+Cord of the Rings Stream Summary November 5th, 2021

[Harvain]

+Cord of the Rings Stream Summary November 5th, 2021: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1196758189



Stream Content:

• Hello and welcome!
  
  
• Cordovan and his participation in Movember.
  
  
• Making of the Brawler Class Article.
  
  
• More information about the LOTRO.com & LOTRO Forums upgrades and changes in the near future.
  
  
• LOTRO Bonus Days for a Crafting XP Boost until November 8th @ 3 am Eastern.
  
  
• Update 31 Early Release Notes.
  
  
• Extra Life Fundraiser on November 6th.
  
  
• LOTRO Community Q&A.
  
  
• Cordovan finished up Azanulbizar (Blood of Azog Quest Pack) Quests ahead of the Fate of Gundabad Expansion.

Start of Stream - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1196758189 to 00:02:56 - Welcome & Computer Issues:

• Welcome to +Cord of the Rings on Twitch, Youtube and Facebook hosted by LOTRO Community Manager Cordovan.

Note for Cordovan and anyone who Streams and might encounter issues:

I personally don’t use XSplit but from what you’ve been saying in recent Streams and what info Twitch shows, it sounds like it is most likely several issues causing such.

I know from the last several Streams that your FPS from Twitch is usually anywhere from mid 20s to low 30s (usually 28, 30 or 32 FPS) and has not been a stable frame rate although Friday, November 5th’s Stream was actually good on Twitch’s side for a viewer.

• What is your Hardware? (CPU, Graphics Card, Motherboard, etc)
  
  
• How many Programs, Open Browser Tabs, etc are you running during a Stream?
  
  
• Do you know how much CPU, RAM, GPU and Internet Bandwidth Usage you are at throughout a Stream and especially during High Activity moments?
  
  
• Are you just using XSplit for Streaming?
  
  
• What is your Internet Connection Speeds for Download and Upload?
  
  
• Did you personally setup your XSplit Settings or use the Default Options?
  
  
• What Upload Speeds for Twitch, Youtube and Facebook are you using?

Once you know all this information or a basic understanding then you want to ensure you aren’t full using your CPU, GPU, RAM, Internet Bandwidth, etc while Streaming. Want to keep a nice bit of overhead for possible moments of increased usage.

Running a Web Browser, Multiple Tabs, XSplit with multiple Streams, Game(s), Programs, etc all add to these usages so if your Hardware can’t handle such, it’s best to limit what you have running on your Streaming Machine.




Beardless Cordovan - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1196758189?t=00h02m57s to 00:04:24 - Movember:

• Cordovan has shaved his beard in support of: https://us.movember.com/ a campaign to raise awareness about Men’s Health Awareness. Link for more information and have to check for Cordovan’s personal stuff he does for such on his personal channel.

Brawler Class - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1196758189?t=00h04m25s to 00:05:23 - Making of the Brawler:

• https://www.lotro.com/en/game/articl...king-new-class

LOTRO.com Update - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1196758189?t=00h05m24s to 00:07:49 - Future of LOTRO.com:

• This is a very summarized version of such but LOTRO.com will be getting an upgrade possibly this December 2021, pending anything.
  
  
• The LOTRO Forums also will be something different with the current LOTRO Forums likely put into a Read-Only state.
  
  
• More information about the LOTRO.com & LOTRO Forums upgrades and changes in the near future.

Ongoing Projects - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1196758189?t=00h07m50s to 00:08:07 - Lag & Game Performance:

• SSG is continuing their other Projects such as improving Game Performance.

Quick Question - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1196758189?t=00h08m08s to 00:08:49 - LOTRO Bonus Days:

• Question about Private Message on the LOTRO Forums and if they would be lost due to future changes. More information on such down the road.
  
  
• LOTRO Bonus Days for a Crafting XP Boost until November 8th @ 3 am Eastern.

Update 31 - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1196758189?t=00h08m50s to 00:16:27 - Early (Subject to Change) Release Notes:

• NOTE: Cordovan shows off the Release Notes early for Update 31 at this point. They aren’t fully the Release Notes for what is coming with Update 31.
  
  
• As this section is Subject to Change, it is recommended to watch and listen to the Stream for this information. Full Release Notes for Update 31 will be coming next week, pending anything.

Green Screen Issues - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1196758189?t=00h16m28s to 00:20:26 - Extra Life Fundraiser:

• Extra Life Fundraiser on November 6th. Link for information:
  https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthr...-Games-and-You!

Cordovan Computer Issues - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1196758189?t=00h20m27s to 00:47:50 - LOTRO Community Q&A:

• Note: Just having the Q&A Part in one section. Lots of things answered in recent weeks. Will just be Summarizing/Highlighting Key Newer Questions/Answers.
  
