<Dismandia> I heard there are plans for horses with different speeds and attributes. Is this something being worked on or even considered?
<Satine> In our new Gold Edition box which is launched next week, one of the exclusive items in the box will be a new mount with different stats, yes!
<Anonymous99> Any hint on what region will be added in Book 13?
<Scenario> For the time being, we are staying tight-lipped about our next new region. It is a region that many on the World Team have wanted to develop for a long time now. More information will be available in the months to come.
<MueR> Question: Will the hunter be nerfed again in book 12, to match all other books?
<DangerDan> I am sorry to disappoint you, but no, not this time.
<DangerDan> Hopefully, it won't make you sad to hear that we may... even... improve a few of their skills.
<Dismandia> Is there any more news on how fishing is progressing?
<LOTRO_Patience> FISHING!!!! Yes... my precious...
<LOTRO_Patience> I think we're close to convincing Tens that it should go in, schedule permitting. When that is we can't say, but at this point, it's looking good.
<Aimoss> With the Gold edition can you just buy the game to get upgrades but use your current characters?
<Satine> That's a great question - and one that I don't have the answer to. I will however find out for you! Post it to the forums and I'll respond ASAP
<SubZero_> will the horse from the gold edition box be ridable before lvl35 or will it be as the rest of the horses?
<Satine> The mount included as part of the Gold Edition box will be awarded when players reach level 25.
<FreakyFreddy> Hi, just a little question about those horses in Gold Edition... Will have "normal" players the chance of getting those horses too?
<Satine> The mount in the Gold Edition box is exclusive to that box, so you can only get it by getting the Gold Edition.
<mhbsd|CrazyHawk> will there be a real estate market where can player trade houses?
<DangerDan> No, not at present. We don't want to enable speculation on Housing or people purchasing houses and extorting others for more or real money to transfer it to them.
<DangerDan> We haven't ruled out some safe method in the future, but at the moment we want to be on the safe side.
<Leirah> Concerning the PvMP part of the game. Will we ever see instanced 'close-combat' pvmp? For example 5 freeps who battle for the control of a small area vs 5 equal creeps? Maybe in some tournament kinda way?
<Orion-Turbine> With the Ettenmoors we introduced the concept of an area of the world where players could fight monster players. Heaped in the Ettenmoors are a ton of PvE style bits and not much that drives direct competition. That is going to change in Book 12. The keeps will gain new meaning as they drive access to The Delving of Frór.
<Orion-Turbine> Further, if we add any other areas of PvMP to the world they will likely contain some directed PvMP areas akin to capture the flag, take and hold, protection, and king of the hill style play sans all of the PvE elements.
<Orion-Turbine> That is not to say that more Ettenmoors style PvMP will never be added.
<Orion-Turbine> Again, these are a lot of "ifs"
<Java97780> Dont you think it would be nice to have a sign with owners name out of the house, if the owner of wants?
<Orion-Turbine> I think it would be neat!
<DangerDan> And because Orion likes it...
<DangerDan> Book 12 will add several ways for players to identify the owner of a house and, thus, help people get to know their neighbors.
<DangerDan> For an example: Right now, when you approach a house you see the address. In Book 12 you can also see whose home it is. (Though we will give you an option to not to show your name if you want to be private)
<Ricm> Will Book XIII be a free update content as well ?
<LOTRO_Patience> Yes, Ricm, Book 13 will also be a free content update.
<jimjim> How do you respond to the complaint a lot of players have that diminishing returns on CC works to little or no effect in the ettenmoors?
<Orion-Turbine> Well jimim, I respond by saying that the sliders are in place and now we can alter the variables as needed. Again, we need to data mine and make certain that we are not impacted classes and skills too negatively. Diminishing returns is in...and if it needs to be tweaked, it will. (Personally...I am fighting with Constant about the efficacy!)
<SubZero_> talking about the gold box once more: does "will be awarded" mean the horse is totally free of charge or will it cost some ingame money?
<Satine> The horse is free
<Anonymous99> It seems more and more attention is focussed on PvMP, why that? Personally, I don't like it at all.
