The future of the

Lord of the Rings Online is looking fairly busy.

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro/features/road-to-75-day-1">Rise

of Isengard

is only a few weeks old and Turbineis already hard at work putting together a big new update forDecember. We called up, ExecutiveDirector of Communications for Turbine, and, Senior Producer for LotRO, to see what'scoming with, and what Turbine has instore for 2012.

style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;" />The first thing

Aaron talked about was the continuation of the

epic book. "This is a big one for us," he

said. "This is 'the Prince of Rohan,' and it's gonna be a great

story. It's focused around Theodred, and

really it's the tale of your goodbye to the rangers." Characters

will part ways with the Dunedain rangers of the Grey

Company, who have been their go-to guys for the epic

line for the past (almost) 5 years, and continue the march

eastward with their new friends and allies from Rohan.

"The other big thing that I don't think we've really talked

about before that's coming out with Update 5 is called the Instance

Finder," Aaron continued. This will continue the

ongoing evolution of instanced content. Way back when, everyone

had to travel to the instance entrance to start it up. Later,

mustering horns were added at many of the entrances, allowing

groups to assemble faster and spend more time actually running

the instances. The next step was the Instance Join panel, which

allowed players to enter instanced spaces from anywhere in the

world. The Instance Finder is the next step in this process.

"We're going to have a brand-new interface," Aaron said. It

will allow players to queue up for instances, either

individually or with a group. "Everyone who's opted in for that,

everyone who's looking for a space right then, in your level

band, et cetera, in the right roles, it will automatically match

you and send you into the space."

style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;" />Essentially, this

is a fellowship finder that doesn't require the use of chat

channels. This is new to LotRO, but the idea has been around for

a while in World

of Warcraft and EverQuest

II. Theoretically, pick-up groups for instances can

form faster, and casual players will be given more opportunity

to run group content.

This new tech will come in handy for the new instance

cluster, which will be centered around the Tower of

Orthanc, the infamous lair of the central protagonist in Rise of

Isengard, Saruman the Many-Coloured.

"We have three 3-person instances, a 6-person and a 12-person

raid, and all of those are centered very much around Orthanc,

and around Saruman himself," Aaron explained. "The theme is,

really, challenging Saruman directly. We know that he has been

forging these minor rings of power, and it's going to be your

challenge to go forth and stop him, destroy these rings. Or, at

least to some degree, his army, before he can begin to spread

outward and threaten Rohan."

Aaron went on to describe some of the new instances coming in

Update 5.

style="float: right; margin-left: 5px;" />"One that's exciting

to me is a 3-person called 'Fangorn's Edge.'

Basically, you're going to be going in to the edges of Fangorn

Forest for the first time, traveling through a really

heavily-trafficked area full of orcs and trolls and other

nasties who are working on burning down the forest, cutting down

the edges of it. The trees, as you might expect - the huorns and

the ents there - are not especially happy about intruders, and

they don't really know friend from foe, so you're going to have

both orcs and huorns as enemies to contend with, and different

sort of bosses as you work through the space." This one ends

with a big battle - "You've got these masses of orc lumberjacks

coming in, the trees are threatened, the giant sawmills are

going, and you're taking down the orc leaders there."

Another of the 3-person instances is called "Pits of

Isengard," which takes place in the caverns and

tunnels beneath Orthanc. The 6-person instance, called "The

Foundry," also takes place in Isengard's depths, and

requires the group to challenge Saruman's lieutenants more

directly.

"You're in a space where he's building his weapons of war,"

Aaron explained. "You're going to be taking on some orcs and

other creatures that have been enhanced well beyond their normal

capabilities."

The raid, called "The Tower of Orthanc,"

should prove very challenging - "In that, you're going to fight

your way through, ultimately challenging Saruman himself. You're

actually going to face him in battle." Lore purists may have an

issue with this - there is no official account of any force

actually breaching the tower to confront Saruman directly, even

during the uprising and assault by the enraged ents of Fangorn

Forest - but it should prove very interesting to actually come

face to face with such an iconic and powerful villain.

Of course, the challenge means little without a reward. The new

raid comes with new armor sets and items - an instance set and a

raid set. This new gear will not likely render existing endgame

gear obsolete, since the level cap has not been raised, but will

provide players with a broader array of options. These new items

will be purchased with barter tokens, but, as Aaron explains,

"We're actually going to be taking the step of consolidating

some of our currencies as well, so we're going to have raid

currencies and dungeon currencies. Basically, rather than

looking at different kinds of tokens coming from each of the

spaces you're in, we're going to do it more like a system where

you have these new medallions or items coming from

top-tier raids, and another set of tokens coming from dungeon

spaces or other instances for 3 and 6 players. And then of

course, skirmishes have their own currency, but there are a lot

of them, so we want to make that process simpler."

So this is all scheduled for Update 5, coming in December, but

what's in store for next year? Adam explained, "We're not really

ready yet to talk about 2012, but I can tell you this: we're

certainly very focused on Update 5 and getting that out... but

there's going to be a lot more content in 2012 than there was in

2011. Isengard was our best-selling expansion ever, and we're

definitely taking that and investing in the franchise next year,

we have a lot of exciting things coming. There will be some big

announcements coming probably in January."

If you want to check out the coming changes, scheduled for

December, Update 5 will begin open beta testing on Bullroarer

starting on Tuesday.