Spring Festival 2016

Hooray! The Spring Festival has arrived in Middle Earth and runs from June 7 to June 21.

I'm looking forward to getting some nice cosmetic items for my new free-to-play characters. I think my festival fanatic, Robinya the peaceful hunter, will also be taking part, and the new mount would be perfect for my rune-keeper who is a yeoman who loves growing flowers.

Activities

For more detailed information, see the LOTRO-Wiki guide to the Spring Festival.

What to do in Bree-land

Head to the Festival Grounds and explore the hedge maze (lots of quests that count for the Spring is Dandy meta-deed, plus the chance at a shrew pet in a gift box), take part in the horse/pony races or practise some traditional dances of Men.

The Hedge Maze in Bree-land

Talk to Avery Crabapple in the Bree Market Square to start a romantic quest chain involving patches of flowers (violets near West Bree, marigolds near Michel Delving and primroses near Celondim). Collect enough flowers to earn gift boxes, the Steed of the Jester or Spring Lissuin war-steed appearances.

What to do in the Shire

Head to Brockenborings and the Greenfields and help make Bullroarer's Brew then try the Bullroarer's Challenge (running along the top of a fence while drunk).

Honour Bullroarer in the Shire

Have fun with a traditional Hobbit dance or sign up for membership with the Inn League at the Party Tree. The Inn League Challenge involves a timed Shire pub crawl. Once completed, there are additional quests available from Inn League Tavern Keeps but these do not reward Spring Leaves.

Take part in horse/pony races at the Shire race course near the homesteads, or visit Sandson's Farm, Hobbiton and Cotton's Farm to see how they deal with pesky shrews for the quest "How the Shire Shoos Shrews".

What to do in Ered Luin

Head to Duillond to take part in the Stomp-A-Shrew game at the Festival Garden or help the gardeners collect flowers and materials to make new boots for stomping shrews, or learn a traditional Elven dance. 

The Festival Garden in Ered Luin

There is drinking and dancing at the Thorin's Hall Inn. Try some Dwarven dances or sign up with The Ale Association if you enjoy making mischief. The Ale Association Challenge involves a Bree-land pub crawl. Once completed, there are additional quests available from Ale Association Tavern Keeps but these do not reward Spring Leaves.

Mounts

Steed of Ethuil (2016)

The new mount is beautiful with a unique saddle blanket decorated with flowers. Previous Spring Festival mounts are available for Spring Leaves or Mithril Coins.

Steed of New Bloom (2015)

Cosmetic Rewards

There are lots of cosmetic outfits available at the Spring Festival for Spring Leaves.

The new Sightseers' outfit will make you look like Bingo Boffin, ready for adventures.

Sightseer's Jacket, Trousers and Straw Hat

There's also the New Bloom set which includes a cloak and tunic.

Hooded Cloak of New Bloom

Tunic and Trousers of New Bloom

Or if you prefer a robe or dress, there is the Lissuin set with a choice of hooded or hoodless cloak.

Lissuin Hooded Cloak

Lissuin Robe

Lissuin Dress/Lissuin Cloak

But wait there's more! The beautiful Simblemynë set returns with a choice of hat or circlet, and a dress or tunic.

Simblemynë Cloak

Simblemynë Tunic and Wide-Brimmed Hat

Simblemynë Dress and Circlet

The Spring-flinger set has variations for cloak and hauberk but the cloaks don't really match the hauberks.

Spring-flinger Cloak

Spring-flinger Hooded Cloak

Spring-flinger Hat

Short-sleeved Spring-flinger Hauberk

Long-sleeved Spring-flinger Hauberk

Last but not least is the Trellis-weave set. The hooded cloak has accidentally been named the Hooded Cloak of Many Worlds at the vendors.

Trellis-weave Cloak

Hooded Trellis-weave Cloak

Trellis-weave Robe

And we have a few other miscellaneous cosmetic accessories.

Spring Dandy Cloak	Spring Dandy Hooded Cloak
Spring Adventurer's Quiver	White Rose Circlet

Other Rewards

There are some housing decorations (mainly sculptures for the yard or maps for the wall), pet shrews, crafting recipes for cooks and farmers, consumables and some of the new seasonal festival dyes.

You can get a pack of six Shire Plum or Bullroarer's Green dyes for 20 Spring Leaves per pack, or a pack of six Lavender or Deep Purple dyes for 10 Mithril Coins per pack. They're pretty colours, but I'm afraid I won't be buying them at those prices.

Have fun!

*Update*

The Tome of Spotted Shrew can be obtained from a Patch of Flowers while doing the quest A Fistful of Flowers from Avery Crabapple in Bree (I found 3 during the quest). The quest takes an hour, but at the end you should have enough flowers to get the Steed of the Jester (or war-steed appearances) if you want and some giftboxes. The giftboxes gave me flower petals and a cooking recipe.

Spotted Shrew pet

Steed of the Jester

My hobbit minstrel got a Tome of the Dusty Shrew from the giftbox for completing Terrible Tweens in the Hedge Maze.

Dusty Shrew pet

Executive Producer's Letter - December 2015

Thanks to Level Up Haffle, I just found out about the latest Executive Producer's Letter before I even got the news from Turbine. There's some explanations about the delays with the server transfers and some news about what's coming in 2016 - namely, an increase in level to 105 and a new instance cluster and a 12-man raid associated with the Battle of Pelennor Fields.

That should make a few people happy.

Here's the full news:

Hello all!

2015 was a great year for LOTRO, and we hope you agree! We had many large beats to cover this year as we built out more of Gondor including the two great cities of Osgiliath and Minas Tirith. Additionally we took on major service upgrades including building a brand new store and consolidating our servers to a core ten worlds which are buzzing with activity these days.

Unfortunately we also missed a beat this year with our plans to move into a brand new Datacenter. We wanted to have this new center launch by the end of this year, and while all of the hardware is up and ready to go. However, this upgrade in hardware also came with an upgrade in operating system from 32-bit to 64-bit. When we started load testing the new hardware, we learned that our chat system does not function properly on the new OS. As a result we have to architect a new solution for chat which will delay us into 2016. Updates to come as we work through the problem.

Our story continues in 2016 with Riding with the Rohirrim to the Battle of Pelennor Fields and then taking the battle to the enemy as we push towards the Black Gates! It is going to be an exciting year to be sure.

Major 2016 Initiatives:

Level Cap increase to 105: Build on your heroism and power with 5 more levels of character advancement. Your Imbued Legendary Items will not need to be replaced, but will continue to grow and level with you.
New Fellowship Challenges: The Battle of Pelennor Fields will contain a new instance cluster as well as a long awaited 12-man raid!
New Collections: We will be adding UI elements to help you see and catalogue many of the items you can already find in game. Our first collection system will be around emotes. Ever wondered what emotes are available to you, what they look like or where you can get them? Now you will know!
Quality of Life: Much like last year, we will continue to make quarterly patches that focus on bug fixing and general improvements to Quality of Life.

Thank you for your continued commitment to this team and to our game. We look forward to seeing you in Middle-Earth as LOTRO enters its 9^th year!

Athena “Vvyvanne” Peters
Executive Producer- Lord of the Rings Online