LotRO Google Map

[Garan]

The LotRO Google map is a recreation and extension of the map originally published by Turbine with the Lorebook. After the Lorebook was discontinued, the Google map (tiles created and hosted by Turbine, map functionality provided by Google) was no longer available (although the tiles were still on Turbine's server for those that knew where to look). After a number of requests for permission to restore the map as a fan based map, in 2017, I finally received permission from SSG via Cordovan to use the in-game map resources as displayed by the TerrainMap plugin to publish a Google map. There are a couple of conditions - first, the map can not be monetized or used for advertising, etc. Second the map has to clearly indicate that it is not hosted or maintained by SSG but all assets belong to SSG. Third, permission to display the resources can be revoked at any time solely at the discretion of SSG. In addition to the map of the current game world, I was granted permission to display the original tiles that are still hosted on the Turbine servers - at least until Turbine remembers they got left there and decide to clear them out

So, the link to the current Google map of LotRO is:
http://lotromap.net/terrainmap/google.html

The link to a recreated version of the Google map as last displayed in the Lorebook (sorry, no annotations) is:
http://lotromap.net/terrainmap/turbine.html

[Garan]

The LotRO Google map has now been updated for U24.

Sorry for the long delay in updates (U23 never got published on the Google map). RL got in the way I reposted the original OP here under Created Guides and FAQs since it seems more appropriate here. Any future update announcements will be posted in this thread. The Google map is based on data and resources used by the TerrainMap plugin so it will typically get updated shortly after the TerrainMap plugin gets updated (TerrainMap similarly uses data from the MoorMap plugin so it gets updated shortly after MoorMap).

I haven't finished cleaning up the background around the newest parts of Rhovanion so they will look a bit hastily drawn - I figured people were far more interested in the in-game terrain than my backgrounds

[Thurallor]

This is awesome.

[Altair6]

I'm getting a pop-up window saying "This page can't load Google Maps correctly".

Though the map does appear to load just fine.

[Garan]

I'm getting a pop-up window saying "This page can't load Google Maps correctly".

Though the map does appear to load just fine.

Yep, thanks for reporting it. I'll have to see if the API key or billing account is causing it but it shouldn't prevent the map from displaying.

Edit: Apparently my account for the API key just expired. Unfortunately, the billing system is about as clear as the murk at the bottom of a cesspool so it took a few minutes to read all the fine print and get the account reactivated. It should be all sorted now.

On the nice side, Google is good enough to allow the API to function for a month even with an expired account.

[Faratalath]

Thanks for all your hard work! It's really cool to see the entirety of the game in this google-earth way


Now, we can even see some things for the near future in here. In the Vales, it seems there's quite a big castle-like structure on the Gladden Lake, above the falls and the fields. That entire area is currently not accessible... yet?

[The_Wise_Owl]

Wow this is great! Thanks for putting this together, Garan!
And thanks to SSG for letting him do it. :-)
This is a fun and useful tool for LOTRO players.

[Cordovan]

Thanks for keeping up on this!

[Garan]

Thanks for keeping up on this!

You're Welcome. Thanks for permission to do it

Since you're here, any chance of a forum title like "Cartographer" ? If so, I would like to recommend DanielMoravek also be granted a forum title for his very cool contribution to the community, his hires static images of the LotRO world map: https://www.lotro.com/forums/showthr...TRO-World-Maps (yeah, I know, he hasn't updated them for U23 or U24 yet, but I suspect he got caught up in RL stuff after trying to tackle the issues that arose from Rhovanian expanding northward back in U23)

And thanks to the world building team for giving us such a wonderful visualization of Middle Earth It all starts with them.

[Moondog548]

This remains the absolute coolest! Thank you for updating it!

[Beastnas]

I always love looking at maps like this, and it's pretty awesome to see the massive, contiguous landmass of the game we now have.

[andrane]

The LotRO Google map has now been updated for U24.

Sorry for the long delay in updates (U23 never got published on the Google map). RL got in the way I reposted the original OP here under Created Guides and FAQs since it seems more appropriate here. Any future update announcements will be posted in this thread. The Google map is based on data and resources used by the TerrainMap plugin so it will typically get updated shortly after the TerrainMap plugin gets updated (TerrainMap similarly uses data from the MoorMap plugin so it gets updated shortly after MoorMap).

I haven't finished cleaning up the background around the newest parts of Rhovanion so they will look a bit hastily drawn - I figured people were far more interested in the in-game terrain than my backgrounds

Extremly epic!

