Frelorn Q&A from Livestreams

[Castorix]

1. Why was the decision made to give a slotted pocket item as a reward for the roving threats, as opposed to a cloak, considering that the pocket item isn't as good as the BB jewellery, and we've not had a decent cloak (particularly for might classes) since level 95?

There are 2 cloaks with Might : "Cloak of the Fallen Tower" & "Greater Valourous Cloak of Finesse"
The first one is not too difficult to get (WoS T1 for example) but the 2nd one is nearly impossible to get with the actual state of instances/loot tables (Fornost - Shadow, OD - Poison, Smaug)
Then I agree that a cloak with slots would have been a lot better than this pocket item...

[Tirian-Hammerfist]

There are 2 cloaks with Might : "Cloak of the Fallen Tower" & "Greater Valourous Cloak of Finesse"
The first one is not too difficult to get (WoS T1 for example) but the 2nd one is nearly impossible to get with the actual state of instances/loot tables (Fornost - Shadow, OD - Poison, Smaug)
Then I agree that a cloak with slots would have been a lot better than this pocket item...

Oh, you can get a might cloak from Way of Smiths? I'll check it out, thanks. I was aware of the second one, but as you say, its a massive pain to get.

Though my question still stands, as I think a slotted cloak would be much better than the pocket, considering the fact that it doesn't break up the gold BB jewellery set.

[Jillymala]

There are 2 cloaks with Might : "Cloak of the Fallen Tower" & "Greater Valourous Cloak of Finesse"
The first one is not too difficult to get (WoS T1 for example) but the 2nd one is nearly impossible to get with the actual state of instances/loot tables (Fornost - Shadow, OD - Poison, Smaug)
Then I agree that a cloak with slots would have been a lot better than this pocket item...

I thought the might cloaks only dropped from the two in Moria.. Deep Way and WoS? I've never seen it fall from 21st (for example).

[Castorix]

I thought the might cloaks only dropped from the two in Moria.. Deep Way and WoS? I've never seen it fall from 21st (for example).

Theorically, it drops from Deep-way, 21st Hall & WoS because they are in the same campaign (Enguilan Campaign)
I got it by farming WoS T1 (the easiest one, 21st Hall cannot be done alone (fear skill from boss))

[mattspencer]

Theorically, it drops from Deep-way, 21st Hall & WoS because they are in the same campaign (Enguilan Campaign)
I got it by farming WoS T1 (the easiest one, 21st Hall cannot be done alone (fear skill from boss))

I am wondering if you have any advice on (I am assuming you solo'd WOS) doing WOS solo. I know you are a champ, do you think a Guard could solo T1? I got the LT that does the damage reflect on an add and I guess I needed to stop aoeing to survive. Other than that is it straightforward?

[Eldalleth]

I don't mind people asking questions here but please take conversations that are not regarding stuff that is being asked or discussed in the questions to a separate thread or pm's. It helps me keep this thread orderly so people can find the answers they are looking for Thanks

[q945]

I am wondering if you have any advice on (I am assuming you solo'd WOS) doing WOS solo. I know you are a champ, do you think a Guard could solo T1? I got the LT that does the damage reflect on an add and I guess I needed to stop aoeing to survive. Other than that is it straightforward?

Yes it can be solo'd by a guard. As you found out you need to be very careful of the Priest of Vengeance, and Brothers of Destruction will also cause you lots of problems. Fellbane Archers have a nasty AoE that can be difficult to outheal. If you get lucky with LT's then its perfectly doable. The final fight isnt that challenging, especially if you make good use of the banners that are lying around.

[Valamar]

2. As there isn't going to be a level cap increase this year, what is the purpose of making our Legendary Items level with us? Wasn't that the whole point of the legendary item revamp?

My understanding/interpretation is that the Legendary Item Leveling is not going to be a big deal as such for anybody currently at the Level Cap.
However, like the WarSteed leveling -- even though your character is not leveling, your LI will level as you complete deeds, etc.
Which Deeds? -- in particular, there are Deeds and (apparently) Meta-deeds for each of the new Roving Threat areas.

One assumes that there will be just as many quests in ?Northern Gondor? as there were in Central Gondor, so even though the Level cap won't increase, there will still be plenty to do to earn IXP.

