Saffron - Greetings! I’m Saffron, the Online Community Specialist for The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar.
Saffron - We're really excited about the upcoming release of our new free content update, Book 11: Defenders of Eriador, which includes a new raid (The Rift), updates to the Minstrel and Lore-master classes, and... player housing!
Saffron - Those are the big parts, but there are also lots of other additions, including a continuation of the epic story, tons of new crafting recipes, and some fun stuff like non-combat pets for Lore-masters!
Saffron - Thanks for coming tonight. We look forward to hearing your questions!
Scenario - Good evening everyone! My name is Matt "Scenario" Elliott and I am a Team Fortress 2 Addict (I'm also the Lead Worldbuilder for LOTRO).
Rhidden - Hi, i'm Rhidden! I enjoy backstabbing Snipers, and filling heavys with beams of happiness. I also like making content for LOTRO.
Annuvin - Hi all! I'm Cardell "Annuvin" Kerr, Creative Director, and my dog just got certified to be a legal therapy dog. Now that she's all set, I'll start paying attention to what the LOTRO team is doing...
Ramen - Hi there! I'm Ramen, another Online Community Specialist here on LOTRO. We have a team of specialists!

Sprite - *Lever* Is it possible that we will ever see workbenches or forges that we can purchase for our houses, so we can craft at home?
Scenario - For the initial release of housing, players will not have access to craft facilities in their homes or neighborhoods. While housing is a great new addition to LOTRO, we want to be careful about features that could potentially turn our towns and craft centers into shades of their former selves.
Scenario - Going forward, we are interested in introducing craft and town services into neighborhoods, but we want to be careful about it (empty towns are no fun for anyone!).

Sprite - *Narufind* Are there any plans to replace the hook system for decorating houses with a free form system? If not, why not?
Annuvin - In terms of replacing our existing hook system; We really want to implement a completely freeform system as part of an expanded featureset for housing. Until then, we plan on adding more decor, and making our existing system more robust. Stay tuned!

Sprite - *Ceowulf* Are housing prices final?
Annuvin - As for Housing Prices, who can say? Middle-Earth's economy is a fluctuating thing. We want to price our housing so that anyone can hope to purchase one, not just the extremely affluent.

Sprite - *Calenyavie* Any idea as to when Lindon will be released?
Scenario - Unfortunately, Lindon is not an area that is on our radar for the forseeable future. Given time, I would love to be able to fill out all of Middle-Earth but we have some bigger ticket locales to implement first.

Sprite - *skorpion352* can we please get a /kick emote?
Rhidden - Maybe! Ill write it down and ask our emote generating zombie dev.
Rhidden - Today is his holiday, so unfortunately he couldn't be here; what with all the seafaring he is doing.

Sprite - *Erirdar* Why was the fear change introduced now instead of when the skill was created or during the month of the hunter?
Annuvin - Well, to be clear, we introduced the fear change as a modification of 'Fear', not just a mod to the hunter's skill. After all, other classes do in fact have access to fear skills.
Annuvin - So... yeah.

Sprite - *bloodline`Rdubya* Will crafted gear remain to be as powerful as raid gear?
Annuvin - Ahh, Crafted gear. We have no intention of nerfing Crafting gear. With that said, we add more content all the time, and some if it has a tendency to be more powerful than the content before it. As a result, the answer to your question is a resounding "Maybe".

Sprite - *OTGMember* Concerning Book 11 and housing, are there plans to allow all character on an account to have a map to that accounts house?
Scenario - That is certainly a feature that we are interested in bringing to housing. At this time, my TF2 Addled mind being what it is, I cannot recall specifically when that feature is coming online but it is one we are investigating actively.

Sprite - *honeybee{Mixed_Kitten}* will there be more repuations and if so who
Rhidden - We have a new reputation coming online in book 11! As for the future, we are planning on integrating reputation with new areas as they are released.
Rhidden - Who though, well, that information would get me in a lot of trouble.

Sprite - *Gamthalion* Hi, were there any changes/additions made at all, like anything, that would affect minstrels level 20 and under?
Annuvin - Currently, we're adding two new skills for the Minstrel that you would get pre level 20. One of them drastically changes how you can play your Minstrel.

Sprite - *Inia* what is up with all the race specific armour in metalsmith and tailoring on roheryn?
Scenario - In Book 11, we are introducing hundreds of recipe variants for our crafted armors. These variants have the visual aspects of specific racial armors but do not have Racial Requirements to equip. They are being made available to provide additional cosmentic options.

Sprite - *Markov19* Are there any plans to add a system to make finding a group easier?
Annuvin - It's funny you should mention that! It's a bit of a hot topic here, as while the LFG system works wonders, it doesn't appear to scratch everyone's itch, re: Group finding. So, yes, we're talking about new methods for finding groups quite a bit.

Sprite - *burley* are there plans to make recipe searching easier in the Auction house?
Annuvin - Not at this time. We want to make the Auction House more robust overall, however, I don't have a concrete date for you. Sorry!

