LOTRO Bullroarer Server and Client

What Kinds of Features Appear on Beta?

It could be anything that doesn’t classify as a story spoiler. A few examples might help, though:

• New regions (I enjoyed roaming Swanfleet when Before the Shadow was on the Public Preview Client).
• New crafting events (I tested the Hard Tack at Thorin’s Hall event a lot on beta).
• Race, Class and Avatar updates
• Raid Boss Mechanics
• Housing
• Hobby Changes (Birding was also in a previous Bullroarer)
• Missions and Delving updates
• Gearing tests.

Why Is Bullroarer a Separate Installation?

To make it easier to identify bugs unique to beta, while not adversely affecting the live version of LOTRO.

This means you need to check you have sufficient disk space for two installations of The Lord of the Rings Online if you want to contribute to Bullroarer feedback.

A Bit More Detailed

Swanfleet Landscape - a gorgeous orange, pink and purple dusk. Screenshot taken during beta.

When any app is in a beta update stage, it is important to keep it separate from the currently-working non-beta version. This helps people to find bugs unique to beta, while not introducing new bugs into the current, stable version in the process.

In such a huge open world as The Lord of the Rings Online, a beta version may include new regions, combat stats tweaks, updated graphics, avatar textures and map changes. All these things change the code, sound and image files in the game. And such changes are not in your live installation.

Chasing a goose when Yondershire was on Beta.

Is Bullroarer only for VIPs? Can Free-to-Play Players Test Beta?

No, it’s not only for VIPs – it’s not a Legendary Server in that way. So yes, F2P-ers can test new things before they go live too.

What Do I Get for Testing LOTRO Beta?

The satisfaction of helping make it better for yourself and everyone else. Also seeing sneak previews of what might be coming in the future. That is it and it is enough.

Note: there are no Epic-quest story spoilers during beta runs.

Anything your character obtains or unlocks on beta will not affect what you have on the live servers. Bullroarer characters are fairly frequently deleted to give the databases a clean run each time.

When Is Bullroarer/Beta Open?

While you can install the client pretty much whenever, you may not be able to patch it, or log in. That’s because public betas are announced just beforehand. Open times also usually only last a matter of days. Your best bet is to keep an eye on the forums and on xTwit and Facebook for announcements about start and end dates.

To install the LOTRO Bullroarer client you need to:

1. Download it. SSG have provided the links on this forum post.
2. Install it in a separate location to your current live installation.
3. Check your client settings in the launcher, especially aspects such as using high resolution game textures.
4. Launch and patch it.
5. If you intend to start a new character, or have already copied one over, then load the game as normal.
6. Otherwise copy a character, then load the game as normal.

Unsure whether you need or want to copy a character? Check here for my thoughts.

Download the LOTRO Bullroarer Client

I’ve provided a button below which saves the install file from LOTRO.com to a location of your choosing. I hope it helps you.

Download from LOTRO.com→

For Linux users – you may find you have fewer headaches if you keep Bullroarer in a separate Wine Bottle or Prefix. At least when you find reportable bugs it won’t be due to inconsistencies in your live installation and the beta one.

Once you have installed it and the launcher does run, feel free to copy your configuration settings. I use Lutris which makes comparing settings easy, but there are various ways of getting Windows games to work on Linux and I can’t cover them all here.

Note: LOTRO does not officially support Linux. Before submitting a bug report, make sure you have ruled out the chance it is a Linux configuration issue.

1 & 2: Press Transfer

Log into the game client, but do not launch the game.

Once you’ve entered your username and password, don’t click “PLAY” and don’t press the Enter key on your keyboard.

Don’t pass Go, don’t collect £100.

Instead, press the Transfer button.

3. Choose the Server

Select the world you want to transfer/copy characters from.

Select one server to transfer a character from. If you want to copy from more than one server, you’ll need to repeat this process from the Transfer button.

3. Choose Character(s)

Choose Which Character to copy to Bullroarer.

Select which character(s) you want to copy. Don’t select loads – only what is realistic for your testing time. The less you transfer, the less chance a bug you find is something you accidentally brought with you.

4. Choose New Server

Choose Bullroarer from the New World List.

Obviously, choose Bullroarer | FREE at this step. You’ll be pleased to know you don’t get charged 2,495 LOTRO Points to copy a character to the Public Preview Server!

What Copies Over?

When you copy a character to the LOTRO Bullroarer Server, these items are also copied:

• Character and current Outfit tabs.
• Existing trait tree and mounted combat tree settings.
• Existing Collections: Mounts, Emotes, Pets etc.
• Your character’s personal Vault.
• Bags/Inventory.
• Wallet contents, except for Figments of Splendour, Motes of Enchantment and Embers of Enchantment*.

