LotRO Google Map

[Tirian-Hammerfist]

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?

I love this Google Map.

Given the location, I think it must be - I'm assuming that the whole area before the doors (given the relatively small size of it) is Elderslade (according to the Wells of Langflood map) which presumably includes the doors of Gundabad.

The questions which arise from that are:
1) Is the entire Gundabad expansion zone going to be underground? (Given how small the 'Elderslade' area appears to be - about the size of Misthallow).
2) Will the War of the Three Peaks area (coming at the end of this year) be in this Elderslade area, or in a more mountainous zone nearby? Either in the Misties or the Grey Mountains?

Were there any updated tiles in the area between Bree-land, Evendim and the North Downs? There's been something going on there in terms of changing the landscape (and various mobs seen beyond the hills), as well as the tower overlooking the Bree-fields.

[Garan]

I love this Google Map.

Given the location, I think it must be - I'm assuming that the whole area before the doors (given the relatively small size of it) is Elderslade (according to the Wells of Langflood map) which presumably includes the doors of Gundabad.

The questions which arise from that are:
1) Is the entire Gundabad expansion zone going to be underground? (Given how small the 'Elderslade' area appears to be - about the size of Misthallow).
2) Will the War of the Three Peaks area (coming at the end of this year) be in this Elderslade area, or in a more mountainous zone nearby? Either in the Misties or the Grey Mountains?

Were there any updated tiles in the area between Bree-land, Evendim and the North Downs? There's been something going on there in terms of changing the landscape (and various mobs seen beyond the hills), as well as the tower overlooking the Bree-fields.

Thanks.

There is a significant amount of "developer markup" terrain around the dwarf buildings so the Elderslade area will probably be a bit bigger than what is presented in the Google map. I include markup in TerrainMap but do not include it in the Google map since I try to keep the Google map more accurate and less speculative. So, if you would like to see a bit more of the marked up area, check it out in TerrainMap. I suspect you are right that the actual Gundabad area will be mostly if not all underground, similar to Moria.

I haven't seen any significant changes for the area in breeland yet.

[Tirian-Hammerfist]

Thanks.

There is a significant amount of "developer markup" terrain around the dwarf buildings so the Elderslade area will probably be a bit bigger than what is presented in the Google map. I include markup in TerrainMap but do not include it in the Google map since I try to keep the Google map more accurate and less speculative. So, if you would like to see a bit more of the marked up area, check it out in TerrainMap. I suspect you are right that the actual Gundabad area will be mostly if not all underground, similar to Moria.

I haven't seen any significant changes for the area in breeland yet.

Thanks, will do! Interesting about Bree-land, but maybe the timescale on the Bree-land project is a little longer than expected (possibly a dev pet project?)

[Garan]

Thanks, will do! Interesting about Bree-land, but maybe the timescale on the Bree-land project is a little longer than expected (possibly a dev pet project?)

Given that it is a part of an old region and not directly related to the epic, i.e. scouring of the shire, I would agree, it is most likely a dev pet project. As to timescale, I suspect it may be intended to get people interested in the Breeland area just prior to bringing us back for the scouring of the shire.

[Aleziana]

Hello my favourite plug-in,

I haven't checked the in-game U26 terrain map version but i was currius of why Rohan-homestead isn't on the HTML version? I wanted to have a look at the new homesteads from a satellite point of view :P . So is it out for the same reasons you didn't add the new area in Bree-land?

Also i saw the upcoming area of U27 and the landscape seems too small up there. But i suspect its gonna be extended over the mountains somewhere in Misties or Grey. About the dwarf buildings it may be the entrance of Gundabad but i think Gundabad is more deeper (closer to Angmar) . Devs said that Gundabad expansion will be mostly underground but it will include a little bit of outside landscape. We will see.

[Garan]

Hello my favourite plug-in,

I haven't checked the in-game U26 terrain map version but i was currius of why Rohan-homestead isn't on the HTML version? I wanted to have a look at the new homesteads from a satellite point of view :P . So is it out for the same reasons you didn't add the new area in Bree-land?

