LOTRO Reporter Podcast

Cari and Layanor talk about livestreaming, Extra Life, and Chickens going to Minas Tirith.   Audio Version: What We Did in Game Layanor – Extra-Life   Cari Mac – Live Streamed on Tuesday Bought Shadow of Mordor for my PS4   News Cosmetically Equipping Weapons You normally Cannot Use In order to cosmetically equip an item that you cannot really equip (“You are not proficient with that item”), you need to first place that item in your wardrobe. You will then be able to drag the appearance you want from the wardrobe into your Cosmetic Outfits tab. I’m afraid Legendary items just are not set up to work in the off-hand weapon slot (even cosmetically).   Switching Between the Two Versions of Minas Tirith https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7471490#post7471490   Update 17 Hotfix Release Notes https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7473354#post7473354   Chicken Run to Minas Tirith https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7475182#post7475182 I did sneak a few chicken-related changes into an earlier update: opening the Fords of Isen and the Paths of the Dead to chickens, as well as letting them use the East Gate to Moria. I think that should allow chickens to get almost anywhere, although Mirkwood is still off limits. Chickens hate boats, you know   Some Forum Signatures May be Moderated https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7475947#post7475947   Community Winterstock III is coming in January. https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?580762-Winterstock-III-(Jan-15-18-2016)&s=0b779089dbe73ef21fe331744e3afc0a   Contact Information Email: lotro.reporter@gmail.com Twitter:@lotroreporter Facebook:LOTRO Reporter Voicemail: 616-666-6778 YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/user/mmoreporternetwork www.lotroreporter.com www.twitch.tv/mmoreporter   Cari  Twitter: @thecarimac Layanor  Twitter: @Layanor Our sponsors:

Cari and Layanor talk about Update 17, and festival outfits. Cari still cannot pronounce things. Audio Version: What We Did in Game Layanor – NOTHING Cari Mac – Festival That dress is amazing!!!!! LOTR RPG   News Update 17 Patch Notes https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7470248#post7470248   Testing the Data Center This Weekend Test was crazy. Bob2 just flat…

Cari and Layanor talk about Update 17, and festival outfits. Cari still cannot pronounce things. Audio Version: What We Did in Game Layanor – NOTHING Cari Mac – Festival That dress is amazing!!!!! LOTR RPG   News Update 17 Patch Notes https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7470248#post7470248   Testing the Data Center This Weekend Test was crazy. Bob2 just flat out blew up a couple of times. You couldn’t queue. I heard that lag was awful. I was stuck in the newbie area the entire time I could get in which was about 30 minutes.BTW, the server had more folks on it that even the busiest Brandywine nights before we had to bring it down to add more power. You gals and guys are doing a fantastic job! Thank you! Frelorn: Thanks to everyone who made it in tonight, we learned some invaluable information. We will be doing another one of these in the not so distant future, and we will also do a wrap-up here on the forums next week for those who are curious about what we learned from the event tonight. We will be awarding prizes later during the week to everyone who participated. https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7469804#post7469804 However we did determine how many users each machine could handle (800). We had 2 online this last test and confirmed that the performance issues didn’t really kick in until we got to 1700 players. We will be using that data to bulk up our Bullroarer environment (as well as the other servers being built out). We will re-test on November 7th 12-2PM EST, preparing for a much higher number of players and see how that smooths out.   New Round of Palantir Preview is Starting https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7469924#post7469924   Community Winterstock III is coming in January. https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?580762-Winterstock-III-(Jan-15-18-2016)&s=0b779089dbe73ef21fe331744e3afc0a   Contact Information Email: lotro.reporter@gmail.com Twitter:@lotroreporter Facebook:LOTRO Reporter Voicemail: 616-666-6778 YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/user/mmoreporternetwork www.lotroreporter.com www.twitch.tv/mmoreporter   Cari  Twitter: @thecarimac Layanor  Twitter: @Layanor Our sponsors:

Cari and Layanor talk about the sever load test on October 24, world transfers, and Extra Life.   Audio Version: What We Did in Game Layanor – Full Helegrod Run Cari Mac – News   Testing the Data Center This Weekend https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7466213#post7466213 Saturday October 24th from 5-7PM Eastern we need your help testing our new…