* I think this is correct. If it is, and you need to test something which needs to be bought with Figments of Splendour, you can get 10,000 Figments of Splendour from Ash at the Eyes & Guard Tavern.

What Does Not Copy to the Public Preview Server?

The key ones are

• Wardrobe
• Shared Storage
• Houses (neither standard, nor Premium)
• Housing Storage
• Server-limited currencies like Figments of Splendour, Motes and Embers of Enchantment etc

If you think you might need items from your other LOTRO Storage while on beta, then move them into your Vault or bags on the live server before you copy the character.

The entrance to the Eyes and Guard Tavern in burned-down Archet

• Bree-land, Archet: Available post-attack. If you want it pre-attack, then you need to be a new Hobbit, Man or Woman.
• Ered Luin, Thorin’s Gates: Not far from the Stablemaster.
• Mossward, Near Eleri: If starting in Before the Shadow, all races will need to complete their intro questline, including River Hobbits.

Before you speak to Sterkist, you can see (nearly!) Kehleyr pretty much from where you spawn.

• Meadhollow: Speak to Kehleyr, to the East of Sterkist. Pick up and complete her quest. (Coordinates: 13.6N, 52.8W)

You can do this immediately after character creation. You do not need to complete the Beorning intro questline. If you miss it and do the intro quests, then you will end up in Archet, and the E&G Inn is there too. So you’re fine either way.

Before you talk to Harthalín, turn around and there is Kehleyr.

• Dagorlad: Speak to Kehleyr, North-east of Harthalín (Coordinates: 62.9N, 4.1W). She looks different to other locations, but has the same quest as her other incarnations.

As with Beornings, you don’t have to complete the intro questline. Given that the High Elf intro can be long and there’s no E&G port in Celondim, make sure to use Keyleyr’s quest in Dagorlad!

Stout-axe Dwarves:

• Do not accept the quest “Toil in the Dark Tower”. Instead, speak to Núluzagar and complete their quest.

As mentioned, the Eyes and Guard Tarvern on Bullroarer has a lot of NPCs and services. While there are too many to list here, some highlights are:

• Currency: Gold, Mithril Coins, Motes and Embers of Enchantment, Figments of Splendour, Ancient Scrips, Ribbons (for Hard Tack or the Forester Crafting Event), LOTRO Points – and probably others.
  Bear in mind these LOTRO Points are for the test version of the LOTRO Store and have no influence on your live-server LP balance.
• Instant Level-up Services: NPCs that boost your beta character to certain level caps. Great for testing content on-level – or at cap – instances, raids or gearing systems.
• Delving Stones: Pick up whichever stones you need for the delving level you’re testing.
• Instance/Dungeon Unlocks: if you’re usually supposed to go to a location to unlock a dungeon or raid, you don’t have to do that on beta.
• Gear: before you test on-level content, grab gear so you don’t instantly die on your new character’s Level 1 starter gear!
• Travel: port instantly to key locations in Middle-earth.
• Legendary Items: both weapons/items and traceries.
• Racial Traits: speak with Snowlight to get these fixed up.
• Virtues: Temerity is the NPC to help you out with Virtues and VXP on the LOTRO Bullroarer server.

There is a full list of NPCs here on the Forums and on the Wiki, too.

1. Complete a bug report form
2. When providing Character details, make sure it was the one in-play at the time you encountered the bug or issue. If different bugs happened on different characters, file separate bug reports.
3. In the Current Server select LOTRO → Bullroarer
4. Use the /loc field. If you’re reporting more than one bug in one form, ensure you’ve provided /loc where possible.
5. Be as clear in your report as possible about what the bug is, and how you came across it.
6. If your report contains more than one bug, make sure your screenshots have descriptive filenames. This is so the LOTRO team can easily tell which bugs they relate to.
7. Double-check you actually uploaded the screenshots. *cough*
8. Remember a human being will read your report. Please be considerate in your writing.

Set the current server as Bullroarer when producing a bug report about the LOTRO Public Preview Server.

This is the same process for reporting bugs on the live server. Be open to finding new things to report and kind when you do.

Testing things out on the LOTRO Bullroarer server is a great way to contribute to the game. You get sneak previews of work-in-progress features and you can get bugs reported before that content hits the live servers.

It can be easy as gamers to think the devs should be all-seeing and all-knowing. But some issues don’t arise until many people are using software at the same time. Do your bit towards the future of the game and jump on the Public Preview Server next time it’s announced.

Enjoy your time in The Lord of the Rings Online and do your best to make sure others do too. Until next time, may the light of the Valar illuminate your paths.