Twenty Questions – Request for Player Submissions

[Orodbril]

I might repeat some questions asked earlier, but because Sapience wanted to have the (most) frequently asked questions, that needs to happen I think.

But questions answered during the Hobbits to Isengard event I try to avoid. ^^

So, here I have my top 20 questions, I hope at least some will get an answer:

1. Will one of the quartally new regions/content be basically made for groups - so most quests only manageable in groups with enemies having appropirate morale, damage and so on? (Like Limlight Gorge, but it might be more tactical?)
2. Will Volume 3 of the Epic questline end with the Destruction of Isengard or will it continue further on.
3. Is there already an old region most likely to be updated? (regarding the plans for Update 13)
4. When is the Housing update expected to be launched?
5. Are there any plans to revamp/update the Legendary Items system?
6. When is new instance or raid content most likely to be expected?
7. When are the armor sets for 95 expected to be brought on the servers? (regarding Verizal's note at the end of https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthr...51#post7033051)
8. What changes can we expect for the Ettenmoors during this and the following year?
9. Will there be any new regions closing "gaps" in the north? (connection from Forochel to Angmar, Gladden Fields, Tharbad/Minhiriath+Lond Daer Enedh, South of Andrath, Grey Mountains, Grey Havens, White Downs, Tower Hills, Mount Gundabad)
10. Is it planned to have Erebor and Dale in the open landscape some time in the future?
11. Might there be downscaling for instances in the future? (Maybe this year's surprise?)
12. Will there be more hidden deeds, hobbies and or hobby deeds?
13. Is it possible/planned/might be to update the combat/gameplay with more influences of the environment?
14. Is it planned to have a revamp of crafting this or next year?
15. Any changes to tasks bulletin boards planned?
16. Could IDs on instances/raids return? (maybe through daily tasks similar to the main quest of Epic Battles though "normal IDs" were considered to be not possible in scaled instances/raids)
17. Any updates to the Graphic engine?
18. Any plans to revamp virtues to make them more important in higher levels? (+36 Agility or something doesn't really matter on 95 with about 4000 Agility)
19. Can you polish parts of the landscapes in the old regions (also Bree) where you get sight of areas which should be viewable but which you can still see? (e.g. in Bree behind the houses, you can get on some roofs and see the mess behind)
20. When can we expect the publishing of your surprise? (Or any other hints)

[rosey21]

Do you care at all about your veterans and the gamers that loved and supported your game, or are you too busy preparing a livestream event where you run around bree picking potatoes?

This is news to me, must have missed this event...

[WertyJohn]

hi there i would like to know:

which things and places are you thinking of revamping this year ?

which new mechanics are you going to introduce?

thank you kindly and best regards

[Brya]

(Although I know they are not currently in development *RIGHT NOW*)
Is there at least a timeframe for when we can expect a new traditional instance cluster?

Big Battles were nice and a refreshing change, but without anything fresh - and more importantly challenging - I'm not as motivated to log in as much, or even level alts up to cap.


Any plans to scale more old instances in 2014?

Players have expressed a desire to explore a bit deeper into Fangorn Forest and to see Isengard flooded in the battle with the Ents. Both of these are slated for our first quarterly update in March.
Later in the year we’ll be seeing more iconic locales and moments from the lore including the Paths of the Dead and the Dead Marshes. We will also take our first steps in Gondor!
If you’re a VIP, these regions and content will all be free with your subscription.
(Source)

Are each these comparable in terms of size/content to recent non-expansion quest packs? (Enedwaith, Great River, Wildermore)?

4 regions, 4 quarters - can we expect one each quarter of 2014?


And I might as well try my luck:

We are working on one more secret surprise, but I won’t do more than tease its existence now, other than to say that the class changes have made it possible for us to consider making a new addition to the game… which we will talk about later in the year.

Even if you can't provide more details, can you at least confirm or deny whether this is a new class coming at the end of the year?

[GozmitJosh]

1) Is there any word on the combining of legendary relics being made easier? Or a group combine? So we dont have to click hundreds of times to up our relics.

2) What are the plans for after mordor is added to the game and mount doom with the one ring destroyed? (i haven't read any tolkien books so besides the movies i dont know what could lie beyond mordor storywise if anything.)

3) Any word about the exciting Housing update? timeframe/hints to what changes have been made...etc...etc

4) Any plans or thoughts on the current legendary weapons and if any changes to that are considered?

5) Any updates in terms of the visual graphics for lotro?

6) Any new hobbies besides fishing that can be introduced?

