Lord of the Rings Online news keeps pouring in as we approach the Dec. 1 launch of the Siege of Mirkwood digital expansion in North America. Following dev diary entries on on the new main menu and the upcoming combat changes, the team has posted entries that focus on the revamped character panel and the level 62 skill upgrades. You can read both diary entries after the jump.

In addition, Codemasters is preparing for the release of the expansion on Dec. 3 in Europe by hosting a Welcome Back Week from Nov. 23-30. Former players can return the Middle-earth for free and enjoy +25% bonus experience during the event.

Turbine made a couple of interesting posts regarding the upcoming Siege of Mirkwood digital expansion today. First of all, a new dev diary entry has been published that explains the combat changes players will see in the expansion. Weapon speeds and damage have been standardized for different classes of weaponry per weapon level, both skill queuing and combat animation management have been updated, and many powerful creatures will now do more damage. You can read the full diary entry after the jump.

In addition, Turbine announced today that the non-disclosure agreement for the Siege of Mirkwood beta has been lifted. This means that beta players are now free to talk about their experiences in the beta. Did you take part in the testing process? If you did, let us know your thoughts on the expansion.

Turbine has introduced the new main menu for Lord of the Rings Online in today's developer diary entry. The new menu, which can be viewed after the jump, is comprised of "a nested structure of menus which will allow you to select the option that you need. You can open a submenu by hovering over the parent item, or clicking on the arrow on the parent item." The previous main menu still exists, but has been renamed the system menu.

The team has also introduced the ability to customize your toolbar slots. According to the entry, "any option that you can pick from the new Main Menu is available to select as the action that the buttons will perform." To access this new feature, go to the Options Panel and select "UI Settings" or click the new Customize Toolbar Slots button to the left of the Auto-Attack button.

Turbine is hosting another Welcome Back Week in Lord of the Rings Online from Nov. 12-18, so get ready to dust off your old characters and enter the world of Middle-earth tomorrow for some free gameplay. Players will even get a +25% experience bonus on mob kills all week long.

If you decide to renew your LotRO subscription, you should consider signing up for a three-, six- or 12-month plan during the welcome back period to get the upcoming Siege of Mirkwood digital expansion for free. All players have until Nov. 18 to take advantage of this offer, so consider going multi-month soon if you don't want to pay $19.99 for the expansion.

Dec. 1 can't come quick enough for Lord of the Rings Online players. That day marks the launch of the Siege of Mirkwood digital expansion, which will call on users to infiltrate Dol Guldur with the elves of Lothorien. The update will also include the Skirmish system, which is the focus of an in-depth series of developer diary entries by Brian "Zombie Columbus" Aloisio.

Aloisio has already written six entries on the Skirmish system. Six! That demonstrates the massive size of the system, which is comprised of "short, accessible, randomized, scalable, story instances with incremental rewards." You can read his first dev diary entry after the jump, which is an overview of the Skirmish system.

Have you finished the overview? OK, good. Now you can jump into the other five parts. Here they are: Part 2: Story Instances,  Part 3: Randomization and Scaling,  Part 4: Skirmish Soldiers,  Part 5: Rewards, and Part 6: Accessibility. Stay tuned for the final part, which will include Aloisio's experiences with making Skirmishes and the team's plans for the future.

Imagine for a moment if Frodo was unable to find a group to help him get to Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring. What if the little Hobbit was more of a solo player and wanted to complete the quest by himself? Well, it looks like that's what the Lord of the Rings Online team is working toward in Siege of Mirkwood.

According to a blog entry by Orion, too many players are abandoning the MMO's epic storyline since it requires players to form a group. Once Dec. 1 hits, Turbine will be introducing the Inspired Greatness system to entice players to try out these quests by themselves.

Starting with Volume 1, Book 2, you'll be able to inspire your characters, which "increases morale and power significantly, increases in-combat and out-of-combat morale and power regeneration, increases damage output from melee, ranged and tactical sources, increases healing output for all healing skills." You can read the full blog entry below. [via MMORPG.com]

Turbine just made a couple of interesting announcements regarding the upcoming Siege of Mirkwood expansion. First of all, the second Siege of Mirkwood trailer is now available on YouTube. It features the Lieutenant of Dol Guldur explaining why he's going to lead his armies to war against the elves of Lothlórien: "I was a king once. Now I am Nazgûl!" In case you missed it, you can also watch the first trailer on YouTube.

In addition, Turbine has extended its Siege of Mirkwood pre-launch offers to Nov. 18 to give players more time to get the expansion for free. All you need to do is become a multi-month subscriber or maintain your multi-month subscription plan to get Siege of Mirkwood for free. Since lifetime members can't change their subscription plans, they need to buy the Adventurer's Pack by Nov. 18 to take advantage of the free offer.

You may remember reading about the new Lord of the Rings Online digital expansion, Siege of Mirkwood, in our recent feature of an in-game tour with Turbine. The upcoming expansion is scheduled for release on December 1, 2009, which serves as a bookend to Volume II: Mines of Moria. Since then, Turbine has released a bit of juicy new media: a couple wallpapers, and better yet, five new screenshots from the Siege of Mirkwood expansion.

To view all five of the new screenshots, check out these direct links:

1. LOTRO: Siege of Mirkwood Screen 1
2. LOTRO: Siege of Mirkwood Screen 2
3. LOTRO: Siege of Mirkwood Screen 3
4. LOTRO: Siege of Mirkwood Screen 4
5. LOTRO: Siege of Mirkwood Screen 5

You can also view these and more Lord of the Rings Online pics in the screenshots section of our LOTRO portal site.

There are very few development teams in the MMO world that can boast of being able to release new content on a consistent basis, but it seems as though Turbine and their Lord of the Rings team has gotten that down pat, as December 1st will see the launch of their next digital expansion: The Siege of Mirkwood. The Siege of Mirkwood is also quite special for LOTRO fans, as this will act as the conclusion to Volume II: Mines of Moria, thereby suggesting that we may see a new expansion coming in the not so distant future.

Either way, just as constant as the dev team is with their content updates, their PR guys work equally hard, making sure that with every coming book release also comes… an in-game tour! So today, Turbine invited ZAM.com to sit down with Adam Mersky, Director of Communications, and Aaron Campbell, LOTRO's Live Producer, to check out what makes Book9: Siege of Mirkwood one of the most action-packed expansions to come along in quite some time.

UPDATE: The LOTRO Lottery has been expanded to add a Welcome Wagon Lotto for character between level 5 and level 15.

Do you feel lucky? If you do, then you should try your luck in the new LOTRO Lottery on my.lotro.com. Turbine has added a Lottery Widget to the community page that lets you enter eligible characters in a drawing for in-game items. The team decided to implement the lottery to give users something to do when they can't play. Also, it's fun to win stuff.

The lottery feature is launching in beta and the initial drawing is a daily event that will run through the end of the month for some silver and two bundles of fireworks. The team's looking for feedback on the lottery, so be sure to let Turbine know what you think while you try to win some prizes. More information can be found after the jump.