LotRO chat transcripts are available
Stratics held another dev chat in their IRC channel for Lord of the Rings Online. This one had no particular focus, but many questions were asked about the upcoming Book 11 update that is currently on the Preview server, Roheryn.
Crafting got a lot of attention. The devs nixed the idea of crafting workstations being made available within Player Housing being introduced this month. They feared that implementing that idea would make the public crafting areas a ghost town, cutting down on player interaction. They also have no plans to tune down the crafted gear that is almost on par to raid gear. The new Balrog raid gear in Book 11 may put the latest crafting gear to shame anyway.
There was some confusion about the new racial crafter armor showing up on Roheryn. The devs clarified that equipping the armor is not race restricted. The new items are in place to allow armor textures restricted to one race to now be available to all races.
More on housing, class revamps, MPvP, expansion plans and more after the jump.
Player Housing was a hot topic. The devs promised the higher cost housing will not sell out due to how the neighborhoods are instanced. But the current hook system (marking areas you can place decorations in your house) will remain for now. Also, no co-owning housing to pay for the upkeep.
For Class issues, Minstrels were surprised to hear that they are getting two new pre-20 skills that will "drastically change" they way the class is played. On the down side, Lore-masters will not be getting lower level versions of the new high level non-combat pets and AoE.
MonsterPVP was up next. Additional content enhancements are planned for the Ettenmoors, but no new MPvP areas will be released before the expansion. One of those enhancements is a Creep version of the Freep Fellowship Manuever, but with a twist. It's unknown what that twist will be.
As the game progresses, Isengard will eventually be introduced, but there are many areas in between that the devs want to explore first. Unfortunately, Lindon, north west of the dwarf/elf starting area, will not be one of them. The next free map area will not be ready for Book 12, either.
What will be in Book 11 is more Reputations. And Book 12 will include retuning of L40+ content for "flow and quality." Also, a Yuletide quest is planned for the holidays and will include an appearance by an unnamed NPC from the books.
Overall, the information was all over the place, but many good bits came out of the questions. It's a good sign to see them addressing the unevenness of the gameplay experience L40+ as well as hints of what's to come in future Books and Expansions. The full transcript of the chat can be found here.