<Orion-Turbine> There has been no more or less attention paid to PvMP since we first started working on it during game development. I think the tendendy to believe that we are focusing more on PvMP is multi-fold. One, I am really vocal and active on our forums. Two, the concept of PvP in LotRO has been rather controversial and so bubbles to the top when it is mentioned. All in all, it has received the same level of attention - pretty much - since its inception.
<Orion-Turbine> As always, our focus is still on PvE. Look at it this way...the Creeps are still in the Ettenmoors, the Freeps now have Evendim, Goblin-town 2 raids...etc...
<Jervan> What other features will Gold have? Must be more things than a horse upgrade for me to buy it
<Satine> The Gold Edition will contain: 45 days' free game time, the mount as discussed earlier, a welcome mat for your home, five scented candles and a lucky horsehoe!
<Leirah> A lot of mmorpgs have mini-games apart from the usual pve, pvp and crafting and seasonal content. Mini-games where u have to collect certain things on the world, where u have to go out and hunt for treasures, in short something that spans more zones? Will we ever see something similar in lotro?
<Amlug> With our festivals in the past and our planned events in the future, we will continue to support this type of gameplay. We think there is a lot of room to grow here and we continue to come up with ideas and implement mini-games whenever we can. Personally, I'm a huge fan of this and as the Tavern League President, I am eager to see mini-games support continue to grow.
<Agt> Could you shed some light to champions. We've been getting some tanking love in recent patches although I like my champ to be leanmeankillingmachine. How about adding more tricks to the champion toolset also?
<DangerDan> While the Book 12 class changes are primarily about the Guardian and Burglar "Month of"s... but the Champion will see some new skills and updates to existing skills in Book 12. Get excited... they're looking pretty hot.
<Soilentgreen> Book 11 is great, new areas, two classes 'pimped', housing, more than 250 receipes, dx10 support (beta). But why all this stuff at once? Why not first housing and receipes, classes, than the areas? Small steps for a man...
<Amlug> Why give you less when we can give you more?
<LOTRO_Patience> We have a very large team across the company that can focus on multiple areas - for instance most of the DX10 work was done by our Core team, which works mostly on the Turbine engine.
<DangerDan> I'm glad you think so, Soilent. Hopefully there's at least one thing in that big list that everyone will enjoy... and maybe most will find more than one... or all.
<Orion-Turbine> Well...we love our jobs, we love pushing ourselves to our limits and getting out as much as we possibly can to people. For me, Book 11 had more, but we recognized early that we would not get everything in that we wanted too, as it is...we have some bugs that made it through that give us pause and make us even question why we added so much. Does that mean that we'll diminish the amount of content that we add?
<LOTRO_Patience> Each team can focus on specific areas, adding new features, and so on.
<Orion-Turbine> There will be light books, undoubtedly, but we are committed as ever to delivering as much as we possibly can to our players.
<Scenario> Book 11 was certainly an ambitious project for us to undertake. We are excited about delivering new content into the hands of our players - new features, new content, new landscape! That is what we are known for and what we like to deliver.
<Orion-Turbine> Ultimately...we'll try to make more and more and more...!
<Satine> Well I'm afraid that's all we have time for folks. Thanks for all the great questions and if we were unable to answer yours tonight, don't forget that the EU dev chats are held on the last Thursday of every month so be sure to come again next time with your questions!
<Satine> And don't forget, if you or one of your friends fancies trying out LOTRO for free, then grab yourself a copy of our free trial. You can download the client and get yourself a key from http://www.trylotro.com.
<Satine> See you in Middle-earth!
<LOTRO_Patience> Thanks for coming everyone!
See you back here next month!
<Orion-Turbine> Thanks for the great questions! We'll see you all again in a month!
<Scenario> Thanks a lot for joining us for the chat and sending in your questions! Have a great evening everyone!
<DangerDan> Thanks for coming out and asking us some great questions. Good night, all.
<Amlug> Farewell, thank you all!
See you soon! Thaurlach says hello as well!
<Amrac> Thank you once again for answering so many questions!