Lord Of The Rings Online: Release Notes: March 6, 2007 - Part 2!

Part II of the massive patch for today:

Graphics/Animation/fx

• Spiders and Wargs all throughout the game now have much more appearance variation.
• Quivers now properly show up on NPCs’ backs when they are practicing with a bow.
• Drake Breath Weapons now properly fire at their targets.
• Shields will now appear on your back when you use a ranged attack with one equipped.
• Boars now have a taunt animation.
• Drakes no longer blip while patrolling.
• Dark-waters now correctly use water-based ranged attacks.
• You will now salute with a sword when you perform… what else? The sword salute emote!
• Fell Spirits now properly animate and use fx at range.
• Stealth Movement has been updated so that players in stealth don't slide while moving around.
• Your horse will now fade in and out properly when you teleport using the travel network.
• Monster play Wargs now strafe forward and to the left correctly while in stealth.
• The Minstrel's Lute no longer sticks around after casting Cure Fear.
• Quest icons no longer appear several meters above some NPCs; they appear correctly now, hovering just over the NPC’s head.
• Tom Bombadil will now move properly in the Great Barrow.
• Fell Spirits now handle movement over water correctly.
• Star Glass Items now have fx associated with their use.
• Lore-master's "Give Hope" fx now properly target the skill's target.
• Lore-master's "Light of the Rising Dawn" now properly deletes the book after use .
• When canceling a Lore-master induction, the book prop is now properly removed.
• The Minstrel's "Still as Death" skill now properly has the Minstrel "dying" and playing dead, until the minstrel moves or the channeling state ends.
• The Hobbit's "Throw Stone" skill now properly throws a stone.
• The Dwarf's "Head-butt" skill now properly animates as a... head butt!
• The Human's "Upper-cut" now properly animates as an unarmed uppercut punch.
• Turning restrictions added to some induction actions. You can no longer turn while:
  • using objects such as the crate at the beginning of the Archet Raid.
  • burying objects such as the bodies following the Archet Raid.
  • digging.
  • unlocking.
• Giants now properly throw rocks at you in combat. Duck and cover!
• Particle fx now play properly when you're mining.
• Urugarth: The final boss, Lagmas, now engages in combat properly.
• A number of problems that NPCs were having with firing bows have been fixed.
• The Nazgûl Rider no longer slides along the ground during the Hobbit Newbie Instance.
• The blue icon for Tactics now shows up properly when preparing a Fellowship Maneuver.
• Lore-master – "Cracked Earth" now has its own root fx.
• Half-Orcs now properly use their Crossbows.
• The Lore-master's "March of Ents" skill now plays properly for human males.
• Avatars now have landing animations for when they jump left/right.
• NPCs no longer impale themselves with their weapons while standing with their arms crossed or while talking. "Doctor, it hurts when I do this…"
• The various Edhelharn Token types now have visual fx associated with their use.
• Fixed issues with NPC Human Female movement rates being too fast during escort quests.
• The Burglar's "Reveal Weakness" fx no longer plays persistently on the target.
• Fixed a number of animation hitches associated with moving around while carrying objects with both hands (like pies).
• Stable-masters and the monster player trainer now have overhead iconics for those that have them enabled.
• All avatars now have a specific hit animation for when they are wielding a 2-handed axe or hammer. This will prevent interpenetration issues, where one seemingly solid object passes through another.
• Fixed an issue that was causing the Silverdeep's entrance door to blip.
• The Taunt fx now plays properly on the first hit of Shield Swipe and Bash.
• Fixed an issue that made the strafing while carrying objects animations blend incorrectly.
• The Uruk monster player avatar now has all of his jumping animations.
• Shields will now appear at their proper size when carried by Hobbits.
• Fixed an issue with the Lore-master "Ents Go to War" legendary skill. The Ent was not fading away on skill failure.
• Fixed an issue that caused the selection decal to not draw on some monsters.
• The Hobbit Male & Female now animate during auto-attacks when using 2-handded-weapons.
• "Bard's Arrow" now has its own fx.
• Streaks will no longer erroneously play on shields.
• Slayer Weapons under level 25 no longer play the "sting" fx.
• All the avatars are now set up to use 1-handed attacks for their auto-attacks, instead of sharing the 1-handed shield attack.
• Hunter Trap decals now show up properly for the Hunter and the Hunter's fellowship, and are invisible to non-fellowship members and monster players.
• Class skill particle fx should now play right on all races.
• Fixed the knee-popping in the hobbit female dance where it was occurring.
• Created a Huorn combat stunned animation.
• Fixed where the scaled sack sits on the hobbits’ shoulder.
• NPCs in the Esteldin library no longer clip through the ground.
• Other players don't play the swim animation when they aren't moving in water.
• Other players won't get into the situation where they are running in place.
• Guards in Eastern Thorhad will no longer have weapons sticking through their bodies while they are playing their emotes. Ouch!

