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Frelorn Q&A from Livestreams
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I'll look forward to his live streams and your transcriptions. :)
If I could ask you to somehow separate the different question and answers with either color for questions or a space between sections it would be helpful. I usually don't read them now because they're so smooshed together and it's difficult for me to get through.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Beaniemooch
I'll look forward to his live streams and your transcriptions. :)
If I could ask you to somehow separate the different question and answers with either color for questions or a space between sections it would be helpful. I usually don't read them now because they're so smooshed together and it's difficult for me to get through.
It's good you're giving feedback on this. No need to suffer through when you can speak up and get some revisions made to help with any problems you are having. :)
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If you need a hand with transcriptions, let me know. I'm heading back to college in a week, but, depending on the dates, I might still be able to pitch in from time to time.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Beaniemooch
I'll look forward to his live streams and your transcriptions. :)
If I could ask you to somehow separate the different question and answers with either color for questions or a space between sections it would be helpful. I usually don't read them now because they're so smooshed together and it's difficult for me to get through.
Thanks for the feedback and Ill definitely try to space them out or different color the questions Ill see which works better :)
Quote:
Mar-Evayave
If you need a hand with transcriptions, let me know. I'm heading back to college in a week, but, depending on the dates, I might still be able to pitch in from time to time.
Thanks Mar-Evayve I will hollar if it looks like I need the help. I appreciate it :)
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8-21-2014 Test Stream 2
8-21-2014 Test Stream 2
Please note: I am paraphrasing here. Anything said here is coming through my interpretation of what was said, and is subject to being corrected, so don't take all this as the final word.
If anyone who was present has any additions or corrections, feel free to post. I am trying out coloring the questions to hopefully make them easier to separate from the answers. Feedback is appreciated both good and bad :)
Video is available on twitch here
- How will you choose a character to play for the streams? He will put up a forum poll to have the player base choose his character class and race.
- Will Frelorn run a character as Beorning? Yes, when Beorning's come out he will definitely do a stream as a Beorning.
- Will you be doing any streams from the Ettenmoors? Yes but that will take a little more planning. Players are welcome to dog pile him when he is over there and make the servers cry.
- What type of account in-game will you be using? He will be using a VIP account so that it will be possible to go into any area.
- How long have you been playing LOTRO? He started when the game launched in 2007. Its been a couple of years since he has played so its a re-learning experience.
- How often will you do streams? He plans to do streams as much as he can he loves streaming. They have a few other ideas thanks to players as to what else will be streamed.
- Will he group with the players? Yes especially as he is leveling up and getting into group instances he will definitely ask for help.
- He will put up schedule next week for when he plans on streaming. 1-2 days a week for this, some developer streams, some feature streams, some pvmp streaming.
- What class is your main? His main is a Guardian that he has been leveling up as he has time. Though that is hard to do while relearning an old job. He sets aside meeting time for playing time at times so he gets a chance to play.
- Will he attempt the Epic Solo Battles? When he gets there he will definitely attempt them, should be comical, sometimes depressing as we see his skills.
- Frelorn mentions that since LOTRO reached 50k followers on Twitter they are giving away a Swan Cloak the code is valid until the 25th. Code for the cloak is SWAN and is 1 use per account.
- Can you do giveaways sometime sometimes on stream? Yes, he can do both giveaways on here and on Twitter.
- Are we allowed to make fun of you if you mess up in game? Yes he would be disappointed if we didn't, we have carte blanche whenever he is in game doing stuff to make fun of him. He is a Community Manager he has thick skin.
- Can we pick out your cosmetics and armour on your character? Yes we will be allowed to give opinion on gear etc, we can tell him to do anything as long as we don't get him killed a lot, that could get expensive.
- What program are you using for streaming right now? Xsplit Pro, he played around with OBS, but Xsplit works just as well so he went with that.
- He plans on getting this setup to where on the stream page, there will be reasons for the rest of us to stream, there will be giveaways for people to stream, they hope to eventually get where if someone is really good they will have it to where we can stream on their LOTRO twitch channel. He did that some previously with Infinite Crisis.
- Will you be doing things for European players? He will do his best to try and set up at least one of the stream times to be European friendly, set up one of the times earlier our time to be European friendlier. Giveaways like t-shirts and stuff will not be region specific.
- His philosophy is if he is playing he should be streaming so we will probably along with scheduled time probably see him pop in occasionally just because he has an hour free and decides to go play.
- Is it possible to get higher quality video from Twitch? Yes he is going to look into that and see what it takes for the quality options to be available on the channel.
- Do you have any information on the voting of Sapience as Community Manager? He does not. [ Dragon Slayer Awards are still currently in voting visit their website to vote for this and many other things. http://community.guildlaunch.com/pro.../DragonSlayer/ -Eldalleth]
- Players in chat warn Frelorn that a lot of the streams turn into talk of food. Frelorn says hes okay with that, talk comes up in chat about bacon and Frelorn mentions he has had bacon popcorn and its not as good as you would think. Someone else on the team brings over to Frelorn a bacon scented air freshener. Frelorn mentions if he had one of those in his car he would never leave.
- What does or what all should a community manager do? That is the most loaded question ever. Frelorn says we are the conduits between developers and players, we put up the content on the websites. We do streams and chats and pass along information, we run the social channels, we help come up with the content and idea, and we make sure feedback is getting from one place to another. Its a very open ended job, Community managers are the ones that do whatever they can do to help out. Someone in chat jokes he is also armed with a nerf gun.
- To encourage streamers he is going to look into having overlays created on a webpage that would help a streamer, maybe backgrounds or music and overlays to make it easy to use.
- Have they done the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge? Turbine did it and challenged Nether Realms who accepted the challenge. They dumped ice water on their heads as well as donated to www.ALSA.org [You can see Turbine's Ice Bucket Challenge here - Eldalleth]
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Aw, I missed it? :(
Anyway, I'm not sure if Frelorn intends to put a stamp of approval on the way Sapience did, but I did want to mention that in #3 it's Ettenmoors. :D Otherwise, great job!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Eldalleth
I am trying out coloring the questions to hopefully make them easier to separate from the answers. Feedback is appreciated both good and bad :)
Could I request that a line break be added between the question and the response? For me it makes it easier if instead of:
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Eldalleth
How will you choose a character to play for the streams? He will put up a forum poll to have the player base choose his character class and race.
there is:
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Eldalleth
How will you choose a character to play for the streams?
He will put up a forum poll to have the player base choose his character class and race.
However, if no one else feels the same or if you think it would make the post too long, I can live with it the way it is.
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Rainith
Quote:
Quote Originally Posted by Eldalleth
I am trying out coloring the questions to hopefully make them easier to separate from the answers. Feedback is appreciated both good and bad
Could I request that a line break be added between the question and the response? For me it makes it easier if instead of:
Quote:
Quote Originally Posted by Eldalleth
How will you choose a character to play for the streams? He will put up a forum poll to have the player base choose his character class and race.
there is:
Quote:
Quote Originally Posted by Eldalleth
How will you choose a character to play for the streams?
He will put up a forum poll to have the player base choose his character class and race.
However, if no one else feels the same or if you think it would make the post too long, I can live with it the way it is.
Hi Rainith I can certainly try it that way :) I tried to make it like that last night but with numbering the forum wants to number both the question and the answer which is a bit confusing lol. Thank you for the feedback I do appreciate it and will see what I can do :)
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I know it's a couple of extra characters to type, but numbering the questions by hand instead of using the built-in bullet list will allow you to linebreak.
1. There is a question here?
There is an answer here.
2. There is a question here?
There is an answer here
and so on
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What Brandon suggested would be perfect, it makes it so much easier to read!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Brandon_Blackbird
I know it's a couple of extra characters to type, but numbering the questions by hand instead of using the built-in bullet list will allow you to linebreak.
1. There is a question here?
There is an answer here.
2. There is a question here?
There is an answer here
and so on
Thanks for sharing Brandon that is what I finally needed to do on the Shield run for Imladris transcript. For the transcripts where its only about 10 questions hand numbering isn't too bad getting the formatting to work, longer ones sometimes fight back. Its a fine tuning experiment. Since I usually type up the livestreams in Word or Note Pad since the forums tend to auto save at unknown (to me) intervals I don't like to take chances. However, moving my information from Word specifically even using the advanced edit option for typing up message can end up very interesting at times lol. I appreciate the continued feedback thanks again.
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You actually don't need to hand number to separate the questions from the answers and make it a bit more readable. Hand numbering is more work and can actually make things less legible because you lose the hanging margin and the numbers get all mixed in with the text visually. Here's what I mean by that hanging margin making things more legible:
- A question
An answer - Question two
The answer to that - Here is another example
And the answer
In the end, what works visually for some people might not work for others - everyone will have an opinion on what works best for them - but there are some basic things that most people can hopefully agree on.
I am just grateful for all your hard work, Eldalleth, regardless of the formatting you choose. I know firsthand how much effort goes into a transcript and it's a lot of work. It's important and thoughtful to consider feedback, but in the end I hope you'll do what works best for you. Once you get into a flow it will make your life a lot easier because some transcripts can get really lengthy. :)
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Frelorn Q&A 9/4/2014
Frelorn Q&A 9/4/2014
Please note: I am paraphrasing here. Anything said here is coming through my interpretation of what was said, and is subject to being corrected, so don't take all this as the final word.
If anyone who was present has any additions or corrections, feel free to post.
Video is available here
This is the first of Frelorn's streams of creating a new character and playing as he chats with us.
- What server is he going to play on?
He started a character on Gilrain by chat vote.
- What class is he going to be playing?
By popular vote in chat he decides to play a minstrel since he has never played that before.
- What race is he going to be playing?
Frelorn chooses a hobbit and begins the customizing, he chooses Harfoot origin so he can use the darker skin and make his hobbit look tan.
- While choosing a name through the randomizer Frelorn discovers that some names showing in the randomizer are already in use and mentions they should fix that and makes a note. Final character name choice is Thralor.
- When do we get to see him stream Beornings?
You won't see it on the stream from today but when the class comes out he definitely will stream as a Beorning.
- Someone in chat comments that he doesn't seem to know the low level area.
Frelorn answers that he is definitely more familiar with higher level areas as his chars are 72/73.
- A question is asked in chat about how the offices are set up at Turbine.
Frelorn answers that it is one big building that houses everything, DDO is the area behind him and further at that end is Infinite Crisis. To the front of his desk is LOTRO and Marketing and Offices. - Frelorn shares that he will definitely be streaming more often after Sapience finishes up the SHIELD runs and he is able to not have to worry about accidentally running into Sapience's time for a run.
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Can we get this moved to the archives with the other Q&As?
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Someone made a comment to me about the background of the video, weirdly an open space with office stuff all around does not looks very pro. And I remembered Frelorn did talk about a recording studio at Turbine in a past stream.
A place where we could see some LOTRO props, posters and merchandising to promote the game toward the curious viewers would make a bigger impact I think.
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Frelorn Q&A 9/18/2014
Frelorn Play and Chat Thursday 9/18/2014
Please note: I am paraphrasing here. Anything said here is coming through my interpretation of what was said, and is subject to being corrected, so don't take all this as the final word.
If anyone who was present has any additions or corrections, feel free to post.
Video is available here.
- Frelorn mentions they are still working with Twitch on the quality of the video to where it will have a quality selector for viewers to change the quality. He mentions that while watching it on the playback he can see that it is not optimal.
- Question in chat regarding the issues that are happening with the game causing lag and loss percentages and people getting invisible walls trying to get places.
Frelorn answers that they are looking into it and so far it looks like the problem is fixed.
- Someone mentions that he needs to make a character and go to the Ettenmoors.
Frelorn says Oh don't you worry I will definitely be going to the moors and when I do you will get to choose the class same as on here.
- Someone mentions that Frelorn ought to make a character and go to the Ettenmoors on the same day Sapience is streaming for Extra Life.
Frelorn jokingly responds sounds like a good idea Ill just take my admin client so I can make sure and win.
- Someone in chat mentions that the fastest way to level is do all the quests.
Frelorn jokes well actually the fastest way for me to level is type in a command but I'm doing it the legit way and leveling with you all. He says he isn't on an admin account but he could do it but he won't because that would be an abuse of his admin powers. He likes being able to level the way most of us would and get the full experience and take feedback back to the team. - Frelorn is going to try and slot more time in the future for the streams maybe 2 hrs so he can accomplish more but he has a meeting to go to today. He will see if he can fit 2 days maybe in a week like Tuesday or Thursday.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Eldalleth
I will be transcribing the Livestreams from Frelorn. This thread is a placeholder and will have more information soon :)
Thanks for your efforts - current and future!!!
Frickinmuck has been outstanding, and no doubt has "tired fingers and ears" for all her transcription work thus far!
Thanks to both of you!
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with the game causing lag and loss percentages and people getting invisible walls trying to get places. [/COLOR][/B]
Frelorn answers that they are looking into it and so far it looks like the problem is fixed.
They loss is still very very bad at times. Over the weekend we had no less that a dozen lag encounters with loss spiking above 60% for everyone on the server(Gladden). Its been bad enough that we were 3 manning a t3 skirm and was on the final fight and was for sure we were dead, with chat rolling along just fine.., but when it began to lax we saw that the npcs too were so lagged out they couldn't even attack.
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I wanted to clarify something since I had someone mention it to me in game as well. The livestream where it was mentioned that the problem seemed to be resolved was on Thursday the 18th as noted in the date at the beginning of that post. I had real life going on and was unable to transcribe and post notes until Sunday. I try not to deviate from what was on the video at the time the video was done. I mentioned this in another post but will post it here as well. They are looking into the problem still as I know on Dwarrowdelf for sure we had QA +Bletchley on a lot last night removing invisible walls among other things. I am not a technical enough person to understand what they have to do on the back end of things to fix whatever is causing all of this but have seen them working on it in game throughout the weekend. Hopefully it straightens out soon.
Valamar thanks for the kudos it can be a blast at times transcribing the streams, I did about the last 5 or 6 of the SHIELD runs so you have likely been seeing me more than you realize ;) Frickinmuck will still be doing the large update streams especially if I have one of Frelorn's weekly streams the same week.
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Would it be possible to separate the threads by QA by date and Type? Perhaps maybe a sub-forum for each type?
I haven't kept up with the Q&As on live-streams as I don't frequent those types of sites so finding the transcript is fantastic. If the were actually separate threads of sub-forums for each type that might make the threads shorter and you could pick up the current one easier.
ex: I did have some confusion about the date-lines for each of the live streams and actually tried to get the SWAN code to work. Then I figured out it expired the End of August not the End of Sept (I saw that it was "good through the 25", just missed the month part) :)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
SabrielofLorien
I haven't kept up with the Q&As on live-streams as I don't frequent those types of sites so finding the transcript is fantastic. If the were actually separate threads of sub-forums for each type that might make the threads shorter and you could pick up the current one easier.
