2023年指环王OL前瞻
欢迎阅读2023年的第一封对玩家公开信。对于那些对我尚不熟悉的人简要介绍，我是Allan Maki（即Orion），指环王OL系统主设计师。Severlin和Cordovan亲切地邀请我写封信谈谈我们十六周年里的这些重要更新和规划！
Welcome to the first Letter to the Players for 2023. For those that may not know me, I am Allan “Orion” Maki, the Lead Systems Designer on The Lord of the Rings: Online. Severlin and Cordovan graciously allowed me to put pen to paper for this important update and roadmap for our 16th year!
在我们谈论2023年的变更之前，我首先想简要地回顾一下过去的一年。2022年对指环王OL来说是重要的一年。我们庆祝了游戏成立15周年，并发布了带来新的新手村、挖掘系统、新六人本、对战等内容的《暗影之前》资料片。我们见证了新玩家和回归玩家持续地扩充我们鲜活的中州大陆。
Before we dive into the changes for 2023, I wanted to take a brief moment and look at the year that was. 2022 was a great year for The Lord of the Rings Online. We celebrated 15 years of development, released the Before the Shadowmini-expansion, which introduced a new starter area to the game, the delving system, a new 6-player dungeon, skirmish, and much more. We saw new players and returning players and continued to expand on our living Middle-earth.
但诚实地说——这些都是你不想读的关于去年的旧闻，你一定是想看看关于2023年的。
But let’s be honest – that’s old news and you don’t want to read about last year. You want to read about 2023.
雄心勃勃——这是一个我想用以概括2023年指环王OL目标的简单词语。我们对于游戏开发所处的当前阶段进行反思，意识到了游戏中有一些地区、系统和体验需要得到关注和优化，我们还明白玩家们有一些对于满级内容和新内容的需求。我们在2023年会着重关注带来一些与时俱进的游戏体验，并扩展游戏世界、故事，指引我们共同朝着下一个15周年前进。
Ambitious. This is the single word that I would use to describe the goals for The Lord of the Rings: Online in 2023. Reflecting on where we are in the development of the game, we recognize that there are some areas, systems, and experiences that need attention and sprucing up. We also understand that there is a need for level cap content and new things for you to do. Our focus in 2023 is bringing some of those experiences up to more modern expectations and the expansion of the game world, story, and direction as we begin the next 15 years of our journey together.
你会看到我们在2023年全年的更新计划，逐步朝着年底的新资料片发布前进。
You can see that we are planning on four content patches throughout 2023, each building toward our next major expansion release by the end of the year:
冬季（Q1）：新副本包（2个三人、1个六人、1个团本）、挖掘系统扩展、部分职业更新、能量重做、工匠重做启动、对战节回归、兽兽活动、Reward Track第五季、春日节。
春季（Q2）：16周年庆、野外更新、继续职业更新、继续工匠更新、继续兽兽更新、Reward Track第六季、仲夏节。
夏季（Q3）：Further Adventures系列、职业更新、工匠更新、挖掘系统更新、继续兽兽更新、农夫节、Reward Track第七季、盗宝地精回归。
秋季（Q4）：等级上限提升、新职业、新副本新团本、故事扩展、工匠更新提升等级、新种族、Reward Track第八季、秋日节、冬日节。
我们2023年的脚步从重回熟悉的安格玛地区开始，具体而言，是中州北方毒水中的铁城——卡恩督姆。在那里宏伟堡垒的阴影下，权力的缺失吸引了散居的邪恶居民的目光，他们在寻找新的领导和指引。新的敌人急于夺取权力，而防止这座饱经沧桑的城市被统一的重任则落在自由人民的肩上。
Our journey through 2023 begins with a visit to the distant and familiar land of Angmar. More specifically, the iron city in the poisonous wastes of northern Middle-earth, Carn Dûm. There, in the shadow of a great citadel, a power vacuum draws from the diaspora of evil denizens looking for any semblance of leadership and guidance. New enemies scrabble to seize power, and it falls to the Free People to stop the rise of a single leader in the ravaged city.
《重回卡恩督姆》以游戏末期的副本为主，包括2个三人本、1个6人本和1个新团本，以及所有你期望在新区域找到的战斗和奖励。此外，我们将挖掘系统扩展到图书馆和书院两个副本，并微调了奖励系统使重复奖励更具吸引力。我们还对挖掘系统进行了一些更多的平衡调整，力求使玩家在挑战更高等级的过程中难度增加更加平滑。
The Return to Carn Dûm features a new end game instance cluster with two 3-player instances, a 6-player instance, a new raid, and all of the spoils and rewards that you expect to find in a new space. Additionally, we are expanding the Delving system into the Library and School at Tham Mírdain and revising the reward system slightly to make the repeatable nature and rewards of the Delving system more appealing. We are also making some more balance tweaks to the Delving system in an effort to smooth the difficulty transitions as you progress toward the higher tiers.
