Turbine just made an official announcement about the expansion, along with the US and EU release dates:

WESTWOOD, MA - October 17, 2007 - Turbine, Inc. and Codemasters Online Gaming announced the details of the third free content update for subscribers to The Lord of the Rings OnlineTM: Shadows of AngmarTM. Book 11: Defenders of Eriador continues the epic story of The Lord of the Rings Online adds over 100 new quests, a new 12-player raid, two new areas in Middle-earth and introduces the player housing system. Book 11: Defenders of Eriador will be available to subscribers of The Lord of the Rings Online on October 24, 2007 in North America and October 25, 2007 in Europe. [...]

There are a few other interesting details, like the addition of three new musical instruments including Bagpipe and Cowbell.

Read the full article: Turbine and Codemasters Online Gaming to Unveil Book 11: Defenders of Eriador for The Lord of the Rings Online�.

Book 11, a free expansion for Lord of the Rings Online, is set for an Oct. 24 release.

The free add-on pack includes housing; two new areas, the Ettendeep and the "Extreme" Misty Mountains; and multiple Balrogs.

The housing feature includes Kinship abodes and four neighborhood types, based on players' races, with architecture styles appropriate to each. Ettendeep is below the Ettenmoors and consists of a series of catacombs and tunnels ripe for exploration. Players will be able to travel even further into the Misty Mountains to visit locations from The Hobbit like Goblin Town.

Source: IGN: LOTRO Expansion Release Date Revealed.

Airiak sent me a heads up on a thread where the devs are looking for player feedback on issues iwht the isntanced quests. Link and text below:


http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?&postid;=1199503#post1199503

Developer Feedback Requests - Instanced Quests
Our content team plans to spend some time improving some of LOTRO's instances in Book 12, and would like your feedback on where you think that time would be best spent. The specific instances being examined are:

* The Great Barrow
* Garth Agarwen
* Fornost
* Urugarth
* Carn D�m
* Barad Gularan

Please let us know if you've encountered any of the following:

* Not doing a fight in a certain sequence causes a problem.
* Resetting the fight has the potential to break it.
* Pathing works incorrectly or breaks the fight.
* Mobs aggro strangely, eg you've pulled monsters from too far away.
* Finally, anything that just gnaws at your soul, because in order to complete the instance you're doing something in a fashion that just doesn't feel like it was intended.

Thanks for your feedback, everyone! While your /bug reports have been very helpful in identifying some areas to look at, we hope this thread provides even more information on what you'd like to see improved!

-The LOTRO content team

Trinity Divine's Interactive maps are now completed for all four areas! Select the area that you are interested in to open up a map of the homestead or housing area. Once there, click on any property to see a screenshot of buildings at that location taken from the main entrance. If you are using IE, hovering over the locationon the map will reveal the address and house type.

Link: Trinity Divine's Interactive Housing Maps

Book 11 finally got a name!

The Lord of the Rings Online�: Shadows of Angmar� is proud to announce the next installment in our free content updates � Book 11: Defenders of Eriador! Book 11 features skill updates to two classes (Minstrel and Lore-master), challenging new raid content, new high-level world content, enhancements to monster play, and most exciting of all, player-owned housing! The epic adventure continues in Book 11: Defenders of Eriador.

* Book 11: Twelve chapter epic quest arc!
* Monster play enhancements
* Monster play �Fellowship Maneuvers�
* More musical instruments!
* More high-level world content
* Harvest Festival and Yule Celebrations!
* 60+ new quests!
* New area: T�l Bruinen (Trollshaws)
* New area: Northern High Pass (Misty Mountains)
* New area: Southern High Pass (Misty Mountains)
* And� Goblin-town!


Check out the Official Book 11 Article!

There's a great article entitled Making Houses into Homes over at the official LOTRO site:

When we sat down to design a Housing System for The Lord of the Rings OnlineTM: Shadows of AngmarTM (LOTRO), we wanted to make good on the promise made an age ago: "Now You Can Live in Middle-earth."

Houses are more than an apartment interior floating in the ether. Houses in LOTRO live in gorgeously landscaped neighborhoods, where they have yards, sit along water, or nestle under cliffs.

One size does not fit all! Players want choices about how their house looks, where they want to live, and who they want to live with, so we are offering a variety of options to fit many tastes.

