Weekly MMO news round-up: Fallen Earth is elf-free, Star Wars details the Trooper class, EVE storyline updates

Tons of stuff happens during the week with MMOs that it would just boggle your brains, so it's all here for you in one post as usual.

Fallen Earth promises to be different by being "elf free", Star Wars revealed the Trooper class, EVE gets a bit of a storyline change, and LOTRO shows you how to pull off those tricky fellowship maneuvers.

Wanna know the rest? Of course you do, and it’s all after the break.

Warhammer's getting ready to end its live expansion with the Land of the Dead, which will close out the big update arc. IGN has a nice piece giving you all sorts of pre-E3 goodness on what to expect. Go have a look.

A second crafting set is available for Bounty Bay Online. It's a crafting bundle for lumberjacks with five tickets to the forestry center, each one giving access for a period of 24 hours to an instanced forest area in which players find an inexhaustible timber resource. Also included in the bundle are five lumbering textbooks, which accelerate ability for six hours. The Lumber’s Bundle represents a price saving of around 50%. It will remain available at the special offer price of 149 shop points for one week until Wednesday May 13.

Fellowship maneuvers can be a bit tricky in LORTO, but the official website shows you how to accomplish such a feat. Some heal the group, others give melee damage, restore power, or call forth a helper to defeat your enemies. Basically it's a combo attack, and some are pretty darn cool to look at. Ents, shades, horses, eagles - all sorts of visuals.

MTV Multiplayer has an interview with Jessica Orr, the product manager of Fallen Earth. Says the biggest difference between the fantasy MMO and others of its genre is that it's not only a shooter that switches between first and third-person, but it's also elf-free. More interesting tidbits are in the interview, and the game is sounding better all the time.

Champions Online will allow players to have a secret identity. That's according to Bill Roper, who sat down with IncGamers to chat a bit about the superhero MMO. He says a secret identity would not be implemented right away, but he's keen on doing it eventually. Also, there are plans to create super vehicles as "an alternative to flying, burrowing, teleporting or swinging through the game". Sounds fun.

BioWare has revealed the Trooper class for Star Wars: The Old Republic. This elite combat specialist in the Republic military is armed with heavy blaster rifles and its armor is nearly impenetrable. Best of all - it looks cool. You can read all about the new class here.

Square Enix unveiled the event schedule for the seven-year anniversary of Final Fantasy XI, which runs May 12 - 25. Players will find Moogles in selected zones that provide information on adventures and carry a nice selection of gifts. Get the server schedule  and more through here.

The upcoming dungeon, Treasure Trove, is undergoing final testing for Runes of Magic, and soon adventurers will be able to carouse in the newly created Ravenfell territory and get involved with the Black Sail Pirates. Yar. The ghost ship the ‘Black Mary’ will also make an appearance and soon, long-forgotten pirate gold will be up for grabs - but beware - it's guarded by undead pirates. You can check out screens of it over on Massively.

EverQuest II players can earn extra bonus experience this weekend over in zones that launched with the original release of EQII. Zones include: The Caves, Antonica, Sunken City, Commonlands, Nektulos Forest, Enchanted Lands, and Everfrost.

MapleStory just turned four, and to top that off, it now boasts over 92 million users worldwide - six million of those are in North America. Not bad for a free-to-play MMO. Who are we kidding. That's a massive number.

The Lineage II five-year anniversary celebration ran into a snafu and has been extended until May 12 - o you still have time to collect all those letters folks. The letters that dropped from monsters in Aden and Gracia will begin dropping again and will continue until maintenance begins on May 12. The Event NPC's will still be removed from the game during maintenance, so be sure you exchange all of the words you've collected before the servers are brought down.

EVE Online writer, Tony Gonzales, has announced that some changes are coming to EVE's storyline and lore. Plans to address some backstory issues and how it relates to the setting of New Eden are the main subject of a new dev blog on the official site. Gonzales also stated that players who choose to get immersed in the game's lore may gain additional benefits during PvE down the road.