zigzag - Good evening and welcome to another great Stratics’ House of Commons chat! Tonight we are very happy to welcome back the developers from Lord of the Rings Online!
zigzag - Please send your questions to me - to do so type /msg zigzag and type in the window that pops up. Questions sent to the developers will not make it into the lineup. Full logs of the chat will be up on uo.stratics.com shortly after the chat.
zigzag - We'll start things off with a brief introduction from the developers - now would be a good time to send those questions!
Faya - Hello and welcome to this month’s LOTRO Europe Developer chat, before proceedings begin and introductions get underway,
Faya - If you haven’t yet done so, you can pre-order Mines of Moria by visiting http://www.lotro-europe.com/minesofmoria/preorder.php, which will include you in a great limited time offer!
Faya - Now, joining us today we have;
TensLOTRO - Hello all. This is Ryan "Tens" Bednar, Lead Systems Designer on LOTRO. Let’s talk about Moria!
Keth_Turbine - Keth, or as some call me, the Dragon Lady.
Keth_Turbine - No, wait, no one calls me that... at least not to my face.
Keth_Turbine - I'm a content guy! I do neat stuff that I hope you enjoy playing!
Graal - Howdy everybody! I am Graal, systems designer for the Champion class and the new Warden class.
Jalessa - Hey everyone, I'm Jalessa - I get to work on the nuts and bolts of Monster Play for Moria!
TurbinePatience - Hi everyone! I'm Meghan "Patience" Rodberg, community manager at Turbine. It's hard to believe we're so close to the first expansion for LOTRO already - what an amazing ride it's been! Thanks for coming tonight!
Liquilla_CM - I'm Callum "Liquilla" Rowley, community liaison at Codemasters Online ^_^
Faya - And I'm Claire "Faya" Chamielec, another community liasion bod at Codemasters

zigzag - *SubZero* Question to the Devs: Any chance you take another look at the log-off-logic of the game? Like: no waiting time when logging off to the character screen from inside a city?
TensLOTRO - We have no plans on changing our log-out mechanics at this time. They are in place to ensure that we don’t make our servers cry.
TensLOTRO - We like happy servers. :)

zigzag - *Hothorix* Will it be possible to transform rare armour parts ,such as those you get in the Rift and Helegrod, into relics that can be quipped to your legendary weapon?
Graal - None of the pre-Moria equipment is part of the Legendary Items system, so no the Rift and Helgorod armour can't be dismantled. All of the Legendary Items found in Moria can be dismantled for legacies as well as finding the Legacies themselves in loot.

zigzag - *Hothorix* In which direction will LOTRO, literally, be taken after crossing the Misty Mountains? Will the game go north or south, west or east? Will we see the Lonely Mountain and Dale before Ithilien and Gondor?
Keth_Turbine - Well, in our first update after Mines of Moria launches, we plan on exploring Lothlorien more as well as fleshing out some more aspects of Moria itself. Following that we plan on going across the river and dealing with a threat to Lothlorien. (I'll leave that to you to figure out.)
Keth_Turbine - After that, assume that we'll mostly be heading south, although I wouldn't be surprised if we go back and flesh out Eriador a bit more.

zigzag - *Golladan* How do capstone skills work? Or rather, how do we acquire them?
Keth_Turbine - I can only answer the part about acquiring them. My good friends in Game Systems will have to tell you how the work.
Keth_Turbine - (typing quickly to explain that part. One moment please!)
Keth_Turbine - There are 3 different capstone traits you will acquire, and each has a different method of acquisition.
Keth_Turbine - One is geared more toward solo gameplay activities, one is acquired via small fellowship / Epic content, and the final through 6 man instance content.
Keth_Turbine - Now over to Tens to answer what they do for ya.
TensLOTRO - As far as how they work, when you initially receive you capstone skills they will work just like all other skills do.
TensLOTRO - However, as Keth mentioned, there will be special Legendary Traits that dramatically augment the abilities you gain from those skills (and possibly give you additional bonuses)
TensLOTRO - Those Legendary Traits will be equipped just like how our current Legendaries are, however...
TensLOTRO - You will need to have 5 of the Traits from that particular Trait Set equipped to equip the Trait Set specific Legendary as a prerequisite.
TensLOTRO - So that about sums it up.
TensLOTRO - Oh, wait!
TensLOTRO - You'll also be getting access to 1 additional Legendary Trait Slot at level 60 :)

zigzag - *Allegro* The question on everyone's lips :) When is MoM being released? Or when can we expect to find out? This month?
TurbinePatience - Hey Allegro :) The answers to your questions: Soon(tm). We'll be announcing the official release date very shortly, as well! We really are very close. ;)

