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The Road to Mordor: A Wildermore dev chat
Snow-covered zones aren't exactly new to Lord of the Rings Online, but the upcoming region of Wildermore is a little bit different than the normal Misty Mountain ski resorts. How so? Well, for one thing, it's not supposed to be snowy at all. So what's up with the premature winter in this area of Rohan -- and what are you, the player, going to do about it? That's the basic setup for Update 11: Treachery of the White Hand. The update, which should be going live next week, is what I call the intermission zone: It's the region that Turbine adds between expansions to keep veteran players from bouncing off the walls due to boredom. Lothlorien, Enedwaith, and the Great River are past intermission zones, but Wildermore might be the most fascinating one yet. Thanks to technical issues, I wasn't able to get a first-hand tour of the new region. Instead, I nabbed a heart-to-heart chat with the devs about the intricacies of Wildermore, the next step of the epic story, and plenty of assorted goodies coming with the update!
LOTRO confirms player skill trees, expansion in the works
While it didn't take much reading between the lines to realize that Turbine has an expansion in the works for Lord of the Rings Online this year, the team confirmed the terminology in a dev chat. The devs hinted that the full announcement would come around the game's sixth anniversary next month. Players had many questions regarding the promised but vaguely detailed revamp coming to characters. Turbine revealed a few more details in the chat: "Three trees per class. Some degree of blending at a higher cost than sticking with a pure build. Bonuses granted based on an early-level specialization choice that grows as points are spent. You can have multiple specs. You can respec." Other interesting nuggets to chew on from the Q&A session include the news that player housing will include crafting facilities, virtue acquisition may see a significant change, and that applications for the player council will begin tomorrow.
LotRO players pick devs' brains over upcoming changes
Lord of the Rings Online players had a third go-around with Turbine's staff in the latest dev chat series. Well over 50 questions were asked and answered during the Twitter event, many of which concerned the upcoming class changes, housing revamp, and player council. There was even talk of a new monster play class, although the devs were careful to cage answers in "maybes" and "we've discussed it." So what are some of the possibilities for housing? "Just ideas for this month but... more/better storage, better item placement rules, ways to display armor/weapons." The team also hinted that "rewarding choices" will be tantamount to class builds, getting away from the hybrid design that was prominent in the past. It's a long and perhaps rewarding read, so get thee to the transcript if LotRO is your bag!
The Road to Mordor: Digesting the LotRO dev chats
Apart from the nightmare of Twitter spam that the recent two Lord of the Rings Online dev chats have produced, I'm pretty happy that Turbine's being more interactive with the community and taking on some of these topics head-on. Of course, everyone has his own areas of interest that were probably not covered to satisfaction, but looking through these two chats (December 20th and January 24th), we can deduce a lot of useful information about where LotRO is headed in the future. Personally, I am pretty excited about 2013 for the game. It feels as if the team isn't slacking at all, and while there are always my wish list items that go unfulfilled, often the devs add cool changes (like the Bree update) that are equally welcome. So let's sift the wheat from the chaff and see what we come up with from these dev chats as well as the recent producer's letter!
LotRO devs talk Updates 10 and 11
If you had questions that weren't answered with Lord of the Rings Online's last dev chat, then maybe you'll be covered with Turbine's latest Q&A between players and the development team. Today's dev chat took place on Twitter as the team tackled 40 questions from the community. Chief among the topics was Update 10, of which the team spilled a host of details. The update will go to the test server next week, and promises to contain new armor sets, standardized power pools, the removal of dread on the landscape, a big change to Wardens, and the second half of the instance cluster. Turbine also said that while Update 10 won't have a new book in the epic story, Update 11 definitely will (and it'll be "super-sized"). Update 11 is also slated to add a whole new region to the game that includes mounted and standard combat. We've got the beefy Q&A transcript for you after the jump, so check it out!
