This week Goldenstar’s Dum group had a group of 4 Dums and decided to return to Carn Dum to clean up some older quests they’ve had in their logs for a long time.

Merric keeps forgetting his universal tool in his vault. He may have said something else but this is all I remember.

Town Crier

Official News

• Update 11 Launching May 13th
• Update 11 Video Developer Diary
• Dev Diary- Volume III Book 10
• Dev Diary- Mounted Combat 2.0
• The Road to Mordor- A Wildermore dev chat
• Scheduled Server Downtime- Monday, May 13, 2013
• LOTRO Support on Twitter

Developer Bites

• Forums Consolidation and Streamlining
• Spring Festival is scheduled to begin May 21st!

Store News

• Weekly Store Sale Starting May 10, 2013

CSTM News

• LOTRO Update 11 Fan Trailer

Community News:

• Goldenstar was a guest on Warriors of the Westfold
• Supergirl of Lorien- Top 11 things I would change when I rule Middle Earth
• Zachary Quinto vs. Leonard Nimoy- -The Challenge

Weekly Poll

• Poll- Player Council Members

Raise Your Glass

Letters

JP:

Hey GS,

It me again. I was inspired by you guys and made a  Hobbit Hunter on Landroval named Aehro (pronounced “Arrow”), he’s 20 now and in The Council of Secret Fire; thanks for the link.

I also made a couple of Creeps: A Weaver named Yipreth and a Warg named Yipsnarl. I wanted to see what night you guys played your creeps and maybe meet you guys out on the Moors.

Thanks again for the great podcast, hope to see you in game.

Best,

-JP

Kazren:

Hi, Goldenstar,

I found a place where they have “lifetime” LOTRO accounts for sale.  I wrote to Turbine to ask if it was legal, they never answered me.  Is it legal for me to buy a lifetime account?  It seems to me Turbine wouldn’t like that too much, since they lose their yearly subscription if someone has lifetime.  Do you know anything about this?

Thank you,

Kazren

Kirabel:

Hi Merric & Goldenstar,

I hope you don’t mind that I write to ask you guys for a bit of a favour.

Our kin, Aurora Australis, has been a strong and active kin on the Elendilmir server since 2007 thanks to our leaders, Barn and MrsBarn.

In January 2012, Barn swallowed a chicken bone, which unfortunately perforated his bowel and was the start of a massive and heartbreaking journey for their family. A string of infections and operations followed, and he nearly died (he was given his last rites). Throughout this time, MrsBarn stayed strong for their two children and was pregnant with their third, giving birth to their daughter, Aurora, at the same time as Barn was having surgery.

Now, a year and some months later, it looks as though Barn can head home to be with his family, but they are trying to raise funds for medical equipment as well as some modifications to their home, as it will still be quite some time while Barn goes through rehab and continues to recover. I was wondering, if it’s ok with you guys, to please include a link to their fundraiser page in your show notes, and I ask people to please donate if they are able. Any little bit helps.

More information can be found on the fundraiser page at:

https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/4UqB4

There is a Youtube clip on there which explains the whole story (you need to turn captions on so that the text shows).

I know it’s asking a lot of you and your listeners, but I figured it didn’t hurt to ask for a little help for some fellow members of the LOTRO community, if possible.

Thanks for your podcast, which I love listening to every week, even now when I’m taking a LOTRO break!

All the best,

Kirabel

Aurora Australis

Elendilmir server

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Recorded May 11, 2013

Dums went to Enedwaith to take care some small fellowship landscape quests.Hoppy was able to join us and we killed a lot of foxes. Goldenstar was a judge with Cari from LOTRO Reporter for the Dawning Eclipse 6th anniversary party on Windfola which was a ton of fun. We now own a nintendo DS and am taking recommendations of good games either for Goldenstar or Baby Hobbit. We got it specifically for Kingdom Hearts which Goldenstar loves!

Note that we are going on vacation soon. There will be a show next week but no show on May 18th or May 25th while we are out of town.

Town Crier

Official News

• Update 10.1.1 Release Notes
• New Anniversary Rewards
• Anniversary Festival Extended Until May 6th
• LOTRO “The One Fund” Cloak
• Developer Notes: Foreclosure and Escrow

Developer Bites

• Hobbit Presents will not replace Lotteries
• Bullroarer Update 11 B2 Notes
• Bullroarer update 11 B3 Notes
• Focus Schedule (2)
  • (Laila’s Market)

Store News

• Obsidian Steed Available Through May
• Weekly Store Sale Starting May 2, 2013

Weekly Poll

• Last week: Opinions of Mounted Combat and Its Future
• This week: Poll- Player Council Members

Riddles in the Dark

Riddles in the Dark is a bi-weekly podcast series by Dr. Corey Olsen (The Tolkien Professor) and David Kale. Discussion will focus on the themes, characters, and events of Middle-earth and lay the groundwork for intelligent speculation about how the book may be translated to film. Each episode will culminate in the hosts making a specific prediction about the upcoming films, to be proven or disproven when the films are finally released.

More information on RITD can be found at http://www.mythgard.org/exclusives/riddles-in-the-dark/

What will Bolg’s role be in The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug?

A. He is commander in chief of the orc armies (book answer).
B. His activity is limited only to Dol Guldur.
C. He leads away missions.
D. He has no defined role.

Bolg was the son of Azog,[1] who succeeded his father as leader of the northern Orcs after Azog was killed by Dáin Ironfoot at the Battle of Azanulbizar in Third Age 2799.[2] This started Bolg’s hatred towards the Dwarves and after the Great Goblin was killed during an encounter with Thorin and Company in T.A. 2941, his hatred for them grew even more. [source]

Raise Your Glass

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Contact Us

• Visit our blog at www.casualstrolltomordor.com
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• Please leave us a review on iTunes and we would really appreciate it!
• Listen to us live every Saturday at 9:30 pm Eastern

Recorded May 4, 2013

This week we had three Dums go and smash through the Warg Pens in Mirkwood. Then we returned to creeping. Silvers won a war-steed appearance from the anniversary festival envelopes. Otherwise she played a lot of Tomb Raider.

Merric wasn’t sure he did anything this week. Maybe something with is Warden?

Town Crier

Official News

• Helms Deep LOTRO’s Fifth Expansion Announced
• Bullroarer- Update 11 Release Notes
• LOTRO Community Site Changes Coming
• 2013 LOTRO Player Council Members Announced
• Scheduled Server Downtime- 7-00 AM – 10-00 AM Eastern (-4 GMT) Monday, April 29

Developer Bites

• …we will be extending the Anniversary Festival by 1 week. We’ll also be adding new rewards to it on Monday.

Store News

• Weekly Store Sale Starting April 26, 2013

CSTM News

• Help the Hobbit- Altoholism
• Export Your My.LOTRO Blog
• Lilikate’s Creatures Episode 5- Bound Beater.
• Lost Texts- Diary of a Wood Elf
• Bullroarer- Update 11 Wildermore Overview

Weekly Poll

• Poll- Opinions of Mounted Combat and Its Future

Raise Your Glass

Amberle:

I was told to submit this picture of our wedding cake (just married on the 25th of March). It’s LotRO based since my husband and I met in the game a few years past.

Enjoy!

Amberle (Hobbit Minstrel Isabela)

Ben:

Hey Merrick and Goldenstar,

So…I’ve got a problem. My dumb computer keeps crashing when I take my 85 guard into Rohan. It seems to happen only in that area. I’ve check the forums…and have done a couple of things to try to fix it. Turning down Player Quality, Turning off Post Particle Effects, and stuff like that. To no avail. Are there any other people who are crashing lots only in Rohan? My computer isn’t great…but it shouldn’t be doing this. Any suggestions?

Thanks for your time! Love the site/podcast/you guys,

Ben

Joe:

Dear Goldenstar and Merric,

I listen to your CSTM podcast by going to the weekly episode show notes webpage and clicking on the play button at the end of the notes.  For the longest time (since I began listening), however, I have been having odd technical problems with the progress bar that opens up.  Although there is text below the bar that indicates the alleged length of the show, the show never actually ends at the specified time.  Instead, the bar fills and fills as the show plays, but when it reaches the designated end point, it just keeps going.  You two are literally exceeding the bar every week!  Not that I mind the length.  The same issue happens whether the show is 45 minutes or 90 minutes long.  The problem is that, if I miss something and want to hear it again, I may end up having to go back 10-15 minutes in the conversation because that is the where the progress bar ended.

The problem I have been having may be related to another issue that I have when listening to the show:  pausing.  I listen at work and so I often have to pause the show if I have to deliver something to one of my coworkers.  When I click “play” to resume the show, it almost always pushes me back 2-3 minutes earlier in the show.  So, if I paused during town crier, when I resume I could be back in the intro.  The pausing issue happens at any time during the podcast, whether the progress bar is filled yet or not.

We are still using IE8 at work, so I don’t know if that is the issue, or if this happens to everyone.  I don’t have the same issue with other podcasts that appear to use the same or a similar progress bar.

The show is good enough that I’ve been muddling through the timing issues for over a year.  I wasn’t sure if they have ever been brought to your attention, however, or if I’m the only one, and so I thought I would finally speak up.  It’s not really a huge issue, just a quality of life thing.

Thanks for being so receptive to feedback!

Joe

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Recorded April 27, 2013

Hoppydum and Laydedum have had their twin girls. She actually went into labor on Dum night! Welcome to the world Sophia and Sydney Dum!

The rest of the Dums headed to the Moors for more Mud time and freep killing!

Goldenstar has been trying to get the war-steed appearance from the festival envelopes.

Merric is working his warden through Moria and really enjoying it!

