So we had a little visit from the staff over there at Turbine and boy did they have a lot of questions facing them :) We had several moderators from our teams here at Allakhazam and quite a large turnout to meet and greet the team from Turbine.

A huge thank you to everyone who participated and fielded questions for us to ask them. Sorry if we didn't get to some of them but we expect many more chats in the future so stay tuned!

[17:07] AutumnKiss: Good evening, folks!  Welcome to Allakhazam's LotRO Developer Chat!  For the next hour or so we will be taking questions from you, the community, and whipping the devs into submission to provide you with answers!
[17:08] AutumnKiss: Please join channel #lotro-ffa for open discussion during the chat.
[17:08] Keth_Turbine: huh, I didn't realize whipping was involved tonight.
[17:08] AutumnKiss: And now, we'll let your Dev Team introduce themselves...
[17:08] Rowan: Down Keth, down!
[17:08] Annuvin_LOTRO: 5 weeks into parenthood...
[17:08] Annuvin_LOTRO: I remember... sleep.  Now... I am hollow.  So tired...  So very... tired.
[17:08] Annuvin_LOTRO: I'm the Creative Director.  I'm so tired, it's easy to be creative, hard to be lucid enough to direct.
[17:08] Annuvin_LOTRO: I almost feel drunk... Like, Keg'O'Doom drunk.
[17:08] Annuvin_LOTRO: Cardell,  I think.
[17:08] Annuvin_LOTRO: Yeah.
[17:09] Scenario: Good evening all! My name is Matt "Scenario" Elliott, Lead Worldbuilder for LOTRO. My team is responsible for the look and feel of the world and most gameplay associated with it. Yes, that is right - we gave you the overly aggressive deer in Evendim. Don't you love us? :)
[17:09] Keth_Turbine: Ahoy hoy everyone, I'm Keth. I'm a Content Designer guy, I sort of help people on team and I wear a dress... in-game that is.
[17:09] Keth_Turbine: Pretty soon I hope to be wielding a frying pan, if the art team fills my request! YEAH!!!! Dig it!
[17:09] Rowan: Hello all!  I'm Aaron "Rowan" Campbell, Live Producer for LOTRO.  I enjoy aggravating trolls and making art directors cry (no relationship between the two).  As always, I'm here to make sure Saffron stays on her best behavior.
[17:09] LOTRO_Saffron: Greetings!  I'm Vanessa "Saffron" Price, I'm the Online Community Specialist for LOTRO and I drank from the Keg of Doom and lived to tell about it! (Not that I remember much.)
[17:09] Meghan_Turbine: Hi everyone! Thanks for coming tonight. I'm Meghan "Patience" Rodberg, community manager for Turbine and rabid Hello Kitty fan. Don't forget to floss!
[17:10] AutumnKiss: Please remember to send your questions to [QT]Wordaen.

[17:12] AutumnKiss : Ap0kalyps3 : Are there any plans to look over the itemization in LOTRO? End game class sets are quite limiting, and those who enjoy mix and matching proc'able gear can't do so. There are no procs in LOTRO besides +stat, and effects that only give+stat, and was wondering if there are any plans on putting in items with original procs (spell damage, DoT,crit %, debuffs, etc) so we can chose gear configurations instead of only 1

[17:12] Annuvin_LOTRO : It's funny you asked about this, Mister!  I think that we'll be revisiting the 'awesomeness' of our end game instances 'soon'.  I'm pretty sure, actually.  You can expect a strong, forceful revisitation, that should elevate how awesome our items are.
[17:12] Annuvin_LOTRO: I think that's correct.  I could have also dreamt it.

[17:13] AutumnKiss : Avocet : Why was the Track Crops skill given to Farmers, who can't use the "crops," instead of to Cooks, who need tham?

[17:13] Keth_Turbine : Mostly because Farming is all about the food resource creation and gathering, that's their role.
[17:13] Keth_Turbine : Giving that to Cooks would have taken a bit of shine away from Farmers.
[17:15] AutumnKiss: Beoward: I suppose this is considered a bug; I fell off the bridge inside the Rivendell reputation area and didn't die, so I walked around a bit and found a place called "FIX ME:Unassigned" and it said I entered bree and I could read breelands chat. That area had some light and what looked like a waterfall
[17:15] Keth_Turbine : By Design!
[17:15] Scenario : So... that is totally a bug. Please use /bug to report it.
[17:15] Scenario : Don't listen to Keth.
[17:15] Keth_Turbine : Report to the Rift for your reward!
[17:16] LOTRO_Saffron : He's been drinking from the Keg o' Doom as well.

[17:16] AutumnKiss: FatwiseOnArkenstone: Thanks for a great game! Is there any new news about Patience's "Month of the Kinship"?