LotRO's team fields live dev chat
A gaggle of Turbine developers sat down this afternoon to field scores of Lord of the Rings Online questions from the community in a live dev chat. Among the topics discussed were mounted combat, earlier zone revamps, class updates, and PvMP options. One of the burning topics concerned possible player housing improvements. Turbine said that it needed to address the vacant neighborhoods first, but was moving in that direction: "All I can say is that we have a lot of devs interested in doing some serious home improvement." We have the full chat transcript for you after the jump, starring Senior Producer Aaron Campbell, Lead Systems Designer Matt Zimmitti, World Designer Matt Fahey, Senior Content Designer Lauren Salk, Senior Content Designer Joe Barry, and Community Manager Rick Heaton.
Class design and balance Q&A session coming this Wednesday
Hot off the heels of its wildly successful Mists of Pandaria live Q&A, the WoW dev team plans to hold another online Q&A, this time on the subject of class design and balance. Community Manager Zarhym's just announced that it will take place on Wednesday, Nov. 9, from 10:45 a.m. to noon PST. The chat will be held on CoverItLive, hosted by Bashiok and Zarhym. Answering questions will be Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street along with Celestalon, Koraa, Watcher, Wradyx, and Xelnath. As with the last Q&A, the chat will use the CoverItLive system, so make sure you're signed up and familiar with it if you want to ask a question. Check after the break for the text of the announcement.
First Mists of Pandaria developer chat Thursday
Missed BlizzCon this year? Went, but didn't get a chance to ask a question? Well, here's your chance! Community Manager Zarhym has announced that the first Mists of Pandaria developer chat will be held at 5 p.m. PDT this Thursday, Oct. 27. One important thing to note: This chat will use the CoverItLive system instead of Twitter, so you'll want to register an account prior to the chat if you intend to ask a question. If you can't make the chat, don't worry -- your fearless WoW Insider writers will have a transcript and analysis ready shortly after the chat ends. See the full post below: Developer Chat This Thursday, October 27, we'll be hosting a one-hour live online developer Q&A with Lead Content Designer Cory "Mumper" Stockton and Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street, beginning at 5:00 p.m. PDT. I'll be moderating the discussion to help facilitate a smooth and productive conversation. Given all the information revealed last weekend at BlizzCon 2011, we feel it's fitting for this chat to be focused on the next expansion, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria. While we've held some developer "chats" in the past, we're going to be using CoverItLive for this event. We welcome anyone to join us for the chat, but in order to participate you'll want to visit the official CoverItLive website beforehand to create an account -- it only takes a few moments. The Q&A itself, however, will take place on the front page of our website with the CoverItLive platform embedded in a blog. Once the chat goes live, all you have to do is log into the CoverItLive client embedded on our front page, ask any question relating to Mists of Pandaria, and read along as the developers field as many questions as they can. This will be a moderated chat, meaning your questions will only initially be seen by the developers. If selected, your question will be published for all to see, and an answer will be provided. We ask that you keep the questions as concise as possible and understand that we won't be able to get to all of them. We'll be choosing questions based on the information we can reasonably provide, and what kinds of answers we feel will be the most compelling for the entire audience. Questions can no longer be submitted once the chat ends, but you'll still be able to review a transcript of the questions and answers that were posted. We'll be taking note of what works and what doesn't during this Thursday's chat, as we hope to make CoverItLive our standard tool for facilitating live developer Q&A sessions going forward. Join us this Thursday at 5:00 p.m. and let's all work to make this a successful discussion between players and developers! source
Blizzard hosting live Mists of Pandaria dev chat on October 27th
Oh, those crazy Blizzard devs! They just can't seem to stay out of the news lately. The latest bit of panda-related madness comes courtesy of tomorrow's dev chat announcement. If you've got questions about the newly revealed Mists of Pandaria expansion pack, you'll want to sign up for a CoverItLive account and prepare to fire away at Blizz's best and brightest. If you've got complaints, well, it's a moderated dev chat so you're probably out of luck. In any event, the fireworks start at 8:00 p.m. EDT, and you can read all of the details at the official Battle.net website.
