<@zigzag> Good evening and welcome to another great Stratics House of Commons chat with the EU Lord of the Rings Online team! We've got much to talk about, so let's get rollin'!
<@zigzag> Full logs of the chat will be up on lotro.stratics shortly after the chat.
<@zigzag> We'll start with a brief introduction from the developers, now would be a good time to send those questions.
<@Keth_Turbine> Ahoy hoy, I am Keth and I am what your species calls a "designer." Most recently I have been working on Book 14 and the "Mines of Moria." Those new classes won't build content for themselves!
 <@Scenario> Good evening/afternoon all! My name is Matt "Scenario" Elliott - Lead World Designer for LOTRO.The world team is responsible for over-all landscape and dungeon design direction. We are currently knee-deep in the Mines of Moria, wrapping up our principle developing and entering heaving iteration on the space.
<@Meghan_Turbine> Hi! I'm Meghan "Patience" Rodberg, the community manager for Turbine. I'm a Virgo who likes long walks on the beach, coffee, and Lute Strings. Thanks for coming tonight. 
<@Avon_Turbine> hi i'm avon, the servant of loot and all items in general
<@zigzag> Please can send your questions to me - to do so type /msg zigzag and type in the window that pops up.
<@Amaurea> Hello! I'm Amaurea, the German Community Officer from Codemasters
<@zigzag> *xaal* [Raiding/Bug] Will the infamous raid vitals bug that is afflicting European LotRO players be fixed in time for Mines of Moria?
<@Keth_Turbine> I wish I was more familar with the bug, but I know something is coming in Book 14.
<@Keth_Turbine> It involved vitals and effect icons... I think.
<@Keth_Turbine> Sorry, I'm not an expert on that particular issue.
<@zigzag> *krispy* A proper developer question - are we any closer being able to get any data from the game? I'd like to get user info out of the game to show in my Madhouse Tavern (plug) fansite for example...
<@Keth_Turbine> We are planning on having more of the game data available on the web when Moria ships. I personally don't know exactly what we are planning, I know we've discussed character data, but more details will be available once we get closer to Moria shipping.
<@zigzag> *xaal* [Book 14] Will there be other additions in Book 14 that are unrelated to the group content additions and changes we already know about?
<@Keth_Turbine> *evil laugh* I'm pretty excited about Book 14. I got to create something for this update that I have never done before, and we have never seen in LOTRO before.
<@Keth_Turbine> I am going to be REALLY vague about exactly what is coming, but let's just say I'm trying to make the story much more important to everyone in the game, not just those of high level.
<@Meghan_Turbine> There are lots of little polish things in Book 14 too that I think players will like - including a dye preview window, for example.
<@zigzag> *Korpsgar* Two questions: Firstly, when will the Festival Grounds be active again? Secondly, when's our token lady back at the Big Pig Fountain?
<@Keth_Turbine> We have 2 festivals planned for Book 14, both Summer and Fall. Summer has some new additions to it, and some rather neat rewards, while Fall has some scary ones.
<@Keth_Turbine> *being vague again*
<@Keth_Turbine> as for the Anniversay Tokens, we will probably turn it back on again prior to next year's anniversary, but I don't know when right now!
<@zigzag> *krispy* Is there going to be a summer festival? And what was the deal about what looks like a horse racing course nr the shire housing?
<@Keth_Turbine> Well, kind of answered that already, but yep, Summer Festival coming and it does have another horse race for you.
<@Keth_Turbine> to help alevate the problems we had with the Fall race, there will be tracks running the race in both the Shire and in Bree. (Hence, the new track you saw in Book 13.)
<@Keth_Turbine> and Scenario tells me I spelled alevate wrong. Sorry!
<@zigzag> *xaal* [CPT] How does it look on the herald front? Is dwarven herald still suffering from the short breadth? And will Lossoth Herald find his proper outfit in time for Book 14?
<@Avon_Turbine> the appearance for the Lossoth Herald will be fixed Book 14. The dwarven herald should also be fixed.
<@zigzag> *{Ez0}Honvik{GA}* When will we see the return of 'Chicken Football' for the fun events we had in the past as part of the seasonal festivals
<@Keth_Turbine> Sadly, Hobnanigans will not be appearing this Summer. Unfortunately the current implementation is a bit buggy, and we didn't have the time to go back and, well, redo the work to make it more reliable.
<@Keth_Turbine> We do hope to bring it back some day, but for now, it's been retired.
<@Keth_Turbine> oh, and I have been told that the Raid vital bug has been fixed for Book 14. Or so they tell me!
