If you have any thoughts or suggestions about new Skirmish System you can share them with the Lotro Community Team.  The questions are:

Question 1:
If you could make 3 changes to the Skirmish System, what would they be?

Question 2:
If you could add a new Skirmish to the game, what existing area or instance would you base it on?

Question 3:
We'd like to know what you would ask. If you could pick the questions for the Tell the Community Team, what would you ask?

Remember, tell the community team questions are questions Turbine asks the community to gather feedback about the game. Not questions you’d ask the Dev Team.

If you want to join the discussion click here for US players, and EU players can post their answers here.

The LOTRO Game Servers will be brought down on Tuesday, January 26 from 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM Eastern (-5 GMT) for a server side hotfix to address the Barad Guldur Gate Issue.

Players who enter the Barad Guldur raid instance with a previously obtained raid lock may encounter an issue where, upon a group death, the gates earlier in the instance no longer lower. This will prevent the group from returning to their previous point of progression and continuing.

The recommended work around is for players to exit the instance, disband and reform the raid under a new raid leader. This will reset the instance and lower the gates. However, any ‘trash’ mobs prior to the next boss fight will respawn as a result of resetting the instance.

[Source]

Today, Turbine has announced new Welcome Back to LOTRO Weekend from January 21st through January 25th.

We’re inviting all former LOTRO subscribers to play for free* from January 21st through January 25th! Jump back in and play one of your old characters, or start a new one. Plus, to help celebrate, you’ll get a +5% XP*** boost for all mob (monster) kills and free travel at all Stable-masters!

That’s right – we did it again! Come celebrate with us for free* during our Welcome Back Weekend from January 21st through January 25th and see why critics are naming The Lord of the Rings Online™: Siege of Mirkwood™ the Best Expansion of 2009.

Discover for yourself all of the exciting new updates to LOTRO including the new Skirmish System - action in Middle-earth has never been so intense! The Skirmish System offers endless action on demand for 1, 3, 6, or 12 players. With the Skirmish Join feature, you and your friends can instantly travel to the fight from anywhere in Middle-earth**. Plus, you can lead your own customizable soldier into battle for more thrilling adventure than ever before!

[Source]

Due to an increase in the reports of compromised LOTRO accounts and hacked accounts in other games, Turbine strongly encourages all players to change their passwords immediately.

To help reduce the likelihood of having your account compromised Turbine suggests players create a different username and password for each site they visit and each game they play. To change your password, please visit http://myaccount.turbine.com

[Source]

Do you remember the Hobo's Guide to Money-Making? This is one of best guides I've ever read, which helped me to get enough gold for me and my alts. Today I've found an interesting discussion about a "secret" way to make money in this game.

These are some secret ideas:

• Kill Undead and Trolls of Lonelands.Trolls drop 3-6s and w/e stuff. Take about 30-50mins to get 700s-1G. Undead can go better, but you'll fill bags up faster.
• Bandits in Evendim is nother of mine, lots of items and quick trip there with 3-4 empty bags get you 600-800 silver for under hour work.
• Grind green mobs for cash (and finish deeds as a bonus)
• Any time anything new is added it sells for many times more than it will a few weeks later. Sell high, buy it back low.
• Sell Symbols of Celebrimbor
• Learned how to use the AH efficiently
• Sold NPC vendor buyable outfits for inflated prices
• Once mobs become grey in a certain gathering area, it becomes much easier to farm resources
• Hit level cap and then quest. When you can't earn XP, you get extra silver for the reward

These are all really good ideas, but man do they sound like a lot of work. Here's my trick:

1) Target self.
2) /coin add 99999999
3) Profit.

Oh... you guys don't have admin clients? Well isn't that a shame.

Raskolnikov

Codemasters Online invites you to Login to Win in fantastic Festive LOTRO Giveaway competition sponsored by Alienware. All you need to do to be in with a chance of winning is:

1. Successfully answer one quick question
2. Login to the game between 23rd - 30th December, 2009

Prizes
The fantastic prizes on offer include:

• Alienware PCs (laptops)
• nVidia 8800GT graphics cards
• Siege of Mirkwood hoodies
• Logitech keyboards and headsets
• Siege of Mirkwood Special Editions

and much, much more!

