<Ethion> Welcome to the European IRC dev chat! For the next hour you have your chance to get answers to all your questions concerning LotRO directly from the developers. Please send your questions (preferably in English) to our team-members, who are marked with a + in front of their name. WeÂll forward your questions to the devs and they will answer as many questions as possible here in the channel.
<[CM]Liquilla> Before proceedings get underway, today marks the launch of our Loading Screen Competition! For details on this competition including the rules visit the news article at http://www.lotro-europe.com/news.php?id=5386
<[CM]Liquilla> Also donât forget that tickets for our premier community event Connect 2008 are now available. Visit the official website at http://www.codemastersconnect.com
<[CM]Liquilla> Ok, let's get on with the dev chat. With us tonight from Turbine we have the following people:
<[Turbine]Orion> Hello all! I'm Allan "Orion" Maki, I handle a lot of the monster play aspect of the game as well as many of the other aspects of game play and content. Glad to be here this evening.
<Scenario> Good evening all! My name is Matt "Scenario" Elliott. I am the Lead Worldbuilder for LOTRO. The World Team is responsible for landscape and dungeon development with bits of content and systems designed sprinkled in the mix.
<Denour_Turbine> Evening everyone, my name is Andy "Denour Gillis and I am one of the Game System Engineers on The Lord of The Rings: Online. I have worked on systems ranging from Auction to Mail, Reputation and more recently 'scaley' things. I can answer more system related questions and technical questions.
<Tens_LOTRO> Hey everyone! This is Ryan "Tens" Bednar, and IÂm here to answer all of your questions about Book 12, The Outfit System, and Haircuts in Middle-earth.
<TurbineMeghan> Hi everyone! Thanks for coming tonight. 🙂 I'm Meghan "Patience" Rodberg, Community Manager for Turbine. I like cake.
<[CM]Liquilla> And Iâm Liquilla, Community Liaison for LOTRO Europe 🙂
<Satine> And I'm Sam "Satine" Russell, the Senior Community Manager for LOTRO Europe!
<jasnai> will there be any other new instance like ettendeep?
<[Turbine]Orion> We want to make sure that first, the Ettendeep is called The Delving of Frór. Second, it is not an instance, it is a public dungeon available once the Ettenmoors is in control of the Free People or Angmar's Army.
<[Turbine]Orion> We want to see how this goes before we promise any other areas like this.
<nem> Hiyas, im wondering how the new stats on mobs above level 50 will impact the balrog , thorog and other level 50+ raid targets.
<Tens_LOTRO> Post 50 stats are something that weÂre definitely keeping our eyes on.
<Fredol> Hello, with the new PvMP oriented Armour Set in book 12 we will have 3 of them available, is there any plan to introduce 6-8 pieces jewellery set for end-gamers?
<TurbineMeghan> Tens is still working on nem's question 😀
<TurbineMeghan> He types slow.
<Tens_LOTRO> OK!
<TurbineMeghan> VERY slow.
<TurbineMeghan> See? All that time and he only got 2 letters out.
<Tens_LOTRO> So, to finish answering nem:
<Tens_LOTRO> We have 2 big concerns there:
<Tens_LOTRO> 1. We want to ensure that our existing level 50 content remains challenging to players.
<Tens_LOTRO> 2. We want to ensure that our post 50 advancement is satisfying.
<Tens_LOTRO> So, yeah, we'll be doing our best to strike a balance between those two things.
<TurbineMeghan> Okay, on to Fredol's question. 😉
<[Turbine]Orion> Okay...to Fredol's question:
<[Turbine]Orion> We never intend to restrict what we can and cannot do with our sets. So we will not say that there will never be a jewelry set that exceeds the current 3-piece set.
<Eona> Hello ! Will monsterplayers have the same chance to create an individuell character like the players of the free people one day and will it be possible to play an evil humen like angmarim or haradrim ? Thank you very much.
<[Turbine]Orion> Never say never. Of course, there are still no plans in the works to support the evil side of the conflict.
<Sindell> Will there be any use of underwater in the future?
<Scenario> We do not currently have any plans to enable underwater swimming. We still have plenty of use for normal swimming, however. 🙂
<adamo102> Do you plan to add the cool feature of walking with weapon in hand? Like sheath/unsheath weapon keyboard shortcut?
<Tens_LOTRO> Sheathing is something we actually looked into for Book 12, but unfortunately we hit some tech hurdles that we couldn't overcome for this update...
<Tens_LOTRO> But it's something that we'll keep on investigating as time permits.
[Vhamp] Are the skins for the PVMP armour the final skins, i am asking this as i would be dissapointed to see them being the same as the Helegrod armour skin?
<[Turbine]Orion> Yes, these are the current final version of the armor pieces for the initial player side rewards.