Link: Developer's Corner - Making Houses Into Homes

SHOW OFF YOUR CHARACTER!
Have some neat armor, a cool title, or a unique look that you want to show off?
How about a kinship or team screenshot?

Send it in! Each week, we want to put you on the front page!
Submit your images directly to our Player Screenshot Gallery or email them to loktofeit@vaultnetwork.com . Make sure to include a description of the shot including names and any "shout outs" that you want added. On Wednesday, we pick an entry at random and publish their image and message on the front page of the site!

This week is:
Trinity Divine, Shire Brewmaster


Link: Trinity Divine, Shire Brewmaster, Keepers of the Vault

A new guide added to the collection!

During beta and the early stages of the game this had to be the biggest spam /ooc question that came up in Ered Luin. Where is the first gear, where is the 2nd etc etc. Hopefully this write will make it a quick and painless journey. - Fuury

Link: Fuury's 'Missing Gears' Guide

Also visit our Library of Guides!

MeanKeenLurikeen is at it again! Over 50 new screenshots of the homesteads for Dwarves and Hobbits. Views of the Maps, Landscape, Interiors, and Exteriors have been added to The Keen Gallery

Thanks, Keen!

Link: Dwarf and Hobbit Housing - 50+ Screenshots

Server: Arkenstone

Company of Red Dawn - http://lotrovault.ign.com/View.php?view=Kinships.Detail&id=146

Organizing the October Kinship Summit for the server
20 or so kinships have signed up to send a rep to the gathering

Proposed Meeting Time & Location: Saturday 20th, 9pm Eastern/6pm Pacific at the Festival Grounds in North Bree-land.

Topics being covered include:
- Update on Kinship Alliances - Have any new alliances been formed? Did the info from the previous summit help? Are the threads that Elderlygamer started helping?
- Kinship Recruiting Hints & Tips Update - Did the info from the previous summit help? What is working now, what isn't.
- Development of Server wide events - Do we want to have regular server wide events that are sponsored by individuals, kinships, or form a group to "sponsor" events? If we want to form a group, how do you propose that prizes be "paid" for?
- The Ettenmoors Update - Are more people out there? Are there any major complains or kudos? Are the threads that Elderlygamer started working or not?
- Server Website - Is anyone working on this or willing to work on this? If someone is willing to take on this project, what would we like to see offered on a server specific website?
- Kinship Halls/Housing - Discuss halls and housing for those kinships that will be rank 7 and want to "reserve" specific areas. Discuss any issues/concerns other kinships may have with "reservations".


Sign-up Thread:
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=94275

Information about the event:
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=94282

There is a great thread of the new housing over at the official forums:
http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?&postid;=1193350


Also, Trinity Divine has been putting up some great housing info and interactive maps over at Female-Gamer.com!
- Falathorn Interactive Map
- Breeland Homestead Map
- TD's LOTRO Housing Review

For additional housing info, also check out:
MeanKeenLurikeen's Book 11 Preview
and
CTM's Housing QnA, Videos, Screenshots, and Info here at LOTRO Vault!


EDIT: Trinity Divine of Female-Gamer.com has decided to host her Interactive Housing Maps at LOTRO Vault! Maps can be found HERE. Thanks, TD!

Sindarane has sent in a poem entitled 'Lost Lore of Elvensies'

Here's a snippet:

The time of the elves have past,
The time of man was lost
The dwarves have long since perished to dust in the mountain
But its a new Age
An Age of Fattening
It's the Age of Elevensies
Food is a rarity
Ale is sparsh
and that evil eye peers
That eye is everso watchful
Never wavering
Never blinking

Click the link below for the full poem!

Link: Lost Lore of Elvensies by Sindarane

Hi-res Screenshots from Book 11!
Great new screenshots of the Goblin Town and High Pass!
(click the image to go to Book 11 Screenshots Index)


Link: Book 11 Screenshots - High Pass, Goblin Town

Volume II, Issue V
Good morning Middle Earth! Time to grab that cup of joe and sit down with the Kinship Crier!

New Partner
The LOTRO Vault is proud to welcome the following new kinship to the Kinship Watcher Program!

Guardians Of Middle-Earth


Welcome aboard!!!

Now, if you've applied to our program and can't find your listing I may have an answer for you as to why! If you do not enter a valid email address, I cannot add you to the program. This email address is used to facilitate correspondence between myself and you! So, to make sure your kinship gets as much exposure on our site as possible please make sure you supply an email address.

