Thread: When can I expect Update 5?

Is there any idea when it's going to be released?

And is there a chance that we might get Fangorn with it, with Volume III Book 5 perhaps, the way we got Enedwaith with Update 2 I think?

As Fangorn would provide a connection between Lothlorien/Mirkwood and Isengard and therefore also the probable two future expansion routes for the game ...

Cheers

Dovakhim

Soon(tm) But not TOOSOON(TM)

They've stated December is the target release date.

It's an instance cluster, not an area.

Originally Posted by Roberto_the_First

They've stated December is the target release date.

But they haven't said WHEN in December, and I don't blame them.

Originally Posted by Dovakhim

Is there any idea when it's going to be released?

Shortly after people quit starting new threads asking when it will be released. See the multitude of other threads for more details.

And is there a chance that we might get Fangorn with it, with Volume III Book 5 perhaps, the way we got Enedwaith with Update 2 I think?

As Fangorn would provide a connection between Lothlorien/Mirkwood and Isengard and therefore also the probable two future expansion routes for the game ...

Extremely unlikely. There has been no hint of additional territory associated with the various Turbine statements about Update 5. This is not to say that such can be absolutely ruled out...put it would be a great surprise to see a new area added this soon.

Personally, I'd rather see the rest of Tier 7 Crafting added (it's pretty sketchy right now) than see Fangorn rushed in on a short time frame.

--W. H. Heydt

Old Used Programmer

I believe the only info we have on Update 5 is that it will contain the new instances, the next Epic Book, and it is slated for sometime in December.

Perhaps I've missed something though, in which case I will happily like to be corrected.

is there a thread with hints of whats going to be in the update?

Originally Posted by Roberto_the_First

They've stated December is the target release date.

Indeed. If I had to guess, it will happen to come out the week before SWTOR launches, in a last-ditch attempt to clutch players planning to leave on Dec. 20th.

Originally Posted by Dovakhim

Is there any idea when it's going to be released?

And is there a chance that we might get Fangorn with it, with Volume III Book 5 perhaps, the way we got Enedwaith with Update 2 I think?

As Fangorn would provide a connection between Lothlorien/Mirkwood and Isengard and therefore also the probable two future expansion routes for the game ...

Cheers

Dovakhim

the chances for actual areas being added in a update is pretty slim seeing as they haven't done that since SoA, its gonna be a instance cluster somewhere in a preexisting zone...

I am going to say December 6th or 13th. Anytime after that would be fruitless because TOR comes out on the 20th.

There won't be any new zones, but there will be what they stated, new instances and raids. That's about it.

(My money is on December 13th)

Originally Posted by Notaforumguy007

the chances for actual areas being added in a update is pretty slim seeing as they haven't done that since SoA, its gonna be a instance cluster somewhere in a preexisting zone...

I always thought Enedwaith was in it's own update? Guess not then...

Originally Posted by BellusDuFenna

Indeed. If I had to guess, it will happen to come out the week before SWTOR launches, in a last-ditch attempt to clutch players planning to leave on Dec. 20th.

I'm sure we will lose a few, but I have it on good authority SWTOR is NOT living up to the hype...it is a good game but not the MMO world changer everyone is saying. I personally plan on playing but LOTRO will always be my home...at least until they kick me out.

Originally Posted by Notaforumguy007

the chances for actual areas being added in a update is pretty slim seeing as they haven't done that since SoA, its gonna be a instance cluster somewhere in a preexisting zone...

Lothlorien and Endewaith are two examples that were done after Moria.

If I recall, there was no storyline through the Gap of Rohan, so hint hint where book 5 takes place. I am sorry to say, but I sincerely doubt (since the poor release of content so far) that Fangorn will be with us any time soon, my bets lay with next September. So book 5, I estimate, will be through the Gap of Rohan, just another thing to keep us occupied for 2 hours.

Originally Posted by Ironcrown

it is a good game but not the MMO world changer everyone is saying.

What game ever is? (save the 800lb gorilla, of course).

Hopefully sooner rather than later we get the rest of our expansion cos for me what we got wasnt a full expansion at the moment apart from doing the dragon raid everyweek theres nowt else to do apart from level up my alts , so some info would be nice yes There should be some sorta end game instances that we havent already grinded how many times for various armour sets and symbols the whole fact still the expansion was released this way was a rather large fail imo .

The only statement so far has been the interview with Sapience at Gamescon where he stated "Sure, or maybe even before Christmas." I take it that there is no set date. Also don't forget there is a maybe at the beginning of those statements.

Edit: I found the link and quote. http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.p...mescom-2011%29

So according to that interview the possiblities are Christmas, after Christmas, and maybe before Christmas.

Originally Posted by Lilka

It's an instance cluster, not an area.

