Twenty Questions – Request for Player Submissions

[Acushla]

Because I do not want to be spamming the chat channels when I am out recruiting, I would like to know:

Do the Regional and OOC chat channels transmit into the same area, or is one reaching a larger area than the other?

Thank you.

[simsim98]

when are you going to start merging low populated servers with other??? you already have too many servers!!

[Linaduin]

Is there any chance of a XP disabler becoming a free, simple toggle like the "No forced Emotes" toggle? I can't see how the game can remain in any way challenging unless players can take back control of the rate at which they level up.

[welden]

Is there any way the Devs can make it quicker and easier to turn in trophies to the Tasks Bulletin Board? At present it only allows one set of trophies (10) of a specific type to be turned in at one time. There was a time that the Task Board in Evendim (Tinnudir) allowed us to turn in two sets of "soft skins" to the NPC without having to go back twice to the Board. This is very time consuming as it is now! If I have 100 trophies (of the same type) I want to turn in I have to go between the Task Board and the NPC TEN TIMES!!!

To make matters worse is the location of the NPC - he is not always located next to the Task Board! Could some consideration be made to put these NPC "task turner in guys" closer or could we be given the option to turn in our trophies to crates/boxes located next to the Task Boards like are used in Moria?

Thank You for listening,

Welden

[Dadislotroguides]

There will be many questions focusing on balance and I will avoid those as the balance changes all the time and you are working on it . I want to focus on additions to, or improvements to features in the game.

1) I am all for BoA items. Any chance of a vendor that would allow you to turn BoA items in to a currency to buy other BoA items?

2) See #1. If a vendor is not possible for trade, could we at least turn teal/gold BoA items in to shards/marks/seals?

3) Can we have Officer mail? Be nice to mail all the officers from time to time.

4) Once you have run BBs enough you will have a full set of jewellery and no new skill points. There is no incentive to keep running them. Any chance that they could drop seals or some other ongoing incentive?

5) The Player Council seems to be a good idea. When will there be an opportunity for a fresh set of blood?

6) Could the ideas brought forth by the Player's Council be more transparent? Not the answers, just the ideas. We want to know that our ideas are being brought forward.

7) Could the next set of quests not be so linear? It is boring to have to run alts through the exact same content. RoR does not branch off until you have almost reached the cap.

8) Could the Last Homely House please get a mailbox?

9) Any chance the kin system could have a rank added to respect past officers/leaders? Perhaps Legacy Officer?

10) Can you please make the next content much harder? It is far too easy to go from 85 to 95 in a very short period of time (even by just doing the quests). IMHO it cheapens all of your efforts to develop content as people are bored with it too fast.

11) Could you please fix your database to allow kin websites (character data, etc.) and rankings to update again? This breaking was a blow to LOTRO.

12) The friends list is too small. Can you improve it?

13) It would be great to be able to ally with another kin and see their members online. Can you develop an Allegiance Tab within the social panel?

14) On the Social Panel could we get a Kin Calendar for posting events?

15) Could the Instance Finder show the queue for each Skirm/Instance/BB (i.e. 4/6 Sambrog)? Then people could click on one that is almost ready to go. I think it would facilitate people using the Finder.

16) The ignore list is too small. Could you add to it, or show when the player was last online? If it has been a long time since they were online we could just remove them to free up space.


So far I am stuck at 16 ... will return with more later.

Thanks for seeking our input.

[Calta]

Quests

1. Will we get optional and 'multi-directional' quests again? (as we did pre Dunland)
2. Will we get repeatable quests that drop coins for level 90-95 -other than warbands?
3. Will we get more Ents?
4. Will I have to keep doing dishes? :P

Multi-player Content

1. Is it technically possible to downscale players to match old content like The Rift?
2. Will there be new 3 mans in 2014?
3. Will there be new 6 mans in 2014?
4. Will there be new raids in 2014?
   (comment: i have separated these because the resources required are obviously different.)
5. If not, is it possible for any of the above-especially raids- to be available for separate purchase in order to subsidise their development?
6. Will the instance finder be revamped or become a more user friendly group finder?
7. Will there be challenging group content in landscape-like Limlight Gorge-or another clearly marked area?
   a) If so, will it be optional for those who hate group content?
   b) Will shard droppers return in those areas or elsewhere?

