Thread: LOTRO Developer Twitter Chat - Thursday March 21, 3:00PM Eastern Time

Come chat with members of the LOTRO Team!

When: Thursday March 21, 2013 at 3:00PM Eastern time.
Where: http://www.twitter.com/lotro

Members of the LOTRO dev team will be answering your questions live on Twitter starting at 3:00PM Eastern time. To ask a question, just tweet it to us @lotro and be sure to include the hashtags #LOTRO and #DEVCHAT.

Please remember to keep your questions short, as we’ll be re-tweeting your questions along with the answers. Twitter has a 140 character limit per tweet, so we mean short!

The following members of the LOTRO Team will be answering your questions.

• Aaron “Rowan” Campbell - Senior Producer
• Derek Flippo – Design Director
• Matt "Hoarsedev" Zimmitti - Lead Systems Designer
• Lauren “Budgeford” Salk - Senior Content Designer (Region Gameplay and Content)
• Matt “Scarycrow” Fahey - World Builder
• Evan "Verizal" Graziano - Associate Systems Designer (Classes, Items, Mounted Combat)
• Rick “Sapience” Heaton - Community Manager

Can't make the chat but what to ask a question? Post your questions here and we'll answer some of them as well.

After the chat ends a complete transcript will be posted.

Any plans to change the Virtues system, in particular reduce the slayer deed grind that discourages alts?

Rivendell redesign? PLEASE?

Any plans for another region revamp in the style of Evendim/Moria anytime soon? Perhaps the Trollshaws or MM?

Any plans for regions which are near very well established areas, but not yet built, (such as the South Downs,) to ever come into being?

I'm interested to know: what sources do you use when checking the lore, story and history of Middle-Earth?

Will the Epic Quests, or any story line, ever come back through somewhere like Bree and give us new challenges in old territory?

Thank you all for your time taken to do the devchats/questions etc!

Any plans to rework the Fellowship Maneuver system along with the classes? I recall vague whispers about this around the time of Isengard.

in reference to the dev dairy of might to agi for warden

some of you on our forums have speculated that this change is in some way tied to the upcoming class changes hinted at in our Dev Chats. <_< … >_> …maaaaybe.

my question:
will wardens be doing MOAH! damage in class update with agility? I know you hinted to something in the dev dairy...

I know many want an answer to "why" might to agi, we all know it wasn't for just items can you give us a better hint :P

Token Creep Question:

Will there be any interm balance/bug fixing for the moors prior to the class overhauls being worked on for later this year (web the earth bug, balance problems with U10, etc).

Also, will creeps be getting a decent pass as part of the class overhauls? What will you do to make sure we're up to snuff in the new environment you are creating?

War-steeds are looks great! Only 1 thing left. Are you gonna add bridles to horses?

Q1: Any plans to handle multiboxing / cheating in the ettenmoors?

Q2: Can we expect new instances within the new area of U11 this summer?

Q3: Which instance cluster will be scaled and revamped next and when can we expect it? Moria, Angmar, Orthanc or Lothlorien (Scourge of Khazad-Dum)?

Who is the RK Developer and when will they begin to engage the RK Community?

Originally Posted by furtim

Any plans to rework the Fellowship Maneuver system along with the classes? I recall vague whispers about this around the time of Isengard.

There was a similar question posed in last month's twitter chat:

Q13 YageerSilverscale - While developing Draigoch's lair the dev team mentioned a CJ revamp. Do you still have plans on that? #LOTRO
A13 JWB - Yes. Once the dust has settled from the class updates and we're prepping content these will have more relevance in I'm hoping to get this done. #LOTRO

So doesn't sound like there'll be more info until after the class revamps. [I like CJs and was curious about this too.]

Any plans to help hunters and burglars get their mitigations above 40% more easily? (42-45% when traited with around 800-900 vit would be nice, or 50% with a 10-12k rating).

Any details/time line on the plans to fix the extremely broken and useless friends list that has bee broken since Rohan launched?

My questions:

• Are there any plans to address fight clubbing/rank farming & multi-boxing in the Ettenmoors?
• Any thoughts on a way for creep players to show off their achievements in the wider game?
• How will PvMP fit into the new expansion?
• Are the devs happy with how instances are being run with regards to loot distribution i.e. instances being farmed repeatedly?
• Any thoughts on reducing the grind at level cap i.e. legendary weapons, virtues, etc?
• Any details you can share regarding Helms Deep e.g. how will it work?
• Can we have more details about the class revamp please, specifically the implementation of skill trees?