Nope, the changes to Rhohan weren't published because I wasn't quite done with them yet (I didn't think anyone would miss them since they aren't accessible yet but I can understand your curiosity). Anyway, I finished with the Rhohan housing area today so it should be visible on the Google map now (you may need to flush your browser cache to see the new tiles).

[Moondog548]

This continues to be MAGNIFICENT! Thanks once again!

[SinordLoresearcher]

Hello Garan!

Thank you so much for the map, its absolutely impressive!

I don't mean to bother or burden you with questions, as I imagine you likely have a lot on your plate right now, but I was wondering if you were ever planning to update the map to Update 29, as it's been a while since the latest map update? I would love to see the latest version of it. Also, the westernmost section of the Beacon-hills (the border of Rohan and Gondor) doesn't seem to have the right satellite meshing, and I was wondering if that could be looked into?

Thank you again for your hard work on this map, and hoping that you are well!

-Sinord Loresearcher

[Garan]

Hello Garan!

Thank you so much for the map, its absolutely impressive!

I don't mean to bother or burden you with questions, as I imagine you likely have a lot on your plate right now, but I was wondering if you were ever planning to update the map to Update 29, as it's been a while since the latest map update? I would love to see the latest version of it. Also, the westernmost section of the Beacon-hills (the border of Rohan and Gondor) doesn't seem to have the right satellite meshing, and I was wondering if that could be looked into?

Thank you again for your hard work on this map, and hoping that you are well!

-Sinord Loresearcher

Hi, thanks for your interest.

The Google map is based on TerrainMap (for terrain) which in turn depends on MoorMap (for annotations), so it generally takes quite a while before the Google map gets updated - there are a LOT of steps and half a dozen custom utilities involved in updating the Google map, some of which I forget how to use between uses - serves me right for not documenting them better . It may take a bit to update TerrainMap for U29 since I'm working on improving the utility I wrote to generate the pre-zoomed tiles so that I can easily re-generate all the tiles instead of trying to determine which ones changed. Once that is done, then I can tackle updating the Google map.

As to the westernmost section of the Beacon-hills, it rests on the border of two regions, Region 2 being Rovanion and Region 3 being Gondor. In game, there is no direct travel without a loading screen so the difference in the terrain is not as obvious. However, it does look as though I should have moved the overlap transition west a bit along the river since Region 3 has some landmarks and items, including a Treasure Cache in that area so Region 3 terrain should have been preserved in that part of the overlap, not Region 2. I'll take a look at positioning the transition a bit better. If you find any other sharp transitions like that, let me know. Some of these actually exist in the game world within a single region but others like this are due to a regional boundary and can be made a bit better in the Google map. Fortunately, one of those many utility apps has a handy, dandy feature for dealing with exactly this situation - now if only I can remember how to use it...

[Moondog548]

Hi, thanks for your interest.

The Google map is based on TerrainMap (for terrain) which in turn depends on MoorMap (for annotations), so it generally takes quite a while before the Google map gets updated - there are a LOT of steps and half a dozen custom utilities involved in updating the Google map, some of which I forget how to use between uses - serves me right for not documenting them better . It may take a bit to update TerrainMap for U29 since I'm working on improving the utility I wrote to generate the pre-zoomed tiles so that I can easily re-generate all the tiles instead of trying to determine which ones changed. Once that is done, then I can tackle updating the Google map.

As to the westernmost section of the Beacon-hills, it rests on the border of two regions, Region 2 being Rovanion and Region 3 being Gondor. In game, there is no direct travel without a loading screen so the difference in the terrain is not as obvious. However, it does look as though I should have moved the overlap transition west a bit along the river since Region 3 has some landmarks and items, including a Treasure Cache in that area so Region 3 terrain should have been preserved in that part of the overlap, not Region 2. I'll take a look at positioning the transition a bit better. If you find any other sharp transitions like that, let me know. Some of these actually exist in the game world within a single region but others like this are due to a regional boundary and can be made a bit better in the Google map. Fortunately, one of those many utility apps has a handy, dandy feature for dealing with exactly this situation - now if only I can remember how to use it...

Thanks again for making this, and thanks even more for even attempting to keep supporting it. It's seriously the coolest thing!

[SinordLoresearcher]

Hi, thanks for your interest.

