Voil? ce que nous avons entendu sur le dev chat auquel nous avons particip? avec Deldu !

<Amrac> Welcome to the second European IRC dev chat!

<Amrac> From now on for the next hour you have the chance to get answers to all your questions concerning LotRO directly from the developers. Please send your questions (preferably in English) to our team-members, who are marked with a + in front of their name.

<Amrac> We?ll forward your questions to the devs and they will give an answer to as much questions as possible here in the channel.

<OrionTurbine> Hello! I?m Orion; you can blame me for pieces of monster play, many of the quests and the general content game play flow throughout Lord of the Rings: Shadows of Angmar.

<Scenario> Howdy everyone! I'm Scenario - one of LOTRO's Worldbuilders. I'm one of those responsible for creating beautiful landscapes and deadly monster camps you'll find throughout the game.

<Mithril_Miser> Hey everyone. I'm Nik "Mithril_Miser" Davidson, the lead game system designer for LOTRO. Glad you could all make it - any questions about classes, mechanics or other gameplay aspects, I'm your guy.

<Keth_Turbine> Hello, I am Keth. I'm a Senior Designer on The Lord of the Rings Online. I like long walks on the beach and ... oh nevermind.

<LOTRO_Patience> Hi everybody! I'm Meghan "Patience" Rodberg, the community manager for LOTRO at Turbine.

<Satine> Hi everyone! I'm Satine and I'm the EU Community Manager at Codemasters!

<Amrac> <smoltok> Will it be possible to transfer a character from one server to another one ?

<LOTRO_Patience> Hi smoltok! At this time we don't offer character transfers, but it's not entirely ruled out for the future. It's something we're looking into.

<Amrac> <dringo> Will there be a way to decrease the costs of the Guild Auctions? Currently i feel they are quite expensive.

<Mithril_Miser> So, just for people who aren't aware, LOTRO has a feature that allows Kinships to limit auctions to only members of their guild.

<Mithril_Miser> However, we can't have the auction hall being used as a Kinship Bank - that's something we're reserving for housing, post-ship.

<Mithril_Miser> So, by paying a little extra fee, you can charge "guild prices" for members of your Kinship. The exact balance is something that we're continuing to look into.

<Amrac> <ElKaram> I read from US devchat that you´re adding sustain to the music system. Now how about giving us at least a full 2 octaves with halfnotes or even better 3 or 4?

<LOTRO_Patience> Scenario would like to answer questions about the world if you have them. And Orion and Keth love questions about quests.

<Keth_Turbine> I dunno, I enjoy Mithril's answers. He was born sexy, you know.

<Mithril_Miser> In addition to sustained notes, we're looking at some other ways to expand the music system. One of the first major expansions will allow people to create music scripts to share and playback. In that, I believe you can expand octaves in addition to sharps and flats.

<Amrac> <InterestedOne> Will one be able to put accents in his name (just for decoration)? Tolkien used them quite often ... example: "^" in Gl?in

<Keth_Turbine> Since our game will internationally, we are limiting the use of diacritics in names due to how difficult it would be to send a message to various players whose language don't support those character's natively.

<Keth_Turbine> and I typed that poorly, but I think you get the idea.

<Amrac> <InterestedOne> One word about performance. With the beta I have the problem with my 512 MB of RAM. After moving to other locations, especially entering and leaving houses and even more after reanimation my system just swaps memory to harddisc and it is unplayable until a restart. Will the finished game work with 512 MB?

<OrionTurbine> We have been working to stamp out the remaining memory leaks over the past several updates. As we continue toward launch, we should see fewer and fewer issues of this kind. Remember though, 512 is a min. spec so it will not work as well as machines with more RAM.

<Amrac> <_Bart_> Will solo combat for classes such as champions or hunters, remain as "simple" as they currently are: most of the time I can predict pretty accurately if I will survive a battle, if it will be close or if I will surely die based on the number of opponents and their levels

<Mithril_Miser> Ah, now we're getting into a bit of a philosophical topic, so forgive me if I ramble a bit!

<Mithril_Miser> Fun comes from "variable predictability" - in short, you want to have a pretty good idea of what's going to happen, without being 100% sure.

<Mithril_Miser> If you, as a player, have a pretty good sense of what your character can handle, that means we've done a good job of presenting that difficulty.

<Mithril_Miser> If things are too randomized, it can very quickly feel frustrating. I think we're pretty close to the balance we want in that regard.

<Amrac> <Moell> <wwh|crunchyY> Will there be any opportunity for roleplayers to influence the rp-rules on rp-servers to improve the roleplaying?

<Satine> One for me!

<Satine> As you have seen already, the players have influenced the decision for us to have RP servers, so yes, your voices are very powerful and we do listen! Keep your feedback and suggestions coming!

<Amrac> <smoltok> Many thread on some forums talk about the walking or running character animation. Do you plan to modify them in order to be less..hm... strange ?

<OrionTurbine> We currently have no plans to alter any of the walking or running animations.

<Amrac> <_Bart_> Scenario, in the world there are portals to parts of the world, still closed of, how long will it be until the gates are shred to pieces and we can actually enter those areas?

<Scenario> At launch, we have a set of areas planned for launch. This means that some locations will later be expanded into via our Live process.

<Scenario> We have a number of locations called out on our maps showing where other areas are, and they may come online in the future. Outside of that, I can't speak much more on the specifics of what new areas are coming online when.

<LOTRO_Patience> Keth, stop abusing Scenario behind the scenes and let him type.

<Amrac> <Dera> I love the game really, but what will you do if the ring is destroyed?

<Keth_Turbine> Well, fortunately we know when the Ring is destroyed and how it is, and so we can, um, well sort of plan around that.

<Keth_Turbine> More seriously, we have to very carefully progress the time in our game world, because we do have a limited period of time in which the major action of the books takes place.

<Keth_Turbine> Time is a difficult master to serve sometimes in making our game.

<LOTRO_Patience> So is Annuvin, I hear.

<Amrac> <rals> Do you plan to implement riddles/brain-teasers in the quests?

<OrionTurbine> Brainteasers and puzzles are one of my all time favorite aspects of games. In MMOs brainteasers and puzzles can prove difficult and sometimes anti-climactic as they are often posted to internet sites becoming readily available to the global populace. Then again, there are those that appreciate a good puzzle and will not use websites to circumvent the puzzle choosing instead to solve the puzzles themselves.

<OrionTurbine> With all that said, I can offer a warning that something I am working on at the moment will challenge the mind and require you to solve a puzzle in real-time.

<Amrac> <Malas> What kind of plans do you have for the future of PvMP? Right now the rewards on the Player side are not really substantial. Anything planned to tempt more players into that sort of genre?

<OrionTurbine> Ahh...the unique little snowflake that is monster play.

<OrionTurbine> It holds a special spot in my heart. Though we are not getting into any particulars there are some improvements that we are looking to get into the Ettenmoors in the future.

<OrionTurbine> We want to bring more relevance to the keeps and offer something special for those who hold onot the "take and hold" objectives. This is proving an interesting undertaking and we don't have a definitive timeframe for delivery. Rest assured, there are improvements and enhancements on the way for monster play.

<OrionTurbine> First up! Reward enhancement for players.

<Amrac> <Sedna589> Will there be events regularly?

<Satine> Definitely! As you may know we are operating some live events right now in the Beta, kind of like a practice run We are also laying the plans for the next few months' worth of events and I can guarantee that there will be something for everyone, in all languages!

<Keth_Turbine> Also, from the developer side of things, we are working on systems that will allow us to have "events" kick off based on the date or player interactions.

<Keth_Turbine> it's a really fun thing to plan around, you should see some of these types of events in an early game update.

<Amrac> <SubZero_> Is it possible to change the water appearance in the game, especially the shore? There is a hard edge where water and coast meet. I've seen DX9 graphic demos that show surge instead of that hard edge.

