LOTRO Reporter Podcast
LOTRO Reporter Episode 224 - Pestering Turbine Works
Cari and Layanor talk about the Taking the Hobbits to Isengard notes, and pestering Turbine.
Listen now:
What We Did in Game
Layanor
6% into new rank
Cari
Not a thing been in MO for the last 5 days
News
Taking the Hobbits to Isengard
Arkenstone 59m 6s 0 Deaths
Bullroarer -Test Server – March 14 2:30PM
Q&A Hobbits to Isengard – Snowbourn
Why not create original and scaled versions of raids
That basically means twice the work, and splitting the usage of those raids – totally impractical
What are you looking forward to most in U13
Flooded Isengard, some of the rewards from that region, inventory changes
What is the expected play time as an Ent
He doesn’t know how long the session play lasts
What are the mail changes coming with U13
You will be able to send multiple attachments – 10 items. And yes, they can be stacks (i.e. 10 stacks). Second, if you are a VIP you will be able to check your mail from anywhere in the game world via clicking on the notification icon, without having to go to a mailbox.
What about a ‘kill self’ command to get people out of stuck areas
You are getting stuck outside the game world, where no command – not even GM commands – can help you. You are stuck outside the game world, and the game can’t find you. There isn’t a “you†in the place that doesn’t exist. You are broken, there is no recovering that character. They’ve warned players for years not to go to those areas, so don’t be mad when it happens to you.
Suggestion for Hobbits to Isengard stream on Bullroarer
He likes the idea and will think about it. The chat sort of exploded with support for the idea so he’s going to give it more thought and see if he can’t work it into the schedule.
Is Bullroarer install available for download right now
No, it’s not available for download right now, but if you already have it installed then no problem, it will patch. But if you’re needing to install it from scratch, a new install should be ready sometime before U13 goes live.
If you could add a cosmetic pet or herald to the game, what would it be
Ask him after U13
Aaron Campbell aka Rowan, Executive Producer for LotRO, joins chat
If you could add a cosmetic pet or herald to the game, what would it be
Rowan – He would love to have a Gollum pet, despite that it’s completely lore-breaking. Not to be close beside him, but to follow him around in the shadows and freak people out
Will there be a review of cosmetics and what is on the slate cosmetically speaking
Rowan – They are continuing to build out new ones. There has been a lot of art released over the past couple years that he’s pretty excited about – he’s a big fan of some of the armour sets that launched with Dunland on the landscape. “We’ll see what we can get.â€
Scaling instance and HD loot are in need of updating – what can we look forward to
Rowan – Lots of discussions happening around that right now, but he won’t have an answer for a couple weeks yet.
Any plan to go back through the cosmetics and fix items that bleed into each other
Sapience and Rowan think it would be a good idea to bring the Art Director in to talk about cosmetics one day. These are the types of questions he’d be better able to answer.
Any chance that people can enter the Moors without VIP
Rowan – They are looking at temporary access options, or rentals.
Any new lore lore master pets in the near future
Rowan – They are looking at other pets. Lore masters will have to share.
Will shard-droppers be added to Dunland and Rohan – they’ve disappeared from the game since Mirkwood
Rowan – Warbands were the shard-dropper solution for Rohan. As they move forward into new areas they will be looking at that mix of more challenging landscape mobs outside the standard quest mob.
What are the odds of pets for all classes – actual pets, not just cosmetics
Rowan – He thinks that would diffuse the roles of Captains and Lore-masters, and they don’t want to break up those classes and take away from their core roles. Including rune-keepers and their rocks.
Can you clarify the comments you made recently on group content
Rowan – All he’s doing right now is laying out their priorities. Their number one priority is building great new story and great new regions for us. He’s not ruling out group content at all, just telling us what they’re doing first.
Do you need to buy the quests for the upcoming regions, even if you’re VIP
Rowan – The quests in the new regions will be free to VIP
When will First Age items for L95s be coming
Sapience – HoarseDev recently told him they are trying to get them in for U13 but they may not make it in until 13.1. They aren’t sure just yet.
Question about the possibility of new classes, or the surprise that Kate Paiz was hinting at in her letter
Sapience – He’s going to sit back and keep quiet and let Rowan answer that one
Rowan – He’s not going to ruin all the updates for his next producer’s letter. That would just spoil the surprise. He just had a great conversation today with (the licensing company) on that very topic.
In your producer’s letter you mentioned that we would be going to flooded Isengard. Does that mean we will get to play as an Ent in session play
Sapience – Says somewhere Chris at MMO Reporter is about to cheer loudly
Rowan – Says they love Chris dearly and thanks him for his ideas. Yes, Ent play is coming. In fact he thinks they have two versions of the model, one with Merry and Pippin, and one without.
How frequently are you planning to do producer’s letters
Rowan – He will be doing them at least quarterly, but a letter isn’t the only way to communicate. He plans on doing more of these streams, just dropping in and chatting, showing up on the forums – more of that kind of thing.
