This week we talk about the upcoming Volume 2 changes, Codemasters H.A.R.P. launching and store changes!
Merric and Goldenstar both played on creepside this week. Goldenstar did pretty week on her warg while Merric works on his blackarrow.
Goldenstar’s Rune-keeper is now level 45 and is working on getting her first legendary weapon. Merric is also 45 with his minstrel and is also working on his legendary item!
And we’ve included a picture of Merric’s Indiana Jones costume for those who wanted to see it!
Town Crier:
- Interview with Budgeford
- Volume 2 Revamp and Class Love
- Warden 101
- Codemasters HARP
- Codemasters Community Awards 2011
- Store Prices Reductions and Name Changes
- Weekly Store Sales
- .Reminder of OneRing.net’s LOTRO Video Contest
Player News:
- Geneology of Middle Earth chart by Haakon
- New in the CSTM Store – ”Don’t Stand in the Poop” Baby Onsie!
- The Dunedain has released a Radio Preview
- Merric and Goldenstar interviewed on A Day in LOTRO
Raise Your Glass:
Eolas of Imladris
Hello I am Eolas on the Imladris server. I enjoy listening to the roundtables, they have helped ne greatly with my gameplay. Recently I rolled a rune keeper and looked through the roundtables and saw there wasn’t one. I was wondering if you were planning on making one anytime soon. Love your show, great work and keep it up. Eolas the lore-master, of Imladris.
Osiran
I recently picked up a Belkin Nostromo n52te (a cyborg-like gaming pad) with programmable keys, glowing lights, bells, whistles, etc… I’ve used it to kill exactly one Orc so far, but I can see the benefit of having so many key options in one comfortable location. I’m looking forward to figuring it out.
What are your preferences for making your game time easier or more comfortable? Gaming pads, G15 keyboards, ergonomically-designed desks or chairs?
We’re not getting any younger you know
Longtime listener,
Osiran from “The Old Timers Guild”
Player Achievements for the Week
Thank you to the following folks who left us 5 star reviews on our new iPhone/iPod Touch App:
- Thurley of Landroval
- MisterCode
- Morlag of Landroval
- Tadgo
- Eric J
- Olyen
Musical Credits:
- “Battle of Ballylochian” by Fathom
- “Let Us Sing Together” by Lonely Mountain Band
- “Beyond the Western Seas” by Lonely Mountain Band
Contact Us:
We encourage you to participate in our show! Email us or leave a voicemail with your questions, comments or suggestions. Let us know what you’d like to hear! You can also interact with us or just get our updates through various subscription/following services that we actively post to.
January 30, 2011 at 12:15 pm
Is Lotro down ? – Got thrown out of the game, can’t get to the forums too…
January 30, 2011 at 1:12 pm
Yes it is down currently.
January 30, 2011 at 1:21 pm
Nice Picture Merric.
There’s actually a kinship on Crickhollow called “I look like Indiana Jones” All their members dress like that. LoL.
January 30, 2011 at 1:40 pm
If you dress like that, going anywhere near a level 1 snake should give you 4 dread or something…
January 30, 2011 at 1:57 pm
i cant get on lotro…. when is the maintence gonna be over anyone know?
January 30, 2011 at 1:58 pm
It isn’t maintenance, it’s an unexpected outage and Turbine is working on it
January 30, 2011 at 2:45 pm
I have seen Indiana Jones in the game a few times, also saw some cowboys in Bree once.
January 30, 2011 at 2:47 pm
If y’all have a problem with the way I talk, you should have said something before. Just sayin’.
January 30, 2011 at 2:51 pm
Hehehe. Merric still says Ya’ll quite a bit. Especially after talking to his parents or after a visit with his parents. It just makes me giggle.
January 30, 2011 at 2:52 pm
Heh. I still catch myself saying “sammich” from time to time. Could be worse. Could have been “Sandvich”.
January 30, 2011 at 3:50 pm
The Volume 2 revamp is on the plan for the Q1 update, if nothing explodes, we’ll see how that goes.
Dev diaries have been scheduled for this week, according to +Sapience, unless there’s another Snowpocalypse. Skirmishes are account wide.
Things I want to buy accountwide: Trait Slots!, Purchasable Swift Travel, Emotes (low priority). Store-mounts [Steed of Night].
.. It’d also be nice to find a way to share some of those rare-drop mounts with my other characters. (Skeletal horse/pony for the moment.)
Things I want more of Shared Storage!, Vault Space!
Yes you can buy the Moria expansion pack in the store. (Only difference between the store and retail is retail gives you VIP time.)
Moria Expansion gives: Moria QP, Skirmish Max Trait Rank 15, 2 character slots, Warden, Runekeeper.
– Lothlorien is no longer included in Moria Expansion purchases via LOTRO Store purchases or retail key applications made after Nov. 2010.
January 30, 2011 at 7:42 pm
I realize this thread isn’t the best place to bring this up, but I was looking to CSTM for news about the server issues today and was dissapointed to have to find information about LotRO updates on their Facebook page at MMORPG.com.
I think a post about the server issues would have been not only appropriate, but was expected by a community that counts on this site for timely LotRO info. Thanks.
January 30, 2011 at 7:44 pm
Sorry we are such a disappointment.
January 30, 2011 at 7:55 pm
s’alright
January 30, 2011 at 8:20 pm
Sadly, the counter-balance of great success (and your site is one of 8 total I bookmark, replacing Tobold’s) is great expectations.