Cari and Layanor talk about the sever load test on October 24, world transfers, and Extra Life.   Audio Version: What We Did in Game Layanor – Full Helegrod Run Cari Mac – News   Testing the Data Center This Weekend https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7466213#post7466213 Saturday October 24th from 5-7PM Eastern we need your help testing our new Datacenter on Bullroarer. They are giving out prizes to everyone who logs in during that time.   Issue with Store Opening every time you earn TP https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7464649#post7464649 One possible workaround for this is when you first login, please open the store and let it load all the way before closing it. We have found this can stop the store from constantly opening upon earning TP. Please try this and let us know if the issue is still occurring.   First World Transfers are Open: https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7439797#post7439797 Morthond is now available for transfer. Tomorrow we will open transfers off of Windfola. After tomorrow’s turning on of Windfola, there will be a pause on opening any of the other closing worlds for transfer (EU or NA) for a few weeks. We are treating both regions equally in this. We have stated multiple times that this might happen as we caught up to the hardware build out this is one of the reasons we started with the smallest worlds first as they were in most need of being moved to the larger communities prior to the new hardware being set up. You will still be able to move, just not yet. We do not want to confuse the situation further by making only some worlds and not other available especially as Gwaihir is as in the realm of Evernight and Brandywine now and Belegaer is quickly closing the gap. As we move to the larger realms, we just increase the chance of making a poor play experience for everyone while we are in these final stages. I am sorry that this is not moving as quickly as any of us would like, but our alternative would have been to make everyone wait until the new build out was complete and that still would not have moved the timetable forward. Announcements will be forthcoming in the next few days on the events that will be taking place between now and then. Gilrain transfers are on World transfers off of Eldar will be available on October 5th. World transfers off of Firefoot will be available October 6th. World transfers off of Anduin will be available on October 12th. World transfers off of Nimrodel will be available October 13th.   Server Transfer Update https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7460155#post7460155 How about the new server hardware and datacenter that all these consolidations are for? The new hardware is coming along great. We have all the equipment in place and built out and are now onto the arduous task of moving all of the software and data from the old hardware to new, making sure connections are correct, running QA tests etc. We should be a load test on the new Bullroarer Beta world in the next week or two and will make announcements about it as soon as we have a date locked down. The aim is to have everything completed and live before the US Thanksgiving holiday. In the meantime we are monitoring the Evernight population closely, have added some additional hardware resources to it to increase capacity and if we start seeing issues we might have

  Cari and Layanor talk about the latest and greatest information on the world transfers, and drilling team dwarves.   Audio Version:   What We Did in Game Layanor – Epic Battles Cari Mac – Bingo Boffin Quests Questing in Central Gondor News National Customer Service Week – Last Week https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?578563-National-Customer-Service-Week Interesting Stats from the…

  Cari and Layanor talk about the latest and greatest information on the world transfers, and drilling team dwarves.   Audio Version:   What We Did in Game Layanor – Epic Battles Cari Mac – Bingo Boffin Quests Questing in Central Gondor News National Customer Service Week – Last Week https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?578563-National-Customer-Service-Week Interesting Stats from the CS team   First World Transfers are Open: https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7439797#post7439797 Gilrain transfers are on World transfers off of Eldar will be available on October 5th. World transfers off of Firefoot will be available October 6th. World transfers off of Anduin will be available on October 12th. World transfers off of Nimrodel will be available October 13th. “Why don’t we just open all of the servers for transfer at once?” I am seeing this question a lot, so I want to address it. The main reason we are doing a slow roll out, is that the transfer service is limited in the number of requests it can handle at once. This is why the wait time is longer in the first 24 hours we open a new server for transfer than a couple days later. If we opened all servers at once, the service would get bogged down and wait times, during which your account is locked, would become unreasonable as everyone flooded the service. Thus we are opening one at a time, letting the wait times settle, monitoring the destination servers to make sure none are being over loaded and then moving on to the next. This method provides the smallest disruption to play time. Once the main rush of consolidation is complete, there should be no issues with normal transfer times as they are not as high demand. We understand it is hard to wait. We are all eager to have the transfers completed and be on the brand new hardware, but patience in this case will result in a better overall experience for everyone. We are working hard to get it complete as soon as possible.   Free transfers Open form Brandywine or Evernight onto other remaining worlds available (TEMPORARY) We have decided to open up free transfers off of Brandywine or Evernight onto the other destination worlds if players wish to use this to move to a less populated destination. These free transfers are one way only and will be available temporarily until we turn on transfers between all of the remaining worlds after all closing worlds have had the ability to make their moves. After that point all accounts will receive 3 free transfer tokens and tokens will be required for transfers between the remaining worlds. Closing worlds will always be free and not require a token to transfer off of, forever. We will still maintain the ability to occasionally turn on free transfers on remaining worlds for special weekends to encourage population balance. Those events will be announced before they occur.   Role Play Enforced Names As part of the server merges, we are aware that there are many people who are entering Laurelin and Belegaer without a full understanding of the rules for a roleplay server. These servers have enforced roleplay names. This means that any name that falls outside of those rules is subject to change. This can come as a shock to those who have played for years with a name they are attached to but which falls outside of these rules. Until December 31st 2015, we will attempt to practice a relaxed version of the naming rules as though the servers were just like the ones who do not enforce roleplay names. I would encourage those who plan to call