  
• Question about Remmorchant Gear. Many pieces of Level 130 Instance, Raid, Crafted Gear for “endgame” Content do have a Max Level to them. This is for the Bonus(es) they provide will no longer be usable once above said Character Level. Which is Level 134, so once Level 135 these Items will lose their Bonus(es). The Items can still be used however, they won’t auto unslot once you go over this Max Level for the Bonus(es).
  
  
• One comment about fixing Evernight lag. SSG is aware of this, continuing to work on this and on Friday, November 5th sometime after the +Cord of the Rings Stream had a meeting about such and other things.
  
  
• The Reward Track System is expected with Update 31.1 now. No ETA on such ahead of Update 31. More information on this in the future.
  
  
• Legendary Server Anor is getting the Ered Mithrin Content on December 15th.
  
  
• There will be a Trailer for the Fate of Gundabad Expansion and one big video game website is getting an exclusive for 24 hours before it is distributed elsewhere. More info here very soon.
  
  
• The standard Embers to Motes process will occur for Fate of Gundabad.
  
  
• LOTROQUESTS2021 is still available until November 30th, 2021.
  
  
• Scenario, the Housing Developer, might have new News about Housing later in November. Stay tuned.
  
  
• LOTRO Minimum Hardware Requirements won’t change with Update 31: Fate of Gundabad Expansion but newer Content does need more compared to Older Content Areas.
  
  
• Gold Spammers is an ongoing problem which SSG is aware of. SSG is considering further steps to try and counter such outside of Customer Service trying to get rid of them.
  
  
• UI Overhaul including 4K Support is a future Project SSG still wants to do. More information in the future.
  
  
• SSG is still doing a majority of it’s work from home and have no plans for any form of Public Event anytime soon during the ongoing Pandemic.
  
  
• Cordovan cannot comment on Steam Charts and LOTRO Population. Note: Steam Charts only reflect the users who use Steam to launch the LOTRO Launcher + Game.
  
  
  
  
• Q&A I missed that bohbashum pointed out for a question they had asked and got answered:
  
  

  Me in chat: "Will there be more LI traceries? There is a lack for some classes on some roles. Like a tank warden doesn't have many traceries relevant"
  
  Streamer: "Will there be more LI traceries? Absolutely. Absolutely."

Cordovan sees the time - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1196758189?t=00h47m51s to 01:00:52 - Azanulbizar Historical Quest:

• Cordovan getting his remaining Azanulbizar Quests finished ahead of the Launch of the Fate of Gundabad Expansion for his Champion Character he plays on the +Cord of the Rings Streams.

Wrapping Up - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1196758189?t=01h00m53s to 00:00:00 - End of Stream:

• Reminder about Extra Life Fundraiser and SSG’s participation.
  
  
• Thanks for watching, have fun and Extra Life Fundraiser Streams are tomorrow (Saturday, November 6th) and Cordovan will be on during his allotted time.

End of Stream.

[bohbashum]

Thanks for this write up!!!

I got to watch a while and even get a question in you may have missed as it was so quick.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1196758189?t=00h39m12s

Me in chat: "Will there be more LI traceries? There is a lack for some classes on some roles. Like a tank warden doesn't have many traceries relevant"

Streamer: "Will there be more LI traceries? Absolutely. Absolutely."

Good hint that the current list isn't complete. May mean weapons will get more slots but hopefully the question isn't hurt like that.

[Harvain]

Thanks for this write up!!!

I got to watch a while and even get a question in you may have missed as it was so quick.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1196758189?t=00h39m12s

Me in chat: "Will there be more LI traceries? There is a lack for some classes on some roles. Like a tank warden doesn't have many traceries relevant"

Streamer: "Will there be more LI traceries? Absolutely. Absolutely."

Good hint that the current list isn't complete. May mean weapons will get more slots but hopefully the question isn't hurt like that.

Yeah, I recall hearing such being said but been multi-tasking all Saturday in-between typing the Summary out. I think I started to type about such and then forgot my train of thought and moved onto the next thing I typed up haha.

Thanks for pointing it out

[Aeroniel]

@Harvain, your summaries of LoTRO streams is a great service to the community. Thank you for taking the time to do them!

[Harvain]

@Harvain, your summaries of LoTRO streams is a great service to the community. Thank you for taking the time to do them!

Welcome!

[mundwicht]

Serious question to Cordovans answer to someones question somewhere in the middle of the stream:

Why don't you consider a more customer-driven-development approach combined with a customer-payed-in-advance-approach?