Pitchblack shows off Prime beta footage in latest dev chat
If you missed the latest Prime: Battle for Dominus dev chat this past Friday, fear not! Massively has you covered via the video embed after the cut, and it's chock full of juicy sci-fi pseudo-sandbox goodness (as well as a bit of gameplay footage). The whole presentation runs just upwards of 50 minutes, and the in-game footage features video captures from the current beta build. Ranged and melee combat is evident, as are several different environments. The devs call attention to the game's three-faction PvP elements, and though the brief clips show relatively small groups of combatants, that will eventually change in favor of large-scale engagements. Pitchblack also says that it's getting ready to release a few official combat videos, so stay tuned to Massively for the latest and greatest Prime: BFD news and views. [Thanks to Bartillo for the tip!]
PlanetSide 2 devs answer questions via Twitter
MMO Crunch has the details on Sony Online Entertainment's PlanetSide 2 Twitter question-and-answer session that went down on September 16th. The chat covered a lot of ground and answered quite a few of the PlanetSide nation's most burning questions. What kinds of questions? Well, there are bits about customizable armor, bunny hopping, strafing, sun glare as it affects pilots, online vs. offline skill training, and dozens more where those came from. PlanetSide 2 fans will also be happy to know that each of the game's continents will support over 2000 simultaneous players, and said continents will feature varied environments including snow-covered terrain, glaciers, and forests. Check out an abbreviated list of discussion points after the break.
SOE gearing up for PlanetSide 2 dev chats
PlanetSide 2 is in the news again this week, but to be honest we don't know all the details as of yet. Sony Online Entertainment has sent out a press blurb stating that it will be "brief[ing] the troops on anything and everything related to the art of PlanetSide 2." This includes a chat with senior art director Tramell Isaac (whom die-hard fans will recognize as the art director on the original PlanetSide) scheduled for Tuesday, September 27th. Tramell will be discussing "the original PlanetSide's legacy and influence on PlanetSide 2's art style, and how SOE's powerful ForgeLight engine will carry this vision forward." Thursday brings a PlanetSide 2 webcast (also with a focus on art direction). After that, fans can look forward to a Twitter chat on Friday, and the dev team will be fielding multiple questions relating to the upcoming sci-fi MMOFPS.
Friends, Romans, noobs, lend me your ear: Gods & Heroes devs answer community questions
Sometimes it makes a world of difference to put a name to a face, especially when it comes to the often-mythologized field of MMO development. The Gods & Heroes team recently sat down in front of a camera to not only answer community questions but give you a sense of who the team members are, how they function together, and what they look like. Topics on hand for the discussion included Heatwave Interactive's favorite memories from Gamescom, fixing problems with the latest patch, the combat range changes, the ongoing production blog that one of the devs is writing, promotions for Steam and other distributors of the game, a "targeted marketing campaign" that's going to launch in the next couple of weeks, and a future update tenatively scheduled for mid-October. You can watch the full USTREAM recording of the dev chat after the jump!
TERA devs talk guild housing and more in Twitter chat
In case you missed it, En Masse is hosting a TERA production chat via Twitter on the third Friday of every month. The transcript of last Friday's session is now live on the official TERA website, and there were a few noteworthy nuggets dropped by producer Brian Knox and community manager Evan Berman during the course of the event. Among the interesting blurbs on display are the fact that guild housing is back on the dev team's radar, and the feature may yet make it into the game's spring 2012 launch. Also of note are a couple of general numbers relating to the size of the dev team (70 at En Masse and over 200 at Korea's Bluehole Studio, where the game is originating). Finally, there was a bit of a teaser for a big TERA-related announcement at next week's PAX community event, so keep your eyes and ears peeled!
Prime: Battle for Dominus releases new game info, dev chat coming tomorrow
Yay, sci-fi MMO news! If that doesn't twirl your beanie, how about this: Three-faction sci-fi MMO news! Yes, Pitchblack Games has sent out a new press release, and we're here to tell you that it features some pretty spiffy stuff. First up is a bunch of website updates for Prime: Battle for Dominus, including backstory and info on the game's 11 explorable worlds. Pitchblack has also put together a combat update, and juicy details include info on the game's death penalty, looting, targeting, and more. Last but not least is the first official Prime dev chat, and the shindig is scheduled for this Friday, July 15th, at 3:00 p.m. EST. The chat will be available via live stream and will feature co-designers Warren Weems and John Kennison. Head to the official Prime website for more.
Let's get physical, physical: Brian Knox fields dozens of TERA questions
With that newfangled Twitter that's all the rage these days, TERA proves that developer chats can be even more accessible -- and within a 140-character limit! Recently, Senior Producer Brian Knox fielded a grab bag of questions about this upcoming action MMO, although he put a kibosh on queries related to the release date and events. PvP, obviously, was a huge topic of discussion, with questions ranging from death penalties (same as PvE) to open world conflict (starts at level 12 and requires the purchase of special items) to guild vs. guild battles (still in the works). TERA's famed political system was another subject for inquiry -- would it be in the game at the start or will we have to wait for it? "Day 1. It is up and working now and will be available at launch," Knox assured fans. Raids are something else that future players has been asking for, and apparently the TERA team is at least exploring the possibility of implementing them: "We know how badly the community wants raids! We are looking very hard at this and is one of the reasons we have focused on five-man content." You can read the full dev diary over at TERA's official site.
Gods & Heroes dev chat video details next beta patch, estate system, and more
The newest Gods and Heroes dev chat video is now available for your viewing pleasure. The devs gather 'round a table with beer and pizza -- which is frankly how any dev chat should be done -- and answer their internet audience's questions, which span a great variety of topics. They discuss the upcoming beta patch, which is said to be the biggest patch so far and includes the new quest guide, a full pass on the Mystic class, tweaks on the first 10 levels for each class, and some server-side changes to improve performance. In addition, the team discusses the mechanics of the fast travel system and the quest guide, which functions similarly to many quest-helper mods for other MMOs. An interesting twist, however, is the fact that if you choose to do the quest without asking for the quest guide's help, you receive a bonus. What this bonus will be hasn't been decided yet, but experience and money were both suggestions tossed around. The team also goes into detail about the game's estate system, which allows you to take a razed villa and rebuild it from the ground up, populating it with minions and customizing it to your liking. For the full details on all of this as well as answers to questions such as what the team most regrets not being able to implement at launch, whether the devs play their own games, and whether the game will support addons at launch, visit Ustream to view the recorded chat.
Catch the latest Gods & Heroes development team live chat today
Friends, Romans, gamers, lend me your USTREAM! In response to your questions, the Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising dev team has plenty of answers to satiate your curiosity. If you've been following the resurrected Gods & Heroes project, then you'll definitely want to get in on the latest dev chat that's taking place today from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. EDT. Simply sign in to USTREAM and head to the Gods & Heroes channel to see what the devs have to say about the latest and greatest developments as the game plows through beta. Questions for the chat may be submitted via Gods & Heroes' Facebook page, Twitter account or the official forums.
City of Heroes first ever livestream developer chat
When speaking to this reporter outside the City of Heroes panel at PAX East, producer Nate Birkholz could not emphasize the importance of the community enough. In fact, according to a post back in January, the whole team has upped developer communication to the fans. The players of CoH really help steer this mighty superhero MMO, and the development team wishes to have as many opportunities to speak to its committed community members as possible. Next Thursday, John "Protean" Hegner and Tim "Black Scorpion" Sweeney of the development team and Andy "Zwillinger" Belford and André "Beastyle" Carlos of Paragon's community team will be on UStream to help promote the upcoming Issue 20 and answer viewer questions. For the first time ever, Paragon Studios is opening its doors to video livestream. As an intrepid fan, you will have to watch every minute on the edge of your desk chair. On March 31st from 9:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. EDT, tune in to the official City of Heroes UStream channel to catch all the latest news from Paragon City.
RIFT podcast features Trion dev roundtable and fansite questions
The RIFT podcast is back with its 31st episode, and the latest show features a panel of distinguished developer guests from Trion Worlds as well as a smattering of questions from various fan website representatives. The guests include producer Scott Hartsman, vice president of development Russ Brown, and design producer Hal Hanlin, and the trio chats about a wide range of topics including botting, pet classes, and balancing game design with player demands. Also on the docket are tidbits concerning a RIFT random dungeon finder, target autofacing, and Trion's ultimate goals for RIFT (as well as a few thoughts on exceeding them). Head over to The Rift for all the audio antics.
