Hobbits to Isengard - Q/A with Sapience notes on what was said

[Mar-Evayave]

Thank-you for sharing these once again, frickinmuck, and for that link regarding Jinjaah and the Moors. I'd known about that thread but not its contents, but I shared it in the Exec Letter now that I know.

[Brandon_Blackbird]

Thank you for posting these and now can we finally put the war goats to rest?

[Mar-Evayave]

Thank you for posting these and now can we finally put the war goats to rest?

lol I have to admit that, even were I to disregard any lore issues, I doubt I could stand to look at my goat's backside outside of Moria. No offense to goats anywhere, and maybe it's just the ones in this game, but watching that little stub of a tail go around and around and around... *swallows hard* a bit nauseating, to be honest. When I got my first goat it was one of the first things I noticed and it made me almost dizzy. >.<

[Sapience]

Please note: I am paraphrasing here. Anything said here is coming through my interpretation of what he said, and is subject to being corrected by him so don't take all this as gospel.

If anyone who was present has any additions or corrections, feel free to post.

Q/A Hobbits to Isengard - Brandywine

1. Question about balance
   Balance is constantly being addressed. Some balancing is done with every update. It may not necessarily be called out, but it is there. You can always expect more balancing to be done.
2. Sapience looks over at Aaron’s desk and mentions that Aaron is currently reading the forums. So yes, developers do read the forums.
3. Will multiple mail attachments (coming with U13) add to postage cost
   It seems likely, but he will ask the engineer working on it and get back to us
4. Question about adding new features/functionality to the forums, particularly to make it easier to follow dev posts
   Likely not going to happen. They’re trying to keep the forums as simple as possible to reduce load times and reduce the need for development time.
5. Mention of using the dev tracker to follow dev posts
   Sapience agrees, that is useful since dev posts always show up in the dev tracker
6. When will player council applications open up
   The plan is to open them on March 14. The Player’s Council has been great about making suggestions, so the application will be changing a bit based largely on their feedback
7. Are the council members going to you with ideas and questions, or are you going to them
   It actually works both ways. He wrote up the document for the new announcement and they’ve given feedback on it, and he’s been editing based on their feedback. The announcement we see will be probably about 75% based on their input.
8. Are there any new instances or raids coming
   As they’ve said before, nothing for 2014. Nothing about that has changed, and until you hear differently from them you can assume that it hasn’t changed.
9. Any teases you can give us about the inventory option additions
   It’s an inventory revamp not an itemization revamp, it will be focused on your bags. He’s seen the revisions and says they’re really cool. When U13 gets closer to being put up on Bullroarer he will ask the engineer to sit down and walk everyone through the revamp on livestream so they can see it for themselves.
10. Will the new inventory help with cooking
    It will not change how and what will be stored, it will just enable you to rearrange your bags. For example, you can make them all into one big bag if you want. So it will not really affect the way items themselves are handled. It’s the functionality of the inventory, not the items in it.
11. Discussion of aggro range – it increases as a character goes to levels higher and higher above their own, so that it becomes more and more difficult to stay alive. That isn’t true for chickens, though, because they are meant to go to dangerous places.
12. Are there any itemization changes coming
    They are always adjusting that, but there’s no major revamp in the cards as far as he’s aware
13. Are Misty Mountains and Trollshaws still being revamped for U13
    Yes, they are.
14. Question about bringing back Lifetime accounts
    No plans to do so, sorry.
15. What changes are coming to the Ettenmoors for U13
    Jinjaah just made a post in the forums about that.
16. If someone were to sell a lifetime account, how much would it be worth
    Absolutely nothing, because they would do everything in their power to permanently ban the account. So any money spent on the account would be wasted. That’s true for any account that someone tries to sell. They permanently ban accounts that people buy/sell.
17. How many women are on the LotRO team
    He doesn’t have a number, but it’s more than a half dozen.
18. Why does it seem that some people do something minor and get banned, and others do something heinous and don’t get banned
    A lot of this is based on your perception of what happened rather than what actually happened. Players don’t have all the facts on these situations, so it’s easy to misinterpret. Infractions are cumulative, so someone who did something that seemed minor might have already had 9 previous infractions, and this last one finally pushed them over to the ban. The person doing something more serious, that might have been their first infraction, or they might have actually received consequences you don’t know about. For example, they might have had a short ban of a day or a few days, and just didn’t say anything about it, or they might have had a long conversation with a GM and gotten an unpleasant note on their account, and the next time they do anything something may happen. You just don’t have all the facts, and your perception doesn’t necessarily line up what’s really happening behind the scenes. Everything is handled on a case-by-case basis. What were they doing, when did they do it, what did it impact – that is all up to the GMs.
19. What kind of headset are you using
    It’s a TRITTON headset. At home he’s on a Cyborg FREQ 7, at work it’s the TRITTON. He thinks the TRITTON has slightly better sound quality.
20. Will any quests be removed during the zone revamp
    That is often the case with revamps like this. Quests may be rearranged, altered or removed. He can’t say whether any specific quest will be removed for the upcoming revamps, but it’s likely to happen with at least some.
21. Discussion about lag – turning off post-processing effects alone will clear up a lot of issues. Often what people think of as lag is actually just a performance issue with your PC and not having the settings tuned to what your machine can handle.
22. Are there any LotRO T-shirts available
    They do sometimes have T-shirts available for sale, especially for conventions. Occasionally he gives them away as prizes for various events or contests. So they do exist, they’re just not widely available.
23. Question about playing LotRO on a laptop
    He would never play LotRO on a laptop if there is any way he could at all avoid it, unless he’d just spent a fortune on a screaming hot gaming laptop. He does occasionally play on his laptop at home if he’s crafting or something, with absolutely everything turned way down to their bare minimums. People in the chat disagree with him on that and post various examples of how LotRO plays just fine on laptops. He says his is just really old and not very powerful.
24. Question about bugged Champions
    He can’t answer specific questions on stuff like that, he just doesn’t know. But if you absolutely want to make sure that something is seen and addressed by the devs, something that is a bug, then /bug it. Anything that is bug reported ends up on their internal tracker. Forum posts and the like just don’t fall into that process and are less likely to be seen and addressed.
25. Question about the dev round table livestream
    He did talk to Aaron and some others about that. There are some challenges in terms of getting everyone in a place where they can all sit, have microphones and be on camera. Those types of challenges are relatively easy to overcome, but the logistics of getting it all done is a different matter. He’s going to try to get that together closer to U13. He’s going to get the engineer who did the inventory revamp on to do a livestream, he’s going to try to get Aaron on, and try to get more dev interaction in general. Obviously they’re all really busy right now. Anything like that will definitely be 2 or 3 o’clock eastern time just due to their office hours.
26. Will catapults be in the Moors for U13
    Sapience asked Jinjaah, who was in the office, and he said no, they will not be in for U13.
27. What about using Google Hangouts for the dev event
    Google Hangouts don’t change the basic problem on their side, of getting everyone connected, and they have a lot of limitations that a livestream wouldn’t have. If they have to solve the problem technically anyway, he wants to make sure that they do it in a way that can reach the most people.
28. Will you be adding war goats in the future
    He would be very very surprised if they added war goats in the future. Very entertained, but also very very surprised.
29. What about Skype for the dev round table
    Skype is one of the approaches they are discussing, but that still means making sure all the devs have headsets (which not all do at their desks), and Skype accounts that are not their own personal accounts. Like he said, logistics are the issue, and not a lack of desire or interest.
30. Request to raise stack sizes
    He’s asked in the past to raise stack sizes. Sometimes the devs have a reason for limits, but he will pass along the request.
31. Will there be a crafting wallet
    He knows that it’s been discussed, but doesn’t know if or when it will ever come to pass.
32. What about the official global chat channels
    Official global chat channels is one of the things he keeps pushing whenever he sees an engineer, which probably explains why they now run from him. ? It is being talked about, it’s one of those things they just need to find the time to do. It’s just a question of where does it fit in development.
33. Question about more details on U13
    They will probably start giving more information in a week or two.
34. Have you tried the new prototype of Hobnanigans
    Yes, he has, and it’s a lot of fun. When it’s ready to release he thinks players are going to enjoy it a lot. It’s a lot of fun, and it works. Those who were around for the previous version will remember it had a lot of issues. This one works really well.
35. Question about whether we will have any future ability to redesign our character’s physical appearance
    Not likely to see any options beyond what’s currently available at barbers anytime soon
36. Question about transfer support requests
    He doesn’t have any direct involvement in that, and doesn’t know what their backlog is. He’s sure they will eventually get to people’s requests and to just be patient.
37. Question about level 95 FA symbols
    No current answer on that, sorry. He will look into that next week and post it in this thread when he has an answer so keep checking back.
38. Question about scaling instances
    As per Joe Barry’s answer given in the recent Q&A, there is no content currently set to be scaled
39. Question about checking the status of a ticket