Put another way -- leveling your LI will give level-cap players a reason to do all the quests in the new area!
It will be just like grinding for Virtues!

Just guessing, but I suspect we'll get more info as U16 goes up on Bullroarer.

[Teledion]

I don't know if this has been answered before, but could you ask if Frelorn could record his streams and post them on YouTube? Did anyone watch his stream about moors and plan on posting the questions?

[Thurallor]

I don't know if this has been answered before, but could you ask if Frelorn could record his streams and post them on YouTube?

Is there some reason you are unable to view the past broadcasts on twitch.tv?

[Ranatuor_Erutron]

Thanks for that, I looked in the main LOTRO twitch bit and the vids at the bottom don't show past recordings of the normal stream, just the special events.

Question to Frelorn about the levelling-up an alt Twitch stream - are you just playing solo or would you want some company? I can be on not this week but the following week, it's about time you got a nice welcome to our server I can only do Thursdays when the college kids are off, I am term-time only in my work

[Eldalleth]

I don't know if this has been answered before, but could you ask if Frelorn could record his streams and post them on YouTube? Did anyone watch his stream about moors and plan on posting the questions?

Hi Teledion, Im the one that posts the questions and have been sick for the last few weeks with a nasty sinus infection, still recovering but working on the questions from both weeks hoping to have them up sometime tomorrow afternoon.

[Ranatuor_Erutron]

Get well soon you

[Valamar]

Is there some reason you are unable to view the past broadcasts on twitch.tv?

This is up to Frelorn -- he has to record them, post them and archive them.
I don't know if he has "learned" that part of the procedure yet I know it took Sapience a while to get the hang of the drill.
Sadly, there is no "check box" on Twitch to do it automatically.

[Teledion]

Hi Teledion, Im the one that posts the questions and have been sick for the last few weeks with a nasty sinus infection, still recovering but working on the questions from both weeks hoping to have them up sometime tomorrow afternoon.

I'm sorry to hear that, hope you'll get better. It's no hurry but I'm glad that there are plans of posting the questions, ty for the great work you do with this.

[Eldalleth]

Thursday Fun with Frelorn 1/29/2015
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. Unless otherwise noted, all Announcements and answers to questions posted are Frelorn's answers. If there is a special guest I will note them answering the questions.

Q&A
Special Guest for this stream was Systems Designer Trevor "Jinjaah" McEwan.