They are largely divided up into different threads already. There was a thread for the Take the Hobbits to Isengard runs, one for The SHIELD ones through Moria, one for Frelorn's day-to-day livestreams (the oe we are currently discussing in), and one that sort of gathers them all together in one place. This last one is where you can find transcripts for the preview tours, the dev roundtables, the Q&A with Rowan after U14, etc.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
frickinmuck
I was thinking more about splitting them by date within a sub forum. The Shield run is +14 pages and growing. Imagine what it will be like when it hits 999 pages. How much of page1-10 are going to be relevant when it gets to p100?
sub forum Shield Run
date A
date B
date C
sub forum Twitter Chat
date A
date B
date C
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
SabrielofLorien
I was thinking more about splitting them by date within a sub forum. The Shield run is +14 pages and growing. Imagine what it will be like when it hits 999 pages. How much of page1-10 are going to be relevant when it gets to p100?
sub forum Shield Run
date A
date B
date C
sub forum Twitter Chat
date A
date B
date C
The SHIELD thread is over. The Isengard one is over too. Each event gets its own new thread, and the first post in that thread is an index, so it's not too difficult to keep track of. There are only ever 29 (30 with the Bullroarer one) runs per event, therefore only that many items in the index for each event thread. Once the event is over, the thread is complete. People don't really go back to them and keep chatting or anything.
I don't know how Eldalleth plans on organizing the Frelorn day-to-day thread (this one), but so far it's not an issue because there haven't been many streams and not many people commenting on them.
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Good to see Turbine has experienced workers on the game
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Eldalleth
6. Frelorn is going to try and slot more time in the future for the streams maybe 2 hrs so he can accomplish more but he has a meeting to go to today. He will see if he can fit 2 days maybe in a week like Tuesday or Thursday.
If someone gets the opportunity (or if Frelorn reads this), could we have some streams on other days of the week as well? I'd really like to view some of these, but (naturally) I am in class for the entire afternoon on Tuesdays and Thursdays until the middle of December.
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Frelorn Q&A 9/25/2014
FRELORN LIVESTREAM 9/25/2014
Please note: I am paraphrasing here. Anything said here is coming through my interpretation of what was said, and is subject to being corrected, so don't take all this as the final word.
If anyone who was present has any additions or corrections, feel free to post.
Announcements
Frelorn gives a shout out to Monolith Studios they are part of the Warner Bros family, they will be launching Shadow of Mordor the following week. It will be available on PC and Console and they are one big happy family so he wanted to give them a shout out.
Frelorn reminds everyone to watch The Tolkien Professor Special Livestream Wednesday October 1st 1PM EDT (-4 GMT) The Tolkien professor, Corey Olsen (http://www.mythgard.org) will be joining our very own Chris Pierson to discuss Tolkien lore and LOTRO and everything in-between on Wednesday October 1st at 1pm Eastern (-4GMT) on http://www.twitch.tv/lotrostream in to see what the professor thinks of LOTRO, his thoughts on the in-game recreation of Tolkien lore and ask your questions. Frickinmuck will be transcribing the chat and it will be added to the Lotro Livestreams thread.
Q&A
- Frelorn had a new background as the opening for today's stream and music as well. Lots in chat are debating what the background and music are from.
He mentions that he is going to try and do that more often as a lead in to let others know the stream will be starting soon. The image is from Rohan-Eaves of Fangorn and the music is part of Update 14. He is working on getting screenshots and graphics that can be added to live streams from players. - Someone in chat mentions that Shadow of Mordor had an Orc Takeover over their twitter stream and that it was really fun to watch.
Frelorn adds on that it was really fun to watch and that the orcs were doing movie and product reviews and even trolling some companies like Burger King. You can see that here. - Frelorn mentions that he plans to bring back Throwback Thursday and also having a day of the week where he will give prizes for user submitted screenshots, more information to come.
- Question in chat Why can't my launcher connect to the patch server?
Have you tried running the launcher in admin, by right clicking on it and run as admin? Also make sure antivirus and everything are good, you can also submit a ticket to support.turbine.com - Someone in chat mentions they have considered rolling a character on Gilrain and catching up to him.
Frelorn answers that would not be difficult at all as he is a very slow leveler he likes to enjoy the story. - Frelorn asks if anyone did anything cool or fun in game in celebration of Hobbit Day?
Couple of people mention kins getting together and doing things, Dwarrowdelf had a celebration in Hall of Fire with Bilbo. - Someone in chat mentions that they are having trouble getting twitch followers watching their livestreaming.
If you are streaming, go ahead and tweet out to the @Lotro account that you are streaming Lotro and he will retweet to the Lotro followers and get you more followers. It is one of the things he is working on. - A question is asked about what level he is currently as the stream is not very clear.
They are still working on reaching out to Twitch about the quality, Twitch has been very busy with them being recently acquisitioned, Turbine is a Twitch partner so it shouldn't be that difficult getting it done for the Lotro stream. If you have ever watched one of the Infinite Crisis streams you have seen the quality selector so it is possible. - Someone in chat mentions that Lotro should have chocolate how could you possibly live without chocolate.
Frelorn says he could live without it as he's not a huge fan of chocolate but will definitely check with the team and see if it fits in the lore, he isn't sure - Frelorn mentions that he wants to respond to something he saw on Twitter the other day, someone mentioned that they don't think he reads his forum private messages.
He says as anyone who runs a kinship or a community can attest to you get a supreme amount of pm's every day. Along with everything else he does he does read them, if it's something that requires his immediate attention he does respond. If it's something that can wait it does get put on his list of things to get done. Also, he doesn't do read receipts and some people do put them on there, they bug him, he does however read all the pm's he gets it just takes a bit playing catch up at times. - Has MadeofLions seen the way you skip through reading the quest dialog he works so hard on?
Nope, otherwise he probably would throw things at him. - Do you know if the Paths of the Dead respawn rate is based on the amount of people in the area?
If he remembers correctly its based on the amount of things getting killed in the area so if a lot of mobs are getting killed in an area it would make sense that they are respawning faster. So yes in a way it does have to do with the amount of people in the area if they are all killing things. - When will Update 15 come out?
He knows but he can't say right now, they will have info on the update in a few more weeks as the information becomes available. He will say Update 15 looks pretty good. - Is Update 15 out on Palantir yet?
He thinks it might be, if not it will be there very soon. - It was once talked about making additional character slots available before the release of the Beorning is that still possible?
He is going to check on that and find out. - Frelorn mentions that he isn't sure if he will be able to be around on Thursday the 2nd as he believes he has jury duty, he will let us know for sure.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Eldalleth
[*]Has MadeofLions seen the way you skip through reading the quest dialog he works so hard on?
Well I have now! >_<
MoL
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
MadeOfLions
Well I have now! >_<
MoL
*looks at Frelorn* can't shoot the transcriber/messenger ;)
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Quote:
It was once talked about making additional character slots available before the release of the Beorning is that still possible?
He is going to check on that and find out
So without giving out all the infos, the answer to this one is a big ole' yes.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
frelorn
so without giving out all the infos, the answer to this one is a big ole' yes.
woooooooo!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Frelorn
So without giving out all the infos, the answer to this one is a big ole' yes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
stupidflanders
woooooooo!
The guy who asked the question during the stream, Scoed(t), adds his woot! Thanks for checking on this and posting the findings :)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Frelorn
So without giving out all the infos, the answer to this one is a big ole' yes.
Good stuff :)
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Frelorn Q&A 10/9/2014
Thursday Fun with Frelorn 10/9/2014
Please note: I am paraphrasing here. Anything said here is coming through my interpretation of what was said, and is subject to being corrected, so don't take all this as the final word.
If anyone who was present has any additions or corrections, feel free to post.
Announcements
Be sure and check out the new Executive Producers Letter on the forums. Found here As Frelorn mentioned on that thread to answer some questions it is not a complete listing of everything being released in Update 15 or it would need to be renamed Update 15 release notes and they aren't giving us those yet.
Bullroarer will be up and open on Friday please test out Update 15 but keep in mind that it is not the finished product there will be bugs and fine tuning please report bugs.
Frelorn mentions that he was indeed gone for jury duty last week and was sorry he missed the stream. He apologizes that he is not himself today as there were server login issues last night so he was up until 3am.
Q&A
Video stream #1- http://www.twitch.tv/lotrostream/b/576414740 Video stream #2 http://www.twitch.tv/lotrostream/b/576417201 Video stream #3 http://www.twitch.tv/lotrostream/b/576423976
- Someone in chat asks about the music that was used in the beginning of the stream.
Frelorn answers that is music from Update 14 he is hoping to make that available to us soon. - He does now have the quality adjustor for the twitch stream and mentions to let him know how it looks.
Some in chat mention that it does need adjusting. Frelorn ends the video stream for a few moments while he adjusts the quality. - Frelorn mentions that he is thinking of pausing the leveling up on his minstrel and streaming from Bullroarer for a bit next week.
[Stream is ended temporarily for another fine tuning of the settings on the stream see Video stream 3 listed above for the majority of the feed. ]-Eldalleth - There is conversation in chat about the Executive Producers Letter one of the things that is mentioned is the Legendary Item Update being moved to further out.
Frelorn mentions that they were disappointed with not being able to get the legendary item changes in for this update. As Rowan states they would rather wait and put in a good system than put it in early and have it not be good. It is one of those things where they are always going to choose quality over speed. He would rather have it be really good and complete and work well and all that stuff than have it be incomplete and unfinished and rush it out the door. Doing something like that can and would come back to bite them. - Someone asks are the Beorning coming out in Update 15?
Yes they are and he is pretty stoked about it. - Will you reach level 100 before Beornings come out?
No, not unless he abandoned everything else he does at his job but thats okay. He will likely run a stream as a Beorning as well though. He does want to get more of these streams going. - Someone asks when Bullrorarer will be updated and open for playing tomorrow.
Frelorn answers that he doesn't have an exact time for the downtime yet but will give that information when he has it available. - How are Beornings in the Moors will they have a purpose or be OP?
That is a good question he doesn't have the answer to right now. - In the Moors the Beornings will camouflage themselves as mild mannered bears and then sneak attack creeps?
While entertaining, no he doesn't believe that will be the case. Once you get your hands on them you will find out their capabilities. - Its going to be amusing after people roll Beornings that name their class Pooh Bear, Yogi etc.
Frelorn says already done those names are his ;) - Can we get goat cosmetic pets, they are adorable and I would love to have one to follow me around?
He agrees and says they are kinda cute and he would totally love that too. - Will Beornings have bear mounts?
That would be a little weird. We heard you like bears so we put a bear on your bear. Um yeah I dont think thats going to happen. - Well the Beornings dont have to be in bear form while on a bear.
He still doesn't see that happening. - Do we call you Andy or Frelorn?
You can call me either one or anything he has been called Frelorn since he started with Turbine in 2004, he doesn't mind either. Within reason he doesn't mind being called anything call him Joe Bob for that matter. - Do the developers refer to each other by real names or forum names while in the office?
Real names they have name tags on their desks. - Could Beornings have pet rabbits which hop on their backs?
I suppose they could that would be amazing but not gonna happen sorry they dont. - How much will Central Gondor cost and will the Beorning come with it like the wardens did with Moria?
He doesn't know the answer to that yet and the person who might is not standing behind him. As with everything he will let us know when he knows. - Will Beornings need fishing poles or will they just dive in?
That would be amazing that would be beyond epic but he doesn't think thats going to happen. - Is this stream for beginners as I am seeing a lot of seasoned players in chat?
It is for anyone that wants to watch . He has been getting some help from some of the more seasoned players in chat since this is a class he doesnt know. - Is there any chance you can have Jinjah give me a call I have some champion complaints for him?
More than likely no. - Indistinguishable question regarding asking other players for help.
Never be afraid to ask for assistance. He has never been afraid to ask others for help in the game and hopefully others feel the same. Everyone has a different experience, his goal and hope is that everyone has a good experience in the game. - What is your absolute favorite class?
Ive had a guardian Ive played forever I like more tanky characters, I did enjoy my captain a little bit too. - Will you aim to make leveling more exciting ? I have a hunter that seems to always be doing the same type of things.
I am not a developer but I would like to say we hopefully try to make things more exciting. If you have suggestions about how to make things better please feel free to post them on the forums they are read. - What level should I level a character up to on Gilrain if I wanted to join you for group content?
He will let everyone decide what would be the best one to join together with him for. - What region is your favorite and has the most emotional attachment for you as a Lord of the Rings fan?
He enjoys Moria, its really well done and he likes the Rift way back in the day he loved doing Rift runs.
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new class when is it out
Just a quick question when is the new beorning class coming out on lotro and will it just be for one race or all i heard it was just for man
-
Quote:
Originally Posted by
giantvageto
Just a quick question when is the new beorning class coming out on lotro and will it just be for one race or all i heard it was just for man
It will come out with Update 15 that is in testing on Bullroarer right now, and it's for the new race Beorning that only have one class, Beorning.
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Frelorn Q&A 10/16/2014
Thursday Fun with Frelorn 10/16/2014
Please note: I am paraphrasing here. Anything said here is coming through my interpretation of what was said, and is subject to being corrected, so don't take all this as the final word.
If anyone who was present has any additions or corrections, feel free to post.
Announcements
-A few new things on Bullroarer for Friday (10/17/2014). Level up NPC's will be available but Racial and Class trait npc's will still be unavailable.
-He may take a deviation next week from his usual minstrel leveling and adventure on to Bullroarer as a Beorning if its up and available.
-Quality adjustment on the twitch video should seem higher quality now.
Q&A
Video can be found here.
- When do recommended servers change?
Whenever they change them, he is actually not sure on the tech on that, he believes its something they go and refresh how that works. He will check on that for us. - Will there be Beorning Houses?
He does not believe so, don't hold him to that he doesn't know for sure never thought to ask that question directly. - Have they removed the ability to use an xbox controller in Lotro as mine is not functioning with it?
He is not sure, he doesn't think they would intentionally remove it but he doesn't know. - Is it still plans to have the new music instruments in Update 15?
He knows the musical updates are still in Update 15, musical instruments may be in 15.1 he is not sure. - Do we know anything new about the update for Housing, the waiting would be easier with some kind of housing contests?
He doesn't know anything in particular but that doesn't mean much right now, so let him look into that one for us. - Will we hear anything about the 2015 road map soon? Or will Rowan wait until the beginning of next year?
Yes you will hear more about that after Update 15 is out that is his plan, once everyone has had a chance to play. Post Update 15 there will be an update to the plans that are going to happen moving forward. - Will the current races have classes open to them dwarf captain etc?
He knows of nothing like that but it doesn't mean that its not going to happen just have to wait and see. - Question in chat regarding the Turbine layoffs on Wednesday the 15th and who specifically from Lotro may be gone.
He knew this was going to come up, he is only going to address this one time, its the proverbial elephant in the room. There was a layoff on Wednesday, a number of employees were laid off across the board. He will not get into specifics of who was let go and who wasn't that is personal and not up to him to say who was let go. They (Turbine) ask that the players please respect that as far as that goes, its just what it is. As far as Lotro, it doesn't affect the plans moving forward, the road map is set and they are going to forge forward on it. That's all he is going to say on it. - Have you ever played DDO?
Yes he actually played it for a while when it launched. - Are there any plans within the pipeline to sort lag issues in the Ettenmoors as it has been a problem for quite a while now?
Frelorn says they are always looking for ways to improve the server performance, the Ettenmoors is no difference than that. It is definitely in the road map to improve performance, they are constantly balancing everything out. He will reassure us that it is something they are looking into and not just for the Ettenmoors. - Are you considering adding a new Creep Race when you do the PvP update?
You say the PVP update like we are doing a PvP update, they may do some stuff with PvMP, they may not its not for him to say. Thats down the road stuff, if they do something like that he will let our illustrious producer speak to the players about that. - You used to do calendar wallpapers and backgrounds but haven't done any in the last 6 months are they not being done anymore?