    When you submit a ticket you should get an email response. Reply to the message, don’t change the subject line, and check on it.
40. When you play is it just for fun or do you do find groups too
    Jokes about the implication that grouping isn’t fun. It all depends on what he wants to do at the time. Sometimes it’s group, sometimes it’s crafting, sometimes it’s solo. Sometimes he just picks a server at random, logs into chat and just watches to get an idea of what people are talking about.
41. Question about what’s coming in U13
    If you want a good idea of the changes that are coming for U13, you should check out Aaron’s producer’s letter. Beyond that they will start talking about it in more detail probably within the next week or two as it gets closer to Bullroarer.
42. Will current Big Battles be changed so that we can play them at any size we want
    Nothing he’s heard suggests that’s coming any time soon
43. If you die and it’s clear that the server won’t succeed can we just call it a run
    There is a two try rule, so if he dies or gets stuck during a second attempt, the run is ended
44. Question about Spring and Anniversary festivals
    They’re not on the calendar right now. They are still finalizing the plans on when they will occur, but as soon as it’s finalized, he will add it to the calendar and make a post about it.
45. Will the new anniversary prize be a character portrait
    He doesn’t know. He knows that’s one of the things that was discussed, but has no idea what the final choice was.
46. Question about a megaserver merge
    Sounds like someone has been pulling your leg. There are absolutely no plans whatsoever to merge servers.
47. Who do you think will get the Oscar for best picture
    He thinks 12 Years a Slave absolutely deserves it, but he thinks that it and Dallas Buyers Club will split the vote and make room for Gravity to slip in and take the win.
48. Why are you answering questions about the Oscars and server mergers and not about lag and the future of the game
    He’s been answering those questions all along (if you read through this entire forum thread, you will see that is true). Server lag – when you get a lot of people in a group this large there is going to be issues. In terms of helping you with specific lag problems you may be having, there’s a great post in the forums on it. In terms of the future of the game, read Aaron’s producer’s letter. He talks a lot about what’s coming for U13 and comments on how he will be updating us on what’s coming for 2014 and 2015.
49. Did you guys get a pre-screening of the new Hobbit movie
    He thinks they saw it maybe a day early
50. If you could add one thing to housing that exists in some form in the game already, what would it be
    If he could put Durin’s Bane in his kinship’s front yard, he would do that. And he’s not saying that will happen – it probably never will.
51. What other kinds of games do you play when you’re not playing LotRO
    Mostly flight sims, racing games and some RPGs.
52. Would you ever consider allowing crafting inside housing or kinship houses
    It’s been discussed several times recently, but there’s no plan yet to add it, and it may or may not ever make it into housing.
53. Will you be adding Easter eggs in any of the new content
    That is up to the devs and whether they have time to add something into what they are working on.
54. Who or what decides the weather on each server
    It’s a script. Certain places can have certain types of weather, and it happens more or less randomly
55. Will AMD Mantle support be added to LotRO
    Not terribly likely
56. What is your opinion of Brandywine lag
    Considering that this run was one of the less laggy of the runs so far, he thinks it’s pretty good, actually
57. Whose personal project was the LUA implementation
    Two of the Turbine engineers came up with the idea, pitched it and were given the go-ahead to pursue it as a side project
58. Are those engineers still around
    Yes, they are. One of them is currently working on the inventory revamp
59. Will the game be adapted to iPad or iPhone
    The game is monstrous, so that’s not likely unless there are some radical changes to those devices
60. Question about viewing previous runs
    Yes, you can view previous runs on the Twitch stream.
61. Will you use consumables if we send them to you
    No, he will not use any buff of any kind himself. Not for morale and power, not for run speed, not for anything. Players are welcome to put any buffs on his character that they are able to, but he will not use any himself
62. Do you think the bare-chested cosmetic should be available for all races
    The conversation has actually happened before (among the devs), but for his part, he’s neutral on the issue.
63. Player’s Council question
    The current plan is to open applications on March 14th. As for the council members who some devs and others have asked to be on the council, they can still apply, but Turbine will probably reach out to them directly.
64. Will the council size be expanded to accommodate those people who are staying on or being added
    The council size is 30 – 50, and the size of the council will not be expanded. One of the changes that are being made to the council this time is that they will not be listing character names, only forum names. But if you apply for the council and then try to hide your identity you’ve kind of missed the point.
65. Why did myLotRO go bye-bye
    It was a system that was really challenging to support. It couldn’t be fixed, it would have had to be rebuilt from the ground up and would have cost a lot to do because it would have involved changes to the game as well. It simply wasn’t in the cards.

Wow, I really talked a lot didn't I? I'd say this is an accurate representation of my comments. As always, Frick you do a great job and a fantastic service to this community!

I promised an answer to this one,
"Question about level 95 FA symbols

1. No current answer on that, sorry. He will look into that next week and post it in this thread when he has an answer so keep checking back."

Right now they're kind of on the 'bubble' for Update 13. They might make it in (that's what the team is hoping for), but they might slip out to 13.1 if there are issues in testing and QA.

Oh and as of this post I have moved this to the Official "Ask the LOTRO Team Archive" forum. It deserves to be here. It completely fits with the goal of this area.

[Celedreor]

Wow, I really talked a lot didn't I? I'd say this is an accurate representation of my comments. As always, Frick you do a great job and a fantastic service to this community!

I promised an answer to this one,
"Question about level 95 FA symbols

1. No current answer on that, sorry. He will look into that next week and post it in this thread when he has an answer so keep checking back."

Right now they're kind of on the 'bubble' for Update 13. They might make it in (that's what the team is hoping for), but they might slip out to 13.1 if there are issues in testing and QA.

Oh and as of this post I have moved this to the Official "Ask the LOTRO Team Archive" forum. It deserves to be here. It completely fits with the goal of this area.

What about your sandwiches?!

[Sapience]

What about your sandwiches?!

LOL. Yesterday was a Gyro Wrap, today is looking like grilled cheese. So that's one question we don't have to worry about today.


Edit: So, I opted for Chili Dogs. Sorry.

[frickinmuck]

Oh and as of this post I have moved this to the Official "Ask the LOTRO Team Archive" forum. It deserves to be here. It completely fits with the goal of this area.

Awesome, thanks. I sometimes wonder if people will ever read these posts.

[frickinmuck]

New forum title! Shiny!!

[Mar-Evayave]

Awesome new title, Frick! ^_^ Grats!

[Nickysmom]

Grats on your new title, Frickinmuck. You more than deserve it. Your transcriptions are a goldmine.

[LethalLethality]

Grats on the title.

[Galuhad]

Thanks for the write-up FM Congrats on the title.. still waiting on my 'Master of Kins' one *jokes*

[Jamesm429]

Why are people asking when we will get First Agers? What does anyone need with a First Ager right now?