• Fixed a problem where the camera would clip through the landscape when the player was in water, but the camera was over land.
• The player’s avatar will now fade out when the camera is too close to it.
• The camera has been adjusted for players when riding a mount or traveling.

• The running sounds change speed immediately when the Captain skill Make Haste is used.
• The "Mute Game Sounds" option in the Audio options panel now mutes video sounds as well.
• The "Target is Dead" message will no longer generate a sound.

• Bag End now has a tile floor, instead of wood, in accordance with descriptions in the books. Changed the floors in some other hobbit interiors as well, including a few taverns and Great Smials.
• Fixed a broken door in Fornost.
• Suppliers have arrived at crafting centers, bringing with them many of the items that Provisioners used to carry.
• Provisioners, Suppliers, and Grocers now have separate inventories and sell crafting supplies and food.
• Guests attending shows at the Methel Stage near Bywater will now find more comfortable seats.
• The area around Celondim should no longer be named after the town of Duillond but should simply be "Falathlorn."
• The door going out of the Brockenborings Post Office should no longer open onto a blank wall.
• Players should no longer get stuck if they jump off a cliff while within the "To Avert A War" instance.
• Malenhad has received a decoration pass - mist hovers above the eerie blue waters, and wisps of steam drift up from many of the geyser cups throughout the swamp.
• All resource nodes are now using appropriate artwork.
• Morroval in the Ram Duath have been downgraded from Elite to Signature.
• Wargs should now be more common in eastern Kingsfell.
• Duillond has been redecorated!
• Nan Amlug East (a division of the North Downs) has been reworked to have a more unified set of terrain textures and scene assets (trees, bushes, etc).
• Various locations in the North Downs where players could escape outside of the impassable boundaries have been fixed.
• Several NPCs in Bree were tired of living outside. Be sure to visit the Bree Town Hall, the Bree Jail House, the Lowbank's Estate and the Scholar's Stair Archives!
• Portions of the Fields of Fornost are now actually the Fields of Fornost (and not the Greenway, as they would have you believe).
• Players should no longer be able to get stuck between bookcases in Radagast's Tower in Agamaur.
• Slightly increased the number of Goblin Sappers in the Southern Midgewater Marsh mixed spawns.
• Repositioned some deco to prevent players from getting stuck in the Bree Auction House.
• The Short-cut Barrow from Andrath to the South Barrow-downs now has a 'magic door' on both sides.
• The Trollshaws once again has the appropriate set of chat channels (instead of four trade channels - we figure one is enough to promote trade in the area).
• Fixed a floating book in the Silverdeep.
• Some of the buildings in Bree should now be visible from far away.

• Some travel costs have been adjusted.
• The Esteldin heavy armour vendor now sells heavy armour.
• Senga, the Provisioner in Aughaire, now sells provisioner items.
• Morale & Power potions are no longer sold by shops. They remain as crafted items and items found in loot.
• Trainers now repair items for the same cost as other vendors.
• Bartenders no longer sell craft ingredient items, but now provide potions and basic rations.
• Vendors and Trainers in Michel Delving have decided to move indoors.
• Craft Vendors can now be found in Trestlebridge.
• The Craft Vendors in Esteldin have been consolidated. Expert Craft Vendors now have the inventories of their lower-tiered counterparts. Lower-tiered Woodworker and Leatherworker craft vendors have been removed.
• Gondamon now has a bard!
• Peg Pruner, Bogi, and Gailthin have recently received a large supply of rations. New players should visit them for all their food needs in the newbie instances.