Sprite - *Volmar* Will Isengard be added at some point and what kind of time period are we looking at??
Scenario - Yes, eventually you'll be able to go to Isengard. But, at this point, it is not a location that is on our immediate radar. We have to fill in the gaps between Eriador and Isengard first. Even then, our story may steer us away from that direction for a bit.

Sprite - *Scatharis* Good work on the client overall, but are there any fixes going in for the alpha blending issues (transparencies around bushes and such that clip through rocks/walls and just blend alpha with the sky, and things like lens flares where the sun isn't visible? Second big one is that regardless of the Sun's position, shadows are always pointing one way.
Saffron - We are always working on improving our graphics. For example, we are introducing dx10 and right now on Roheryn and it's looking fantastic!

Sprite - *honeybee{Mixed_Kitten}* what progress has been made on somesite.com the gold selling company DIRECTLY claiming Turbine supports them
Saffron - We do not support any gold selling/farming or leveling service sites and are constantly taking measures to keep them off of our game. Just recently we introduced tell filtering to try to stop the gold spamming that had bothered our players.
* LOTRO_Saffron needs to learn to type faster.

Sprite - *Durnik* This has probably been asked, but will players be able to buy houses together. Maybe split the price between it and live together?
Annuvin - Right now, you cannot purchase a house jointly. Only one person can ascend to the top of Thunderdome, and that person owns the house. They can in fact give another person every permission, but if the owner gets mad... well, yeah. They can take that permission away.

Sprite - *fuzzytoes* Hi, I am a lvl 44 burg and am finding it VERY hard to level up. Right now I only have 2 solo quests and about 30 group quests. Its so hard to find a group I can't finish my quests. In book 11 will we see any high level (45-50) quests added? If so, how many and how many will be solo?
Scenario - Book 11 will see two new landscape additions (Tal Bruinen/High Pass) and 1 new public dungeon space (Goblin-town) specifically geared towards level 40-50 players. For Book 12, we'll be taking a look back at some of our existing high level content to improve its flow and quality.

Sprite - *Telhuine* First of all, many thanks for releasing some counter-spam measures in the last patch. I think I speak for everyone in saying how much we appreciate it.

Sprite - *Telhuine* With the release of housing and folks all likely sending gold to kin leaders to help with the purchase, are there steps that are being taken to ensure leaders accounts aren't flagged/suspended for the coin activity?
Saffron - You're quite welcome! We're really glad we could help out the players. It was getting pretty bad!
Saffron - While I'm not a customer support representative and I don't comment on our gold-farmer-farming processes, I'd say that you shouldn't worry too much about that. We have our ways. *Winks*

Sprite - *JaySpeed* We're well into October now. Are you all ready to announce the launch date for book 11?
Annuvin - Two words: Marketing Ninjas. As for specifics, I can't give you a real date, only an unofficial one. We're aiming for somewhere in the 20's or single digits of a month. As for exact dates, we have one internally, but... yeah.
* Scenario looks around the room cautiously
Saffron - This marketing ninja says around the end of October. :-) * Not really a marketing ninja.

Sprite - *Nuitaran* I had heard that mini-maps would be added to the neighborhoods, is this true, and are there any plans to add directional pointers to indicate roads or at least exits. Getting lost in a neighborhood and waiting for fast-travel to cool down is no fun. :-D
Scenario - Our map panels for neighborhoods are being wrapped up as we chat (well... our UI team has probably gone home for the night by now, but you get my point). The map panels themselves will indicate the roads and locations of houses in each neighborhood.
Scenario - Additionally, you will get a directional indicator pointing you towards the entrance of each neighborhood on your radar ring (like the Town directional indicators).

Sprite - *oby* Question: my question is for the decoration items when u currently hover over the decoration item it says decoration item is this a bug or is it how it's suppose to work?
Annuvin - Well, we try to label each item with a description that tells you what it does. As a result, the Decoration items for houses are called "Decoration Item".

Sprite - *Jables* Will there be any better rewards for the Helegrod raid?
Rhidden - We currently have no plans to upgrade the rewards in Helegrod.
Rhidden - We may be adding some awesome in the new book 11 raid
Annuvin - We're adding more awesome raid content in 11!
Rhidden - stay tuned!
* LOTRO_Saffron looking forward to more awesome!
Rhidden - It has super awesome lore, ask me about it, I dare ya

Sprite - *Anon1173* When will the next free map area be opened and what will it be?
Scenario - We are already beginning work on our next major landscape addition. This new area will not be available for Book 12, but it will likely appear in one of the following Books. Sorry - we aren't quite ready to tell everyone what it is... at this time.

Sprite - *OTGMember* Do you guys expect there to be a shortage of Deluxe houses? Will everyone who wants one get one?
Annuvin - Well, I suspect that there will be a lot of people that are aiming for their own personal Deluxe house, but I suspect that view/position in Neighborhood will play as large a part in house choice as house type.
Annuvin - Regardless, we're fairly certain our instancing solution for neighborhoods will mean that everyone who wants a house should get one.

Sprite - *honeybee{Mixed_Kitten}* will kindred be the final level of a reputation forever or will it go up
Rhidden - We don't currently have any plans to add any more tiers of reputation.