<Kajousek> Hello, could you please add some items low-level crafters can make which would be useful for all levels? Eg. grinding stones fro weapons made from tier 1 and tier 2 materials.
<Tens_LOTRO> We can certainly look into it. 🙂
(Anonymous11) When are you going to introduce the Shaman in the Ettenmoors?
<[Turbine]Orion> Though the name of the class is still in flux, we have the basic skills and abilities, the advancement path and appearances etc... The class is currently on internal testing servers and should be ready to go for Book 13...if testing goes well. If not, we'll hold it back until it is ready.
<nem> Are you looking at balance in ettenmoors regarding burglars and loremasters? currently they are very hard to kill.. (burglars specially)
<[Turbine]Orion> Burglars and Loremasters are not specifically being looked at in the Ettenmoors. What we are looking at is the impact that diminishing returns had in the space. We believe that the impact was not as great as intended and will be putting an aggressive update into internal testing soon. With the hopes that this will be released to public test servers for Book 13.
<jeffers727> will combat-in-water ever not look rediculous?
<Scenario> You try fighting a boar in water and how you look!
<[Turbine]Orion> Have you ever fought in the water...it looks goofy. If the question is, "Will there ever be smooth transition of animation and combat in water?" the answer is: we have no plans at this point in time.
<Mich-666_> All heil to Mighty Scenario, God of Creation! We all love your cryptic messages about upcoming content, so can you please present us with the gift of your infinite knowledge and hint us what location can we humbly expect in Book 13?
<Scenario> Ah my wonderfully bloated ego! Honestly, I'm afraid I don't have too much more to give in the hints department.
<Scenario> 😀
<Zenu> PvMp question: I enjoy my class, loremaster in pve, but will we see any changes to skills that are available for players in ettenmoors, I mean skill changes restricted to pvp only so they wouldn't affect pve? I find playing my loremaster in ettenmoors a bit boring because I'm just cc'ing there and dmg is mitigated heavily because of the high resistances..
<[Turbine]Orion> Any time that we change skills for the sake of PvMP we are certain that there is no change to the PvE version of the skill.
<[Turbine]Orion> There are no plans to introduce player skills that can only be used in PvMP. If that ever happens, we will be sure to give you all fair warning before they are implemented.
<[Turbine]Orion> If we ever make changes to existing skills we'll also let you know well beforehand.
<BuBiMan> Hello, will it be possible to sell items to an NPC not only through the NPC window? It's terrible to scrol through the window to find the items I want to sell
<TurbineMeghan> Tens is slow again.
<TurbineMeghan> 😀
<[Turbine]Orion> Tens says he will look into it
<TurbineMeghan> He's having some IRC problems, sorry 🙁
<[Turbine]Orion> He forgot how to type.
<TurbineMeghan> Yeah, that. 😀
(Exca_) Portal had the lovable companion cube, could we maybe see something similar in LOTRO, like say, a companion rock?
<TurbineMeghan> You know, we do what we must because we can.
<[Turbine]Orion> The cake is a lie!!!
<Denour_Turbine> the ring is a lie!
<TurbineMeghan> We'll have to build an Enrichment Center first. Maybe in the Shire. 🙂
<TurbineMeghan> Doh! We just had a netsplit.
<TurbineMeghan> Sorry 🙂 Carry on.
<Ethion> Sorry, we have disconnected of the Turbine team ^^
<Mich-666_> Regarding monsterplay: it is nice you are adding new traits and skills to monsters in B12 but rank you need to get them costs too much infamy noone can ever gather in their lifetime. Are you planning to lower these infamy costs for ranks?
<[Turbine]Orion> We took a long hard look at the numbers there...and it was not as extreme as never in a person's lifetime. It was more 8 hours a day for 365 days a year for 5 years. We felt that was a bit extreme. This number was based on the current acquisition of infamy and renown while within raids. We have made significant changes to amount of infamy/renown earned within raids for Book 12 and will continue to refine these numbers.
<Maathim> Hello. Exactly what will the hair cut system provide? Can you just change your currect hair to something else or will there be brand new features?
<Tens_LOTRO> Well, first and fore-most, the hair cut system will provide, of all things, hair cuts!
<Tens_LOTRO> But, in addition to that, there will be more hair styles available to races...
<Tens_LOTRO> And players will be able to choose two details for their character's faces.
<Tens_LOTRO> (which is 1 more than you can select currently)
<ory> i was wondering if any of the issues with maps are going to be addressed? in particular the customization of our own maps, i.e. marking places, NPCs, mobs etc ourselves, co-ordinate display, transparency settings, more descriptive or even editable tooltips etc etc
<[Turbine]Orion> There are still no plans to expand the support on the map notes system at this time.