Thats a bandwidth thing, they used to have more staff on the community team that has moved on to other projects or what not, so a matter of can it be fit into the schedule. He can look into adding them back in, but he has to look and see where things stand. - Frelorn do you still visit Asheron's Call from time to time?
Yes, Asheron's Call was his first love, his first MMO and he absolutely revisits. - Frelorn please make sure the Lottery gets repaired.
He can ask but, that system did not like them very much. [Note from Eldalleth-the Lottery system suffered a major crash and became unusuable following a large server database issue following a power outage at one of their locations last year. ] - Do you employ people from around the world or do you only employ in the America's?
The office is in Boston, so everyone that works for them that lives in the area, they do have people from around the world that work for them but you have to be able to physically be there in their office. - Are there any plans to move away from repatterned robes and "tablecloth" caprisions for mounts?
He doesn't know but can certainly ask about them, he hasn't seen what some of the rewards look like for Update 15. He knows of rewards but hasn't seen what they look like. He is not a developer, they don't let him near the developer tools. That would be a bad thing. He can pass on our input but beyond that we don't want him designing he has the fashion sense of a very unfashionable person. - Will you ever make another raid like the Rift of Nurz Ghashu and Tower of Orthanc?
Maybe, he doesn't know for sure what the future holds, anything is possible. - Indistinguishable question about live events like were done during the Shadows of Angmar days?
Frelorn answers they are looking into doing more live stuff in the not so distant future should be lots of fun. - Have you considered removing class trainers or giving them another function they are pretty useless right now?
He doesn't know if there are any plans for them. [Note from Eldalleth-class trainers still give the legendary book page quests for class trait points.] - Player in chat says, I have a fear of no one watching my streams when I stream.
Don'thave a fear of no one watching, he has a personal channel he occasionally streams on at home when he is playing non lotro stuff. If they watch they do, if they don't they don't. If you enjoy what your doing and streaming and occasionally commenting you may pick up some followers along the way. You have the option of not putting yourself on camera or even not talking if you choose to. Its good practice for Frelorn since he is a native Massachusetts person it has helped him to get rid of the Boston accent. Now he is working on verbal crutches like um and doubling up on words. It is helping him to be a better speaker and talking in a clear and concise manner. - What is your streaming channel name?
Its just Frelorn search in the twitch channels for the address. He doesn't stream as often on it as he used to he hasn't been on there as much as he should be to be honest. http://www.twitch.tv/frelorn - Have you chosen a crafting profession?
Nope. - What streaming software are you using?
Xsplit, At home he uses OBS and Xsplit depends on which computer he is on. - Is there any plans for a character revamp graphically?
They are always trying to improve things in the game but he doesn't know of that in the plans at the moment that would be a good question for a stream with Rowan. - Will the legendary item imbuing start at level 100 even though it has been delayed until post Update 15?
He doesn't know but he can ask. [Eldalleth note- Rowan has answered this question in the Executive Producers thread here and here ]
[Apologies for the delay in getting the transcript up, had a good reason though :) husband came home from a military deployment last week so was a bit distracted lol-Eldalleth]
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Frelorn Q&A 10/23/2014
Thursday Fun with Frelorn 10/23/2014
Please note: I am paraphrasing here. Anything said here is coming through my interpretation of what was said, and is subject to being corrected, so don't take all this as the final word.
If anyone who was present has any additions or corrections, feel free to post.
Announcements
- Bullroarer will be up on Friday the 24th of October. Be sure and download Bullroarer on the forums and give feedback they do listen is is valuable and Frelorn is asking them to be more active on there.
- A number of people have asked about the streaming stuff previously and he does have that stuff he is waiting on the dust to settle post Update 15, there is a lot of moving parts to go with the streaming stuff that he wants to get done that he just doesn't have the time for right now with Update 15 coming.
- They will be going back to some of the Community Update Streams that used to be done with special info type stuff etc. If there is something you want mentioned on any of his streams announcement/event wise please send Frelorn a pm on the forums and he will put it on the list and call it out.
Player Event this weekend over on Landroval WindyAcres Ranch - Mystery contest and charity auction. Saturday October 25 4pm EST/server time
Solve-a-Mystery: https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?555104-LANDROVAL-Solve-A-Mystery-Roleplay-Contest-Sat-Oct-25-at-4pm-EST-server
Charity Auction:https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?556626-LANDROVAL-Charity-Auction-Sat-Oct-25-at-4-00pm-EST-server-in-Raglan-Bree
Thanks so much for your support!
Q&A
- Can you change the details/markings on the Beorning's face?
Yes it is details option 1 and with Detail Colour you can change the color of the markings.
Keep in mind that everything you see on this stream is still a Beta Build some things may change between now and live. - Why are there no Lotro streamers?
There are several people that stream Lotro, if you follow him on Twitter you will have seen at least one community member that streams every night that he has been sharing. There are more they just aren't getting as much publicity yet, but when he starts the streaming program, there will be more. He plans for there to be incentives and stuff like that. - Has the lore been figured out about how having Beorning's killing other animals fits with the lore it seems very against their nature?
Thats a good question for Chris Pierson who we will have on stream again and is something that can certainly be brought up. He doesn't have an actual date for a stream like that yet. However, he will be able to ask questions like that a little more freely after next week when they get moved around again and he will be closer in proximity to the other team members. - Question about having trouble opening the store while on a Mac OS.
They are investigating an issue where if you have updated to the newest Mac OS that its not opening, once they have verified or confirmed if there is a workaround for it they will let us know. - Do you know when the release date is for Update 15?
He knows but can't say yet they are getting the last week or so of testing in, hopefully in the near future he will be able to give us a date. Early November is all he can say for now. - What determines the color of the bear fur on a Beorning?
The color of hair you choose for your character. - Will there be at least one more update to Bullroarer?
Yes it will go up on Friday the 24th. - Will there be a way to adjust the look of the bear in the future same way as you would a captain pet?
Possibly, he doesn't know for sure yet in a perfect world sure, but he won't know anymore on that for a while yet. - Comments in chat about the Pelagir Epic Battle some had lots of trouble with it some had little to no problems.
Frelorn mentions with it being beta there will still be changes and feedback helps with that and even once Update 15 is up they welcome continued feedback to make things better. - Are Beornings going to be set like elves to be unable to kill the little mini grey forest animals?
That is a good question he doesn't know but he will definitely ask. *Frelorn* - Someone from Anduin Radio in chat mentions having sent Frelorn multiple pm's with no response and asks him to check them.
If you have sent him pm's in the past earlier on its no secret the forums private messaging had some issues for him since his account was in a dormant state for a while they had to do some things to get it working. It should be working now, send the message again he will get back to you as soon as he can. - Has a price been set for the Beorning pack and Gift of Valar?
He is assuming it has been normally he would turn around and ask QuarterMasterU, but he is off filming some wicked cool stuff. *Frelorn* - Players Council will be in the office next week he is going to try and convince them to come on stream and say hi to everyone.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Eldalleth
... Has the lore been figured out about how having Beorning's killing other animals fits with the lore it seems very against their nature? ...
When Gandalf & company were staying overnight at Beorn lodge, he warned them to don't wander outside at night if they hear noises, because will be dangerous. Bilbo wondered if Beorn could kill them while on bear form. Gandalf also told them before, that Beorn bear form was not as rational as Beorn man form & he took great care to don't enrage Beorn, when Gandalf asked him for hostage. Beorn was sensible about discussion of animal pelts, but he killed a lot of goblins & wargs, & hung their heads & hides at his yard. He certainly was no pacifist. Still on bear form he was not a unleashed beast without bearings. He followed the company on bear form, all the way to Mirkwood but never hurt them. Yet Gandalf warned Bilbo about not looking the bear in the eyes (beasts understand direct eye contact as a sign of challenge).
There seems to be a few contradictions about Beorn, but those are contradictions also found in true bears. Bears are powerful beast very territorial & with terrible bad temper, yet they dont attack without provocation & (excluding polar bear that is completely carnivorous) they are mainly vegetarian but they do kill other animals & eat meat when they are in need.
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Come now, we never kill our foes in this game, we merely defeat them.
For animals, after we defeat them we take their hides. But after that, they are free to go about their business. :p
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
frickinmuck
It's good you're giving feedback on this. No need to suffer through when you can speak up and get some revisions made to help with any problems you are having. :)
Frick: Are you still doing the transcriptions? I am looking for the Dec 2014 one. Thanks!
Pherenn
Player council member 2014
-
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Pherenn
Frick: Are you still doing the transcriptions? I am looking for the Dec 2014 one. Thanks!
Pherenn
Player council member 2014
https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthr...91#post7288691
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Apologies I just realized that I had added the last few Frelorn Q&A streams into the main Livestreams thread that we usually use for Update Posts. I'm going to delete from there and move them over here to keep continuity. Should be done by tomorrow :)
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Frelorn Q&A 11/13/2014
Thursday Fun with Frelorn 11/13/2014
Please note: I am paraphrasing here. Anything said here is coming through my interpretation of what was said, and is subject to being corrected, so don't take all this as the final word.
If anyone who was present has any additions or corrections, feel free to post.
Video can be found here
Announcements
- Frelorn comments on new desk location due to construction this makes his 3rd desk change lol. He is glad to be back streaming they took a break due to Update 15 preview stream and Frelorn being sick.
- Frelorn says the team has been enjoying watching and gauging reactions on the Beornings since U15 and the 15.1 hotfix, how they are being played, its been pretty cool.
- Frelorn apologizes he is still trying to get over the epic flu and as such will be drinking a lot. He mentions its also been crazy busy lately with updates and the move. He knows that there are pm's he is still catching up on, even on emails he has been way behind.
Q&A
- Question: You mentioned a while ago about possibly making a twitch streaming group for streamers and providing overlays and music things.
Still in the works he has some of the assets and music together, with everything else that was going on with the update and the move it was put to the side so he could make sure with it being his first time doing Lotro release notes making sure that was ready took a bit longer. He thinks he has the hang of it, so short answer yes it is still something they are going to do he hasn't forgotten about it. - Question: Can you overlay the twitch chat into the stream?
Someone mentioned that recently actually Leo, there are third party programs that can do it, that is on his list of things to do. Joke is made by Greymaster in chat referring to Frelorn kinda being like Santa Claus with a jingle- Greymaster: He's making a list, he's checking it twice, he's going to do his best to make the stream lookin' nice...Frelorn-Claus is coming to town... - Question: Why are you not playing a Beorning?
This is the one he started before Beornings went live so he will continue with leveling this character for now.
Frelorn shares a comment from Bludborn in chat- If any of you have not had a chance to check out my stream, it's simply twitch.tv/bludborn @lotro has been retweeting it quite a bit, Thanks Frelorn! I love having people in the chat. Frelorn adds in that anyone who wants to stream and have theirs retweeted when they are running lotro just tweet @lotro and/or @Frelorn if you have a general schedule he can keep an eye out for even better. - Question: Still no word on any raids *pops hope token*?
He has no new information at this time.
Frelorn points out the shiny new following buttons that QuartermasterU and a few others put on the twitch page in their spare time and thanks them. - Question/Comment: Aratheart mentions Frelorn should do the Old Forest flower deed while he is in there.
Frelorn says he is on a mission to Bamfurlong but will definitely do that at some point when he has time. - Question: Any word on when the music system will be fixed?
It is not in a place where we are completely happy with it and are exploring our options for making it better, we know that many of our players are unhappy with it and are investigating it further. (Eldalleth note: it is mentioned on the forums that Update 15.1 will reverse the music system changes). - Question: Will the Lotro Store have Gift of the Valar be back on sale in the store again?
Yes it will be at some point he does not have a date as to when but the answer is yes for sure it will be. - Question: Any thoughts or ideas about a new creep class?
He has tons of thoughts and ideas but they don't trust him with developing that kind of stuff.
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Frelorn Q&A 11/20/2014
Thursday Fun with Frelorn 11/20/2014
Please note: I am paraphrasing here. Anything said here is coming through my interpretation of what was said, and is subject to being corrected, so don't take all this as the final word.
If anyone who was present has any additions or corrections, feel free to post.
Announcements
Thoughts go out to those in New York dealing with all of the snow hang in there.
Frelorn mentions he wants to show everyone something a little different, they have set up in their offices a live version of Pac Man because well it was something neat and several of them had come in early and helped to set it up. That space used to be more cubes and is now being used as a social area, its an after hours hang out.
Note that sometime in the next few days they will be turning on the Lotro Crash Handler, it doesn't handle crashes but in turn when it crashes will send them data, so if you notice your having performance issues after a crash, you shouldn't notice it since they have tested it but you may notice after a crash the Lotro Crash Handler showing in your programs. The file size is equivalent of a small notepad size document.
Bullroarer build went up on Friday the 21st for 15.1, they did initial testing of the 6 man Pelargir. They need feedback on it so they can determine if its ready for prime time.
Q&A
Question: Can you speak to the downtimes recently other than to say there has been a rash of downtimes?
It's been kind of a perfect storm, as they released earlier this week (last week) they had to do critical updates for Windows issues, some of those computers probably hadn't seen updates in a long time. These window updates on server machines can do some weird things sometimes, they don't always do the updates because it takes time away from the Developers doing their job and on top of that there is too many variables as to what can effect the stability. The rest of it was perfect storm of bad timing, authentication servers can get funky, just additional stuff happening. There are so many different systems that effect different things and they have been working unbelievably long hours to get it fixed. Even though you see similar messages for each downtime it has been for different reasons.
Question: Are you going to try and solve lag?
Lag is a very general term, there is client lag, server lag, video lag, so just saying lag is a very broad term. When are you lagging? Where are you located? What machine are you running? The lag we see now is isolated to individuals or regions. Moors and the lag is a constant ongoing investigation, stay tuned to the Producers Letter its coming soon and he will hopefully have stuff in there on that.
Question: Can you speak to solo/duo Pelargir not seeming to earn Platinum?
There will be more info on that on the Bullroarer Notes stay tuned. [Eldalleth Note: these notes can be found here -
Question: Will the Beorning be nerfed in 15.1?
As far as he can see looking at the notes there is nothing he would classify as a nerf more just things that needed to be fixed.
Question: Any changes to the Music System?
For now in Update 15.1 they are going to roll back to the previous music system, then they are going to try looking at the system again in a future update what can or can't be done, for now though they don't want to hurt things that the players have already got set up for festivals etc.
Reminder about the thread Your Top 10 bugs, little quality of life fixes. Thread can be found here.
Question: Possibility of Osgiliath Pvp?
Anything is possible.
Question: What is the Beornings defined fellowship role?
He is not the person that can answer that but please ask that on the forums so a developer can chime in. *Frelorn*
Bad bear puns take over in the background courtesy of QuartermasterU and in chat as well.
Question: When will U15.1 happen as there are many events that would like the music system back?
After thanksgiving but before Christmas is all he can say.
Question: Do you get much positive feedback on your streaming on Twitch?
He hasn't had any negative feedback as of yet other than from his friends.
Question: How many people will a server hold logged in at one time?
We will never tell that number, not even going to put a P.R. answer on that one, there are certain things we won't share, it can hold a lot of people that's all he will say.
Question: Will we ever get an appearance overhaul?
