DEV Chat 23-11-09

WarCry Welcome to WarCry's War Council! Today we are pleased to have the developers of Lord of the Rings Online here to chat about the Siege of Mirkwood expansion! Remember that while the chat is going on you can join the general chat in #warcry.
WarCry Now on to our honered guests to introduce themselves!



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Sapience: I'm sapience, now fully proven via voice recognition not to be Patience!
Orion: Hello everyone! I am Allan "Orion" Maki and my current work is featured in the Lone-lands, previous efforts can be found throughout the game world. Welcome to the chat. Thanks for having me.
Jalessa: Hi, I'm Jalessa - on the LOTRO systems team here at Turbine. I'm also out of yummy grapes
Raskolnikov: Hello, I'm Raskolnikov, I'm a Game System guy. I typically work on monster behaviors and all sorts of other assorted stuff.
ZombieColumbus: Hey all, ZC here. I'm a LOTRO systems designer. I've been focused on Skirmish work.
Faya: Hi everyone, I'm Claire "Faya" Chamielec and I'm the community liaison officer for LOTRO Europe.

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WarCry Tirnel: Will you return to SoA type of quest categorization per zone/area? The categorization in Moria left a lot to be desired and one had to go through many quests before quests in certain area could be found...
Orion: Quest categorization is one of the focuses that we have for the future. Anything that is now addressed specifically in Mirkwood is something that we are looking to address moving forward. We agree that we need to get those quests back into a better display order in the quest UI.

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WarCry Neladhrir: What is the meaning of six different tiers of legacies now, if you can max them all out?
Raskolnikov: Before, whatever tier legacy you happened to get you were stuck with, which was pretty crappy. Now, you can get a Scroll of Empowerment in order to increase the tier of those legacies. This will allow you to make some of your Legendary items better that you may have written off because of a "bad roll".

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WarCry Tirnel: How will weapon speed revamp affect Champions? Will two-handed weapons still be a viable alternative in regards to Champions DPS?
Jalessa: The revamp will affect all classes, for responsiveness and pacing improvements. You'll have immediate skills (like interrupts, for example) that can be played instantly. Other information on the responsiveness improvements is available in the dev diary on lotro.com. Your choice between two handed and dual wielding weapons will likely be a preferencial choice (more concerned on how you like to play your champion).

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WarCry Actaeon: Do you have any plans to display the cash currently held by each toon on the toon selection screen to make managing your characters a little easier now we have 9 slots?
Orion: At this moment, there are no plans to display the coin currently carried on players anywhere but directly through the character panel.

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WarCry Tailborn: Hello Devs A lot of people are wondering if Mirkwood is taking Lotro back to the roots so to speak?
Orion: folks. Yes! Skirmishes is a perfect example of this return!
Orion: We are also working on getting more availability in other areas as well. Focusing on more questing and the landscape! Early levels continue to be revised and we are pledged to continue that forward.

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WarCry Grimfrithgar: Now when a new expansion is about to be released, I have become even more interested in participating in closed beta for upcoming patches/books. Is there any possibility to apply for this if you have an EU subscription?
Faya: Yes there is! All European subscribers can apply to join the Isengard programme, a special preview server. Check out the following thread for more information: http://community.codemasters.com/forum/showthread.php?t=251487

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WarCry Tharaden: Hi Hobitesess, at first I want to say sorry for my bad english, I´m from germany, so, I wantet to ask if there will changes for the housing, like a Basement for the bigger houses or something where you can place your sets?
Jalessa: No plans for housing changes at this time...we'd love to get to it, but it's not on the radar for anytime soon.

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WarCry Tailborn: Could you give us a hint or even an answer as to how big The area of Mirkwood will be? or maybe compare it in size to another already existing area?
Raskolnikov: I'm not on the World-building team, but I did work closely with the Content team in regard to itemization, and there are a TON of quests in Mirkwood (which actually made itemization kind of tough). So while 'physically' I'd say it's a good sized region, it definitely has a lot more quests than usual.