• Solicitor locations will now show up on town maps.
• Enabled the mapnote filters on the radar for Settlements, Scrying Pools, Reflecting Pools, and Auctioneers.
• You can now filter mapnotes on dungeon maps. In addition, crafting and auction halls will show mapnotes on their 'M' maps.
• Some incorrectly placed mapnotes (in the dwarf starter area, for instance) have been removed.
• You can now see the Bree-town stable masters on the Bree-land map.
• The Stable masters no longer call Bree's South Gate "East Bree" but refer to it as "South Bree."
• Discovered Mapnotes will now appear on your radar and map as soon as they are discovered.

• Mount prices have been increased.
• All mount items have an induction time before your mount is summoned.
• Mounting a horse now breaks stealth.
• You can no longer mount while swimming. Sorry, water polo enthusiasts!
• Mounts can now be sold back to vendors. Warning: If you buy a mount and later visit a vendor, you could accidentally sell your mount if selecting the 'sell all' option. Use the lock-item feature if you don't want to accidentally sell your mount.
• Fixed a problem that was allowing players to travel while mounted.
• Horses using the travel route from Hobbiton to Needlehole should no longer get confused and circle wildly at the crossroads in Waymeet.

Miscellaneous

• The logic associated with the Player light has been improved, so it can only be used at night or while inside a dungeon or structure (you know… dark places).
• Tag beacons now accurately tell you if a game of tag is active or not.
• Previously, when a player recalled while frozen in a game of tag, the game would get all sorts of confused. This is no longer the case, and players can feel free to recall mid-game.
• You can no longer track cloaked admin players. It was kind of freaking us out, you know?
• Getting drunk no longer leaves you perma-drunk. There’s just nothing funny we can say here that won’t get us in trouble!
• Skills and emotes are now blocked while traveling.
• You now get an error message "Waiting for server..." when your client hasn't heard from the server in a few seconds (which locks your movement).
• The /stuck command spells out the length of time you need to wait before you can use it again.
• The /stuck command is now safer to use. No more corrupting your character!
• You're now given an error message when you try to use a locked item without the proper key.
• Fixed a client crash associated with repairing damaged items.
• Sauron's minions had infiltrated the vault keepers' network and were very rarely making off with some items for the forces of the Enemy. The perpetrators have been eliminated and vault security tightened to prevent this kind of loss from happening again in the future.
• Player pets can now go through the same base entrances that players can.
• Fixed a bug that was allowing players in full fellowships to invite raid members into the fellowship despite its fullness.
• Fixed a client crash which could occur when issuing some raid commands.
• Filtering
  • Clearer errors are now returned from the name filter when names are rejected by it, and will give some hint as to the reason why the name was rejected.
  • Chat profanity filtering should be less aggressive (e.g. no longer bleeping out words like "Gandalf" or "Turbine"). This goes for MOTD profanity filtering as well.
  • When the profanity filter is on, the following things get censored client side: Mail subjects and message bodies, LFF Notes, Kinship MOTD, and inspection of others’ bios.
  • Kinship and Item names are now subject to name filtering.
  • The name filter will now block additional names that violate the LOTRO Code of Conduct.
  • Some English names (such as "Schwinn") would not be allowed in the game due to a bug, but now they are!
• Defeat in Nellie Boskins' house no longer sends you to the Bree-fields Rally Point (though what you were doing in there to get defeated is anyone's guess - vicious housefly perhaps?). You will now go to the Greenway Rally Point.
• Fixed several spots where players could exploit monsters.
• Monsters in "Defence of the Trestlebridge" now path over the barricades.
• Fixed issues where monsters would try to path through buildings, trees, etc.
• The game should gain focus and be active after launcher minimizes.
• Replaced many instances of "!General Error" with the appropriate error message.
• Crebain Sentries perched on rocks were not able to path to players. This has been fixed.