Town Crier

Official News

• 6th Anniversary has begun
  • Anniversary Rewards are "one time rewards"
  • All players should be receiving their gifts.  If you do not file a support ticket.
  • Don’t forget to equip your Erebrandir’s Horseshoe
• Hobbit Presents are Coming to LOTRO
• Scheduled Maintenance- Monday, April 22 from 8-00 AM to 1-00 PM Eastern (-4 GMT)
  • An explanation behind the maintenance
  • The Anniversary will be extended

Developer Bites

• Character signatures going away in the website revamp (a complete list of coming and going features will be released ahead of time)
• LOTRO through Google Glass
• Player Council Announcement delayed
• Bullroarer will be up sometime next week with Update 11
• New Quarterly Wallpaper

EDIT TO DISCUSSION:
Merric says in the podcast the forums will not be updated. This was due to misinterpreting this blue post on the forums. Sapience has clarified that the forums are being revamped.

Store News

• Weekly Store Sale Starting April 19, 2013
• Reveller’s Gilded Mount & Cosmetics Available Until April 30, 2013

Community News:

• Grand Travelling Dwarrow Fayre – Starts Wed April 24 at 8pm (Laurelin)
• Beryl Cup – SRC Qualifier Horse Race – Sat April 20 at 1pm EST on Landroval
• The Spring Racing Carnival is scheduled for Friday, May 3rd and Saturday, May 4th on Landroval
• Possible Houston, TX LOTRO meetup

CSTM News:

• LOTRO 6th Anniversary Festival Guide
• Building a New Battlestation
• Congratulations to David / Thermobuddy (on Steam) as the winner of our Mithril Edition giveaway!
• Our contact form on the site is not working. Email us on podcast@casualstrolltomordor.com

Weekly Poll

• Poll- Armour Class Looks

Riddles in the Dark

Riddles in the Dark is a bi-weekly podcast series by Dr. Corey Olsen (The Tolkien Professor), David Kale and Trish Lambert. Discussion will focus on the themes, characters, and events of Middle-earth and lay the groundwork for intelligent speculation about how the book may be translated to film. Each episode will culminate in the hosts making a specific prediction about the upcoming films, to be proven or disproven when the films are finally released.

More information on RITD can be found at http://www.mythgard.org/exclusives/riddles-in-the-dark/

Riddle: What is Bard’s relationship with the Company going to be when they are in Laketown?

A. He has no presence or only a cameo role (closest to book answer).

B. He supports them openly.

C. He supports them but secretly.

D. He openly opposes them.

E. He works against them secretly.

Raise Your Glass

Letters

Opdum:

Dear Lhoss and Silvers,

Silvers being all sad about not getting letters made me sad, so I wanted to send you a letter.  The letter is Z.

Cheers!

-Opdum

The Masked Ferret:

Dear CSTM,

Long time LOTRO player, first time emailer to CSTM. That was so sad, the segment on you not getting letters. It seems that you are getting as many emails as I am getting play time in LOTRO.

Signed,

The Masked Ferret

Evermind:

Hello CSTM,

Since you were complaining last week about the lack of email messages, I thought I’d ask my question. For the last three months, I haven’t seen any lotteries on my.lotro.com. Every time I click on the widget, I get, "You have no characters eligible for the current lotteries." The last time I entered / won a lottery was in January.

I had assumed that the lotteries were down with an unknown return time, but last week (or the previous week?) I heard you talking about lotteries as if they were still running. So, is this just me? Are other players seeing the lotteries? Or is everyone in the same boat with me?

Thanks,

Evermind of Landroval

(and various other alts)

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Contact Us

• Visit our blog at www.casualstrolltomordor.com
• We welcome your email to podcast@casualstrolltomordor.com
• We are available to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus & Steam
• Please leave us a review on iTunes and we would really appreciate it!
• Listen to us live every Saturday at 9:30 pm Eastern

Recorded April 19, 2013

Goldenstar’s Dum group did all three instances of the Great Barrows this week and had a great time. Silvers Dum got a scary face club and is using it to smash people in the face with her face club.

Merric did a little bit of Hytbold and started playing his Warden in Moria. He talks about the crazy new charts for Warden gambits.

Town Crier

Official News

• LOTRO 6th Anniversary Festival
• LOTRO 6-Year Anniversary Gifts
• Scheduled Maintenance- Monday, April 15th from 6-00 to 10-00 AM Eastern (-4 GMT)

Developer Bites

• EU Lifetimers are currently not receiving VIP Points automatically
• Players having issues making Turbine Point and VIP purchases

Store News

• Weekly Store Sale Starting April 12, 2013

CSTM News

• Help the Hobbit; Minstrel Healing
• Outside LOTRO- Friday Films

Community News

• Tales of Arda: Where in LOTRO
• Lilikate Buggins has her own blog! http://lilikate.mymiddleearth.com/
• LOTRO 6th anniversary fan-edited video

Weekly Poll

• Previous Poll: Thoughts on Store Exclusive Mount a Month
• Current Poll: Armour Class Looks

Raise Your Glass

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Contact Us

• Visit our blog at www.casualstrolltomordor.com
• We welcome your email to podcast@casualstrolltomordor.com
• We are available to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus & Steam
• Please leave us a review on iTunes and we would really appreciate it!
• Listen to us live every Saturday at 9:30 pm Eastern

Recorded April 13, 2013

This week Goldenstar’s Dum Group went to the dark side and rolled creeps. They had an absolute blast! She doesn’t remember anything else before leaving for vacation.

Merric reminds Goldenstar that they ran a skirmish or two with Sypster. Merric collected all of the Martial Champion (Champ Tank) Hytbold set.  Merric has the Champ tanking and Agility ring and I’m not sure which I want to upgrade to Teal

Town Crier

Official News

• Update 10.1 Release Notes
• Applications for the Player Council are Open

Developer Bites

• Dates for Anniversary and Spring Festival
• My LOTRO Blogs Possibly Going Away  (We recommend moving to www.mymiddleearth.com)
• Bullroarer Took Winners
• Cosmetic Sets coming back in the future
• Cloak of the Fornost Captain not Working as Intended

Store News

• Update 10.1 Store Updates
• Weekly Store Sale Starting April 5, 2013
• Steed of Dagorlad Available Through April

CSTM News

• CSTM Mithril Edition Giveaway!
• Beneath Your Feet- North Downs
• Lilikate’s Creatures Episode 4- On the Farm
• LOTRO Short Film- Murder in Bree
• Happy Birthday Baby Hobbit
• Happy Birthday Merric
• April Fools 2013

Community News

• Introducing Battle Bards: The world’s first MMO music podcast!
• CSTM Podcast Episode 178 – We Talk About Episode 189

Weekly Poll

• Poll- Lootboxes and Mithril Coins
• Poll- Thoughts on Store Exclusive Mount a Month

Riddles in the Dark

Riddles in the Dark is a bi-weekly podcast series by Dr. Corey Olsen (The Tolkien Professor), David Kale and Trish Lambert. Discussion will focus on the themes, characters, and events of Middle-earth and lay the groundwork for intelligent speculation about how the book may be translated to film. Each episode will culminate in the hosts making a specific prediction about the upcoming films, to be proven or dis-proven when the films are finally released.

More information on RITD can be found at http://www.mythgard.org/exclusives/riddles-in-the-dark/

How is the escape by barrel arranged?

A.  By Bilbo, “alone and unaided.”  (Book answer)
B.  In co-operation with at least one dwarvish collaborator.
C.  With the knowing consent or assistance of at least one Elven sympathizer.
D.  With the help of magical intervention from some outside (i.e. non-Ring) source, such as Gandalf, Radagast, Galadriel, or similar. (The second-phase manuscript Plot Notes A answer!)

Raise Your Glass

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Contact Us

• Visit our blog at www.casualstrolltomordor.com
• We welcome your email to podcast@casualstrolltomordor.com
• We are available to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus & Steam
• Please leave us a review on iTunes and we would really appreciate it!
• Listen to us live every Saturday at 9:30 pm Eastern

Recorded April 6, 2013

Goldenstar this week has finally finished the “Discovering the Descendant” quest line and has the war-steed healy skill. Dums did a tier 3 6-man skirmish after being exploded to death by some sort of abysmal wraith thing. Goldenstar’s rune-keeper got a new outfit!

Merric’s captain got played a bit preparing for our captain/rune-keeper duo to play together.

Town Crier

Official News

• LOTRO Fashion Week Has Begun
• Community Update March 12, 2013
• LOTRO Developer Twitter Chat- March 21, 2013
• Bullroarer Took Day Screenshot Contest

Developer Bites

• The 24 hour gaming marathon for charity
• Fashion Maven
• Account Support Phones Closed March 23rd and 24th for PAX East
• There is no new PAX Pony but something else just for attendees

Store News

• Weekly Store Sale Starting March 15, 2013
• Double Bonus Points until March 25, 2013
• Free Forest Green Dye

CSTM News

• VIP’s Monthly Turbine Points
• Goldenstar’s Anti-Fashion
• Winner of Riders of Rohan Giveaway: Peter

Community News:

• “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” is available for digital download from Amazon http://ow.ly/iTRSX or on iTunes http://ow.ly/iTRSY

Weekly Poll

• Poll- Daily Quests
• Poll- Lootboxes and Mithril Coins

Riddles in the Dark

Riddles in the Dark is a bi-weekly podcast series by Dr. Corey Olsen (The Tolkien Professor), David Kale and Trish Lambert. Discussion will focus on the themes, characters, and events of Middle-earth and lay the groundwork for intelligent speculation about how the book may be translated to film. Each episode will culminate in the hosts making a specific prediction about the upcoming films, to be proven or dis-proven when the films are finally released.