The Google map is based on TerrainMap (for terrain) which in turn depends on MoorMap (for annotations), so it generally takes quite a while before the Google map gets updated - there are a LOT of steps and half a dozen custom utilities involved in updating the Google map, some of which I forget how to use between uses - serves me right for not documenting them better . It may take a bit to update TerrainMap for U29 since I'm working on improving the utility I wrote to generate the pre-zoomed tiles so that I can easily re-generate all the tiles instead of trying to determine which ones changed. Once that is done, then I can tackle updating the Google map.

As to the westernmost section of the Beacon-hills, it rests on the border of two regions, Region 2 being Rovanion and Region 3 being Gondor. In game, there is no direct travel without a loading screen so the difference in the terrain is not as obvious. However, it does look as though I should have moved the overlap transition west a bit along the river since Region 3 has some landmarks and items, including a Treasure Cache in that area so Region 3 terrain should have been preserved in that part of the overlap, not Region 2. I'll take a look at positioning the transition a bit better. If you find any other sharp transitions like that, let me know. Some of these actually exist in the game world within a single region but others like this are due to a regional boundary and can be made a bit better in the Google map. Fortunately, one of those many utility apps has a handy, dandy feature for dealing with exactly this situation - now if only I can remember how to use it...

Ah I see, thank you for your quick response! The Beacon Hills area was the only particular one that I noticed, though i'll let you know if I spot anything else. No worries trying to rush it though, I know it's a lot of hard work!

[Garan]

The Google map's terrain is now updated for U28 (WoTP) and U29 (Wildwood). The Beacon-hills issue reported by SinordLoresearcher has also been addressed. If anyone notices any other odd/sharp transitions or incorrect tiles, let me know and I will look into fixing them as time allows. If your browser shows a broken map or old terrain, you may have to clear your browser's image cache.

The SE corner of the Misty Mountains in Eriador may be out of date - it may be incorrect in TerrainMap as well, I need to review what changed when the Vales were added to Rhovanion and a travel route opened in the Misties in Eriador.

FWIW, I'm holding off on filling in the northern border with artwork (there's currently a two tile grey border on the north side of the map) since that is the most time consuming aspect of maintaining the map. If SSG expands any further north, it will render any artwork borders obsolete and they will have to be completely redone so I won't tackle that until after the next update or two to see what, if anything, happens on that border.

Note, the map annotations are currently disabled as the adjustments necessary to account for the northern expansion of the map have proven more challenging with the annotations than the actual terrain. There will also be some issues with overlaps in the WoTP area due to a change in the way SSG handles interior areas (it's a good change, I just haven't accounted for it in my utilities that record/maintain annotation data and generate the files for TerrainMap and the Google map). I will make the annotations available again as soon as I can get back to it, hopefully this weekend.

Thanks again for making this, and thanks even more for even attempting to keep supporting it. It's seriously the coolest thing!

You're welcome. Enjoy!

[Thurallor]

a change in the way SSG handles interior areas (it's a good change

I'm curious about this. Have you mentioned it elsewhere?

[Garan]

I'm curious about this. Have you mentioned it elsewhere?

In WoTP, they started overlapping interiors and exteriors at the same NS/EW coordinates (based on the existence of the cInside attribute) instead of placing the interiors at coordinates that were far off their regional map. This means that the internal quest tracker as well as plugins like WayPoint can show the correct general direction to interior items where before they used to point to locations that were far outside the bounds of the actual map - of course, that only applies to new interiors, the old ones still have wonky coordinates that are far off map and interiors in instances will have positions relative to their instance which may also be placed far off map. What that means for MoorMap and TerrainMap, however, is that I need to start keeping track of the cInside and oz values (I started tracking oz previously to detect the correct map for multi-level interiors, not yet fully implemented) so that I don't accidentally place annotations on the landscape that are actually inside. In particular, this is an issue for the Google map because things that are far off a regional map may actually overlap a displayed portion of a different region so icons for instanced locations and interiors started showing up in very strange places. I was able to easily eliminate those spurious values previously because they were outside the bounds of any external map for their region, but that is no longer true. Basically, a change that isn't likely to even be noticed by anyone that isn't tracking items using a set of calculated global coordinates (so, no one but me?) but might be helpful down the road.