1. Question: Have you started work on the potential new PvMP map?
   Jinjaah: I don't want to go into too much information about it but we have had a lot of discussions both with the Players Council and internally. We haven't ramped up the council discussions too much yet because we are still doing some cost estimates as to what it will cost to make and what some of the hurdles we have are. On my side of things, also looking at potential systemic changes to PvMP once we get into a new space. A lot of those I don't want to mention yet because I don't want to make people any promises, but there is a lot of cool potentially exciting stuff we can do.
2. Question: What is the status on Beorning gear? I just completed all of Riders of Rohan and didn't find a single piece of Beorning gear in the entire zone of quests, nor are there any guild patterns that are Beorning-focused. Is it going to get a fix?
   Jinjaah: The medium might gear is taking a lot longer than we would like, there is definitely a bunch of crafting recipes in terms of upper echelon stuff you can find that in the forums. We still need to iron out a couple of missing places, we have been going through and filling in quests, and raids and skirmish kind of drops but hopefully over the next couple of updates and continue to add stuff in and fill in the places we missed before. The good news is all the new stuff we are working on we already have the Beorning specific gear in the hopper so its just simply a revision problem rather than a problem we are going to take forward.
3. Question: Arathaert's very random question: Frelorn, you have a million dollars in cash, thirty clowns who obey your every word implicitly and a bottle of orange soda. Your mission: totally derail the Super Bowl. What would you do?
   Frelorn: I have no idea. Having control of thirty clowns alone is completely horrifying and I don't know if I like that prospect.
   Jinjaah: I would pay as many fans in the stadium as I could to wear a clown costume and sit in complete silence for the whole game.
   Frelorn: Yeah that would be creepy.
4. Question: Any rough schedule for update 16, and what might be in it?
   Frelorn: Nothing for Update 16 yet because we have to get through Update 15.2 first. We have U15.2 coming soon. (This stream was on January 29 - 15.2 has since been launched- Eldalleth Note)
5. Question: I had a look at the release notes and i was wondering if there would be any changes about the PvMP as a whole not just a map?
   Frelorn: Well considering we haven't actually put out any release notes yet, that was the Producers Letter, and there are lots of things we would love to do with PvMP the first step being a new area. We will look into doing more stuff beyond that. First thing we have to do is establish cost etc, can we do that.
6. Question: Arathaert asks, Frelorn, do you plan on setting up a Turbine/LOTRO team for Extra Life this year? Or should we take it upon ourselves to make a LOTRO team (as opposed to individual kin teams)? (I don't mind taking point on it if you like - I've done it before)
   Frelorn: I haven't gotten that far yet. I have been doing so much else I haven't had a chance to talk with Sapience about if he wants to do something in conjunction or not. So stay tuned if we are I will be sure to let everyone know.
7. Question: When are the servers moving to Europe Frelorn?
   Frelorn: We have not announced a date for that yet, as we get more information and more concrete information we will share it. Right now we are sharing as much information as we have as we don't want to jump out ahead of ourselves and give you information that could turn out to be false.
8. Question: When are server merges happening?
   Frelorn: Same thing, as we have more information we will pass it along. I know our great and glorious leader Athena "Vyvyanne" is working hard to get everything organized and done so that we can make this happen in the best way possible. We would rather make sure its done right than rush information out to you and find out its not feasible or possible. So we are going to take our time and make it more gooder.
9. Question: Will Osgiliath include a new level increase? How is the PvMP map looking for it?
   Frelorn: So I can answer the first part, we did already answer the second part but some late people might not have heard it or still coming in. No new level increases with Osgiliath, and PvMP still having discussions and looking at some things. (see more in-depth answer to question on question #1- Eldalleth Note)
10. Question: Are war goats something we could see in the future?
    Jinjaah: War goats would be pretty sweet.
    Frelorn: Yeah I agree.
11. Question: Any updates on the stream team?
    Frelorn: We got an overwhelming amount of applications for that, it was amazing. I’m really excited about how many people applied for it. I am processing them and a lot I still need to watch.
12. Question: Frelorn, is the new instance cluster guaranteed or you guys have to discuss it as well?
    Frelorn: They are firmly in our plans for Update 16 or there abouts. Its not something we have to discuss they are coming. Hooray.
13. Question: For the stream team, will you have streamers signing an agreement? Like for keeping it a certain language level (no offensive language on the official stream, etc.)? Or other stipulations?
    Frelorn: Yes there will be stipulations for those that are on the stream, very minor things, like keeping language clean, don't use any copyrighted music, things of that nature. Nothing too bad you don't have to jump through any hoops or anything like that. Its more of a protect our butts type thing.
14. Question: KoolKKyle: Bludborn and I have tried to get us a Banner for the Helm's Deep Cover art for Twitch. You are using just The Lord of the Rings Online. Is this the one you want us to use instead of Helm’s Deep?
    Frelorn: You can use whatever one you like, I have no preference.
15. Question: When will you be streaming from the Moors again?
    Frelorn: This was fun; I’d like to make it more setup next time. I might do this again in a couple of weeks. Lets get through Update 15.2 and go from there, not everyone likes PvMP but then not everyone likes PvE either.
16. Question: Frelorn U14 Paths of the Dead music is not on soundcloud I checked can ya put it up there please?
    Frelorn: I can look into that for you.
17. Question: Are the World Designers still in the habit of placing "easter eggs" around current and new landscapes? Are there any big "eggs" that still remain undiscovered? And let us in that unreachable door in Halls of Crafting!
    Jinjaah: They keep those kind of things close to the chest so I don't know. And if we told you easter eggs they wouldn't be easter eggs.

[Eldalleth]

Thursday Fun with Frelorn 02/5/2015
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. Unless otherwise noted, all Announcements and answers to questions posted are Frelorn's answers. If there is a special guest I will note them answering the questions.

Q&A
Special Guest appearance Athena "Vyvyanne" Peters Executive Producer.