More information on RITD can be found at http://www.mythgard.org/exclusives/riddles-in-the-dark/

RIDDLE 2.04: Under what circumstances will the Dwarves be captured by the Wood Elves?

A.  Elves are sent out to capture the Dwarves and do so after they are freed from the spider web casings. (book answer)
B.  Elves are sent out to capture the Dwarves but they have to rescue them from the spider web casings to do so.
C.  Elves encounter the Dwarves by chance or seek them benevolently after they are freed from the spider webs.
D.  Elves encounter the Dwarves by chance or seek them benevolently and rescue them from the spider web casings.

Raise Your Glass

Letters

Voicemail from JP
http://support.turbine.com/link/portal/24001/24001/Article/193/LOTRO-Forums-FAQs

Odewulf:

hello Goldenstar and Merric,

Odewulf here again, still enjoying podcast every week. Don’t know if you can post this on the site, or maybe mention in the podcast, but here goes.

I noticed the store had a new item called the Warleader starter package with update 10. Details here: http://archive.lotro.com/lotrostoresale/2790-new-store-items-in-update-10 Actually there’s a starter package for each monster class, but since I had a fresh rank 0 Warleader with absolutely no skills I took a look at this package, and the breakdown for each skill and trait. From the site:

Contains three class skills, two class traits, one racial trait, and three corruptions. The skills, traits, and corruptions included are intended to give you a boost to help start your Black-arrow. Also includes the Mordor Whipmaster Appearance, a LOTRO Store Exclusive!

Contains the following skills:

Command Post. This is a Rank 7 skill  for 495 TP in the store. Banner that increases regeneration rates and damage dealt by allies, while reducing damage taken. Like captains banners only cooler

Quitters Never Win. Rank 9 skill for 495 TP: Restores a large portion of health to your allies. A must-have healing skill

Commander’s Stance. Rank 6 skill for 495 TP: This is the Healing stance for Warleader and a must-have

Contains the following traits:

Empowering Rank 0 trait for  195 TP: Increases in-Combat power regeneration and Tactical Mastery. You can get this also for 500 commendations in game, but if you buy this package you can spend those points elsewhere

Harsh Language Rank 2 trait for 295 TP: Improves healing skills. +25% Outgoing Healing. Very neat trait.

Racial Skill: Imposing Presence Rank 5 skill  for 395 TP:  Your presence inspires those around you to greater strength; mostly through fear.+10% Maximum Health,  +10% Maximum Power. This is like a minstrel’s tale, in that it will buff you and your fellowship.

Contains the following corruptions:

Health for Power (Rank 1) 195 TP :  +5% Maximum Health -5% Maximum Power

Physical Mitigation Boost I 195 TP : +608 Physical Mitigation

Critical Protection Boost I 195 TP :+608 Critical Defense

All this comes to a total value of 2945 TP. The entire package is 2995 TP, and it does include a Store exclusive cosmetic for your Warleader, which is 995 TP sold separately. The total value of the package comes to 3954 TP. With the sales going on this week, the traits and skills are 35% off, but not the corruption. You could buy all the skills etc for 2127 TP and including the appearance would set you back 3122 TP so the package is still a slightly better deal for 2995 TP

Now some of these skills and traits are low rank, and can be gotten with Commendation too, but I still think its a very nice deal! If you’re starting out, this package will give you some really nice skills, some ok traits and some starter corruptions (corruptions are similar to virtues for freeps) If you don’t care for the appearance the package is less interesting, but only while the sale is going on. If you love the store exclusive looks than the package is a better deal any day.

I have not yet taken the time to look at the other packages but I’m sure they’ll offer similar value for the TP.

Regards

-Odewulf

Odewulf Followup:

I’ve taken a quick look at the Warg (stalker) starter package. Its the same value as the Warleader’s, so 2955 TP in skill and traits. or 3950 TP when you factor in the appearance. For this you get 2 must-haves skills, (which are low-rank BTW) and once nice skill. 1 nice low-rank trait, and two very nice higher rank traits. The corruptions are ok, one of the I would never use (Power for Damage) Personally I feel that the warleader gets better stuff, but I’m sure that’s highly depending on play style. All in all I think that all the starter packages will be around that 2955 TP in value, which is not a bad deal. Not super great, but with the cosmetic thrown in for free a good starter deal.

-Odewulf

Brigo:

Dear M & G,

I met this guy while doing my Garsfeld Guppy quest.

I shared the secret to finding the guppies only to see him start pulling in LEGENDARY BOWS!!!!

BTW:  He never did share what bait he was using…..

Brigo Broadbelt

The Marauders kin

Crickhollow server

Ralph:

Goldenstar,

Happy anniversary. I started celebrating anniversaries of my birthday after a certain age ending with a 9

This is just another anniversary of your 29th birthday, doesn’t that sound better?

Ralph

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Contact Us

• Visit our blog at www.casualstrolltomordor.com
• We welcome your email to podcast@casualstrolltomordor.com
• We are available to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus & Steam
• Please leave us a review on iTunes and we would really appreciate it!
• Listen to us live every Saturday at 9:30 pm Eastern

Recorded March 16, 2013

Goldenstar’s Dum group did the Mirkwood instance, Dungeons, this week and pretty much were not huge fans of the mechanics of it. She’s also has apparently given up on Hytbold. Oh also it is her birthday.

Merric did some Hytbold but very little and also feeling the grind of the city. He’s working on a new cosmetic item for his Captain and is thinking of starting a leveling duo with his captain and Goldenstar’s Rune-keeper. He has begun planning a Captain roundtable. *Gasp*

Town Crier

Official News

• Update 10: Release Notes
• Update 10: Known Issues
• Developer Diary: Updated Critical Defence
• New Update 10 Screenshots
• flight to the lonely mountain – removed during restart

Developer Bites

• Trouble Buying Turbine Points
• Improvements to Paid Service Requests
• Kelsan’s input on Burglar changes and Hunter changes for their upcoming revamps
• Steed if the Winged Herald not being Awarded Properly
• Monthly VIP Point Grant Issue

Store News

• Update 10 Store Updates
• Weekly Store Sale Starting March 8, 2013

CSTM News

• Lost Texts: Tales from Ravenwood, Book 2 Chapter 2
• Riders of Rohan Giveaway

Community News

• Creep Roundtables starting.

Weekly Poll

• Last Week’s Poll: Are you Excited for Update 10?
• This Week’s Poll: Poll- Daily Quests

Raise Your Glass

Updates to Kazren’s issues on installing plugins:

Plugin Compendium

Braag of Vilya:

Hey Mergoldrickstar,

I had a brainstorm the other day about housing and wanted to know if you had seen this idea offered anywhere when the Devs requested feedback. I don’t remember seeing it on your poll, but this would be my first choice for the #1 feature.

Cheers,

- Braag of Vilya

————————————

One feature that I have not heard discussed which I think would be a win-win for Turbine and the Community would be the ability to save multiple decoration options or ‘layouts’ for your house similar to what we have with the cosmetic outfit system or the desired Class trait configuration saves that are supposedly in the works based on the design for Warsteed trait configurations.

This would allow you (after purchasing additonal ‘House Layout Options’ from the Turbine Store for hopefully a REASONABLE price), to switch out your home decor at the push of a button to a pre-set layout of wallpapers, flooring, music and items. I could easily picture seasonal settings that I would prefer or even specific holiday layouts for Halloween, Christmas, etc.. based on the themed Festival Items available.

Think of how vibrant a neighborhood would be if the empty houses were gone and people were constantly swapping out their decorations for the season! The reason people don’t redecorate their homes constantly is that it is too much work and there is not enought storage room to keep all of the items you would need for multiple themes, but if you could either use a wardrobe like system to store housing items (Note: More revenue opportunity Turbine!) or the ability to equip an item cosmetically to a layout and then discard it then the storage issue goes away and the ability to switch to a saved layout dynamically would take all the hard work away.

This would reincent people to make a point of collecting new housing items. If you have been playing the game for years, chances are your house decor is stale and you have more housing items then you could ever display at one time in the current scheme so the motivation to collect new items is very low unless it is something new and special in which case you need to throw out an old treasure.

This design would create a ton of revenue for Turbine (which would hopefully more than offset the additonal DB storage space needed for it) and make a lot of players extremely happy while enriching the Festival, Instance and role–play loving toons. Doesn’t that cover just about everyone!

- Braag of Vilya

Aerindis of Vilya

Dear Merric & Goldenstar,

As a premium player on a budget, knowing when it’s worth spending my hard-earned TP and when to hold out is of particular importance to me. So, I’ve dedicated some of my crafting and travel time to mining the CSTM archives of weekly store sales for data. The result is a spreadsheet with a year’s worth of information to help guide purchases. Since I never would have created this without your website, I felt it only right that I share with you. It could be neater and include more information, but generally fulfills its purpose by being searchable. Thanks for your podcast and website, they are both wonderful.

Aerindis of Vilya

PDF Link

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• Listen to us live every Saturday at 9:30 pm Eastern

Recorded March 9, 2013

Goldenstar’s Dum group this week struggled saving Golodir from the Rift skirmish and had to read Pineleaf’s guide for tips on how to not kill the little sissy. Goldenstar herself didn’t do much this week. Some Hytbold dailies probably. She also got her jeweler is now an Eastermnet Master Jeweler.

Merric says he did Hytbold stuff.

