Bullroarer Update 26 Preview #1
Standing Stone Games are currently previewing Update 26 for The Lord of the Rings Online on the Bullroarer Test Server. The new zone, the Wells of Langflood, follows in the idiom of Vale of Anduin with a comparable aesthetic. However, as this region is further north and at a higher altitude, there is a prevailing mist in most areas. The landscape also slowly climbs North as you approach where the arms of the Misty Mountains and Ered Mithrin meet. Overall it is a bright and colourful zone filled with wildlife. However, there are also various mobs from Mount Gundabad and several advance camps of Trolls and Orcs. There are also numerous Dwarven ruins indicating their historical presence in the region. The Eagles also feature in the area and obviously appear in several of the zones quest storylines.
There are four stables in Wells of Langflood. Limlók is the main Beorning settlement in an area called Floodfells. Further North there’s a second smaller settlement, Thokvist, just off the central road that traverses the zone from North to South. This area called Misthallow is quite small and penned in by mountains to the East and the river Anduin to the West. Further North there is the area known as Framsburg, which was the ancient home of the Éothéod, the ancestors of the Rohirrim. Many of the ruins are now home to Trolls and Orcs. And at the very Northern Apex of the map there is a third stable of Hlithseld. This area is more mountainous with narrow, twisting paths, overlooking ancient Dwarven remains. The new zone ends here at Elderslade and obviously will lead at a future date into Gundalok. There is a road that leads to the North East to the West of Rushgate.
The fourth stable is by far the most intriguing. It is located in the hidden village of Lyndelby which lies to the West of Framsburg on the opposite side of the river. It is accessed via a narrow winding path through a mountainous ravine and lies nestled in the arms of the Misty Mountains and North of the river Langwell. This secret valley is lush and fertile and home to Holbytlan, possibly the River Hobbits that SSG alluded to recently. It makes sense canonically that such a settlement could exist and their proximity to the Éothéod explains why Holbytlan appear in the legends of the Rohirrim. The mountain also shields this Hobbit community from an enemy enclave at Sundergrót. Among the Dwarven ruins, the enemy has siege engines and other weapons of war. Access to this area is via a makeshift bridge that traverses the Anduin and along a path West.
The Wells of Langflood is an agreeable new zone. If you enjoyed the ambience of the Vale of Anduin, then this is more of the same. There are numerous mountainous vistas with impressive views and the ambient music is once again integral to the atmosphere of the zone. As ever, about a third of the area shown on the map is inaccessible and SSG have done their usual trick of using the environment to funnel the player from quest hub to quest hub. I am definitely looking forward to returning to such a bright and verdant zone region having spent several months in Imlad Morgul, which I found to be a depressing and gloomy environment . As ever please note that Bullroarer is a test server and there is always scope for content to change prior to its release to the live game.
In addition to the pictures in this post, here is a link to a gallery of screenshots via Google Photos. All are available at the original screen resolution of 1920 x 1200.