[Sapience]

The next round should be good. Executive Producer Aaron Campbell dropped by and answered some questions as well at the end.

[marianlaika]

Grats on the title! you deserve it!

[Angadan]

Good job on the title bestowal, Sapience, well played. And congratulations to you, Frickinmuck, you richly deserve the recognition for your continued efforts.

[Crell_1]

Why are people asking when we will get First Agers? What does anyone need with a First Ager right now?

Because people always want something newer and shinier even though there's no content that requires it.

We might see them in U13 or U13.1. +Horse_Dev was not around to answer questions about their intended means of acquisition. Hopefully +Sapience or +Horse_Dev can get back to us with an answer, but no promises.

[Mar-Evayave]

The next round should be good. Executive Producer Aaron Campbell dropped by and answered some questions as well at the end.

Rats! I had so planned to be in the stream, and then... yeah, my head cold distracted me. I did go back and watch the feed, though, and I'm excited with some of the answers. Thanks to Rowan for dropping by!

[frickinmuck]

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.

Q&A Hobbits to Isengard - Snowbourn

1. What is your favourite hunter skill in-game
   Probably Heart Seeker, but he’s always liked Rain of Thorns, too.
2. Question about whether the meet and greet in North Carolina is still on
   Yes, it is. More info available in the forums.
3. Did you get any guests lined up for this evening
   Executive Producer Aaron Campbell will be joining us later on when he gets out of some meetings.
4. Why don’t you lower your settings to help with lag
   Because with this many people he’d have to lower his settings so far that it would be unpleasant to watch, everyone would just be blobs, and there would still likely be lag anyway. If people really want to help with lag they will dismount and remove cloaks.
5. Could you show us a screenshot of the new inventory
   He would if he had one, but he does not. However he has seen it and says it’s quite cool.
6. Will you be checking the plugins to ensure they work with the new inventory
   No. They do not build the plugins, nor do they support them. It’s up to the plugin developers to take care of that.
7. A mention that one of the LUA developers is working on the inventory
   Yes, that is true but under no circumstances should you assume anything about LUA support in the new system. The position of Turbine is that they do not support plugins, and that hasn’t changed.
8. Why won’t the Rift be scaled
9. Joe Barry has given some great and detailed answers on that in the past, most recently in the Ask the LotRO Team. The bottom line is, it’s a no-win situation. If it’s not scaled, people will be upset they can’t play those old raids again at end-game. If they do scale them, then people feel that something they really loved has changed beyond recognition.
10. Question about Ettenmoors lag
    Most lag is render lag at the client side. Turn down your settings until it improves. Anywhere there are tons of people, there will be lag. Lots of forum threads start out with people saying, “Everything is fine for me until I get into the Ettenmoors and then there is lag.” Yes, because you’ve gone into a region where there are tons of people.
11. Why not create original and scaled versions of raids
    That basically means twice the work, and splitting the usage of those raids – totally impractical
12. What are you looking forward to most in U13
    Flooded Isengard, some of the rewards from that region, inventory changes
13. When will the full patch notes for U13 be released
    On the day U13 is released
14. What is the expected play time as an Ent
    He doesn’t know how long the session play lasts
15. Question about people jumping off roofs in Bree and trying to get to unauthorized areas
    Going to those areas is very risky, and you can get stuck in such a way that your character can never be recovered. They block those areas off to protect players from losing their characters, and they strongly discourage people from trying to go to places that aren’t intended to be explored. If you think the risk of losing your character and all your progress so far is worth it, then there’s not a lot he can say to stop you but he and the GMs strongly discourage it.
16. What are the mail changes coming with U13
    You will be able to send multiple attachments – 10 items. And yes, they can be stacks (i.e. 10 stacks). Second, if you are a VIP you will be able to check your mail from anywhere in the game world via clicking on the notification icon, without having to go to a mailbox.
17. What about a ‘kill self’ command to get people out of stuck areas
    You are getting stuck outside the game world, where no command – not even GM commands – can help you. You are stuck outside the game world, and the game can’t find you. There isn’t a “you” in the place that doesn’t exist. You are broken, there is no recovering that character. They’ve warned players for years not to go to those areas, so don’t be mad when it happens to you.