Town Crier

Official News

• Dev Diary – Seals and Medallion Conversion
• Dev Diary – Instance Cluster
• Dev Diary – Warden Agility
• Dev Diary – Critical Defence
• UPDATE 10 PRELIMINARY RELEASE NOTES -Bullroarer Only (5) – SUBJECT TO CHANGE
• ZAM: Escape to Erebor
• Turbine Pax East Fan Appreciation Party! Friday March 22, 2013
• Turbine points for down time
• Monthly VIP Point Grant Issue

Store News

• Weekly Store Sale
• Steed of Nightwood Now Available
  

CSTM News

• Translating the Ring- LOTRO Classes
• Beneath Your Feet: The Ettenmoors
• Lost Texts: Tales from Raven Wood Book 2, Chapter 1

Weekly Poll

• Last Week’s Poll: Poll- Getting New Gear
• This Week’s Poll: Poll- Excited for Update 10

Raise Your Glass

Voicemail from Kazren on Plug-ins

Oli:

I just found a collection of UI skins at:

http://www.lotrointerface.com/downloads/info581-JRRSkinscollection-Atributetomiddleearth.html and I would like you guys to share it because I think it looks amazing and I want more people to know about it!
~Oli of the Vilya Server

Lawmi:

Hello Merric and Goldenstar

With all this talk of Warden Main Stat changing to Agility, honestly I’m still confused from the original creation of  “Main Stats” for all classes. I’m a Guardian and actually couldn’t tell you if my main stat is Vitality or Might.  Is there a good link to what each stat does for each class and what each classes’ main stat is? Cheers

Lawmi

Bywater Brewing Company

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Stranger Side of LOTRO with Galnetdor

Contact Us

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• Please leave us a review on iTunes and we would really appreciate it!
• Listen to us live every Saturday at 9:30 pm Eastern

Recorded March 2, 2013

This week we talk about the XP and Lootbox drop boosts that are active, bullroarer updates, a new dev diary, twitter dev chat, store sales and more!

This week Goldenstar’s Monday group of Dum’s went to Sari-Surma instance and killed everything in the Glacial Forest. Other than that she was pretty stinking excited about the dressage Hytbold quest.

Merric finished up the Snowbourn quests and worked on Hytbold dailies as well. He’s planning on moving houses as well.

Town Crier

Official News

• Welcome Back Experience Boost and Lootbox Increase
• Bullroarer Update 10 Release Notes 4
• Dev Diary Itemization in Update 10
• Twitter Chat Transcript
• Official Update 10 Screenshots Released
• Call for Player-Event Creators for Fashion Week

Developer Bites

• The 250 Turbine Points are starting to be awarded

Store News

• Weekly Store Sale Starting February 22, 2013
  

CSTM News

• In memory of Girn (1967-2013)
• Rohan Women Hair-dos I’m Jealous Of
• Lost Texts Tales from Ravenwood, Book 1
• Lilikate’s Creatures Episode 2- Nasty Nippers.

Community

• Chance Thomas’ score “The Eored” is nominated for a Game Audio Network Guild (GANG) Award in the category Best Original Vocal (Choral). Good luck!!
• Bywater Steeplechase – Horse Race & Fashion Contest – Sat March 9 at 8pm EST

Weekly Poll

• Last Week’s: What Did You Do First After the Downtime?
• This Week’s: How determined are you about getting new sets of gear?

Raise Your Glass

Bryandt

Previously I had stated that they had removed our Song of Restoration skill. That turns out to be incorrect. We’ll need to go back to our trainers and purchase it again. The skill itself has been changed. Now, instead of removing dread, it removes 1 fear, poison, wound or disease off of a single target. Which, I suppose, is useful if the group doesn’t include the other classes that can remove those…

I’ve also included a screenshot of the various armours I use or keep in my vault. I’m not sure I like the armour bonus changes, but it is what it is. I see a lot of mixing and matching in our future.

Hope this helps out in some fashion.

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Stranger Side of LOTRO with Galnetdor

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• Please leave us a review on iTunes and we would really appreciate it!
• Listen to us live every Saturday at 9:30 pm Eastern

Recorded February 22, 2013

This week we discuss LOTRO’s maintenance downtime, update 9.1.1 and upcoming update 10 news, developer chats, My Little Ponies and more!

Town Crier

Official News

• LOTRO Servers Are Up!
  • LOTRO Store and Myaccount services are unavailable at this time
  • From Celestrata on the forums: The work that we have been performing is a very large-scale upgrade to our back-end systems, including our billing tools and customer service tools. Obviously, this is a large maintenance that affects everything that our games rely on, and that’s why this has taken so long. [source]
• LOTRO Downtime Compensation
  • From Sapience: A quick reminder that the 250 turbine points and extended VIP time will not be added until we are confident all issues are resolved and the service is stable. We’ll let you know when it happens, but we ask for your patience in this matter. [source]
• Update 9.1.1 Release Notes
• Bullroarer- Update 10 Release Notes 3
• Seeking- Guides and Valuable info from the Lorebook
• Update 10 Previews:
  • Massively: Update 10 raid Preview
  • MMORPG.com: Lord of the Rings Online Interviews: Crush the Easterlings
  • MMO Reporter Update 10 Preview
• LOTRO Developer Twitter Chat- February 21, 2013

Store News

• Not posted yet. (Store was down at time of recording)

CSTM News

• Lost Texts- Under The Eaves, Part 9
• Brag About Your Blog
• Sooo.. What are you playing-

Weekly Poll

• Poll- Your Wish for the Housing Revamp
• Poll- What Did You Do First After the Downtime-

Riddles in the Dark

Riddles in the Dark is a bi-weekly podcast series by Dr. Corey Olsen (The Tolkien Professor), David Kale and Trish Lambert. Discussion will focus on the themes, characters, and events of Middle-earth and lay the groundwork for intelligent speculation about how the book may be translated to film. Each episode will culminate in the hosts making a specific prediction about the upcoming films, to be proven or dis-proven when the films are finally released.

More information on RITD can be found at http://www.mythgard.org/exclusives/riddles-in-the-dark/

How will the Elves’ relationship with the encroaching evil in Mirkwood be depicted?

A.  The forest is uniformly dark with no “light/dark” boundary but Elves are living at peace (book answer).
B.  The forest is uniformly dark with no boundary and Elves are living in crisis.
C.  There is a clear and unchallenged evil/Elf realm demarcation and the Elves are living in peace (the Doriath answer).
D.  There is an actively defended boundary between the encroaching evil and the Elf realm (i.e., Elves are in crisis).

Raise Your Glass

Letters

Niniba of Laurelin

Hi Gold/Meric,

Great site and podcast. Appreciate the great work you put in. I get a lot out of it. Especially those round tables hint hint!

Question i have is what recommendations do you have for kids playing lotro. My daughter is 7 and loves to play. It’s a question that has come up in the kin also. Now i turned off incoming tells and blood splatter and left the profanity filter turned on. She started with a guardian but didn’t really get into it. Loves the hunter and RK now.   I have also not put her in the kin but she is in the tribe. Loves that warg. One day she even participated in a full raid! She doesnt know the password for her account and make sure she is well supervised either in game or out.

Any advice greatly appreciated. It seems so many of us playing lotro, such as yourselves as well, are in the same boat. So a segment on your show would probably help a lot of people.

Regards

Niniba from “The Children of Iluvatar ” on Laurilen

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Recorded February 16, 2013

Goldenstar playtime has been busy but not very eventful just working on Hytbold dailies and trying to figure out how to play Star Bright in game. The Dums have completed Stoneheight and are working on finishing the Lost Temple instance. She also had Bacon Apple Pie without Merric which had him quite annoyed.

Merric is now kindred with the Entwash and should be kindred with the Wold in a day. He received two Rohan rings and three pieces of Hytbold armor.

Town Crier

Official News

• Bullroarer- Update 10 Release Notes 2
• Scheduled Server Downtime- 7-00AM- 10-00AM Eastern (-5 GMT) Monday, February 11
• Scheduled Maintenance- Wednesday, February 13th

Developer Bites

• Secrets in Bree
• Flying out the Player Council?
• Being logged out of the forums only happens to a small portions of users?
• Edoras vs. Bree
• First Agers in Skirmish Camps

Store News

• Weekly Store Sale Starting February 8, 2013

CSTM News

• Beneath Your Feet- East Rohan
• Lilikates Creatures- Wild Animals of The Shire

Weekly Poll

• Poll- Completing Hytbold Dailies
• Poll- Your Wish for the Housing Revamp

Raise Your Glass

Frostzuki:

Dear Goldenstar and Merric,

My captain has recently reached level 30 so i opened my gift box thinking i would get some quests from it. I did not recieve this. I went around online and said  they were still there. Is this true and i simply gliched or is it because im f2p. If you can get any info on this it would be greatly apreciated.

Thanks,

Frostzuki

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Stay tuned to the end for a new Stranger Side of LOTRO with Galnetdor!

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• Listen to us live every Saturday at 9:30 pm Eastern

This week we had a producer’s letter for a peak of what’s to come for LOTRO in 2013. Bullroarer has opened up and the first dev diary has been released.

Goldenstar did a skirmish raid with the kin and gotten some beautiful shoulders and some LI thing. She worked on Hytbold and cheated on the beacon quest with the help of a lovely captain named Stephie. Dum time broke into two groups to do the Northcotton Farm 3-mans. Poor Sodum and Dumidum was stuck with me and I was very un-helpful.

Merric this week went on a skirmish raid and got a tarnished symbol celebrimbor thanks to the kindness of Teaparty. Started on Hytbold and got his gloves. And finally hit level 85!