If you're still thinking of applying and haven't, don't wait any longer. Take advantage of front page publicity, event coverage, and a kinship listing that is completely updatable by YOU! No more long lists of threads or having old information floating around out there! Sign up here now!


LOTRO Vault Kinship News

Reporters Wanted!
Interested in being an integral part of fostering the Lord of the Rings Community? If that sounds like something you'd be willing to dive into, send our LOTROVault Kinship Mistress, Seridove, an email at: seridove@vaultnetwork.com. Don't miss out on your chance to be a part of the team!


Featured Kinship

Brandywine

House of Mathom

Mathom: Derived from Old English, in this case the one usually written ma�m, "a precious thing, treasure, valuable gift" or as Tolkien put it, "Anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a mathom."

We are the House of Mathom. A group consisting of many various valuable and precious people, that we have no particular use for, except to have fun!

House of Mathom is a kinship based on people. Our primary objective is to create a thriving environment for our members to enjoy while playing. House of Mathom is made up of a core unit of real life friends that expanded in order to make new friends. We consist of mature yet fun members, and will remain that way.

Interested in joining this kinship? Check them out here!


That's it for the news today, have a great week and as always..keep an eye out for Sauron!!

We get a glimpse inside the next chapter of Turbine's journey through MMO Middle-earth.

US, October 12, 2007 - Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar has proven not only to be one awesome game, but one that is constantly expanding with new content�and all for the price of your monthly subscription. Book 11, the third major update, is one big book. Adding two new areas, a 4-6 hour raid, improvements to the Lore Master and Minstrel classes, player housing, and Direct X 10 support (a first for MMOs), it's the biggest and most exciting yet.

Read more...

This week's Forum Digest is up!

"Oh what an interesting week on the forums this one has been! Turbine recently sent out a survey to subscribers asking them various questions like a normal survey would. The reaction from the players though has been one of confusion, outrage, and skepticism. Several topics in this week's Digest deal with this Survey, PvE and PvMP changes on their way and how they may inadvertently effect one another, and several other topics that will get you thinking. Enjoy!"

-Keen

Link: LOTRO Vault Weekly Forum Digest 10/12/2007

Book 11 News!
If I had to write a one word summary of this week�s news on the LOTRO Vault, I would use "Housing!". That feature is the hot topic on all fan sites and message boards.

• MeanKeenLurikeen wrote a nifty Book 11 Preview, including Balrogs, Gollums and of course Housing!
• Fuury and MeanKeenLurikeen added over 20 new screenshots of housing and housing areas.
• Our friends at TenTonHammer published a Housing Preview.
• IGN reveals some Gollum artwork in their Precious Artwork Gallery.
• Gollum fans can now enhance their desktop with our Gollum Wallpaper.
• Mekor Halefire of Riders of Rivendell sent in a few screenshots of Gollum! Check them out in our Player Screenshots section!
• Visionsofthering created an interactive flash map of the elf homesteads.

An official press release has been made about the recent CEO change at Turbine. It has also been confirmed that Jeff Anderson is still at Turbine.

Some people may have received a survey recently regarding various premium services and offers for an MMOG.

GhostBear announced new chat filtering functions in order to reduce the gold seller spam. Check out the official thread.
On the same topic, Jobildo's Topic of the Week debates about Fighting the Farmers� What can be done?

A new official Lorebook entry has been added, informing us about Salamanders.

For the latest news from the developers, don't forget to have a look at the Stratics Dev Chat transcript.

On the community side, the Monday Morning Kinship Crier informed us about the latest events in the LOTRO Guild world.
RadontTheGreat is organizing a Sparring Tournament on the Meneldor server Saturday, November 10th at 11:00am (EST) in the Bree-Land fairgrounds. Check out the official board thread for details.

Rhyssa Fireheart created two new amazing Desktop Calendars for us to enjoy: October and 3 months Oct-Dec.

That's it for this eventful week, see you all next Friday for a new weekly recap!

Here's the news from the past week. Enjoy!

Below is the latest list of community submitted entries to our databases.

Community Screenshots

A Challenge by Sapphic Sophisticate (General) -- This is a screen shot I took on one of my kins Helegrod raid...

Submit your own now!