Transcript: LOTRO Developer Twitter Chat - Thursday January 24

[radspakr]

It does seem that they've kind of stopped focusing on the Warsteeds.
I think there's only been 2 new cosmetics sets 1 in the store and the Yule one.
There's been no real changes to the system yet except some bug fixing.
No mention of a timetable to introduce any new changes to it.
No rep mounts, festival or even some premium steeds have had their cosmetics added yet and I'm still waiting on Battlemail the chain mail outfit they showed in the screens.

[maxjenius]

I don't frequent this forum much anymore since I've never seen so many problems in any other forum/user site; avoidance by frustration, I suppose.

Well, it did take me a while (and many lost posts) before I finally learned.

You're missing a key factor here: effort/reward ratio.

If the reward is no longer worth the effort (which is subjective), then the solution is to not do it. From a personal standpoint, I agree that the meta-mounts are not worth the effort because by the time you get one for a character, that character is darn close to a war steed anyway. But others may feel differently. Many do not like to ride a war steed even in Rohan except when they are engaged in mounted combat. You can get a rep mount pretty quickly, so I think those are plenty viable.

The important thing we agree on is that we both think Turbine should make rep mount cosmetics available for war steeds. If they cost points, I would not buy them, but maybe you (and others) would appreciate even that opportunity.

Under normal circumstances, the additional grind to reach kindred is absolutely not worth it for rep mounts with the exception of the Thorin's Hall goat because that's usable everywhere, notably Moria (and you can get and use it right away in Moria instead of grinding the Moria factions). The meta mounts are pretty "whatever" to me and seem to get the bounce bug much more often and worse than regular rep mounts.

The "bounce bug" does not bother me. That's what people do when riding a horse which is trotting (although I realize that travel mounts do not trot).

If you have a pile of gold and want to buy your way to kindred, that's one way to do it, but that doesn't work for barter mounts like the Lothlorien white steed.

It also does not work for the 2 main meta-steeds, since each has 2 factions which give rep only for repeatables.

Then my other suggestion is to simply make the "old world" reputation mounts easier to earn and cheaper. Like at Ally and 2g.

No argument from me on that. I'm OK with things as they are, but I'd be OK with that change, too.

[Magdon1]

The greatest nuisance to the stat change for Wardens is the new loot system. You cannot even stock up on items unless you have a multitude of friends willing to pass them to you, as they are automatically assigned by class stat reqs, and Wardens are stated for VIT atm. Bind on Acquire can't even be passed. So Wardens have to wait until the "grace period" to even begin to have a change at switching over.

[Troublesome08]

Please turbine, just do me a favor and show my hunter some love! I went out into the moors the other day with my pve gear, all the OPs, over 50k mastery and capped crit and was still only critting on r6 creeps for like 3-4k if I got a good hit in. Meanwhile in my usual setup, about 11k tact mit, 9-10k morale, and full aud, im getting critted on my reavers for 6-7k without them having all the OPs all the while maybe getting a 1.5k dev on them if i'm lucky. The developer asked a hunter, would you be willing to give up DPS for survival? My question: Have you played a hunter in the moors lately??? What do you think we do now? Even with no survival our dps in the moors is such a joke it's almost laughable. And since our slows mean nothing from pots and perma-brands...the creeps just laugh at us. Please Help us, or delete the class altogether! Blah!
Ok, im done QQing for the time being! Love the game! Just would like to see more balance from a hunter perspective.
Thanx!

[knnindy]

i've been playing lotro for 2years & i am quite used to my characters w/c are almost all wardens, & i don't certainly like the new changes on stat preference!

can you please clarify why they are needed in the 1st place, i've never encountered any problems with the class since i 1st played it. i hope this doesn't turn out to be like a wow situation where in developers give in to certain whiners that eventually led to frustrated players leaving the game, i'm not sure if many left, i just know that i did cause i didn't like the new changes. i felt like i'm a new player in a game that is no longer familiar. i wouldn't mind if the changes are favorable like having more hp/power regen capabilities or having more pets but you're asking wardens to switch a stat! & i think you'd still have to fine tune the stat accordingly once it's implemented

this change isn't a solution if its about players whining about loot, those people will continue to whine regardless of the changes because that is their nature, they will always think that something is unfair & search out every nook & cranny aspect of the game to find what in their head is unfair

[Cambruin]

Lots of good things, especially the housing update taken into consideration. Thank you!