Town Crier

Official News

• Producer’s Letter–January 2013
• Community Update January 28, 2013
• Bullroarer- Update 10 Release Notes
  • Character Copy – AVAILABLE
• Update 10 Mithril Coins

Store News

• Weekly Store Sale Starting February 1, 2013
• Steed of the Khundolar Available

CSTM News

• Looking Back At A Year With CSTM

Weekly Poll

• Poll- Predicting When the Epic Story Will Conclude

Riddles in the Dark

Riddles in the Dark is a bi-weekly podcast series by Dr. Corey Olsen (The Tolkien Professor), David Kale and Trish Lambert. Discussion will focus on the themes, characters, and events of Middle-earth and lay the groundwork for intelligent speculation about how the book may be translated to film. Each episode will culminate in the hosts making a specific prediction about the upcoming films, to be proven or dis-proven when the films are finally released.

More information on RITD can be found at http://www.mythgard.org/exclusives/riddles-in-the-dark/

How will the film treat Beorn’s relationship with the goblins?

A.  He resents them for displacing him from his mountain territory (Book answer).
B.  He has a more personal grudge against them from his own or family history (“They killed my parents,” or similar).
C.  His hatred against the goblins is in some way explicitly linked to Thorin and his family history.
D.  He has no particular grudge against goblins at all.

Where is Thrain now (i.e. in “real time” in the movie)?

A. Dead (book answer).
B. Alive and imprisoned in Dol Guldur.
C. Alive and imprisoned elsewhere.
D. Alive and not a prisoner.
E. This will not be answered on-screen.

Raise Your Glass

Stranger Side of LOTRO with Galnedor

Wait until Galnedor says to look at the pictures and then click the links below to see the picture of the monster he is description.

• Monster Picture 1
• Monster Picture 2

Letters

Lilikate Buggins

Dear Goldenstar,

I was happily surprised when logging into CSTM to find out my screenshot of Lilikate Buggins was featured on the frontpage of your website. After I had run around to each member of my family to get the required congratulations and pats on the head, I started thinking about the shots origins.

This shot was one of a batch I took when Lilikate adventured to the Misty Mountains to get a Postcard for the Journey To Middle Earth competition featured on facebook and twitter. Sadly these two Oliphants didn’t make it to the final postcard but another of their Oliphant family did.

Even though I was a little unwilling to spam my non lotro playing friends with my Middle Earth adventures I thought the lure of the prize of turbine points balanced my best buddies minor annoyances. In the end none of my “Friends” seemed to mind and infact I discovered one person I knew in a “Mums Group” also played, which was nice.

I spent quite a lot of time and effort in making the postcards which I then posted to my facebook wall. I chose outfits to fit the area where Lilikate would be, I picked suitable locations, I looked for interesting fauna and flora. I even posed in numerous different emotes to find something worthy for my numerous FB audience.

Then came the sifting through all the screenies to find the “decent” images, then whittling it down to several (more like 14-20) to try and make the postcard with.

Next was loading the shot into the postcard frame on the facebook application, sometimes my no.1 shot just didn’t work at all in the frame and had to be discarded, switched for an alternative. Once that was all done there came the caption…Not as easy as it seems, Now once happy with that, post to FB! all finished.   Repeat times fourteen….in my case a few more than fourteen.

The advertised competition asks you to check back often to find out news of who has won, and clues to the next areas to adventure in.

This all began in September, the last area featured, was mid December I think and since then there has been complete silence as to the winners and prizes.

I wonder if you would investigate this on my behalf as I am curious to know what has happened to this promotional adventure.

I would have liked to have win at least one of the prizes as I have still to get my big wallet for all the tokens and things and Lilikates bags are overstuffed with cosmetics and crafting items.

Right now you can still “enter” and submit postcards and have them entered to be judged.

Lilikate Buggins, Windfola (main) and Arkenstone(clone).
Emylot Noakes, (LMB) Landroval.

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• Listen to us live every Saturday at 9:30 pm Eastern

This week 9.1 went live and we go over some of the highlights we found from the release notes. We also had a very interesting dev chat that happened this week.

Goldenstar has gotten her 4th piece of Hytbold armor. She attended a few skirmish raids with the kin on Friday night and walked away with a Tarnished Symbol. Dum Time we completed Sammath Gul! We started discovering the instances for the In Their Absence chain.

Merric is 83 (a smidge away from 84). He is in Garsfield (Sutcrofts) and eagerly awaits Hytbold. He maxed out his metalsmith.

Town Crier

Official News

• Update 9.1 Release Notes
• Turbine Twitter Dev Chat Q&A–January 24, 2013

Store News

• Weekly Store Sale Starting January 25, 2013

CSTM News

• Ketani’s Cosmetics- Do these shoulder pads make me look crazy-
• Help the Hobbit; Mischief-Maker
• Beneath Your Feet- Dol Guldur

Community News

• Crickhollow- The ABC’s Rally [Player Event]
• Songburrow Strollers fourth farm concert, February 3
• Lord of the Hats- Loose Linen Hood
• CSTM’s New Song by Aegthil of Gondor

Weekly Poll

• Poll- Naming Your Items
• Poll- Predicting When the Epic Story Will Conclude

Raise Your Glass

Voicemail from Galnetdor:

You Tube video we were talking about while talking about Galnetdor’s voicemail.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czs2tNymtqY

Cyraith:

Hey Goldenstar,

This is Cyraith from Riddermark. Listening to the podcast 181, I wanted to forward a tip related to the issue one of your listeners had with a kinship invite.

When you’ve logged into a character, you can disable random invites by going to:

Options -> Social -> Misc.

Under the “Misc” heading, you can check or uncheck a bunch of boxes including “enable kinship requests”. By default these are all checked, so unchecking them will prevent random fellowship/kinship/spar/trade/adoption requests.

Hope this tip helps!

Best,

Cyraith

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• Please leave us a review on iTunes and we would really appreciate it!
• Listen to us live every Saturday at 9:30 pm Eastern

P.S. Picture of the lore-master used in this post is from Cosmetic LOTRO which I goldified and made into a tiny statue. Which now some one very talented should make real and sell it to me on etsy.

Goldenstar did a lot this week. Like we didn’t think she was ever gonna shaddup. She’s gotten three pieces of Hytbold armor, discusses some of the quests, talks about Dum Time success in Sammath Gul blah blah blah.

Merric has reached level 82 on his champion and hoping to reach 85 by next week. He’s also been working quite a bit on his crafters reaching Eastermnet Master on weaponsmith and woodworker this week.

Town Crier

Official News

• LOTRO Developer Twitter Chat- Thursday January 24th
• Myaccount.turbine.com Scheduled Downtime- Tuesday, January 22nd

Store News

• Weekly Store Sale Starting January 18, 2013

CSTM News

• The Economy of Turbine Points
• UI Guide, Part 1
• Ketani’s Cosmetics- An Unattended Hobbit in Angmar

Community News

• Crickhollow- The ABC’s Rally [Player Event]
• Guardian Pulls the Front Area of Urugarth

Weekly Poll

• Poll- Did you or someone you know return to playing LOTRO after watching the Hobbit-
• Poll- Naming Your Items

Raise Your Glass

Voicemail from Verdic

Eleen:

heeey goldenstar and merric

i have a question about the burgler

there is not really a good guide out there to help me with it

people are telling me to make her like a hunter  but is that true?

what is the best way to play the burg

how to trait for fellow or solo  in what stance.

most of the time im in silent knife stance

but also like to go in mischief but dont know how to trait for that?

im almost lv 62 now

can you help me ?

greetz eleen scholten

Kazren:

Hi, Goldenstar,

I have recently started several alts on Landroval.  I logged in to one this morning only to discover she has mysteriously been added to kinship whichI had never heard of or even dealt with before.  How can this happen?  I didn’t join them, speak to them, or have anything to do with them.

I immediatley quit the kinship, but this is disturbing.  I had no idea a character could basically be hijacked into a kinship.  I also had an email I at first didn’t understand, but after my discovery, it made sense: Someone in that kinship had written about visiting the kin house.

I reported this to Turbine via the website, but how can this happen?

Yours,

Kazren

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Recorded January 19, 2013

This week Goldenstar got to level 85! She has made it to Hytbold but hasn’t done a darn thing past the intro. Dum time was missing Dumidum so we picked up a kinmate and did some skirmishes.

Merric got to level 80 this week and is going through the Norcrofts. He’s also mastered the eastermnet tier of cooking.

Town Crier

Developer Bites

• Store Sales web page- January 11th – 17th
• Drop rate for rare/incomparable pieces being adjusted between T1 and T2 of the 85 dungeons

Store News

• Weekly Store Sale Starting January 11, 2013

CSTM News

• Alternate Warsteed Controls
• Help the Hobbit; Shields in Overpower-
• Thoughts on the LOTRO Store

Weekly Poll

• How do you get Turbine Points?
• Poll- Did you or someone you know return to playing LOTRO after watching the Hobbit-

Raise Your Glass

Voicemail from Galnetdor

Odewulf of Eldar:

Hello Merric, Goldenstar and baby hobbit,

Long time listerener and fan of CSTM here, love all the good work you’re doing

I heard your last show and I’d thought I’d write in with a question, because I haven’t heard you mention this. Have any of you tried to use the Erebrandir’s Horseshoe during the Yule festival when handing in the daily quest for the bag of goodies? I mean Sapience revealed that the horseshoe does ‘something’ during the festival and this could be it. I’ve used the horseshoe myself but actually got the best rewards (the yeti cloak) on a low-level alt. I’ve also heard the rumor that the horseshoe help with the eating quest: there’s a item you can eat that will either help or hinder you. Have you guys seen this or heard anything about it?

Lastly I’d like to mention that on Android a good app for downloading and listening to your excellent podcast is ‘Car Cast’ I use it all the time, it’s simple and free. I mention this because on the last show someone mentioned having problems listening to the cstm podcast.