Frelorn: I still think with graphics turned up we have one of the most beautiful landscapes, that being said anything is possible.
Question: Any chance of the quest limit cap being removed or increased significantly?
That's a good question to ask he will look into that. *Frelorn*
Question: Any chance of the mouse zoom being fixed?
He did see that mentioned in the Top 10 bugs and it is being looked into.
Question: Any word on Song of Aid for minstrels being worked on?
He will look into that and see if he can find an answer. *Frelorn*
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Frelorn Q&A 12/4/2014
Thursday Fun with Frelorn 12/4/2014
Please note: I am paraphrasing here. Anything said here is coming through my interpretation of what was said, and is subject to being corrected, so don't take all this as the final word.
If anyone who was present has any additions or corrections, feel free to post. Unless otherwise noted all answers to questions posted are Frelorn's answers. If there is a special guest I will note them answering the questions.
Announcements
New build of Bullroarer on 12/5/2014. Update 15.1 will be coming pending a successful launch of Bullroarer, we will announce next week a date for 15.1 for everyone.
Q&A
- Question: You have gray hairs in your beard is Lotro doing that to you?
Nope lotro made my hair go away thats why I wear a hat. - Question: Can we make Warsteed Cosmetics account wide and reduce warsteed dye costs?
- That is something he can certainly bring up to the team but he is not the one to make that call.
- Question: Ive heard speculation that the Beornings will be getting nerfed?
- The notes I have right now for Bullroarer I do not see anything that is reflective of a nerf, as always things are subject to change and adjustment.
- Question: As music team is all in house now, what is the music directors plans going forward, do they have any exciting surprises?
- We have a meeting with our music director next week to talk about that stuff. So more to come, I suspect we won't hear much until after the new year. I know one of the things we do want to focus on as a whole is taking a look at the music system as obviously for Update 15.1 we have to roll back the music system, so planning to see what we can do to make it better.
Thanks for sharing your bugs and Quality of life fixes on the forums, I have handed off an extensive list to the dev team for them to look at and see what they can tackle, a lot of people did do bug reports which was helpful, and they are going to see what they can tackle and what they cannot. - Question: Will there be a 2nd beta build for 15.1?
Yes as mentioned at the beginning of the stream in case it was missed there will be (was) another beta build. - Question: What kind of holiday specials will Turbine be offering this year?
QuarterMaster U is not behind me so I can not specifically answer for holiday, he is in an important meeting that I'm not allowed to tell you what it is about, normally I would be in that meeting but since I did not stream last week I didn't want to miss another week. - Question: When is the Yule Festival?
I believe it is on December 16th I don't believe anything has changed there. {Eldalleth note: Forums lists it as December 16th.} - Question: Is there an ETA on Producers Letter?
Stay tuned for details, they are being worked out as we speak. So as soon as I have information on the Producers Letter I will definitely share it. - Question: Can you tell us where the bat cave is?
Underneath the streets of Gotham City, laughs. - Question: Is there any progress on giving us easy ways to swap builds during Epic Battles? Like adding tabs to our skills or something?
Nothing that I am aware of, I know they have seen the request but I don't have information on if its something that can or will make it into the game. - Question: Do we have an answer for the questions highlighted in the previous transcript?
He will look at them again. - Question: What would be Beornings defined role?
They don't have a specific defined role, its how you play them, we got away from pigenholing classes into specific roles, when I began playing minstrels were all about healing and now look at me just wiping stuff out. Its whose playing the Beorning, what do you need them to do in a group or what is their play style. - Question: Are we getting new instances in 2015? Im not talking about Big Battles.
I would say anything is possible, I don't have an answer for you but I won't say no. - Question: Streaming stuff[Eldalleth Note: Missed full question in chat and it wasn't repeated]
I have a document on my desktop, we will be inviting some of you guys to become official streamers, I'm just waiting on one thing in particular and that thing has come to be, so as soon as I get that thing in my hands, which is dependent on one person. As most things in my life are. What that official streamers what that is, if any of you follow us on Infinite Crisis even DDO to a lesser extent now. We do official streamers, you all agree to this light fluffy terms and conditions type thing, we will give you access to become part of the official streamers and we would put together this stream page, which would be a separate page Lotro stream team.
For some people who reach certain milestones or whatever the criteria we set up are, we would give them access to stream on the Offical Lotro Stream. We would promote your page and give you goodies for giveaways, turbine points to giveaway things to incentivize people to come and watch. If he can get that stuff back before holiday break we will start it up if not after the 1st of the year. Its just a matter if he can get everything set up the right way in time after he gets the document finished. In the meantime make sure and follow us on twitter, when he is awake at night and sees someone streaming and he is tagged he retweets it. Help them promote the game we all love to play, stop into their chat say hi.
Special Guest Jinjaah enters the Lotro Twitch chat room
- Question refresh about Beorning roles for Jinjaah as Frelorn believes he is better geared to answer that question.
Jinjaah: Beorning roles: I think Frelorn in the past has done a good job of explaining the idea that we don't really like to put classes into specific roles anymore. We like the idea that classes can sort of branch out and fulfill multiple roles if they want however if you were to say what roles are the beorning I would say its safe to say red is dps, simple blue is probably best served as an off tank rather than a primary and yellow being a great instance or offhealer. - Question: Are there any plans to expand the Beorning intro instance, or return to that area later? I kept expecting to visit that mountain... Or have I just not got to that yet?
Jinjaah: Thats certainly something we can discuss with Madeoflions in the future, but currently no plan - Question: Armour will the agi stuff be made into might for beornings or do we have to barter for them again once available, if at all?
Jinjaah: In most cases, it is acquiring the new piece. - Question: Any idea on when are we getting the producer's letter? If cant answer it its all right. keep the amazing job!
Jinjaah: I just work the mines, you have to talk to the foreman about that - Question: Are there any plans to allow Beornings to be in bear form for roleplay purposes? and to allow them to play instruments or do emotes in bear form?
Jinjaah: This is something we continue to discuss but I don't really have a good idea on an update at this time. - Question: Jinjaah are there any plans to add an interrupt in man form
Jinjaah: maaaaaybbeeee.. yes - Question: Jinjaah any thought on the design of Shelob yet, gotta make her hairy, scary, and MASSIVE I am thinking
Jinjaah: I can't look at spiders, it's my kryptonite - Question:Jinjaah -- are the racial weapons of clubs set for beornings? as stated in many forum post axes would be better and closer to what many see as more true to Lore
Jinjaah: For now yes they are. We can look at this later, but we also have more clubs in the oven for the future so maybe this won't be that bad down the road? - Question: Frelorn is there any possibility of having additional Live Streams? Seeing as we are coming up on significant areas... would be lovely to hear from the lore experts and other people as to what they are tapping into for Osgiliath or Minas Tirith? Maybe hearing from MadeofLions on our part(s) in those stories?
Frelorn - yes absolutely is the short answer because we know that it is important to you. - Question:Jinjaah All the races get an e-mail after the first instance. They get the tokens of commendations with the quest that get's along with the mail. Beornings don't get that (So they miss on some morale potions/pocket item). Is there a chance of getting that quest/mail/thing??
Jinjaah: Throw a bug in on that.
Many thanks to GreyMaster for assisting with retrieving the questions and answers during Jinjaah's time in chat. :)
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Frelorn Q&A 12/18/2014
Thursday Fun with Frelorn 12/18/2014
Please note: I am paraphrasing here. Anything said here is coming through my interpretation of what was said, and is subject to being corrected, so don't take all this as the final word.
If anyone who was present has any additions or corrections, feel free to post. Unless otherwise noted all Announcements and answers to questions posted are Frelorn's answers. If there is a special guest I will note them answering the questions.
Announcements
Update 15.1 Hotfix was on Friday a few things that brought it on some crashes were happening for some people. As well as as a hotfix was done due to the boxes in Pelargir 6 man only being able to be opened by lvl 100 players. Fixed the hole in the Ettenmoors that was weird because they hadn't touched anything there.
Turbine Holidays start around Monday or Tuesday.
Note: Mac users we are aware you are having trouble with loading characters we are having issues in house with the issue we will let you know as soon as we come up with a fix.
Executive Producer Letter- due to us nailing down a few more details we are going to postpone the producers letter until the first week of January. There are a couple of things that are in the works that need final details before we put them out we don't want to do any maybes or not have something on there because we don't know. We want to make sure the information is correct and available.
Looking at probably Jan. 6th or 7th but may even be the 4th somewhere in that week though. We did want to put it out sooner but I would rather not give false information or only give parts of it. I will say from the early drafts that I have and I may get in trouble for this, I think we are going to hit a lot of things that have been contested topics of discussion, everyone is going to want to pay attention when it does come out. From those who like the traditional content, to those that like more group based content, and for us to continue to improve the game, including those who enjoy PvMP, should be happy, this should be a great year for the team.
Forums- I have been noticing some testiness recently on the forums and I just wanted to say we are addressing it. I was trying to give everyone a bit of freedom to gauge and test the boundaries of where they could go. Ive seen where its going and I'm going to tighten up a bit I'm not going to be ban hammer of doom. I will be a little tighter on closing threads and giving infractions, if you get enough infractions, that could lead to a ban. If you get an infraction that means my eyes are on you slow your roll. Thanks that all the seriousness. Some people may say well I have free speech, but I know I'm going to get slack when I say this but on the forums free speech law does not apply. You are under the rules of the community.
Note: If he gets his new laptop he may try to do a stream from home during the break, this may or may not be the last stream for this year.
Streaming Stuff: The page is not ready yet he is waiting on artwork and some other things but this is the page that streaming stuff will be on. http://www.twitch.tv/team/lotrostreams now being worked on for streamers. That will start in early January and he will get the official stuff set up.
Q&A
- Question: Frelorn, can you tell us why maintenance works take a few hours in total? Does the patch take long to apply to the servers, or do you have a team testing if the patch works? What's kind of going behind the scenes there?
Alright so, there is a whole process we bring the worlds down, all the worlds come down, we then run a backup of all the data thats on the worlds, even though the game already saves it anyway whenever we are making changes to the way things are we always do a backup. Then we apply the patch to all the servers as you know we do have a lot of servers which does take some time its not just push a button, they manually apply and launch them to make sure that data isn't corrupted something bad doesn't happen. Then the patch servers are updated with the data to go out to the clients. Then we bring up the worlds make sure everything looks good, operations side of things that all the data is there nothings crashing. Then the QA (quality assurance)teams and EQA (commerce and store stuff) and make sure everything is doing what its supposed to do. Then they say okay its doing good and we open up to the public. Obviously for a smaller thing like Friday it isn't as much to upload but bigger patches obviously take longer. We do realize that it effects our European customers play times but we are on a regular work day here and even having our people here 12 hr days at times coming in at 4am to try and get stuff done. We can't make everyone happy but we do the best we can. - Question: Can you pass on thanks to the art team for the wonderful Yule Festival cosmetics this year and pass on a note about maybe bringing dresses back next year?
He will certainly pass on the note of thanks and mention the dresses to the team. - Question: Frelorn, could you expand on any changes to PvMP?
No, everything will come in time other than saying good stuff is coming he can't answer today. - Question: Frelorn, how often is the Suggestions Board on the forums looked at?
All the time, forums are my home page I can't speak for everyone but I know most days I have at least 2-3 tabs open. - Question: Seeing how the sales increased the activity on lotro subreddit and probably the game itself, do you guys think that those sales being permanent would be healthy for the game?
That would be something he would access the brand person who is not in. - Question: Will there ever be a way to gift stuff that you buy in the LOTRO store to another player/character?
Never say never he doesn't think there are plans for it right now. - Question: Is there a technical reason for having the "too many requests, please slow down" while forging relics?
Yep your going too fast it can't handle it all, thats the basic answer. - Question: Frelorn: What would you say the odds are of the Housing Revamp being looked at again? Slim to none? Average?
For this year, I haven't seen anything mentioned about housing. That being said it does not mean it is not something that won't be looked at again. - Question: Frelorn - has there been any talk about increasing the number of quests that can be displayed on the screen from only 5 to maybe 10? or more?
Im certain it has been discussed, its just a matter of where something like that might be on the priority list. - Question:Out of curiosity, what kind of graphics card do you have in your computer, Frelorn?
This one I have Dual Nvidia GForce Gtx 760's. - Question: do you have any plans help players who stream LOTRO get more exposure to the players? The retweets are great, so keep those up for sure.
Yes he shared earlier the site that will be used for that. There are lots of plans to help streamers do more. - Question: Will the new music system be coming back?
Maybe, the music team is checking it out and seeing if they can fix what needed to be fixed. We will let folks know when we know more. - Question: In terms of player exposure though, the vast majority of players that I've talked to have no idea streaming exists, or they have the opinion of "why on earth would I want to watch someone else play when I can just play instead?"
That is true of any stream though, you can learn things from others, I do that when I'm sitting in the office sometimes. Exposure is one of those things where if your streaming and you announce it on twitter we can share and people will come and watch. Sometimes you may not be able to play but are somewhere you can watch on phone or tablet. As part of the incentives for streaming we will give you specific turbine codes and prizes to incentivize people to come to your stream. - Question: what is your thoughts about the early game (lvl 5-25) having become to easy? I've tried getting my friends into the game, but they have found the early content boring because of how easy it is. I do remember it being a lot harder back in the day.
I don't know Im at level 18 and you just saw me get lost in the Old Forest. Some people may find it easier than others. I still find it quite fun to play but then I am biased. - Question: Does the timer on the Epic Foes start from when the quest starts or when you actually see the Epic Foe and hes attackable?
Frelorn will check into this * (Aratheart in chat mentions they believe it is from when the quest starts.
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I only have two questions:
Can we have the option to use the character models for "Man" on the Beornings, and can we *please* use the "Man" hairstyles on Beornings as well? I don't mean to be rude, but it looks like you borrowed workers from Perfect World to do the Beornings and it's subpar compared to the other races.
I love the idea behind Beornings as a shapeshifter class, but their character models leave a lot to be desired.
Thanks. ^_^;
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
KitsuneGirl
I only have two questions:
Can we have the option to use the character models for "Man" on the Beornings, and can we *please* use the "Man" hairstyles on Beornings as well? I don't mean to be rude, but it looks like you borrowed workers from Perfect World to do the Beornings and it's subpar compared to the other races.
I love the idea behind Beornings as a shapeshifter class, but their character models leave a lot to be desired.
Thanks. ^_^;
When the class was on beta, the players recommended & supported the idea of wild looking hairstyles for beornings. Hence the creations of those beorning only haircuts. The traditional overdone elven hairstyles that where already in game, looks akward on those big fellas that are using tribal clothing & face paint (exept for some dwarven haircuts & braids). On my part i will like to use those hairstyles on my none beorning alts but never the other way around.
Also beorning models are exactly as should be by the description of Beorn in the books. He is just a tall hairy man that happen to transform in a bear sometimes. The only thing i will add them is more human like body hair when exposed arms & legs (not in some hybrid bear form) similar to dwarven arms hair.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
YamydeAragon
When the class was on beta, the players recommended & supported the idea of wild looking hairstyles for beornings. Hence the creations of those beorning only haircuts. The traditional overdone elven hairstyles that where already in game, looks akward on those big fellas that are using tribal clothing & face paint (exept for some dwarven haircuts & braids). On my part i will like to use those hairstyles on my none beorning alts but never the other way around.