What’s happening with festivals – same events and schedule, or will anything be changing
Rowan – Says we will have a lot of the same events, Hobnanigans the fan favourite is also being revised, resurrected and rebuilt, and they’re talking about new boosts new events and new things they can do as they move forward.
Sapience – Wants to point out that after 5 years of passing Rowan in the hallways and saying “Hobnanigans†and getting terrible faces, he is ecstatic and says that if you pester Rowan enough, eventually you can win.
Rowan – Doesn’t like the sound of that
Sapience – Apparently it only works for Sapience, and you have to have a 5 year plan.
Is Hobnanigans going to be tied to festivals, or will it be more like the treasure hunt where you guys can turn it on whenever you want
Rowan – It’s more like the treasure hunt. It will be an independent event.
Explain Hobnanigans
Sapience – Think of field hockey, and replace the ball with a chicken.
Rowan – They’ve actually been experimenting with different field sizes. They have a 3V3, and he thinks a 5V5.
Sapience – Multiple team sizes.
Any update at all on housing
Rowan – They have a plan, it’s centred around guild crafting right now. They will get more details out there for us.
When will we finally be able to use the /fart emote
Sapience – When you try to use it, it does say you can’t use it “yetâ€
Rowan – He will add that one to the list. He admits that he’s been playing the South Park game recently.
Sapience – Speculates that maybe that means we will get multiple forms of the /fart emote
Rowan – Reminds him it’s a teen game
Are there any plans to add new emotes to the game
Rowan – Nothing specific, but they typically do add stuff like that in
Q&A Hobbits to Isengard – Arkenstone
What are the odds the character slot limit will be increased
He doesn’t know. Some players have expressed a desire to have that limit raised, and it has been passed on to the engineers and some other people to take a look at and see if it can be done.
Is the recommended server set manually
Yes, they can set it to whatever they want. Only difference is with European servers, which will recommend German or French servers if you are in those regions.
Has the new Bullroarer client been fixed so it doesn’t install Pando
Currently Pando has been removed across the board, but there is no Bullroarer install at this point, and it won’t be around until one or two rounds of bug fixes on Bullroarer. So if you don’t have the Bullroarer client at this point you will have to wait a bit. If you do not currently have Bullroarer installed there is no way for you to have it installed for next week. You will have to wait until an installer becomes available.
How did Aaron enjoy being on the stream
He seemed to enjoy it quite a bit, and a couple more team members have expressed an interest in being involved so he’s going to try to get some people in for Bullroarer. If they can’t get in on voice chat he’s going to try to get them to at least roll up a hobbit and do the run with us.
Any clues on the name of volume 4
You will find out when we go to Bullroarer. If you read what was said so far about U13 you should be able to make a close guess.
What are the odds of getting major events such as Weatherstock into the splash screens in the game
It never occurred to him before, but he’s definitely going to look into it – thinks it’s a great idea
Do you enjoy the runs
He enjoys them a lot. He thinks it’s fun to watch how different groups try to approach things differently, and enjoys some of the weird and interesting questions.
How does one apply to work for LotRO
Go to turbine.com/en/careers. All their jobs are in Boston. They have some engineering, marketing and tech jobs open at the moment.
Could the BR run be rescheduled until there’s a fresh installer build
No, the only reason he was able to pull off a Bullroarer run at all was because a couple of runs needed to be rescheduled due to translator availability and an opening was made that gave a perfect opportunity for a Bullroarer run
Did You Know
http://layanor.wordpress.com/2014/03/12/lotro-did-you-know-ettenmoors-underground-network/
Community
Join us for a special solve-a-mystery roleplay event on Saturday, March 15 at 4:30pm /servertime (Eastern US) on Landroval. Roleplay, win prizes, and enjoy fine music!
Meet at 9 Chestnut Street, Raglan, Bree-land homesteads.
The event features a detailed roleplaying story and is open to characters of all levels.
The game is designed to be played by any number people and will last about 2 hours.
During the game, our actors will take key roles as suspects in a mystery story.
You will roleplay a Bounder, Ranger, sheriff, or someone else appointed to investigate.
Clues are gained by examining evidence and interviewing the suspects.
After completing your investigation, tell the host who the culprit is and why they commit the crime. The first three who correctly solve the mystery win Turbine Points and other amazing prizes!
Participants should show up dressed appropriately for an Ice Wine Festival or as investigators. Details about the story and game rules will be provided at the event.
Music will be provided by The Remediators and Die Meisterbarden von Bree!
Contact Kiralynn in-game on Landroval if you have questions about the event.
Happy adventuring and I hope to see you there!
Contact Information
Email: lotro.reporter@gmail.com
Twitter: @lotroreporter
Facebook: LOTRO Reporter
Voicemail: 616-666-6778 or the widget on the right side of the screen when you visit the site.
YouTube: Â http://www.youtube.com/user/mmoreporternetwork
Cari  Twitter: @thecarimac
Layanor  Twitter: @Layanor
Our sponsors:
Visit Podcast Website
RSS Podcast Feed
Subscribe
Share
Add to MyCast