Regards,

-Odewulf of Eldar

Amthindur from Windfola:

Hey there Amthindur from Windfola or maybe Techie as you may know me . I’m looking into getting a new machine on a budget (less then 800 bucks) I have my eye on a few that are nice and in my price range but I am always looking for help. I’m looking at a laptop and this is the main one I’m looking at http://cstm.us/VSkPfc but I am open to any and all suggestions.

Thanks in advance and Happy New Year!

~Techie

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Recorded January 12, 2013

Goldenstar missed Dum time this week due to family holiday parties. She’s eager to get back to her burglar.  Goldenstar finished the festival. Did end up getting a spiral yeti cloak so she’s not as annoyed by the miserly hobbit and has hit level 83. She is now back in Rohan and has completely forgotten how the war-steed works.

Merric is going through Cliving arresting citizens and watching farmers die.

Town Crier

Developer Bites

• Cosmetic Only Options for Steed of Victory & Steed of Dol Baran not intended
• Fate will make a comeback on gear in the future

Store News

• Weekly Store Sale Starting January 4, 2013
• GameStop 50% Off LOTRO Pack Sale

CSTM News

• Welcome 2013! A Riders of Rohan Giveaway

Weekly Poll

• Poll: The Next Goofy Mount
• This week’s poll How do you get Turbine Points?

Raise Your Glass

Voicemail from Kazren

Thraorin of Imladris

Hello Goldenstar, Baby-Hobbit and Merric

I am not sure if you are aware of this, yet: boxed copies of the Riders of Rohan expansion are now available in Germany, which is a bit surprising, as boxed copies weren’t originally planned.

According to the description, this edition includes:

* RoR expansion content

* 1000 TP

* exclusive warsteed appearance (and probably the Steed of the Eastemnet as well – the description on the box mentions two steeds, Amazon.de only lists the warsteed appearance)

* Rohan Elite Guard statted cloak

* Rohirrim Soldier on landscape appearance

* title “Friend of the Mark”

* game discs, manual, keyboard reference

http://www.amazon.de/Der-Herr-Ringe-Online-Reiter/dp/B008HAEPY2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1356962110&sr=8-1

Happy new year and keep up the great show.

Thraorin of Imladris, The Night Watch

Rabbitses of Windfola:

Hey guys! Rabbitses of Windfola here! A few months ago, shortly after RoR was delayed, i sent in a link to a high end having pc i was thinking of buying and asked if you guys knew if it would play rohan in hd ultra high graphics. The response i received went way beyond what i was expecting. I got a very helpful email telling me all the cool things i could do to improve my computer, and tips on what i should put in it. Just a few days ago, i finally got my new alienware aurora in the mail! i want to thank you guys for the great information you gave me. i am very pleased with the result. I went from playing on ultra low graphics with 12-18 fps on a Lenovo laptop, to 80-280 fps on ultra high hd. The main reason i bought this computer was to play Lotro, and i am so so so happy with the result. Thank you again for the great advice and also for all you do for the community!

Rabbitses Starkfoot the Bold

Faramirs Army Kinship

Windfola Server

EiledonTruveoice:

Hey guys this is  EiledonTruevoice from MME.  I downloaded the app to my android and encountered and issue, when my screen goes dark the audio stops working. Not sure if it’s and issue with the app or my settings. Thing is, when I listen to other audio on my phone in my car it doesn’t do that. I like to run my phone through my stereo in my car so I was looking forward to listening on the way home tonight, real bummer as I was loving hearing you guys on the way home. BTW Goldnestar’s comment about the Miser of a Little Hobbit had me laughing my head off. Thanks, Hope this gets to and hope you have a suggestion .

All the Best, and Happy New Year

EiledonTruveoice

Glondhorin of Vilya:

Hi Goldenstar and Merric,

Happy new year!

First of all thanks a lot for the effort and dedication that you put into the podcast and the website, is the best LOTRO podcast i hear and i like you so much that i listen also to the official CSTM fan podcast! LOL

My new year goal for LOTRO this year is to level cap my level 23 minstrel.

I have a lvl 78 guardian and i know i’ll be 85 in february (i play a lot of games).

I never played healers but in another MMO I try it and i love it so I create my minstrel on Landroval and I love it. I want to be a good healer so i downloaded your minstrel roundtable but i think is a little outdated so i want you to recommend me some good guides for a healer minstrel.

Thanks a lot for your help,

Glondhorin

Dwarf Guardian from Evenstar Guild on Vilya server

Herge / Cendwig:

Hi again,

This is Herge/Cendwig. I have a follow up question from my last email and a new question as well; what chicken quest did you mention last podcast? As for the new question here’s a little background. I liked the game so much I went ahead and picked up the three expansion pack while it was still 50% off. I know this will give me ‘full’ content from level 50 up to the start of Rohan. I also did some homework and found that the free content dries up somewhere in the low to mid 30′s. My question is if I don’t subscribe what quest packs/zones would you recommend to fill in the gap? Also is there any I should avoid? Keep in mind I’ve been playing my Rune-keeper Miresgalon and plan on getting him into the high end content first.

Thanks again,

Chris

Aelrik of Meneldor:

Hi Goldenstar and Merric,

I’m an enthusiastic fan of your blog and podcast, and I frequently recommend CstM to anyone in-game who is seeking advice on the game. Thank you both for all your work.

I’m not sure if this has been covered before, or if you’ve a good resource on this topic, but I would like to see coverage of optimizing UI. My level 77 Guardian is a mess, and any best practices or tips would be extremely helpful to me and I’m sure many of the newer players in your audience.

Thank you for any help, and for all you do!

Aelrik, Champion of Meneldor

Cora:

Hey,

I’d really appreciate a moment of your time, I have a quick question for you! I’ve spent far too long trawling the internet for this, and have gotten nowhere. You seem to know your stuff so I hope you can help.

I have noticed that a few people in the game have different icons/circle around their characters faces when I select them. I asked someone about it and they told me to check out http://www.lotrointerface.com/, which I found nothing on. I’ve attached a picture, showing 2 that I have seen. I would be really grateful if you could tell me how you get these?  I only recently started playing lotro after not playing for over a year, and I don’t ever recall seeing them back them.

Also, the website is great and I’ve enjoyed many of the articles that I have read. So, thank you.

Damsadan:

Dear Goldenstar and Merric,

Awhile ago I wrote you saying that the iPhone app was not working and wasn’t updating.  Thanks for the reply Goldenstar saying that it was not being developed any longer.  I found out a way to get it back in case you deleted the app. If you synced the app to ITunes and is stored on your PC then you can re-download it.  And to my surprise its still updating to this day.  Just wanted to let you know in case any other people accidentally deleted it.

Hail Friends,

Damsadan

Brora:

Greetings and Happy New Year.

I haven’t been playing for very long so I thought that I would ask you guys something that has been bugging me. Every so often I see people riding horses but the horse isn’t there. Is this a graphics issue or is there an invisible mount that i’m not aware of? I love the show and just wanted to say thanks for everything you do.

Thanks

Brora from the UK

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• Listen to us live every Saturday at 9:30 pm Eastern on Middle Earth Network TV!

Recorded January 5, 2013

This week Goldenstar completed tier 3 of the “More the Merrier” deed and got her yeti boots and even a bit more! She also shares a big surprise that’s going to make the Dum’s two times as awesome!

Merric made it to level 79. He tried once to do the daily quest in the Yule festival for the Hobby Horse and didn’t get it but did get a hat.

Town Crier

Official News

• Yule Festival Extended: Please Consider Extending the End Date of the Yule Festival
• Final Weekend of the Yule Festival!
• RockX looking into drops in the upgraded and new dungeons.

Store News

• New War-steed Cosmetic Bundles in the Store
• December Deals- December 28-30, 2012
• Weekly Store Sale Starting December 28, 2012

CSTM News

• Vraeden’s Introductory Guide to Raiding, Part 4
• Lost Texts- Under The Eaves, Part 2
• Rating the Dwarves of The Hobbit- An Unexpected Journey

Weekly Poll

• Poll- LOTRO Store Purchasing
• Poll: The Next Goofy Mount

Triple Pack Giveaway

Talivael, Elven Runekeeper on Maiar has given us a Triple Pack to giveaway to one lucky listener of CSTM!

Dear Goldenstar & Merric & Baby Hobbit (of course!),

Recently, during the 50%-offer I bought a code for the triple pack in the LotRO market for a colleague’s account.

However, someone else in our kinship reminded us, that we had already bought and registered a code for the Legendary Edition of Rise of Isengard, including “The Path of the Fellowship” on that account a long time ago. His intervention came just in time, since we were just about to apply the code. – The “Turbine: My account” information on the web did not list the previous Rise of Isengard registration; I searched back in my mail history and luckily was able to find a screenshot with a confirmation after we just had applied the RoI code on his account. So, now we skipped the useless triple pack code and bought a RoR Base edition instead for him.

I checked my own account, only to find that the info provided on “Turbine: My account” was not complete, either; the Riders of Rohan Legendary edition is missing in my account overview. Strange, isn’t it? Is this a common thing? Does anybody know, how to get the correct account info?

Now, the code for the triple pack is still unused. I first thought, I might offer it on ebay. But, hey, then I thought I had always wanted to support your awesome podcast in some way. So, maybe, you want to have the code and use it as a giveaway for a coming episode around X-MAS.

Raise Your Glass

Steve:

Hello again,

I have had a lifetime membership to the game since 2007 but never really made it that far, I am returning to the game after The Hobbit movie re-igniting my interest in the game.

I am very torn on where top start. I  have a 58 guardian, 40 warden and a 33 champion.

I have not played since before the Isengard expansion came out.

The guardian was good and remember wanting to play in OP stance but it was weak at the time…is it better now?

I also loved the warden but I’m sure I would be totally lost with the gambit system.