Sprite - *Noahzark* idk what we are sposed to be asking you or what the topic for this chat is but me and my friends want to know if any other areas will have pvmp
Annuvin - My suggestion; Hold out for the expansion. Whenever that is. Until then, stay tuned for more additions to the Ettenmoors (including more areas to fight in, and more things to fight over).

Sprite - *Nordormir* [on the topic of traveling] Is it planned to realise quicktravel via eagles (such as the eagles of the west from the books, because i want a flying mount, even tough I may not control it ;) )
Scenario - No.
* LOTRO_Saffron glares at Scenario

Sprite - *Asheron86* In my opinion conjunctions make this game unique. Are there any plans for adding more types of conjunctions? For example GYGYGY could add a +15% fellowship spell to evade for 30 seconds.... maybe some can summon different kinds of creatures.. i dunno, you have over 4000 different combinations of conjunctions, be creative! It would be great to have even more of a strategy on what moves to pull off.
Annuvin - Well, we're adding in a fellowship manuever system for Monster Players, and its mechanic is Wildly different than the Freep's one. That said, we'd like to add more Manuever types, but... yeah. As it stands, I can't get Tens to stop hammering on the Red, candyling contribution.
Annuvin - err, candy-like.

Sprite - *Nordormir* [on the topic of gameplay] Refering to the lore-master changes (first of all thanks for the new lynx-pet): will those cute puppies or critters or what so ever and the area effect spell in weakend form also be availible for lower levels of lore-masters?
Annuvin - Currently, the goal for the Month of the Loremaster is to add body to their high level play. So, until we add more cosmetic pets, those lovely little cuddly pets (which my dog would eat, therapy trained or not) will remain high level.
Annuvin - As for the Area of Affect skill... Yeah. We don't want to confuse their class role, so not a high chance.

Sprite - *Anon825* Are there any plans to add a second healer class.
Scenario - There are currently a number of morale-increasing options available outside of the Minstrel class. Some are more viable than others - specifically, Captains and Lore Masters have morale healing capabilities and Fellowship Maneuvers can function as a source of recovery.

Sprite - *Zunai* After the teaser we got during the Open House on Roheryn, I think a question on many minds is: Will all four race neighborhoods be open when Book 11 goes live? Also, will we get a peek at the hobbit neighborhood before then?
Annuvin - We plan on launching with a full featured housing system (for free, I might add). That includes racial housing for everyone; Elves, Dwarves, Klingons, and Jedi. What was that about hobbits?

Sprite - *Nazarith* The winter months are just around the corner! I know LOTRO has/wants to stick to the lore wherever possible. However can we expect any "fun things" around christmas time?
Rhidden - We do have a quest arc that should arrive just in time for Yule, it even features a never before seen NPC from the books.
Rhidden - Wooo!

Sprite - *Avocet* Two small quality-of-life issues: Please don't have the view zoom in when we mount a horse. Please, please, please let explorers figure out on their own whether an axe or a pick is needed, so we don't have to keep switching it for them!
Annuvin - I believe the horsey zoom issue is fixed in Book 11. As for the Explorer switch, I completely agree. If only I could convince Tens, life would be so much easier. He tells me he's working on it, but since he types soooooooo slooooooow, it's hard to tell if he's working, or sleeping.

Sprite - *Zephuros* ok you knew this was going to be asked. How is fishing coming along? Can we expect to see it somewhat soon?
Scenario - Wait... TF2 has fishing? What class gets it?
Rhidden - Fishing, they don't have that in TF2, i'm confused!
Rhidden - Is that a Scout skill?
* Rhidden doesn't play the scout
Saffron - Can my little scout club a fish while running?
Rhidden - NERF THE SCOUT, HE CAN FISH
* LOTRO_Saffron clubs Rhidden
Scenario - Dude - scouts are overpowered already. Give them fishing and noone will play anything but scouts.
Ramen - I like to think of myself as the patron saint of fishing...
Annuvin - Hrm. I'd like to add fishing, but everytime I consider despoiling beautiful Lake Evandim, a single tear springs forth. Regardless, you can expect some Fishing love in the near future. Seriously.
Rhidden - Fishing is that thing with the bait and the line right?
Annuvin - I think so. Or it's when you're getting ready to port sniff.
Annuvin - I forget.
Rhidden - Huh.
Rhidden - The more you know, HMMMM HMMMM HMMMMMMMMMMM
Ramen - Please, what's the point of Lake Evendim if not to catch that prize lunker? WALTER!
* LOTRO_Saffron is confused...but still looking forward to fishing.
Scenario - The point of Lake Evendim is to make you swim back anf forth across it as many times as possible
Annuvin - Ramen, there is no need to despoil beautiful, pristine nature!
Annuvin - I mean... what would the boars think?
Ramen - My hobbit is pruning
Ramen - Bear Grylls would
Rhidden - After he stayed in a hotel all night...
Saffron - Bear Grylls is smart...he stays at a holiday inn.
Ramen - he would catch them with a stick and a paperclip!
Scenario - Thanks a lot for sending us all your questions. Have a great evening everyone - I'm off to set up my Sentry Gun and wait for fools to walk by.