With the deserved love you heap on my favorite game, objective coverage is not misplaced.
The line between journalism and entertainment in a blog is blurry, the line between objectivity and favoritism less so
January 30, 2011 at 8:26 pm
We didn’t “not cover it” as some sort of non-objective journalism or favoritism we slathered on Turbine. Sunday is the day we take off for ourselves. Posting the podcast is #1 priority and then I pretty much leave the site alone apart from prepping next week’s posts.
We had no idea that the site outage was an all day thing. I did update our facebook page to reflect the issue and directed them to LOTRO information sources for updates.
Had I known this was going to escalate to all day nonsense, I would have posted about it.
Again. I apologize that we disappointed or did not meet your expectations
January 30, 2011 at 8:37 pm
lol, indeed, the “all day nonsense” has given plenty of time for usually quiet blog readers to vent on your site.
It was a good opportunity to let you know we really count on you for news.
Your site is so pro and polished and timely and balanced none of us are going anywhere.
January 30, 2011 at 9:22 pm
Thanks kindly!
Maybe some other helpful insight might be this.
In my best guess this was a network outage. Why? Because everything was down. That usually points to a faulty router or some piece of networking (hardware or software) that is awry. I’ve seen something like this caused from a router going bad to a mis-configured piece of hardware/routing protocol. If it was the datacenter’s fault or Turbine’s fault, well that can only be known if they make a statement. However, network outages can be tricky things to fix. In most cases it involves figuring out where the human error lies.
January 30, 2011 at 9:35 pm
I think the site did what’s appropriate. Until the outage ended, there really wasn’t much to say about it. You posted to your twitter stream, which is a much more appropriate place to look for such ephemeral things. The blog is so full of great, more-or-less timeless content and posting updates throughout the day about the fact that the game is still down just doesn’t seem to fit, in my mind. I’m looking forward to listening to the latest episode tomorrow at work.
January 30, 2011 at 7:57 pm
I’m sorry but this podcast is almost un-listenable. Fumbling through segments, forgetting what there supposed to be talking about constantly.
Seems like they majority of the time is spent blathering about their toons, if any relevant information gets passed along it seems to be
accidental.
It all just seems so self indulgent
January 30, 2011 at 7:59 pm
Thanks for your feedback. Sorry you find us so unbearable. It’s likely not to change so feel free to unsubscribe.
January 30, 2011 at 8:32 pm
Don’t know what KittensCauseCancer is talking about, thought this was another great episode, as they all are. Love the podcast and keep up the good work!
January 30, 2011 at 8:44 pm
odd, I enjoy the podcast for that reason, besides the fact that it is clearly stated they are casual players. there are many other lotro podcasts out there that probably do keep on task and to the point and only report the news. You are titled to your opinion and I also am sorry you feel that way.
personally though in my opinion the amateurish-ness and them acting like they have no clue what they are doing gives them a comedy like feel and makes them seem like like regular players with everyday lives who enjoy what they do.
I agree with luhal, keep up the good work and again great podcast.
January 31, 2011 at 3:16 pm
Don’t you dare change how y’all do things. It’s just fine the way it is.
January 30, 2011 at 8:37 pm
Personally, I enjoy the “rambling” nature of the podcasts, and like listening to you “blathering” about your toons
Keep up the good work, and thanks for CStM in general – a great resource.
January 30, 2011 at 8:49 pm
Nice costume.
What is it that he’s wearing as his chest/robe piece? I’ve not seen it before. 
January 30, 2011 at 9:03 pm
pointy i think that is the long rangers robe, I do know it is a robe its been around for a while. try the outfitter in bree
January 30, 2011 at 9:13 pm
yep looked it up for you pointy. Here’s some info:
item: long rangers robe
price: 19silver 32copper
found: bree-town outfitter inside a amour shop
coordinates: 31s 51w
January 31, 2011 at 9:56 pm
Thank you!
January 31, 2011 at 2:50 am
The hat looks like the “adventurer’s hat”, which I know can be obtained through skirmish marks. Not sure if there is another way to get it. You could probably do a passable knock-off with the snow-dusted hat from the yule festival, dyed with Umber ink.
Now if only they would give us a “bullwhip” cosmetic to equip in the satchel slot, we’d be perfect.
January 31, 2011 at 6:16 am
I got the feed to update in iTunes by searching for the podcast in the iTunes store, and then subscribing again. I then had 2 cstm subscriptions and just deleted the non-functioning one.
January 31, 2011 at 4:01 pm
Aw, I love the Lossoth Tundra mount.
I ride around on mine in the Wash Day Dress or the Yule Shabby Clothing. My Lore-Master is even sketchier than Radagast!
February 7, 2011 at 3:20 pm
Love the show but you guys should respond a little better to negative criticism. Just saying sorry we didnt meet your standards in a obvious sacrcasitc way and saying its never going to change isnt the best way to go about it. Your a podcast with a ton of listeners. Your going to get negative feedback, i just think you could handle it in a better way and use it to better your show.
February 7, 2011 at 4:16 pm
I will be glad to consider any kind of constructive criticism, but when it’s an obvious bashing I reserve the right to be human. I get your point, though. But sometimes, we feel the need to vent as well.
I would say that if we are expected to respond “honestly” to this kind of post, then let us do so. Otherwise I would just prefer that we not allow any of those comments to be posted at all. I personally prefer the former choice.