I like that idea.Quote:
Originally Posted by MadeOfLions
Printable View
I like that idea.Quote:
Originally Posted by MadeOfLions
I think that's a great idea :)Quote:
Originally Posted by MadeOfLions
-Bel
You are right, of course, and I should have figured it out myself. My excuse is that whilst the game itself is 13 years older since it all began, so am I, and with that comes the occasional senior moment... I do appreciate you coming here to help me cross the road :)Quote:
Originally Posted by MadeOfLions
I think that is a good idea, although I might need a reminder to read the Deed Log!Quote:
Actually, this brings to mind an Idea: what if I put the place where each chapter ended in the completion text for the deed? So in this case I would have added 'This chapter concluded with Gloin in Limlok' to the blurb for Legacy of Durin Chapter 2 in the deed log. Maybe that way makes everybody happy? You get the reminder, and I don't have to spam mail messages and vectors every time I add to the story. :D
MoL
Now where did I put that Ring again ....
Should Chapter 3 and 4 already be in the game? I had no starting Questpointer and the Dwarves in Limlók are gone. The last entry I have under "The Legacy of Durin and the Trials of the Dwarves" is "Promises unkept" which came after Chapter 2.7 and 2 Instances.Quote:
Originally Posted by MadeOfLions
Yes, both chapters are in the game. Have you finished chapter 2.7 from the Legacy of Durin? If so, the dawrves should still be in Limlok. That is where I found them.
Mount Gundabad has three conjoined peaks.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tancanspanc
Not sure, but I believe the screen shot from TerrainMap (update available soon) shows the three peaks Nosdracir referred to circled below:Quote:
Originally Posted by Nosdracir
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...4d4c2017_k.jpgScreenShot_2020-10-24_183421_0
It looks like we will be adventuring under them and beyond them in the next expansion.
I gotta say, I really dislike this multiple universe concept that LOTRO keeps pushing throughout the game. I get we are following the epic storyline, but it really kills the feeling of playing in a realistic world when you are constantly time traveling.
My biggest fear is once the scouring of the shire happens we'll now have these multiple time travel versions of a cherished original world zone too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Garan
Garan! Look at what you might have discovered, wildest hope beyond hopes!
Listen. This "mini-expansion" had a very small amount of terrain. What if this was actually the intended size of the current Elderslade zone, and maybe, due to some financial need to "rush things" this quarter, I'm just guessing, they focused the initial release on the actual "outside Gundabad" and war area?
I really, sincerely hope that what you have found north of Elderslade is actually an extension of Elderslade, included in the "mini-expansion," to the same degree that Gladdenmere was an extension of Vales of Anduin.
I'm really crossing my fingers now. I hope that will be so.
I also think that if part of that area counts as or includes part of Forodwaith, it would hopefully open the door to connecting to Angmar and Forochel via portals, uniting the entire North for the first time in-game.
To my mind, there are two very obvious points for those vector-portals: the Ironspan and the Rift of Nurz Ghashu. I'd love so much to get the ability to just ride from Kuru-lehri all the way across above northern Angmar and down into Elderslade and across Ered Mithrim to Withered Heath and/or down to Erebor and Iron Hills. There's a ton of potential there from what that screenshot reveals. :)
If SSG does that or something along those lines, I will feel so much better about this "mini-expansion" in the long-run. Thank you for that screenshot- it gives me some much-needed hope here :D
It looks like one of those complex mountain passes like in the IRL Alps in Europe- so it looks fairly realistic as well as an approach to landscape-design and world-building. :D
I think you are reading a bit too much into that screenshot. While it was taken at zoom=8 so it covers a fair amount of terrain, it is all far, far east of Angmar, barely covering the north east corner of the Misty Mountains. Since most of that screenshot is what I call "world builder dev markup" (tiles that the devs let slip into the production client even though they are not accessible yet in game, thus they only represent what the world might look like), it is all subject to change before release, but it does seem to be the above ground part of the next expansion, not part of U28. Below is the "usage" map I use for determining the overlaps in regions for the Google map:Quote:
Originally Posted by Phantion
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...18b9a2a7_o.png
Eriador, region 1, is red, Rhovanion, region2, is green (each pixel represents one map tile). The new area is circled in orange, Angmar is circled in light blue. You can see that they are quite far apart and Forochel is even further removed (the large section of red at the top left). While Angmar and Forochel are relatively close, this new area is pretty far away so I don't think this new area should be realistically viewed as opening a direct travel route across the north.
