Interview With Cordovan June 21, 2107

In case you missed any of the previous interviews with Cordovan/LOTRO Devs:

August 2016 Interview Part 1

August 2016 Interview Part 2

October 2016 Interview Part 1

October 2016 Interview Part 2

October 2016 Interview Part 3

January 2017 Interview

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I am short on time (busy with work) and will not be able to transcribe the interview like I have in the past. However, here are the questions I asked (in no particular order); note I may not have got to all of them or may have re-worded them mid interview.

CURRENT CONTENT

1) Throne T1 still has T2 locks that transfer to T1. Is there a fix on the near horizon? It is such a fun raid but you get T2ers that will not help T1 people because they inherit locks. It would be great to get more people running the raid.

2) Lag issues: My understanding is that there is a person dedicated to this. It is no doubt a multi-pronged problem; how close to slaying the lag beast are you?

3) Can we get a vault and an AH in the Camp of the Host?

4) The Anniversary Scavenger Hunt (years 1-10) were a bug hit with the player base as a whole; nicely done! A shout out to The Department of Strategy for their excellent guides. Hopefully we will see more stuff like this that gives players a reason to revisit older content. Again, hats off to the SSG team !!!

X-PAC RELATED

5) Can you share the name of the upcoming X-Pac (U21)?

6) U21 is an expansion; we have not heard anything about pricing or pre-order bonuses. Any news on that front?

7) Is U21 still set to hit Bullroarer this Friday? If so, will it be in full or only a portion?

8) When is the projected launch of U21? In preparation for the interview I asked the general population of Arkenstone what they would like and “a bug free launch” / “bug fixes” was heads above all others. Will the SSG team delay the launch in order to make it bug free?

9) This is probably one of the most anticipated x-pacs in LOTRO’s history; we have not seen any major hype for it (trailers etc.) yet? Is it coming and in what form? This is a great opportunity to get original/past players back to the game and attract new ones.

10) I am sure that most of the content will remain under wraps until Bullroarer … can you confirm/elaborate on any of the following;

a. Will the new level cap be 115?

b. Will there be new group content in U21; if so in what form? We know the raid will come with a dot update.

c. Will the High Elf race cost LP to unlock?

d. High Elves – What classes will be eligible to play them?

e. Will the Virtue cap be raised?

f. Will there be more trait points available?

g. Will there be end game PVP gear be released?

h. Is flower picking over?

FUTURE

11) Getting Chance Thomas for the musical scores in the Mordor x-pac is awesome. How long was that in the works for? Will he be doing anything post Mordor?

12) A multi-boss raid has been confirmed for U21.x. There was discussion of a new loot system; has this been added? If so, what are the mechanics behind it?

13) There was some discussion about a 64 bit client. Any updates on this? Is it still on the table? Timeframe?

14) We have discussed a few times the need to make older T2C content relevant; We discussed adding more currency (Long Lost Coins) or more Scrolls of Empowerment for doing the FIs at T2C vs. T1 and it was generally agreed that this was a good idea. Any chance this will come in the near future?

15) Kinship revamps; are they in the works?

16) What class(es) are next on the list for “fixes” or tweaks?

17) Will there be more PVP balance / content this year?

18) Will we see new crafting tiers soon?

19) Will we see new tiers added to the trait tree?

20) Any big news you can drop about LOTRO for 2017/2018?