From my point of view
- everythings becomes more transparent and understandable -> less community-work, less misunderstanding, less negative posts
- it would be clear what resources there are you can provide -> important knowledge for the customer
- it would be clear to you what the majority of current and potential customers want -> important knowledge for you
- it would be clear what is must-have, nice-to-have, immediat, short-term, medium-term, long-term, impossible -> important knowledge for both
- it would be clear what is affordable and what not
- it would be clear what could be done if a certain 'pledge-goal' would be reached, for example the temporal additon of refactoring-experts who help you clean up code and make it future-proven, performance-experts
- it could be possible to work together with some people of the great community and provide info what is being worked on (artists, modellers, plugin-developers, rp-people, lore-enthusiasts aso)
- maybe lots more

Cheers

[LagunaD2]

Why don't you consider a more customer-driven-development approach combined with a customer-payed-in-advance-approach?

Everything you suggest would be great, but it seems like pie-in-the-sky.

The stream of content nowhere close to release quality onto the Live servers indicates to me that they're getting by hand-to-mouth, and have no flexibility to do anything except scramble to meet the next deadline.

[Dolamrothdame]

Thanks so much for doing this, Harvain!

[Nostro44]

Thank you for this transcript.

[*]The standard Embers to Motes process will occur for Fate of Gundabad.

I don't recall losing embers when Morgul came out though I could be wrong. If I'm going to lose them I may as well try to spend them before Wednesday. Does anyone remember if this actually happened?

[WeirdJedi]

I don't recall losing embers when Morgul came out though I could be wrong. If I'm going to lose them I may as well try to spend them before Wednesday. Does anyone remember if this actually happened?

When Minas Morgul came out, they had that issue where people were transferring characters back-and-forth to go over the ember cap. That's why they decided to change the transfer policy and add this line to the patch notes: "All Embers and Motes of Enchantment, and all Figments of Splendour, have had their total Wallet cap set to 10,000, if their total exceeded 10,000."

What Cordovan said might have been a tad confusing since I don't recall losing any ember either when the level cap went up. He might have been eluding to the fact that all current quests and gear that would normally provide you ember will now switch over to motes.

[Braer]

Thank you for this transcript.



I don't recall losing embers when Morgul came out though I could be wrong. If I'm going to lose them I may as well try to spend them before Wednesday. Does anyone remember if this actually happened?

When Minas Morgul came out, they had that issue where people were transferring characters back-and-forth to go over the ember cap. That's why they decided to change the transfer policy and add this line to the patch notes: "All Embers and Motes of Enchantment, and all Figments of Splendour, have had their total Wallet cap set to 10,000, if their total exceeded 10,000."

What Cordovan said might have been a tad confusing since I don't recall losing any ember either when the level cap went up. He might have been eluding to the fact that all current quests and gear that would normally provide you ember will now switch over to motes.

Standard would be to use up some motes after the update to barter shortfalls in gear before levelling out of being able to open -130 coffer boxes while still 130, as happened at 120. Previous bartered ember coffers got a rename in the last beta and did still contain gear that would render back 400 embers. Returning motes from existing ember gear wouldn't go down too well so maybe they won't change that. Probably vague because so much is still to be sorted in the next couple of days and lacking context for meaning. Additionally we have a number of weeklies that reward embers and it's always a bit hit or miss if these all change to motes for the usual reasons. The mote/ember barter for enhancements is going away: Just for a pair of LIs on each of my chars going into the 131-150 "range" requires 2760 yellow and purple enhancements, 360 a pair for a lone char. Enhancements seem very much tied to content purchase and as I'm waiting a while that's where my embers are going for now.

[Harvain]

Thank you for this transcript.



I don't recall losing embers when Morgul came out though I could be wrong. If I'm going to lose them I may as well try to spend them before Wednesday. Does anyone remember if this actually happened?

When Minas Morgul came out, they had that issue where people were transferring characters back-and-forth to go over the ember cap. That's why they decided to change the transfer policy and add this line to the patch notes: "All Embers and Motes of Enchantment, and all Figments of Splendour, have had their total Wallet cap set to 10,000, if their total exceeded 10,000."

What Cordovan said might have been a tad confusing since I don't recall losing any ember either when the level cap went up. He might have been eluding to the fact that all current quests and gear that would normally provide you ember will now switch over to motes.

Standard would be to use up some motes after the update to barter shortfalls in gear before levelling out of being able to open -130 coffer boxes while still 130, as happened at 120. Previous bartered ember coffers got a rename in the last beta and did still contain gear that would render back 400 embers. Returning motes from existing ember gear wouldn't go down too well so maybe they won't change that. Probably vague because so much is still to be sorted in the next couple of days and lacking context for meaning. Additionally we have a number of weeklies that reward embers and it's always a bit hit or miss if these all change to motes for the usual reasons. The mote/ember barter for enhancements is going away: Just for a pair of LIs on each of my chars going into the 131-150 "range" requires 2760 yellow and purple enhancements, 360 a pair for a lone char. Enhancements seem very much tied to content purchase and as I'm waiting a while that's where my embers are going for now.

