaking of the Silver Deep Mine, and are the only brave soul on hand to assist Gimli in rescuing the Dwarves within.

The new story continues to weave through the quests in the newbie zone, bringing you at last to Amlug’s revamp of the raid. I didn’t work on it so I can’t say as much about it, but it is EPIC. Even if you already have a Dwarf or Elf character in LOTRO, I highly recommend that you take the 30-60 minutes to roll a new one and play through the intro and Skorgrím’s Tomb. We got some fantastic new art and animations for this instance and it really is a beautiful new piece of the LOTRO story.