<@zigzag> *{Ez0}Honvik{GA}* Are there new armour sets in book 14 that are obtained from the new instances you announced in previous dev chats?
<@Avon_Turbine> there are new armour sets in book 14 and the Annuminas armour set has seen a very good upgrade.
<@Avon_Turbine> additionally, helegrod has been changed over to use bartering.
<@zigzag> *Bluetus* Hello from Finland, I am wondered with many friends, Are we going to get Soon some armor or Little diffrent looking horses, Cause variations are pretty boring afterall, And mounts still plays in mmo games big role and many ppl thinks the horses are pretty lame in lotro. Otherwise Awesome Game.
<@Scenario> Hello Bluetus. Any new mount variations made available between now and Moria will mostly be saddle and color variations. However, we have a region coming up (you may have heard of of it) that ponies (and assumedly horses as well) dare not tread. This means that something new is coming.
<@zigzag> *ererbus* Hello, i've got one question: Are there any plans for expanding the guild system, like new individual ranks, guild clothes, guild fortress or guild city?
<@Keth_Turbine> Yeah, I would loooooove to introduce a Kinship cosmetic slot and we, in general, want to give Kinships some more love. That additional support though probably won't happen until after Moria ships.
 <@Keth_Turbine> we are calling that update "Month of the Kinship," which is kind of a misnomer, but it highlights how much attention we want to give Kinships in one of our updates.
<@zigzag> *Godot* Where will the new 6 man instances take place and what size will they be? (BG or more like CD)
<@Keth_Turbine> They will take place in... familiar locations.
<@Keth_Turbine> As for scope, I designed them to be pretty quick, a 1/2 hour to an hour, but unpredictable and a bit random.
<@Keth_Turbine> Let's just say, you haven't seen any instances like this in LOTRO before.
<@zigzag> *Wiesel0r* My Question is about the PvP-Sytem in Mines of Moria. What will be changed and will there new pvp-sets?
<@Keth_Turbine> Yes, there will be changes. Since the player level cap is increasing in Moria, you can expect that players will have to meet that challenge.
<@Keth_Turbine> I also believe that a new set is planned for PvMP, along with some new challenges in how you claim and hold the Ettenmoors.
<@Keth_Turbine> We are also discussing having that conflict have a larger impact on the rest of the game world. (I'm being vague, vague, vague!)
<@zigzag> *xaal* [2H Weapons] Will we see more 2H weapons in Book 14? Crafted or otherwise.
<@Avon_Turbine> woodworkers will be getting new recipes to create 1-handed and 2-handed clubs.
<@zigzag> *Medic* Has any thought been given to being able to undock chat tabs (so multiple windows can be watched at once)? (or more freedom of base GUI for that matter?)
<@Keth_Turbine> At some point after Moria, we are planning on doing a substantial UI update to the game.
<@Keth_Turbine> so, I wouldn't expect anything too sweeping until then.
<@zigzag> *{Ez0}Honvik{GA}* Will we see any further enhancements to the DX10 code in the future to enable more features and more optimization?
<@Scenario> Since the introduction of DX10 compatibility last year, our Game Platform team has been hard at work on a couple of new features. Specifically, additional work is being down with the dynamic shadows (like those cast by trees) with Moria's environment in mind.
<@Scenario> We also have a couple of features that are in development but we are not ready to talk about them yet and they likely won't be available for Moria's Launch.
<@zigzag> *Polaris* Greetings. I have a game mechanics-related question. This has been discussed both recently and in the past, and even the lorebook gives contradictory information on this. Basically, are skill cooldowns affected by weapon speed or are those solely dependent on skills? If so, is there any other use for weapon speed besides seeing what your auto-attack cycle speed is?
<@Meghan_Turbine> Hi Polaris! I relayed your question to DangerDan over IM and he responds: Individual skill cooldowns are not affected by weapon speed, only the time before you can next execute subsequent skills. Attack with a fast weapon and you have to wait less time after that skill is done before your next skill will start. Some skills are designed to ignore the weapon speed related timer, but those are usually quite special and built tha
<@Meghan_Turbine> ...allow a faster response.
<@zigzag> *{Ez0}Honvik{GA}* Are there any plans to reduce the number of kills to complete a deed in future as we get closing to Mines of Moria?
<@Keth_Turbine> We have had many crack addled ideas on how to let you finish deeds, other than just meeting the kill requirements.
<@Keth_Turbine> For the most part, we want you to have to meet the deed requirements, but if you were willing to part with something else....
<@Keth_Turbine> Well, then, we might allow that.
