Massively^™

The Stratics team is at it once again bringing us the most recent House of Commons dev chat log with the LotRO developers. In this one, we get some treats in regards to Book 14 information, and the highly-anticipated first true expansion to the game: Mines of Moria.

So we're all busy people right? How about a quick summary of the topics in this log?

• An improved Monster Play login screen is in the works, with no definite timeframe yet.
• Since Book 13 focused so much on solo play, expect Book 14 to refocus on group play.
• Three new 6-man instances will be be introduced, as well as new deeds for the Urugarth, Carn Dum, Barad Gularan and Annuminas instances.
• Two new session instances will be introduced. These will not be at the level of the chicken play, but they do have plans for several more with MoM.
• One of the core focuses with MoM is character customization and improvements as far as traits and new features.
• The next Hobby is almost ready, with many more to come.
• Poison will not be introduced for the good guys, as it is restricted in Tolkien lore to evil use only.

Check out the rest of this dev chat log for more information on each of these topics!

If you're a Lord of the Rings Online player, then be sure to check this one out if you've got the free time. Later today at 5pm Pacific (8pm Eastern) Allakhazam will be holding a developer chat with the LotRO team (in the #lotro channel) on their own IRC. The discussion will be focused on general topics, so we're not really sure what you can expect to get out of the dev-chat this time around. If you can't make it to the chat, there is bound to be a chat log released sometime afterwards. You can find more details on how to connect at the Allakhazam post over on their site.

A few days ago, the Warcry Network hosted an IRC chat with some of the developers and the team involved with Vanguard to hit them with some of the community's questions, and find out about the state of the game in general. There is now a chat log of this discussion available for you to find out exactly how the interview went.

The log is 5 pages long, showing the extent to which the Vanguard team made themselves available, and the wealth of questions that Warcry had to ask. Some of the issues raised were PvP imbalances, leveling rates and the experience curve, notification of server downtimes and downtime length, and expansion questions, to some lighter stuff like what kind of scripted events the players can expect, and what "About Vanguard" comic the developers like best.

It's a worthwhile read for any Vanguard fan, or anyone that has been away from the game and wants to see how it has changed, and will change in the future. Also, don't forget that past account holders have had their accounts reactivated until the 17th of January, so you can experience the efforts that are being made to improve the game first-hand.