18. What about U13 pre-release notes
    There are no such thing as pre-release notes. The only notes posted are the patch notes at the time of release on BR and on live, and the occasional forum or Q&A discussion. There are no published release notes of any kind, and won’t be until the update goes live on Bullroarer.
19. Have you discussed any character appearance changes
    It was discussed in the recent dev chat and in the last Hobbits to Isengard stream. Basically no, there are no major changes to appearance coming
20. Suggestion for Hobbits to Isengard stream on Bullroarer
    He likes the idea and will think about it. The chat sort of exploded with support for the idea so he’s going to give it more thought and see if he can’t work it into the schedule.
21. Is Bullroarer install available for download right now
    No, it’s not available for download right now, but if you already have it installed then no problem, it will patch. But if you’re needing to install it from scratch, a new install should be ready sometime before U13 goes live.
22. Are you planning a character wipe for Bullroarer
    They hope so, but want to make sure their new copy system works correctly before they do.
23. Question about balance
    This one is asked/answered every run. Yes, they are aware that players have strong opinions about balance, and they do take that into consideration when making decisions about balance. Balance is something they are constantly working on and will never really be “done.” So yes, it is being worked on and they will continue to work on it.
24. If you could add a cosmetic pet or herald to the game, what would it be
    Ask him after U13
25. Suggestion about making an after-action report about the run
    He doesn’t help anyone on any server. He is just a package to be carried. Check the Hobbits to Isengard thread, people are sharing tips and suggestions there, or start one for your server to get people working on ideas and strategies.
26. What would happen if he followed an agent from another server who got him killed just before Isengard
    Like any death, it would reset and they’d start over from the Prancing Pony and try again. It would be pretty much impossible to prove and unlikely that anyone would want to admit and bring that degree of shame on their server. Also it’s way too much effort to go to just to spoil someone’s fun. Way outside the realm of likelihood.
    Aaron Campbell aka Rowan, Executive Producer for LotRO, joins chat
27. If you could add a cosmetic pet or herald to the game, what would it be
    Rowan - He would love to have a Gollum pet, despite that it’s completely lore-breaking. Not to be close beside him, but to follow him around in the shadows and freak people out
28. What role do you plan to take in the council applications, will you be reviewing them and approving them or will Sapience be doing that while he’s on vacation
    Rowan - Sapience will be reviewing those, and Rowan will give final approval.
29. Do you personally read the suggestions that are made in the forums
    Rowan - Yes he does. Not all of them, but he definitely reads quite a few.
30. Are the Dwarf game models based off Sapience, he looks very dwarvish
    Rowan – They actually have a guy who looks much more Dwarvish than Sapience. Some of you may have met him at a game conference.
    Sapience – Yes, they have a member of their tech team who a lot of the German players were impressed by because of his very Dwarven beard.
31. When will you be accepting applications for the 2014 Player’s Council
    Sapience – He’s set the date for the 21st of March. Just in time for him to go on vacation and read them.
32. Will there be a review of cosmetics and what is on the slate cosmetically speaking
    Rowan – They are continuing to build out new ones. There has been a lot of art released over the past couple years that he’s pretty excited about – he’s a big fan of some of the armour sets that launched with Dunland on the landscape. “We’ll see what we can get.”
33. Do you play LotRO, and do you play creep
    Rowan – His personal main is a hobbit guardian who’s spending most of his time bashing through Rohan right now.
34. Scaling instance and HD loot are in need of updating - what can we look forward to
    Rowan - Lots of discussions happening around that right now, but he won’t have an answer for a couple weeks yet.
35. Any plan to go back through the cosmetics and fix items that bleed into each other
    Sapience and Rowan think it would be a good idea to bring the Art Director in to talk about cosmetics one day. These are the types of questions he’d be better able to answer.
36. Do you guys socialize over BBQs on the weekend
    Sapience – Rowan doesn’t invite him to his house, but he buys Rowan wine.
    Rowan – Says that he’s a producer so everything has to be scheduled.
    Sapience – Usually when they do trips and things together, usually Rowan and Sapience tend to buddy up. They let all the PR and marketing people go one way, and they go explore cities.