Also beorning models are exactly as should be by the description of Beorn in the books. He is just a tall hairy man that happen to transform in a bear sometimes. The only thing i will add them is more human like body hair when exposed arms & legs (not in some hybrid bear form) similar to dwarven arms hair.
I don't know what the males look like, the hairstyles probably look better on them. I wasn't however, talking about wanting the elf hairstyles (and I clearly stated that), but the race of man hairstyles. The models themselves look ok I suppose, but the textures they used for the skin of the Beornings is what looks like it was made by PWI (the human-form not the bear to be ridiculously clear).
And just as a side-note, not everyone plays a male character, so it's wrong to assume that.
And... that's also why I asked for an option to use the other models/textures, because I know some people like them. I however don't and I am sure there are others as well that would like to see more options.
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Frelorn Q&A 1/8/2015
Thursday Fun with Frelorn 1/08/2015
Please note: I am paraphrasing here. Anything said here is coming through my interpretation of what was said, and is subject to being corrected, so don't take all this as the final word.
If anyone who was present has any additions or corrections, feel free to post. Unless otherwise noted all Announcements and answers to questions posted are Frelorn's answers. If there is a special guest I will note them answering the questions. Please try to keep this thread to the questions and answers from the stream and start topics concerning questions from this thread in a new thread to make it easier for people to find answers they need. Thanks a lot :)
Announcements
Producers Letter- It was put out and can be found in the Dev Tracker, as well as the introduction to the new Executive Producer Athena "Vyvyanne" Peters, you can find as well on the Dev Tracker where she has responded a number of times already to questions brought about by the Producers Letter. Producers Letter Article can be found here. Main Discussion of the Producers Letter can be found here - [Eldalleth Note--For those who haven't used the Dev Tracker it is at the top left side of the forums page underneath the Lord of the Rings Online Logo. Dev Tracker can be used to view anytime a Developer, Community Manager, Exec Producer have commented on or posted a thread. ]
Questions- If you want a question answered, I will do my best to answer them, I won't answer them all and I especially won't answer questions that are framed in a rude or condescending manner. Im not calling on anybody in particular, but if you come at me in some way that comes off in less than nice than I will less than nicely not answer your question. Pretty simple.
Q&A
- Question: Will Athena (Vyvyanne) do a stream or hop on during one of your streams? Face time with Rowan always helped.
Yes that is one of the things we will do in the not so distant future, we will either have her jump on with me or do something streaming and get that squared away as quickly as we can. - Question: What timeline are the server changes working on are we talking before or after Osgiliath?
I will reiterate what has already been said when we get closer to making the final plan for everything server related done we will make sure to roll out the information to you guys. Let everyone put in their feedback and see what we can do. The goal for us is to make server transfers and ease of moving from one server to another very very easy. We are a little too early in the process yet, so we aren't going to just come on some day and say guess what everybody this is happening. There is no timeline set at this point, its a matter of put things out when they are done and ready not when they meet the timeline. - Question: Has there been any discussion among the developers about what happens after Eastern Gondor: specifically, it would seem like Mordor would be next, but that would seem to "end" the game. What then?
Yes there has been discussions, that's all I can say, you'll have to wait and see what happens, yes I am the King of the Vague Answers. - Question: How probable is the new PvMP map, and if it does happen, how much longer after Osgiliath would it be likely to come?
The information we gave you guys is exactly what we have currently, we do realize its going to take a significant amount of work for the PvMP stuff, this is one of the things I hold near and dear to my heart. When I first started on Lotro, I was the PvMP person, so this is something I gravitated to now that Im back on the team. To clarify: this would be its own separate area there will be no, "Hey pve people you have to go into the pvp area, it will be like the Ettenmoors you don't have to go in that. " Of course we know that PvMP as a whole is not in a happy place right now and needs to get better and we want it to be better to be blunt. Its not just about making a new map its about what we can do to make PvMP better, part of that is the new map, because we know the Ettenmoors is not optimal, there is bad server boundaries, some of the mechanics a lot of players don't like, we know, we hear the feedback and we know what people are saying so this is something we want to explore in the upcoming year. As we get closer we will be soliciting feedback and asking players and seeing what we can do. Its like anything if we put it on the Producers Letter its something we want to do, we are confident we can do it, but nothing is 100%, that is just the bottom line. But I think if there is one thing this team has proven in the last year its that we have delivered on almost everything we said we were going to deliver, and that is the goal for this year as well. As we get closer to that I'll be dragging Jinjaah over kicking and screaming, well not actually, since he actually likes doing this stuff and get him on and solicit feedback and get him on the forums and all the stuff because he's the man. - Question: Frelorn: New hardware was mentioned for the EU servers after the move back to the other side of the pond. What about NA servers -- do they get new hardware too? Is this expected to improve game stability, especially in the Moors? Significantly reduced lag and crashes?
The goal is, what little I can say about this, is to move the hardware over there, we have a data center over in Amsterdam, so we are hoping to move the EU servers over there. So the EU servers can have there servers over there not going to change anything else about the service, it will be your servers will be physically closer to you guys. Same thing with North America we have another data center there that we will hopefully eventually move to, not going to say exact locations now. Server moves are not exactly easy, its all scheduling timing but yes, eventually to get the North American Servers on newer better hardware and better infrastructure as a whole.
Systems Designer Trevor "Jinjaah" joins the conversation in the chat area any responses by Jinjaah will be noted. Game Systems Engineer Leo "Ransroth" enters the chat area as well. - Question: What discussions between players and devs happened before the reputation item change was made?
There wasn't a ton because we had to move rather quickly on that one, as I said in the release notes for the Hotfix, we will be watching the feedback on the numbers we put up and if something needs to be changed we will go in and change it. This was something that we found a larger than acceptable number of people taking advantage of that system and earning literally thousands of Turbine Points in a very short time. We want people to earn turbine points but when they are making thousands and thousands of them in a few days than thats a problem that needs to be fixed. We will adjust on the fly as we need to. - Question: Any word on the streaming team stuff? My faulty memory is telling me it'd come with the producer's letter....
I didn't say it would come with the Producers Letter I said beginning of the year I have the page up still working on the artwork, and then I will make the calls for you guys to put in your emails. Probably either tomorrow or Monday or Tuesday coming rather quickly actually. - Question: Hey Frelorn can you poke the servers or give them a cup of coffee. Servers have been rather laggy during the holidays ):
It was my understanding that after yesterday's hotfix that performance was better. Its never perfect, but should be better if that is not the case please as always let us know. The reports of lag I was getting on the forums have gone down dramatically since the hotfix. It also depends on where you are, we saw a lot of lag and were not the only ones over the holidays, I can confirm this from friends in other game companies due to pirates and other hacking and bad people on the internet. Not an excuse or blaming specifics.
Ransroth: A lot of the lag was due to some of the exploits that were happening until the update yesterday. Hopefully things will be less laggy now. - Question: Are there any big changes to the classes coming this year?
I don't know, Im sure there are some class things coming I dont have anything in my road map that says "Hey big huge change is coming", we are always making adjustments, I don't forsee huge overhaul changes, no level cap change. - Question: No major class changes planned, but would it be reasonable to expect some class tweaking while investigating new PvMP zone?
Jinjaah may come over and smack me in the back of the head when I say this but I think we agree and its something Ive talked with the team about, with what Im about to say but PvMP hopefully should never impact PvE. So hopefully if we make changes it will be to the Monster Player side to make sure they are on par with the existing PvE guys. Unless something is busted and not working, we shouldn't nerf and make changes to the PvE guys since they are made specifically for PvE. If something is busted obviously we will fix it but not just for the sake of PvMP. So hopefully we don't go that road because its a slippery slope, Im not a dev there are reasons I don't touch the things in the game like that. I have faith in those that do though, and I think they will do an amazing job when they do go in there and do stuff. - Question: If you don't change our classes for PvMP, what about changing creep classes? Some creep classes are currently hugely overpowered.
Thats kind of what I just said, is if any adjustments are going to be made, thats what I'm saying would be done if anything the monster players or creepside would be where the adjustment would be made. Whether it would be up or down I will leave that to people much smarter about that than me. - Question: Frelorn, are you guys doing any booths or parties at PAX East?
I have no announcement on that yet we haven't gotten that far in planning yet. - Question: How about crafting? Any updates for lvl 100?
I have no idea I will leave that to the devs to answer for you guys, nothing in my books for it but I don't go down to the detail til update, so I can tell them either you guys will love it or oh my god the sky is falling they will hate it. - Question: Do you already know who is going to participate in the stream thing? And can/will you share it with us now?
I will put a call out for emails and make sure your going to be appropriate and can be on there Ill add you in. Those that Ive already watched a lot will be approved. - Question: do you think Chris Pierson could livestream/record his talk? [conversation in chat about Mythmoot mentioned Chris Pierson one of the World builders will be speaking at it]
What we can do is maybe convince Chris when he gets back and has some time from building all of our magical worlds to do a stream and do a little q&a. We also have some cool video stuff for you guys this year and once the rest of the team gets back in the swing of things you'll see some pretty cool stuff coming out from us. - Question: Are there any plans to making all festival tokens the same? The Yule festival tokens are simply "Festival Token" whereas the rest are still specific to their festival. Can it be changed so that they all use the same token.
Not planned currently but that is a good suggestion. - Question: If players wanted to help "develop" content for the game, would Turbine be willing to open that door for them? Such as contests to design cosmetics for characters and war-steeds?
We have done that in the past but it is a very lengthy process because we have to get lots of approvals from lots of different places and the artists have to put in time to actually produce the content. Its not the easiest thing in the world to do and not the best use of time and resources, but that all being said it is possible. - Question from Jinjaah: Would you rather fight one horse-sized duck or 100 duck-sized horses?
100 duck-sized horses gimme a hockey stick Ill take them on, horse sized duck thats scary haven't you ever been chased by a duck. Jinjaah responds- yeah but think about this. You are at the office, and all of a sudden you hear 100 duck sized horses just charging from somewhere. But they are so small, you can't seem them over the desks around you? I spend way too much time thinking of this...I that may be true but I'll still take my chances, one big giant duck would scare the #### out of me. - Question: Can you give us any hints on the new episodic content?...
It is going to be awesome, I have seen a lot of people comparing it to content from other games but I don't believe its really like that, anything episodic is similar in certain thoughts of hey there is a new episode, my understanding is its not what people are thinking but you will have to wait and see. - Question:Is there gonna be a new PVMP map?
Thats what we are investigating its not a matter of yes or no, its can we do it, can we make it better than the existing one, is it going to deliver a fun experience for players, we are looking into it, when the time comes we will of course solicit feedback from you guys. - Question: Why are some cosmetic pet names forbidden?? (On a non-RP server btw)
Because they are in the name filter for whatever reason, some may be inappropriate some may be lore breaking, names of something already in the game. - Question: If somehow we don't get a new PvMP map, would we be able to get at least a revamp of the current map?
Maybe, its not in the plans but plans change, I personally would rather see a new map, than fixing something that many people don't enjoy for various reasons. But remember not up to me, people much smarter than I am are working. - Question: The Yule Festival is currently scheduled to end on the 13th. Will we get an extension on that? And if not, what time on the 13th will it actually be shut down? 3 AM EST on the 13th? Or will it actually be the early hours of the 14th?
I don't know of any plans on extending it, I can't give you the exact time as QuartermasterU isn't next to him to ask. - Question: Any chance for scaled Tower of Orthanc and Dar Narbugund raids? And is there a chance to see a new raid later in 2015?
Im pretty sure we said no new raids this year at least in the content that has been explored in the Producers letter which covers the first half of the year, but anything is possible. The scaled up stuff, things are different with old quests, a lot of systems have changed and its just not as easy because they are tied into a lot of things that aren't as system friendly as what we have now. - Question: do you think will LotrO ever get one huge server and merge all others into that one?
No I don't think that will happen. - Question: Shelob think that will be for 2016?
Its funny because we had just talked about doing a new quest with spiders and I wanted a fluffy bunny instead but they said it wasn't lore appropriate. Whereas I think it would be amazing to have a white bunny quest.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Eldalleth
Thursday Fun with Frelorn 1/08/2015
Question: If you don't change our classes for PvMP, what about changing creep classes? Some creep classes are currently hugely overpowered.
creeps classes are overpowered? L O L
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Quote:
Question: Are there any plans to making all festival tokens the same? The Yule festival tokens are simply "Festival Token" whereas the rest are still specific to their festival. Can it be changed so that they all use the same token.
Not planned currently but that is a good suggestion.
With Update 9, Against the Shadow (December 17, 2012), the tokens of the festivals were converted to Festival Tokens. Why the rest still have their seasonal festival tokens, and the Spring Festival the Spring Leaves, I do not know, but I'm guessing the change was unpopular. Now only the Yule Festival still have the Festival Tokens. The Yule Festival Tokens had snowflake engravings on them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Update 9, Against the Shadow, Official
We’ve made changes to this year’s Yule festival. One of the most notable is the change to festival tokens. When you log in, you’ll notice that your festival currencies from the different festivals will convert into a single festival currency. It should convert on a one to one basis (one old token for one new unified token). Race tokens obtained from running festival races in Bree and the Shire will also convert into this new unified token, but at a higher rate. This allows us to use a single ‘festival currency’ going forward.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Eldalleth
...[*]Question: Shelob think that will be for 2016?
Its funny because we had just talked about doing a new quest with spiders and I wanted a fluffy bunny instead but they said it wasn't lore appropriate. Whereas I think it would be amazing to have a white bunny quest.[/LIST]
Oh thats is cute! But make them rabbits of all the colors rabbits could be (dark brown, black, dark gray, light gray, orange-brown, white albino, patched) . I want a quest to help a farmer catch hopping hobbits in a field because they got freakout & ran away when a calvary ran by them. This will put a bit of whimzy to all the doom & gloom of the new zone. :cool:
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I'm still gutted this ended up being on a Thursday, it's my late night in work (7pm UK) so I miss out, and I was one of the ones who suggested Frelorn should choose Gilrain lol!
Can someone please ask the following questions during the live stream for me, since I can't be there.
Dead Marshes (Gilrain) - a friend and I have just done the warbands daily for two months and neither of us have picked up a frog or turtle pet. Could the drop system be broken or do we just keep trying? Most people who got the frog said they got it quite quickly when we asked.
Dead Marshes/Central Gondor - what happened with the other frog pets that were mean't to be bartered in Central Gondor?
Yule Festival - have a little kindness at Christmas time, up the Hobby Horse drop rate please!!! I've done it every day on 13 alts for the whole duration. No hobby horse, boo!
Joke question - can I please have my boat mount yet?
Thank you in advance to whoever asks these for me :D
Frelorn - please give us another day once in a while, Tuesday preferably!
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Hi guys, hopefully someone can ask my questions above, but if I can be cheeky, can someone also ask the following to -
Is there any reason Hobnanigans has to be turned off and be a once-a-month event? Could you not just leave it on so people who have limited time (and aren't always free at the weekends) can just chip away at it - the rewards are low and it's too slow going to get the items you want. Pretty please?
To quote Han Solo, "No reward is worth this!" :p
And thanks to the people who do the hard work writing up the Q&As, you are stars!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Eldalleth
[*]Question: The Yule Festival is currently scheduled to end on the 13th. Will we get an extension on that? And if not, what time on the 13th will it actually be shut down? 3 AM EST on the 13th? Or will it actually be the early hours of the 14th?