<@Keth_Turbine> (Yes, not giving you a lot of details. I would be bananas to provide too many details on crack addled ideas!)
<@zigzag> *Telaran* Monthly Question: When will the "Marketing Ninjas" allow you to give us some information about Book 14 and Mines of Moria?
<@Meghan_Turbine> The Marketing Ninjas won't let me say.
<@Meghan_Turbine> Kidding!
<@Meghan_Turbine> We'll start talking about Book 14 shortly - in fact, the release notes are done and you'll be seeing those soon as well as a couple of dev diaries.
<@Keth_Turbine> actually, they are ninjas, it's actually more like the MCP in Tron. There's this spinning head and everything.
<@Keth_Turbine> er they aren't ninjas
<@Meghan_Turbine> Moria is a little further off, but you'll start seeing all kinds of press in the next few months, as well as a ramping up of content on lotro-europe.com.
<@Meghan_Turbine> Book 14 first, though. One thing at a time!
<@zigzag> *ben2* questions : 1: how do u calculate the drop rate on one use tier 5 recipes
<@Avon_Turbine> the drop rate for any one-use recipe is equal across all professions but depending on how many recipes are available for a profession the drop rate for any individual recipe may shift. If there are many recipes for a profession then the chance of getting a specific one is tiny.
<@zigzag> *driby* Is there any plans for player crafted fireworks sometime in the future?
<@Meghan_Turbine> Please hold any questions having to do with the world. Scenario has had an unfortunate lesson in circuits and how they have to be complete to power something (Translation: He just unplugged his computer with his foot by accident and will return shortly).
<@Keth_Turbine> Nope, no plans for player crafted fireworks, but we are providing some house deco fireworks that can be used so you can show off your own displays from your front yard.
<@zigzag> *Sheridan7000* im grand master of scholar and why i cant build scrolls from different resources or create new scrolls and potions?
<@Avon_Turbine> there are a number of new scholar recipes coming online in book 14 - some for potions, others for new dyes and wall colours for your home, improved battle lore scrolls, and one-use recipes that allow you to make items that will be very handy for other professions.
<@zigzag> *Kuhmuh16* [Mines fo Moria] Hi all! I want to know more about the new classes the warden and the runekeeper whats comming soon with the next addon Mines of Moria
<@Keth_Turbine> So, I can't give too many details (Marketting MCP head will get me!) but I can say a little bit.
<@Keth_Turbine> The Warden is a more "tank-y" class and is a master of marital combat, and must strike his blows in such a way to best finish off his enemies.
<@Keth_Turbine> The Rune-keeper is a master of words, and uses those to either damage his enemies or inspire his allies.
<@Meghan_Turbine> Marital combat.
<@Keth_Turbine> *sigh* I spelled marital instead of martial
<@Meghan_Turbine> Nice, Keth.
<@Keth_Turbine> I always do that.
<@Meghan_Turbine> I'm telling Mrs. Keth. Boy are you in for it.
<@zigzag> *moir* Hi zigzag, my question is for Scenario: Have you spent as much time making Lothlorien a place of wonder for Patience to play her Lute in or is book 14 all about The Mine 
?
<@Scenario> Hey moir! So - just to clarify a little bit. Book 14 has little in terms of new playable landscape for players to explore. We are introducing a small portion of Eregion to support our epic story but mostly the efforts of the World Team for Book 14 settled firmly in the realm of bug fixing.
<@Scenario> Book 14 doesn't have any involvement with Lothlorien or Moria. I suppose Patience could play her lute in that small portion of Eregion if she wanted.
<@Meghan_Turbine> I only kill things with my lute 
<@Scenario> ding da ding din
<@Keth_Turbine> that might soon be "dum de dum du!"
<@Meghan_Turbine> Oh, yes.
<@Keth_Turbine> or bling de bling bling!
<@Scenario> tweet ta tweet weet?
<@Keth_Turbine> that too
<@Meghan_Turbine> That's something else in book 14 - your minstrel has animations and sounds for the instrument equipped
<@Meghan_Turbine> So I will be banging my drum.
<@zigzag> That will wrap it up for tonight. Thank you to the LOTRO team for being here, and thank you for coming! You can join #lotro to chat more about the game. The log for tonightâs chat will be up shortly on lotro.stratics
<@Meghan_Turbine> Thanks for coming, everyone. Get those cowbells ready
<@Scenario> Thanks for submitting your questions everyone! Have a great evening!
<@Meghan_Turbine> See you next time!
<@Keth_Turbine> ciao all! Please forgive me for my typos!
<@Avon_Turbine> Bye folks! and thanks for your questions!