[17:17] Meghan_Turbine: Dude, so, I missed the last chat, and I haven't had time to read the transcript, and that's definitely the last time I miss a chat since I have no idea what bus I was just thown under. That said, it probably has something to do with the fact that the community team has
[17:18] Meghan_Turbine: brought a lot of ideas from the community back to the dev team about what they'd like to see in features for kinships. So stay tuned. :)

[17:20] AutumnKiss: Ignatius: Orion haspreviously mentioned the Creep dedicated healing class,the Defiler. How will the introduction of this class effectthe playstyle of and direction that the developers want to take the Warleader?

[17:21] Rowan: The Defiler is a great new addition to Monster Play that you'll be hearing more about soon.  His focus is on healing, but also has some great debuffs and direct damage abilities.  I could say more but I'll save it for Orion's upcoming developer diary.
[17:22] Rowan: The Defiler and Warleader have distinct playstyles, much like the Loremaster v. the Captain, and I think they'll continue to play very differently.

[17:22] AutumnKiss: Ryvick: With the release of the Bay of Forochel in Book 13 just how much will be Land compared to Water in the new zone?

[17:24] Scenario: We know that players love water. I am certain you will be disappointed to know that water in... our Book 13 region... will act effectively as an impassable and will actually discourage players from taking the plunge. Taking the body of water of this region out of the equation, you'll have a near-North Downs size region to run around in.
[17:24] Scenario: And now our friend Keth has a special announcement related to this!
[17:25] Keth_Turbine: And for more information, go to your local library! Or check out this link:
[17:25] Keth_Turbine: (Link: http://lorimages.level3.turbine.com/admin_files/33/69/89/70/2196.jpg)http://lorimages.level3.turbine.com/admin_files/33/69/89/70/2196.jpg

[17:25] AutumnKiss: brandiemch: How do you get to be a developer, To get Turbine to notice you and want you on the team?

[17:25] Keth_Turbine: beg, whine, cry, threaten.
[17:26] Meghan_Turbine: Hi brandiemch! People get into the games industry (and Turbine) in all sorts of ways - it depends on whether you want to get into design, or art, or producing.. a lot of people start out in QA as testers, actually. I know a couple of game company CEOs who got their start that way. ;)
[17:26] Meghan_Turbine: You can always check out (Link: http://www.turbinejobs.com.)http://www.turbinejobs.com. In fact we're hiring for the community team right now!
[17:26] Keth_Turbine: (well, that's what worked for me.)
[17:26] Meghan_Turbine: But you still whine and cry.
[17:26] Keth_Turbine: that's true, it worked so well for me in the past.
[17:26] Meghan_Turbine: And it still works!

[17:26] AutumnKiss: Mazrizzle: any word on increasing bag size? bank size?

[17:27] LOTRO_Saffron: A little birdy said that we are currently looking into how items stack in order to conserve pack and bank space.

[17:28] AutumnKiss: Angelina_Rayne: Is there at all any possibility that we will see maybe a higher tier in questing other than raiding?

[17:28] Annuvin_LOTRO: (insane mutterings) diapers... so... full.
[17:28] Annuvin_LOTRO: Ahem.  We're committed to our six man content, and our staple quest lines.  Overall, we only have 2 raids in our shipped content, and that's because we want to ensure that we provide great support for our non-raiding players.
[17:28] Annuvin_LOTRO: With that said, we want to make harder, more challenging content for our players.  While not everything will be a raid, you can expect some difficult 6 man instances in the near future as well.

[17:28] AutumnKiss: Jables: Keth: With the new Annuminas revamp, I was wonder if there'll be an update to the Ranger sets for the barter items. Also, will there be any changes to the Annuminas dungeons themselves besides the repeatable quest, BoA fragments, etc?

[17:29] Keth_Turbine: Well, for those of you wondering what Jables is talking about, check out this link:
[17:29] Keth_Turbine: (Link: http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=125582)http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=125582
[17:29] Keth_Turbine: As for looking at the armour, that won't be happening in Book 13, but will probably get some attention in Book 14, when we examine a lot of our higher level loot.

[17:29] AutumnKiss: Jables: Keth: With the new Annuminas revamp, I was wonder if there'll be an update to the Ranger sets for the barter items. Also, will there be any changes to the Annuminas dungeons themselves besides the repeatable quest, BoA fragments, etc?

[17:29] Keth_Turbine: is there an echo in here?
[17:29] Keth_Turbine: We are also looking at the instances, and I've already revised the Gardens a bit, and that change will be coming in Book 13.
[17:29] Keth_Turbine: The other instances may get some further attention, as we are going back and doing some more play testing on them to see what areas we'd like to improve.