Cari and Layanor talk about the new store, Bingo’s cosmetic pets, and what not to do with removed relics. Audio Version: What We Did in Game Layanor – epic battles northcotton farms Cari Mac – Bingo Boffin Quests News New In-Game Store Coming https://www.lotro.com/en/game/articles/new-store-coming-soon New payment methods are now available! For those that prefer to…

Cari and Layanor talk about the new store, Bingo’s cosmetic pets, and what not to do with removed relics. Audio Version: What We Did in Game Layanor – epic battles northcotton farms Cari Mac – Bingo Boffin Quests News New In-Game Store Coming https://www.lotro.com/en/game/articles/new-store-coming-soon New payment methods are now available! For those that prefer to pay with something other than credit cards or PayPal, we now offer a wide variety of choices At this time players can redeem new free sample codes. All other keys/codes will need to be redeemed through myaccount.turbine.com. Turbine is looking into allowing more key types to be redeemed in the new store in a future update. Update on the Music System https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7447367#post7447367 Making some changes for update 17 First World Transfers are Open: https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7439797#post7439797 Gilrain transfers are on World transfers off of Eldar will be available on October 5th. World transfers off of Firefoot will be available October 6th. If you transfer more characters than you have slots available, the characters you do not choose to keep active do NOT get deleted. They remain on the new server in limbo until you delete an active character or acquire a new character slot. Also more character slots were added to the store at the end of last week for those looking for more space. Update 16.5 Patch Notes https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7450373#post7450373 Update 17 Preliminary Patch Notes https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7451940#post7451940 Tentative Fall Schedule October 8-11 : 25% XP Boost 15-18 : 25% Crafting XP Boost Community 11sies is still happening on Crickhollow Where’s Wigend? The Tolkien Professor Tours Middle-earth http://www.twitch.tv/lotrostream Letter from Kevin: Here’s a quick Lotro question before I go on several unrelated tangents: Have either of you ever completed the Skirmish Lieutenant deed? It’s a beast, but I am happy to announce that I have all the lieutenants at 30/50 or higher. It’s only taken 3 years to get this far, not bad. On to the random topics: On a scale of Jar Jar Binks to Samurai C-3PO, how excited for the new Star Wars are you? I’ve never been much of a fan of that series, so I’m so-so on it. How heartbroken and betrayed did you feel when you saw that there is a Point Break remake coming out? There are no words in Elvish, Entish, or the tongues of Men for this treachery. Why did the Pacific Northwest have to start on fire last month on the date I flew out there to summit Mt. Adams? Months of planning, compiling gear, and a problem-ridden flight, only to have the entire mountain closed due to a forest fire that started THE DAY we arrived. We did find a nearby trail to hike instead, and I was able to camp next to a glacial pond. Thank you for your time! Contact Information Email: lotro.reporter@gmail.com Twitter:@lotroreporter Facebook:

With not much news outside of new world transfers Cari and Layanor go over her gear and cosmetic outfits. Audio Version: What We Did in Game Layanor – Got a new shield cosmetic Cari Mac – Little more festival Quested on my main Purchased a level 100 bridle for my warsteed News World Transfers Gilrain…