I don't know of any plans on extending it, I can't give you the exact time as QuartermasterU isn't next to him to ask.
OK it being 2 days after the above end date any idea now when this years YULE FESTIVAL will end?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
tsunamimc
OK it being 2 days after the above end date any idea now when this years YULE FESTIVAL will end?
It ends on the 16th.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Brandon_Blackbird
It ends on the 16th.
Edit: Getting my days mixed up, bad me, especially since 16th is my Mum's birthday...
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Brandon_Blackbird
It ends on the 16th.
Don't know if it makes a difference to those who are end-gaming it, but I think he said "goes through the 16th." I also don't know whether that has any actual meaning in this context under the Meaning of the Act, but I think of other things with similar wording as "ends at midnight Eastern Time on that date."
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Through the 16th would mean through 12 MN PST US, or 3AM (the usual server reset time) Eastern on the 17th. It has been said that turning on events and turning them off isn't automated, so they get turned off one at a time and thus some get to play a bit longer than others.
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Quote:
Question: Shelob think that will be for 2016?
Its funny because we had just talked about doing a new quest with spiders and I wanted a fluffy bunny instead but they said it wasn't lore appropriate. Whereas I think it would be amazing to have a white bunny quest.
I think if I was raiding and I saw a arch nemesis bunny I would bravely run away
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Eldalleth
[B][COLOR=#40E0D0][*]Question: Shelob think that will be for 2016?
Its funny because we had just talked about doing a new quest with spiders and I wanted a fluffy bunny instead but they said it wasn't lore appropriate. Whereas I think it would be amazing to have a white bunny quest.[/LIST]
What the heck kind of answer is that?
pathetic...
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Got a question about the upcoming server shutdowns, this one related to those who are stationed overseas and will not be able to access LOTRO till likely after the shutdowns happen.
What are you going to do for those that don't have the chance to get to their vaults and house chests before the shutdowns?
Will they just lose everything of value to them?
I think a better idea would to leave the servers open just for getting things from house areas, house chests and vaults.
Remove NPCs (other than the vault and escrow ones), mobs, resource nodes and such.
Let players who were unable to play LOTRO before the shutdown, for whatever reason, still be able to load their characters and get the things they value.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Roelen
I think if I was raiding and I saw a arch nemesis bunny I would bravely run away
Yes, I miss Pookie. I only ever received one pair of bunny slippers. :rolleyes:
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Frelorn Q&A 1/15/2015
Thursday Fun with Frelorn 1/15/2015
Please note: I am paraphrasing here. Anything said here is coming through my interpretation of what was said, and is subject to being corrected, so don't take all this as the final word.
If anyone who was present has any additions or corrections, feel free to post. Unless otherwise noted, all Announcements and answers to questions posted are Frelorn's answers. If there is a special guest I will note them answering the questions.
Announcements
Update 15.2 on Bullroarer the weekend of the 15th.
Winterstock January 16-19th, Landroval Server at Thorin's Gate. (Apologies notes were not out in time for the event -Eldalleth)
Q&A
- What music do you use for the stream Introduction?
It is the Update 14 Paths of the Dead soundtrack, I believe it should be on Soundcloud. I know we put it up somewhere for you. I'll see if I can find the link and get it put up; I know it exists out there somewhere. *Frelorn* - What is slated for Update 15.2?
Nothing is set in stone, a lot of it is tentative - no full notes yet. In Windows version of the game, we will now be giving an option for full screen windowed mode. [Eldalleth Note- Bullroarer Build notes are up on the forums- here and here.] The roving threats that were teased previously should be rolling out with 15.2 depending on testing. Pets should no longer attempt to attack enemies that attacked you when you were mounted and are now way out of range. - Frelorn, two questions that were posted in the livestream Q&A and asked to be asked - Dead Marshes (Gilrain) - a friend and I have just done the warbands daily for two months and neither of us have picked up a frog or turtle pet. Could the drop system be broken or do we just keep trying? Most people who got the frog said they got it quite quickly when we asked. Dead Marshes/Central Gondor - what happened with the other frog pets that were meant to be bartered in Central Gondor?
I would say keep trying and I will also check into it. Very specific questions like that I can't magically get the answer right now. I haven't heard any other reports that its not looking properly, but I will look into it. - Can we see/get a wise word from the new Executive Producer Vyvyanne?
She is currently in a meeting but I have sent her a message and if she makes it out of the meeting before the stream is over she may try to come and join us. - Any chances this time of a Bullroarer Mac Client Download?
We tried and something got busted and it was acting like it didn't exist and so the team is still figuring things out. We don't currently have any Mac specific developers at Lotro right now so it's not as simple as clicking a button. They are looking into it and trying to figure it out. - Is there any reason Hobnanigans has to be turned off and be a once-a-month event? Could you not just leave it on so people who have limited time (and aren't always free at the weekends) can just chip away at it - the rewards are low and it's too slow going to get the items you want.
I will certainly bring it up to the team and see what the thoughts are on that one. I'm not the one that controls that stuff. - Is there an ETA on Lotro Streamers?
The page is up and I’m waiting on artwork and the email. Basically there will be a thread with more information. It will require an application with your information on when you stream and what you stream, and I will come sit in on one of your streams and tell you if there is anything that needs to be improved or just tell you you’re awesome, etc. Once you go through all that process, I’ll let you know you're in and then give you a stream key and will tell you okay your time slot to play is here. [Eldalleth Note- Thread is now up about Lotro Streamers] - Where can I buy the LOTRO soundtracks? I would like to buy the soundtracks from 2007 when you started to now. All the soundtracks. I checked on LOTRO.com but they do not have it. And Amazon/iTunes only have Riders of Rohan soundtrack.
The only one we sold I believe was Riders of Rohan and its still on iTunes. A lot of that should be on Soundcloud or even on YouTube. A lot of that was before I got here so I don't have all of the information on it. - If you are in Massachusetts - LOTR Movie Marathon, Feb 28th, 9 a.m. to midnight … Corey Olsen … and I'll be there too!!! And there will be FOOD!! [- Note from Trish Lambert] http://www.mythgard.org/activities/lotr-marathon/
- Have you seenArathaert's chicken run? Would you consider doing one on stream?
Yes I did and have considered it as well as us doing some Epic Battles with the Devs on stream as well as some other things like video content, video dev diaries, etc. - Are there any talks about streaming with the Player Council to expand on current events with them?
Yes, actually. We are going to do an end of this year's council run, then we will get into the new council and I will have info about new council and old council stuff soon. There will be some different things with this council... more info about that later. - What is your favorite steed? And what's one accomplishment you would like to do but haven't done yet?
I don't have a favorite steed and I don't know - I've done most things one way or another. I'll have to think about that one. - Per the Producer’s Letter and comments, there will be traditional instances in Osgiliath. Will they be multiple 3- and/or 6-mans? Also, will another epic battle be introduced with it?
I don't know the number, but there will be 3-man and 6-man instance clusters - think of something like the instance clusters of old. That's about all I have on that right now because I don't have the spec on it in front of me. - What would you most like to see improved, Frelorn ?
There are a lot of things this game does very well. Given an unlimited budget and all the time in the world there are a few things, not just one thing I could call out with an unlimited budget. - Frelorn, there was something going around that ranked servers in order of population - is that even possible now that that server thing was closed down? (Is it accurate?)
I hit this up a little bit on Twitter earlier this week. Not on the official one, but on my own personal Twitter here. I looked at some of those things and compared them to what we have internally (and we do have them internally). We don't necessarily rank them by population, but we have a big ol’ population chart that shows totals hour-by-hour and when everyone is logged in, peak currencies and all the important population numbers. The numbers I was seeing on the forums were not in line with what I was seeing, so while they were saying they were pulling the data from the launcher, I have no insight to where they were pulling it from as it wasn't shared.
We have been seeing some really good numbers. Yes, there are some that are definitely lower populations than others, there is no doubt about that, but let's be honest here: we are approaching our 8th anniversary, and to never have had to combine servers or make any of those adjustments (in fact I think we even added servers at one point) is a pretty amazing feat. So the numbers they were putting out were wrong and lower than what they are. Again, show me another MMO that in the 8th year of their life or during their life had to add servers, other than WoW. (You can't ever compare any other game to WoW. It's just not feasible.) So if you take WoW away from the conversation, what we have done with LOTRO is pretty amazing and I'm pretty proud of everybody.
But again, we want the best experience possible for all of our players. If that means bringing more of you together... Sometimes we need to be reminded that MMO means massively multiplayer online, and we see a lot of complaints of “I like being on the low pop server” or “I like being all by myself.” Well, as much as we would like to give everyone the exact experience that they want individually, we have to look at what's best for the whole and not just the individual. We try our best to balance it, but that would be impossible. I challenge you to show me any game that has done that. So if the majority of people want more player base that's what we are going to get them. - Will you be able to bring back the leaderboards back soon?
No. That is in the same area as the lotteries and that area is a combination of web and development and backend ton of work. It’s rather daunting when you see what they would have to do: basically rebuild the system all over again. Time would be better spent on things in the game.
Note from Eldalleth- In trying to make doing the transcripts a little less labor intensive I am trying out a new color, one that is not one that I have to code. Please let me know if this color makes the questions hard to read and I will do my best to find one that works better. Thanks for your patience. :)
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Thank you so much to the person who asked my questions on here, really appreciate it :D
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Eldalleth
Note from Eldalleth- In trying to make doing the transcripts a little less labor intensive I am trying out a new color, one that is not one that I have to code. Please let me know if this color makes the questions hard to read and I will do my best to find one that works better. Thanks for your patience. :)
For me colors are OK, and thanks for your hard work!
Sergio :-)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Eldalleth
Note from Eldalleth- In trying to make doing the transcripts a little less labor intensive I am trying out a new color, one that is not one that I have to code. Please let me know if this color makes the questions hard to read and I will do my best to find one that works better. Thanks for your patience. :)
Colors seem fine to me. And thank you for doing this. :)
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The colors are fine to me.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Ranatuor_Erutron
Thank you so much to the person who asked my questions on here, really appreciate it :D
That would be me :) and your quite welcome. I will try when I see them in time to ask ones that are posted in this thread :) People are also welcome to send me a private message with some if its really close to stream time because that I get a notification in my email for. This post I don't always.
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Answers to Questions for Frelorn.
1- Where to get the LOTRO Music:
- The Original "Shadows of Angmar" sound track appeared as a CD with the original boxed game distribution.
- The "Mines of Moria" sound track appeared as a CD with the Collector's Edition of Mines of Moria.
- The Riders of Rohan sound tracks are availble in iTunes or on Chance Thomas' web site. (Album: Lord of the Rings online: Riders of Rohan.)
A number of the tunes from that Album are also available on You-tube. - The Helm's Deep tracks are on Sound Cloud: https://soundcloud.com/turbinegames/...e-rings-online
* While they were testing the now defunct "Turbine Dowload Manager" (TDM) Turbine released two ziped MP3 files -- one of DDO music and one of LOTRO music.
I have those two files on my personal website:
http://www.mcgillsociety.org/PyLotRO/index.html#MUSIC
2- It's not rocket science... (just HTML)
Quote:
* Any chances this time of a Bullroarer Mac Client Download?
We tried and something got busted and it was acting like it didn't exist and so the team is still figuring things out. We don't currently have any Mac specific developers at Lotro right now so it's not as simple as clicking a button. They are looking into it and trying to figure it out.
I have a copy of the original Mac Bullroarer Client .dmg file as Turbine first released it on my personal web site:
http://www.mcgillsociety.org/PyLotRO/index.html#BULLROARER]
For what it's worth - I'm not convinced that Turbine has ever had any Mac specific developers on staff.
Everything about the original Mac Client implies that it was a "contract job." And, other than the first week of the RoR Beta, no blue-name has ever responded to any Mac post.
And yes, I've been almost single-handedly supporting the Mac Client for LOTRO since it was released.
Just go visit the Mac Technical Forum and count the number of Blue-name posts.
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You're a great contributor to this game, in many different ways, Valamar.
Thanks. :)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Thurallor
You're a great contributor to this game, in many different ways, Valamar.
Thanks. :)
Much agreed. Thanks, Valamar!
I could say the same about you as well, Thurallor. :D
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I've heard, Eldalleth, that you ask Frelorn any questions that are posted on this thread (and because they come from you, he tends to answer them), so I'd very much appreciate it if you could ask him these two questions:
1. Why was the decision made to give a slotted pocket item as a reward for the roving threats, as opposed to a cloak, considering that the pocket item isn't as good as the BB jewellery, and we've not had a decent cloak (particularly for might classes) since level 95?
2. As there isn't going to be a level cap increase this year, what is the purpose of making our Legendary Items level with us? Wasn't that the whole point of the legendary item revamp?
Thank you :)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Tirian-Hammerfist
1. Why was the decision made to give a slotted pocket item as a reward for the roving threats, as opposed to a cloak, considering that the pocket item isn't as good as the BB jewellery, and we've not had a decent cloak (particularly for might classes) since level 95?
There are 2 cloaks with Might : "Cloak of the Fallen Tower" & "Greater Valourous Cloak of Finesse"
The first one is not too difficult to get (WoS T1 for example) but the 2nd one is nearly impossible to get with the actual state of instances/loot tables (Fornost - Shadow, OD - Poison, Smaug)
Then I agree that a cloak with slots would have been a lot better than this pocket item...
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Castorix
There are 2 cloaks with Might : "Cloak of the Fallen Tower" & "Greater Valourous Cloak of Finesse"
The first one is not too difficult to get (WoS T1 for example) but the 2nd one is nearly impossible to get with the actual state of instances/loot tables (Fornost - Shadow, OD - Poison, Smaug)
Then I agree that a cloak with slots would have been a lot better than this pocket item...
Oh, you can get a might cloak from Way of Smiths? I'll check it out, thanks. I was aware of the second one, but as you say, its a massive pain to get.
Though my question still stands, as I think a slotted cloak would be much better than the pocket, considering the fact that it doesn't break up the gold BB jewellery set.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Castorix
There are 2 cloaks with Might : "Cloak of the Fallen Tower" & "Greater Valourous Cloak of Finesse"
The first one is not too difficult to get (WoS T1 for example) but the 2nd one is nearly impossible to get with the actual state of instances/loot tables (Fornost - Shadow, OD - Poison, Smaug)
Then I agree that a cloak with slots would have been a lot better than this pocket item...
I thought the might cloaks only dropped from the two in Moria.. Deep Way and WoS? I've never seen it fall from 21st (for example).
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Jillymala
I thought the might cloaks only dropped from the two in Moria.. Deep Way and WoS? I've never seen it fall from 21st (for example).
Theorically, it drops from Deep-way, 21st Hall & WoS because they are in the same campaign (Enguilan Campaign)
I got it by farming WoS T1 (the easiest one, 21st Hall cannot be done alone (fear skill from boss))
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Castorix
Theorically, it drops from Deep-way, 21st Hall & WoS because they are in the same campaign (Enguilan Campaign)
I got it by farming WoS T1 (the easiest one, 21st Hall cannot be done alone (fear skill from boss))
I am wondering if you have any advice on (I am assuming you solo'd WOS) doing WOS solo. I know you are a champ, do you think a Guard could solo T1? I got the LT that does the damage reflect on an add and I guess I needed to stop aoeing to survive. Other than that is it straightforward?