Yeah, obviously don't quote me 100% but I am pretty sure all this means is that all Items from Pre-Update 31 which were Embers that might be out in the wild or available to get will be turned into Motes for their Purchase/Disenchant Amount.

Then the Embers from Items will be the Level 131 to Level 140 Items (As the Gundabad Content Ember Boxes are Level 131 to 140).

[Raninia]

Yeah, obviously don't quote me 100% but I am pretty sure all this means is that all Items from Pre-Update 31 which were Embers that might be out in the wild or available to get will be turned into Motes for their Purchase/Disenchant Amount.

Then the Embers from Items will be the Level 131 to Level 140 Items (As the Gundabad Content Ember Boxes are Level 131 to 140).

This is correct.

[Thurallor]

LOTRO.com Update - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1196758189?t=00h05m24s to 00:07:49 - Future of LOTRO.com:

• This is a very summarized version of such but LOTRO.com will be getting an upgrade possibly this December 2021, pending anything.
  
  
• The LOTRO Forums also will be something different with the current LOTRO Forums likely put into a Read-Only state.
  
  
• More information about the LOTRO.com & LOTRO Forums upgrades and changes in the near future.

Just to clarify, your summary makes it seem as if the forums are going to be updated in December, but that isn't the case. Cordovan said the December LOTRO.com update "(fingers crossed) won't impact the forums".

Regarding the long-awaited forum update, he said: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1196758189?t=00h06m37s

• "The forums will eventually also be getting updated."
• "We've been talking about that for years, and it's still in the works."
• "That's going to be a 2022 project, I think."
• "We're going to be refreshing the forums [...] next year. I think I may have said that for this year, and maybe even the year before as well, but this time we mean it, hopefully."

So, I really don't view this as a status update. All of the stated intentions have been communicated before. My opinion: If/when they can find the spare human resources to do it, they will. But there are (and should be) higher priorities, and probably always will be, unless something breaks catastrophically and the system has to be shut down.

[Harvain]

Just to clarify, your summary makes it seem as if the forums are going to be updated in December, but that isn't the case. Cordovan said the December LOTRO.com update "(fingers crossed) won't impact the forums".

Regarding the long-awaited forum update, he said: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1196758189?t=00h06m37s

• "The forums will eventually also be getting updated."
• "We've been talking about that for years, and it's still in the works."
• "That's going to be a 2022 project, I think."
• "We're going to be refreshing the forums [...] next year. I think I may have said that for this year, and maybe even the year before as well, but this time we mean it, hopefully."

So, I really don't view this as a status update. All of the stated intentions have been communicated before. My opinion: If/when they can find the spare human resources to do it, they will. But there are (and should be) higher priorities, and probably always will be, unless something breaks catastrophically and the system has to be shut down.

Well, I did state it was very summarized and that we'll get more information on such in the future but this was an update on such and giving a timetable for one element even if it is one which can/likely will be adjusted.

Personally, LOTRO.com and the LOTRO Forums are a key part of what makes the Lord of the Rings Online and it has been long overdue for both being more modern.

LOTRO itself and LOTRO.com/LOTRO Forums are one in the same and should both be the main place folks go to when it comes to everything LOTRO (pending of course certain elements as the wiki, guides, etc out in the wild have their own value and only need links from the forums when folks need help with a more specific thing within the game, etc).

Then it'll just come down to SSG making the most out of said newer LOTRO.com and later LOTRO Forums as the LOTRO Community will definitely use them to their fullest.

[YamydeAragon]

First than anything else, thanks to the OP for the transcription. I can never stop pointing out that there are many hearing impaired LOTRO players that wish to know the news but a audio/video record, will not help them for obvious reasons. Now some reactions on the themes that called most my attention:

LOTRO.com Update - https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1196758189?t=00h05m24s to 00:07:49 - Future of LOTRO.com:

• This is a very summarized version of such but LOTRO.com will be getting an upgrade possibly this December 2021, pending anything.
  
  
• The LOTRO Forums also will be something different with the current LOTRO Forums likely put into a Read-Only state.
  
  
• More information about the LOTRO.com & LOTRO Forums upgrades and changes in the near future.

Nice to hear! This forums have aged well. Is certainly time to get a upgrade.

[*]The Reward Track System is expected with Update 31.1 now. No ETA on such ahead of Update 31. More information on this in the future.

Interesting name for that new feature, I wonder if it is some upgraded version of the hobbit gifts or what else...

[*]Scenario, the Housing Developer, might have new News about Housing later in November. Stay tuned.

Now this have me excited! Is it about the the premium houses having the option to unlock more decoration slots?