<Scenario> Water is a feature that has recently gotten a big boost visually. At this time, we do not have soft-edged water so you will see a definate boundary between land and water.

<Scenario> This isn't to say we won't revisit water and its interaction with land in the future, but at launch we won't be having soft-edge water.

<Amrac> <Amrac> <Padakid> Will we ever see the Fell-beasts ingame or are they already there ?

<OrionTurbine> Possibly. You can certainly never say "never".

<OrionTurbine> I mean, within the current timeline it's not as though you would see them flying about the skies...right?

<Amrac> <Heidy> How, exactly,will the endgame be like? Like in WoW only raids 4 very good items?

<Mithril_Miser> It's incredibly important to us to provide a very wide variety of endgame activities. In addition to raiding, we want the Monster Player experience (and the player side of that battle) to be a fully featured PvP endgame experience.

<Mithril_Miser> On top of that, we're working on some single-group instances that should be a major challenge, and some very cool solo content as well.

<OrionTurbine> We also have some super secret plans for the future that we need to keep close to the vest.

<Keth_Turbine> they are so secret, he would have to kill you if he told you.

<Amrac> <Arvion> Will we be able to visit Forodwaith, Harlindon or Forlindon?

<Scenario> Those areas won't be available at launch. However, post-launch we are committed to expanding our playable landscape, so those locations certainly aren't ruled out for the future.

<LOTRO_Patience> Has anyone seen Mike? I saw him talking to Orion, but then he disappeared..

<Amrac> <Rizzly|Erynhenw> How did you make the walking, emote and running animations in the game? Did you use mocap, or were they created digitally all the way?

<Keth_Turbine> Well, I'm not on the animation team, but I do know that there was no motion capture used in the creation of our animations.

<Keth_Turbine> Our animation team crafted them all by hand.

<Amrac> <Dera> Why are Hobbits wearing Shoes? Please Change that, or make them invisible...

<Mithril_Miser> Actually, there's an option that you can set to hide your shoes, so you still get the stat bonuses from shoes.

<Mithril_Miser> There were, after all, hobbits that wore shoes - mainly in the marshlands and such, so it should be an option.

<Mithril_Miser> Nobody wants marsh between your toes.

<Amrac> <ysarok> What exactly is the depth of the RP in Lord of the Rings online ? I mean what will get the attention of the players ? And will there be RP instances with events going on in the instance ?

<OrionTurbine> We're already working on alternative ways to advance quests that are based more off of character interaction over kill/collect/etc... Though these will take some time to integrate into the overall crux of the game we know that offering more RP choices is wanted and needed.

<Amrac> <Thenedus> Do you have plans to add more instruments to the music system? I'm thinking of percussions, drums and something like that.

<Mithril_Miser> We do! We're looking at a few different new instruments for very shortly after launch, and drums are on that list.

<Amrac> <ignatz> How about crafting - will the crafted items (even non critted) be at least equal to quest rewards and monster drops, or will crafting stay as irreleveant pastime?



<Mithril_Miser> Absolutely. All through beta, we've been improving both the types and quality of crafted items - we absolutely want crafted items to be just as good or better than drops. However, standard successes are meant to be reasonable quality - if you really want the best of the best, you'll need the critical result.

<Amrac> <Nazgul9> Q: what is turbine's take on mini games e.g. in taverns (darts, carts, dices), will something like that find its way into the game?

<Keth_Turbine> Our take? We likes 'em!

<OrionTurbine> Yes, we do!

<Keth_Turbine> We already have a couple of mini-games in the game at launch, tag and freeze tag.

<Keth_Turbine> As opportunities present themselves, we'll try to add more. As a matter of fact, our first update should have a few, as a matter of fact.

<Amrac> <ElKaram> Will crafters ever be able to repair items or will that function stay exclusive to npcs?

<Keth_Turbine> and now Scenario is mocking my answer.... sorry everyone!

