Well, I’ve missed a few posts of Blaugust 2024 (3 I think), turns out blogging and setting up a kin on a new server at the same time is a bit tricky! I did think about trying to make up and post 3 extra blog posts, but I think I’ll cut my losses and just carry on and do as many as I can.
(NB. Treebeard is a Legendary Server, currently at level 100 with content releases every 6 months, Mordor is the new EU based, 64 bit Legendary Server with content release schedule currently unknown and likely to be varied).
Our Kin on Treebeard server (Onodrimmoot) is a real success. On a small server we’ve managed to grow a really lovely Kin. Our kin members are lovely, we have a really close knit community and on top of that we have managed to keep up to date with content, and complete most group and raid content. We have a regular 3 person group, weekly landscape deeds / skirmishes, our really fun Saturday nights (for end game content mostly) and also a Slow Sunday group, where we are levelling together really slowly (slow even for Treebeard!) We have run these events (or similar) since the start of the server and I am really proud that we have managed to keep them going during the highs and lows of Treebeard.
When news that a new Legendary Server was coming, we were a bit wary but not too worried. We assumed that it would be similar to before, that we might roll a character there to grab any new rewards but we thought we’d be mostly carrying on as usual on Treebeard, although expecting the population to dip a bit, but hopefully recover with the return of end-game content from level 105+.
However, when it was announced that the Mordor server, would not only be a new 64 bit server, but also based in Europe, we realised that it was going to have a more profound effect on Treebeard than we originally thought, and that there would be more interest in playing there from our Kinnies. We decided that our main aim was to keep our Kin together so we decided to create Onodrimmoot over there and recruit any like-minded players, as we also realised that it may be an option to transfer our Kin to Mordor once Treebeard closes, as it has a high chance of staying as a permanent server.
Our leader was away for the opening of Mordor and so I was responsible for creating and leading the Kin in her absence. I don’t think any of us (lotro players as a whole) had any idea of how popular the server was going to be! There was so much hype and excitement and players everywhere! It was truly quite something to be a part of. There are reports that at peak there were probably over 2000 players which is something I have never seen. I know that in the social panel, there are regularly over 1400 people at peak EU times, (which doesn’t include anonymous players).
So I began recruiting, found some new lovely people to join our Kin and all of a sudden we have two servers we have responsibilities for. I was very glad our leader is back and we can start to get organised properly! It was quite stressful, I have to admit, as well as the excitement and the shininess of the new server, I was worried about what it will mean for our Treebeard Kin and characters. Many of us Treebeard players have put a lot of time and effort into our main characters and we really don’t want to stop playing them.
We also realised we have a stark choice ahead of us – originally we assumed that Laurelin was a potential permanent home as many of us are originally from there, however Mordor is also now a potential and attractive choice. We are worried about whether SSG will keep Treebeard open and if Mordor will have caught up enough so that we might hopefully have a choice of where to take our Kin when Treebeard does actually close. If we want, eventually, to end up on Mordor, we cannot transfer to Laurelin (it is an ex-Codemasters server and it is incompatible with the SSG servers, as far as I know). So big questions.
What we have decided for now, is to continue on both servers with some reorganisation to make it easier to manage and lead. Wish us luck!