The Lord of the Rings Online recently shared their 2019 Producer’s Letter and one of the major features coming this year is the 64 bit client. Standing Stone Games have assured players that the client is indeed coming in March 2019 with a beta, and is currently in testing. The new 64 bit client will do much to improve optimization overall for players running modern graphics cards in their rigs.
The letter also discusses upcoming improvements to LOTRO, including re-balancing class, content difficulty and Virtues. The latter is going to be interesting, as the Virtue system which allows players to slot additional stats and buffs have been stale for a number of years making them almost irrelevant. 2019 aims to change that, and existing virtue ranks will be converted to a new systems where they earn ranks and provide small benefits when slotted. These changes will allow players more choice when earning Virtue benefits.
In addition, the Lord of the Rings Online also plans to revamp its Kinship, or guild system. The new improvements wants to offer new rewards for large kins, such as the ability to activate kin-wide buffs for active members. This idea is pretty common in modern MMORPGs and will give a Kinship a collective goal to work towards.
For more information on all that’s coming in 2019, check out the letter here.