Crafting

1. Will there be new level 90 plus crafting instances in 2014?
2. If so will it/they reward shards?
3. Will guilded cooks ever be able to make crafted relics? [edit: apologies-had a brain dead moment: question was meant to be
   will cooks be able to make other LI related items-other than crafted relics? (like titles, for example)
   [

LIs

1. Will there be a 'combine all' option at relic master? (or variation thereon)
2. Will new LI's titles be available for 95 LIs at barterers/skirm camps/from quests (eg: like Bron gives in Galtrev)

Class specific

1. Will heal threat mechanics get fixed or explained?
2. Will class related skills be reworked so they affect actual skills for post HD skills (comment-asked this in pre HD 20 questions -was told 'yes'-but Song of Aid still buffs non existant skills, for example.)
3. Will numerous minstrels bugs/issues raised in class thread get fixed?
4. When?
5. Will minstrels be able to rez in combat in our yellow healing/buffing spec?
6. Will skills get lore appropriate names? (eg -snowball (?)

Miscellaneous

1. Will reputation/faction coins/barterables be consolidated,
2. [or upwardly tradeable for next level barterables, (eg annuminas for angmar etc.)
3. or exchangeable for marks
4. Will festival tokens be completely consolidated?

Account

• Will VIPs get some new loyalty rewards?

Will/Am I ever see your face again? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7kYVjL2lps-sorry just a little joke for the australians


EDIT:Someone has pointd out, some of these were answered in Beta 20 questions:But as some of those answers were not accurate/have not happened: eg, at that point the housing update was assumed to be well underway from those 20 question responses- now it is unlikely to be ready for 2014. New crafting instances were anticipated as part of the expansion/soon, from those Beta responses-has not happened. Class skills synergy with other class skills being taken in to account -definitive yes on this for release of HD-not hapened yet. So, I am asking again. As have dozens of other posters about other matters.
Answers clearly change based on resources, other issues, time frames etc. so I feel entitled to ask a blue name the current thinking on these.

[welden]

Could consideration be given to allow "crop nodes" (i.e. strawberry, blackberry) to randomly drop a rare crafting component like juicy strawberries or juicy blackberries? Most of the "crop items" that are tracked by the "track crop" skills are hardly worth the time or effort to pick up! If corresponding rare craft items could be connected to these 'crop nodes' then I might actually use an otherwise not very useful tracking skill!

[Whiteberry_Laurelin]

Could consideration be given to allow "crop nodes" (i.e. strawberry, blackberry) to randomly drop a rare crafting component like juicy strawberries or juicy blackberries? Most of the "crop items" that are tracked by the "track crop" skills are hardly worth the time or effort to pick up! If corresponding rare craft items could be connected to these 'crop nodes' then I might actually use an otherwise not very useful tracking skill!

This is a great idea. I think very few people bother with gathering crop nodes, but this could be an incentive to revitalize that.

[hobbit1968]

Only 1 question. Houses. Its been 6 years. When will we have the housing revamp that you have been working on soo long?

[cdq1958]

This is a great idea. I think very few people bother with gathering crop nodes, but this could be an incentive to revitalize that.

I guess that I'm one of those few, for I do pick up the ground spawns so that scholar rares will spawn (woad plants, yarrow roots, indigo plants, etc). Please add the Drop of Wildflower Honey to the ground spawn list. [Yes, I know that you can grow these now.]

[Namesse]

What are the plans for the minstrel, is it essentially done or do you (Turbine) still think it needs attention? (tweaks to values aside)

[bigsix66]

How much (if any) has the diversion of some of Turbine's resources to get Infinite Crisis ready for release affected the development of LOTRO?

[HoldumDown]

Q: When will the cost of West Rohan Stables and Quest Teleports be reduced from the current 5 Mithril Coins to the 1 Mithril Coin cost used everywhere else?

[Thruili]

Will there be a zone like Limlight Gorge or Thror's Coomb this year?
Will instances (especially t2) have their difficulty increased (preferably in such a way that you need one tank, one healer and at least one supporter)?´
When will Emerald Shards be available in skirmish camps?
Will new or revamped regions be 'on rails' (i.e. you have to do the quests in the right order to advance) or more in a free form like the East Wall (I really liked that zone) or older hubs like Othrikar (which imho is a great one)?
How high are the chances to cap heavy armour at 60% mitigation (which still would be more than enough compared to light and medium classes)?

[ShireDweller]

Does the LOTRO team have a mission statement?

- If yes, can you share it with us?

- If no, why not?

[PKCrichton]

Answers to some questions we already know the answer to.

- Will there be Crafting Instances for Tier 9?
Yes. It was announced in Beta they would be in a future update.

- Will guilded cooks ever be able to make crafted relics?
Yes they already can and have been able to for years.

- Will there be new LI Titles
Yes. They will be obtained from the Crafting Instances that we are supposed to get with some future Update.

- Will there be more Big Battles? Will there be more 3 Mans, 6 Mans, 12 Mans?
Yes. During Beta JWB told us they plan to add more size options to the battles.

