Tur­bine just posted the sec­ond “Ask the Dev Team” fea­ture. It cov­ers classes, craft­ing, PvMP and skills, among other top­ics. Here’s a small sample:

Q: Why are the load­ing times so crazy for craft­ing panel? I have 8GB of ram, Core 2 over­clocked at 4+GHz and I still get a few sec­onds of frozen game every time I access the craft­ing panel for the first time after start­ing the game.

A: We have changed how the craft­ing panel is loaded and dis­played with Siege of Mirk­wood. You should see much bet­ter per­for­mance as a result.

Q: With the up and com­ing DirectX 11 with Win­dows 7 — Are there any plans to incor­po­rate some of its spe­cific tech like you had with the DirectX 10 fea­tures that are optional?

A: AMD’s recent announce­ment of their first DirectX 11 video cards included a men­tion that LOTRO was adding DX11 sup­port. You will not see it with Siege of Mirk­wood, but you should expect it to arrive some­time next year.

Q: Where does Mirk­wood fit, size wise, with pre­vi­ously released regions?

A: Mirk­wood is roughly 75 – 80% of the size of the Northdowns.

Q: Do you ever use auc­tion prices to deter­mine whether there is enough of an item? Or, alter­na­tively, do you note if some­thing never appears at the auc­tion house?

A: We often run reports for spe­cific types of items, if we want to gain some insight into rar­ity – that usu­ally includes how many of that item are up for sale in the AH.

Be sure to check out the full post for even more details.