37. Any chance that people can enter the Moors without VIP
    Rowan – They are looking at temporary access options, or rentals.
38. Any new lore lore master pets in the near future
    Rowan – They are looking at other pets. Lore masters will have to share.
39. Will shard-droppers be added to Dunland and Rohan – they’ve disappeared from the game since Mirkwood
    Rowan - Warbands were the shard-dropper solution for Rohan. As they move forward into new areas they will be looking at that mix of more challenging landscape mobs outside the standard quest mob.
40. Will the Moors pass be account-wide or character-based
    Rowan – He’s not 100% sure. He saw it working last week, and thought it was character-based, but they’ll have to check on that.
41. Question about getting Sapience to use special admin powers in-game
    Sapience - The characters he uses for these runs are not admin characters, and have no special abilities beyond what a regular player has.
42. What are the odds of pets for all classes – actual pets, not just cosmetics
    Rowan – He thinks that would diffuse the roles of Captains and Lore-masters, and they don’t want to break up those classes and take away from their core roles. Including rune-keepers and their rocks.
43. Can you clarify the comments you made recently on group content
    Rowan – All he’s doing right now is laying out their priorities. Their number one priority is building great new story and great new regions for us. He’s not ruling out group content at all, just telling us what they’re doing first.
44. Do you need to buy the quests for the upcoming regions, even if you’re VIP
    Rowan – The quests in the new regions will be free to VIP
45. When will First Age items for L95s be coming
    Sapience – HoarseDev recently told him they are trying to get them in for U13 but they may not make it in until 13.1. They aren’t sure just yet.
46. Question about the possibility of new classes, or the surprise that Kate Paiz was hinting at in her letter
    Sapience – He’s going to sit back and keep quiet and let Rowan answer that one
    Rowan – He’s not going to ruin all the updates for his next producer’s letter. That would just spoil the surprise. He just had a great conversation today with (the licensing company) on that very topic.
47. In your producer’s letter you mentioned that we would be going to flooded Isengard. Does that mean we will get to play as an Ent in session play
    Sapience – Says somewhere Chris at MMO Reporter is about to cheer loudly
    Rowan – Says they love Chris dearly and thanks him for his ideas. Yes, Ent play is coming. In fact he thinks they have two versions of the model, one with Merry and Pippin, and one without.
48. How frequently are you planning to do producer’s letters
    Rowan – He will be doing them at least quarterly, but a letter isn’t the only way to communicate. He plans on doing more of these streams, just dropping in and chatting, showing up on the forums – more of that kind of thing.
49. What’s happening with festivals – same events and schedule, or will anything be changing
    Rowan – Says we will have a lot of the same events, Hobnanigans the fan favourite is also being revised, resurrected and rebuilt, and they’re talking about new boosts new events and new things they can do as they move forward.
    Sapience – Wants to point out that after 5 years of passing Rowan in the hallways and saying “Hobnanigans” and getting terrible faces, he is ecstatic and says that if you pester Rowan enough, eventually you can win.
    Rowan – Doesn’t like the sound of that
    Sapience – Apparently it only works for Sapience, and you have to have a 5 year plan.
50. How will we be acquiring the First Age symbols
    Sapience – That’s probably a better question for HoarseDev. They may get him in on one of these in the future.
51. Is Hobnanigans going to be tied to festivals, or will it be more like the treasure hunt where you guys can turn it on whenever you want
    Rowan – It’s more like the treasure hunt. It will be an independent event.
52. Explain Hobnanigans
    Sapience – Think of field hockey, and replace the ball with a chicken.
    Rowan – They’ve actually been experimenting with different field sizes. They have a 3V3, and he thinks a 5V5.
    Sapience – Multiple team sizes.
53. Any update at all on housing
    Rowan – They have a plan, it’s centred around guild crafting right now. They will get more details out there for us.
54. When will we finally be able to use the /fart emote
    Sapience – When you try to use it, it does say you can’t use it “yet”
    Rowan – He will add that one to the list. He admits that he’s been playing the South Park game recently.
    Sapience – Speculates that maybe that means we will get multiple forms of the /fart emote
    Rowan – Reminds him it’s a teen game
55. Are there any plans to add new emotes to the game
    Rowan – Nothing specific, but they typically do add stuff like that in