1. Question: Will the Epic Foes in Pelargir regain normal amounts of health, dps and durability? I just did Pelargir 3 times and the epic foe's have 2.7million morale now. Its now where you don't have any time to kill them or the timers up, any changes for that little "bug"?
   Vyvyanne: Its a bug and we are working on fixing it currently. We will hopefully have a new patch out shortly that will address those issues.
2. Question: Do you prefer Athena or Vyvyanne?
   Vyvyanne: I'm fine either way. Really I don't mind being called by my name just after years of being in the industry, way back when we only went by our handles. But now society is more comfortable with us using our real names, so I've kind of gotten used to both of them. I do answer to both of them. If anyone called out Vyv or Vyvyanne around me I would probably turn around.
3. Question: Why are people laughing behind the scene?
   Vyvyanne: I have no idea since I have this headset on I can't actually hear what's going on around us. We actually do have a number of different teams surrounding us, we have an open cube environment, so it's quite possible a number of conversations are happening, or it is quite possible they are just laughing at me.
4. Question: What is one thing you are most excited for as the new Executive Producer?
   Vyvyanne: For me it's just really being able to dive into the Lord of the Rings Universe, as a whole. It's a beautiful game, the last several games that I've worked on have been very combat heavy and focused. A lot of the games I've worked on in the past have been a lot of PvP, and we have a little bit of that I'm sure there are several of you that do the Monster Play in our game, but there is a lot more of the role play aspect and the exploration aspect which as a gamer I'm more interested in this world. So it's really great to be involved in that and experience a completely new environment for me as an actual worker and not just a player.
5. Question: Did the Greek goddess Athena have any special powers?
   Vyvyanne: Actually the Greek goddess Athena was goddess of strategy, wisdom, and household crafts interestingly enough, which I would like to hope that I have aspects of all three.
6. Question: Do you think a rework of Fellow maneuvers will ever happen???? It is an awesome mechanic but it has kind of fallen behind with the current updates.
   Vyvyanne: I'm not sure, that one is definitely a question for the systems team folks to answer.
7. Question: Could we have the Gondor soundtracks in Soundcloud? The one Frelorn played at the beginning of the stream was very nice.
   Frelorn: I can look into it, they used to be up there I don't know why they aren't anymore. We do have the rights to them so it shouldn't be a problem to re-upload them.
8. Question: Are there any ideas/features from DDO(Dungeons and Dragons Online) which you feel should or could be implemented in LotRO?
   Vyvyanne: I think a lot of the features that work well in both have been implemented in both. I know the teams for both do actually talk a lot. We have a similar base structure, but the two games have split off a lot in terms of development over the years to where we can't just, very easily port things back and forth. I'm trying to think if there was some specific ideas from DDO that we haven't implemented yet, but definitely something we don't dismiss. Nothing is coming to mind at the moment, I was going to say the cosmetic system we just added in DDO but the one in LOTRO is far advanced to that.
9. Question: Did you do anything to performance client side for 15.2? I am getting better frames per second since the patch, but I didn't see anything noted in the patch notes.
   Vyvyanne: We did a major improvement to a memory leak that we had prior to 15.2, we are watching to see how well we fixed that, so far it's looking positive, but we will keep an eye on it. If players notice any issues please be sure to let us know.
10. Question: Will that horse's head be a new cosmetic item?
    Vyvyanne: We will have to think about that, not sure how thrilled our partners would be on that one.
11. Question: Why is it so hard to convert the EU-server data to US servers and vice versa?
    Vyvyanne: This is mainly because when we first launched the service these two environments were on completely different servers run by completely different teams. So the way they set up their server environments and their data storage was completely different from the way the US did and it took a lot of effort to bring those characters back over into our server systems. The problem is that when we try to replicate that data again there is a bunch of mismatches that happen and the more that we do that the worse it gets. Thus the data corruption could be catastrophic for those characters so we would really rather not risk it. We don't want to chance losing anyone's hard played characters for the number of years they may have been playing them. Going forward we don't have that problem, but because we had that problem from the original servers it's really hard to catch up when we have to take those older characters into consideration.
12. Question: In DDO I've heard you can create your own dynamic layers on-the-fly. That would be a cool feature to port over.
    Vyvyanne: There is a bit of difference in the DDO dynamic layers and LOTRO. One thing to understand about DDO is it is highly instanced, so almost everything your going into is your private instance, versus in LOTRO we try to make it a very open world environment. So our technical limitations there are a lot different. There is definitely some different things that you can see in DDO that they are able to do with their layering systems, that is based on the fact that at most they are only going to have 6-8 characters in that instance versus in LOTRO we have to contend with possibly a hundred.
13. Question: Greymaster random question- thoughts on bacon?
    Vyvyanne: Bacon is great. Thoughts on bacon is terrific.
14. Question: Will the cosmetic system ever get cosmetic weapon slots?
    Vyvyanne: We will definitely look into that, I know our art lead is definitely interested in finding ways to make weapons more interesting cosmetically, so that's one of those things we have been chatting about over here. It is just a matter of weighing that system versus the other things we are trying to do at the same time. It is not off the table it is definitely something we want to look into doing.
15. Question: When do you think we will hear more about Server information regarding the US servers?
    Vyvyanne: We definitely want to get that information out to you guys, right now we are looking into things, everything hinges on getting our new hardware set out and up in our new environments. So we are really focusing on that, and that is taking a bit longer than we had planned originally. We are trying to tie up all the loose ends around that, we don't want to push out too much information since a lot of it is based on what our new hardware set up is going to be. Until we are actually more solid on that, but as soon as we do we will get that information out to you guys. In the meantime we are working very hard on the various improvements that we are doing to the server transfer system. Hopefully we will have some articles in the next coming months on those as we get closer and closer to having our new hardware set up.
16. Question: Do you know when we are going to be able to get into Minas Tirith?
    Vyvyanne: Minas Tirith is planned for this year so hopefully before end of 2015 you should be able to go explore Minas Tirith, that is definitely in the plans.
17. Question: When will testing the transfer system start?
    Vyvyanne: Testing of the server transfer system, expect that in the next couple of months, we will definitely have the testing up before we have the new hardware set up.
18. Question: Are there any plans to update the Hobbit presents to level 100? The max is 90 at the moment (Mathom items for example..)
    Vyvyanne: I will look into that, I didn't know it wasn't at max cap currently, but of course I'm still learning all that stuff.
19. Question: Will the new server setup affect DDO in any way?
    Vyvyanne: I believe it will they are also getting moved over to new environments, but that's definitely something to ask Robin and the DDO people over there they have more information on their work. The hope is that all Turbine games in general will be running better very soon.
20. Question: Anything more you can tease us with regarding Episodic Content?
    Vyvyanne: I don't want to ruin any teasers MadeOfLions might have on the forums. I know he has been putting some out there it looks like its fun, it will definitely be another way to experience the story in the world of Tolkien. That's about all I feel able to say without getting in trouble with MadeOfLions.
21. Question: Any more information on stream team applications?
    Vyvyanne: I'll let Frelorn answer that when he gets back I have no insight into the team applications personally.
22. Question: This may have been covered elsewhere, but I'm also curious about medium might socketed amour for level 100. The Beorning has been such a great class, it is a letdown to get to the end and only have agility options.
    Vyvyanne: Thats going to be when we get Jinjaah on the stream, I know we have been working on the itemization for Update 16 but it is still early in development so he might have some more answers later on.
23. Question: Will there ever be a whole graphic update?
    Vyvyanne: I can't ever say never, but we don't have any plans in the short term. The main concern with full graphic updates is you end up taking the people who have older video cards and setups out of the equation. We don't want to update our game so much that our diehard players are all of a sudden forced to upgrade their systems that wouldn't be fair to them. But we are always trying to improve the look and feel of the game I know that our lead artists been doing some work on the female human body structures to streamline them a little bit better. So we will see small things like that but I don't see us doing a huge graphic update all across the board.
24. Question: Any chance for physical CD's merchandise for the soundtracks? (like a complete edition or something from older expansions and unreleased stuff)?
    Vyvyanne: I don't think we will be doing physical cd's, we have kind of moved into the fully digital realm now.
25. Question: Moving forward (not necessarily this year or anytime soon) are there plans to keep adding Roving Threats and Treasure Caches to other older regions, based on player feedback?
    Vyvyanne: I think we do intend to keep adding more roving threats, it is a really fun feature, we like to add it to make the older areas more interesting give you a reason to go back and play around and see what you can find there. I can definitely see us adding more of those in future updates as well.
26. Question: Various crafting questions in chat that Vyvyanne comments on.
    Vyvyanne: I don't have specific timelines as to when we will be looking into crafting again but I know I personally have some ideas on ways to improve that system I want to talk to the developers about, but probably not something we will really be in the space to talk about in the next few months. It is something we want to dig into.
27. Question: I do not mean to be a pest, but how often do you check the stream team applications?
    Frelorn: Some have already been sent out to people we are crafting up the final rules and getting the gift pool together and they will get sent out and then more will be incoming once we make sure everything works. So a word I hate, but very soon.
28. Question: Will existing first age weapons be eligible for the new and improved imbued system? Or will it have to be freshly crafted legendaries after the new system launches?
    Vyvyanne: I don't think you will have to re-craft your legendaries but I will have to look back at the design document on that again. Definitely expect in the next coming month or so you should see a write up from Jinjaah on the new Legendary Item System. In that write up he will be able to answer more detailed questions like that. A whole legendary item stream will be coming up soon.
29. Question: Why isn't there a actual LOTRO store for real life items where I can buy a mug, t-shirt or poster?
    Frelorn: I can partially answer this but not completely, we have been looking into it, we do have the rights to do it, but figuring out resources, time and availability and what we have the rights to for doing it. We did for a while back in the day have stuff like that up on the WB Store.
30. Question: Will there be a final reward for doing all deeds (including the hidden deeds of a zone?) and will the virtue rank become higher than level 19?
    Freloron: I don't know I'm not the one to answer that.
31. Question: Have you guys looked into instance based PvMP?
    Frelorn: I do know they have looked at something like that at one point. I can't tell you what became of it other than investigating.
32. Question: How deep are you in the development process, and which parts? you being community manager?
    Frelorn: It depends on the situation and what is needed. For something like designing an area, developers won't need my feedback on what it looks like, but I will jump in on when we are testing. I can then give feedback on player rewards, difficulty, player reactions stuff like that. I also give my opinions on whether I think players will like something or if it will go over like a ton of bricks. I leave the developing to the developers they are way smarter than I am they know what they are doing, but I do give my input in terms of the experience after the fact and what you guys think about things. Which is why it is really important when we put things out on Bullroarer that as many of you as possible jump in there and give us feedback as that's our main way of knowing if you're going to like something or not.
33. Question: Since the soundtracks are digital now, could you look into re-releasing the older soundtracks before Rohan and possible in lossless (FLAC/ALAC) format?
    Frelorn: I can certainly look into that and see. I don't know since I wasn't here for that what the legal stuff might be on it.
34. Question: Any news when servers become active in Amsterdam?
    Frelorn: Still a lot of work to be done before they become active so no information that can be shared yet.
35. Question: Quick question about the new Treasure Caches: are you *sure* there are indeed 12 of them in Forochel?
    Frelorn: The person I would ask is not at their desk to ask. (Eldalleth Note: - Frelorn mentioned in a thread on the forums there will be a fix in the next update as the 12th treasure cache is unreachable without GM assistance, thread found here.
36. Question: KoolKKyle says Bludborn, and I have worked on trying to get the Art for the Channel Several times, Bludborn mentioned you looked into it. Any new information?
    Frelorn: If you're talking about the art for the game title? That's specific art I can upload. If you're talking about the Twitch art we are working on that.
37. Question: Can we nail down one specific LOTRO game title that we should all stream under. I'm seeing up to 3 or 4 different ones at the same time.
    Frelorn: The specific game title is The Lord of the Rings Online that is the one we are going with, not any of the expansions.
38. Question: Do you feel you have enough streamers for the initial stream group?
    Frelorn: The ones who I have sent invites out to in the initial wave are the ones I had already watched. The technical answer is I don't think we will ever have enough and I do try and take time each day to take a look at new emails that come in. If you haven't gotten an email yet, stay tuned, just keep in mind I have to watch you stream a couple of times before you get approval.
39. Question: Is there any thought into giving everyone on each server a legacy title with their server name, so when the server closures/transfers occur, people can give remembrance; i.e. "Thralor of [server name]"?
    Frelorn: There are tons of thoughts on it. Which is part of why we aren't giving more information yet, we want to make sure things are ready for public sharing. We want to make sure it's good and that the whole process for everyone involved is a smooth and happy one. I know it won't be easy for a lot of people, but we do want people to hopefully be able in the end to walk away going that was a pretty easy process and it was painless.
40. Question: Is it definite that some servers will be closed? Why not just keep the low-population servers running for those who don't want to leave them? Too expensive?
    Frelorn: It's a combination of a lot of things, we will discuss all of these things in more detail once decisions are made. There are a lot of factors many of which are not quick or easy to explain.

