This week Cari is joined by Ilaadrien, and Rorrg. We talk about the players council, and get a special musical interlude.

What We Did in Game

Ilaadrien (E-La)

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  Scraids

  
  
  

Rorgg

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• Entwood grinding on 2 toons, starting a third
  
• Weekly crafting
  

Cari

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  Finished up what I wanted to do of the Anniversary Festival

  
  
  
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  Did some Lowbie Leveling

  
  
  

Player’s Council Announced

https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?547180-Introducing-the-2014-LOTRO-Players-Council

2013 Players Council NDA Dropped

https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?547387-2013-Player-Council

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WopjmfLnsg4&feature=youtu.be

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  Just a focus group a really early focus group but a focus group.

  
  
  

Taking the Hobbits to Isengard Questions

https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?539143-Hobbits-to-Isengard-Q-A-with-Sapience-notes-on-what-was-said&highlight=hobbits+to+isengard

What do you think was the most positive aspect or influence of working with last year’s Players Council

Multiple attachments in email was pretty good. That and probably just really helping to bring the concept of working with a core group of players to the company as a whole. He thinks probably their best achievement is that DDO now has a Players Council, there is an additional year for the LotRO council. And frankly they are seeing really positive things internally coming from this, in terms of the quality of feedback that they’re getting from the group, and expect to get from next year’s council. A smaller group of players like that lets them have more open communication with that group, which helps things too.

A lot of people don’t know, but Rowan actually was involved with the formation of the first council before he went over to DDO. Now that he’s back, he’s already jumped in with the 2014 group, who are already hard at work even before they’ve officially announced them. So he thinks that’s one of the biggest achievements – that it’s proven its worth and value internally, which results in really good things for the players externally in the long run, even if some of the things aren’t seen straight out.

Question about checks and balances on the council

That is not anything the council even represents. It’s way outside its goal and purpose and to have something like checks and balances and veto powers are so far outside the realm of the concept that they aren’t even a consideration, honestly.

Any news on the lottery system

YES! The previous lottery system no longer exists, and will not be returning. However, he’s supposed to be having a sit-down later this week with a couple of engineers to talk about bringing in an entirely new system. One that works better and functions more like a lottery and less like a raffle. It won’t be out anytime soon, but as long as the scope doesn’t get too crazy they are talking about building a new one.

The old system was terribly named because it was more of a raffle – you’d enter and then the system would go in and pick a winner from those who entered. Instead of like a lottery where you’ve got a number and then people who are assigned numbers, and if the two match, you have a winner. There is a slight possibility based on discussions so far that it may function more like a lever pull, but the whole lottery thing is just a really broad discussion at this point. But a discussion will be taking place on what a new lottery should be, how it should function, etc.

Also keep in mind the lottery system exists completely outside the game. Comparing the two it could be argued, how are hobbit gifts any different from the lottery? The only real difference is that with hobbit presents you can get extra pulls for a cost, whereas with the new system you would not be able to buy more pulls.

With the old system another big issue was that when they’d post a higher valued item, they’d inevitably get a ton of entries, so people’s chances of winning would plummet.

Define ‘active’ in Player Council terms

Based on Turbine’s definitions and specifications, and what they require. If you’ve been on the PC for four months and haven’t posted, played or done anything, you will be removed. That’s one thing that is changing this year. Also, if they remove one person that doesn’t mean they will be adding another. They wanted to have between 30 and 50 people for this council, and they have more than 50 right now.

Monday’s at 9PST 12 EST.

Will be on youtube and twitch replay.

Discuss

Stoneheight

The Library

Layanor’s Opinion:

Stoneheight is a ok 3 man. Nothing too fancy and kinda boring. the only thing I like about it is the 99 wolves fight.

Library is also not high on my list. I really do not like the crow challenge at the end. It is way to easy to fail.

My vote goes to Stoneheight because the challenge can be done with teamwork, and has least accidents that screw over the entire challenge.

Windy Acres Ranch Spring Racing Carnival

http://windyacres.mymiddleearth.com/?p=4507

This year’s Spring Racing Carnival will be held on Saturday, May 17th on the Landroval server. Events begin at 10:00am EDT (servertime) and continue until 10pm. There are numerous races, contests, and shows for you to attend. Don’t miss a single chance to have fun and win prizes with this complete guide to the SRC.

Letter from Kevin

Hey guys, just your friendly neighborhood hunter shooting another letter your way! (lame joke) I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: you put out a great podcast! I wanted to touch on a couple more Epic Battle issues, bugs, and tips. As you can probably tell, since all my letters generally deal with HD instances, I’m a fan of Epic Battles.

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   Searching the Debris side quest, Deeping Coomb. I have attempted this quest many, many times, and have only earned a gold medal. After literally sitting back and watching to see what the issue was, I noticed that the Injured Rohirrim Soldiers that must be healed from the debris piles don’t earn you any merit until they walk to the Hornburg. THESE GUYS WALK SO SLOW THE LEVEL CAP HAS INCREASED BY THE TIME THEY REACH THE HORNBURG. That is why it is so hard to get a platinum. The injured soldiers have such a long distance to walk, that the side quest most times ends before they reach the Hornburg and earn you any merit.

   
   
   
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   Vandals in the Tower side quest, Deeping Wall. This used to be my least favorite side quest in the duo because the little goblin vandals storm up the windows in groups of 3 and immediately set fire to my fragile supplies. On one occasion, while running this with a kinmate, we’d just gotten this side quest, when my kinmate came under what he affectionately calls “Wife aggroâ€, and abruptly had to leave the game. So, in desperation, I quickly set up a ballista and aimed it at the windows where the vandals spawn, and just shot at it with blind hope. Turns out, with this tactic, it is very simple to get a platinum on this side quest, even playing solo. The ballista takes out all 3 vandals with one shot, for all 8 waves.

   
   
   
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   In some cases for the Deeping Wall and The Hornburg, the main quest ends before the side quest has time to finish. This can be fixed by thinning out the first block of enemies that you see approaching. Easiest way to do this is to use the catapult on them. By eliminating a majority of that first block of enemies, you will initiate the side quest sooner. I can’t really explain to you why it works, but ever since I started doing that, I have not had the issue with the main quest ending too soon. But you must be careful to not eliminate any enemies of the blocks behind the first one. If you kill too many, then you will speed up the entire wave, giving yourself less time to complete the side quest  before the second wave begins.

   
   
   

Thanks again!

Letter from Kazren

Hi, Cari & Layanor,

It’s so nice to have you back again (together).  We really need your enthusiasm and ideas to help keep things interesting when there’s not a whole lot going on right now.

So many of the people who were on daily for the past 3 years in my kin have just stopped showing up.  It’s a little depressing.  I have been daily on for the festival (on all four servers I’m on), but other than that, I’m basically spending my time on Crickhollow.  I have only 1 lvl 95 there and Brandywine and Landroval, I have about 8 on Elendilmir.  There are just too many alts!  I’m also trying to decide if I like ESO or not.  It certainly doesn’t have the heart LOTRO has.  I think it’s more of a diversion until we get a full expansion (or the next 5 levels added to cap to make the new areas worth the effort in LOTRO).

Thanks again for being there for us with the news and info.

Kazren

Phone Call

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Cari  Twitter: @thecarimac

Layanor  Twitter: @Layanor

Rorgg twit @rorgg

Ilaadrian@gmail.com

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