zigzag - *Lemonhead* Hallo, my question pertains to the monsterplay: Since book 12 you can earn much more infamy in a raid than in groups or solo. So I would like to know, if you are going to change the amount of infamy in Mines of Moria.
Jalessa - We will definitely be changing how infamy/renown is gained in solo, group, and raid situations. We will be increasing the amount gained in a full group and reducing the amount earned in raids. This change will hopefully steer PvMP activity back towards group based combat, rather than massive zerg-fests :)

zigzag - *Farmir* Will the elves of Lothlorien hav reputation?
Keth_Turbine - Not at launch, but we do expect to introduce one soon after, probably in our first book update.
Keth_Turbine - Likely you will have to work to earn the trust of the Elves of Lothlorien, as they didn't just allow anyone into their city.

zigzag - *Loge[FK]* 2: Months ago, one of you talked about a 'month of the kinship', when we would be getting more kinship functionality like a Kin Vault and Kin Bank etc. Any idea when this is coming? We've been REALLY anxiously waiting on more info on that one!
Keth_Turbine - Yeah, I really wish we had been able to get more Kinship functionality in before and for Moria, but it just didn't happen with the other systems we were implementing at the time.
Keth_Turbine - However, it hasn't been forgotten, and I believe it is one of the things we want to give some attention too soon after Moria ships.
Keth_Turbine - Unfortunately, I can't guarantee when it would happen.
Keth_Turbine - As for what we want to add, it is some interesting stuff. Some suggested improvements would be to the Kinship houses to give them more functionality, like crafting spots or stable-masters.
Keth_Turbine - Something I would like to see, but who knows if it'll happen, because I'm not that important, is a cosmetic slot for your kinship so everyone can run around showing their Kinship pride.

zigzag - *brb* Hello again Turbine (and congrats Tarrant for your epic win against Patience!). how will the Hunter Distracting shot compare to Burglar/Loremaster Mez? (Sabertooth ftw!)
TensLOTRO - The Hunter’s Distracting Shot will be useful as a CC’ing ability, although players should still want Burglars and LMs around if CC is really what you’re looking for.
Tarrant - Also, thank you! I love my fans.

zigzag - *Finrandiras* Will be re-traiting cheaper then it is now, because of all the experimenting with new new trait setups?
Jalessa - We have no plans to adjust trait costs for Moria. Sorry!

zigzag - *Meeko* will there be new classes introduced with Mines of Moria, if so, what are they? What races can be the classes? Will we be given more character slots so those of us who've been playing all this time and have 5 toons already can try them out?
Keth_Turbine - Yes! We will have the Hobbit Bungler and the Elf Snob.
Keth_Turbine - The Bungler will focus on breaking CC and drawing aggro at the worst times.
Keth_Turbine - The Elf Snob won't interact with anyone and will look down on the other, shorter-lived races.
TurbinePatience - Hi Meeko! Don't listen to Keth.
Keth_Turbine - We also will be adding the Dwarf Drunkard.
TurbinePatience - The Rune-keeper and the Warden will be introduced in Moria, and they are race-restricted. Two more character slots will be available :)

zigzag - *Loge[FK]* 1: Hiya devs, thanks for taking the time to chat with us! I would like to ask if you could elaborate a bit on the legendary weapons. Where do you get them from? How does the leveling work? Things like that :)
TensLOTRO - Great question!
Keth_Turbine - I disagree!
TensLOTRO - Your introduction to your first Legendary Item is something that we’ve spent a lot of time working on.
TensLOTRO - ...
Keth_Turbine - He's lying!
TensLOTRO - Quiet Keth!
TensLOTRO - Go away!
TensLOTRO - In fact, we’ve threaded the actual tutorial for Legendary Items through Book 1 of Volume 2 of the Epic Story, with you receiving your first Legendary Item during that quest.
TensLOTRO - (Book1 V2 is the Epic Book you will need to complete in order to enter Moria.)
TensLOTRO - We’ve done this to ensure that everyone that purchases Moria will have a solid understanding of the system right from the get-go.
TensLOTRO - As far as leveling goes, there will be a variety of ways of gaining XP for your items.
TensLOTRO - Killing monsters, completing quests, and even acquiring items dropped as loot will all give you IXP.
TensLOTRO - As we’ve mentioned before, we intend for the Legendary Item system to be a very deep yet entirely solo’able endgame experience.
TensLOTRO - So we’ve got a bunch of different ways to give out IXP to cater to as many different types of play-styles possible.

zigzag - *Flushie* Will we ever have the option to own more than one house per account?
TensLOTRO - Who knows what the future may hold... but its not something that we’re planning on for Moria.