[Macroscian]

Space reserved for livestream from February 5th with Special Guest Executive Producer Athena "Vyvyanne" Peters. Thanks for the well wishes everyone Im still recovering from a very nasty sinus infection x 3 weeks now and this stream was a very in-depth stream with lots of wonderful questions answered. As such though it has taken more time to transcribe due to that fact, just as a general idea at 4pgs of notes on Word at 25mins into a hour long stream Thanks for being so understanding and I will hopefully have the notes done before this weekend at the latest.

Thank you for taking the time.

[Calta]

Thank you for taking the time.

Thanks for your time and effort and get well soon.

ps Health tip: Have you tried Eucalyptus oil in bath, in hot water and breathing the steam, on your pillow at night, and on your tissues-it's anti viral, antibacterial and anti Inflammatory, helps sinuses loosen up, helps 'sick headaches' associated with bad sinuses, is cheap, AND SMELLS GREAT!

[Amariel28]

ps Health tip: Have you tried Eucalyptus oil in bath, in hot water and breathing the steam, on your pillow at night, and on your tissues-it's anti viral, antibacterial and anti Inflammatory, helps sinuses loosen up, helps 'sick headaches' associated with bad sinuses, is cheap, AND SMELLS GREAT!

Be VERY careful with putting that oil in your bath though. I did once and, because it just sat on top of the water, ended up getting it on my skin. It BURNED. I suffer from frequent sinus issues myself, though only rarely do I get infections. *knocks on wood* Something I always do whenever I get sick is drink a mixture of warm water, 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, and 1 tablespoon of honey. Helps me with whatever I have. Hope you feel better soon.

[Valamar]

Something I always do whenever I get sick is drink a mixture of warm water, 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, and 1 tablespoon of honey. Helps me with whatever I have. Hope you feel better soon.

Forget the vinegar -- substitute Scotch and only a couple of drops of water

Or maybe some hot buttered rum!

[Letter142]

Warnings: Animated Violence, Language
Click the headings below to go directly to the time-stamp on the video.
Set it on HD to see the chat more clearly.


Eldalleth will doubtlessly provide a much more comprehensive Q&A later when feeling better, but for now, here is a brief overview:

"I am not chalk full of information today... There is not a ton of new stuff going between the snow days and some logistical stuff that we are doing here and me setting up the Stream Team."

Moobot:
A bot for the twitch.tv chat channel. It is mostly on the default setting currently, but it will be updated to make it more fun. For now, you can type in !gandalf and it will display a special message in the channel.

Stream Team:
Apply at http://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?563062
He will be jumping in on more streamers.
They are looking for streamers from a variety of regions. He will respond as fast as he can, but it may take a while. He wants to watch a petitioner's streams to get to know the person before speaking online. There will only be a few during the first week or so, but then they will expand it and get lots of people in.

Forochel Treasture Cache Bug:
They are aware of the bug that makes it impossible to get to the 12th cache and will be fixing it "shortly." The cache "Will be moved to a considerably less smitety set of coordinates."

Chocolate Fountain:
They are building a glorious chocolate fountain for the Valentine's Day Party today. He tried to show it on the stream. A better picture is posted on Twitter.

LOTRO YouTube Channel:
New video content soon.

Confirming Old Info:
No new server transfer/merging info. (Link)
Scaling old instances would be impossible/really hard.
Exploring making Osglitiath into a PvMP area.
Has not heard of any new cosmetics (including hair) in the near future.
Legendary Items update coming with Update 16. More info as the release date approaches. No release date released yet.

[Eldalleth]

Notes from 2/5/15 are up now Sorry for the delay they can be found here

[Beaniemooch]

On the 2/5/2015 feed, question #4, Vyv/Athena states she comes from PvP and combat heavy worlds and she's more excited to get into the role play and exploration aspect of lotro. I actually find that disappointing since we've had story line and world building working well for us for years. What we really need is some PvMP love and raids/heavy combat development.

