LOTRO Developer Twitter Chat - Thursday February 21, 3:00PM Eastern

[Sapience]

Come chat with members of the LOTRO Team!

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

Members of the LOTRO team will be answering your questions live on twitter at 3:00PM Eastern time.

To ask a question just tweet it to us @lotro and be sure to include the hashtags #LOTRO and #DEVCHAT.
Responses to questions will only feature the hashtag #LOTRO

Please remember to keep your questions short, as we’ll be re-tweeting your questions along with the answers.

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

• Matt "Hoarsedev" Zimmitti - Lead Systems Designer
• Trevor “Jinjaah” McEwen -- PvMP stuff and class revamp work
• Jared “Kelsan” Pruett – Class revamp work and core systems
• Joe "jwbarry" Barry - Instances & Raids
• Rick "Sapience" Heaton - LOTRO Community Manager

Can't make the chat but what to ask a question? Post your questions here and we'll select a few to answer as well. Please remember to keep your question brief and easy to tweet.

Pay attention to the list of devs attending. We've added the things they're working on next to their titles. Devs can't talk about things they aren't working on personally, so if you tailor your questions to their responsibilities, you have a much better chance of getting an answer.

Also, we had a number of requests for a "PvMP Dev" in our next chat. As you can see, we've got one!

[Nickysmom]

What is a Lead Systems Designer? (Sorry, I'm not a computer person.)

[Sapience]

What is a Lead Systems Designer? (Sorry, I'm not a computer person.)

He runs the systems team. Where content is making things like quests and festivals and similar 'things to do' , Systems makes the things to do those things with. For example, Housing is a system. Legendary items are a system.

[Idiotvillage]

With adjustments being made to the significance of the fate stat there have been numerous concerns about power and power regen. Will existing armour sets have fate added to them? Will update 10 see new recipes or adjusted old recipes that include the fate stat? Moving forward do developers expect more or less reliance on group power sharing/restoration provided by captains and lore masters?
Cheers

[Brya]

Question 1: Can you share any ideas you're considering for the housing revamp? Will we be able to get more storage?

I assume changing the storage sytem to the "new" vault style system is a given. Hopefully we can get much more storage options for starters (even if it does come down to making a TP purchase)

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Question 2: Will the housing revamp have any exciting features for kinhouses? EG, allowing the kin to contribute to some sort of upgrades?

By that i mean something more integrated than just "donate coins to the leader and they will buy it". Perhaps upgradable tiers for categories such as:

• Storage Space
• Housing Item Hooks
• Crafting Facilities
• etc

That kin members can donate the required coins/specific items for.

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Question 3: With U10 almost ready to ship, can you give us any all-new teases/info for U11 and Wildermore?

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Question 4: Can you shed any light on the style of the class changes planned later this year? It sounds pretty substantial in order to get us making more choices...?

[Peter_Pan]

Question: Do you have any plans to implement a system that allows master looter to be used in combination with remote looting?

[SPARTIOTIS]

Hi, will we get new guilded crafted recipe's to counteract the whole fate power/crit changes or will the current recipe's simply be changed. Also, can you give us a rough time as when U10 will be launched pls?
thx

[ehil]

are you planning to phase in any new legacy for our LIs contributing to new skills during class-revamp?

[Tirian-Hammerfist]

Ooo, another dev chat, that's good to hear.

•Matt "Hoarsedev" Zimmitti - Lead Systems Designer
1) On the subject of housing, can you give a guarantee that any revamp will not be solely dependent upon the store? I think I and many other players accept that there could be a store element, but that this should only really be for the 'icing on the cake'.
2) With housing being revamped, are we going to see more housing drops from instances? (eg. Thaurlach's blade)
3) In the housing revamp, is one of the aims to make the housing areas feel more like communities where players will spend their time (a hub like Galtrev or, to a lesser extent Snowbourn), and if so, how would this be implemented?
4) Any plans for evolving the mounted combat system in the Wildermore region/Western Rohan? Can you share any part of this with us?
5) Bridles seem to have gone rather unnoticed by vast parts of the player base, simply due to the lack of necessity for them in completing the current mounted combat. Will there be any mounted combat coming in the next year which will actually require more than simply a landscape-zerg (Bugud-esque)?

•Trevor “Jinjaah” McEwen -- PvMP stuff and class revamp work
1) Recently, after a long period where freeps had been dominant in the Ettenmoors, the tables were turned - despite a desire for balance, it seems that the scales were simply tipped the other way. Several aspects of the Ettenmoors are the subject of rather fierce debate; the lootbox gained brands, the heal leeching (specifically in the case of defilers), the large amounts of creep morale and the auto-flipping to name just some of these. What do you plan to do in order to establish balance, and do you think the battlefield promotions and the changes to brands will enable this to happen?
2) Any plans to introduce a new creep class, simply for the sake of keeping things fresh? (an Angmarim/Mordor sorcerer perhaps? )
3) Some classes in the Ettenmoors seem to have a distinct advantage, aka. wardens, minstrels, champions, defilers, reavers and weavers, in terms of being almost unkillable solo whilst maintaining a solid level of dps (creeps at high rank, freeps with good gear) yet other classes, such as guardians and burglars miss out. How do you plan to address this class imbalance?

•Jared “Kelsan” Pruett – Class revamp work and core systems
1) So far the limited information that we have been given regarding class revamps is that it will essentially be a process of whittling down the amount of skills that we have, combining some and removing others altogether. Yet are there plans for more extensive evaluations and changes to the classes, or will this simply be a quality-of-life set of improvements?
2) It seems that ErikaNG has been assigned as class dev for four classes - how can devs devote the time necessary to improving a class when they are having to take on such diverse tasks as managing both guardians and loremasters?
3) Will the class devs be consulting in the forums about possible changes, or is that now solely a privelige of the player's council?

•Joe "jwbarry" Barry - Instances & Raids
1) The most recent instances, such as the Battle for Erebor and the associated other raids seem to be lacking the depth of storyline that could be found in Ost Dunhoth, or the Rift, which arguably are what make LOTRO raids special. Is the current intention to move away from the story-oriented approach to more clinical, manouvre-based instances?
2) What would you say to the claim that scaling instances breaks them? The best example for this is Fornost - people ran it for nostalgia's sake, or to help a lower level friend through it, but now the effort>reward ratio makes it rather pointless at any level - can you give us an assurance that this wouldn't happen to the Rift if this was ever scaled?
3) If I remember correctly, you were the dev responsible for Hytbold (apologies if not). Are there plans to have a similar evolutionary-daily in the next expansion, or are there other plans to tide us over until the raids/instances of West Rohan appear, presumably between November-February?

•Rick "Sapience" Heaton - LOTRO Community Manager
1) Any info that can be spared about the Player Council would be very welcome!

And now a couple of questions that I wasn't sure who to address to:
1) Any info regarding the 'Wildermore', considering that it seems rather unreferenced in Tolkien's lore...
2) Any arrival date for u10? (dependent upon whether its on live before this dev chat or not)
3) Which is the next 'old' region to get a revamp, considering there is still a rather tricky levelling gulf between 40/42 and 47? Trollshaws, North Downs, Misties, some of the annoyingly still fellowship stuff in Angmar?
4) In the Battle of Dale and the Bree-town jail there are graphical issues for those using anything lower than high graphics on dx9. Is this going to be fixed, or does this simply indicate that the older systems are no longer getting the necessary love?
5) The changes made to fate appear to have been rather unecessary and arbitrary. The standardisation of the power pools, while a sound idea, seems to have backfired in Bullroarer testing as people are running out of power quickly. Are these changes simply being made to encourage store revenue, or because a dev is bored, or simply because you don't want to take the big step and remove fate altogether?

[Nickysmom]

He runs the systems team. Where content is making things like quests and festivals and similar 'things to do' , Systems makes the things to do those things with. For example, Housing is a system. Legendary items are a system.

Thank you. I understand now.

[Milithion]

5 questions for PvMP:

* Any plans to add more cosmetic items? One example: Appearance for Warsteeds
* Any plans to reward creeps on there freeps? One example: Different Avatars depending on there Rank
* Any plans to extend the area of the Ettenmoors?
* Any plans of bring back group play to moores? last changes haven been more for zerg play.
* What do you want to change the next updates?

5 Questions for the other parts of the game:

* Whit your next Expansion do you plan to release the instance cluster right from the beginning? I'm really tired about skirmishes and classic instances.
* Are there any plans to increase the usage of our non-used pc power? i know lots of guy where lotro takes less than 25% of the system, but framerate decreases and lags increases alot if there are some more people at one place.
* Could we have an auctioneer and a bank in hytbold?
* Any plans for craftable sets with setbonues?
* Will the legendary item System change the the "Have one and keep it till the end" system?

[Vandervahn]

Q: Why are you not more "offensive" in explaining changes to the game, so players understand the thought process?

As an explanation, see all the rage about the increased role of Fate, the power changes, the armor set changes, the seal reset. All things that I personally see valid reasons for, but I cannot know if the reasons I and others name are even the correct ones, and many many others dont see any reason behind it all. This creates a lot of animosity and fights within the community.

I know that some of this usually gets taken up in developer diaries, but they often come late, and my personal impression is that a lot of the Flak could be at least reigned in if we had some understandable official reasoning ahead of time.

[Giliodor]

Are there any significant changes to come in the Moors? After U10, I mean then. I have the feeling the current PvMP, especially the solo system, is broken.

[Atriohm]

To: Trevor “Jinjaah” McEwen -- PvMP stuff and class revamp work

1. Can I get 10k infamy on my warg 'Atriohm' on evernight because I can not play today.
2. Can you people finally fix leaderboards for EU players?
3. Any thoughts on a new pvmp map?
4. Any rewards on freepside for creepranks? I got r11 warg but can not get a r10 LI for commendations on my champion?
5. Anything new about pvmp at all? Answer is yes? Tell me what plz.

ty

[MrWarg]

Can you give us any more information on the major class revamps taking place later in the year?
Are the major class revamps being made with PvMP in mind?
When, if ever, can we expect trait lines for creeps?
Any plans to expand the system of PvMP rewards?
What are the chances of us seeing a new Monster Play class in PvMP?
Any thoughts on improving PvMP performance so the game can handle 30+ players?
Any thoughts on cross-server PvMP to help improve participant numbers?
What's next for PvMP?

[Almagnus1]

Q: What is the reasoning behind the Captain Defensive Strike power nerf?

[xDementedx]

Will there be a major revamp to the current system of PvMP or are you only looking into improvements/bug fixes this year?

[interactii]

For the Lead Systems Designer:

Lots of things are changing and have changed in LOTRO, and I'm sure many more will, but we haven't had much communication as to what the design intent behind changes are. Why don't you expose more of the systems intent behind changes to users?

[radspakr]

Any more information on the Council such as how it will be organised, how to get in and when it begins?
Will players get any real power to influence and make some real changes to the game or will it only be minor things?

Is there any news on whether the War Steed colour prices or packaging will be changed?
Buying individual colours, reducing the price or making the colours account wide?

[BroadwayBlueshirt]

Does the Lotro team believe, as some players do, that the current Legendary Item system is in need of further redesign?

Do you believe it is possible to have a Legendary Item system that does not require players to dispose of their LIs at various level increments but still fits within your overall framework of the game?

Note to others reading I did not quantify the word some.

[Aethelwald]

Why were housing changes given a higher priority than improving in-game community design?

[ReDot]

Question 1: Who is burg dev?
Question 2: What is she/he working on?

[arghh]

Question 1: Who is burg dev?
Question 2: What is she/he working on?

A 1: a ninja
A 2: keeping us in the dark

[Raven-EU]

To all the devs:

*) What do you think will be the biggest benefit that you and your team will reap from the "Player Council"?

Matt "Hoarsedev" Zimmitti - Lead Systems Designer

*) Name the three systems most in need of a (complete) revamp from a wish-list point of view. (I.e. what you want to do might not be feasible or economically viable)

*) Is there anything in the works related to kins and/or alliances? E.g. in-game raid/event planners with external interfaces? A good example is the "remote Armoury of WoW".

*) Looking at other games we see a general movement towards simplifying and trivializing game mechanics. Do you feel there is a point where this process will become counter productive and how far away do you feel this point is, for LOTRO? I.e. when the game becomes too easy/trivial to play that you start loosing revenue because of it.

Trevor “Jinjaah” McEwen -- PvMP stuff and class revamp work

*) Lag. Yes we know it's there and it's hard to pin down. The main reason I don't go there is that I cannot stand having 5-10 second skill lag. Is there anything that can be done (from a server/game perspective) to reduce this in Ettenmoors? Anything goes like removing aura skills, reducing the amount of hot spots etc...

*) Without spilling the beans; which class is currently looking at the biggest re-vamp? Or, if the question does not make sense in view of the changes planned: what area of game/skill play will receive the biggest change?

Jared “Kelsan” Pruett – Class revamp work and core systems

*) How many class devs are there?

*) Given total freedom to change anything, what change would you do? Examples : reduce buffing abilities, increase/decrease skill sets, introduce new kinds of player mechanics etc. Anything goes, even the impossible.

*) What system do you feel is "next in line" for a big overhaul (compare to the Fate/ICPR revision)?

Joe "jwbarry" Barry - Instances & Raids

*) How much of the design time for an instance space or raid goes to balancing the content, i.e. making sure a specific fight is not all about "bring 10 champs and 2 cappies".

*) What's the most difficult part of instance/raid design?

*) How long does it take to create a raid boss fight?

Rick "Sapience" Heaton - LOTRO Community Manager

*) When will you release more information about the "Player Council"?

*) How will the "Player Council" affect your other feedback program: the Bullroarer server?

*) On an average day, how much time do you (and your colleges in the OCR team) spend "cracking the whips" on the forums and how much is spent on other stuff, like thinking up cool ways to make the player base excited?

*) How large fraction of the player base do you think actively uses the online community tools, like the forum and my.lotro.com etc?

[Alyselle]

Joe "jwbarry" Barry - Instances & Raids

*Is there any multi boss raid (like Orthanc) planned in the near future?
*If so, how long will we have to wait for it?