I like the champ due to high dps but feels very “squishy at times” also he is the lowest level and I don’t really want to play the zones I remember. Looking forward to seeing  the zones I never saw (anything after Moria)

I guess I’m wondering which should I continue with. I know you have some experience with the classes and  remember some of the older shows raving about the warden.

Which do you think would be the smoother leveling experience  the warden or the guardian,  I have no interest in tanking if that helps.

Thank you

Love the show and glad to be listening once again.

Steve–Firefoot server

Harperella:

Hello Merric and Goldenstar,

I am pleased to inform you that the top guild leader contest has concluded with Harperella as the winner!  My personal thanks to Casual Stroll to Mordor for hosting my call to arms, and sticking with me through thick and thin.  If not for your help, this contest would never had taken off.

Now that the contest is concluded, its time for the next great thing!  We are throwing a Twelfth Night Ball in the Hall of Fire this January 5th at 3pm servertime on Landroval.  We have 5 bands booked for 3 hours of music, social dancing, pipeweed smoking, and cake!  There will be cake, no lie.  This cake will be very like the cake in the Smith of Wootten Major, so chew carefully…  A Lord and Lady of the ball will be chosen, and their proclamations must be followed by all attendees, save one.  The Jack of the ball will be free of any compulsion to follow the royal proclamations. Instead, he must follow the orders of every guest in the hall!  A Fashion Play will replace the traditional Passion Play, where the latest winter outfits will be on display in glittery glamor!  Its a night of magic, a night of fun, a night of mischief, and enchanting memories.

–Harperella

Gwathel:

Hey goldenstar was listing to the podcasts thanks for the help u and merric gave me on the last question. Now i got a better answer to ur turbine cards problem.  I was at best buy and the didnt have them but they had the steam gift cards i bought that and it let me add money on my steam wallet so i was able to purchase points through lotro from my steam wallet and the best thing is u get the bonus points its so much better then turbine point cards since u get bonus points also so i hope this helps

Gwathel of landroval

Herge:

Hello Goldenstar and Merric,

I just wanted to drop you an email to thank you. I haven’t played LotRO since beta. I’m a follower of Syp’s and Merric’s Too long didn’t listen for awhile now and finally made the jump over to Casual Stroll. After listening to several of your podcasts I restarted my account and jumped in. On my first day (yesterday) I finished the intro quests, tried my hand at the Yule festival, and hit level 9 with both my Champion and my Minstrel. I was wondering if either of you had any suggestions on what a new player should look out for? Thanks again for your time spent on your podcast. I’m currently listening to the back log as I quest.

Chris

P.S. My characters names are Herge and Cendwig on the Lan(something) server, it was the first RP server I saw

Voicemail from Pharlo of Landroval

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• Please leave us a review on iTunes and we would really appreciate it!
• Listen to us live every Saturday at 9:30 pm Eastern on Middle Earth Network TV!

Recorded December 29, 2012

Goldenstar this week has been doing the Yule Festival and actually hit level 81 with just yule festival. Dum time this week we were missing Dumidum so we did a 5-man skirmish of Assault in the Tower. We then did a tier 2 Battle of the 21st with our friendly agent of Sauron, Blitz.

Merric did not play again. /mock.

We hope you all have a very happy holiday!!

Town Crier

Official News

• Letter from the Producer 2012
• Update 9 Release Notes
• New Update 9 Screenshots
• Dev Diary- Yule Festival
• Turbine Dev Chat Questions and Answers
• Community Update December 18, 2012

Store News

• LOTRO Market 50% Off Sale!
• Steam LOTRO Packs 50% Off
• Double Bonus Points Until January 1, 2013
• Weekly Store Sale Starting December 21, 2012
• December Deals- December 21-23, 2012
• Steed of the Warden Available
• Steed of Victory & Steed of Dol Baran

CSTM News

• Lost Texts- Under The Eaves, Part 1
• Vraeden’s Introductory Guide to Raiding, Part 3
• Yule Festival Guide 2012
• Crafting XP- Yay or Nay-
• A Casual (and Comfy) Stroll to Mordor Giveaway

Community

• Harperella has won the Top Guild Leader Contest!
• Anglo-Saxon and Viking Designs in LOTRO by Khazad Guard

Weekly Poll

• Poll- LOTRO’s Minas Tirith
• Poll- LOTRO Store Purchasing

Raise Your Glass

Letters

Gwathel of Landrovol

Hey maybe u guys can answer this i keep trying to log into my lotro i have a premium account and the log in screen says error doesnt reconize my user name is this because im a premium account holder

Gwathel of Landrovol

Shaun S.

HI Merric and Goldenstar. I’m playing through the Rohan content and am currently during quests in Cliving in the Norcroft area. I was wondering if you noticed a couple of the quests have a nursery rhyme theme – “An Uncharitable Feast” has you talk to a butcher and a baker and “Silver Tongues” has you talk to a candlestick maker. Quite amusing!

Ssenir of Landroval

Hey CSTM!

Hate to bother you again for the second time in just a few weeks, but I hadn’t seen this mentioned yet anywhere, so I thought I’d bring it to your attention. Now, I did miss the last two festivals due to technical difficulties, so maybe this is an old change and I just never got the memo, but if this is new, I think this is a pretty significant change. All festival quests are now on-level!

Please see my blog post here. Thanks for all you do!

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• Please leave us a review on iTunes and we would really appreciate it!
• Listen to us live every Saturday at 9:30 pm Eastern on Middle Earth Network TV!

Recorded December 23, 2012

Goldenstar’s burglar during Dum Time did the Necromancer’s Gate skirmish and the Ringwraith’s Lair. Next week we will be tackling the Battle in the Tower. Special thanks to Pineleaf for his videos on the Necromancer’s Gate!

Merric did nothing this week not even logging in this week. He’s looking forward to Christmas break to have more free time!

Town Crier

Official News

• Update 9 Release Date
• Update 9 Screenshots
• Dev Diary: Update 9 Combat Revision
• Dev Diary: Instance Cluster Part 1
• Dev Diary: Travel to Quest
• Dev Diary: Moria Revamp Part 2

Developer Bites

• Untrue Rumor that LOTRO will have no Mounted Combat Instances

Store News

• Unannounced Complete Crafter Sale
• December Deals: December 14-16, 2012
• Weekly Store Sale Starting December 14, 2012

CSTM News

• Riders of Rohan Official Video Game Score & Contest!
• Vraeden’s Introductory Guide to Raiding, Part 2
• Huge Multi-Raid Battle in the Ettenmoors

Community

• The Shades Concert: The Lady of the Golden Wood – December 16th 20:00 GMT Laurelin
• Easter Seals of Michigan is having a “The Hobbit” contest on their Facebook page. Entries close on Monday, Dec 17th.

Weekly Poll

• Poll: Maintenance Announcements
• Poll- LOTRO’s Minas Tirith

Raise Your Glass

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Donations:

• Sharon W.
• Collin B.
• Russel a.
• Michel L.
• Justin T.
• Guy B.
• Rick B.

Contact Us

• Visit our blog at www.casualstrolltomordor.com
• We welcome your email to podcast@casualstrolltomordor.com
• We are available to follow on Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus & Steam
• Please leave us a review on iTunes and we would really appreciate it!
• Listen to us live every Saturday at 9:30 pm Eastern on Middle Earth Network TV!

Recorded December 15, 2012

Goldenstar played Thangulhad skirmish with the Dum group! Other than that she wasn’t able to find any time to play this week.

Snow-beast boots! (and a cloak too) –>

Merric is still working through Rohan with his Champion. Having a bit of difficulty when he has to get off his war-steed but still progressing.

Town Crier

Official News

• Rohan Instance Cluster Released in Two Parts
• Temporary Closing of Rohan Public Instances
• Bullroarer Update 9 B3 Release Notes

Developer Bites

• XP Disabler going live in Update 9 for 495 TP
• Ovens may cook campfire recipes in the future
• Adjustments to the Yule Festival on BR
• The Steed of the Warden is coming soon
• The Hobby Horse will not be going live at the previous price

Store News

• Steam Offers Mac Client & New Steam Starter Pack
• Weekly Store Sale Starting December 7, 2012
• December Deals- December 7–9, 2012

CSTM News

• Pineleaf Previews the Necromancer’s Fix [Video]
• Vraeden’s Introductory Guide to Raiding, Part 1

Community News

• Free Coursera Online Course Covering LOTRO
• Superior Study Sleipnir Stone
• Sayleath’s Guide to the Great Goblin

Weekly Poll

• Last Week: Hobby Horse Functions
• This Week: Poll- Maintenance Announcements

Riddles in the Dark

Riddles in the Dark is a bi-weekly podcast series by Dr. Corey Olsen (The Tolkien Professor) and David Kale. Discussion will focus on the themes, characters, and events of Middle-earth and lay the groundwork for intelligent speculation about how the book may be translated to film. Each episode will culminate in the hosts making a specific prediction about the upcoming films, to be proven or disproven when the films are finally released.

More information on RITD can be found at http://www.mythgard.org/exclusives/riddles-in-the-dark/

What evidence will the audience see in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey of Saruman’s impending villainy?

A.  None whatsoever. No hints. The “Christopher Lee” answer!

B.  Foreshadowing and dramatic irony, suspicious reactions to news on the council, etc., but nothing definite, and no one suspects him.

C.  Some members of the council clearly suspect him and may even discuss it behind his back, but the audience sees no clear evidence.