With not much news outside of new world transfers Cari and Layanor go over her gear and cosmetic outfits. Audio Version: What We Did in Game Layanor – Got a new shield cosmetic Cari Mac – Little more festival Quested on my main Purchased a level 100 bridle for my warsteed News World Transfers Gilrain will be available on September 28th and Riddermark will be available on September 29th! How the Transfers are Going https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7443612#post7443612 Overall the process has been going very well. Thousands of transfers have been completed without issue since Monday without issue. We did see the transfers taking longer than expected during peak traffic and the team is looking into ways we can optimize this further. The only other surprise was the longer than normal forum bans that came with the process. We are also looking at ways we can try to resolve this as well. Beyond the above listed there were no other issues we did not know about from a technical standpoint. There were a small number of transfer failures, but we knew that in some rare cases this would occur and our CS team is working to help anyone who runs into an issue. Once we get through the weekend and have a chance to analyze the data, we will have more information   Note about length of time for the transfers If after 6 hours you have not received an email, it is safe to log in and the transfer will either be completed or failed. If it did fail you can contact CS and they will be able to help get the transfer through. The forum ban is a side effect of the process as we are “banning” your account to prevent any issues from arising. What we did find was that in the cases of heavy traffic the transfers were taking longer than the ban and it was causing some confusion. Before we open the next round of transfers, we will update the FAQ and post a note to the launcher explaining the forum ban and the time it is safe to login if you do not get an email.   Phone Support Hours are Changing https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7445590#post7445590 Starting this week phones will be open Monday to Thursday from 2:00 PM Eastern to 6:00 PM Eastern, and Friday from 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM Eastern   Tentative Fall Schedule September 14 – 24 Bilbo Baggins Birthday October 1-4 : Hobnanigans 8-11 : 25% XP Boost 15-18 : 25% Crafting XP Boost Did You Know Hidden Deeds in LOTRO http://www.thebrasse.com/game-guides/6 Contact Information Email: lotro.reporter@gmail.com Twitter:@lotroreporter Facebook:LOTRO Reporter Voicemail: 616-666-6778 YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/user/mmoreporternetwork www.lotroreporter.com www.twitch.tv/mmoreporter   Cari  Twitter: @thecarimac Layanor  Twitter: @Layanor Our sponsors:

Cari and Layanor are back for episode 290. Only 10 more until 300. We talk world transfers, and a whole bunch of other stuff.   Audio Version: What We Did in Game Layanor – Did some festival Did a RIFT run with kin Cari Mac – Attended a Concert Did some festival stuff Got some…

Cari and Layanor are back for episode 290. Only 10 more until 300. We talk world transfers, and a whole bunch of other stuff.   Audio Version: What We Did in Game Layanor – Did some festival Did a RIFT run with kin Cari Mac – Attended a Concert Did some festival stuff Got some new gear News First World Transfers are Open: https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7439797#post7439797 Server transfers can take up to 3-4 hours. Your account is locked while the transfer happens. This also locks you out of the forums.   Server Transfers: https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7440317#post7440317 It means that on Monday Estel and Elendilmir will be the only worlds on the Transfer Wizard World Selection Screen. If you do not have any characters on those worlds, your Transfer Wizard option menu will be empty until we make transfers available to worlds you have characters on. Regardless, transfers off of Closing worlds will always be free. We are working on a plan that will allow a limited opportunity for a free switch if you are already on a remaining server in case you are unhappy with your current home after all the closing worlds have begun moving. More details once we are closer and have the plan solidified. AC moved and has been down for two weeks: https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7439447#post7439447 http://massivelyop.com/2015/09/09/asherons-call-still-offline-after-two-weeks/   Tentative Fall Schedule September August 31 – 16 : Farmer’s Faire 3 – 6 : Hobnanigans 14 – 24 Bilbo Baggins Birthday 18 – 21 Talk like a corsair October 1-4 : Hobnanigans 8-11 : 25% XP Boost 15-18 : 25% Crafting XP Boost Contact Information Email: lotro.reporter@gmail.com Twitter:@lotroreporter Facebook:LOTRO Reporter Voicemail: 616-666-6778 YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/user/mmoreporternetwork www.lotroreporter.com www.twitch.tv/mmoreporter   Cari  Twitter: @thecarimac Layanor  Twitter: @Layanor Our sponsors:

Cari and Layanor are back from PAX. We have a little bit of transfer news, and a fall schedule to talk about. We also talk about our PAX adventures after the show!   Audio Version: What We Did in Game Layanor – PAX Cari Mac – PAX News World Transfer update 8/26/15 https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7431991#post7431991 Update 16.5…

Cari and Layanor are back from PAX. We have a little bit of transfer news, and a fall schedule to talk about. We also talk about our PAX adventures after the show!   Audio Version: What We Did in Game Layanor – PAX Cari Mac – PAX News World Transfer update 8/26/15 https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7431991#post7431991 Update 16.5 Patch Notes https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthread.php?&postid=7431940#post7431940 Tentative Fall Schedule September August 31 – 16 : Farmer’s Faire 3 – 6 : Hobnanigans 14 – 24 Bilbo Baggins Birthday 18 – 21 Talk like a corsair October 1-4 : Hobnanigans 8-11 : 25% XP Boost 15-18 : 25% Crafting XP Boost Contact Information Email: lotro.reporter@gmail.com Twitter:@lotroreporter Facebook:LOTRO Reporter Voicemail: 616-666-6778 YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/user/mmoreporternetwork www.lotroreporter.com www.twitch.tv/mmoreporter   Cari  Twitter: @thecarimac Layanor  Twitter: @Layanor Our sponsors: