PAX Prime Interview with Turbine Staff

posted this on September 4th, 2010.
Categorized as Events, F2P, Free to Play, Interview, PAX, Q&A, turbine.

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Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/TR8dVxffq50/

Our friend Michael, who sent us those great pictures from PAX Prime yesterday, had some time to stop and speak with Turbine staff. He gathered some great information and asked some questions to share with us. Thank you Michael!

PAXlogoPAX was very busy today. It was a sea of gamers – all excited about this years biggest titles. They had the full Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) team Patience, Sapience, producer, and more. They were all very kind and as open as they could be.

There were no new announcements. With F2P right around the corner, the whole team is focused on September 8th and 10th launches. Turbine is applying much of the lessons learned from the DDO launch to ensure a smooth transition to F2P. When pressed for specifics, they commented the four new servers vs. DDO’s two and said that additional servers were ready should the need arise. Furthermore, Turbine has been staffing-up hiring customer service reps as we as development team members. This is to support the expected influx of new players as well as to develop new content. In general, Turbine plans to monitor everything very closely.

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Skirmish Questions and Answers!

posted this on December 3rd, 2009.
Categorized as Dungeon Guide, FAQ, Q&A, siege of mirkwood, Skirmishes, soldier, SOM.

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Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/Fb-2ExAjQyE/

Runekeeper Go Boom So, it’s been the second night of Mirkwood release, and although we had our own personal skirmish called “Battle of the Baby Hobbit Staying Asleep” we were both able to get in and finish the tutorial for the skirmish quests.  However, I’ve been seeing some questions pop-up quite a bit and so I thought I would take some time to clarify on them as I can.  If anyone has any other questions, answers, suggestions, and hints that they’d like to add, go ahead and add them in the comments!  Then I will go ahead and add them to the post, with full credit of course. :)

  1. Are we stuck with the same soldier choice forever?
    No, you initially start out with a warrior, but you can purchase additional traits after the tutorial with skirmish points.  Once you purchase a trait to change their role, you then slot that trait in place of the Warrior one and voila you have a sage, herbalist, protector, etc.
  2. Can I join a skirmish anywhere?
    Per jwbarry: So long as you aren’t in combat, in the ettenmoors, falling, in a housing neighborhood, or one of a couple other limitations, you can join a skirmish from anywhere. Note:  You will then be returned to the same place you were at when you joined the skirmish once the skirmish has ended.
  3. Do we ever get more than one soldier to direct?
    No, each player only gets one soldier.  However, Captains and Lore-masters will still be able to call their pets in addition to their soldier.
  4. I don’t see all the Skirmishes in my Skirmish Join panel!
    It’s possible that you have not opened them yet.  Skirmishes become available as your character levels.  There are currently set to open: Read the rest of this entry »

Outside LOTRO: European Chat

posted this on November 23rd, 2009.
Categorized as Codemasters, Dev Chat, Dev Team, Q&A, Seige of Mirkwood, turbine.

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Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/JO9RxcFFx2w/

QuestionsToday WarCry held their second Developer Chat, this time aimed at European players.  Making an appearance this time were Sapience, Jalessa, Raskolnikoy, ZombieColumbus, and Faya.  And although there were quite a few fans in attendance, I’m not sure what the issues were but the chat this time around seemed a bit more disorganized.  First off, it neither started on time, nor did it last that long.  Secondly, there were not as many questions answered (whether it was due to lack of time or questions, I’m not sure).  And thirdly, most of the questions answered were already answered in the first chat.

There were a couple of questions that I hadn’t seen before such as “Why is all the end-game gear purple instead of teal?” (Because it’s not the last set of gear we’ll see in Mirkwood.) and “if PvMP gear will be brought up to par with raiding gear” (the new gear will be brought up to par with the 3-man/6-man gear).  However, most of the other answers were the same that we’ve seen over time or answered “no/not at this time”.  Overall, I think a lot of people were disappointed in the chat, but I’m not sure if it could be helped.  I hadn’t spent much time thinking about a question, but the one I came up with was rather droll.  Honestly, I just want it to be 8+ days from now so I’ll have Mirkwood in my hot little hobbit hands!

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New Dev Q&A and an Orion’s Belt Update Today

posted this on October 16th, 2009.
Categorized as Dev Team, LotRO News, Q&A, turbine.

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Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/QwQlLDgA9vo/

image There were two articles released (so far) today on the official Lord of the Rings Online website.  The first was a Dev Q&A concerning a myriad of answers to questions from the LOTRO community, along with a promise of more answers to come!  I thought overall there were some very interesting tidbits such as the size of Mirkwood (it’s roughly 75-80% the size of Northdowns), when we can expect Direct X 11 enhancements to the game (sometime next year), and if we’ll ever see Hobbit Lore-masters (No).  It’s definitely worth a read, but from what I saw there weren’t any answers that are going to change the way you play.

I know the answers can feel somewhat “PR-ish” and some are, but it’s most likely because they go through both the PR and Legal department before being posted.  This is nothing new and it’s what happens with most/all companies before they publically release information.  It’s just the nature of the beast.

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Ask the Dev Team Q&A Posted

posted this on September 29th, 2009.
Categorized as Ask the Dev Team, Dev Team, LotRO News, Q&A.

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Full link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/cstmfeed/~3/BnEvS_j--Js/

The latest “Ask the Dev Team” has been posted on LOTRO’s site for anyone interested. I recommend you give them at least a glance.

There were very few that caught my attention but this bit about the mail system makes me happy.

Q: Will we be seeing any improvements to the mail system, like multiple attachments?
A: While we do not have plans to add multiple attachments at this time we are adding a new feature to the mail system!

Mail dropdown: When typing into the "To:" field while composing mail, you will now get an auto-complete box which contains a filtered list of people that match the letters you’ve typed into the box. These people are pulled from your friends list, your kinship list, and your alternate characters on the current account.

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