D.  The audience gets clear evidence that Saruman is evil or is becoming evil (even if other characters do not see it).

Raise Your Glass

Anonymous:

Since my x-bf & I split up, I am feeling somewhat lost in the game. We met through lotro & have had a long term relationship. We did everything together in game. Unfortunately it leaves me in an awkward place gamewise now. I love playing and would like to still continue, to move on. I made a few alts on other servers but, it’s lonely. I’d like to find a warm kin to join. Any suggestions?

Ssenir:

Hey CSTM,

I’m just curious, why is it that slayer deed accelerators get a thumbs up, and virtues from the LOTRO Store get a “meh”? At higher deed levels (kill a bazillion orcs), you’d actually spend less turbine points just buying the virtue outright then buying enough slayer deed accelerators to get the deed done, plus with the virtue purchase you don’t have to grind at all! I agree that virtue purchases at lower levels are a waste of TP, but some of the higher-level ones can save hours of time and some TP, too (versus buying deed accelerators). Just thought I’d ask.

Thanks For All You Do,
Ssenir of LOTRO Library
Landroval

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• Listen to us live every Saturday at 9:30 pm Eastern on Middle Earth Network TV!

Recorded December 8, 2012

This week we talk about update 9, bullroarer, hobby horses and yule festival changes. Buckle in folks. Let’s do this!

Goldenstar talked about the new instances thinking it was part of last week’s news but it’s not. In case you are confused what new instances she speaks of check out this link: Rohan Instance Cluster Released in Two Parts.

Oh and we got a Gandalf Ornament! –>

Dum time we ran some tier 2 skirmishes. We’ve never tried them before (although we did bump our run with Odewulf to tier three it was like level 35). Someone seriously needs to do something with Elrond’s boys, especially Elrohir.  Goldenstar spent most her play time on Bullroarer after it opened up.

Merric hasn’t done much his week. Still playing in Rohan.

Town Crier

Official News

• Update 9 Itemization
• Bullroarer Update 9 Release Notes
• Bullroarer Update 9 B2 Release Notes

Developer Bites

• Stats on the Bullroarer Gear is not final
• A list of the changes in Bree
• XP Accelerators Removed
• More Superior Crafting options in bree
• Update 9 Focus Schedule
• Possible changes to the “Travel to NPC” UI or removed to be reworked
• Account Management Phone Support Closed during the US Holidays
• Festival changes
• Festival mount changes

Store News

• Weekly Store Sale, Start November 30, 2012
• December Deals November 30 – December 2nd
• Hobby Horse in the Bullroarer store

CSTM News

• Bree Graphical Updates
• Gifts Ideas for the LOTR Fans

Community News

• Saeyleth’s Guide to Iorbar’s Peak
• Tui and El’s Hollywood Debut

Weekly Poll

• Poll- War-steed Controls for Travel Mounts
• Poll- Hobby Horse Fuctions

Riddles in the Dark

Riddles in the Dark is a bi-weekly podcast series by Dr. Corey Olsen (The Tolkien Professor) and David Kale. Discussion will focus on the themes, characters, and events of Middle-earth and lay the groundwork for intelligent speculation about how the book may be translated to film. Each episode will culminate in the hosts making a specific prediction about the upcoming films, to be proven or disproven when the films are finally released.

More information on RITD can be found at http://www.mythgard.org/exclusives/riddles-in-the-dark/

Riddle: Will the six songs from the book be included and how?

A. Contrary to all evidence, all six songs will make their way into the movie.
B. Significant portions of songs will be included (perhaps as dialogue or poetry) with or without music.
C. Most or all of the songs will be referenced on-screen with only a passing reference or a snippet of verse.
D. The only book songs to be included will be the two listed in the published soundtrack.

Raise Your Glass

Hadhreleb

Hello Goldenstar

I got a catalog from these people in the mail (not sure why, but I am glad I did), and looked up their website to share with you and the CSTM community. Note, there are a few movie spoilers (kind of, its about as much as a trailer would give away), but I personally think it is worthwhile. Links:

LOTR movie replicas:

http://www.noblecollection.com/index.cfm?fa=products.catagory&catid=17

The Hobbit movie replicas:

http://www.noblecollection.com/index.cfm?fa=products.catagory&catid=91

Hadhreleb

Harperella

Dear Merristar and Golderric (see I didn’t say one of you first!)

Your old friend Harperella here.  I wanted to thank you for the kindness of hosting my call to arms on Casual Stroll to Mordor and for all you’ve done for me in the past few weeks.  This last week has been a truly epic journey.

My dear LOTRO community, you have supported me well, and I ask for your continued support as this contest moves to its conclusion.  I want to apologize if I’ve bombarded you overmuch with tweets, posts, and too much data!  I’m going to dial back a bit for the next week.  I realize that I need only be Harperella, the kin leader who does her best for her kin and community, and eschews such self-aggrandizing titles like Top Guild Leader or Most Passionate Player.  This journey has made me appreciate what I already have–the love and respect of a vibrant community.  Putting together my call to arms let me see what a legacy I’ve been a part of in this virtual world.  So hello again LOTRO!  I’m looking forward to playing a tune at Ales and Tales, sharing a beer with the BBB, listening to music with Andune Ensemble, playing the harp with Galenhir, and watching horses dance in perfect synchrony at the Windy Acres Ranch.  But best of all…  I’ll be seeing you all at Weatherstock next year!

–Harperella

P.S.  We’re planning a Winter Ball in January–Synchronized dancing in the Hall of Fire! (lessons will be available for those who haven’t experienced it before)

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• Listen to us live every Saturday at 9:30 pm Eastern on Middle Earth Network TV!

Recorded December 1, 2012

This episode of Update Talks we had our first expansion review show.  Filled with jokes, advice and reviews this show seemed to fly by when we were recording it.  Feel free to leave any comments/reviews below…

Co-Hosts

• Andang (Host)
• Merric
• Pineleaf
• Bandoras (from Middle-Earth News)
• Sig (from Warsteeds.com)

Show Agenda

• Warsteeds
• Mounted Combat
• New Systems
• Epic Story
• Store Prices
• Ettenmoors
• Hytbold
• Crafting
• Predictions

Recorded November 23, 2012

This week we had a community update and whole lot of really great sales. Also be forewarned Goldenstar had a passionate rant that ended in a swear word and a lot of apologizing.

This week Goldenstar is level 80! The Dum’s spent this week’s play with Odewolf, our winner of the Dum Time Auction. Odewolf chose to do Chicken Play with the Dums which we very much enjoyed. Pretty sure we’ll never see Dumidum in dwarf form ever again.

Merric is now level 78 out of pure weirdo need to not be three levels under Goldenstar. /shrug I don’t get it either. Merric participated in the latest Update Talks which will be out later this week. He also bought the steed of the captain.

Town Crier

Official News

• Community Update November 20, 2012

Store News

• 50% Off LOTRO Pack Sales
• Double Bonus Points Until November 26, 2012
• Weekly Store Sale Starting November 22, 2012
• War-steed Color Pack Sale

CSTM News

• Outside LOTRO- Migrating to an SSD
• Pineleaf Returns to the Necromancer’s Gate [Video]
• Revenge of the Random Number Generator
• Update Talks Rohan Review Details
• Outside LOTRO- Lord of the Rings Re-enacted by Ponies

Community News

• Vote for Harperella as the Best Guild Leader

Weekly Poll

• Last Week: Poll- Do You Use Plug-ins-
• This Week: Poll: War-steed Controls for Travel Mounts

Raise Your Glass

Letters

Manegrod of Imladris:

Hi Merric and Goldenstar,

Weird things going on today in the 21st Hall on Imladris.  Someone announced in the regional chat that there were gators in the 21st Hall.  They weren’t joking.  Level 85, open tapping, Sutcrofts Marsh-Avancs were everywhere.  You can see in the images, I did get some experience and drops if I could hit, but it didn’t work out too well for me overall.

Someone named Ouswald was taking credit for the Gators calling himself the "Gator Boy".  I’m not sure if this was an exploit, someone with Turbine creating some fun, or just something I haven’t seen yet.  Most people seemed to be having a good time with it, but there were a few around my level getting insta-killed by 6 gators just trying to exit the vault.

Have you guys seen this yet?

Thanks!

Manegrod of Imladris

Rinidin of Dwarrodelf

Notice the name of the monster in the floating hint box on the left? I don’t know when that popped up. This in the cave in the swamp to the NW of EAWorth.

Maybe that’s one of the things that the horseshoe does. I sure don’t remember seeing him down there. If it is a horseshoe thing, I really appreciate that Easter Egg, and hats off to Turbine.

Rinidin of DwarrowDelf

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• Please leave us a review on iTunes and we would really appreciate it!
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Recorded November 24, 2012

It is once again time for the next episode of Update Talks.  This time we are reviewing Rohan with what we like and don’t like about the expansion.  The episode will be LIVE Friday November 23^rd at 9pm Eastern (server time) (Black Friday) right here on this page.  You can bookmark this page now and when you come back on Friday around 9pm it should be updated with a link to the LIVE video feed.

Link to the Feed…(will be blank until start time…if you missed it live it will be recorded…only blank if you are early)

http://www.youtube.com/embed/VT0TsOnaeyc

This episode we will not have a live voice audience but we will still have our chat room (likely using the Middle-Earth Network chat on the bottom bar of all our pages).

We have a great cast of characters for this episode of Update Talks.

Co-Hosts

• Andang (Host)
• Goldenstar
• Merric
• Pineleaf
• Bandoras (from Middle-Earth News)
• Sig (from Warsteeds.com)

Show Agenda

• Warsteeds
• Mounted Combat
• New Systems
• Epic Story
• Store Prices
• Ettenmoors
• Hytbold
• Crafting
• Predictions

If you have any questions, topics or comments for us to do/read on the show feel free to leave a comment or E-Mail me at andang@casualstrolltomordor.com