- When will the next Player Council selection be?
The Anniversary is the planned announcement of the next Players Council. The submital process is to start sometime in February or March.

- We want harder content when will it exist?
Content is already being adjusted to increase difficulty. Update 12.2 already went about increasing the difficutly of landscape mobs.

- Will reputation/faction coins/barterables be consolidated?
They have been a little bit already by increasing the stack size for those who do not have the expanded barter wallet.

- Will we see any more developments in the Plugins system?
This is a pet project of a dev and isn't something official development time is spent on. They work on it in their spare time.

- Are we getting a new PVMP map?
No there is no plan to add a new map. If a new map was put in it would split the pvmp community up which isn't want people want. It would be hard to find raids for both maps.

- Is pvmp going to be fixed for balance?
PVMP is contantly being worked on to fix balance. We know Jinjaah is currently working on exactly this.

[clogg2009]

Here is an idea... be honest and tell us, the customer, what the actual plans are for this coming year and then we will come up with questions. This cat and mouse game of you ask questions and if your close we might tell you something gets old... What is turbines development plan for 2014?

[Rainothon]

Questions:

1. In what manner have LOTRO's plans for 2014 lead to a change in staff assigned to and/or working on LOTRO?

2. Which dev pet-projects are going on?

3. How did HD's release work out in the terms of sales?

4. How does turbine feel about HD's release?

5. In terms of the "boston consulting group life cycle", where do you consider LOTRO to be as a product?

6. Looking back, RoI looks particularly successful. Are you considering a return to that type of expansion?

7. How do you feel about the lawsuits between the Tolkien Estate and Warner Brothers and vice versa?


Some of these questions are likely challenging to you. I will understand if corporate policy makes it insanely hard if not impossible (at this time) to answer some of them. But I ask the questions also to let you know I have them. And I am likely not the only one. I also made the effort of making my questions more neutral than my feelings about them, and ask you for 'feelings' rather than 'facts'. You could also just totally amaze me by not answering in spin though. Even if you don't answer them, you could acknowledge the fact that such questions arise.

Finally, more a request than a question: could you please be more specific, elaborate and graphic (screenshots or it didn't happen :P) about your plans for 2014?

[Thruili]

When will the epic books feel epic again?
Will we meet certain NPCs like Crúmgam or the Hestil's Fellowship from the East Wall again?

[hurant]

Big Battles (Epic Battles?):
Is scaling of low-level characters being looked into?
Can low-level scaled characters get a base mastery and critical rating minimum for Big Battles?
Do you feel low-level scaled characters can play any important role in Big Battles?
Do you feel low-level characters can gain player XP in Big Battles at a rate comparable to questing or skirmishes?
Are adjustments for low-level or low-promotions characters considered? (E.g. buffing default heal order duration?)
Could we have more emphasis for DPS other than AoE + burst + ranged DPS in Big Battles?
Do you feel burglar, warden, guardian DPS can be used to complete Big Battles with platinum merit?
Is the maximum number of promotions points for Big Battles going to increase in future updates?


Rewards/itemization:
What will First Age symbols be rewarded for? Big Battles?
What will armor sets with class bonuses be rewarded for? Big Battles?
Are there any plans to introduce more control over Big Battles rewards? Details?
Will it be possible to turn in duplicate Big Battles rewards for some seals (or anything similar other than selling to vendor)?
Will we see a reset of +5 reward points bonus once new golden items from Big Battles are live?

Could the loot tables be adjusted to reduce the overwhelming number of off-hands for hunters and burglars?
Will future updates bring more than 1 in-slot teal amour piece from instances/raids for tanking role?

Any info concerning release date of First Age symbols?
Any info concerning release date of Emerald Shards in skirmish camp?
Any info concerning release date of draughts at healers?
Any info concerning release date of armor sets with class bonuses?
Any info concerning release date of golden Big Battles items other than pockets and necks?


Class specific:
Are Wardens considered viable single-target tanks for T2C 12-man content?
Are you aware Wardens get +150% (!!!) more damage on hit than Guardians due to mitigations gap?
Is Hunter Rain of Arrows skill going to be fixed to properly reset on crit with usage of oils and/or after using Improved Focus?
Are there any plans to restore Warden heals-over-time to 24s base duration via class traits?
Are there any plans to extend the duration of Warden damage-over-time effects via class traits?
Can you make Warden gambit builder removals affect the gambit panel out of combat too?
Is Warden blue capstone considered to be changed into something more useful?




General:
Could we have more insight in what is going to change in future and what changes are planned?
Could the Devs respond more eagerly to large groups of players raising important issues with bugs?
Could skirmish camp gear for low-level characters get a boost, even at considerable mark and medallions cost increase?
Are we going to get any _challenging_ new instances other than Big Battles in future Quest Packs?
Are we going to get any 6-man landscape areas like Limlight Gorge in future Quest Packs?