[Thurallor]

In WoTP, they started overlapping interiors and exteriors at the same NS/EW coordinates (based on the existence of the cInside attribute) instead of placing the interiors at coordinates that were far off their regional map. This means that the internal quest tracker as well as plugins like WayPoint can show the correct general direction to interior items where before they used to point to locations that were far outside the bounds of the actual map - of course, that only applies to new interiors, the old ones still have wonky coordinates that are far off map and interiors in instances will have positions relative to their instance which may also be placed far off map..

It also doesn't mean they will always do it in the future.

[Garan]

It also doesn't mean they will always do it in the future.

True. Too true. There's also the possibility that an intern did it purely by accident. I like to believe that such things are planned but, yeah, there's an awfully good chance that it was a 'one off'. Hmm, now that I'm thinking of it, I wonder if the tunnels in Wildwood use this system... I'll let ya know in a minute, brb

EDIT: doesn't look good Broghosh (the big spider at the bottom of the tunnels) is at 14.26 S, 53.3 E which is far east of the Wildwood area (past the eastern bounds of Eriador) but the entrance to the tunnels is at 23.92 S, 62.09 W so at best the WoTP stuff was used inconsistently Then again, parts of Wildwood were developed a loooooong time ago, possibly before the new system was implemented. Just gonna have to wait and see.

[Garan]

Annotations are re-enabled and include U28 (Elderslades) and U29(Wildwood).

Far-ranging stable-masters and dock-masters are not currently included other than a few far-ranging stable-masters that are shown as regular stable-masters. This will be fixed once all of the dock-masters and far-ranging stable-masters are corrected in TerrainMap.

Elderslades displays the annotations from the non-WoTP version of the landscape since the WoTP instanced version uses different coordinates.

[Tirian-Hammerfist]

Annotations are re-enabled and include U28 (Elderslades) and U29(Wildwood).

Far-ranging stable-masters and dock-masters are not currently included other than a few far-ranging stable-masters that are shown as regular stable-masters. This will be fixed once all of the dock-masters and far-ranging stable-masters are corrected in TerrainMap.

Elderslades displays the annotations from the non-WoTP version of the landscape since the WoTP instanced version uses different coordinates.

Thank you for continuing to update this! Really useful to have the Wildwood one up and running, as well as some intriguing new bits and pieces to the north and west of Elderslade.

[SinordLoresearcher]

Hi Garan!

I was just wondering, is there any ETA on whether or not the map will be updated to Update 32? I would really like to see Azanulbizar (T.A.2999), Gundabad, and the Angle added in, but of course, you've probably figured out a game plan for it already.

Cheers!

[Garan]

Hi Garan!

I was just wondering, is there any ETA on whether or not the map will be updated to Update 32? I would really like to see Azanulbizar (T.A.2999), Gundabad, and the Angle added in, but of course, you've probably figured out a game plan for it already.

Cheers!

Hi, thanks for your interest in the Google map of LotRO.

Azanulbizar TA 2999 is actually just Dimrill Dale shown at an earlier time period so it will never be added to the Google Map.

The above ground landscape of Gundabad is already on the Google map. The underground portion of Gundabad will have to added as an insert (like Moria) and I haven't yet determined the best location for such an insert - I'd like to place it at a location that will have the least likelihood of blocking any future developed terrain because moving it is quite a hassle.

The Angle will be added sometime after it is published for TerrainMap - sometime in the coming weeks.

[SinordLoresearcher]

Hi, thanks for your interest in the Google map of LotRO.

Azanulbizar TA 2999 is actually just Dimrill Dale shown at an earlier time period so it will never be added to the Google Map.

The above ground landscape of Gundabad is already on the Google map. The underground portion of Gundabad will have to added as an insert (like Moria) and I haven't yet determined the best location for such an insert - I'd like to place it at a location that will have the least likelihood of blocking any future developed terrain because moving it is quite a hassle.

The Angle will be added sometime after it is published for TerrainMap - sometime in the coming weeks.