Turbine has stated that the instance cluster is not part of update 5 but rather will be released alongside of it.

What we know:
-Update 5 is set to be released in December.
-Update 5 will include content which will be free to VIPs.

Things likely to be in updates and possibly this one before the Riders of Rohan* expansion:
-A new region. Possibly Fangorn, possibly Minhiriath or another region SW of the gap.
-Epic Vol III Book V.
-The first battle of the Fords of Isen. Possibly in the form of a skirmish, or an instance. Hopefully worth repeating. Hopefully using some of the "Tusks of the Boar" instance technology.
-Some love to lower level characters in region revamps (Trollshaws, anyone?) and scalable instances (like IotF and HoN)
-Scaling of more instances. Perhaps Fornost, the Rift, CD, or the OD cluster (the last of which was actually made to be easily scaled when the time came.)

That's my 2 copper.

*Name used on the basis that www.ridersofrohan.com forwards you to LOTRO

I'll bet it's very difficult to pin down a properly exact release schedule for Instances+U5 since that depends on how testing and bug squishing goes. I mean, the instance cluster was supposed to be with RoI but had to be pushed back, which means the expectation for their overall polish will be even higher given the extra time. Couple that expectation against the release of SWTOR and we have fire on all sides. Hot!

I hope the xp toggle makes it in. I'm doubtful, but here's to hoping. Oh, and please fix the soldier pathing issues newly introduced with RoI.

I wouldn't count on seeing a new zone for a while. Turbine already has to get the instance content that should have launched with RoI together, so that's probably enough work. Continuing the epic might not be out of the question though, but I honestly wouldn't expect much outside of some random fixes and the group content for Update 5.

Originally Posted by 0rdinary0wl

I wouldn't count on seeing a new zone for a while. Turbine already has to get the instance content that should have launched with RoI together, so that's probably enough work. Continuing the epic might not be out of the question though, but I honestly wouldn't expect much outside of some random fixes and the group content for Update 5.

I have to agree here, I doubt Update 5 will have much "meat on the bone". It will be some class balance tweaks (fixing some of what RoI class changes may have messed up), perhaps more quests but I doubt there will be another Book added in U5. We might also see some additional high-end crafting content, since from what I've seen it is needed badly. What I highly doubt will be included is a new zone or new skirmishes, although I would really like one or both of those.

Now Update 6 should have more meaty content, at least I hope it will, but don't expect to see that until well into 2012. If I had to guess, I'd say March or later. That is when you might see a new Epic book, as well as a new Skirmish (please!), but again new landmass won't show up until still later in the year. Maybe in Update 7, sometime around the start of summer 2012?

Originally Posted by BellusDuFenna

Indeed. If I had to guess, it will happen to come out the week before SWTOR launches, in a last-ditch attempt to clutch players planning to leave on Dec. 20th.

When SWTOR opens, a fair number of players will go to it, simply because it will be NEW.

At the end of a month or two, they will either (a) go to yet another game that will have just opened, because it in its turn will be NEW, or (b) come back to LotRO. There are two or three threads on the front page of General Discussion right now, started by people who left LotRO for some reason or the other, and now they're back, one of them lamenting that he gave away all his gold before he left.

There is something about this game that keeps bringing people back. Perhaps it's the Lore, which (don't forget) Tolkien developed over his whole adult life (say, from 1919, when WWI ended, to his death in 1973).

Perhaps it's quality. Perhaps it's love.

Yeah i think some fixes plus those all important instances and most would be happy but like i said this is gotta happen sooner rather than later

Originally Posted by djheydt

At the end of a month or two, they will either (a) go to yet another game that will have just opened, because it in its turn will be NEW, or (b) come back to LotRO.

To be fair, at the end of a month or two, the third option is (c) those players will stick with SWTOR. I mean, many play LotRO because of the LotR world. It stands to reason there are plenty of Star Wars fans who will stick with an MMO that mostly does it right (parallel to LotRO doing LotR "mostly right"). I can definitely see a friend of mine, who's been sort of trying LotRO out, going permanently to SWTOR instead because she's a much bigger SW fan.

But back on topic. There won't be new landmass in U5 just for common sense. There are plenty of things that need tweaking after RoI that the patch should address, and probably a bunch of smaller QoL things. I'd love to see Fangorn someday, but I don't know how Turbine can pull that off in an MMO setting without thousands of players descending upon it, something that couldn't happen in the books because we'd get eaten, squished, and permalost (not in that order).

Originally Posted by djheydt

When SWTOR opens, a fair number of players will go to it, simply because it will be NEW.

At the end of a month or two, they will either (a) go to yet another game that will have just opened, because it in its turn will be NEW, or (b) come back to LotRO. There are two or three threads on the front page of General Discussion right now, started by people who left LotRO for some reason or the other, and now they're back, one of them lamenting that he gave away all his gold before he left.