General:

• Money rewards from quests have been reduced.
• Adjusted the challenge levels of several Garth Agarwen quests.
• There is now a warning that the Class instances can only be done Solo.
• When trading items used in quests, quests will now update properly.
• Consignment quests should have the correct time remaining displayed in the quest journal and quest tracker, and will continue to countdown while the player is offline.
• Escort quests such as "Lalia's Safe Passage" and "Oakheart's Flight" are now auto-bestowed to your fellowship when one player accepts the quest.
• Quests are now updated when you equip and unequip items used in quests. Equipped items cannot be turned in for quests; you must have the item unequipped to use for a quest.
• If you teleport while channeling (carrying a quest item like pie, mail, or a giant skull) the item will be dropped.
• You cannot start carrying a quest object while using a travel skill.

• Sam's down-to-earth speech and rustic nature endeared him to many of us. Who can forget the memorable scene in Rivendell when he said ""< string table error; table [0x000000000] token [0x0000000000]>, Mr. Frodo!" Now he won't.
• "A Daring Rescue" now has longer pauses and should display text for players attempting to rescue Leofwenna. She will pause 4 times as she heads toward the entrance of the Goblin camp. Her final pause occurs at the crest of the stairs far from the entrance. From here, players must be quick about clearing and supporting her.
• Pengail, in "A Deal Gone Sour," now displays his father's sword when he discovers it!
• Players can no longer enter the arena with Rigul and friends, happily ganking them before they play out their drama. This was possible in previous iterations of the "Retake Weathertop" instance.
• Players trying to run a shortcut to the top of the "Retake Weathertop" instance will find their way barred. No exploit fo j00!
• Players can no longer hop the first gate in the "Retake Weathertop" instance. This would only occur if the player went through the gate and it closed again (which does happen if you take a real long time), and then hopped the fence. It's silly, but we thought we'd try to fix this before it became an issue.
• "Foray into the Barrow Downs" has had the difficulty of gathering the quest objects significantly reduced. You should now be able to complete the quest solo.
• There was a set of foodstuffs at a camp in the North Downs used for the quest "War and Famine" that was not allowing players to collect the items. This has been fixed.
• Players visiting Ost Guruth in the far east of the Lone-lands found that Frideric the Elder had a vector available to Candac at the Forsaken Inn. This was in error. If you have completed the vector out of Bree for Lily Sandheaver, or if you have previously assisted Candac Brightwood, this quest should not have been available. This now functions correctly.
• Pakonka, the troll Siegemaster in Dol Dinen, got all dressed up!
• Orcs have received a major pass on color/armour variants.
• Whitehand loyalists are now referred to as White Hand.
• Beware, all travelers who make their way to the Drake Valley in the North Downs! There is a new terror in the skies.
• Collecting the objects needed for the quest "Foray into the Barrow-downs" has been made easier. Beware, still, stirring the Dead who dwell in this dark place.
• Players can again complete the quest "A Greater Theft" given by Hunulf Munce at the Forsaken Inn.
• The perfect lynx hide and other lynx hide dropped in the Trollshaws now mention that they begin a quest in their descriptions.
• Krithmog's Collar in the North Downs now mentions that it starts a quest.
• We took a look at the orc camp on the border of the central and eastern Lone-lands and decided that some changes were needed. It should be more friendly to the solo player now.
• Placement of the banners for the "Water of Life and Death" quest in west Angmar has been changed.
• We’ve added new rewards for the "Bad Pie" and Mail delivery quests in the shire.
• The power of some quest rewards in Garth Agarwen has been upgraded.
• Upon completion of the "Unmarked Trail" instance, players will find that they are a whole lot closer to Legolas.
• Who was "ESTELDIN HEALER?" What did he want? The world may never know.... (Cuz he's gone!)
• The "Unmarked Trail" instance has been polished. You'll find that Legolas is a whooooole lot more helpful now!
• If you are defeated in the "Assault on Archet" or the "Skrogrím's Tomb" instances, you will now reappear at the beginning of the instance space.
• The Crebain that attack Fredagar Bolger in the Book 1 - Chapter 7 quest should no longer go into anti-exploit mode on flying in.
• Celandine now throws her torch like she used to, back in the day.
• Peg Pruner has gotten a bit better about trying to heal her poor husband Ned, and no longer kneels on his chest when she's trying to heal him in the "Assault on Archet" instance. As if being mortally wounded wasn’t bad enough…
• The missing book pages for "The Artisan Blade" quest can now be found via loot drops.
• Lowered the number of ruin-piles required in the "Relics of Rhudaur" quest to 10.
• Erandir's notes on how to make deft gauntlets have been rewritten to include the name of the aurochs that might have the thread you need (Trampletusk); if you can't find him but you can find a fellowship, the other aurochs in Kingsfell might have the thread instead!
• Fixed the drop rate of relic fragments for snow-lurkers involved with "Unwitting Scavengers."
• "Spying on the Goblins" now tells you the correct names of the goblins you should avoid.
