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

**frickinmuck** · Mar 18 2014, 12:54 PM

Originally Posted by q945

Wow! Old rule from the golden age huh? Well you'd better add a whole lot more kin houses to the housing areas because I forsee a massive shortage come U13! This rule is probably a lot less relevant in the post f2p era where anyone can create alt accounts to create a dummy kinship, but there was definitely a good reason for that rule originally...

It will take at least 3 months for any such shortage to appear. But I don't anticipate there will be one. Some people will buy up more kin houses, it's true, but many people have houses purely for storage, and now that houses have the new, expandable storage system, the only real advantage to having a kin house over a regular house is the ability to decorate a larger space. Some people will want that, some won't. Those who really want extra kin houses will have gone to the effort to get them already (I currently have 4). In fact, most people who want multiple houses will have already done that too, via creating extra accounts. Also, a lot of people will want to keep their characters in the kins they are currently in, rather than be out on their own. No kin chat, no shared name under their own, etc.

With the housing system supposedly changing later in the year (Not going to hold my breath any longer), all of this could be changing again anyway.

**Orodbril** · Mar 18 2014, 12:57 PM

Originally Posted by frickinmuck

It will take at least 3 months for any such shortage to appear. But I don't anticipate there will be one. Some people will buy up more kin houses, it's true, but many people have houses purely for storage, and now that houses have the new, expandable storage system, the only real advantage to having a kin house over a regular house is the ability to decorate a larger space. Some people will want that, some won't. Those who really want extra kin houses will have gone to the effort to get them already (I currently have 4). In fact, most people who want multiple houses will have already done that too, via creating extra accounts. Also, a lot of people will want to keep their characters in the kins they are currently in, rather than be out on their own. No kin chat, no shared name under their own, etc.

With the housing system supposedly changing later in the year (Not going to hold my breath any longer), all of this could be changing again anyway.

One word: Exactly!

**Crell_1** · Mar 18 2014, 01:03 PM

Originally Posted by Sapience

We're looking into moving the really good, informative ones, like Friday and Today's to our YouTube channel.

I dont know if the footage has been retained for the earlier runs at this point before they disappeared from Twitch, but if you have it accessible would it be possible to get all the runs put somewhere? I know that some, may simply want to re-experience the memory of their own world's experience.

