There is a new lute in town! Come see what the Lute of Ages looks like now!
The Lute of Ages was added to LOTRO with update 16.1 earlier this spring. This basically plays the sounds of the original LOTRO lute, which the game had until update 15 in March changed many instrument sounds.
One problem with the Lute of Ages was that it had the same appearance as the “Basic lute”, which meant that bands couldn’t easily see if the correct lute was equipped. That has been remedied in the beta for Update 16.2, currently on the Bullroarer server, and slated for live release sometime later this summer.
Here is how the two lute looks compare to each other.
Basic lute and Lute of Ages
The icon of the lute has been changed as well
So, how do yer like the new look?
An unexpected and very welcome surprise ~ I love it!
It looks very nice! Seems the arts folks have been busy this update, they changed the icon too.
Nice detail. I like it
Nice to see such small touches, aye! Although, there are bigger changes too, see my Michel Delving post *grins*
I like the look. *Looks ashamed* I bought one and tried in on my couple of lute tunes and couldn’t really tell the difference, but that’s just me no doubt.
Tee hee. It is easy once you know the difference (the basic lute is sharper/clearer and twangier). Them’s both useful, though!
Then again, you touch upon something that some of the more enthusiastic musicians in LOTRO should acknowledge sooner or later: Most LOTRO players don’t really hear a huge difference (if any at all) between the old and the new music system. There are some who scream bloody murder over the latest changes, claiming that the current system is fundamentally broken compared to what we had. My view: Nuh-uh. It works, and you can do grand things with it.