我们还将在新的一年里第一次更新中更多地关注针对职业的调整，首次更新旗手和守望者。对于一些通用系统，我们将重新审视能量：它是如何被消耗、如何恢复、作为一个主要指标有多重要。相关的影响在随地图升级方面不会太大，更多地会影响副本和团本中玩家对其的管理。
We will also be focusing on more targeted changes for classes in the first release of the New Year, with Captain and Warden getting their first updates. On a more general systems note, we are revisiting Power; how it is used, how it is recovered, and its importance as a main statistic. The impact here will be less on the moment-to-moment experience on the landscape and more on the management of this resource in dungeons and raids.
我们还计划开始在全年内持续修订工匠系统。我们的最终目标包括打破工匠职业的壁垒、让玩家选择自己想要学习的职业，使工匠系统能够制作一些毕业装备或同装等的装备，在当前被忽略已久的工匠系统（说的就是你，精华）基础上进行扩展并为未来做好准备。
We are also planning to begin a revision to the crafting system that will continue throughout the year. Our expressed end goal includes breaking apart vocations to allow players to choose which profession they want to learn, providing crafters with the ability to make some best in slot or equally competitive items through their professions, expanding upon existing crafting systems that may have been overlooked for a long time (I’m looking at you, essences) and expanding the system for the future.
另一个关注点是继续强化节日和活动。除了Ill Omens对战节的回归，我们还将扩展春日节的奖励、带来新的战场PvMP活动、朝着一套围绕不同工匠职业的周期性活动努力。
Another focus will be on the continued importance of festivals and events. Along with the return of Ill Omens, we will expand the rewards for the Spring festival, introduce new direct Player versus Monster Player events inside of the Ettenmoors, and work toward providing a new set of cyclical events that revolve around the different crafting professions.
来到春季和夏季，我们将目光转向下一次主资料片将要发布的来自新敌人日益增长的威胁。刚铎，虽然现在相对和平，但在重建方面需要帮助，同时一些异常也需要关注。我们将带来一个新版本的刚铎，不再是暗无天日被敌人包围，当然徘徊在暗处的威胁也必须得到应对。游戏系统方面，我们将继续进行特定职业调整、工匠系统更新、怪物扮演更新，以及一些战斗数据方面的进一步调整、新的仲夏节奖励等等。
As we move into the spring and summer months, our focus will shift to the growing threat posed by the enemies soon to be unleashed in our next major expansion. Gondor, now experiencing relative peace, needs assistance in rebuilding and assessing strange goings on. We will be introducing a new version of Gondor, no longer dawnless and harried by enemies on all sides. Yet still, threats linger that must be opposed. From a game systems side, we will continue to work on targeted class updates, crafting changes, monster play updates, and further adjustments to combat statistics as we move forward to the expansion, new festival rewards for Midsummer, and much more.
春夏之交，暂命名为“注意翅膀”的Further Adventures系列将占用你们的游戏时间，还有农夫节、盗宝地精活动的新奖励，挖掘系统也将迎来更难的等级。我们还将对《重回卡恩督姆》的三人本进行扩展，随着我们迎来年底的资料片也将继续进行工匠调整和兽兽增强。
As spring turns to summer, the tentatively-titled “Watching the Wing” will fill your days with Further Adventures, new festival rewards for the Farmer’s Faire, new rewards with the Treasure Bugan event, and an expansion of the Delving system to higher difficulty tiers. We will also make additions to the 3-player Instances added with “The Return to Carn Dûm“. Crafting changes will continue and more enhancements to Monster Play will take place as we drive toward the expansion in the last quarter of the year.
就像我开头说的，雄心勃勃！
As I said, ambitious!
现在我们来到了这封2023年对玩家公开信的末尾，我们想透露一点点对于年底资料片的计划，虽然还没有做好发布更多细节的准备，但我们还是想要提前告诉大家一点关于即将到来的预告。
Now, we are reaching the end of this inaugural Letter to the Players of 2023, and we want to tease a little bit about the expansion that we have planned for the latter part of the year. We are not fully prepared to release many details, but we do want to provide you with a little tease of what is to come.
当我们结束《暗影之前》，并开始展望未来时，我们自问想要故事和游戏朝哪里发展，然后得到了一致的意见，继续向南前往那些人迹罕至的海岸，穿过咸苦的海水，越过贝尔法拉斯湾，到达海盗之王的海岸，乌姆巴尔。而那里，亲爱的玩家们，将是另一个的故事。
As we wrapped Before the Shadow, and began looking toward the future, we asked ourselves where we wanted to take the story and the game next. There was an overwhelming consensus that we wanted to head south to less traveled shores. Across the salty sea, beyond the Bay of Belfalas to the shore of the Corsair Kings, Umbar. And that, dear readers, is a tale for another day.
在下次见面之前，记得我是Orion。
Until next time, I remain Orion.