**frickinmuck** · Mar 20 2014, 07:10 AM

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 - Anduin

Are you starting in Bree or in the Shire
The runs always start outside the Prancing Pony in Bree and go all the way to the gates of Isengard. That is the official distance. When you pass through the gates and see “Now entering Isengard” that is when the timer stops. But the group usually runs up to the steps anyway.
Question about Bullroarer run, and comment from HoarseDev about LIs changing
If you go back through the transcripts you will see that he was talking about something he’d like to do, and not something we can expect in an immediate update. He also hinted there’s something else they are going to try first. So before we see updated LIs we will probably see this item. He says they’re being very tight-lipped about it.
Are there any concrete pointers about the new class
Only these pointers, and he sits right over there (Points with both fingers to Aaron Campbell’s desk). If you were following the Bullroarer hobbit run you would have heard EP Aaron Campbell announced that a new class is coming, but there were few details. He suggests we wait for a future producer’s letter, and the future isn’t that far away.
When is the next Weatherstock coming
He doesn’t know specifically, but the event usually happens sometime in June. It’s organized and hosted by the Lonely Mountain Band kinship on Landroval, and they schedule it. He predicts we’ll be seeing something fairly soon from them about this year’s dates and times.
What are the release dates and gameplay style of the new class
He can’t tell us. He does know, but they aren’t ready to share that info just yet. He enjoys the speculation in chat and elsewhere. Says it’s off the mark, but interesting. [He has since clarified that he was talking about the speculation in chat being off the mark, not the speculation in the forums, necessarily. ]
One piece of information he can share is that they are now working on the next build for Bullroarer, it’s very likely it will be up there sometime tomorrow or Friday. It will have some additional changes and some things he thinks we’ll like. There’s still no installer for it. That will probably come with the next build, which will likely be sometime next week.
Mentions that there are some German speaking moderators in the chat, so if there are any German speaking people who want to ask questions, feel free to type it in the chat and one of the moderators will translate it for him and then translate his answer back as well, and post it back into the chat.
Any word about the new FA symbols
HoarseDev said they are working to get them in for U13. They weren’t in the last BR build, but HoarseDev did mention that in all probability it will ship with U13. He recommends going back and reading the discussion from the Bullroarer run to get the full detail on what HoarseDev said, or watch it on Twitch. He’s going to put it up on YouTube as well. The Chris Martin livestream demoing the new inventory system is already on YouTube for those who want to watch it (there’s also a transcript available here). The YouTube page is at youtube.com/lordoftherings
Question about the new pet
It is not just a LM pet, it’s available to everyone. For those who didn’t see the post on Facebook or on Twitter, it’s a little Huorn, and as Aaron Campbell pointed out in the BR run, there are 3 different versions of it.
Did you already wash the dye out of your beard or have you not done it yet
He hasn’t done it yet. He got the dye in the mail, but then some things came up over the weekend and he wasn’t able to do it. He’d hoped to do it on St. Patrick’s day. He’s probably going to do it this weekend and get a picture out to everyone. It’s not as embarrassing as shaving live on camera. That was pretty rough.
Aaron Campbell apologizes he can’t join the chat today, he is about to go run a team meeting about their 2014/15 plans. So things are happening. If things are still running when he gets back he may pop by and give us a peek at something.
When is the Anniversary happening this year
It should start sometime around the 24th of April. Some of the things for it are coming with U13, but it will be sometime in April before it actually starts.
Someone suggests taking the Twitch stream to the meeting. Sapience laughs and says, no, he doesn’t think so.
Question about doing more streams
This stream started officially at the end of December. There is another one coming on Friday on Meneldor. That will be the third stream this week. There will be two next week, and then the following week they are doing something a little bit different, something in the first week of April that he thinks we will like.
Question for DeviledEgg
She will currently be in that planning meeting with the rest of the LotRO team, but he sent the question to her so when she gets back she will see it and if she gets back before the run is over he will try to get an answer.
Has there been any talk of improving the instance finder to make it easier to form groups
None that he is aware of. He’s not sure how much time is being spent on instance finder for U13. It might be something they take a look at later in the year, but nothing he’s aware of. Someone in chat made a good point that a lot of the perceived problems with the instance finder is just that people don’t use it, so there’s not a big pool of players in there to choose from. If it were used more, there might be better results from using it.
Are we going to have a new monster class
The new class that was announced is a new freep class, not a creep. Sorry.
Are there plans to make Rally a general skill, or at least add it to the yellow tree
The response, actually from Jinjaah, is “It’s something that we can look into. We like the idea of in-combat res being something special to Minstrels that focus on the healing line. But perhaps we could move it in the future to the tree instead of being general so that others could potentially have access to it at a slight cost of investing your points out of a primary tree (Sapience agrees to send Jinjaah to the Rally thread in the forums).
With the new inventory, is there any way to get the 6 bags to snap to a vertical column, or any other type of alignment
No, although that was discussed as something that will be considered for a future revision.
Is U13 planned for a March release, or closer to the Anniversary
It’s definitely not going to be a March release, probably in the first or second week of April is his guess. There is one more build going to Bullroarer tomorrow, and they are planning on doing at least one more big stream from Bullroarer in the next couple of weeks, to show everyone around. If you want more information or more specifics on what’s changing you should check the Bullroarer forums. The first round of patch notes went up and can give you an overview of what to expect in terms of new things, and a number of bug fixes that are coming.
Are there multiple huorn pets in U13
Yes, there are 3 different versions
Will there be updated patch notes with the new build on Bullroarer
Yes, there will be an updated set of patch notes, probably sometime tomorrow
Can you use all 3 pets at once
No, you can’t
How tall are you
He’s 6’2”. His hobbit is not to actual scale
Any thoughts being given to allowing us to go back and revise our characters due to the new character models
Not that he knows of, but he will definitely ask the art director about that
What is your age
He just turned 46 last December
Question about whether we will see friends list changes
He has no information about that, sorry
Do you plan to archive everything onto YouTube moving forward
Probably not everything, but some of the outstanding runs, and definitely anything they do that’s informative. Probably the Bullroarer run, because it was a lot of fun and there was a lot of great information in that one. He might also put up some of the faster runs, and will definitely be adding this run since it’s the current leader. But it wouldn’t be feasible to put them all up there.
How does one become a GM
The first step is to almost always move to Boston. Step two is keep an eye out on their jobs page. All their current listings are posted there, and you can see what’s available. But you will need to live in the Boston area for about 99.5% of their jobs.
Do you need a degree
It depends on the job. If you were applying for an accounting position then you’d definitely need a degree, but with some jobs the skills you have are more important than the credentials.
Why doesn’t Vol 3 Book 14 have an on-ramp that isn’t tied to the previous portions of the epic story
Because it is a continuation and it’s going to require that you have Helm’s Deep and have completed the previous volume of the epic story. Because it is also the end of Volume 3.
How long have you been working for Turbine
He started working at Turbine Sept 2008, and the first thing he worked on was the Mines of Moria beta. So he’s been there for 6 years next September.
Sapience brings up a point mentioned in the chat, about how Turbine occasionally has local high schools or computer clubs come in and do a studio tour followed by a Q&A with the team in one of the boardrooms. Aaron usually gives the tour and leads part of the Q&A, and Sapience usually does another part. People who go through the tour tend to walk away with a much better understanding of what goes into making a game this big, and what goes into making MMOs in general. Most people would be really shocked to see how much effort goes into it, how many people and how many tasks are involved in making an even comparatively small change to the game.
Question about whether that would ever be recorded and put up on YouTube
He doesn’t think that’s a bad idea, just doesn’t know how they would do it. It would probably require more of their video team’s time than they usually have to spare.
Question about whether they ever give tours for players
Not usually, because they can be a little disruptive of everyone’s workday. Players and devs like to talk to each other. When the players council members were there it was really insightful and informative, but it did keep devs away from working on the game. So they try to limit that. Once in awhile someone will drop by unannounced and he will try to grab a dev and go meet the person in the lobby and answer a few questions if they have time. But generally speaking they don’t arrange groups except for schools and charities and things like that.
Question about the video team
Yes, they do have a full team, it’s called SVT (Sound and Video Technology) and they are responsible for in-game sounds, voiceovers, music, videos, renders, anything of that nature. Anytime you see a community update, SVT has shot that. Anytime you see LotRO trailers or videos, that are posted publicly and officially it’s almost always their work. They work hard. When the Player’s Council was there they had a member of the team come by for a Q&A with some of the council members. Some of that ended up on YouTube so you can kind of see how things are laid out.
Will there ever be an option to change your race
He thinks it’s technically a never say never thing, but don’t expect it. The work under the hood to change from one race to another would be massive, so he’d be surprised if it was ever offered.
How long does it take to make new content
That depends on what kind of content you are talking about. He has a good example he has of how things can be way more time-consuming and complicated than most people realize. He was having a conversation of one of the engineers about work he was doing on one of the changes coming with U13, which allows players to toggle confirmation boxes on or off, and basically every single confirmation box that he’s put into the system takes about an hour for him just to add a checkbox. To write the code, to check it in, to verify the code, to make sure it’s working or that it didn’t break anything else. That’s an hour of just his time. It still has to go through QA, it still has to go through a build process, and it still has to go through several other steps. And then it ends up on Bullroarer, and if any of us find a bug, he has to start over. So if he’s adding a checkbox to 5 dialog boxes, that’s most of a day shot just in adding checkboxes.
Question about whether any thought was given to adding sliders so people can adjust with the new character model changes
He doesn’t know, but generally speaking something like that means adding an entire new system into the game, whereas making minor edits to the character models means they can just add them in once and they work. Adding character modification ability outside the character creation screen is a big undertaking and a lot of heavy lifting for the team to do.
Are Players Council applications still on track to be open on the 21st
Yes they are. On Friday the 21st they will be putting a call for applications up for the 2014 council. He encourages everyone to read over the application and decide whether they want to apply. The council has been extremely helpful to the LotRO team and one of the really helpful aspects of the community as well over the past year. He knows a lot of people have opinions one way or the other, but from where they (Turbine) sit, they’ve been extraordinarily helpful and they can’t thank the council enough for what they’ve done. He really hopes that continues with the 2014 council because there’s a lot going on this year and the council is going to play a vital role in helping to make some of the decisions and helping them to refine some of their thinking.
What is the Players Council
They provide feedback to the team on projects before they are ever on paper, before they ever become a spec. Not everything, but some of the larger stuff. There are balance conversations going on right now with the council, Jinjaah has had some PvMP conversations with them. And it’s really early in the process where they can ask them what they think about x, or ask them “If we were to do this, how should we go about it?” and they provide feedback at a really super early level. Sometimes they provide suggestions that end up going into the game. One of the things that they suggested that is going into U13 are changes to the crit crafted naming process. So people will be able to turn off naming of crit items when crafting. Something he thinks players have wanted for awhile.
A lot of discussion of the character model changes in the chat
If people have feedback he urges them to write it up and post it in the Bullroarer forums where the team is currently looking for feedback on changes. That is the best place to post any Bullroarer feedback – in the Bullroarer forum. If you find a bug, whether on Bullroarer or on Live, posting to the forums is not helpful. Bugs always need to be handled through the bug reporting tool.
Did the Players Council inspire the confirmation dialog toggle
No, this is a case where Sapience can prove the devs play the game. One of the engineers was playing and kept on getting dialogs “Are you sure?” “Are you sure?” “Are you sure?” especially when trying to assign legendary points or upgrade a legacy. So it came out of his desire to get rid of the annoying confirmation and have the freedom to just do what he needs to do.
Question about new voice vocalizations and adding a toggle
Basically when the feedback is, “Hey guys, can you do twice the work?” we’re probably not going to see it happen. Adding a player selectable toggle for things like that basically means inventing a player selectable toggle for things like that. At which point it pretty much goes off the rails of possibility.
Questions for clarification on the council process
It’s not a voting process, it’s not an election. Players submit applications and Turbine reviews them. If you want to nominate someone feel free to fill out an application on their behalf and it will be reviewed just like any other player’s. This year the devs have specifically asked for certain players to be added, so when the devs have identified players that they feel have given great feedback and the ability to speak well on a topic without having to go down a more aggressive or wholly negative path, they tend to point those people out and ask him if they can add them to the council or add them to the next round. So there’s something to be said for participating in the forums in a way that the devs can respect, which generally means that you do so with respect toward them. Because that can get you nominated by them and their nominations are almost always approved, unless they find someone that has had some really bad experiences with them in the past. And even then there’s still a good probability.
What happened to the kiss emote and saffron’s kiss
He doesn’t know. He will ask.
Do individuals nominated by a dev still have to submit an application
They will be asked to provide all the same information, regardless of how they are presented – whether they apply or are nominated by a player or dev. So, yes they will, but instead of them doing it blindly, if he sees someone who has been nominated but hasn’t filled out an application he will probably follow up with them and get them to fill one out. They are not excused from the application process, it’s just that theirs has got a pre-approved stamp on it.
Question about the Extra Life rap
It’s one of those things that sounds good on paper, but in practice is not that easy due to copyright issues that tend to make people in the building twitch, and the simple fact that they are not rappers. It’s probably something they should have never agreed to. He doesn’t expect it’s going to happen. He’s still trying to find ways of making it happen in some form. Maybe in a karaoke bar or something. He doesn’t know what the status of it is. He’s disappointed that it’s not looking like they are going to be able to do it.

**Rainothon** · Mar 20 2014, 09:06 AM

Aaron Campbell apologizes he can’t join the chat today, he is about to go run a team meeting about their 2014/15 plans. So things are happening. If things are still running when he gets back he may pop by and give us a peek at something.

At this point, everyone and everything should have been aimed at delaying the run. You failed us, Anduin server!