Well, the reason I was asking, was because present-day Nanduhirion (or Azanulbizar if you wish) was also updated with Update 30, and features some of the new landmarks introduced in the update, including the ruins of Zirakahzar, Atrad-zarakh, Khur Azan, etc., And Car Bronach and the Welkin-lofts have all the new details and landmarks introduced with the Gundabad Expansion (including that curious new ice-field somewhere up north by the Anvil that we visit in a flashback and a mission).

[Phantion]

Hi, thanks for your interest in the Google map of LotRO.

Azanulbizar TA 2999 is actually just Dimrill Dale shown at an earlier time period so it will never be added to the Google Map.

The above ground landscape of Gundabad is already on the Google map. The underground portion of Gundabad will have to added as an insert (like Moria) and I haven't yet determined the best location for such an insert - I'd like to place it at a location that will have the least likelihood of blocking any future developed terrain because moving it is quite a hassle.

The Angle will be added sometime after it is published for TerrainMap - sometime in the coming weeks.

Thank you so much for your wonderful hard work

I just have to compliment you. I've loved using Terrainmap for years. I've always enjoyed following the contours of the landscape from a bird's eye view. While I'm sorry there isn't some way to make "Mordor Besieged," the older "Azanulbizar," etc., just on their own segmented "Tales of Yore" map, I understand why: it would look pretty incongruous.

I have some suggestions for those inserts of Gundabad and Moria, if you'll hear me out on this


SSG is very unlikely to set-up zones in the middle of the Sundering Seas. They are more likely to make Rhun a zone, or eastern Rhovanion, or pretty much any land-mass in Middle-earth is probably fair-game.

So you might consider, if possible, moving those underground areas like Moria and Gundabad just out in the middle of the "ocean" part of the map-layout, with the little dotted lines leading up and around to those spots.

Anyways, thank you so much I love the Google-Map also and how well it pulls the different areas together- tyvm

Cheers!

[Aleziana]

Hey Garan, any ETA on when to expect next Terrain map update? will next update include both Yondeshire and Angles ?

I m really thrilled about Yodenshire and i really want to see how it looks like from satelite view ;P

[SinordLoresearcher]

Hey Garan, any ETA on when to expect next Terrain map update? will next update include both Yondeshire and Angles ?

I m really thrilled about Yodenshire and i really want to see how it looks like from satelite view ;P

Don't forget Gundabad and the updated Present-day Azanulbizar! I bet it'll look fantastic!

[Garan]

Hey Garan, any ETA on when to expect next Terrain map update? will next update include both Yondeshire and Angles ?

I m really thrilled about Yodenshire and i really want to see how it looks like from satelite view ;P

Hi, thanks for your interest. Fwiw, info on TerrainMap is easiest to find on the lotrointerface download thread for the plugin:
https://www.lotrointerface.com/downl...errainMap.html
The update for U32 & U33 (Angle and Yondershire) for TerrainMap should be available sometime this week.

Don't forget Gundabad and the updated Present-day Azanulbizar! I bet it'll look fantastic!

The update to TerrainMap is just the first step in many needed to update the Google map. The new tiles for Yondershire and the Angle are fairly easy to update although the borders/background around those areas may need significant work. The Angle in particular has a lot of developer markup stuff available - I generally add some of that to TerrainMap once the tiles are included in the live client for those that like a hint of things to come but it isn't appropriate for the Google map not to mention all the additional work it makes when it eventually gets updated. Unfortunately, the process of identifying changes to existing tiles is not an automated process at this point (although I have been working on automating the process, it's a bit complicated) and that area will need even more work on the borders/background. The pre-zoomed tiles aren't quite as difficult since I can simply set the application that creates them to regenerate the entire map and let it chew through them overnight. Transferring all of those changes to the hosting server, however, will take a fairly long time (access to the host isn't terribly fast, but it is free ). And lastly, the annotations need to be updated (I know, most of you probably turn the annotations off but a few may actually use them) and that process takes nearly as long as transferring the images but they also get updated after the map is available so it doesn't interfere with the update schedule of the map itself. Anyway, we may be looking at a month or more depending on how much real life interferes. I may publish the Google map update for Yondershire/Angle before the update(s) for Azanulbizar and/or Gundabad just to break the project into more manageable time blocks. And with that, it's time to get some yard chores done before my wife divorces me 'cause if that happens there won't be any updates...