LOTRO Reporter Episode 219 – Something Wicked This Way Comes

Layanor is back and we talk about a whole bunch of stuff.

Listen now:

What We Did in Game

Layanor

18% away from rank 13

Cari

A little bit of leveling 93.5

News

No Pax East Party or Booth This Year

https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7087932#post7087932

LOTRO will not have a booth, and we won’t be having our usual party, but I’m looking to put together something for LOTRO fans to meet up and talk about the game. It will be more along the lines of what I’ve done in Orlando and Buffalo recently than our previous invitation only parties.

I’m also looking at possibly doing something along the same lines fairly soon in Florida and/or possibly North Carolina. So if it all works out, we’ll be looking at as many as 3 opportunities to get together with fellow players, in a lot more places than usual.

Community Update

http://youtu.be/qQNA1FOWZM0

New promotion Screenshot of the week – Details are Coming

Taking the Hobbits to Isengard Withywindle

https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?539143-Hobbits-to-Isengard-Q-A-with-Sapience-notes-on-what-was-said&p=7093241#post7093241

What is your personal opinion of the LI system

Doesn’t have any particular problem with it as it is, but he knows that the team is looking into some stuff. He just got back the preliminary outline of the 20 questions that players submitted, and that question did get answered and it’s something the team is taking a look at.

Should we be worried there will be no expansion this year

Considering that in the past they’ve done only one expansion a year and no other content, and this year they’re doing 4 content updates and no expansion, they are just responding to a lot of players have been saying over the past year, “How about we take a break from expansions and give us some really great content, flesh out the world, go back and fix some of the older stuff, revamp a few areas, and kind of just focus on improving the game instead of constantly expanding it.” So that’s what they’ve done.

Could we get a little info on housing

He’s going to hold off until the 20 questions are published because there were some housing questions that got answered there. He says you’re going to be really happy with the answers.

Various people asking about future plans for the game

All you need to do is read Kate’s letter, she really lays out what’s happening in the first quarter and gives a good overview of what to expect overall.

When 20 the questions answers be posted

He just got them back, needs to go over them for typos, etc. and then put them up for translation. As soon as all that happens they will be posted. Probably mid next week.

If you could session play anything within LotR content, what would it be

Probably Sauron at the destruction of the ring, to see it from his point of view.

Will there be more raids coming

Currently no plans for raids, and he doesn’t see that changing from week to week, at least not for this year. He just saw that this question was answered by the team in the 20 questions, and that is the same answer they gave. No instance cluster raid type content is planned for this year.

Are there any real-life meet and greets coming up

He is trying to put some together with some players, there are some discussions in that section of the forums. Right now it is looking like early April in Florida in the Orlando area, late March in North Carolina on the Eastern part of the state, and in the Boston area around the Pax timeframe. He will keep everyone updated in the forums as his plans solidify.

Does anyone in the office speak Sindarin or Quenya

He doesn’t know specifically the numbers but yes, and it’s more than one person. He does not.

Do other staff members attend Weatherstock

You would probably be surprised at how often staff members have been in your raid, your kin, your fellowship and you haven’t known it. They do not give out info on their personal accounts, where or when they play or what they do in-game. He can almost guarantee that if you play a lot and especially on a North American server you have probably played with a dev or another member of the team at some point and you never knew it.

Any chance of servers coming back with old content on them such as pre-expansion SoA

No, they have no plans of doing that. It is really impractical to try to maintain multiple code bases and multiple versions of the game that need to be debugged and managed. You end up creating a situation where you have the game you are making and then these various frozen points that may need debugging too, and you effectively end up with 2 or 3 or 4 different games to deal with. It’s not practical and they have no intentions of doing it.

What is happening with lotteries

The power outage awhile back broke them, and until the hardware and system are repaired and back up and running he can’t even speculate on an ETA.

Are there any plans for a graphics overhaul or revamp

Not currently in the cards

Are there any steed design contests coming

Not at the moment, but there are other player design contests being considered

Have monster players ever been outside of the moors, including beta

Yes, on the Turbine internal servers. There is actually a video out there of the Russian team doing some interesting things, but it’s not something that will ever likely be done on live.

When will we get to find out which zones are being revamped

Update 13 will see a few zones being revamped, not just one. The exact details will be in the 20 questions, and they are generally areas that players have been asking for updates on a lot. One of the areas that players have been asking for a revamp on the most will be getting revamped, and since the 20 questions are coming out next week he will spill the beans on that one – it’s the North Downs.

When we will get more info on the top secret thing you can’t give info on

When it ceases being a top secret thing he can’t give info on. The secret thing has nothing to do with an NDA, it’s about the fact that Kate sits close enough that she could hit him with anything she wanted to from a distance, and he’s not ruining her surprise.

What are the odds of Twitch TV live streaming integration coming to LotRO

He doesn’t know, but will pass the idea along.

Is there any chance of LMs getting a war wolf cosmetic appearance

He was able to ask Deviled Egg because she was at her desk, and her response was: “It’s possible, but it’s something we’d have to think more about and work out how we’d go about doing it, and there’s really not an ETA on when we might do something like that,” but it’s something she will think about and consider.

Can’t you use data to get a better understanding of who uses or doesn’t use a given system

That is exactly how they make decisions about what to do or what not to do, is based on the data and who does what and when and how often.

Will lifetime subscriptions ever be available again

No, there are no intentions of ever bringing those back for sale, but they do occasionally bring them back as prizes.

Will the Rift be scaled

There is actually a pretty long answer on scaling raids instances in the 20 questions coming up, on what will and won’t be scaled and why, so it’s better if you read that next week, but the Rift is not on the list, and probably not Carn Dûm either.

Will there be any new hairstyles added to the barber soon

Probably not, he’s not aware of any immediate plans to do so. – And I cry :(

Will you ever do the Bounders Bounty again

He doesn’t know of immediate plans to do it, or how it might be redone, but it’s definitely something that is talked about. If not something similar, at least that type of event is definitely on the radar.

When will first age 95s be released

He doesn’t have an ETA but will post it as soon as he does

Do you know the status of Turbine point cards and where they might be available

He doesn’t have that information, no

Why don’t you scale characters instead of instances

That was actually one of the questions answered extremely well in the upcoming 20 questions, but the short answer is because it’s a lot easier and more predictable, especially when scaling down, to scale instances and not characters.

What is being done about duplicated icons

He didn’t see icons on the list for 12.3, it’s more likely to be dealt with in update 13 but it has been bugged and they are well aware of the problem.

Why are you being taken to Isengard by humans, elves and dwarves instead of orcs

Because they are less likely to eat him, although he’s been dragged through swamps, dragged off a bridge and shoved into a crypt so he’s not so sure it’s any safer than traveling with orcs

How do changes come into the game

Lots of different ways. The sparring timer change was mentioned in a livestream, players made a good argument for it and he took it to the team and they agreed, QA took a look at it and now it’s going to come in a patch. Balance and skill changes are brought forth by the systems team as a unit, and the developer for each class has a vision for where that class will go. The LotRO team will have a vision for where the game will go as a whole based on their design goal, and that will determine where they take things overall.

Do any of the Turbine story writers write their own books

Yes, actually Berephon is a published author and Chris Pearson is also a published author so there are two that he knows of but there may be more.

Are there any plans for server vs server PvP

No, there are no current plans for that