**Sapience** · Mar 20 2014, 09:54 AM

Originally Posted 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 - Anduin

Are you starting in Bree or in the Shire
The runs always start outside the Prancing Pony in Bree and go all the way to the gates of Isengard. That is the official distance. When you pass through the gates and see “Now entering Isengard” that is when the timer stops. But the group usually runs up to the steps anyway.
Question about Bullroarer run, and comment from HoarseDev about LIs changing
If you go back through the transcripts you will see that he was talking about something he’d like to do, and not something we can expect in an immediate update. He also hinted there’s something else they are going to try first. So before we see updated LIs we will probably see this item. He says they’re being very tight-lipped about it.
Are there any concrete pointers about the new class
Only these pointers, and he sits right over there (Points with both fingers to Aaron Campbell’s desk). If you were following the Bullroarer hobbit run you would have heard EP Aaron Campbell announced that a new class is coming, but there were few details. He suggests we wait for a future producer’s letter, and the future isn’t that far away.
When is the next Weatherstock coming
He doesn’t know specifically, but the event usually happens sometime in June. It’s organized and hosted by the Lonely Mountain Band kinship on Landroval, and they schedule it. He predicts we’ll be seeing something fairly soon from them about this year’s dates and times.
What are the release dates and gameplay style of the new class
He can’t tell us. He does know, but they aren’t ready to share that info just yet. He enjoys the speculation in chat and elsewhere. Says it’s off the mark, but interesting.
One piece of information he can share is that they are now working on the next build for Bullroarer, it’s very likely it will be up there sometime tomorrow or Friday. It will have some additional changes and some things he thinks we’ll like. There’s still no installer for it. That will probably come with the next build, which will likely be sometime next week.
Mentions that there are some German speaking moderators in the chat, so if there are any German speaking people who want to ask questions, feel free to type it in the chat and one of the moderators will translate it for him and then translate his answer back as well, and post it back into the chat.
Any word about the new FA symbols
HoarseDev said they are working to get them in for U13. They weren’t in the last BR build, but HoarseDev did mention that in all probability it will ship with U13. He recommends going back and reading the discussion from the Bullroarer run to get the full detail on what HoarseDev said, or watch it on Twitch. He’s going to put it up on YouTube as well. The Chris Martin livestream demoing the new inventory system is already on YouTube for those who want to watch it (there’s also a transcript available here). The YouTube page is at youtube.com/lordoftherings
Question about the new pet
It is not just a LM pet, it’s available to everyone. For those who didn’t see the post on Facebook or on Twitter, it’s a little Huorn, and as Aaron Campbell pointed out in the BR run, there are 3 different versions of it.
Did you already wash the dye out of your beard or have you not done it yet
He hasn’t done it yet. He got the dye in the mail, but then some things came up over the weekend and he wasn’t able to do it. He’d hoped to do it on St. Patrick’s day. He’s probably going to do it this weekend and get a picture out to everyone. It’s not as embarrassing as shaving live on camera. That was pretty rough.
Aaron Campbell apologizes he can’t join the chat today, he is about to go run a team meeting about their 2014/15 plans. So things are happening. If things are still running when he gets back he may pop by and give us a peek at something.
When is the Anniversary happening this year
It should start sometime around the 24th of April. Some of the things for it are coming with U13, but it will be sometime in April before it actually starts.
Someone suggests taking the Twitch stream to the meeting. Sapience laughs and says, no, he doesn’t think so.
Question about doing more streams
This stream started officially at the end of December. There is another one coming on Friday on Meneldor. That will be the third stream this week. There will be two next week, and then the following week they are doing something a little bit different, something in the first week of April that he thinks we will like.
Question for DeviledEgg
She will currently be in that planning meeting with the rest of the LotRO team, but he sent the question to her so when she gets back she will see it and if she gets back before the run is over he will try to get an answer.
Has there been any talk of improving the instance finder to make it easier to form groups
None that he is aware of. He’s not sure how much time is being spent on instance finder for U13. It might be something they take a look at later in the year, but nothing he’s aware of. Someone in chat made a good point that a lot of the perceived problems with the instance finder is just that people don’t use it, so there’s not a big pool of players in there to choose from. If it were used more, there might be better results from using it.
Are we going to have a new monster class
The new class that was announced is a new freep class, not a creep. Sorry.
Are there plans to make Rally a general skill, or at least add it to the yellow tree
The response, actually from Jinjaah, is “It’s something that we can look into. We like the idea of in-combat res being something special to Minstrels that focus on the healing line. But perhaps we could move it in the future to the tree instead of being general so that others could potentially have access to it at a slight cost of investing your points out of a primary tree (Sapience agrees to send Jinjaah to the Rally thread in the forums).
With the new inventory, is there any way to get the 6 bags to snap to a vertical column, or any other type of alignment
No, although that was discussed as something that will be considered for a future revision.
Is U13 planned for a March release, or closer to the Anniversary
It’s definitely not going to be a March release, probably in the first or second week of April is his guess. There is one more build going to Bullroarer tomorrow, and they are planning on doing at least one more big stream from Bullroarer in the next couple of weeks, to show everyone around. If you want more information or more specifics on what’s changing you should check the Bullroarer forums. The first round of patch notes went up and can give you an overview of what to expect in terms of new things, and a number of bug fixes that are coming.
Are there multiple huorn pets in U13
Yes, there are 3 different versions
Will there be updated patch notes with the new build on Bullroarer
Yes, there will be an updated set of patch notes, probably sometime tomorrow
Can you use all 3 pets at once
No, you can’t
How tall are you
He’s 6’2”. His hobbit is not to actual scale
Any thoughts being given to allowing us to go back and revise our characters due to the new character models
Not that he knows of, but he will definitely ask the art director about that
What is your age
He just turned 46 last December
Question about whether we will see friends list changes
He has no information about that, sorry
Do you plan to archive everything onto YouTube moving forward
Probably not everything, but some of the outstanding runs, and definitely anything they do that’s informative. Probably the Bullroarer run, because it was a lot of fun and there was a lot of great information in that one. He might also put up some of the faster runs, and will definitely be adding this run since it’s the current leader. But it wouldn’t be feasible to put them all up there.
How does one become a GM
The first step is to almost always move to Boston. Step two is keep an eye out on their jobs page. All their current listings are posted there, and you can see what’s available. But you will need to live in the Boston area for about 99.5% of their jobs.
Do you need a degree
It depends on the job. If you were applying for an accounting position then you’d definitely need a degree, but with some jobs the skills you have are more important than the credentials.
Why doesn’t Vol 3 Book 14 have an on-ramp that isn’t tied to the previous portions of the epic story
Because it is a continuation and it’s going to require that you have Helm’s Deep and have completed the previous volume of the epic story. Because it is also the end of Volume 3.
How long have you been working for Turbine
He started working at Turbine Sept 2008, and the first thing he worked on was the Mines of Moria beta. So he’s been there for 6 years next September.
Sapience brings up a point mentioned in the chat, about how Turbine occasionally has local high schools or computer clubs come in and do a studio tour followed by a Q&A with the team in one of the boardrooms. Aaron usually gives the tour and leads part of the Q&A, and Sapience usually does another part. People who go through the tour tend to walk away with a much better understanding of what goes into making a game this big, and what goes into making MMOs in general. Most people would be really shocked to see how much effort goes into it, how many people and how many tasks are involved in making an even comparatively small change to the game.
Question about whether that would ever be recorded and put up on YouTube
He doesn’t think that’s a bad idea, just doesn’t know how they would do it. It would probably require more of their video team’s time than they usually have to spare.
Question about whether they ever give tours for players
Not usually, because they can be a little disruptive of everyone’s workday. Players and devs like to talk to each other. When the players council members were there it was really insightful and informative, but it did keep devs away from working on the game. So they try to limit that. Once in awhile someone will drop by unannounced and he will try to grab a dev and go meet the person in the lobby and answer a few questions if they have time. But generally speaking they don’t arrange groups except for schools and charities and things like that.
Question about the video team
Yes, they do have a full team, it’s called SVT (Sound and Video Technology) and they are responsible for in-game sounds, voiceovers, music, videos, renders, anything of that nature. Anytime you see a community update, SVT has shot that. Anytime you see LotRO trailers or videos, that are posted publicly and officially it’s almost always their work. They work hard. When the Player’s Council was there they had a member of the team come by for a Q&A with some of the council members. Some of that ended up on YouTube so you can kind of see how things are laid out.
Will there ever be an option to change your race
He thinks it’s technically a never say never thing, but don’t expect it. The work under the hood to change from one race to another would be massive, so he’d be surprised if it was ever offered.
How long does it take to make new content
That depends on what kind of content you are talking about. He has a good example he has of how things can be way more time-consuming and complicated than most people realize. He was having a conversation of one of the engineers about work he was doing on one of the changes coming with U13, which allows players to toggle confirmation boxes on or off, and basically every single confirmation box that he’s put into the system takes about an hour for him just to add a checkbox. To write the code, to check it in, to verify the code, to make sure it’s working or that it didn’t break anything else. That’s an hour of just his time. It still has to go through QA, it still has to go through a build process, and it still has to go through several other steps. And then it ends up on Bullroarer, and if any of us find a bug, he has to start over. So if he’s adding a checkbox to 5 dialog boxes, that’s most of a day shot just in adding checkboxes.
Question about whether any thought was given to adding sliders so people can adjust with the new character model changes
He doesn’t know, but generally speaking something like that means adding an entire new system into the game, whereas making minor edits to the character models means they can just add them in once and they work. Adding character modification ability outside the character creation screen is a big undertaking and a lot of heavy lifting for the team to do.
Are Players Council applications still on track to be open on the 21st
Yes they are. On Friday the 21st they will be putting a call for applications up for the 2014 council. He encourages everyone to read over the application and decide whether they want to apply. The council has been extremely helpful to the LotRO team and one of the really helpful aspects of the community as well over the past year. He knows a lot of people have opinions one way or the other, but from where they (Turbine) sit, they’ve been extraordinarily helpful and they can’t thank the council enough for what they’ve done. He really hopes that continues with the 2014 council because there’s a lot going on this year and the council is going to play a vital role in helping to make some of the decisions and helping them to refine some of their thinking.
What is the Players Council
They provide feedback to the team on projects before they are ever on paper, before they ever become a spec. Not everything, but some of the larger stuff. There are balance conversations going on right now with the council, Jinjaah has had some PvMP conversations with them. And it’s really early in the process where they can ask them what they think about x, or ask them “If we were to do this, how should we go about it?” and they provide feedback at a really super early level. Sometimes they provide suggestions that end up going into the game. One of the things that they suggested that is going into U13 are changes to the crit crafted naming process. So people will be able to turn off naming of crit items when crafting. Something he thinks players have wanted for awhile.
A lot of discussion of the character model changes in the chat
If people have feedback he urges them to write it up and post it in the Bullroarer forums where the team is currently looking for feedback on changes. That is the best place to post any Bullroarer feedback – in the Bullroarer forum. If you find a bug, whether on Bullroarer or on Live, posting to the forums is not helpful. Bugs always need to be handled through the bug reporting tool.
Did the Players Council inspire the confirmation dialog toggle
No, this is a case where Sapience can prove the devs play the game. One of the engineers was playing and kept on getting dialogs “Are you sure?” “Are you sure?” “Are you sure?” especially when trying to assign legendary points or upgrade a legacy. So it came out of his desire to get rid of the annoying confirmation and have the freedom to just do what he needs to do.
Question about new voice vocalizations and adding a toggle
Basically when the feedback is, “Hey guys, can you do twice the work?” we’re probably not going to see it happen. Adding a player selectable toggle for things like that basically means inventing a player selectable toggle for things like that. At which point it pretty much goes off the rails of possibility.
Questions for clarification on the council process
It’s not a voting process, it’s not an election. Players submit applications and Turbine reviews them. If you want to nominate someone feel free to fill out an application on their behalf and it will be reviewed just like any other player’s. This year the devs have specifically asked for certain players to be added, so when the devs have identified players that they feel have given great feedback and the ability to speak well on a topic without having to go down a more aggressive or wholly negative path, they tend to point those people out and ask him if they can add them to the council or add them to the next round. So there’s something to be said for participating in the forums in a way that the devs can respect, which generally means that you do so with respect toward them. Because that can get you nominated by them and their nominations are almost always approved, unless they find someone that has had some really bad experiences with them in the past. And even then there’s still a good probability.
What happened to the kiss emote and saffron’s kiss
He doesn’t know. He will ask.
Do individuals nominated by a dev still have to submit an application
They will be asked to provide all the same information, regardless of how they are presented – whether they apply or are nominated by a player or dev. So, yes they will, but instead of them doing it blindly, if he sees someone who has been nominated but hasn’t filled out an application he will probably follow up with them and get them to fill one out. They are not excused from the application process, it’s just that theirs has got a pre-approved stamp on it.
Question about the Extra Life rap
It’s one of those things that sounds good on paper, but in practice is not that easy due to copyright issues that tend to make people in the building twitch, and the simple fact that they are not rappers. It’s probably something they should have never agreed to. He doesn’t expect it’s going to happen. He’s still trying to find ways of making it happen in some form. Maybe in a karaoke bar or something. He doesn’t know what the status of it is. He’s disappointed that it’s not looking like they are going to be able to do it.

