LOtRO: Dev Chat Transcript 06-03-2009

[Mrbloodworth]

Legendary items:

Raskolnikov: "Question: I know you guys spent a lot of time working on the LI system, but I can't help but feel frustrated with it a times. Are there any plans on redesigning it?"
Raskolnikov: Completely redesigning it, no. It took a lot of work to get the various systems in place to creat the LI system. However...
Raskolnikov: We're definitely monitoring the complaints and seeing where we fell short with our goals. So in that regard, we're going to be making some solid changes.
 

Graal: One of the cool features we are working on for "the Future" is the ability to exchange legacies on Legendary Items. Exactly how this ability is going to be awarded is still up in the air.
 

Graal: There will be a method to reset the legacy points on a maxed out Legendary Item very soon.
 

Raskolnikov: I can speak to the LI weapons: Yes! We definitely want to bring crafters into the LI system more than we have. I'm going to be a jerk and not give any details.
Raskolnikov: But this is a very large complaint we've heard and we fully intend to remedy it.
Raskolnikov: Whether we allow you to make better LIs or components to LIs or who-knows-what. But yes, crafting LI stuff is good.
 

The radiance system:

WarCry: Ferox: "What effect does Turbine believe the current radiance gear gating system has on the community/playerbase?"
Orion: As with any new system, Radiance certainly has a mixed reaction from the game populace. Many dislike this as it is a stiff gating requirement and certainly draws hard lines between the casual and hard core players.
Orion: Now, with that out of the way, I can tell you this. We know that this is a point of contention and we are making certain that we are cautious about the way that it is used in the future. For the Book 8 release I can confirm that the smaller instances will not require radiance and that diligent players can utilize a smaller set of radiance gear to enter the new raid.
Orion: We still want to give the system some more time to shake out before we make any major changes to it, so bear with, and we will get things into a much cleaner and clearer state in time.
 

Orion: While we have not really talked about removing radiance from 12-man raids, see previous statements, we are constantly looking for new ways to improve the end game and provide players with many avenues of advancement once they have reached current maximum level. There are some interesting ideas in the works, but we are hesitant to share too much of that information at this time because many of the design ideas are still in a state of flux.
Orion: When we have clear information we will share what we can and explain how these new, dynamic systems will further the end game experience.

[/quote]

Alternative zones

WarCry: gludayers: I haven't seen anyone ask this yet: Are there any plans for a leveling alternative to the North Downs (approx. 25-35)?
Orion: Excellent question! As many know Book 8 continues our re-vamp plans and furthers them into Breeland. Breeland will now cover levels 14-22 and be the current, don't read into that too much, single track for getting to 14-22. The next stage is to get two tracks from 22-32, three from 32-42 and four from 42-52. More on all this as we move forward with these changes. But the long and short is that the Lone-lands and North Downs will bother service 22-3
Orion: both service 22-32 in the future. Complete with more quests and a stronger version of the second Book of the Epic story.
Orion: both not bother. Sorry about that.

MOB Pathing:

WarCry: abaddon80: Not sure if this is how we submit a question, but... Going back to the server stability and performance being addressed in bk 8, does that mean buggy mobs like those in Annuminas or ransackers in the crafting instances (bugging out right in front of you and sometimes reseting) will be resolved?
Fantus: We have made quite a few improvements to our pathing system, and have done a huge pass on a lot of the current instances in reguards to pathing bugs. We are always looking to make it easier to allow monsters to path, and that goes for pets aswell.
Fantus: Some of our new 3 mans have actually been optimized to show this.

Level 50 class quests:

WarCry: deusdictum: Is anything going to be done about the lvl 50 class quests? Now that they're not at the level cap, CD and Uru are harder to find groups for.
Orion: YES! These are in dire, dire need of an overhaul. I will be tackling them on at some point in the future. No guarantees as to when these might get changed, but they need to be changed; very badly, very very badly.

Link to the full transcript. Its a long one.

[Stormwaltz]

I was happy to see the Suggestions Forum idea to move LM pet cosmetic items to the ranged slot has gained traction.

Yes, I am a simple man.

[Mrbloodworth]

Me too. I don't use them on my LM, because, well there are better necklaces out there, why would I?

[Tarami]

Cheers to us for being simple men, then.

[Modern Angel]

Radiance gear is an amazingly bad idea for scaling purposes. You cannot (CANNOT) put % increase to stats on gear unless you're going to do it forever because it's just going to be inherently better than flat stats gear. This isn't going to be something apparent right now but unless they have plans to nix that soon they are going to be fucked in the future.

[amiable]

Radiance gear is an amazingly bad idea for scaling purposes. You cannot (CANNOT) put % increase to stats on gear unless you're going to do it forever because it's just going to be inherently better than flat stats gear. This isn't going to be something apparent right now but unless they have plans to nix that soon they are going to be fucked in the future.

Doesn't the stat gain cap out at 5%?

[Modern Angel]

Not that I'm aware of but I could be wrong. Even then, that's still 5% too much.

[Soln]

Re Raids and Radiance gear  http://my.lotro.com/amlug/book-8-instances-raids-and-you/

As We Go Forward:

We’ve made a very conscious choice with these changes to loosen the restrictions of raiding as we put out new raids.  Dar Narbugud is now being released, so that means that the people who are “done” with the Watcher now have something new to challenge them.  We really like keeping the Watcher relevant so we put in measures to do just that!  The Watcher now becomes more accessible to those who were having some difficulty with the challenge level and it has the added bonus of being a place to get First Age tokens twice a week.  Hopefully this change will mean more people get a shot at the early Moria raids and can work their way towards the more challenging Dar Narbugud.  In the future, as we continue to release more raids and instances, we will do our best to continue to make previous content more accessible.  This way, players never feel like they have a huge ladder to climb just to get to the newest raid or instance.  We will also do our best to provide other alternatives to the next big huge raid for players who do not necessarily enjoy that experience. As always, we hope that you guys enjoy our changes. We’ve put a lot of effort, energy, late hours watching Raid runs, and thought into this and we hope it shows! Have fun and good luck taking the Mistress down!

this really heartens me.  There's some good mgmt at Turbine for this game.