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I don't mind people asking questions here but please take conversations that are not regarding stuff that is being asked or discussed in the questions to a separate thread or pm's. It helps me keep this thread orderly so people can find the answers they are looking for :) Thanks :)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
mattspencer
I am wondering if you have any advice on (I am assuming you solo'd WOS) doing WOS solo. I know you are a champ, do you think a Guard could solo T1? I got the LT that does the damage reflect on an add and I guess I needed to stop aoeing to survive. Other than that is it straightforward?
Yes it can be solo'd by a guard. As you found out you need to be very careful of the Priest of Vengeance, and Brothers of Destruction will also cause you lots of problems. Fellbane Archers have a nasty AoE that can be difficult to outheal. If you get lucky with LT's then its perfectly doable. The final fight isnt that challenging, especially if you make good use of the banners that are lying around.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Tirian-Hammerfist
2. As there isn't going to be a level cap increase this year, what is the purpose of making our Legendary Items level with us? Wasn't that the whole point of the legendary item revamp?
My understanding/interpretation is that the Legendary Item Leveling is not going to be a big deal as such for anybody currently at the Level Cap.
However, like the WarSteed leveling -- even though your character is not leveling, your LI will level as you complete deeds, etc.
Which Deeds? -- in particular, there are Deeds and (apparently) Meta-deeds for each of the new Roving Threat areas.
One assumes that there will be just as many quests in ?Northern Gondor? as there were in Central Gondor, so even though the Level cap won't increase, there will still be plenty to do to earn IXP.
Put another way -- leveling your LI will give level-cap players a reason to do all the quests in the new area!
It will be just like grinding for Virtues!
Just guessing, but I suspect we'll get more info as U16 goes up on Bullroarer.
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I don't know if this has been answered before, but could you ask if Frelorn could record his streams and post them on YouTube? Did anyone watch his stream about moors and plan on posting the questions?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Teledion
I don't know if this has been answered before, but could you ask if Frelorn could record his streams and post them on YouTube?
Is there some reason you are unable to view the past broadcasts on twitch.tv?
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Thanks for that, I looked in the main LOTRO twitch bit and the vids at the bottom don't show past recordings of the normal stream, just the special events.
Question to Frelorn about the levelling-up an alt Twitch stream - are you just playing solo or would you want some company? I can be on not this week but the following week, it's about time you got a nice welcome to our server :D I can only do Thursdays when the college kids are off, I am term-time only in my work ;)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Teledion
I don't know if this has been answered before, but could you ask if Frelorn could record his streams and post them on YouTube? Did anyone watch his stream about moors and plan on posting the questions?
Hi Teledion, Im the one that posts the questions and have been sick for the last few weeks with a nasty sinus infection, still recovering but working on the questions from both weeks hoping to have them up sometime tomorrow afternoon.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Thurallor
Is there some reason you are unable to view the
past broadcasts on twitch.tv?
This is up to Frelorn -- he has to record them, post them and archive them.
I don't know if he has "learned" that part of the procedure yet :) I know it took Sapience a while to get the hang of the drill.
Sadly, there is no "check box" on Twitch to do it automatically.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Eldalleth
Hi Teledion, Im the one that posts the questions and have been sick for the last few weeks with a nasty sinus infection, still recovering but working on the questions from both weeks hoping to have them up sometime tomorrow afternoon.
I'm sorry to hear that, hope you'll get better. It's no hurry but I'm glad that there are plans of posting the questions, ty for the great work you do with this. :)
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Frelorn Q&A 1/29/2015
Thursday Fun with Frelorn 1/29/2015
Please note: I am paraphrasing here. Anything said here is coming through my interpretation of what was said, and is subject to being corrected, so don't take all this as the final word.
If anyone who was present has any additions or corrections, feel free to post. Unless otherwise noted, all Announcements and answers to questions posted are Frelorn's answers. If there is a special guest I will note them answering the questions.
Q&A
Special Guest for this stream was Systems Designer Trevor "Jinjaah" McEwan.
- Question: Have you started work on the potential new PvMP map?
Jinjaah: I don't want to go into too much information about it but we have had a lot of discussions both with the Players Council and internally. We haven't ramped up the council discussions too much yet because we are still doing some cost estimates as to what it will cost to make and what some of the hurdles we have are. On my side of things, also looking at potential systemic changes to PvMP once we get into a new space. A lot of those I don't want to mention yet because I don't want to make people any promises, but there is a lot of cool potentially exciting stuff we can do. - Question: What is the status on Beorning gear? I just completed all of Riders of Rohan and didn't find a single piece of Beorning gear in the entire zone of quests, nor are there any guild patterns that are Beorning-focused. Is it going to get a fix?
Jinjaah: The medium might gear is taking a lot longer than we would like, there is definitely a bunch of crafting recipes in terms of upper echelon stuff you can find that in the forums. We still need to iron out a couple of missing places, we have been going through and filling in quests, and raids and skirmish kind of drops but hopefully over the next couple of updates and continue to add stuff in and fill in the places we missed before. The good news is all the new stuff we are working on we already have the Beorning specific gear in the hopper so its just simply a revision problem rather than a problem we are going to take forward. - Question: Arathaert's very random question: Frelorn, you have a million dollars in cash, thirty clowns who obey your every word implicitly and a bottle of orange soda. Your mission: totally derail the Super Bowl. What would you do?
Frelorn: I have no idea. Having control of thirty clowns alone is completely horrifying and I don't know if I like that prospect.
Jinjaah: I would pay as many fans in the stadium as I could to wear a clown costume and sit in complete silence for the whole game.
Frelorn: Yeah that would be creepy. - Question: Any rough schedule for update 16, and what might be in it?
Frelorn: Nothing for Update 16 yet because we have to get through Update 15.2 first. We have U15.2 coming soon. (This stream was on January 29 - 15.2 has since been launched- Eldalleth Note) - Question: I had a look at the release notes and i was wondering if there would be any changes about the PvMP as a whole not just a map?
Frelorn: Well considering we haven't actually put out any release notes yet, that was the Producers Letter, and there are lots of things we would love to do with PvMP the first step being a new area. We will look into doing more stuff beyond that. First thing we have to do is establish cost etc, can we do that. - Question: Arathaert asks, Frelorn, do you plan on setting up a Turbine/LOTRO team for Extra Life this year? Or should we take it upon ourselves to make a LOTRO team (as opposed to individual kin teams)? (I don't mind taking point on it if you like - I've done it before)
Frelorn: I haven't gotten that far yet. I have been doing so much else I haven't had a chance to talk with Sapience about if he wants to do something in conjunction or not. So stay tuned if we are I will be sure to let everyone know. - Question: When are the servers moving to Europe Frelorn?
Frelorn: We have not announced a date for that yet, as we get more information and more concrete information we will share it. Right now we are sharing as much information as we have as we don't want to jump out ahead of ourselves and give you information that could turn out to be false. - Question: When are server merges happening?
Frelorn: Same thing, as we have more information we will pass it along. I know our great and glorious leader Athena "Vyvyanne" is working hard to get everything organized and done so that we can make this happen in the best way possible. We would rather make sure its done right than rush information out to you and find out its not feasible or possible. So we are going to take our time and make it more gooder. - Question: Will Osgiliath include a new level increase? How is the PvMP map looking for it?
Frelorn: So I can answer the first part, we did already answer the second part but some late people might not have heard it or still coming in. No new level increases with Osgiliath, and PvMP still having discussions and looking at some things. (see more in-depth answer to question on question #1- Eldalleth Note) - Question: Are war goats something we could see in the future?
Jinjaah: War goats would be pretty sweet.
Frelorn: Yeah I agree. - Question: Any updates on the stream team?
Frelorn: We got an overwhelming amount of applications for that, it was amazing. I’m really excited about how many people applied for it. I am processing them and a lot I still need to watch. - Question: Frelorn, is the new instance cluster guaranteed or you guys have to discuss it as well?
Frelorn: They are firmly in our plans for Update 16 or there abouts. Its not something we have to discuss they are coming. Hooray. - Question: For the stream team, will you have streamers signing an agreement? Like for keeping it a certain language level (no offensive language on the official stream, etc.)? Or other stipulations?
Frelorn: Yes there will be stipulations for those that are on the stream, very minor things, like keeping language clean, don't use any copyrighted music, things of that nature. Nothing too bad you don't have to jump through any hoops or anything like that. Its more of a protect our butts type thing. - Question: KoolKKyle: Bludborn and I have tried to get us a Banner for the Helm's Deep Cover art for Twitch. You are using just The Lord of the Rings Online. Is this the one you want us to use instead of Helm’s Deep?
Frelorn: You can use whatever one you like, I have no preference. - Question: When will you be streaming from the Moors again?
Frelorn: This was fun; I’d like to make it more setup next time. I might do this again in a couple of weeks. Lets get through Update 15.2 and go from there, not everyone likes PvMP but then not everyone likes PvE either. - Question: Frelorn U14 Paths of the Dead music is not on soundcloud I checked can ya put it up there please?
Frelorn: I can look into that for you. - Question: Are the World Designers still in the habit of placing "easter eggs" around current and new landscapes? Are there any big "eggs" that still remain undiscovered? And let us in that unreachable door in Halls of Crafting!
Jinjaah: They keep those kind of things close to the chest so I don't know. And if we told you easter eggs they wouldn't be easter eggs.
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Frelorn Q&A 2/5/2015
Thursday Fun with Frelorn 02/5/2015
Please note: I am paraphrasing here. Anything said here is coming through my interpretation of what was said, and is subject to being corrected, so don't take all this as the final word.
If anyone who was present has any additions or corrections, feel free to post. Unless otherwise noted, all Announcements and answers to questions posted are Frelorn's answers. If there is a special guest I will note them answering the questions.
Q&A
Special Guest appearance Athena "Vyvyanne" Peters Executive Producer.
- Question: Will the Epic Foes in Pelargir regain normal amounts of health, dps and durability? I just did Pelargir 3 times and the epic foe's have 2.7million morale now. Its now where you don't have any time to kill them or the timers up, any changes for that little "bug"?
Vyvyanne: Its a bug and we are working on fixing it currently. We will hopefully have a new patch out shortly that will address those issues. - Question: Do you prefer Athena or Vyvyanne?
Vyvyanne: I'm fine either way. Really I don't mind being called by my name just after years of being in the industry, way back when we only went by our handles. But now society is more comfortable with us using our real names, so I've kind of gotten used to both of them. I do answer to both of them. If anyone called out Vyv or Vyvyanne around me I would probably turn around. - Question: Why are people laughing behind the scene?
Vyvyanne: I have no idea since I have this headset on I can't actually hear what's going on around us. We actually do have a number of different teams surrounding us, we have an open cube environment, so it's quite possible a number of conversations are happening, or it is quite possible they are just laughing at me. - Question: What is one thing you are most excited for as the new Executive Producer?
Vyvyanne: For me it's just really being able to dive into the Lord of the Rings Universe, as a whole. It's a beautiful game, the last several games that I've worked on have been very combat heavy and focused. A lot of the games I've worked on in the past have been a lot of PvP, and we have a little bit of that I'm sure there are several of you that do the Monster Play in our game, but there is a lot more of the role play aspect and the exploration aspect which as a gamer I'm more interested in this world. So it's really great to be involved in that and experience a completely new environment for me as an actual worker and not just a player. - Question: Did the Greek goddess Athena have any special powers?
Vyvyanne: Actually the Greek goddess Athena was goddess of strategy, wisdom, and household crafts interestingly enough, which I would like to hope that I have aspects of all three. - Question: Do you think a rework of Fellow maneuvers will ever happen???? It is an awesome mechanic but it has kind of fallen behind with the current updates.
Vyvyanne: I'm not sure, that one is definitely a question for the systems team folks to answer. - Question: Could we have the Gondor soundtracks in Soundcloud? The one Frelorn played at the beginning of the stream was very nice.
Frelorn: I can look into it, they used to be up there I don't know why they aren't anymore. We do have the rights to them so it shouldn't be a problem to re-upload them. - Question: Are there any ideas/features from DDO(Dungeons and Dragons Online) which you feel should or could be implemented in LotRO?
Vyvyanne: I think a lot of the features that work well in both have been implemented in both. I know the teams for both do actually talk a lot. We have a similar base structure, but the two games have split off a lot in terms of development over the years to where we can't just, very easily port things back and forth. I'm trying to think if there was some specific ideas from DDO that we haven't implemented yet, but definitely something we don't dismiss. Nothing is coming to mind at the moment, I was going to say the cosmetic system we just added in DDO but the one in LOTRO is far advanced to that. - Question: Did you do anything to performance client side for 15.2? I am getting better frames per second since the patch, but I didn't see anything noted in the patch notes.
Vyvyanne: We did a major improvement to a memory leak that we had prior to 15.2, we are watching to see how well we fixed that, so far it's looking positive, but we will keep an eye on it. If players notice any issues please be sure to let us know. - Question: Will that horse's head be a new cosmetic item?
Vyvyanne: We will have to think about that, not sure how thrilled our partners would be on that one. - Question: Why is it so hard to convert the EU-server data to US servers and vice versa?
Vyvyanne: This is mainly because when we first launched the service these two environments were on completely different servers run by completely different teams. So the way they set up their server environments and their data storage was completely different from the way the US did and it took a lot of effort to bring those characters back over into our server systems. The problem is that when we try to replicate that data again there is a bunch of mismatches that happen and the more that we do that the worse it gets. Thus the data corruption could be catastrophic for those characters so we would really rather not risk it. We don't want to chance losing anyone's hard played characters for the number of years they may have been playing them. Going forward we don't have that problem, but because we had that problem from the original servers it's really hard to catch up when we have to take those older characters into consideration. - Question: In DDO I've heard you can create your own dynamic layers on-the-fly. That would be a cool feature to port over.
Vyvyanne: There is a bit of difference in the DDO dynamic layers and LOTRO. One thing to understand about DDO is it is highly instanced, so almost everything your going into is your private instance, versus in LOTRO we try to make it a very open world environment. So our technical limitations there are a lot different. There is definitely some different things that you can see in DDO that they are able to do with their layering systems, that is based on the fact that at most they are only going to have 6-8 characters in that instance versus in LOTRO we have to contend with possibly a hundred. - Question: Greymaster random question- thoughts on bacon?
Vyvyanne: Bacon is great. Thoughts on bacon is terrific. - Question: Will the cosmetic system ever get cosmetic weapon slots?
Vyvyanne: We will definitely look into that, I know our art lead is definitely interested in finding ways to make weapons more interesting cosmetically, so that's one of those things we have been chatting about over here. It is just a matter of weighing that system versus the other things we are trying to do at the same time. It is not off the table it is definitely something we want to look into doing. - Question: When do you think we will hear more about Server information regarding the US servers?
Vyvyanne: We definitely want to get that information out to you guys, right now we are looking into things, everything hinges on getting our new hardware set out and up in our new environments. So we are really focusing on that, and that is taking a bit longer than we had planned originally. We are trying to tie up all the loose ends around that, we don't want to push out too much information since a lot of it is based on what our new hardware set up is going to be. Until we are actually more solid on that, but as soon as we do we will get that information out to you guys. In the meantime we are working very hard on the various improvements that we are doing to the server transfer system. Hopefully we will have some articles in the next coming months on those as we get closer and closer to having our new hardware set up. - Question: Do you know when we are going to be able to get into Minas Tirith?
