The folks over at Turbine have posted a new developer blog for the upcoming Book update. Going in-depth about the new region and the effects it has on gameplay, this is a must-read for anyone who wants to know what’s coming up.

Here’s a short excerpt from the article:

“We’ve spent a lot of time working on LOTRO now, and over the years, we’ve learned a number of lessons:

• We’ve learned that players like a healthy mix of monster moods on the landscape.
• We’ve learned that elite monsters within mixed spawns are a bad idea.
• We’ve learned that players aren’t fans of roads with heavy monster patrols.

Is there a theme? Yes there is! Forochel is very much a culmination of all the lessons we’ve learned from the Beta Program and the areas of Evendim, Tâl Bruinen, High Pass, and Angmar. I can’t say we’ve ironed out all the issues that annoy people (because some of those are by design, sorry!) but we did look very intently at the feedback we’ve received and put it into action in Forochel.

Travel was also a big component in the “Things We’ve Learned” category. Over the past few updates, you may have noticed more travel routes (particularly in Angmar and Evendim). For Book 13, Forochel will launch with a broad travel network across the region. This network will offer a variety of normal travel routes as well as Reputation-gate Swift Travel Routes.”

Look forward to seeing Book 13 launch somewhere in Spring 2008. For more information check out our book 13 info page.