[Tirian-Hammerfist]

- Will we ever see some content from the Silmarillion, in session-play or any other way?

- Can you please simplify the LI, making a 3rd age LI always weaker than a 2nd age one than a 1st age one?

Regarding the first question, they don't have the rights to the Silmarillion, and in the past they've had to shy away from it (replacing the name of Sauron in his role as gift giver, changing it from Annatar to Antheron because they weren't able to use stuff mentioned in the Silmarillion).

As for the second, this already the case, other than if the 3rd age weapon is a higher level than the 1st or 2nd age.

[Bragard]

is their any way now or in future we could have more passive weekend events,such as but not limited to lootboxs,commendations,xp and even relic forging.

[The_Hobbit_Hurricane]

I'm on a painfully low population server, any chance of server merges or free/discount transfers in the future? I've got a lot of time invested in my characters so I feel stuck on my current server. Thanks

[melyjely]

What happened to the Instance Finder bonus effect that gave up to +50% on all currency earnings when doing random skirmishes? It has been missing since the launch of HD.

[Darlgon]

How many hobbits have made it to Isengaurd?

Any chance that we can get something definitive on if Turbine has the license to 2017?

Very soon, will we get a definite answer on how soon, soon will be?

Intellectually, is it possible that we are paused this year to allow us to get to Gondor in 2017?

Nearly every bug report I submit generates an email that says, "Dont expect to hear back from Turbine about this bug." Why do you waste the emails sending this kind of information out by default?

Generally speaking, both in game and the forums seem.. empty. Any chance of getting some numbers to combat the perceived decline in population since Helm's Deep came out?


For some reason, Kate Paiz had Sapience post her producers letter this year. Does that mean she is distancing herself from Lotro and Turbine?

Under no circumstances are devs to be called out in the forums. Why have we seen call out threads recently that the dev actually answered?

Needless to say, many questions that people want to ask will not be answered. For example, "What is this guy wanting to say?" Ask a waden.

[Rashy]

~Any plans for a change on the buff display?

~Now that you've kicked that bucket with the freep changes, when are you planning to revamp creep classes to be on pair with them?

~Why do you belive raids are not important

~When are you gonna start posting on the PVMP forums? Jinjaah hasn't replied to any feedback there yet

[Othniel]

Will we see updated character models with more customization options anytime this year? (please say yes )

I know it has been said that the developers would look at possibly expanding Epic Battle content (such as offering other group size options to current solo/duo-only battles). Any further plans on that?

Is there any other new group-based end-game content planned for this year?

Are there any plans for reworking racial or virtue traits?

Can you speak any more about what Turbine would like to do with housing?

Are there any plans to address the cost of both additional housing chests and Epic Battle/Character trait specs (particularly the ones that cost 100 Mithril Coins)?

This one is probably better answered by RockX, the amazing Captain dev: How are plans for a Herald cosmetic system coming?

[Silmelin]

Will we ever get to visit Thranduil's place in northern Mirkwood?
Definite yes? Definite no? Don't know yet, or can't say?


When I started playing LOTRO I was hoping I'd get to go there, so it was something I looked for on the map as soon as I found the map and was sad to see it wasn't there. Still hoping it'll get added though!

[gamewizard]

Why has there been such a shift away from group content?

For people that like to group up and complete challenging content, is there anything to look forward to in 2014?

[BosDragon]

Can you give us a hint about one major thing that will be introduced in the housing update?

What are the chances that Turbine will introduce a new region that will focus more on exploration quests rather than grind-questing?

When can we expect the next Instance Cluster?

Are there any plans on making changes to the crafting system?

Will there be more regions introduced in Eriador?

[Gedachtnis]

Question 1/1a

After the major gear overhaul and loot distribution in scaling instances for RoR why another complete overhaul and no distribution to lower level instances?

As a follow up, Are there plans to reintroduce downscaled versions of gear to the low level instances?


Comment:

The new naming scheme is terrible. We held off on our lowbie group for the HD launch. The plan was to run only instances and raids, imagine our surprise to find that all the scaling gear had been removed.


Question 2

Is there a plan to revisit up-scaling characters for Epic Battles and allow them to be more playable with an all low level group?

Comment:

Even being well acquainted with Epic Battles at level cap, lower level characters seem to have a very difficult time with them between no points for roles and scaling that doesn't really bring them up to par in order to compensate.


Question 3

Is there an option to continue the Licence beyond 2017 or would this require all new negotiations?

Question 4

Does the current lawsuit with The Tolkien Estate/MME/WB etc. concern the LOTRO licence?