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WarCry Validor-SoG: Hi, Can you confirm if PvMP will get some love in the next book update?
Jalessa: In addition to the level increase for Monster Players in Mirkwood, you will have changes with the crowd control diminishing returns system (including changes for conjunction immunity), changes to increase the amount of infamy/raid gained in raid groups, changes to the base levels of power and health regen for creeps, updated Free Player rewards for PvMP play, and a slew of bug fixes.

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WarCry Validor-SoG: Hi, I have read in numerous places that Lotro will support DirectX 11. Is this true and if so to what extent. Many Thanks
Sapience: We'll be making an announcement about DX11 and what features we'll be supporting next year. But yes, we will be supporting it!

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WarCry Minaril: So, hiya codemasters, Here's my question: As I understand, champs will still have the -30% incoming healing with the release of SoM. Have you considered removing this penalty? It may sound stupid but im a bit worried about the new "splash" damage from the new mobs because there is an increased damage and crit rating from mobs. Back in the old days champs could tank in fervour, then came in the -30% healing to make it less poss
ZombieColumbus: We've been keeping our eyes on Champions fervor penalty since we added it. We've not noticed any exsessive dip in survivability in beta witht he damage changes. We are confident that the current Fervor skill is a potent mix of damage and reduced survivability.

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WarCry Minaril: What's the cooldown on skirmishes? and does it have different cooldowns depending on the group (so if you done it solo, can you do it with 6 without cooldown?)
ZombieColumbus: Skirmishes have no cooldowns. Well, that's not totaly true, they follow the same 5 instance per hour limit that the rest of the game follows. In addition, the Daily quests have daily cooldowns, but they do NOT block access to the Skirmish. You may replay as much as you want.

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WarCry Melaga: are there new crit items than mithril flakes in som?
Jalessa: We have not introduced crit components past mithril flakes for Mirkwood, but we have new types of components for use in crafted relics and level 65 legendary items.

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WarCry {Ez0}Honvik: 2. Why is PvMP Armour not on par with raiding armour since both things require a lot of dedicated time?
Jalessa: With Siege of Mirkwood, the new PvMP armour sets should be on par with instance (3-man, 6-man) type rewards. Since raid armour is special, we want to entice players to try out raid content before seeing rewards of that type in PvMP.

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WarCry Naithan: hi! do you consider change the trade system, so that the items you trade will stack with the same items at your inventory? Also put items in bank with the right click and stack as well to the existing ones!
Orion: We can take a look into that, though there is no definable time frame that we can offer at this point in time.

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WarCry Kaythalion: Question : Are there any plans to extend the soloable epic quest line to include volume 2?
Orion: Right now, we need to focus on getting Volume I taken care of, once there are systemic ways to handle the content revisions in place we can talk about Epic Volume II. My gut says, we will address this at some point in time.

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WarCry {Ez0}Honvik: 4. Has turbine got any more plans to add functionality to enable players to set up their own 'events' i.e add quests, spawn mobs or various other tools?. This is coming from someone who hosts Server Events
Raskolnikov: We've talked about that sort of functionality in the past, it's definitely been discussed, but we're not currently planning on doing that.

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WarCry {Ez0}Honvik: 5. Why is the new Raid Armour Purple and not Teal? (someone in my Kin asked me to ask that)
ZombieColumbus: In the past, we have gotten burned by giving out the best possible gear our game could generate with the initial release. This immedietly makes itemizing further instances impossible. The advantage of holding back like this, is that the jump between our subsequent raid sets will be more noticable.

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WarCry Elfy: Will there be other new instances than Dol Guldur's parts? If there is, could you name them?
Raskolnikov: Actually, there are several skirmishes which takes place on Dol Guldur. Some have you assaulting the gate, others have you battling up into the tower and a number of them are involved in the Epic story.

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WarCry {Ez0}Honvik: 8. Do you have any plans to extend Dungeons and Dragons Online Instance system to LOTRO where you can set difficulty for the instances which affects the rewards + Difficulty?
Raskolnikov: We're actually touching on this with skirmishes. Not only can you select Group Size but you can also increase the tier of the Skirmish if you find it too easy.