Well done as usual.

I wanted to expand just a bit on this one...

Did the Players Council inspire the confirmation dialog toggle
No, this is a case where Sapience can prove the devs play the game. One of the engineers was playing and kept on getting dialogs “Are you sure?” “Are you sure?” “Are you sure?” especially when trying to assign legendary points or upgrade a legacy. So it came out of his desire to get rid of the annoying confirmation and have the freedom to just do what he needs to do.

While the council didn't come up with the idea, PlunkDowner (the engineer who did the work) did open up a discussion about what dialogues should be included. Mostly they agreed with those he had already identified. So while not their idea, they did have input into it.

**infinitewhimsy** · Mar 20 2014, 11:37 AM

Originally Posted by Sapience

Question about whether any thought was given to adding sliders so people can adjust with the new character model changes
He doesn’t know, but generally speaking something like that means adding an entire new system into the game, whereas making minor edits to the character models means they can just add them in once and they work. Adding character modification ability outside the character creation screen is a big undertaking and a lot of heavy lifting for the team to do.

Originally Posted by Sapience

Any thoughts being given to allowing us to go back and revise our characters due to the new character models
Not that he knows of, but he will definitely ask the art director about that

...does this mean we're getting updated character models? More customization options? If so, that is tremendous news. And certainly something I've been longing for for ages.

I would dearly love a chance to redo basic character features. My very first toon is an Elf from Rivendell and all 94 levels later I've been wishing I could change her hair to blonde, but couldn't because of her origin (a fact I didn't appreciate until later). At the same time I'm so heavily invested in the character I couldn't possibly remake it.

**Sapience** · Mar 20 2014, 12:06 PM

Originally Posted by infinitewhimsy

...does this mean we're getting updated character models? More customization options? If so, that is tremendous news. And certainly something I've been longing for for ages.

I would dearly love a chance to redo basic character features. My very first toon is an Elf from Rivendell and all 94 levels later I've been wishing I could change her hair to blonde, but couldn't because of her origin (a fact I didn't appreciate until later). At the same time I'm so heavily invested in the character I couldn't possibly remake it.

yes there are new character models. Not so much new as tweaked and adjusted a bit. No there are not new options to customize your characters.

**infinitewhimsy** · Mar 20 2014, 12:22 PM

Well, that's still something. And seems good enough pretense to maybe implement some kind of character revision? One can hope. Either way it's great that the aesthetics are getting some attention.

And not to play devil's advocate but there are a lot of hairstyles and such already coded into the game that are artificially unavailable to players. They can be seen on NPCs. Naturally I'm not asking for Galadriel's hair, but it'd be really nice to have some new/more choices at the barber. In particular I've never understood why the Coldfells Scout Elves can have red hair but players cannot. It's in the lore!

**Herwegur** · Mar 20 2014, 12:59 PM

Originally Posted by infinitewhimsy

...does this mean we're getting updated character models? More customization options? If so, that is tremendous news. And certainly something I've been longing for for ages.

Currently, no customization options are being offered: the changes will automatically apply to all player characters already existing in game.

There is an official feedback thread with screenshots for comparison:
https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthr...-for-Update-13

**frickinmuck** · Mar 20 2014, 02:06 PM

Originally Posted by Herwegur

Currently, no customization options are being offered: the changes will automatically apply to all player characters already existing in game.

There is an official feedback thread with screenshots for comparison:
https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthr...-for-Update-13

Also, if people are wondering about the differences, I put together a side by side comparison of each of the avatar types, from BR and live. Dwarf avs are here. Female avs are here. Male avs are here. The comparison shows the avs with the body type slider all the way to the left, and then again with the slider all the way to the right.