Comment:

I'm not sure you can comment but a simple yes/no would be appreciated.

Question 5

Are there plans to reintroduce the currency bonus to the Instance Finder?

Comment:

There has been no Dev response to the sudden removal of the currency bonus. It would be nice to know why it was removed if it's removal was indeed intentional.

Question 6

Are there plans to implement key binds to Trait switching?

Question 7

When F2P was introduced VIP's were going to get early access to new content, are there any plans to reinstate this?

Comment:

I believe early access only happened once, Enedwaith I believe but never commented on or continued as far as I know.


Question 8

Have all those banned unintentionally during the spam storm been reinstated yet?

Comment:

There are people who are unsure if they were caught up in the mass banning or something else.

Question 9

Would it be possible to have an Official FAQ thread that is kept up to date?

Comment:

Given that so many answers are posted all over the forums and sometimes easy to miss or hard to find to link, a locked thread where the Mod's and Dev's could either c/p or post the question and answer, seems like it would be a good thing.

[Occum]

1) Why did Turbine change the (non-epic) quest situation starting in Broadacres? Until then, one can take landscape quests that are several levels above your character's level. Now one needs to be level 90 in order to get level 90 / 89 quests.

[Dernudan]

Do you think that dynamic events could ever be put into LOTRO

[Valamar]

When will we see a reflecting pool in West Rohan?

[Rasdun]

When will the option to use the Giant Goat mount type in mounted combat, i.e. the Giant War Goat, be available?
And will we be able to use existing Giant Goat mount skins as well as new skins specifically designed for the Giant War Goats?
When will the next update to mounted combat be implemented?
mucho gracias

[YesMaam]

@JWBarry

In your Ost Dunhoth dev diary you said that you used the difficulty curve of the game Demon Souls to design content that punishes mistakes. Do you want to revisit such a philosophy and give players challenging group content that will take many weeks/months to master?

Someone else already asked this as will I. Recently content has been so easy even people with limited time and skill can master th game by counting days on your hand.

I recently leveled an alt from 65-95 in hours using enhanced xp and a tome. = Easymode. Didn't have to pay got these through lootbox drops, gold, hobbit gifts and destiny. Leveling is too easy.

You can actually complete some big battles by going AFK. Sure you don't get platinum but the fact speaks for itself, Big battles are way too easy, the loot too rare and restrictive.

All other instances are far too easy. I'm sure many of the 6 mans can be practically solod. I attempted to solo BG at 95 and was nearly able to clear the guantlet with my mini DPS. Healing traited it might take a while but it is probably possible to do almost all of it.

It is far too easy to hit cap rank in the moors with 200% boost or up to 310% boost with self buffs. The KB deed was ruined by making it tags.

My point is the game is far too easy I have no goals, aspirations or challenge at all in any situation or place. Leveling is far too fast, end game is non existant. I am genuinley curious as to why we went from this from SoA when it took time to hit level 50. Heck, the level 30's took a day and some quests were freaking hard! But it is fun when it is hard!! RIFT was great end game and something to look forward too while leveling. Deeding was hard without acceleratos. The game was great and now it is not, not because of the new regions, LI's or anything like that it is simply.

Not challenging.

[PKCrichton]

- Question for Hoarsedev - Back during HD Beta in one of the dev chats we had in game it was suggested that keymapping be added as an option for Class Trait Presets and maybe for Big Battle Promotion Presets. You stated you liked the idea and were going to put in a request for it. Is there any update on if this is planned or being worked on?

- Back in Beta we were informed that a future Update would have Crafting Instances. We all assume this to be Update 13 or 14 at the latest. Any word on the status of these?

- Are there any solo friendly daily quests being worked on to be added to the Westemnet as another means to gaining Westemnet Iron Tokens for rep barter? Currently we only have the Epic, the normal one shot quests for the regions and warbands. Once you have completed the Epic and region quests you only have the warbands for a means to gaining tokens to buy things like Emerald Shards.

- Is there any hope of a Kinship Revamp sometime this year? This system has been requested for years to be worked on. A couple of features we all really want are 1. More Member Ranks within the kin. 2. Customizable permissions of kinship commands based on member rank. 3. Ability to designate 3 different sections of the Kin Chest to different kinship member ranks. 4. The ability to customize the member rank titles beyond the racial defaults that the kin was founded under.

