I’m sorry but what is this – a Lord of the Rings Online roadmap published before Christmas?! I might still be scarred from the year we didn’t get a roadmap until March, but I will most definitely be happy to get it earlier than on time this round.
Standing Stone Games’ Allan “Orion” Maki has delivered the roadmap for the team this year, and there’s plenty on it: We’re getting a six-boss three-wing raid for level-150 toons, QOL update, a modernized deed log UI, class adjustments (oh no) and more tweaks for birding in Q1 (actually likely in February); the 18th anniversary events, a content pack, Uniting Shâgana, (“the content pack is the direct tie into the Uniting Shâgana story beat”), a new instance, and another new raid in Q2; a summer update in Q3 without much info yet; and a Q4 expansion with new territory and a level cap bump this time. We’re also expecting new 64-bit servers in the US and Europe, accessible to subbers and non-subbers alike – more info on that coming early next year.
Players will note immediately that the roadmap is fairly high-level and not remotely granular; Orion says that’s intentional, as giving too much detail in past years apparently caused frustration among players when not every aspirational goal was met.
“First, we are reducing the number of details on the roadmap to provide more concise and accurate information,” he explains. “Details explained beyond six months often shift due to priorities or resource demands and become irrelevant or wrong. To avoid this, we plan to provide an overview of the year ahead and then modify the roadmap quarterly with insight into development six months at a time. […] By the time February arrives, we should be positioned to extend the details of the roadmap into the Quarter 3 release of 2025 and provide greater detail on the Quarter 2 release.”
The missive initially sparked a bit of rumbling on the forums, Discord, and Reddit about the new 64-bit servers, as players are wondering what’s going on with the kinship rework, UI upgrades, and crafting overhaul, as well as expressing concerns that existing servers won’t be upgraded and that any transfers to the new servers could cause older servers to fracture. Cordovan has suggested that the first transfers will be from the closed servers (the ones where characters have been marooned for years).
“At least initially the transfers to these new 64 bit worlds will not be from our 32 bit worlds, and will instead focus on our closed legacy servers,” he says. “We’ll have more details about the specifics of our plans in January.”
Orion then chimed in to clarify that actually, all characters on existing 32-bit servers will be able to transfer for free. “When the 64-bit servers come online we will allow free and optional transfers off existing 32-bit worlds for all players,” he wrote in his update. “More information about the timing, name reservation, etc. will be handled in a Q&A sit down with Cordovan and Severlin in the early part of the new year. In the weeks following the opening of the 64-bit worlds, we will also open ‘dark world’ transfers to the 64-bit servers to allow characters on those worlds to move over.” Furthermore, he says, “Down-scaling system is on the proverbial backburner for the time being.”
But again, that isn’t going to allay the fears of players now concerned for the future of the existing server communities.