<Mithril_Miser> It's something we're working on. No ETA on it, but we think that it's an important addition.

<Amrac> <smoltok> Do you plan to change how our character speak ? With bubble for instance ? ( like in StarWars Galaxies )

<Mithril_Miser> Actually, we added the ability to do overhead chat at the urging of players during beta. You can now toggle as an option whether you want chat to only be in the chat box or over players' heads.

<Amrac> <Heidy> Will there be shortkeys for the pet skills in the final version? And what about macros?

<Mithril_Miser> Actually, you can already drag a copy of the pet skills onto your shortcut bars, so you can set those up wherever in the UI that you like.


<Nukular_> Would it be possible to put banners on the ground, like u can see in one of the trailers where one captain does that?

<OrionTurbine>: Good question. That trailer shows the old way that Captain's handled their herald. That change gave the Captain's a pet in the form of their herald.
In the future, it is possible that you will see the banners make a return but as an ability available to all players. Balance will be a concern and the likelihood of seeing this kind of behavior outside of the Ettenmoors is still in question. There are no current plans for these type of banners...but we are discussing them.

<Padakid> Another creature question, Will we be seeing mumakils in the future or are they just too big?

<Keth_Turbine> Oh yeah, in fact at launch we have a relative of the Mumakils in the game.

<Keth_Turbine> Now as the game progresses further south, it would be a safe bet to assume you'll see some....

<Amrac> <Bereanor> How will you involve the story of "The Hobbit"?

<Keth_Turbine> Well, we already do. Our Dwarven starting instance takes place in a time period described in the Hobbit.

<Keth_Turbine> We also have other references to and characters from the Hobbit in the game at launch.

<Keth_Turbine> And as the game progresses and grows, you can bet we'll be adding areas seen in the Hobbit.

<Keth_Turbine> Personally, I can't wait for us to get to the Lonely Mountain.

<Amrac> <Lilandrea> Will there be any customization available for the guilds, such as emblems and the like?

<Mithril_Miser> Absolutely. We have a unique system of Kinship advancement, where kinships that have lasted a long time are rewarded by advanced customization features.

<Amrac> We only have five minutes left, then we'll have to say good bye to the devs. So please don't send us anymore questions for today

<Mithril_Miser> We are working on a heraldry system for Kinships, in addition to custom ranks, on top of the many existing Kinship features.

<Amrac> <Eredhelm> Question for devs: What is the story behind Half-orcs, it seems a very un-tolkien addition?

<Scenario> "But these creatures of Isengard, these half-orcs and goblin-men that the foul craft of Saruman has bred, they will not quail at the sun...'"

<Scenario> Words of Gamling

<Scenario> from The Two Towers III 7, Helm's Deep

<LOTRO_Patience> ..but wait! There's more. Orion is typing furiously.

<OrionTurbine> Half-orcs were a creation of Saruman at Isengard. Tolkien mentioned them directly in his telling of Helm's Deep. Additionally, they were mentioned at least in allusion, within The Fellowship of the Ring as associates from the south visiting Bill Ferny.

<OrionTurbine> So...they are most certainly a Tolkien addition.

<Amrac> Ok, that was the last question for today

<LOTRO_Patience> And on that note, we have to give up our meeting room to the next group. Thanks for coming, everyone. We'll see you in two weeks!

<OrionTurbine> Thanks all! Looking forward to the next chat.

<Lilandrea> thank you for coming, Devs and ladies devs

<Mithril_Miser> A pleasure as always. We'll see you in open beta and beyond!

<Scenario> Take it easy all - thanks for the questions!

<Keth_Turbine> oh yes, Patience reminded me to say goodbye to everyone... so bye everyone!

<Amrac> Thanks a lot to all of your for asking such interesting questions and of course many thanks to the devs and Satine for answering them!

<Satine> Thanks to all the Turbine guys for coming this evening and answering all those questions!

Dernière modification par Meerlinda (16-03-2007 07:33:33)