LOTRO Legendarium: Eight features I’d love to see added to LOTRO

Opinions, as they say, are like social media accounts: Everyone’s got at least one and probably a dozen ready to ruin your life. This is especially true when applied to the field of MMOs that we play. I mean, it’s almost impossible to be engaged with a title not to form strong opinions about what should be added to (or subtracted from!) it.

While I have no doubt that Standing Stone Games has its own wish list on top of all of the deluge of requested features that Lord of the Rings Online players send its way, I figure that there’s no harm in putting to paper my own assortment of fantasized additions. Here are eight features — “performance improvements” notwithstanding — that I think would make LOTRO an even better place to game.

In-game calendar

It seems to me that it’s really silly that, in the year 2023, we have to go to a constantly adjusted forum post to find out the schedule of upcoming in-game events. There’s no doubt in my mind that LOTRO would greatly benefit from an in-game calendar to keep us all on track, especially if kinships would have the ability to add their own events and sign-ups on it as well. I mean, every MMO should have this, really, but especially this one.

Stable master map

Raise your hand if the stable master travel system is confusing and opaque. Because my hand’s been up in the air on this for years now. When you consider that not every stable master connects to every other one and you are dealing with a whole bunch of weird fantasy destination names, it can make for bewildering travel experiences, one only marginally helped with player-crafted map mods (and bless them for their efforts). So why not provide a clickable map, similar to the one on the collections screen? I mean, unless SSG is trying to drive us all to spending mithril coins on said map instead.

Boats

There are a wide assortment of bodies of water in LOTRO, from creeks to rivers to lakes to the open ocean — and I’m tired of slowly swimming across them. I think it would be quite corking if we had an ability to, say, hop into a canoe or raft to use these as a natural highway. Perhaps with this fall’s sea-themed expansion, we might see something along these lines?

Campsites

While I do love housing (more on that in a second), it’s always been a fond wish of mine to be able to make camp out in the wilds of LOTRO. After all, we see NPCs doing this all the time, so why not us? Let us set up tents or wagons with limited decorations and useful facilities, even if just for the roleplay aspect of it.

Smaller premium houses

Everyone and her mother has suggestions as to the housing types that SSG should put into the game next, but may I offer this humble suggestion? Bigger is not always better. I appreciate the premium houses with tons of hooks, but they are also giant cavernous spaces. I want a small, cozy home with a lot more hooks than come with standard houses. Who’s with me? [Editor’s note: I would buy this! -Bree]

Housing decor profession

And speaking of housing, it only makes sense for crafters to be able to do more to provide fun decor for us all to buy and enjoy. I know that several of the current professions can make a few limited objects, but this needs to either be expanded or supplemented by a furnishing-specific crafting profession. I’m looking forward to seeing what SSG does with woodworkers especially as it overhauls crafting.

A new legendary world

Considering that the most recent legendary worlds came out in 2021 and that Shadowfax is likely to retire this summer, I think we are due for another progression server to debut. And if that’s the case, why not use the occasion to come up with a different twist on the ruleset? LOTRO players love a challenge and a different way to experience their favorite game, so let’s make that happen!

Dead server transfers

As much as SSG would prefer us all to forget, many characters remain locked and inaccessible on dead servers. The studio’s been promising for years to get character transfers from these closed worlds going, and year after year it hasn’t happened because… technical reasons? Such a move would generate a dose of goodwill and even draw previous players back to the game to reunite with their long-lost toons.