PvMP:
Are there any plans to counter god-mode classes survivability? (E.g. yellow captains.)
Are you considering disabling/altering very potent class survivability skills for PvMP?
Are there any plans to allow 10-20 players to be able to kill a heal-spammed person? (E.g. introduce stacking -incoming healing?)

[Galuhad]

3) Will we see anymore developments in the Lua API? or perhaps, is there any dev still working on the Lua API?

- Will we see any more developments in the Plugins system?
This is a pet project of a dev and isn't something official development time is spent on. They work on it in their spare time.

As a plugin author I am more than aware of this, and I certainly do not need to be reminded. I am extremely grateful for the work that has been put into the Lua API thus far, but am very disappointed in the pace of current developments. The last substantial update was with Riders of Rohan, which gave us the crafting APIs. That was over a year ago, and Helm's Deep didn't bring anything new except one or two tweaks.

I have given up hundreds of hours of my own spare time to work on different plugins, and I continue to do so because I really enjoy it. I'm not the only one either, between us, there are over 250 plugins available for download at lotrointerface.com But we can only continue to expand on the offer available if we get new APIs. As it stands, we're currently reinventing the wheel on many cases just for something to do. It would be nice for Turbine to take this a little more seriously and actually assign someone to work on the APIs. It need not be a huge project needing a massive team, one person contributing a few hours a week would be a welcomed improvement. The more APIs available to us, the more rich an environment we can help create for the gamers.

In the past, yes it was a pet project of one dev. However there are over 50 plugin authors on lotrointerface.com, each giving up countless hours for their own pet projects. I think we have a right to know if someone from Turbine continues to do the same.

So I will restate my question as I feel it does deserve an answer, no matter what has been said in the past:
Will we see anymore developments in the Lua API? or perhaps, is there any dev still working on the Lua API?

[EyeSlayer600]

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.

I can go ahead and answer that one. According to LotRO-Wiki, it's called Allies of the Kings (see this part of their website).

[pbelkin79]

1.) Will lotro ever have a collection type system added to it like some other mmo's current and before it? I think this would be a great way to keep people playing even after level cap to get those collections compeleted and reward with rare housing items or steeds or costemic rewards that are unique like the task deed. Thanks

[Schinderhannes]

- What's your current opinion on self-made forum avatars, will we ever get this feature?
- Are there plans to remove all the old icon-placeholders & doppelgangers that are still used for buffs, items, jewelry etc?
- I can't remember ever seeing a group photo of your team, can you do me/us the favor?
- Google X rewards their staff for failure, how do you motivate your employees?

[faithfulgemi27]

We’re putting together our next 20 Questions feature! Post your LOTRO question here before noon eastern time on Monday, January 28. We’ll select at least 20 of the most frequently asked questions and answer them in our next 20 Questions feature.

We do have a few requirements.

• Keep your questions brief and to the point. We don’t need a lot of back story or editorial, just ask the question.
• Please do not ask compound or multi-part questions.
• Make sure you are asking a question. Lengthy opinions that end in a question mark aren’t questions.
• Questions that have been asked and answered in the past won’t be chosen again, so please make your question count!

You have until noon eastern time on Monday, January 28 to ask your questions. Then we’ll compile them, answer them, and post them for everyone to read as quickly as we can.


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Will you increase the level cap of the war steeds?

Will we see along the epic the story of the Hobbits, Frodo, Samwise, Merry and Pippin since the epic seems to be centered on Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and Gandalf?

Will you bring back the lotro lottery?

After submitting many bug reports on the session play 'We cannot get out' has it been resolved?

Regarding housing: is there a possibility of a housing upgrade, i.e., adding additional rooms to Standard, Deluxe and Kin houses.

Will you lower the cost of Relic Removal scrolls? In the past players were able to decon and receive the settings during a final reforge of the weapon before it was deconstructed.

Will you scale all the instances and raids of Moria and Rift?

Since there is a fish slap emote, would you create a 'Pie in the Face' emote?

Will you be able to more cosmetic options for our characters? It seems the NPCs have some cool looking clothing, it would be nice if we could wear their outfits.

Festival mounts: Will you design a better looking horse instead of just taking a blanket with a simple design to cover the steed?

Meta deed and Reputation Mounts: Will you be able to design their saddels, etc. as War Steed Compilations? You are able to do so with Lotro Store Exclusive Steeds.

War Steeds: Will you make a combat war Goat?

Hobbit Presents: Will you include symbols for 1st age weapons in the pile of gifts?

Will you ever bring back the Lotro Lore book?