[Source]

Codemasters has announced Welcome Back Week starting 23rd December, 2009. You will not be charged for this time and your account will be automatically closed at the end of the Welcome Back Week.  The entire duration your account will be active is from 23rd December until 30th December 2009.

For full details on this Welcome Back Week and the activities taking place please visit:
community.lotro-europe.com/

Click here to download the latest client:
community.lotro-europe.com/full_client.php?

Turbine is pleased to present us some changes to Yule festival. Let's start with the first one:

The Glorious Beer-fight.

The beer is in perilously short supply at the Ale Hall, and this has made many festival patrons rather furious. Rare beer is not something to be taken lightly, after all. Yule may be a time for peace and good cheer, but there are some things worth fighting for -the Glorious Beer.

The New Horse Races

The horse-races have been re-vamped to accommodate the new mount system, and we are keeping our fingers crossed that these will be around for a long time. Our solution has been to reintroduce them as a solo experience. This is a far more reliable system that has proven its worth in the level 35 quest to obtain the riding trait.

The tricky racetracks have been jazzed up by the World Team with a number of more elegant obstructions, hurdles, and barriers to better channel the flow of the race. Players who successfully navigate the course will enjoy speed boosts to help them along the way, while an unfortunate misstep will trip up your horse or pony with some sticky mud. But even accident-prone players will have a shot at the finish line, if luck is on their side. With a combination of luck, skill, and inevitable practice, we hope to see many people enjoying the special Yule steeds as a reward for their hard work.

You ride between the poles and if you miss the poles, you lose. You should ride over the planks and jump. It is tricky, but it can be done. If you miss your jump, you fall into the water. You don't get lame, but you do get sticky tar on you, which slows you down, perhaps enough to not finish the course before the timer runs out. - [GalateaOrea]

Yule quest-givers

You’ll find that Yule quest-givers have moved to where you’re sure to spot them, and that the items they’ll have you collect will not require you to trek so great a distance as you expect. Instead of in the town of Bree, the Yule quests are right at the party grounds on the Horsefields. The quest-givers of Thorin’s Hall have also retired to the more festive inn, for they wish to see if the beer-fight draws as much of a crowd as many dwarf-patrons have anticipated.

[Source: Developer Diary: Yule Festival of 2009]

Turbine has announced today new Welcome Back Weekend, from December 17th through December 21st. During this period you can play your old characters for free* and get +10% Bonus XP on Mob kills and experience Siege of Mirkwood! Plus, if you come back now you can renew your subscription to LOTRO for only $9.99 per month with any 3-, 6-, or 12-month plan**!

Special Note: You do not need to reactivate your account to participate in the Welcome Back Weekend. Your account will automatically be enabled for the event. If your account does not seem to have been reactivated, please try again in a hour or two. It may take time for our servers to update your status.

You can find more information here

On Tuesday, December 15, the LOTRO servers will be brought down from 4:00AM – 4:00PM Eastern (-5 GMT) for a significant hardware upgrade and data center move that will improve the performance and capacity of the game worlds. The Bullroarer test server will remain available during this time.

Turbine will also be running a special "Moving Day Lottery" on my.lotro.com during the move. Be sure to sign up for your chance to win some great in game loot!

Tuesday December 15th will be a big day for The Lord of the Rings Online, as we complete our most substantial hardware upgrade since the game launched in North America in April 2007. This new server hardware gives us additional speed and capacity to support the growing world of Middle-earth, from the battles of Mirkwood to new Skirmishes across Eriador. It also provides the room to support the growing population of Middle-earth – there has been a huge response to the launch of Siege of Mirkwood, and we are delighted to see both returning players and new explorers to the world. Thank you for your patience, and we look forward to opening the doors again once this transition is complete.

Rowan