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WarCry Brastin: Can you tell me what will happen to the current legendaru books and pages? I've read that there will be a new way of obtaining them, so will the current ones become obsolete?
ZombieColumbus: We've done some work to make the legendary book grinds less of a grind. Specificly, you can now by the books from class vendors at reasonable levels. This, coupled with upping some drop rates, will make it much easier to aquire the full book.
ZombieColumbus: The exisiting pages and books are still used, and have not been changed. Only aquisition is modified.

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WarCry Silpion: You chose to continue with more radiance sets in spite of the criticisms. OK, but will the future of LOTRO looks like : + 50 set for Rohan, then +70 for Mordor?
Orion: We'll re-evaluate the radiance system once we have some time to see what happens with the new way of obtaining the items. If the system needs further revision or more extreme measures - we will make that determination then.

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WarCry Tabi: I have two questions about the legendary items system update: 1. Since it was said that First Age items need more exp with SoM than atm, is it thinkable that the now maxed ones end up being only lvl 49 with the som upgrade?
Jalessa: The experience amount needed to level, in general, has been lowered. Third Age items now require about one-third of the total experience to reach maximum level as the current system. Second age items are around two-thirds of the total, while First Age items will take just a little more experience to maximize the level as current items. When you log into Siege of Mirkwood, your legendary items will be updated appropriately. You'll not see any de-l

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WarCry arbitrary: Will there be any use for my amassed gold leaves and silver branches in Mirkwood?
Jalessa: de-leveling occur (you may see levels added due to the experience changes, based on what level and age your legendary item is).
Raskolnikov: Unfortunately, you're not going to be able to convert the gold/silver tokens from Lorien to Mirkwood. It's something we wanted to do, but weren't able to accomplish this time around. For future regions though we definitely want to do this.

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WarCry DelmarWynn: Will we be able to aquire Radiance via Skirmishes?
ZombieColumbus: Radience is a mechanic that serves to keep a play flow through Instances. Giving out high tier Radience from Skirmishes will bypass this flow. Now, we are open to the idea of adding Radience into Skirmishes in the future, but if it happens it will be as new instances open, and will only give out lower amounts of Radience. As with many things with the skirmish system, things will change over time.
ZombieColumbus: The rewards that you can collect now are just the starting point!

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WarCry Validor-SoG: Hi, Could you please confirm if we are to see Teal Armour sets and 1st Age Weapons in the next book update?
Jalessa: You may see incomparable rewards through completion of hard-modes for the Dol Guldur instances. However, level 65 first age legendaries will not be available immediately with launch of Siege of Mirkwood. We plan on introducing them in a future update.

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WarCry Brastin: Is it possible to send mail with more then one attachment?
Raskolnikov: No.
Raskolnikov: heh, bit more words this time...
Raskolnikov: We've talked about it, but it's all about priorities/time/effort/bang-for-buck.
Raskolnikov: And that's one of the lower men on the totem pole.

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WarCry CSTM-Merric: Are the Dev Diaries set to continue once Mirkwood is released or will they taper off?
Sapience: There are a number of dev diaries we haven't published yet. You'll be seeing those in the very near future. In addition, we've got many articles in the pipe about locations, points of interest and featured creatures.
Sapience: Oh, and there's a really good Festival diary coming with the Yule Festival!

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WarCry Fell: Will the virtues level cap increase with siege of mirkwood?
Jalessa: Virtue caps will not be increased with Siege of Mirkwood...sorry

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WarCry With our final question for today's chat.
WarCry Beotoarwald: Are you taking any steps to prevent the dying down of lower level areas? Other games really suffer from this, and i see it going that with wit LOTRO aswell. Introducing some high-end content to low-end areas should help a little.
Orion: In addition to our continued efforts with revision of lower level content, there may well be important reasons to return to those older areas in the coming months.

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WarCry We want to thank the devs for taking time out of there busy day to join us.
WarCry We will have a chat log posted shortly on www.warcry.com
Orion: Thanks for coming and having us. See you all in Mirkwood.
Jalessa: Thanks for coming all! And now, I rush to another meeting!
Sapience: Thanks for coming everyone! Thanks to Warcry and DelamarWynn and his team for hosting these crazy things!
Faya: Thank for coming everyone!
Raskolnikov: Tah tah.
Faya: And many thanks to the Devs for coming and to WarCry for hosting!