[Silmelin]

Thank you so much for all the hard work! It's very much appreciated!

[*]Question about the possibility of new classes, or the surprise that Kate Paiz was hinting at in her letter
Sapience – He’s going to sit back and keep quiet and let Rowan answer that one
Rowan – He’s not going to ruin all the updates for his next producer’s letter. That would just spoil the surprise. He just had a great conversation today with (unintelligible) on that very topic.

Where it's (unintelligible) I'm almost sure I heard all these words in one form or another: Saul Zaentz, enterprise, Tolkien (but with some extra bits). Sorry, English isn't my native language

[Rugongrod]

Thanks Frickinmuck and grats on shiny new title.

[frickinmuck]

Where it's (unintelligible) I'm almost sure I heard all these words in one form or another: Saul Zaentz, enterprise, Tolkien (but with some extra bits). Sorry, English isn't my native language

Yeah, I heard some of the same but didn't want to post anything specific until those gaps could be filled in by Sapience or Rowan.

[J_Howell]

Congrats on the title frickinmuck, well deserved!

1. Will shard-droppers be added to Dunland and Rohan – they’ve disappeared from the game since Mirkwood
   Rowan - Warbands were the shard-dropper solution for Rohan. As they move forward into new areas they will be looking at that mix of more challenging landscape mobs outside the standard quest mob.

I find this a very bizarre answer. Shard droppers have one key feature - they drop a shard (or mithril flake, for t6 zones). Probability is 100%. Warbands almost never drop tarnished crests or emerald shards. From what I've seen, only "raid" sized warbands even have a chance to drop one, and the probability in my experience appears to be under 3%, with a large uncertainty due to small number statistics (IIRC I've gotten two from Bosnauk-farming on three characters since HD). I do not consider that a "shard-dropper solution". And I think that's why the vast majority of tarnished crests were obtained via the skirmish camp, and the same will be true of emerald shards as soon as they get there.

[frickinmuck]

And I think that's why the vast majority of tarnished crests were obtained via the skirmish camp, and the same will be true of emerald shards as soon as they get there.

I've gotten about 10 emerald shards just via random prospecting and woodcutting as I quest through Western Rohan, so for me that's going to definitely be my way of obtaining them, but I do agree overall with your sentiment. I've always just really loved hunting shard-droppers, and I've many, many times suggested and whined for a shard-dropper deed, but it seems that's not ever likely to happen.

[Mar-Evayave]

Working at a public library in the same building that also houses the local Senior Center, I deal a lot with elderly patrons who, bless their hearts, can't speak or hear clearly. I've become the resident "listener" when they leave vague and hard to understand phone messages. xD So...

Sapience: Ah, somebody wants us to, uh, talk about the... the possibility of new classes, or what Kate was hinting at in... in her Producer's Letter at the end of last year. I'm just gonna be quiet and let you talk.
Rowan: Yeah, well, I'm not gonna ruin all my updates for my next Producer's Letter, that would just spoil the surprise.
Sapience: Ah, so that sounds like we... we should be expecting another Producer's Letter; um, and I don't know how to speak a capital S with a TM on it, but Soon^TM.
Rowan: Well, I just had a great, uh, conversation with, uh, you know, Saul Zaentz, Enterprise, and Tolkien today, just around that very topic.
Sapience: Ah, and the mystery deepens.