A potential cause of the recurring lag issues on all Lotro worlds are certan NPCs in the Ettenmoors. Players should be aware this means there will be less help from NPCs when fighting in certain areas of the Ettenmoors.

The patrolling Freep/Creep soldier/archer NPCs in the Isendeep were disabled.

Dingorfin

When a server is performing poorly, it is possible for AI pathing to become "starved" leading to the occurrence of anti-exploit mode on monsters.

Dingorfin

The LOTRO Game Servers will be brought down on Friday, June 26 from 7:00AM - 11:00aM Eastern (-4 GMT) for a hotfix. A list of changes will be posted shortly.

Sadly, the horse races are currently disabled. But, they are under construction for future books with several significant improvements and changes.

The festival run token is still being offered as a reward to those who can generate a sizeable quantity of barter tokens. This means the Lithe horse and pony will still be available to those who look forward to owning this eye-catching mount.

More details about this Summer Festival

Following developments overnight on the live US service, Codemasters Online has decided to withhold the release of Book 8 until the patches/hotfixes can be applied.

In addition to the instances that needed to be closed, it transpired that a serious issue with stuck characters has manifested rendering many players unable to move or to log in.

In order to avoid these problems, we have decided to postpone the Book 8 release until we can go live with the fixes to these issues. The hotfixes for the instance bugs and the stuck characters issue are currently in test with our QA department. Working around the clock we will attempt to update to Book 8 tomorrow, (subject to approval). Please note that further issues discovered on the US service may preclude us from releasing Book 8 until further hotfixes are received.

Volume II, Book 8: Scourge of Khazad-dum is now live on US servers. Along with new Summer festival items that we can expect, Book 8 brings us new beautiful Lorien Barter items from the Lothlorien reputation traders. The Caras Galadhon tapestry and The Coat of arms. Thanks to zick for new screenshots.

Caras Galadhon Tapestry

Coat Of Arms

New Summer Festival Items:

While we are waiting for LotRO Book 8 today in the US, EU players will wait untill Thursday 25th. This is still unsure information, but we hope twitter doesn't lie:)

We are currently tracking Thursday to release Book 8 in EU. Please note this is subject to final sign-off at the green light later this week

Also on Codemasters Forum Faya has announced

An official announcement about Book 8 will be coming out within the next 24 hours or so, however I can tell you informally that we're tracking releasing on Thursday, subject to a final green light meeting.

We’re also getting the final details from QA so I can finalise the known issues for the Book 8 patch and it's worth noting at this point that there are some important known issues, which will be detailed in the announcement mentioned above.
For those wondering about the size of the patch it’s going to be about 650mb.
As for a standalone patcher, I'm afraid it won't be ready for the Book 8 release but we are working with Turbine to get this to you ASAP. We'll also have an updated Book 8 full client sometime next week, all being well.

Few days ago Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has officially announced Lord of the Rings: Aragorn's Quest for Wii and DS in Autumn 2009. Today  an interesting story first appeared on UK games blog VG247.  Rumors or real news we will find out soon.

"You know Warner’s been looking at Codemasters?”
“I don’t think they’re the only ones, but yes. There were ‘whispers’ about a month ago.”
“Yeah, well, apparently they’ve completed due diligence and buyout discussions are ongoing.”
“No shit.”
“Apparently so.”
“Jesus. You’ve asked them for comment?”
“Yes. Codemasters said, ‘We have nothing to say on the matter.’ I think the Warner mails got lost in the ether somewhere.”
“Well, it’d make a lot of sense. Warner needs the dev. Sounds like they’re really going for it.”
“It does seem that way, yes. They must still be looking for a proper in after Square beat them to Eidos.”
“And Codies has been up for sale for years.”

Codemasters has told GamesIndustry.biz that it will not comment on a rumour that Warner Bros. is in talks to buy the UK racing publisher.

We won't respond to that story," said a spokesperson for the Codemasters company. "Everything is fine here."
Representatives for Warner Bros. have not returned calls at the time of going to press.

There's been a bit of confusion over the changes to Kinships since the release of Mines of Moria. So here is the definitive information all Kinship Leaders or potential leaders need to know.

I am being told my Kinship will disband in 5 days!

All Kinships, both old and new, are required to maintain a minimum membership of 8 characters. If your membership drops below 8 characters at any point you will receive a warning that your kinship will be disbanded within 5 days. You will continue to see this warning for the full five days regardless of the number of members. As long as you have 8 characters at the end of the 5 days, your kinship will not be disbanded.

Note: Characters not accounts. Each account can have a maximum of 7 characters per server. This means a kinship must contain a minimum of two accounts.

When will my Kinship earn the next rank? What do we get for it?

Rank 1 - immediate - Kinship Chat - Upto 1000 characters
Rank 2 - 1 day (24h) - Message of the Day - Upto 1000 characters
Rank 3 - 4 days - Kinship-only Titles - Upto 1000 characters
Rank 4 - 10 days - Officer Chat - Upto 1000 characters
Rank 5 - 30 days - Kinship-only Mail - Upto 1000 characters
Rank 6 - 60 days - Kinship-only Auctions - Upto 1000 characters
Rank 7 - 90 days - Kinship Housing - Upto 1200 characters
Rank 8 - 180 days – Upto 1300 characters
Rank 9 - 270 days – Upto 1400 characters
Rank 10 - 360 days – Upto 1500 characters

What if my leader went AWOL?

If the leader does not log in for more than 35 days or cancels his or her account, the successor receives a mail indicating the availability of the Usurp option. The successor can click the Usurp button in the Kinship Panel to become leader.

If the successor does not usurp leadership within 10 days, all officers of the kinship receive a mail informing them that any officer can usurp leadership.

If no officer usurps leadership within 20 days, all members of the kinship receive a mail informing them that any member can usurp leadership.

If a kinship goes 65 days without a new leader, the kinship will automatically disband.

Please note that the In-Game Support Team will not resolve issues regarding the transfer of ownership for a kinship or the automatic disbanding of a leaderless kinship. It is the responsibility of the kinship members to ensure that a successor has been chosen.

For more Kinship information take a look at Kinship Quide

GamesAid is a new UK video games industry based charity. It distributes funds to a diverse range of charities; it is a means of giving something back on behalf of the industry. GamesAid announced its first company partners, including Codemasters, Eurogamer and Nintendo amongst others.

 How you can help? There’s a charity poker tournament at the Grosvenor Casino, Brighton during the Develop Conference & Expo in Brighton on the evening of Tuesday 14th July. As always, all levels of players are welcome. Players can register here.

Source

I can't say that Lone-Lands was my "cup of tea". The main reason for this statement was my bad quest's organization. When I saw Reillan's Guide to Lone-Lands, I simply had to share it with you.

This guide is intended to push adventurers through Lone-lands content quickly and efficiently, so that they are not having to go back and grind the same mobs again or go to the same point again if possible. By following this guide, all your travel is maximized to take advantage of quest proximity.

This guide is intended for both Solo and Full-group questing. There is one rule to follow throughout this: unless I tell you to hunt for a specific mob, avoid all aggro.

Reillan