It seems the top half of Iron Hills is missing tho on google maps ... the annonations are here but not the tiles

[SinordLoresearcher]

Extremly epic!

It seems the top half of Iron Hills is missing tho on google maps ... the annonations are here but not the tiles

It does, among other regions too.

Also, has anyone noticed the large set of ruins located in the lake above the Gladden Fields? That looks very unique.. maybe the 6-man?

[Garan]

Extremly epic!

It seems the top half of Iron Hills is missing tho on google maps ... the annonations are here but not the tiles

Thanks for reporting this. This should be fixed now although your browser may still cache the old images for a bit (I had to flush my temporary internet files to get IE 11 to reflect the new tiles but Edge, Firefox and Chrome picked up on them automatically).

[Garan]

It does, among other regions too.

Which other regions are you noticing issues on? I scanned the map at several zoom levels and all annotations and tiles seemed Okay at this time, but it is a large map so I may still be missing something.

[SinordLoresearcher]

Which other regions are you noticing issues on? I scanned the map at several zoom levels and all annotations and tiles seemed Okay at this time, but it is a large map so I may still be missing something.

The main thing that stood out was the top half of the Grey Mountains, which cuts Skarhald in half, and omits the Withered Heath.

Thanks for putting this together, you rock!

[Garan]

The main thing that stood out was the top half of the Grey Mountains, which cuts Skarhald in half, and omits the Withered Heath.

Thanks for putting this together, you rock!

Thanks for reporting this. It is more of the same, background covering tiles. This will be fixed shortly.

Edit: Okay, it is finally uploaded and should look correct now.

[SinordLoresearcher]

Thanks for reporting this. It is more of the same, background covering tiles. This will be fixed shortly.

Edit: Okay, it is finally uploaded and should look correct now.

Sweet, many thanks!

In the meantime i'll ponder what those strange ruins are about...

[Askelin]

What a gem!
I find myself lost in this map sometimes, it really makes you realize just how vast the game is these days, even Eriador looks huge (though not as open as later zones).
Rohan itself is the best example of seeing just how big this game is, and how it seamlessly connects East and West Rohan, without knowing prior you'd be mistaken for thinking the majority of the landmass around Rohan is just one sprawling zone.

I've always been fairly impressed at how the devs manage to connect the various zones in the game, how the mountain regions of the areas connect. The Misty Mountains to the Vales is a good example, and how the Redhorn Pass being part of the same mountain reaches and how that would connect to the mountains around Mirrormere.

[Yarbro]

Sadly, the map link doesnt appear to be working again this morning.

It WAS working yesterday, today it just hangs............

With no error message.

[Garan]

Sadly, the map link doesnt appear to be working again this morning.

It WAS working yesterday, today it just hangs............

With no error message.

Yeah, the hosting provider seems to be having some issues this morning It should be back shortly.
EDIT: It's responding now, but with response times that look more like dial-up. Hopefully they will get whatever network issues they are having fixed properly soon.

[Yarbro]

Yeah, the hosting provider seems to be having some issues this morning It should be back shortly.
EDIT: It's responding now, but with response times that look more like dial-up. Hopefully they will get whatever network issues they are having fixed properly soon.

Still hanging for me.

[Garan]

Still hanging for me.

It went back down about twenty minutes ago. Still down atm. Sadly, I have no control over hosting outages other than reporting them since it has to be hosted inexpensively. This is the longest issue I've seen so far so it should be sorted out soon.

EDIT: I've been monitoring it all day and it's been up and down but really slow. It finally seems to be back up and responding properly so I'm keeping my fingers crossed and will check again tomorrow.
EDIT2: It's been pretty stable for over 12 hours so I believe whatever was broken at the host provider has been fixed.

[Garan]

I finally got around to updating the terrain of the google map for U25 but the annotations are not yet available. I also fixed an issue with the southwest corner of Moria (vile maw) being cropped - I neglected to update one of my maintenance apps when Rhovanion expanded so this must have been broken for quite some time.

EDIT: Also, Durin's Bane and other Zirak Zigil annotations are now back atop Zirak Zigil where they belong instead of hiding in the Ettenmoors
If anyone notices any other oddities (other than the missing U25 annotations) please let me know

[Garan]

The google map is now updated for U26. The map tiles and annotations for Wells of Langfold are updated as well as the missing annotations from the Minas Morgal update. Some may want to speculate on what those very large buildings just North/Northwest of Langfold are? The entrance to Gundabad perhaps?