Any news on improving (or actually including) tanking gear especially vitality jewellery to better match the might and will drops?

Are there any plans to rework the legendary item system to be a) more legendary (IE not having to destroy tons of supposedly legendary items every few levels) and b) less grindy (not needing to get carpal tunnel syndrome mindlessly clicking at the relic master)

Where is the Hotfix for Update 10 ? And the Release Date für this Hotfix?

What will the next expansion be called and any news on when u11 will be hitting bullroarer?

Originally Posted by Rasdun

There was a similar question posed in last month's twitter chat:

So doesn't sound like there'll be more info until after the class revamps. [I like CJs and was curious about this too.]

Oh, thanks! Dunno how I missed that the first time.

Are you aware that 100s of people crash on loading their chars after U10? When can we expect a patchfix about that? (If you are not please check your support tickets + forum support thread).

Q: Any more info on Update 11 apart from the fact there will be a new region?
Q: Are there plans for a new skirmish due for release?
Q: When will the next 'Player-designed relic' poll be started?

Question: Having experienced Update 10, any plans to change/improve the looting system?

Q: Do you like the idea of completing questsobjectives even if you haven't talked to the quest giver yet? (skyrim)

Q: There are a lot of recycled icons in tooltips/buffs. Why don't let the community make some?

Q: Why not add a Universal Legacy Scroll instead of dozends of different legacy exchange scrolls?

Are Turbine/Warner Brothers going to extend their license for Lord of the Rings beyond 2014, and if not what will happen to it (Keep the servers up with no new content, or close the whole lot down)?

Question 1: Can you hint at what the next cluster/instances to get scaled will be? Or when to expect it?

I think many people will agree that the best thing about U9 & U10 is that with additional instances being scaled, and the existing ones finally receiving worthwhile loot, theres much more variety and fun to be had at the endgame. Rather than just grinding the same one instance over and over (Well, there's still BFE for that )

The "Lothlorien" instances (DN, HoC, WW, HoM) would be a suitable sized chunk for dev work. Moria proper would be awesome too, but with 7 instances and 2 raids, that might be a 2-part job like the landscape revamp. GA should be an easy task to scale since that space was already split into three smaller instances. And of course, theres Angmar and the Rift

Question 2: When can we get auto-loot in place for skirmishes?

Skirmishes still have some damn good pieces, but it's so hard to get them, when only two items will drop, and the RNG gods always determine that it's never anything useful to your class. Plus even when the awesome item does drop, you're stuck rolling against all the other players (in pugs, many who dont genuinely need the item too), or are at the mercy or kin loot distribution systems, many of which are seeing little use these days due to auto-loot being involved in almost everything.

The loot doesn't have to change (feel free to add extra itemisation options - particularly Vit<>Agi combos bearing the recent warden changes), just hook it up to use the new loot system with a decent drop rate.

- Anything planned for class consumables? Eg. incomparable bow chants, quaint traps like Lure, very unequal value of class potions.

- Any chance corruptions, inductions, countdowns etc. in solo content *really* pressure into dealing with them (at least like Ost Magol)?

-when is Flights of the Lonely Mountain going be available again? 1/3 of the raid U10 raid content is broken and prevents us from completing an essential deed to get raid armor.

-Will the acquisition rate of gold/FA items be looked at for the difference between T1 and T2 raids? There is 0 incentive to do T2/T2c more than one time

-Is the "I Got Lucky" or "I had **** luck" method going carry forward to new content? Running something 50+ times to get an item once only for others to get it twice in a row within maybe 5 runs is terrible.

-Is the power issues going be looked at sooner rather than later? Except for maybe 1 or 2 classes none of the other classes have to bother looking at their power bar. Might as well just make all skills cost 0 power and remove power from the game if you're going leave 'broken' mechanics in for so long.

Originally Posted by Sakuko

Where is the Hotfix for Update 10 ? And the Release Date für this Hotfix?

Next week, but I don't have the exact date yet.

Originally Posted by bamatram

What will the next expansion be called and any news on when u11 will be hitting bullroarer?

I know the name, but I can't share just yet. I can say we'll tell you...Soon™.

Originally Posted by timmyloo22546

-when is Flights of the Lonely Mountain going be available again? 1/3 of the raid U10 raid content is broken and prevents us from completing an essential deed to get raid armor.