• Baillindiel had some issues remembering which Snowbeast-fur she wanted, but now she has it all sorted out.
• Severin Wheeler and Edward Putnam have a little more notice that the orcs are on their way in "A Minstrel's Hope" and can take up their positions in advance.
• The stolen dwarf-gold ingot at issue in "One Last Ingot" should now appear for every member of the fellowship who needs it.
• Pointed the "Articles of Valour" quest at slugs you can actually find in Malenhad. It seems so obvious in retrospect!
• Fixed the spawning of brigands in "A Thief in the Night."
• "Thunder in the Mountains" is now properly marked as needing a Fellowship. We don't recommend taking on the Thunder-lord by yourself.
• Lubach has fewer goblins in his service at the end of "Beneath the Greenfields."
• A group will now have a slightly more difficult time "Freeing Dori" than they did before.
• Esmerelda Burrows has found her way back to the Bird and Baby.
• "A Well-Ordered Mind" will now fail if you are killed in the library, to prevent the quest from becoming impossible on subsequent attempts if you take too long.
• Now the whistle that you get for "Calenthon and Malloval" can only be used in one location, as intended. No more subbing HNT with your LRM or your GRD!
• Hobbit- and Man-specific text has been added to Strider's completion dialogue in "Foreword: An Unwanted Guest."
• The North Downs quests "Brother's Plea," "Staunching the Flow," and "Sealing the Pact" have increased in challenge level to levels 33, 35, and 35 respectively.
• The quest "Off to Staddle" has been tweaked to require fewer trophy drops.
• The "Haunted Alley" black rock has been changed. Again. It is now a) black, and b) not an evil performance killer.
• West Angmar "Light of Hope" encounter with the hill-man Uthagan has been made solo-able and non-broken at the same time! Bonus!
• Cole Sickleaf has been promoted to "signature" status.
• The Lynx Mother in Ered Luin has gotten a promotion to Signature, to help her deal with those pesky birds.
• The solo quest "Wings of Death" has been upgraded to "small fellowship recommended," and the fellowship quest "Mistress of Blood and Shadows" has been downgraded to "small fellowship recommended," so both of these related quests are now at the same recommended group size.
• The Bree-land quests "Horses for Hire," "The Forgetful Dwarf," and "Stolen Notes" have been dropped to level 15. Directions for the quests have been revised, and the appropriate orcs will now actually drop the stolen notes.
• The "Cave Slayers" quest in west Angmar was specifying the wrong orcs and Uruks for the revamped and beautified cave. We fixed it.
• Added better quest failure messages for the "Cairn of Honour" quest in west Angmar.
• The Bloodstones quest in west Angmar should be completeable now.
• Placement of the banners for the "Water of Life and Death" quest in west Angmar has been changed, and we replaced a missing one.
• Leofwenna was running too darn fast in "A Daring Rescue" in the Lone-lands. Slow down, girl, slow down!
• Tarburz in the Bree-land quest "By Axe and Fire" was far too rarely seen. He will now spawn 100% of the time (except for a brief period after getting killed.)
• Glambaen in Lin Giliath will now respond properly to people on the Rune-kenner quest. No more hoighty-toighty "You're not a lore-master!" airs for her.
• The Ongbûrz Defiler has applied for a transfer from Merenost, southeast of Lin Giliath, to Gurzlum, northwest of Lin Giliath. Angmarim High Command says: Transfer Approved.
• The Trolls of Nan Tornaeth named "Delete Me" in some very ancient dialect of the black speech have been replaced with more recently spawned monstrosities.
• Mysterious evil near Starmere eradicated. Film at 11. Some north Bree-fields and Bree-lakes area monsters were improperly set to be Barrow-Downs types. They have been reset to be more appropriate to the area.
• Treasure chests and scholar resources have been removed from the Epic Book 5, Chapter 5 Instance in the Misty Mountains.
• The "Seven Swords" quest now offers the proper rewards when completed.
• "Flowers of the Old Forest" can now be bestowed and completed.
• "The History of the Dúnedain" can now be bestowed and completed.
• The quests "Tainted Living" and "Rings of Rhudaur" cannot be bestowed on a player until they have completed Book 2, Chapter 8.
• The quest "By Axe and Fire" has now been appropriately marked as a small fellowship quest.
• Dorongur in the Elf newbie experience will no longer continue to shout about the Goblin after he has been killed (he was really excited about it, okay?).
• The quest "The Sword of Rhudaur" can now be completed.
• The monster levels for the quest "Sever the White Hand" have been lowered to match the quest level.
• The icon for sickle-fly wings for the quest "Neeker-friend" now looks more like a wing and less like an acorn.
• The quest targets for diseased boars are now spawning correctly.
• Tanner Bunce has been renamed to Tanner Boffin.
• Nathronwen is no longer bald!
• Fixed an issue with the quest "Proving your Quality."
• You will no longer receive string table errors when talking to Soldier Fandmau while in the middle of the quests he offers.
• The Consignment Quest for Rare ore will no longer refer to Common ore in the second part of the quest.
• Raugzok, a quest target in Dol Dinen was double spawned, and has been fixed.
• NPCs fighting alongside players in the "Assault on Rath Teraith" will no longer tap monsters to themselves.
• Fixed Boromir's color text.
• Quest directions for the quest "Snapper Soup" have been updated.