Question: What is one thing you are most excited for as the new Executive Producer?
Vyvyanne: For me it's just really being able to dive into the Lord of the Rings Universe, as a whole. It's a beautiful game, the last several games that I've worked on have been very combat heavy and focused. A lot of the games I've worked on in the past have been a lot of PvP, and we have a little bit of that I'm sure there are several of you that do the Monster Play in our game, but there is a lot more of the role play aspect and the exploration aspect which as a gamer I'm more interested in this world. So it's really great to be involved in that and experience a completely new environment for me as an actual worker and not just a player.

[Valamar]

On the 2/5/2015 feed, question #4, Vyv/Athena states she comes from PvP and combat heavy worlds and she's more excited to get into the role play and exploration aspect of lotro. I actually find that disappointing since we've had story line and world building working well for us for years. What we really need is some PvMP love and raids/heavy combat development.

Oh, I don't know -- I think that comment is one you have to seriously read "backwards and between the lines." Especially if you couple it with recent comments from Jinjaah (Sp).

Maybe I'm just whistling in the Dark past the Graveyard, but the fact that Athena "knows" PvP is going to bias her overall viewpoint. I.e. if people(DEVS) who WANT to do something for PvP propose it, she is not likely to simply dismiss it without a second thought.

In the end, it may all come down to budgets, which can be pretty hard and fast -- "Suits" being some of the most effective armour out there.

As a Founder/Lifetimer, I've seen the changes (read "nerfs") made to LOTRO over the years, all in the name of "user friendly" (solo/F2P) play. There was a significant change in the "target audience" for LOTRO when it went F2P. Which, from a Gamer's point of view, was probably the WORST decision ever made.

From an "Economics" point of view (and EU Consumer protection laws as well) -- A Subscription implies a contractual situation between the vendor and the player. F2P does not! Consequently, in the F2P environment, Turbine is NOT constrained to pay any attention to "comments" (complaints or cuddos) from its user community simply because that user community has no "commitment" or "investment" in Turbine. (Remember, we're talking financial here, not psychic.)
The old explanation by Sapience that the number of complainers on the Forums represent a tiny portion of the player base are true but miss the mark. They are a classic case of "Truth, in and of itself carries no meaning." AND, it does not take into account basic Human Nature -- to NOT complain unless something directly and severely impacts the individual personally. Plus the corollary Human Nature factor of "non-confrontation." There is no room for multiple "Alpha Males" in a Pack (yeah, sexist, I know, but then so is anthropology). The vast majority of folks will observe the old say -- "To get along, you've got to go along."

I would also point out -- "we've had story line and world building working well for us for years." ignores the fact that while true, what has been ignored, more than PvP have been "game mechanics" i.e. the Engineering underlying the Game Engine. From everything I know about Turbine (which is very little) the "Devs" we all know and love, have virtually NOTHING to do with the Game Engine. Question 9 was interesting in that vein:

Question: Did you do anything to performance client side for 15.2? I am getting better frames per second since the patch, but I didn't see anything noted in the patch notes.
Vyvyanne: We did a major improvement to a memory leak that we had prior to 15.2, we are watching to see how well we fixed that, so far it's looking positive, but we will keep an eye on it. If players notice any issues please be sure to let us know.

Similarly, a comment made by Frelon recently to the effect that they have no one with Mac experience on staff at the current time. Further implies the separation of "Engineering" from "Content." I suppose that it might imply OpenGL vs DirectX also, but I do not know.

The "memory leak" issue is/has been a primary factor in client crashes since Rohan. The simple fact that LOTRO is a 32-bit game trying to live in a 64-bit world means that the enhancements in Graphics implemented in Riders of Rohan pushed the absolute memory requirements of LOTRO way-past the 4gig limit of a 32-bit world. That coupled with the basic "land-block" design of LOTRO has been a significant crash causer for 2 years now.

Wonder of wonders -- I play on a Mac, and the absolute time between crashes to the desktop (for me at least) has been one hour and six minutes. I can watch it happen via Buff Bars timers. Last night I played my Beorning for 3 hours straight, while working Book 5 - I finally went to bed just before entering the Helegrod Treasurery! I was actually flabbergasted when I realized I had passed the one hour mark with no crash. And that book run has you wandering all over Eriador. I was "cheating" by using the Mithril Coin quest objective port all the time instead of Swift Traveling, but that has not made a difference in the past.