**frickinmuck** · Mar 22 2014, 07:30 PM

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 - Meneldor

Will we be doing Hobbits to Isengard next year
He hadn’t thought that far ahead, he’s just trying to get through 29 servers right now. But if it’s popular enough we may do it again next year, or something like it, or later on this year. Maybe come up with a slightly different event.
Do you know of any significant changes planned for the next build on BR
The devs are continuing to adjust and tweak balance, doing some stuff with mitigations, work on PvmP, and they’re probably still waiting on our feedback on this build since it just went up.
Are FA in BB's as platinum rewards still expected when u13 goes live
FA was just addressed in a previous chat, so check out the last recap and your answer should be in there.
Do you know if U13P2 patch notes are intended to tell us that FAs are available in all group sizes for T3 skirmishes, and only raid-sized classic instances
He doesn’t know specifics on that.
Any chance of getting stables in housing, to show off our steeds
It is one of the many things that he’s passed on to the devs in terms of requests for housing. He has no idea whether that’s actually going to happen. Never say never, but he doesn’t expect it to happen soon.
Question about bans and players council
It would probably depend on what for and if it’s been a pattern of problems. Also, how recent it was. If it’s a recent ban then there’s probably not a lot of hope of that person getting on the council. An older ban – it would depend on what it was for and if any actions had been taken against you since then. If nothing, then it might not affect your chances.
Discussion of griefers in the run
Harassment is against the code of conduct. There is a difference between multi-boxing, which the game supports, and deliberately trying to harass someone in-game. The latter is very much against the COC.
How important is recent forum activity to the Players Council application process
They actually like to hear from players who they don’t normally hear from, but that are very active in the game, so a low (or a high) post count will not affect your application. What it may do is just give them a better sense of how you tend to interact with the development team, in terms of the way you choose to express yourself, but they do not weigh post count against an application. They are far more interested in hearing from players who are well spoken, which they can get a sense of from your application, and players who are active in the game, but maybe don’t talk a lot on the forums but still have something valuable to add.
Are you planning on adding PvP to Isengard and Helm’s Deep
No.
Can we get forge-masters and relic-masters added to housing areas
Good idea, he will pass the suggestion on.
Last year it seemed you were interested in Players Council members who had a strong interest in certain areas of LotRO. Is that the same again this year
They ask the question not so that they can say, “oh, we need 5 people who do this, and 3 who do that, and 6 who do the other,” it’s so that they can get an idea of how well self-professed play styles match with the population at large. They try very hard to make sure that the ratios within the Players Council members match the ratio of players in-game. Obvious it’s a much smaller group, but they try to keep the ratios about the same. But if someone has a broad interest that doesn’t exclude them over someone who only does one or two things, or vice versa.
How much weight do nominations have in getting someone on the council
Being nominated is just another way for people to express an interest in seeing someone on the council. If there is one nomination for one person and a hundred for another, they will probably look at them both the same. It’s not a vote. If someone got 200 nominations and they looked at him and he doesn’t play regularly, he’s racked up a ton of infractions, he doesn’t interact with the devs well. 200 recommendations are not going to help that person. The one thing your application does weigh very heavily on is, you have got to be able to express yourself in a reasonable and respectful manner. If your posts tend to start out with “you guys are idiots,” your odds are almost none.
Suggestion that people who can’t get on the council can still nominate
That is a great suggestion. If you are not eligible or if you don’t want to be on the council, a good alternative is nominate someone who you think would do a good job, or someone who you think isn’t going to apply because they don’t feel they qualify for whatever reason.
This year the application doesn’t include the server name, is there a reason for that
Last year they inadvertently added at least one person from each server to the council. That was not by design. It doesn’t matter what server you are playing on. Ultimately every server is playing the same game. If you think about it, some of the best conversations happen in the general forums, where you don’t necessarily know which server the person talking is from, so it shouldn’t impact the discussion much at all. If someone makes a point in the forums, whether we agree or disagree with them has nothing to do what server they are from, because in the end we are all playing the same game regardless of server.
How do you feel about server merges
They don’t talk about them, haven’t talked about them, aren’t planning on them, don’t believe they are needed.
Will there be a BR Moors event
Check the Bullroarer forums to see if Raina has posted anything about it. If it were to happen, it would come from her.
Are there any plans to translate the game into other languages
There are no plans to add more languages. Currently they support English, German and French with no plans to support additional languages.
Is each server on its own box
It’s a complicated question. Each server consists of multiple servers, hardware, etc. There are probably half a dozen boxes to comprise one server. [A previous answer to this goes into more detail – Frick]
Since scaling is coming to the Moors would you consider doing time on a freep instead of a creep for Extra Life this year
He’d be willing to do that, but we’d need to earn it. That’s usually one of the goals, to earn him out into the Ettenmoors. He will figure out a number and see if it’s reached. He’s game for that.
When you add the new class are you going to add more character slots
He knows some people have asked for the limit to be upped to 20 or 25, and he did pass that on to the engineers. He doesn’t know if it will happen, they need to take a look at it. There’s a lot more to adding slots than people probably realize, because it’s a database issue.
Will LotRO be at GamesCon in Cologne this year
As far as he knows, no, and they won’t be at either Pax this year either. He personally will not be in Germany this year. He probably will be available if you’re coming to Pax East, and they are trying to put together a small get-together for LotRO players for Pax East. Check the forums for IRL events. It’s not going to be a big thing like in years past, but it will be an attempt to give players who want to come hang out with a few devs and opportunity to do so.
What are the plans for the RK in the future
In the future he doesn’t know. He knows there are a few changes in the U13 BR patch notes, but doesn’t know what else may be coming in the future.
What is the new class
The new class is…. a secret, sorry.
Can you tell us when we will be getting the new class
Sorry, no.
Is anyone currently in charge of the Captain class
He thinks Jinjaah may be working on Captains but he may be wrong
Was Rowan serious when he mentioned Glorfindel the Hairdresser
No, he’s pretty sure that was a joke. The “Hairdresser” should have tipped you off.
How long have you had the idea for the new class
They’ve been kicking around ideas for awhile. Finding the right one at the right time, and mostly getting the classes into a state where they can add a new class due to the class revamp, was the hardest thing. Without having done that they would never have had the opportunity to add a new class.
What kind of class would you like to see added to the game
That’s sneaky, because the class they’re adding is the one he’d want to see added.
Do you want a pirate class
No he doesn’t, although he does love the corsair days up and down the Brandywine.
Will there be a fix for balance issues in PvP
Absolutely. The team is always working in balance, but U13 will have some pretty significant changes. Some of them are already live on Bullroarer right now.
What’s your favourite joke about the new class so far
He really likes the Glorfindel Hairdresser one.
Would you reveal the class under torture
He thinks that’s a little extreme.
How do you do the voiceovers in-game
It’s professional voice actors, for the most part.
What class would you not want to see added to the game
He wouldn’t want to see wizards. They already had 7 and that was enough. He doesn’t think Middle Earth needs more. A couple flaked out, one went bad, one had to die – even though he came back. He thinks that’s plenty.
Question about getting combat war goats
Probably a no.
Suggestion about having a competition to get your voice added to an NPC
There’s a whole lot of issues with that. There’s a voice acting thing that he can’t got into but unfortunately that’s something they could probably never do.
Question about what gear he is wearing
For his outfit, he usually just gets something off one of the mannequins in Michel Delving or Bree. For his actual gear he just has whatever you get by default when questing, and he has the Harbinger cloak.
Will Fashion Maven ever return
They are looking at other ways of awarding the title so that someone doesn’t have to be lucky enough to be seen and get rewarded that way. The hope is to make it a rewardable title through a code, and make it a prize through various screen-shot contests, or some means other than being lucky enough to be seen by a GM.
Which new 2014 region are you looking forward to
He’s looking forward to Flooded Isengard. He thinks it’s an iconic moment that is visually pretty stunning.
Chickens in the run and chicken talk in the chat are a reminder for Sapience of the upcoming player meet-ups. If you live in either NorthEastern North Carolina or live near or can access Central Florida. Next Friday night he will be in Rocky Mountain North Carolina having BBQ with some of the players. Check the forums for times, and where they will be meeting up. If you are near Orlando Florida, he will be there two weeks from now eating chicken wings with some players. That’s looking to be a big one, with 40 or more players planning to attend. Again, check the forums for details. If you are able to make those he’d be happy to see you.
Since you are working on Fashion Maven, will you be working on Riddlemaster too
It’s unfair to say they are working on Fashion Maven. They are working on a way to not have to rely on it to obtain the title. He will look into the Riddlemaster, although they do tend to break that one out around the time of Frodo and Bilbo’s birthday, and get him on all the servers to do the riddles. So he doesn’t know about that one. He doesn’t want to give the false impression that he’s trying to bring back the Fashion Maven. He’s just trying to find ways to repurpose the rewards so they can give the rewards more often.
You should have a meet-up in New Zealand
He’s game, send him a ticket.
Hobbit aside, what is your favourite film this year or to be released
He’s excited for Captain America – he likes him better than Iron Man. That’s probably the biggest one for him. In terms of what he’s seen already, it’s a toss-up between 12 Years a Slave and Gravity, obviously for completely different reasons.
Any news on what’s happening with lotteries
Nothing new to update regarding that at the moment, sorry.
What is your favourite TV show and why is it Archer
Actually, it’s not. Until it ended recently, he thinks True Detective was great. He’s looking forward to the next season of that. He also really likes Arrow, and is looking forward to Game of Thrones in 2 weeks.
Any new dye colors coming for U13 besides Steel Blue
He doesn’t know. He thinks the addition of dyes is one of those “when time allows” kinds of things.
Question about gifting 30 days of game-time to another player
Call account support. And he can’t stress enough that it needs to be a call. Other contact methods won’t work for stuff like this. Account Support toll-free 1-855-WBGAMES Account Support Hours: 12pm – 7pm Eastern Time 7 days a week (GMT -5) [Crell also suggested this - Frick]
Do you ever watch any player streams or videos of LotRO
Yes he does. He loves watching things like that. When he finds something really cool he will share it out to the community. If people are doing stuff like that and want it to get noticed by the LotRO team, put it on Twitter with #lotro. They do follow the Twitter feeds.
What do you have against war goats
Nothing. He loves goats. Especially with a little salt and pepper.
Question about a livestream sometime in April
Yes, he did mention one for the first week of April. It’s why he didn’t schedule any hobbit runs for that time. That and the fact that he will be out of town, in Florida. They’re going to be doing a livestream that is similar to what they do for press, which will have a complete tour of Update 13. He’s not really sure exactly when it will be but as soon as he has a firm date he will make sure we all know.
Discussion about the proportion of players from event to event
He’s interested in the numbers. Not sure if he could share them or not, but would be interested in seeing them himself.
Question about equipment tabs, being able to swap quickly between sets
He doesn’t know if that has a chance. He doesn’t know if it’s in the suggestion forums or not, but if it isn’t he recommends adding it. He can pass it on to the devs.
Sapience takes everyone on a tour of the tag and freeze-tag fields in Northern Bree by the festival grounds. It’s a lot of fun. There are a couple of locations where, if you get enough people into the area it will trigger the start of a game of tag, or of freeze tag. You should check it out. Tag is normal tag. In freeze-tag anyone who is touched by the person who is “it” is frozen and has to be thawed by another player.
Is there any chance of getting Thornley and his men to finish their project
Says that looks like a government job to him, he’s not sure they’ll ever finish it.
Will the area revamps be free for those who purchased the quest packs, and for VIPs
Yes, if you already own the area, the revamp is free
More questions about the new class
He doesn’t know anything about the availability, pricing or timing of the new class. It’s too early, and what he does know he is not at liberty to share. When it comes closer to the time they will share more info.
Regardless of level, what is your personal favourite place in the whole game
He is a big fan of Forochel, and he likes Evendim, too.
Is there a possibility of the shouts that aren’t going live being repurposed
He imagines there’s always a chance, but he’s not aware of any plans.
What about giving players commands to execute those
He thinks that sounds like a new system. If it were to happen it would be prioritized well behind anything coming this year. [I think they would make cool emotes for the store - Frick]
Are we ever going to have ice skates
Probably not. Interesting idea, but probably not.
Any chance of a mammoth pet
He’s not sure who would be the pet at that point
Are player meet and greets ever coming to Dallas
Meet and greets tend to largely be based on wherever he happens to be on his vacations – he takes a day out to meet with some players and hang out for awhile. He tries to bring whatever he can in the way of swag and goodies. But in order for a meet and greet to happen it generally has to be somewhere he’d already be going to anyway, and since he primarily has family in Florida and northern New York, that’s where these events tend to fall. But never say never.
Questions about his personal characters
They don’t tend to share their personal character names. He does play on a couple of different servers, but he won’t say which or what his character names are.
What major conventions will LotRO be at this year
To the best of his knowledge they aren’t planning on being at any.
Do you have a favourite raid
Like everyone he’s a big fan of the Rift, and he liked the Isengard ones a lot too. He also really enjoys skirmishes and Big Battles
Are you an altaholic
He doesn’t really consider himself one. His alts don’t tend to get very far. If he feels like leveling, which he does from time to time, he will roll up a new character.
How are volume of applications shaping up this year compared to last
He checked before the run and so far it looks about even.
Why don’t hunters have pets – hunters by design should have pets
That’s not actually true. There are a lot of MMOs where hunter types don’t have pets.
If you could see any part of the world from Game of Thrones, what would you want to see
He’d want to see King’s Landing, but he wouldn’t want to go to the wall. He’s kind of over winter right now. He would definitely want it to be in the 7 kingdoms. He wouldn’t be too interested in crossing the narrow sea.

Sapience - Don’t forget to troubleshoot your sound before the next run!

**Lohi** · Mar 22 2014, 10:24 PM

We already have ice skates though. One of those Forochel reputation items is really a pair of skates (luistin).

**Thurallor** · Mar 22 2014, 10:46 PM

Originally Posted by frickinmuck

Sapience - Don’t forget to troubleshoot your sound before the next run!

Sounded like analog noise induced by nearby electronic components. Are you using the audio interface on the motherboard, or a high-end sound card? The cheapest and easiest solution is probably to get a USB headset (i.e. one that has a built-in sound card). That way the analog-to-digital conversion happens inside the headset, and the signal travelling through the wire to your PC is entirely digital (and thus immune to noise).

**Orodbril** · Mar 22 2014, 11:51 PM

Originally Posted by frickinmuck

49. What do you have against war goats

Nothing. He loves goats. Especially with a little salt and pepper.

Just a huge LOL.

**Galuhad** · Mar 23 2014, 08:06 AM

Thanks again for the write-up

There were only five wizards though, not seven

**Mar-Evayave** · Mar 23 2014, 09:50 AM

Originally Posted by Galuhad

There were only five wizards though, not seven

Perhaps he meant the Maiar in general, though even then there are more than 7. In addition to the two blues, Radagast, Gandalf and Saruman, Sauron was also a Maia, and the Balrog. Then there were some other Maiar from earlier on.

**Orodbril** · Mar 23 2014, 10:44 AM

Originally Posted by Mar-Evayave

Perhaps he meant the Maiar in general, though even then there are more than 7. In addition to the two blues, Radagast, Gandalf and Saruman, Sauron was also a Maia, and the Balrog. Then there were some other Maiar from earlier on.

Wasn't there a wizard respectively a man who believed to be one in the West of Galtrev with his crebain and so on just on the other side of the street?

**Faratalath** · Mar 23 2014, 12:34 PM

Originally Posted by Orodbril

Wasn't there a wizard respectively a man who believed to be one in the West of Galtrev with his crebain and so on just on the other side of the street?

Rook! Our good old wannabe wizard

He's on quite a quest himself.. wonder where we will meet him next!

**Orodbril** · Mar 24 2014, 11:33 AM

Originally Posted by frickinmuck

Q&A Hobbits to Isengard - Meneldor

23. What is the new class
The new class is…. a secret, sorry.

24. Can you tell us when we will be getting the new class
Sorry, no.

27. How long have you had the idea for the new class

They’ve been kicking around ideas for awhile. Finding the right one at the right time, and mostly getting the classes into a state where they can
add a new class due to the class revamp, was the hardest thing. Without having done that they would never have had the opportunity to add a

56. More questions about the new class
He doesn’t know anything about the availability, pricing or timing of the new class. It’s too early, and what he does know he is not at liberty to
share. When it comes closer to the time they will share more info.