<Nindesd28> It is possible some new translation in the future for lotro in europe? Eg Spanish Italian etc
<[CM]Liquilla> At present we don't have any plans for further localising within Europe, however our support of non English, French & German territories is still strong as we constantly look into different ways we can help and nurture (at least from a community perspective!)
<ory>why dont you advise people to read the forums and patch notes so we dont get a whole load of time wasted on questions which have already been answered else where.
<TurbineMeghan> Hi Ory! This comes up after almost every chat. While some players who read the forums and patch notes closely don't always see anything new in these chats, we see them as another way for people to learn about the game, as well as get a little direct interaction with the LOTRO team.
<TurbineMeghan> Not everyone has the time to read the forums or the (epic) patch notes, or get a chance to ask questions, but a LOT of people read the chat logs and get information that way. Clearly, people wouldn't ask these questions if they already knew the answers.
<Laika> for Tens: Will the haircut includes Mohawks?
<Tens_LOTRO> Sorry - no Mohawks at this time. 🙁
<Tens_LOTRO> (except for the one's Dwarves already have)
<freeping> hey Turbine and Codemasters, thanks for being with us this evening. My question is: Will there be "only" fishing as a hobby in Book 13 or are you going to launch several hobbies right in B13? And, uhm, what is the exact release date of Book 12? Can't wait to see it going live.
<Tens_LOTRO> Fishing is the only Hobby we will be releasing for Book 13.
<TurbineMeghan> And we're not announcing the release date yet 🙂
<Tens_LOTRO> As for Book 12's release date... well, I'm not privileged to answer that 😛
<vald_> Are there any plans to enable outfit system for cloaks so that it works in Ettenmoors? I think many players are disappointed they won't be able to wear their rank cloaks in Ettenmoors, where they would be most atmospheric
<[Turbine]Orion> Cosmetic items do not appear in the Ettenmoors, simply because you could disguise yourself as a squishy even if you were a heavily armored tanky type. With that said, the new stats on the Ettenmoors cloaks makes these a candidate for display - even in the Ettenmoors.
<[Turbine]Orion> We'll be looking at trying to get them back to the visible layer in a future patch or update.
<Masta23> when are you planning to open up lands , the other side of the mistys?
<Scenario> Lands west of the Misty Mountains still have a while to go before we get to them. They are definately something we are thinking about but you will have to wait a bit to get to them.
<Arunder> i would like to ask a question about the percentage rising for engraved beryl recipes
<Tens_LOTRO> That's a great question!
<Tens_LOTRO> In Book 13, we will be taking steps to address the current distribution imbalances we have for rare recipes between our various crafting professions.
[21:57] <Tens_LOTRO> It's a complicated issue to address, but I'm confident that we have a good solution.
<Aimoss> Can you give please give any more hints to what the new land mass will be in book 13 ?
<Scenario> Watching the speculation has been fun and interesting. The discussion surrounding our Book 13 region has been great to read. The Book 12 update will deliver some clues in the landscape that will further enable the players to determine where they'll be going for Book 13.
<Halgar> Any plans for increasing the maximum length of an auction?
<Denour_Turbine> No, we have no plans of extending the length of auctions.
<Ethion>This will be our last question for today. So please don't send us anymore questions for today, thanks! 🙂
(KlosterKatten) Fishing! Anything new about it?!
<Denour_Turbine> Well... yes... there is!
<Denour_Turbine> You will be able to stand near a body of water...
<Denour_Turbine> cast a line...
<TurbineMeghan> Yessssss... my precious...
<Denour_Turbine> maybe catch some fish...
<Denour_Turbine> and your "Proficiency" in Fishing may go up!
<Denour_Turbine> But... maybe not... *sad*
<TurbineMeghan> FISHING!!!
<[Turbine]Orion> Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime. You can quote me on that. Of course...eating just fish is not a healthy diet so...be careful
<[CM]Liquilla> Well I'm afraid that's all we have time for folks. Thanks for all the great questions and if we were unable to answer yours tonight, then be sure to bring them along to the next one.
<Denour_Turbine> You cant teach a man to fish!
<Denour_Turbine> ONLY THE NPC CAN TEACH A MAN TO FISH!!!
<Tens_LOTRO> But if you do catch a fish - you might even be able to decorate your house with it!
<TurbineMeghan> Thanks for coming everyone. We hope you're as excited about Book 12 as we are. 🙂
<TurbineMeghan> Thanks for coming everyone. We hope you're as excited about Book 12 as we are. 🙂
<[CM]Liquilla> A big thanks to OnlineWelten for hosting once again! Goodnight!
<Satine> Thanks for coming and goodnight!
<[CM]Liquilla> can i catch old boots? 🙂
<Scenario> Can we fight fish in the water? I imagine that combat would look rediculous!
<Denour_Turbine> ...
<Scenario> *ridiculous
* Satine chuckles
* Scenario now looks ridiculous.