Unknown at this time, but I can say it's not ready for next week's hot fix. Maybe by the time of the chat we'll have a different answer, but today that's what I know.

Are you sure that the RNG truly is random? Some people seem to be perennially lucky or unlucky, and that luck has persisted longer than U9 and U10.

With a small enough sample, there are always going to be those that appear lucky or unlucky, but when there are enough reports of people running 100-150 instances or more without seeing specific drops (symbols, teal items, much less gold items) and others reporting 2-4 wins of "rare" gold items plus other desirable loot, then the player base becomes skeptical.

Can you share at a high level what you do to generate a random number? Is a static value part of the seed?

Q: Can healers expect items with proc on heal in the near future? Especially the golden Rohan final ring upgrades or mooncandle necklaces?

Do you have any plans to adjust the drop rate on horse-lords recipes? It was an interesting way to add gold quality items, but as things stand, on my server at least, you've wasted dev time making them. Awesome recipes which never drop are just a tease, one which serves only to turn off the unlucky or further promote mindless farming, not to mention enmity when there is no relationship between invested time and accrued rewards.

How about graphical revamp of old regions (Ered Luin desperately needs this!)?

Originally Posted by Sapience

Next week, but I don't have the exact date yet.



I know the name, but I can't share just yet. I can say we'll tell you...Soon™.


Unknown at this time, but I can say it's not ready for next week's hot fix. Maybe by the time of the chat we'll have a different answer, but today that's what I know.

So, no interest in telling us even IF RKs have a Dev, who that Dev might be, or when/IF they will start a dialog with the RKs?
It's just as simple to answer, it seems.

Thanks

With us now recieving items, that have effects when causing or recieving damage, will we recieve items that activate on other effects....

For example, on flanks, on parry, on evade, when down to less than a certain morale %....lots of possibilities.



P.S,

Also please change current items for Will users to activate on heal too.....even for LM. Sunbrand Ring has not activated once.

What are the plans to help keep raiding viable as a game play style?

Please don't answer with a "raiding is very important to us" style answer. Recent changes, such as making loot essentially indistinguishable on T1 and T2, gating armour only through T1, the relative ease of T1 content, and eliminating raid locks have made it more efficient to run T1 repeatedly to get the rewards that drive many raiders to raid. That results in frenetic farming of instances for a relatively short period of time, after which raiders have their gear, are bored with the faceroll play of the instances, and stop logging in. Raiding kins begin to fall apart. On my server, we have seen raiding kin after kin fall apart or merge, not because of kin drama, but because they simply cannot maintain enough raiders to continue to do T2 content with a good chance of success given the reward structure Turbine has been implementing.

Originally Posted by Sapience

Next week, but I don't have the exact date yet.



I know the name, but I can't share just yet. I can say we'll tell you...Soon™.


Unknown at this time, but I can say it's not ready for next week's hot fix. Maybe by the time of the chat we'll have a different answer, but today that's what I know.

kk ty on the quick answer. Though for the twitter chat can i ask when u11 is planned to launch on bullroarer?

Are there any plans to amend the barter requirements for the Erebor Armor and First Ages in light of Flight being unavailable?


Are there are plans to make it so that the loot from T2CM loot is actually distinguishable from T1? Atm you can get ZERO First Ages on T2CM...

Since loot is base of RNG and there are no distinguishable rewards for t2 or t2c, are there plans to get rid off it? Just weird when you get the same relics and bounties finishing t2-t2c that one can easily get in t1. Are there plans to get rid of lvl gates and virtue tiers as well?

I don't like to kill x number of mobs in certain regions, complete x number of quests, or explore odd locations for virtues. Can you put virtues in the skirmish camp so we can barter for them using marks/medallions?

Q- Do you plan to keep this method for looting? That where certain people are extremely lucky and some will rarely see more than a relic?

Q- Will there be an incentive to run T2 and T2C content on a regular basis? As of now, the loot is no different. Is that intended?

Q- Is this expansion and its model for raids and instances a one-time thing or will we continue to see only 'lair' raids with no locks?

Q- Will you ever bring Master Looter as an optional looting system? If not, what happens when people get multiple gold class items?

Q- Will you fix the 'procs' on the Upgraded Rohan Rings to benefit healers and support classes?

Q- Any plans for a 'combine all' and / or 'refine all' option for the Relic Master? Carpal Tunnel isn't fun.

Q: Will you ever release the bare-chested appearance for male Men and Elves?