Das sollte den Großteil der Fragen dazu erstmal klären. Einiges weiß er selber noch nicht, wahrscheinlich haben sie noch nicht einmal einen Preis festgelegt und dann wollen sie ja auch nicht gleich alles verraten. Und der Satz "It's too early" sagt mir persönlich, dass sie planen, die Klasse irgendwann am Ende des Jahres Ende Oktober bis Mitte Dezember herausbringen wollen und nicht in 2-3 Monaten, sodass es genug Zeit und Arbeitskraft für das Balancing gibt.

**Sapience** · Mar 24 2014, 12:46 PM

Originally Posted 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 - Meneldor

Will we be doing Hobbits to Isengard next year
He hadn’t thought that far ahead, he’s just trying to get through 29 servers right now. But if it’s popular enough we may do it again next year, or something like it, or later on this year. Maybe come up with a slightly different event.
Do you know of any significant changes planned for the next build on BR
The devs are continuing to adjust and tweak balance, doing some stuff with mitigations, work on PvmP, and they’re probably still waiting on our feedback on this build since it just went up.
Are FA in BB's as platinum rewards still expected when u13 goes live
FA was just addressed in a previous chat, so check out the last recap and your answer should be in there.
Do you know if U13P2 patch notes are intended to tell us that FAs are available in all group sizes for T3 skirmishes, and only raid-sized classic instances
He doesn’t know specifics on that.
Any chance of getting stables in housing, to show off our steeds
It is one of the many things that he’s passed on to the devs in terms of requests for housing. He has no idea whether that’s actually going to happen. Never say never, but he doesn’t expect it to happen soon.
Question about bans and players council
It would probably depend on what for and if it’s been a pattern of problems. Also, how recent it was. If it’s a recent ban then there’s probably not a lot of hope of that person getting on the council. An older ban – it would depend on what it was for and if any actions had been taken against you since then. If nothing, then it might not affect your chances.
Discussion of griefers in the run
Harassment is against the code of conduct. There is a difference between multi-boxing, which the game supports, and deliberately trying to harass someone in-game. The latter is very much against the COC.
How important is recent forum activity to the Players Council application process
They actually like to hear from players who they don’t normally hear from, but that are very active in the game, so a low (or a high) post count will not affect your application. What it may do is just give them a better sense of how you tend to interact with the development team, in terms of the way you choose to express yourself, but they do not weigh post count against an application. They are far more interested in hearing from players who are well spoken, which they can get a sense of from your application, and players who are active in the game, but maybe don’t talk a lot on the forums but still have something valuable to add.
Are you planning on adding PvP to Isengard and Helm’s Deep
No.
Can we get forge-masters and relic-masters added to housing areas
Good idea, he will pass the suggestion on.
Last year it seemed you were interested in Players Council members who had a strong interest in certain areas of LotRO. Is that the same again this year
They ask the question not so that they can say, “oh, we need 5 people who do this, and 3 who do that, and 6 who do the other,” it’s so that they can get an idea of how well self-professed play styles match with the population at large. They try very hard to make sure that the ratios within the Players Council members match the ratio of players in-game. Obvious it’s a much smaller group, but they try to keep the ratios about the same. But if someone has a broad interest that doesn’t exclude them over someone who only does one or two things, or vice versa.
How much weight do nominations have in getting someone on the council
Being nominated is just another way for people to express an interest in seeing someone on the council. If there is one nomination for one person and a hundred for another, they will probably look at them both the same. It’s not a vote. If someone got 200 nominations and they looked at him and he doesn’t play regularly, he’s racked up a ton of infractions, he doesn’t interact with the devs well. 200 recommendations are not going to help that person. The one thing your application does weigh very heavily on is, you have got to be able to express yourself in a reasonable and respectful manner. If your posts tend to start out with “you guys are idiots,” your odds are almost none.
Suggestion that people who can’t get on the council can still nominate
That is a great suggestion. If you are not eligible or if you don’t want to be on the council, a good alternative is nominate someone who you think would do a good job, or someone who you think isn’t going to apply because they don’t feel they qualify for whatever reason.
This year the application doesn’t include the server name, is there a reason for that
Last year they inadvertently added at least one person from each server to the council. That was not by design. It doesn’t matter what server you are playing on. Ultimately every server is playing the same game. If you think about it, some of the best conversations happen in the general forums, where you don’t necessarily know which server the person talking is from, so it shouldn’t impact the discussion much at all. If someone makes a point in the forums, whether we agree or disagree with them has nothing to do what server they are from, because in the end we are all playing the same game regardless of server.
How do you feel about server merges
They don’t talk about them, haven’t talked about them, aren’t planning on them, don’t believe they are needed.
Will there be a BR Moors event
Check the Bullroarer forums to see if Raina has posted anything about it. If it were to happen, it would come from her.
Are there any plans to translate the game into other languages
There are no plans to add more languages. Currently they support English, German and French with no plans to support additional languages.
Is each server on its own box
It’s a complicated question. Each server consists of multiple servers, hardware, etc. There are probably half a dozen boxes to comprise one server. [A previous answer to this goes into more detail – Frick]
Since scaling is coming to the Moors would you consider doing time on a freep instead of a creep for Extra Life this year
He’d be willing to do that, but we’d need to earn it. That’s usually one of the goals, to earn him out into the Ettenmoors. He will figure out a number and see if it’s reached. He’s game for that.
When you add the new class are you going to add more character slots
He knows some people have asked for the limit to be upped to 20 or 25, and he did pass that on to the engineers. He doesn’t know if it will happen, they need to take a look at it. There’s a lot more to adding slots than people probably realize, because it’s a database issue.
Will LotRO be at GamesCon in Cologne this year
As far as he knows, no, and they won’t be at either Pax this year either. He personally will not be in Germany this year. He probably will be available if you’re coming to Pax East, and they are trying to put together a small get-together for LotRO players for Pax East. Check the forums for IRL events. It’s not going to be a big thing like in years past, but it will be an attempt to give players who want to come hang out with a few devs and opportunity to do so.
What are the plans for the RK in the future
In the future he doesn’t know. He knows there are a few changes in the U13 BR patch notes, but doesn’t know what else may be coming in the future.
What is the new class
The new class is…. a secret, sorry.
Can you tell us when we will be getting the new class
Sorry, no.
Is anyone currently in charge of the Captain class
He thinks Jinjaah may be working on Captains but he may be wrong
Was Rowan serious when he mentioned Glorfindel the Hairdresser
No, he’s pretty sure that was a joke. The “Hairdresser” should have tipped you off.
How long have you had the idea for the new class
They’ve been kicking around ideas for awhile. Finding the right one at the right time, and mostly getting the classes into a state where they can add a new class due to the class revamp, was the hardest thing. Without having done that they would never have had the opportunity to add a new class.
What kind of class would you like to see added to the game
That’s sneaky, because the class they’re adding is the one he’d want to see added.
Do you want a pirate class
No he doesn’t, although he does love the corsair days up and down the Brandywine.
Will there be a fix for balance issues in PvP
Absolutely. The team is always working in balance, but U13 will have some pretty significant changes. Some of them are already live on Bullroarer right now.
What’s your favourite joke about the new class so far
He really likes the Glorfindel Hairdresser one.
Would you reveal the class under torture
He thinks that’s a little extreme.
How do you do the voiceovers in-game
It’s professional voice actors, for the most part.
What class would you not want to see added to the game
He wouldn’t want to see wizards. They already had 7 and that was enough. He doesn’t think Middle Earth needs more. A couple flaked out, one went bad, one had to die – even though he came back. He thinks that’s plenty.
Question about getting combat war goats
Probably a no.
Suggestion about having a competition to get your voice added to an NPC
There’s a whole lot of issues with that. There’s a voice acting thing that he can’t got into but unfortunately that’s something they could probably never do.
Question about what gear he is wearing
For his outfit, he usually just gets something off one of the mannequins in Michel Delving or Bree. For his actual gear he just has whatever you get by default when questing, and he has the Harbinger cloak.
Will Fashion Maven ever return
They are looking at other ways of awarding the title so that someone doesn’t have to be lucky enough to be seen and get rewarded that way. The hope is to make it a rewardable title through a code, and make it a prize through various screen-shot contests, or some means other than being lucky enough to be seen by a GM.
Which new 2014 region are you looking forward to
He’s looking forward to Flooded Isengard. He thinks it’s an iconic moment that is visually pretty stunning.
Chickens in the run and chicken talk in the chat are a reminder for Sapience of the upcoming player meet-ups. If you live in either NorthEastern North Carolina or live near or can access Central Florida. Next Friday night he will be in Rocky Mountain North Carolina having BBQ with some of the players. Check the forums for times, and where they will be meeting up. If you are near Orlando Florida, he will be there two weeks from now eating chicken wings with some players. That’s looking to be a big one, with 40 or more players planning to attend. Again, check the forums for details. If you are able to make those he’d be happy to see you.
Since you are working on Fashion Maven, will you be working on Riddlemaster too
It’s unfair to say they are working on Fashion Maven. They are working on a way to not have to rely on it to obtain the title. He will look into the Riddlemaster, although they do tend to break that one out around the time of Frodo and Bilbo’s birthday, and get him on all the servers to do the riddles. So he doesn’t know about that one. He doesn’t want to give the false impression that he’s trying to bring back the Fashion Maven. He’s just trying to find ways to repurpose the rewards so they can give the rewards more often.
You should have a meet-up in New Zealand
He’s game, send him a ticket.
Hobbit aside, what is your favourite film this year or to be released
He’s excited for Captain America – he likes him better than Iron Man. That’s probably the biggest one for him. In terms of what he’s seen already, it’s a toss-up between 12 Years a Slave and Gravity, obviously for completely different reasons.
Any news on what’s happening with lotteries
Nothing new to update regarding that at the moment, sorry.
What is your favourite TV show and why is it Archer
Actually, it’s not. Until it ended recently, he thinks True Detective was great. He’s looking forward to the next season of that. He also really likes Arrow, and is looking forward to Game of Thrones in 2 weeks.
Any new dye colors coming for U13 besides Steel Blue
He doesn’t know. He thinks the addition of dyes is one of those “when time allows” kinds of things.
Question about gifting 30 days of game-time to another player
Call account support. And he can’t stress enough that it needs to be a call. Other contact methods won’t work for stuff like this. Account Support toll-free 1-855-WBGAMES Account Support Hours: 12pm – 7pm Eastern Time 7 days a week (GMT -5) [Crell also suggested this - Frick]
Do you ever watch any player streams or videos of LotRO
Yes he does. He loves watching things like that. When he finds something really cool he will share it out to the community. If people are doing stuff like that and want it to get noticed by the LotRO team, put it on Twitter with #lotro. They do follow the Twitter feeds.
What do you have against war goats
Nothing. He loves goats. Especially with a little salt and pepper.
Question about a livestream sometime in April
Yes, he did mention one for the first week of April. It’s why he didn’t schedule any hobbit runs for that time. That and the fact that he will be out of town, in Florida. They’re going to be doing a livestream that is similar to what they do for press, which will have a complete tour of Update 13. He’s not really sure exactly when it will be but as soon as he has a firm date he will make sure we all know.
Discussion about the proportion of players from event to event
He’s interested in the numbers. Not sure if he could share them or not, but would be interested in seeing them himself.
Question about equipment tabs, being able to swap quickly between sets
He doesn’t know if that has a chance. He doesn’t know if it’s in the suggestion forums or not, but if it isn’t he recommends adding it. He can pass it on to the devs.
Sapience takes everyone on a tour of the tag and freeze-tag fields in Northern Bree by the festival grounds. It’s a lot of fun. There are a couple of locations where, if you get enough people into the area it will trigger the start of a game of tag, or of freeze tag. You should check it out. Tag is normal tag. In freeze-tag anyone who is touched by the person who is “it” is frozen and has to be thawed by another player.
Is there any chance of getting Thornley and his men to finish their project
Says that looks like a government job to him, he’s not sure they’ll ever finish it.
Will the area revamps be free for those who purchased the quest packs, and for VIPs
Yes, if you already own the area, the revamp is free
More questions about the new class
He doesn’t know anything about the availability, pricing or timing of the new class. It’s too early, and what he does know he is not at liberty to share. When it comes closer to the time they will share more info.
Regardless of level, what is your personal favourite place in the whole game
He is a big fan of Forochel, and he likes Evendim, too.
Is there a possibility of the shouts that aren’t going live being repurposed
He imagines there’s always a chance, but he’s not aware of any plans.
What about giving players commands to execute those
He thinks that sounds like a new system. If it were to happen it would be prioritized well behind anything coming this year. [I think they would make cool emotes for the store - Frick]
Are we ever going to have ice skates
Probably not. Interesting idea, but probably not.
Any chance of a mammoth pet
He’s not sure who would be the pet at that point
Are player meet and greets ever coming to Dallas
Meet and greets tend to largely be based on wherever he happens to be on his vacations – he takes a day out to meet with some players and hang out for awhile. He tries to bring whatever he can in the way of swag and goodies. But in order for a meet and greet to happen it generally has to be somewhere he’d already be going to anyway, and since he primarily has family in Florida and northern New York, that’s where these events tend to fall. But never say never.
Questions about his personal characters
They don’t tend to share their personal character names. He does play on a couple of different servers, but he won’t say which or what his character names are.
What major conventions will LotRO be at this year
To the best of his knowledge they aren’t planning on being at any.
Do you have a favourite raid
Like everyone he’s a big fan of the Rift, and he liked the Isengard ones a lot too. He also really enjoys skirmishes and Big Battles
Are you an altaholic
He doesn’t really consider himself one. His alts don’t tend to get very far. If he feels like leveling, which he does from time to time, he will roll up a new character.
How are volume of applications shaping up this year compared to last
He checked before the run and so far it looks about even.
Why don’t hunters have pets – hunters by design should have pets
That’s not actually true. There are a lot of MMOs where hunter types don’t have pets.
If you could see any part of the world from Game of Thrones, what would you want to see
He’d want to see King’s Landing, but he wouldn’t want to go to the wall. He’s kind of over winter right now. He would definitely want it to be in the 7 kingdoms. He wouldn’t be too interested in crossing the narrow sea.

