SHIELD Dwarf Run Q&A – Nimrodel
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.
SHIELD Dwarf Run Q&A – Nimrodel
Video available here.
1. If you are able to turn on a festival for just one server and not all of them, does that mean that you have to enable every festival on each server individually.
The answer is yes. We do go through and turn them on each server individually. That is why sometimes an individual can log on to Nimrodel and have a festival active while someone on Brandywine does not. It means we have not gotten around to all of the servers yet.
2. When server down time gets extended, what is usually the cause?
It is not usually any given thing. It can be that they encountered a problem installing the latest version of the game, if it is a game update. They could have found an issue with a physical server, an issue with the loading balance, networking tools, data bases, or pretty much any number of things could cause extending a down time, especially when updating something as complex as an MMO. I know people think that a server is a computer, a box, that is very, very far from the truth. Each server is comprised of a number of servers. I believe it is 8 blades, typically. not including load balancers, data bases, or anything like that. When you get down to it you can get somewhere around a dozen blades total to run any given server. I do not know the exact numbers. These are just numbers I was given at one point, and it picked up at several meeting about why things get turned on in the order they do. If you break it down, the 29 game servers actually are comprised of a couple of hundred machines. Any time you are touching that many pieces of hardware, the chances of something going wrong are pretty good. From time to time, something does go wrong. Then when you think about all of the software and drivers needed for that number of machines, it starts to become a very, very large bowl of spaghetti.
3. Who is behind you right now?
You are probably looking at Telero's back. After turning around, he confirmed that it was indeed Telero.
4. If Americans call biscuits cookies, what do you call cookies?
We call cookies, cookies and biscuits, biscuits. Biscuits are things baked in the oven, are light and fluffy, and great with butter.
5. What is the best time so far?
The best time so far is Windfola. 22 minutes 37 sseconds.
6. Have you ever had Lembas.
I have, actually. There is a German Kinship lead by a very nice lady by the name of Broccoli. Broccoli is her character name and her kinship name is The Riders of Lembas. They actually brought, I have pictures of it somewhere, a very nice basket of Lembas that she baked herself, and it was in fact, wrapped in leaves and tied up with string. It was very, very impressive. So, yes I have actually. The picture is most likely still posted on the facebook LOTRO page. It may be in one of the gamescom galleries. The photo can be found
here.
7. Have you tried Brioche?
Yes, I have also tried Brioche, an irish soda bread.
The chat was then filled with discussions consisting of confections, meat, and cinnabun. All of which was making Sapience very hungry. He then joked that he may have to raid a grocery store on his way home.
8. Who did the music for the new region?
It was all done in-house.
8. If you could have any pet in game, what would it be?
That is a kind of unfair question, because he can always go, "Hey, guys... and get what he wants." He did say that one pet is ghost bear, which is coming along with extra life, along with snow-puff, the polar bear cub that always has snow falling on him.
10.What is being done with housing items?
I do not know what is being done at this time.
11. How do you get snow-puff?
It is on my extra-life donor page. Which can be found
here.
12. Have you ever considered a zone that is completely non-canon and allow user-generated content?
I don't believe so. Part of having "The Lord of the Rings" license is that we have to run a good bit of what we do through approvals with our licenser. They always love what we do. They always approve what we are doing. They are very excited, for example, about the Beorning. When we pitched it to them, they thought it was fantastic. They are very excited to see the Beorning in game. As far as saying, 'Hey, here's an area that has nothing to do with "The Lord of the Rings"', I don't think we would be interested in doing that. Probably isn't something our licenser would be terribly interested in participating in, either.
13. Do you know if the Noble Grace title will be added?
Yes, I am looking into getting the Noble Grace deed added. I do not know where that process is, but I did submit a request.
14. Who came up with the concept of LOTRO?
I'm going to take a wild guess and assume you mean the game. It actually started long before it was LOTRO. It start as Middle Earth Online. It slowly evolved and changed and was reimagined as The Lord of the Rings Online. So it has kind of been a compilation of ideas and individuals responsible.
15. Any major cosmetic updates for the new areas being released next week?
No, and I am not real sure what the full extent of cosmetics are for the update, but I do not believe major is a good characterization.
16. Do you ever get to meet Christopher Tolkien?
No, we do not.
17. How big will your tattoo be for Extra Life, if you make your goal?
It will be visible. We are not going to find one of those guys who can write your name on a grain of rice. It would be something that you would not have to be right up next to me to see it. It will probably end up on my upper arm or my shoulder. We're not talking about a micro tattoo, but we're also not talking about full back.
The chat then devolved into discussing Dairy Queen. Sapience pointed out that Dairy Queen is a supporter of Children's Miracle Network. Children's Miracle network is the organization that runs Extra Life. Dairy Queen, for those who do not know, is a store that sells ice cream cones and other such confections that are equally as bad for you, but ever so yummy and wonderful.
18. What goal will we have to reach for you to get your tattoo on your lower back?
A quarter of a million dollars. $250,000 and I will get the tattoo on my lower back. We have to raise it all by August 1st. There you go.
The chat then turned to the topic of a zombie apocalypse. One person mentioned that they would commandeer a Dairy Queen if one were to occur. Sapience mentioned that the Dairy Queen near his house is next to an army surplus store, so there is a certain logic to that in his neighborhood.
19. Isn't $250,000 a bit pricey as a goal in such short a time?
Yes, it is, but [the tattoo] is also permanent. Perhaps I should have said 250 million.
20. Will you Dress up as a Beorning for the class launch?
Uh, I don't know. I have not given a lot of thought to that. Maybe. If we find something appropriate we might do a stream of some sort of Beorning look. I did do a dwarf hat/beard type of thing. Why not?
21. Do you have anything to share?
Yes, this weekend is a lootbox weekend. They should be live tomorrow, early in the morning. It will be going from the 11th to the 13th. So if you have some keys, you can go grab some lootboxes. Lootbox weekends simply increase the chance of a mob dropping a lootbox as loot.
22. Has there been any changes to the lootboxes.
No, the lootbox weekend is this weekend, before update 14, so no changes have been made.
23. Will lootboxes already in your inventory change after update 14?
I was just able to confirm with QA that if you have a lootbox in your inventory, there is a CHANCE that a pick-a-steed will drop, assuming that the lookbox is within the ranges that have pick-a-steeds in them.
Sapience ended the stream by thanking everyone for coming. He also thanked everyone for almost guaranteeing that he will stop for ice cream on his way home. He congratulated Nimrodel's total time of 32 minutes 25 seconds, placing them in 5th place so far.