There is something about this game that keeps bringing people back. Perhaps it's the Lore, which (don't forget) Tolkien developed over his whole adult life (say, from 1919, when WWI ended, to his death in 1973).

Perhaps it's quality. Perhaps it's love.

I understand that completely, in fact that is why I kept coming back to WoW over and over again, until I left for good earlier this year. But just like I finally left WoW for good, there will be people who leave LOTRO for good, when they find a game they prefer, and that game could easily be SWTOR. Keep in mind a lot of our RP community once was a part of the RP community in SWG, before the NGE drove them off. Don't you think many of them would love to play a SW game again, perhaps more then they love LOTRO?

I'm not saying SWTOR will kill LOTRO, far from it. But you can bet Turbine will time their release of Update 5 to try to keep interest in LOTRO high, to perhaps reduce the loss of players going to SWTOR on the 20th of December. If SWTOR weren't coming out this year and it was instead a big release for WoW, Turbine would do the exact same thing.

In short, it is all about mitigating their losses.

Originally Posted by djheydt

When SWTOR opens, a fair number of players will go to it, simply because it will be NEW.

At the end of a month or two, they will either (a) go to yet another game that will have just opened, because it in its turn will be NEW, or (b) come back to LotRO. There are two or three threads on the front page of General Discussion right now, started by people who left LotRO for some reason or the other, and now they're back, one of them lamenting that he gave away all his gold before he left.

There is something about this game that keeps bringing people back. Perhaps it's the Lore, which (don't forget) Tolkien developed over his whole adult life (say, from 1919, when WWI ended, to his death in 1973).

Perhaps it's quality. Perhaps it's love.

It's the people. That's what kept me around longer than anything Turbine does.

Is your name supposed to be Dovahkiin? Like the Skyrim main character?

Originally Posted by Dovakhim

Is there any idea when it's going to be released?

Tuesday. 100% truth.

Would really love to see a scaleable OD along with a Lvl 75 version of T2 Armor

Though that´ll not happen with Update 5, maybe with Update 6 or 7

Originally Posted by Yula_the_Mighty

Lothlorien and Endewaith are two examples that were done after Moria.

Technically, Lothlorien was supposed to be released with Moria but got pushed back.

Originally Posted by Kaynith

Soon(tm) But not TOOSOON(TM)

EXACTLY!

Originally Posted by Lilka

It's an instance cluster, not an area.

Correct!

Originally Posted by Nyrion

I believe the only info we have on Update 5 is that it will contain the new instances, the next Epic Book, and it is slated for sometime in December.

Perhaps I've missed something though, in which case I will happily like to be corrected.

Correct, there are a couple of other things in it as well, but not a new area. If I were to give a hint, I'd say something incredibly criptic like; The number of planned developer diaries is more than three, but less than ten.

Oh, and there is one very small addition being made that should make a certain group of players on Landroval extremely happy.

Originally Posted by Sapience

Correct, there are a couple of other things in it as well, but not a new area. If I were to give a hint, I'd say something incredibly criptic like; The number of planned developer diaries is more than three, but less than ten.

Oh, and there is one very small addition being made that should make a certain group of players on Landroval extremely happy.

Very cryptic indeed, you big tease :P

Originally Posted by Sapience

Oh, and there is one very small addition being made that should make a certain group of players on Landroval extremely happy.

You're a terrible, terrible person... >_>

Originally Posted by Sapience

Oh, and there is one very small addition being made that should make a certain group of players on Landroval extremely happy.

/starts looking through the Landroval-subforum hoping to find a topic that might be related.

Originally Posted by Sapience

Oh, and there is one very small addition being made that should make a certain group of players on Landroval extremely happy.

you're giveing my kin a custom horse aren't you?


seriously I imagine this is a "XP stopper" as IIRC it's been a group of folks on Landy begging for it the most

Can we expect with update 5 a repair of the German tooltips from skills and classtraits for minstrels? These are totally incorrect and show old characteristic from Mirkwood (not the new characteristic from Isengard). Its a huge loka-bug.

Awwww. I was so hoping that Wulf's Cleft might be opened up to us. That's a fairly large chunk of the Gap of Rohan that is currently inaccessible save through a single non-repeatable instance.

Speaking of which, any chance we could get a reflecting pool in Galtrev somewhere down the line? I do like replaying instances and we haven't had a reflecting pool since Mirkwood.

Originally Posted by Nyrion

I believe the only info we have on Update 5 is that it will contain the new instances, the next Epic Book, and it is slated for sometime in December.

We have also the info, that update 5 contains the horse-emotes (there are also some informations when the emotes are available in store, middle of november). I expect the update at 14th or 15th November.