Sapience - Don’t forget to troubleshoot your sound before the next run!

Looks good!

Yes I'll be checking into the sound issue. It's a USB headset, but it might be the USB port on my keyboard introducing some interference.

**frickinmuck** · Mar 24 2014, 12:53 PM

Originally Posted by Orodbril

Das sollte den Großteil der Fragen dazu erstmal klären. Einiges weiß er selber noch nicht, wahrscheinlich haben sie noch nicht einmal einen Preis festgelegt und dann wollen sie ja auch nicht gleich alles verraten. Und der Satz "It's too early" sagt mir persönlich, dass sie planen, die Klasse irgendwann am Ende des Jahres Ende Oktober bis Mitte Dezember herausbringen wollen und nicht in 2-3 Monaten, sodass es genug Zeit und Arbeitskraft für das Balancing gibt.

I translated this using Google because my German is embarrassingly rusty.

Originally Posted by Orodbril

That should clear up most of the questions for now. Some he himself knows not yet, they probably have not even set a price and then they also do not want tell everything equal. And the sentence "It's too early" tells me personally that they are planning the class at some point want to bring out until mid-December at the end of the end of October and not in 2-3 months, so there is enough time and manpower for the balancing.

**bahgweed** · Mar 24 2014, 02:06 PM

Frick got a title for all the hard work she has been doing! Well done LOTRO Community for recognizing this! And a big, heart-felt, "Thank you", to Frickinmuck for doing this. I do this thankless job at work on a regular basis, but I am pretty sure your work gets read a lot more than mine does!

**frickinmuck** · Mar 24 2014, 03:18 PM

Originally Posted by bahgweed

I do this thankless job at work on a regular basis, but I am pretty sure your work gets read a lot more than mine does!

Aha!! Now I know who to go to for help if I ever need a break!

**Orodbril** · Mar 24 2014, 03:26 PM

Originally Posted by frickinmuck

I translated this using Google because my German is embarrassingly rusty.

It was the wrong thread because I intended to post it in a German one and accidently posted it here. ^^

I thought I deleted it and I actually clicked on delete post, but somehow it didn't worked...

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

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