I expect the underground part of the expansion to be a bit smaller than Moria, but probably still quite large. The overall size will be determined by how much vertical space they try to depict - you will recall that Moria actually represents many vertical layers that are stretched out and layed out north to south representing higher to lower so the actual above ground area of Moria is much smaller than the area depicted in the Moria map. Looking back at the usage map, one interesting point is the outside size of the new area compared to the underground area of Moria (the large green section that is seperated just below the middle left). The new area is just over one fourth the size of Moria's layered underground map). So, if they use the same mechanism, three vertical layers in Gundabad could easily lay out to an area half the size of Moria. If they represent more vertical layers then Gundabad could wind up larger than Moria. Who knows though, only time will tell.
It's stupid judge about size of terrain when we have 200+ questsQuote:
Originally Posted by Phantion
Thank you for the 'three peaks' explanation, and that Terrain map is a great resource: Kudos to whoever put it together.Quote:
Originally Posted by Strider5548
Like Strider, I'm also disappointed with this 'time-travel' approach that SSG have adopted with SA Gorgoroth and now Elderslade (WOTP). I can see the narrative need for it when done in places like at Helms Deep and Minas Tirith / Pelennor. But the latest incarnations just seem like cynical ways of claiming that a particular expansion has more zones than it actually does.
Technically every zone in the game is already locked at a certain point in time, so when you go back to the Shire from Mordor you're already time travelling. The ability to tell multiple stories at multiple times in the same areas is breathtaking innovation from this almost 14-year old game.Quote:
Originally Posted by Strider5548
I would like literally nothing more than to have a Shire (Scouring) instance of the whole zone with half-orcs, brigands, and other Sharkey lackeys everywhere when the time comes for that story. Would you rather it only be a few limited NPC-spawned instances, or the whole zone to get to adventure in seamlessly?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Garan
Thanks for this, Garan!
The only difference I would say is this: By "open the door," and I'll amend my post here- I think it should give the ability to have a Forodwaith zone that's northeast of Forochel / north of Angmar. The other point I'd make here is that I'd put the teal circle around the Rift rather than Carn Dum; I think that Gundabad could very easily become the connector-zone between Elderslade, Angmar, and whatever this new area is north of Elderslade. I got a bit excited, I guess, because I saw how, farther north of Elderslade, it would be pretty easy to carve another zone beyond that to extend westward.
The other thing to keep in mind, too, is that they have gotten a bit "looser" with portals. Consider the Gladdenmere one. They pretty much imagined a longer, rugged pass heading southeast from there to the Caradhras part of Eregion. The portal "skips" that otherwise quite large distance between those places. So, who knows? We'll have to wait and see, I guess :D
Gundabad.... I feel that this should be at least the same size as Moria inside if not bigger because, like Moria, it's beneath all of these peaks, and while Khazad-dum was a big, prosperous realm that had the most said about it, I would hope that Gundabad will still be substantial as the birthplace of Durin.
I also think that a connection with Angmar is very likely because of all the Angmarim presence and architecture in Elderslade; that "Iron Road" should eventually get us to an area north of Angmar.
I suppose my point is that if there wasn't really an area north of Elderslade, I would not have expected any potential for the connections I'm describing. Having that area north of Elderslade "opens the door" for a lot more northern development of the game-world than I previously would've thought possible. :)
In short: for the overland connection, imagine Gundabad between the north of Elderslade green square and the red Rift of Nurz Ghashu square :) They also could put a horizontal "rectangle" (like what Vales of Anduin was except horizontal rather than vertical) of Forodwaith between Forochel and that area at some point in the future if they wanted to :)
I do think though that, if I compare how much new landscape came with "Where Dragons Dwell," this really doesn't come close with Elderslade at its current release by itself. If I imagine the two versions- the smaller "war" version and the regular game-world "Elderslade" alongside each other, I can maybe see an area roughly the size of Iron Hills or Ered Mithrim excluding Withered Heath and the pass leading down to Erebor.
If the other chunk of landscape had been part of the most recent content, it would have been more in line with a zone like Vales of Anduin as far as coordinates go; as it stands, it currently is not- which is my point :)
-------------------
To the thread in general-
I'd also like to point out that, to my mind, an update consists of three things that contribute to its value: the end-game, the number of quests / content, and the actual size of the zones that they develop. When one or more of these are seriously lacking, I notice it- it sticks out like a sore thumb. I'd point out that the size of terrain is very inconsistent with Elderslade versus virtually every single update from West Gondor onward- years upon years of adding expansive chunks to "Middle-earth," which some of us care more for than how many quests an update gives. The only two zones that struck me as smaller in all those years were Old Anorien and The Wastes, neither of which were "mini-expansions."