[17:30] AutumnKiss: BigAl: Is there going to be any enhancements done to the beryl shard drops? I have been playing the game since it went public last year and have found a total of 2 and used them now that I have GM'd a craft. I thought they were going to be put into random drops on random monsters in book 10-12

[17:31] Scenario: Hey Al! Beryl Shards are a topic near and dear to my heart (largely because of their involvement with Rare Monsters). With Book 12, the rare monsters in Angmar adopted the event-driven spawning mechanic that was introduced with the High Pass and Tal Bruinen. The intent with this change is to allow rare monsters a larger home range and enable players to encounter these monsters over the course of normal play.
[17:31] Scenario: The number of rare monsters in the game is only going to grow as we introduce regions so your chances of finding a rare monster (and subsequently a crafting gem-shard) will only improve!

[17:32] AutumnKiss: Slipknoted: Is there any chance of a port to Mac machine's in sight?

[17:32] Meghan_Turbine: Sorry, Slipknoted, at this time we have no plans for a Mac version of LOTRO.

[17:33] AutumnKiss: Caldrien: is there a possibility that there will be higher player levels?

[17:33] Annuvin_LOTRO: New levels?!?  Easy!  Just turn some numbers up!
[17:33] Annuvin_LOTRO: In all seriousness, there are always possibilities.
[17:34] Annuvin_LOTRO: As for concrete dates, or approaches?  That's a bit harder.

[17:35] AutumnKiss: capjlp: does Turbin have rights to the silmarillion

[17:36] Meghan_Turbine: Hi capjlp! The rights to the Silmarillion are still held by the Tolkien Estate. We have the rights to The Lord of the Rings from Tolkien Enterprises. So the short answer is no. However, considering how much just The Lord of the Rings gives us to work with, we think we'll do it all justice!

[17:36] AutumnKiss: Godot: When can a new raiding instance be expected?

[17:36] Keth_Turbine: Well, not offering specifics right now, but you can expect some new raids within the year. Sorry I can't provide more details right now!

[17:37] AutumnKiss: [SMS]Gortok: Just to get it finally answered once and for all: Is LOTRO a casual MMO? Or is it an MMO where you are hoping to hook as much of the player base as possible?

[17:39] Annuvin_LOTRO: Well, this answer is going to start more threads than it's going to end.
[17:39] Scenario: Impossible!
[17:39] Annuvin_LOTRO: LOTRO is a game, that is meant to appeal to all sorts of players.  Much like politics, each and every feature appeals to X % of our players, means nothing to Y% of our players, and enrages Z% of our players.  Trying to encapsulate an MMO in a blanket statement of "just for casual" is sort of like trying to say baby wipes are 'just for noses'.
[17:40] Annuvin_LOTRO: My analogy sort of sucks, but I think you can understand.

[17:40] AutumnKiss: branderic: When are you going to add player rewards so we can get more character slots and horses?

[17:41] Keth_Turbine: You will be seeing both sometimes this year! More vagueness for you!

[17:41] AutumnKiss: Ryvick: With regards to the Captain Faction Heralds (The 3 Dwarves) are there any plans to speed them up a lot in order to make them keep up with captains normal heralds? Even I as my Dwarf Guard can out run them

[17:41] Rowan: Your companions of whatever type should be keeping up with you.  Just consider the hobbits who run alongside you every day!  We'll definitely take a look, to make sure these dwarves aren't movement impaired.

[17:42] AutumnKiss: dogonfire: I am sure one of the biggest questions out there is when the world is going to expand?

[17:42] Scenario: We are expanding the world in Book 13! We've been teasing the community about the identity of our Book 13 region for a while now. We figured instead of just saying what it was, we'd show you! ((Link: http://lorimages.level3.turbine.com/admin_files/33/69/89/70/2196.jpg)http://lorimages.level3.turbine.com/admin_files/33/69/89/70/2196.jpg in case you missed it)

[17:42] AutumnKiss: Jables: Will we ever see bug fixes in between books? For example, the new Seven Swords quest is still bugged and has been out since book 12's launch. I also read about some burglars/guardians having trouble with their tinkers/peddlers.

[17:45] Meghan_Turbine: Hi Jables! We do patch between books; in fact we have a patch scheduled for this Wednesday (though no guarantees that it addresses those particular issues). We've done at least 2 patches in between every book. The patch notes for the upcoming patch are at (Link: http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Release_Notes_Book_12%2C_Patch_1)http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Release_Notes_Book_12%2C_Patch_1

[17:46] AutumnKiss: packrat_teddy: In thel ast devchat Turbine stated that there will be no new 12or 24man raid content appearing in Book 13. What end gamecontent besides the Annuminas revisit can we expect? Will there be any additional 6 man instances introduced?