- Loremaster Question. Back in Beta in the middle and late states we were constantly told that the yellow line was going to have changes to make it better. Well it got what we all considered to be minimal changes and such that most of us don't even touch it. Are there any plans on this line getting changed? During beta we posted a ton of ideas on things we would do for this line to make it better focused on Debuff and Crowd Control many of these have since been moved over into the live servers and our opinions on the line has not changed at all since beta.

- RK Question. Can we please get Do Not Fall fixed? We have said since Beta when it was first changed that its is now back to its guess and use status. As it stands the RK DNF in combat rez has a 5min duration and 7min 20s to 10min cooldown. This leaves 2min 20s to 5 min where it is impossible for a premptive rez to be on a target. In a group as a primary healer it is vital for the RK to have the option to have 1 target able to have the rez buff on them so long as someone else hasn't already been rezed while in combat. Please remember the RK rez is a preemptive resurrection and not a reactive resurrection that means classes like Captain and Minstrel are able to save their rez skills for when a person dies while the RK has to either guess or be insanely fast to toss this skill on their target.

- Can we see Festival Currencies made into Account Wide Currency for those of us who have numerous alts to assist us with our altaholic annonymous program

- Is there any hope for us to see a means for our LIs to really 'grow with us' that is have a way to advance our old LIs up to a new level cap and have them be relevant and as powerful as a 'new' version of that same aged LI? We have had multiple suggestions over the years on how to accomplish this many being well thought out and detailed to keep achievement in the game and time sync.

- Can we get some housing cosmetics added for Western Rohan like the new epic tapestries or a miniature of Helm's Deep or the Golden Hall?

- With the advent of the player upscaling for Epic Battles is it possible and being looked into to allow us to downscale and run other classic instance spaces without requiring the old instances to be redesigned and broken up thus allowing for the continued use of locks on the instances like Tower of Orthanc, Carn Dum, The Rift, Draigoch, Moria, DN etc?

- Could we please get a larger Friends List? The 50 limit has been stifling to us since Moria. With players having so many alts not to mention keeping track of friends from other or former kins it has become impossible to stay in touch or even say HI to people.

- Could we please have Shard Droppers added to Level 66+ areas? This was a great set of fun all through Tier 6 areas and its been lost ever since Enedwaith, Dunland and now East/West Rohan. It also provided an alternative means to gain shards/sigils/crests.

- When will Emerald Shards be added to Skirmish Barter like all the other shards/sigils/crests?

[Eldarian_Grace]

When will the option to use the Giant Goat mount type in mounted combat, i.e. the Giant War Goat, be available?
And will we be able to use existing Giant Goat mount skins as well as new skins specifically designed for the Giant War Goats?
When will the next update to mounted combat be implemented?
mucho gracias

Lol love this guy! I hope this gets answered!

[BINKLEY1]

Rohan is such a wonderful landscape, the graphics of recent updates/expansions have been really superior to the SoA days.

What are your plans for updating the older areas with similar beauty and interest?

[Mildford]

Alright, here goes.

• Will there be an instance cluster (w/ traditional raids) soon/this year?
• Will FAs, armour sets, crafting instances, Ettenmoors offhands (and an increase to the drop rate of Emerald Shards/Emerald Shards to be added into the skirmish camp) be released with U13?
• Will there be a new creep class?
• When will U13 be coming?
• Any updates on kinship/housing/crafting/LI revamps?
• Would new items and skills/traits be given better names (like the names of the items from U10)?
• What is Volume 3 actually supposed to be about? It was first about the Grey Company, then that Nona appeared and it basically become a tour through the new regions.
• Will anything be done regarding the difficulty of landscape mobs and instances, as well as the balance between freeps and creeps?
• Will the post-HD item stats be lowered, since it is a major factor of causing content to be faceroll?
• Since we're supposed to get a new trait point every other level, as the level cap increases, how are you going to deal with the problem that we're getting more points? (ie, being able to off-spec deeper than before)
• Any plans to reduce experience given by quests and mobs (and instances *cough* Sword-halls *cough*)to slow down players from getting from 85 to 95 (or 95 to 105, etc) in a matter of hours?
• For how much longer is the licence going to be extended?
• Could the meld relic button at least stop deselecting the relic after each meld?
• Will class items stats be tweaked? A Captain getting to use a banner with 4k PM and 1k morale seems unfair compared to the +10 morale/power increase to a total of ~200 morale and reducing threat "greatly"/~200 power and -12% power costs.
• Will stealth tracking be passive for Hunters with U13 or do we have to trait deep into yellow for that?
• Will the API be back, so we could track our characters, etc?

Too tired to think of more

EDIT:

How many uruk-hai does it take to change a lightbulb?

Win.