Quest designer discusses solo content coming in Shores of Evendim

MadeOfLions, Quest designer for LOTRO, discusses some of the exciting things we can expect in regards to soloable content in the upcoming Shores of Evendim. He mentions there are more than 60 purely soloable quests in the next update!

• A storyline arc containing 26 soloable quests
• A hub packed with solo quests
• Return of new riddle quests
• Camps designed for soloability
• New deeds for Evendim

For those people unable to view the official LOTRO forums (for whatever reason), following is MadeOfLions’s post in it’s entirety.

Hi everybody! As a bunch of you have pointed out, Shores of Evendim is packed full of soloable content for those crucial levels in your thirties, so I think the proximity of Disastertown might be a little overstated.

But there’s more to it than that, really, because content updates aren’t something that happens overnight — Shores of Evendim has been awhile in the making, and it’s a direct result of feedback from during Beta. When it became apparent that the solo game thins out a bit as you approach the thirties, we got a head start on filling the gap; if I were good at Marketingspeak, I’d say that we leveraged the feedback to create some synergy in the content-sphere that directly addressed the… obviously, Marketingspeak isn’t my thing. Instead, I give you this:

+ An arc containing twenty-six soloable quests, telling what I’d like to think is a fairly compelling story, with several nonlinear segments, some puzzles, and even a type of quest that you’ve never seen before. Plus: rewards all along the way! No need to wait until the very end to get some neat gear.

+ A hub with so many soloable quests that the clutter of quest rings on the minimap was so severe that I was asked to move many of the quest givers to another location. I haven’t heard that criticism since the early days of Combe, which was notoriously crowded with quest rings even before Beta started.

+ The return of several new riddle quests, to reward exploring Evendim and paying attention to your surroundings. No need to journey to other regions to solve these riddles, either — everything you’ll need for them is self-contained within Evendim.

+ Camps throughout Evendim were designed with soloing in mind, with stats and creature density applied accordingly. There are only two camps containing elites, and everybody else is normal or signature. In fact, one of the elite camps has several quests specially-designed to make them soloable; it’s pretty neat.

+ New deeds for Evendim, of course — and since the focus is on soloability, these should help scratch your hunting/exploring itch. It helps that the region is so beautiful, too.

In total, there are more than sixty purely soloable quests in Evendim - that’s quite a lot of XP to help keep you busy during the thirties. I think you’ll be pleased with it. Soloability and casual-play have always been something of my personal agenda, so from the perspective of a humble quest designer, I think it turned out pretty great. When you do get in there, you’ll have to let me know if you agree.