So we have some answers now about the content we're getting in 2023, but a whole lot of new questions as well. In broad strokes, we're getting what I've been anticipating the last couple of months: a post-war version of Gondor (the revisiting familiar territory bit) and some type of Umbar/Harad-related expansion in the fall (the new lands, saltwater bit). The big surprise for me is the Carn Dum instance cluster; I definitely didn't see that coming!Some questions that come to my mind:
See AlsoSeptember 2023 Popular Weekend Events in Fulton County (Continuously Updated)| Trip.comFilling the Gaps: following in the footsteps of the Wildwood and the Angle* How many landscape updates are we getting this year? I feel like this one has been answered, but there seems to be some confusion and debate about this point. My understanding is that we're getting two major landscape updates: a post-war version of Gondor in the spring and a Harad/Umbar expansion in the fall, possibly along with some minor updates to coincide with the instance cluster in the winter and the further adventures in the summer. In that sense, 2023 should be a pretty typical year.
* How does the Carn Dum instance cluster relate to the existing Carn Dum instances and the landscape version of Carn Dum? I'm personally quite happy about the new instance cluster; as a raider who's been playing since LOTRO's first year, I have a great deal of nostalgia for the Angmar instances of old and I'm happy to get to revisit them in a sense. It sounds like the new instances are meant to be a post-SoA, post-War of the Ring version of Angmar, roughly coinciding with the current endgame timeline and the status quo we've seen hinted at in Elderslade and Gundabad. It sounds like we won't be getting any new landscape with these new instances, and the original instances will be untouched. I think there are two ways they could handle this: we could get an expanded version of Carn Dum that fits neatly alongside the existing landscape and instance versions of Carn Dum, perhaps with the new areas visible in the distance; or we could get a completely reworked version of Carn Dum that doesn't fit with the original version of Carn Dum, similar to how the landscape version of Dale and Erebor are quite different from the Dale and Erebor that we get in the Road to Erebor instances. Personally, I'm hoping for the former, because it always bothers me a little when instances don't align with each other and with the landscape.
* What is the nature of post-war Gondor? Will it include new landscape or will it just be a revised version of the existing landscape? I keep thinking about all the devs' talk about extensive and ambitious landscape work in 2023. Scenario mentioned that in one of his videos, and Orion mentioned that again in his letter. I think I've seen it in a couple of dev posts since the letter was released, too. Creating a post-war Gondor seems like an interesting task as far as landscape work goes. I assume they can start from a copy of the existing landscape, but I don't think it's as simple as adjusting the lighting and the day-night cycle, or even changing a few NPCs. Landscape that looked good under the Dawnless Day will not necessarily look good in the sunlight; notably, colors might have to be adjusted to make everything look right. We may see either new damage from the war or old damage repaired, too. Landscape, props, and monster camps will no doubt have to be adjusted as well. On the one hand, they have a head start on all these areas; on the other hand, it's potentially a vast area to have to rework. I'm curious to see how far post-war Gondor extends. I imagine we'll get South Ithilien, since it's an important landscape link to Harad and Umbar. I think there's a decent chance we'll get West, Central, and East Gondor, since they link us to Anfalas if we eventually go there. Will we get Old Anorien and Far Anorien? It would be nice to see these areas in peace and daylight, but they seem like the most optional areas. And what about new areas of Gondor? Will we get Anfalas? Will we get Harondor? Will we get Tolfalas? Will we get some of the mountain passes that people have requested recently in this thread? Will we get to meet the White Mountain dwarves? Might we get some new points of interest to fill in some of the less developed areas of Gondor, similar to what SSG did with Azanulbizar? And of course, there's the question of what kind of quests, missions, and instances might come along with post-war Gondor. There's a lot we still don't know.
* Will we be jumping straight to Umbar via some fast travel boat, or will we get the landscape between Umbar and Gondor? And if we get the connecting landscape, will it come before Umbar or after? It's unclear from Orion's letter whether we would be portalling straight to Umbar in the fall or if the fall will just give us an expansion that begins our journey toward Umbar, and from the posts I've seen, it seems like others are unclear about this point as well. I think it would be an odd choice, after a year spent filling in gaps in the landscape, to jump us straight to Umbar without giving us the connecting landscape. For the first time in the game's history, we have a fully contiguous map, so why break it up again? I'm a big fan of LOTRO's landscape contiguity, so I definitely have a preference here.
* Why mention "new biomes" as a feature in Orion's letter? I'm sure Harad and Umbar will require new biomes, but it seems like an odd way of phrasing it. "New biomes" sounds less exciting than "new landscape." Though I suppose one of the exciting things about Harad is that the landscape is likely to be a much bigger departure from the existing biomes than any other previous landscape update has been, so maybe it makes sense to underscore that point.
An interesting point: dedicating the spring update to a new version of existing landscape probably gives the artists some extra time to develop new art assets for our southward journey, which seems like a good thing. I know that's something we've discussed in this thread. Harad will likely require a large number of new art assets, so the extra time is likely to SSG's, and ultimately our, benefit.
I look forward to learning more about the upcoming updates in the months to come!