[17:46] Keth_Turbine: You can expect Book 13 to be a bit like Book 9, you'll have lots of new quest content and a new epic story.
[17:46] Keth_Turbine: Book 14 will have quite a few revisions to existing 6 man instances along with some new ones. In fact I'm planning on making some 6 man instances of a type that we haven't done too often in our game.

[17:48] AutumnKiss: Elmrond: I'm new to the game and am loving it! Are there any "in game" tools being worked on to make finding/joining a kinship easier, outside of just the chat channel? Thanks

[17:51] Rowan: Socializing is a major part our focus.  We're adding some brand new tools in Book 13 to make grouping and socializing easier - for the moment these are focused on questing.
[17:51] Rowan: We definitely would like to give that kind of love to kinships as well.  Currently I'd suggest you get to know the people on your server and check out the Kinship listings on lotro.lorebook.com.

[17:52] AutumnKiss: Slipknoted: How long can you extend the book quests for? You can only go as far as the oringal books go by J.R.R Toklin did.

[17:52] Keth_Turbine: Fortunately, we still have a lot of Tolkien's world to explore. Currently we've only gotten about 2/3's of the way through the first Book!
[17:52] Keth_Turbine: We still have Moria, Rohan, Isengard, Fangorn, Lorien, Gondor... a whole lot of places to go and explore!
[17:52] Keth_Turbine: I suspect we won't have a problem of running out of places to go any time soon.
[17:52] Scenario: and Forochel - don't forget about that!

[17:52] AutumnKiss: trilluser: Are there plans to allow houses to be traded/sold to other players for ease in upgrading?

[17:52] LOTRO_Saffron: Too many voices in my head say, "No."
[17:52] LOTRO_Saffron: In all seriousness, we don't actually have any plans for trading houses.  

[17:53] AutumnKiss: Branderic[Landroval]: Any word on key rings?

[17:54] Keth_Turbine: I have a word for you, and that word is "Hope!"
[17:54] Keth_Turbine: There is hope, we want to do them and will try to fit them in to a Book update really soon.

[17:54] AutumnKiss: RamiroS: Are there any changes for crafting in the near future? more customization? new tiers? new recipes?

[17:56] Keth_Turbine: You will be seeing some changes in Book 14, and some more extensive changes later in the year. (I'm vague again!)

[17:56] AutumnKiss: Blue_Beard: Are there any plans for major changes/new features in the Ettenmoors in the near future? I'm still waiting for user-operated catapults and ballista's!

[17:56] Annuvin_LOTRO: We've been paying attention to the Ettenmoors since the launch of the Ettendeep.  Suffice to say, we plan on spending some 'kwality' time there, in order to mix things up for folks.  Expect additional elements in the future, though they might not be siege weapons.

[17:56] AutumnKiss: mitnamni: Whats your favorite Rift boss?

[17:56] Keth_Turbine: (Ettendeep was the internal name, you know it as the Delving of Frór)
[17:57] Meghan_Turbine: Annuvin. He's big and scary.
[17:57] Annuvin_LOTRO: And sleep deprived.
[17:57] Annuvin_LOTRO: Hrm... there are bosses in the Rift?
[17:57] Scenario: No Power is Greater Than Barz!
[17:57] Keth_Turbine: I like Frûz, I like his style.
[17:58] LOTRO_Saffron: He'll gnaw your bones!
[17:58] Annuvin_LOTRO: I like the Balrog, personally.
[17:58] Annuvin_LOTRO: He's large, and even though he's somewhat round, he's not friendly.
[17:58] Annuvin_LOTRO: Have to let it all hang out for the non-jolly fat man.

[17:58] AutumnKiss: Alright folks, that's the end of tonight's Dev Chat with the team from Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar!  Please join us next time!

[17:58] LOTRO_Saffron: Just remember:  Far to the north, beyond the borders of Evendim, lie the icy barrens known as Forochel. Visit this page ((Link: http://www.lotro.com/article/509)http://www.lotro.com/article/509) for a user-friendly glimpse of what's coming in Book 13!

[17:59] Meghan_Turbine: Thanks again for coming everyone :)
[17:59] Bludwyng2: Namarie
[17:59] LOTRO_Saffron: Thanks for coming!  Have a great night!
[18:00] Keth_Turbine: G'night everyone!
[18:00] Scenario: Thanks for joining us tonight everyone and submitting your questions! Hope you enjoy our sneak-peek at the frozen lands of Forochel?
[18:00] Annuvin_LOTRO: Goodbye, all.  I'm going to go fall asleep in an office, and tell my wife I'm working late.
[18:00] Annuvin_LOTRO: Err, I meant go back to hardly work... err... working hard!
[18:00] Rowan: Good night all.  Thanks for all the great questions!
[18:00] Scenario: er... exclaimation point!!!
[18:00] Scenario: (I got distracted)
[18:03] Meghan_Turbine: Night all :)