The Lord of the Rings Online: Book 12 Preview, Part One

[GameBanshee News]

MMORPG.com is continuing their coverage of the upcoming Book 12 update for The Lord of the Rings Online with a look at the new character customization.

One of my biggest personal complaints about Lord of the Rings Online was the fact that my Champion, as he progressed in levels, started to look more and more like some kind of circus clown. While all of my armor pieces were statistically on-par with one another and with me, it looked like I had fished them out of the sale bin at a used armor store. This isn’t a gripe I’ve had specifically with LotRO though, it’s a common problem in many MMOs, and Turbine is addressing it.

Throughout these Books (this is the fourth free update, for those keeping score at home), the developers have done a great job of not only adding quest content and fixing bugs, but also of adding features that make Middle Earth a little bit more real and immersive. In the last book, it was the addition of player housing (which we’ll touch on a little bit later). In this book, it’s the ability to make your character look any way you want them to, accomplished by adding a clothing layer that serves no statistical purpose, but allows players to have their characters look any way that they see fit. Don’t worry though, my Champion’s mis-matched, clown-like (but very effective) armor will still be providing all of the stats.

When Book 12 goes live, players will notice a small but very important change to the character sheet User Interface (UI). The UI has been changed to include two new tabs along the right hand side of the picture. These tabs represent the two different cosmetic outfits that are available to players. The implementation is pretty simple… click a button to have your character wear the outfit.

Along with the new outfit system, the developers have also added in 55 new cosmetic items that can be found as drops, purchased from vendors or even crafted, though I am told that dropped items and crafted items will be “cooler” than those purchased from a vendor.