• Defeating Captain-General Lainedhal for Angmar's Army now properly completes the quest "Captain-General Lainedhal."
• Taskmaster Krul was trying to send you to another Soldier when you completed your assault against the leader of the Free Peoples in the Ettenmoors. This created some interesting scenarios that could make you, as a player, very sad. We bribed the Taskmaster with a pint of Hoarhallow Ale, two Legs of Man, an Elf Ear, three Dwarf Beards, and a dozen hobbit toes. (We think he rolled easy.)
• Oh, those Hoarhallow Rat-folk! One, Ned Claybrick, kept referring to a PLACEHOLDER that you should talk to before you went off to kill goblins. We told him to cut it out. Seems to me that he was more rational than Taskmaster Krul.
• You will no longer receive a string table error when talking to Mazauk without having completed his quests.
• The "Tasty Little Legs" quest will no longer result in the NPC calling you MonsterClass when completing the quest.
• The keys to the Chest at Glan Vraig are no longer unique, and you can hold more than one in your inventory at a time.
• Players can no longer exploit their way to free tokens of valour at Dar-gazag ...not that they were, of course. Thanks for the catch, beta players!
• Soldier Gazlup and Gorgoris the Gorger will no longer spew string table errors when you speak to them after accepting, but not completing, their quests.
• The quest "Fluffing Pillows" now gives more information on what monsters players should be looking for.