Vyvyanne: Minas Tirith is planned for this year so hopefully before end of 2015 you should be able to go explore Minas Tirith, that is definitely in the plans. - Question: When will testing the transfer system start?
Vyvyanne: Testing of the server transfer system, expect that in the next couple of months, we will definitely have the testing up before we have the new hardware set up. - Question: Are there any plans to update the Hobbit presents to level 100? The max is 90 at the moment (Mathom items for example..)
Vyvyanne: I will look into that, I didn't know it wasn't at max cap currently, but of course I'm still learning all that stuff. - Question: Will the new server setup affect DDO in any way?
Vyvyanne: I believe it will they are also getting moved over to new environments, but that's definitely something to ask Robin and the DDO people over there they have more information on their work. The hope is that all Turbine games in general will be running better very soon. - Question: Anything more you can tease us with regarding Episodic Content?
Vyvyanne: I don't want to ruin any teasers MadeOfLions might have on the forums. I know he has been putting some out there it looks like its fun, it will definitely be another way to experience the story in the world of Tolkien. That's about all I feel able to say without getting in trouble with MadeOfLions. - Question: Any more information on stream team applications?
Vyvyanne: I'll let Frelorn answer that when he gets back I have no insight into the team applications personally. - Question: This may have been covered elsewhere, but I'm also curious about medium might socketed amour for level 100. The Beorning has been such a great class, it is a letdown to get to the end and only have agility options.
Vyvyanne: Thats going to be when we get Jinjaah on the stream, I know we have been working on the itemization for Update 16 but it is still early in development so he might have some more answers later on. - Question: Will there ever be a whole graphic update?
Vyvyanne: I can't ever say never, but we don't have any plans in the short term. The main concern with full graphic updates is you end up taking the people who have older video cards and setups out of the equation. We don't want to update our game so much that our diehard players are all of a sudden forced to upgrade their systems that wouldn't be fair to them. But we are always trying to improve the look and feel of the game I know that our lead artists been doing some work on the female human body structures to streamline them a little bit better. So we will see small things like that but I don't see us doing a huge graphic update all across the board. - Question: Any chance for physical CD's merchandise for the soundtracks? (like a complete edition or something from older expansions and unreleased stuff)?
Vyvyanne: I don't think we will be doing physical cd's, we have kind of moved into the fully digital realm now. - Question: Moving forward (not necessarily this year or anytime soon) are there plans to keep adding Roving Threats and Treasure Caches to other older regions, based on player feedback?
Vyvyanne: I think we do intend to keep adding more roving threats, it is a really fun feature, we like to add it to make the older areas more interesting give you a reason to go back and play around and see what you can find there. I can definitely see us adding more of those in future updates as well. - Question: Various crafting questions in chat that Vyvyanne comments on.
Vyvyanne: I don't have specific timelines as to when we will be looking into crafting again but I know I personally have some ideas on ways to improve that system I want to talk to the developers about, but probably not something we will really be in the space to talk about in the next few months. It is something we want to dig into. - Question: I do not mean to be a pest, but how often do you check the stream team applications?
Frelorn: Some have already been sent out to people we are crafting up the final rules and getting the gift pool together and they will get sent out and then more will be incoming once we make sure everything works. So a word I hate, but very soon. - Question: Will existing first age weapons be eligible for the new and improved imbued system? Or will it have to be freshly crafted legendaries after the new system launches?
Vyvyanne: I don't think you will have to re-craft your legendaries but I will have to look back at the design document on that again. Definitely expect in the next coming month or so you should see a write up from Jinjaah on the new Legendary Item System. In that write up he will be able to answer more detailed questions like that. A whole legendary item stream will be coming up soon. - Question: Why isn't there a actual LOTRO store for real life items where I can buy a mug, t-shirt or poster?
Frelorn: I can partially answer this but not completely, we have been looking into it, we do have the rights to do it, but figuring out resources, time and availability and what we have the rights to for doing it. We did for a while back in the day have stuff like that up on the WB Store. - Question: Will there be a final reward for doing all deeds (including the hidden deeds of a zone?) and will the virtue rank become higher than level 19?
Freloron: I don't know I'm not the one to answer that. - Question: Have you guys looked into instance based PvMP?
Frelorn: I do know they have looked at something like that at one point. I can't tell you what became of it other than investigating. - Question: How deep are you in the development process, and which parts? you being community manager?
Frelorn: It depends on the situation and what is needed. For something like designing an area, developers won't need my feedback on what it looks like, but I will jump in on when we are testing. I can then give feedback on player rewards, difficulty, player reactions stuff like that. I also give my opinions on whether I think players will like something or if it will go over like a ton of bricks. I leave the developing to the developers they are way smarter than I am they know what they are doing, but I do give my input in terms of the experience after the fact and what you guys think about things. Which is why it is really important when we put things out on Bullroarer that as many of you as possible jump in there and give us feedback as that's our main way of knowing if you're going to like something or not. - Question: Since the soundtracks are digital now, could you look into re-releasing the older soundtracks before Rohan and possible in lossless (FLAC/ALAC) format?
Frelorn: I can certainly look into that and see. I don't know since I wasn't here for that what the legal stuff might be on it. - Question: Any news when servers become active in Amsterdam?
Frelorn: Still a lot of work to be done before they become active so no information that can be shared yet. - Question: Quick question about the new Treasure Caches: are you *sure* there are indeed 12 of them in Forochel?
Frelorn: The person I would ask is not at their desk to ask. (Eldalleth Note: - Frelorn mentioned in a thread on the forums there will be a fix in the next update as the 12th treasure cache is unreachable without GM assistance, thread found here. - Question: KoolKKyle says Bludborn, and I have worked on trying to get the Art for the Channel Several times, Bludborn mentioned you looked into it. Any new information?
Frelorn: If you're talking about the art for the game title? That's specific art I can upload. If you're talking about the Twitch art we are working on that. - Question: Can we nail down one specific LOTRO game title that we should all stream under. I'm seeing up to 3 or 4 different ones at the same time.
Frelorn: The specific game title is The Lord of the Rings Online that is the one we are going with, not any of the expansions. - Question: Do you feel you have enough streamers for the initial stream group?
Frelorn: The ones who I have sent invites out to in the initial wave are the ones I had already watched. The technical answer is I don't think we will ever have enough and I do try and take time each day to take a look at new emails that come in. If you haven't gotten an email yet, stay tuned, just keep in mind I have to watch you stream a couple of times before you get approval. - Question: Is there any thought into giving everyone on each server a legacy title with their server name, so when the server closures/transfers occur, people can give remembrance; i.e. "Thralor of [server name]"?
Frelorn: There are tons of thoughts on it. Which is part of why we aren't giving more information yet, we want to make sure things are ready for public sharing. We want to make sure it's good and that the whole process for everyone involved is a smooth and happy one. I know it won't be easy for a lot of people, but we do want people to hopefully be able in the end to walk away going that was a pretty easy process and it was painless. - Question: Is it definite that some servers will be closed? Why not just keep the low-population servers running for those who don't want to leave them? Too expensive?
Frelorn: It's a combination of a lot of things, we will discuss all of these things in more detail once decisions are made. There are a lot of factors many of which are not quick or easy to explain.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Eldalleth
Space reserved for livestream from February 5th with Special Guest Executive Producer Athena "Vyvyanne" Peters. Thanks for the well wishes everyone Im still recovering from a very nasty sinus infection x 3 weeks now and this stream was a very in-depth stream with lots of wonderful questions answered. As such though it has taken more time to transcribe due to that fact, just as a general idea at 4pgs of notes on Word at 25mins into a hour long stream ;) Thanks for being so understanding and I will hopefully have the notes done before this weekend at the latest.
Thank you for taking the time.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Macroscian
Thank you for taking the time.
Thanks for your time and effort and get well soon.
ps Health tip: Have you tried Eucalyptus oil in bath, in hot water and breathing the steam, on your pillow at night, and on your tissues-it's anti viral, antibacterial and anti Inflammatory, helps sinuses loosen up, helps 'sick headaches' associated with bad sinuses, is cheap, AND SMELLS GREAT!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Calta
ps Health tip: Have you tried Eucalyptus oil in bath, in hot water and breathing the steam, on your pillow at night, and on your tissues-it's anti viral, antibacterial and anti Inflammatory, helps sinuses loosen up, helps 'sick headaches' associated with bad sinuses, is cheap, AND SMELLS GREAT!
Be VERY careful with putting that oil in your bath though. I did once and, because it just sat on top of the water, ended up getting it on my skin. It BURNED. I suffer from frequent sinus issues myself, though only rarely do I get infections. *knocks on wood* Something I always do whenever I get sick is drink a mixture of warm water, 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, and 1 tablespoon of honey. Helps me with whatever I have. :) Hope you feel better soon.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Amariel28
Something I always do whenever I get sick is drink a mixture of warm water, 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, and 1 tablespoon of honey. Helps me with whatever I have. :) Hope you feel better soon.
Forget the vinegar -- substitute Scotch and only a couple of drops of water :)
Or maybe some hot buttered rum!
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50znEO6A1ds
Warnings: Animated Violence, Language
Click the headings below to go directly to the time-stamp on the video.
Set it on HD to see the chat more clearly.
Eldalleth will doubtlessly provide a much more comprehensive Q&A later when feeling better, but for now, here is a brief overview:
"I am not chalk full of information today... There is not a ton of new stuff going between the snow days and some logistical stuff that we are doing here and me setting up the Stream Team."
Moobot:
A bot for the twitch.tv chat channel. It is mostly on the default setting currently, but it will be updated to make it more fun. For now, you can type in !gandalf and it will display a special message in the channel.
Stream Team:
Apply at http://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?563062
He will be jumping in on more streamers.
They are looking for streamers from a variety of regions. He will respond as fast as he can, but it may take a while. He wants to watch a petitioner's streams to get to know the person before speaking online. There will only be a few during the first week or so, but then they will expand it and get lots of people in.
Forochel Treasture Cache Bug:
They are aware of the bug that makes it impossible to get to the 12th cache and will be fixing it "shortly." The cache "Will be moved to a considerably less smitety set of coordinates."
Chocolate Fountain:
They are building a glorious chocolate fountain for the Valentine's Day Party today. He tried to show it on the stream. A better picture is posted on Twitter.
LOTRO YouTube Channel:
New video content soon.
Confirming Old Info:
No new server transfer/merging info. (Link)
Scaling old instances would be impossible/really hard.
Exploring making Osglitiath into a PvMP area.
Has not heard of any new cosmetics (including hair) in the near future.
Legendary Items update coming with Update 16. More info as the release date approaches. No release date released yet.
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Notes from 2/5/15 are up now :) Sorry for the delay they can be found here
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On the 2/5/2015 feed, question #4, Vyv/Athena states she comes from PvP and combat heavy worlds and she's more excited to get into the role play and exploration aspect of lotro. I actually find that disappointing since we've had story line and world building working well for us for years. What we really need is some PvMP love and raids/heavy combat development.
Quote:
Question: What is one thing you are most excited for as the new Executive Producer?
Vyvyanne: For me it's just really being able to dive into the Lord of the Rings Universe, as a whole. It's a beautiful game, the last several games that I've worked on have been very combat heavy and focused. A lot of the games I've worked on in the past have been a lot of PvP, and we have a little bit of that I'm sure there are several of you that do the Monster Play in our game, but there is a lot more of the role play aspect and the exploration aspect which as a gamer I'm more interested in this world. So it's really great to be involved in that and experience a completely new environment for me as an actual worker and not just a player.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by
Beaniemooch
On the 2/5/2015 feed, question #4, Vyv/Athena states she comes from PvP and combat heavy worlds and she's more excited to get into the role play and exploration aspect of lotro. I actually find that disappointing since we've had story line and world building working well for us for years. What we really need is some PvMP love and raids/heavy combat development.
Oh, I don't know -- I think that comment is one you have to seriously read "backwards and between the lines." Especially if you couple it with recent comments from Jinjaah (Sp).
Maybe I'm just whistling in the Dark past the Graveyard, but the fact that Athena "knows" PvP is going to bias her overall viewpoint. I.e. if people(DEVS) who WANT to do something for PvP propose it, she is not likely to simply dismiss it without a second thought.
In the end, it may all come down to budgets, which can be pretty hard and fast -- "Suits" being some of the most effective armour out there. :)
As a Founder/Lifetimer, I've seen the changes (read "nerfs") made to LOTRO over the years, all in the name of "user friendly" (solo/F2P) play. There was a significant change in the "target audience" for LOTRO when it went F2P. Which, from a Gamer's point of view, was probably the WORST decision ever made.
From an "Economics" point of view (and EU Consumer protection laws as well) -- A Subscription implies a contractual situation between the vendor and the player. F2P does not! Consequently, in the F2P environment, Turbine is NOT constrained to pay any attention to "comments" (complaints or cuddos) from its user community simply because that user community has no "commitment" or "investment" in Turbine. (Remember, we're talking financial here, not psychic.)
The old explanation by Sapience that the number of complainers on the Forums represent a tiny portion of the player base are true but miss the mark. They are a classic case of "Truth, in and of itself carries no meaning." AND, it does not take into account basic Human Nature -- to NOT complain unless something directly and severely impacts the individual personally. Plus the corollary Human Nature factor of "non-confrontation." There is no room for multiple "Alpha Males" in a Pack (yeah, sexist, I know, but then so is anthropology). The vast majority of folks will observe the old say -- "To get along, you've got to go along."
I would also point out -- "we've had story line and world building working well for us for years." ignores the fact that while true, what has been ignored, more than PvP have been "game mechanics" i.e. the Engineering underlying the Game Engine. From everything I know about Turbine (which is very little) the "Devs" we all know and love, have virtually NOTHING to do with the Game Engine. Question 9 was interesting in that vein:
Quote:
Question: Did you do anything to performance client side for 15.2? I am getting better frames per second since the patch, but I didn't see anything noted in the patch notes.
Vyvyanne: We did a major improvement to a memory leak that we had prior to 15.2, we are watching to see how well we fixed that, so far it's looking positive, but we will keep an eye on it. If players notice any issues please be sure to let us know.
Similarly, a comment made by Frelon recently to the effect that they have no one with Mac experience on staff at the current time. Further implies the separation of "Engineering" from "Content." I suppose that it might imply OpenGL vs DirectX also, but I do not know.
The "memory leak" issue is/has been a primary factor in client crashes since Rohan. The simple fact that LOTRO is a 32-bit game trying to live in a 64-bit world means that the enhancements in Graphics implemented in Riders of Rohan pushed the absolute memory requirements of LOTRO way-past the 4gig limit of a 32-bit world. That coupled with the basic "land-block" design of LOTRO has been a significant crash causer for 2 years now.
Wonder of wonders -- I play on a Mac, and the absolute time between crashes to the desktop (for me at least) has been one hour and six minutes. I can watch it happen via Buff Bars timers. Last night I played my Beorning for 3 hours straight, while working Book 5 - I finally went to bed just before entering the Helegrod Treasurery! I was actually flabbergasted when I realized I had passed the one hour mark with no crash. And that book run has you wandering all over Eriador. I was "cheating" by using the Mithril Coin quest objective port all the time instead of Swift Traveling, but that has not made a difference in the past.