[Creepkilla]

A1 RockX - Wardens are being switched to use Agility as their main stat (there will be a grace period to allow you to get gear). #LOTRO

Um is this a joke? Please tell me it is lol. So now wardens will have to compete with hunters and burgs to get geared and guards will get all the VIT gear to themselves. And we'll miss out on mitigation bonuses from the usual Vit/might gear. I prefer the way it is now, we get dps and healing bonuses from might and the mits from Vit. Why fix what isn't broken? Why not fix warden's JoDF or other bugs that have been around forever such as cappy "jump" rez, wl/cappy bug in moors, DF bugging out bosses in pve...

you've said it mate,

wardens having their main stat as agility is a load of bull**** imo


seriously devs get your act together please

you've already had a stat revision.. stick to your guns and improve that come on -_-

[denpl5]

Beta hurry up!

[Spaz]

*faints* Improvements to housing?! OMG OMG OMG FINALLY!!!! *cough* I have some suggestions =)

- A HUMONGOUS Trophy Storage Chest to place in the House or Kin House for 300 Trophies (to start out)
PLEEEEEAAAASE !

-Do away with hook sizes - no more thin, small, and large in the house and same for the yards!

-Need more spots to place items in the yard and in the houses - double them or do away with hooks and let us place as much as we want.

-Would love to be able to dye my rugs! Also would like more crafted rug selections =D

-Make paints usable on either floor or wall - so our crafted paints have more function

I LOVE the idea of seasonal changes in the homesteads and major towns - oh this would be awesome indeed!

PLEASE tell me these changes include some way to remove inactive homes from a community.. there are only 3 people in my entire housing area that are still active. Too depressing!

Would love to see an event each month or each quarter of the year held in the homesteads - like "complete a tour of the homes quest" (all houses are unlocked so people can go inside and see what they look like) or a yard decoration competition etc - with a really cool reward such as a special emote or maybe earn a Stable for your horses to place in the yard (for kinhouses and deluxe homes) etc. Anything that will get people more active in the housing area and keep it alive.

[maxjenius]

Would love to see an event each month or each quarter of the year held in the homesteads - like "complete a tour of the homes quest" (all houses are unlocked so people can go inside and see what they look like)

No, I don't want my character's house open to all unless I choose to open it.

[Jarnovan]

A1 RockX - Wardens are being switched to use Agility as their main stat (there will be a grace period to allow you to get gear). #LOTRO


What does a grace period mean? As a casual LOTRO player with a level 81 warden, it has taken me a good amount of time and material (physical and skirmish based) to build an armor set focused on Might/Vitality. Such a major change to a character class tosses all my time and effort out the window unless you are going to put in a way I can convert these items to Agility/Vitality ones. This is especially true from having sunk time and effort into getting teal items. As a note, the item effect is more of an issue than having to re-farm my virtues to get them in alignment with the change. That I think illustrates how much of a pain this shift will be.

I love the class and have played through several changes, but there is a point where frankly it isn't worth it anymore. Having to redo all my items might just be it.

With nearly 2+ years of play under my belt in LOTRO, this is the first time I have felt compelled to post anything in game dev forums.

[Lilstarr32]

Q29 @katabendroth Will hunters get more survivability, akin to the survivability of almost every other (non tank) class?
A29 Hoarsedev Future updates to classes will make things like this a choice but not a given. #LOTRO
A29 Would you trade damage for survivability?

absolutely not. i would take high damage as a hunter and tell the other hunters who haven't been playing as long as some of us to learn how to moderate the damage so they don't take agro. it's sad to watch a hunter who goes all out and never really learns how to play the class. then they die over and over and blame others.

[Lestache]

- A HUMONGOUS Trophy Storage Chest to place in the House or Kin House for 300 Trophies (to start out)
PLEEEEEAAAASE !

I'd prefer to see our housing trophies converted to "skills" like our mounts were a while back, but I wouldn't say no to a gigantic trophy chest either.

[maxjenius]

I'd prefer to see our housing trophies converted to "skills" like our mounts were a while back, but I wouldn't say no to a gigantic trophy chest either.

This calls for a picture of Dolly Parton.

[Lestache]

This calls for a picture of Dolly Parton.

Well played, sir.

I wouldn't say no to that, either...

[MithrielWielder]

Putting yet another round of class changes ahead of stuff that has needed fixing for several years: housing, Kins. Everytime classes are messed with we have to regear and relearn the class. Difficult if you have many alts. Have to take the legacies out of our legendary weapons and put in new ones. Will need more empowerments (more business for the store I guess). Pandering to a certain type of player over and over again. Now its not just classes messed with but stats. Fix the broken stuff. Leave the rest alone. I want my champ shield back. These changes are bad, unappreciated, and make me mad.