zigzag - *Anon872* Whenever you add someone to your friend list, or ignore list, an option to add a note would be nice, to remind yourself why you put that person on your list. Is anything like this planned?
TurbinePatience - We'd love to add that, but we don't have any concrete plans for it yet. It's definitely on the list though!

zigzag - *Meeko* Any chance at all (and how much of one) that you will consider to add a 'ferryman' in Evendim who would work like the stable masters do, but only to take us more quickly across the lake to evespires. I just don't think its so plausable we keep swimming across this lake.
Keth_Turbine - Yeah, we've talked about it for a while. It's something I personally would like to see. I'll go pester our world team about it today, after the chat, and see if we can't get something in there for you.

zigzag - *Metacon* with the moria expansion coming closer and closer and the 3 dev diaries you recently published for 3 of the classes i'm eager to know what to expect for a captain in the level 50-60 ranges. trait sets sound fine. but what specialisations will moria have to offer for the captains of middle earth?
TurbinePatience - Keth's not a very good swimmer.
TensLOTRO - To answer *Metacon*
TensLOTRO - You can look forward to a Dev Diary covering exactly that coming out within the next couple of weeks.
TensLOTRO - However, as a teaser, the 3 Trait Sets for the Captain will focus on the following:
TurbinePatience - The week after next is the current plan, actually. Potentially next week if it's approved in time. :)
TensLOTRO - 1. DPS & Off-tanking
TensLOTRO - 2. Healing
TensLOTRO - 3. Pets & Utility
TensLOTRO - Yes, it will need to get through approvals first ;)

zigzag - *Mich-666* hi, i would like to ask you if we get new inventory bag and/or new vault space and housing space in MoM. With all those decoration items, festival items and housing items, crafting items i have only few slots empty to gather new things...
Keth_Turbine - We have not been deaf to your inventory concerns, although we only focused on slimming down your personal inventory.
Keth_Turbine - Two new features showing up in Moria are "quest tokens" and key rings.
Keth_Turbine - The vast majority of items collected for quests will no longer be stored in your character's inventory.
Keth_Turbine - instead they will be "stored" in the quest journal. You will be able to track your progress there.
Keth_Turbine - A few items though will have to stay in your inventory, especially those that you interact with in some fashion, such as letters or items you are supposed to use at specific locations.
Keth_Turbine - as for the Key Rings, the majority of keys have been converted such that you "use" them to add them to your ring.
Keth_Turbine - from then on, any doors that require that key will open for you.
Keth_Turbine - this should open up, on average, at least 1 bag of inventory space for your character, if not more, in some cases.

zigzag - *Ghaladon* second question (if allowed): will it be necessary to finish book 15 to gain access to moria?
Keth_Turbine - Well usually Ghaladon, we don't allow second questions, but we will, just this once... because we like you.
Keth_Turbine - Nope, Volume 1 (The Shadows of Angmar) and Volume 2 (The Mines of Moria) are completely separate. You will not have to finish Volume 1 to start on Volume 2.
Keth_Turbine - However, I hope you do finish it, as we finally get to finish up Narmeleth's story and see the eventual fate of Mordirith, Mordrambor and all our evil friends.
Keth_Turbine - We also have some very special rewards for those who finish it... which I will leave to you to discover!

zigzag - *Meeko* Will any new hobbies be introduced with Mines of Moria?
TensLOTRO - No new Hobbies for Moria.
TensLOTRO - ...but they do make great content for Live Book updates!
Keth_Turbine - Whew! You had me worried then!
TurbinePatience - I started crying. :(
TensLOTRO - Sorry, didn't mean to scare you Keth...
TensLOTRO - Don't worry, we're already planning the next one.

zigzag - That will wrap it up for tonight. Thanks everyone for coming! You can join #lotro to chat more about the game. The log for tonight’s chat will be up shortly on http://lotro.stratics.com!
Faya - Thats all folks! Thank you for all your great questions, if yours wasn't answered this time around then bring it to the next Developer Chat!
Faya - A big thankyou to Stratics for hosting for us tonight, and a big thankyou to Turbine for their attendance and great answers!
Keth_Turbine - Bye everyone. Remember... I love you and so does Tens.
TensLOTRO - Wow Keth. That's super-creepy...
Jalessa - Bye all! Thanks for comin :)
Keth_Turbine - Love is never creepy.
Sapience - I want my desk moved.
TensLOTRO - But thanks for coming everyone!
TensLOTRO - ...
Keth_Turbine - Wait, this is HR Wednesday, right?
TensLOTRO - Back! Back to your cage with you!
Keth_Turbine - Oh well, another restraining order for me!
TensLOTRO - :P
Keth_Turbine - Bye everyone! This time I mean it!
TurbinePatience - Thanks for coming, everyone! See you next time!
TurbinePatience - And thanks to Stratics for hosting us!