Filling the Gaps: following in the footsteps of the Wildwood and the Angle

[Tirian-Hammerfist]

One of the first things I did when I rejoined the LOTRO team was do a bit of a visual revamp on Breeland, which included making those southern impassables a bit lower and less "fish bowl". That was just about 4 years ago now, I believe.

That explains those bits - I knew it didn’t look the way it had done many years ago, but realise that it probably has been more than 4 years since I last levelled near Staddle, or popped to visit Torthann’s camp to lament the fact that he and Leglinn were left behind by the Grey Company!

[YamydeAragon]

One of the first things I did when I rejoined the LOTRO team was do a bit of a visual revamp on Breeland, which included making those southern impassables a bit lower and less "fish bowl". That was just about 4 years ago now, I believe.

I loved when i found that change! It always bothered me the excesive use of terrain walls that was done in the past. I like to climb rocks & hills & see the landscape from high places. The world looks a lot bigger that way.

[Skohgar]

Plains of greyflood region confirmed?


found this after getting out of bounds near Enedwaith it seems to stretch all the way along the swanfleet to lone lands and even up to Bree-land a bit.

[seekingerin]

Plains of greyflood region confirmed?


found this after getting out of bounds near Enedwaith it seems to stretch all the way along the swanfleet to lone lands and even up to Bree-land a bit.

I explored this area pretty extensively last night, after noticing the note in the patch notes about fixing the terrain in the Gloomglens. I took a bunch of screenshots and I have some thoughts about what this new area might be like. I'm pretty sure this is going to be the next region, and I think it may hint at where we're going after that. I don't think the area is as large as you suggest; I think it will probably be comparable in size to Enedwaith, and that it will stretch west to the Gwathlo and Hoarwell and north to include the chunk of land between Eregion and the Angle. I don't have time to post my thoughts and screenshots tonight, but I'll try to get to them in the next couple of days.

On that note, how would I go about hosting and posting screenshots, lol?

[Valather89]

To be honest I'm not even sure I would like it if the entire space between Bree-Land, the Lone lands, the Angle and Enedwaith got added in a single update. I would be impressed, that's for sure, given its sheer size. But it is so big and there could potentially be so many different things there in terms of landscapes and lore that I would feel more comfortable with smaller, more detailed additions than a single big one where "butter (has been) spread over too much bread", as Bilbo would say. Sure, we know there's not much going on there during the events of LOTR, but that didn't stop the Lone Lands or the North Downs from being great zones with more events going on than one would originally expect.

Yondershire's size/content rate was good, but roughly the same amount of content (or even less) for a way bigger region might feel empty and unpolished. Smaller additions with more care given to each of them might be more appropiate.

So yeah, I think I'd rather get just the Swanfleet and its surroundings for the next update. In other words, the space between Enedwaith, Eregion and the Angle of Mitheithel (filling that annoying void between the last two), with maybe Tharbad. There's always time (supposedly) to add the rest of the North-South Road, with northern Minhiriath and the South Downs, in later updates. No hurries. But maybe that's just me.

[Tirian-Hammerfist]

I explored this area pretty extensively last night, after noticing the note in the patch notes about fixing the terrain in the Gloomglens. I took a bunch of screenshots and I have some thoughts about what this new area might be like. I'm pretty sure this is going to be the next region, and I think it may hint at where we're going after that. I don't think the area is as large as you suggest; I think it will probably be comparable in size to Enedwaith, and that it will stretch west to the Gwathlo and Hoarwell and north to include the chunk of land between Eregion and the Angle. I don't have time to post my thoughts and screenshots tonight, but I'll try to get to them in the next couple of days.

On that note, how would I go about hosting and posting screenshots, lol?

More screenshots would be great to see. I go for Imgur - it is free and was easy enough to set up. Once you’ve created an account, you can upload directly from your screenshot folder, then select the BB code link to paste into a forum thread.

[Phantion]

It looks like, actually, it's bigger than we think it is. This would corroborate what Scenario said in his livestream about this new zone taking "6 months" to build and "bigger than Yondershire."

Here's my thought: I suspect the Bree-land terrain "accident" in the homesteads happened because of development taking place behind the homesteads. Don't forget that when you actually look at Bree-land and the Lone-Lands on terrainmap, things are actually much closer down there than you'd normally think they are. The terrain feels longer because of the way they arc and bend the road around the Midgewater Marshes and Weathertop; it's actually a lot closer when put together, perhaps the distance between Duillond and Needlehole if you want to get from say Andrath to Talath Gaun.

Now............ the terrain you are seeing in the screenshot is actually, when looking from the Angle, to the south and east of the Angle closer to Mirobel. When you look from the tip of the Angle, you see distant mountains that didn't exist before when looking straight down the Gwaithlo from the same spot. That means anything you can see from Enedwaith is likely the southeastern extent of the new zone.

In short: Yes. Swanfleet is clearly coming. Will it include Tharbad? Remains to be seen as we cannot quite see that far southwest, but it is possible. Will it connect to Bree-land? I'll honestly be more surprised if it doesn't. It makes perfect sense that, on the list of things to do in Eriador, next to connecting Ered Luin with the Shire would be finishing-off the Greenway on its progression from Fornost to Minas Morgul.

By the way, if you look at a map of Dunland on Tolkien's map and compare the line of the Greenway to the in-game version: Wulf's Cleft is actually further west on Tolkien's map than you think it is. I think the REAL King's Road goes through Carreglyn and pops out right where it meets the Crossroads with the Heathfells at the Fords of the Isen. It's true that Wulf's Cleft has a somewhat bigger path, but that could literally be re-interpreted as "Dunland's war-path" as, clearly, on Tolkien's map, the Royal Road goes - north - of Dol Baran, not south of it.

So, don't let Wulf's Cleft fool you! If this update in fact completes the missing chunk between Enedwaith and Bree, it will mean that you can follow the Royal Road from Fornost to Minas Morgul, and as Starkmoor is far too westward, I would invite us to reconsider Galtrev as actually along the Royal Road along with Barnavon, which honestly makes far more sense. We will be able to ride all of that way through the Beacon Hills and down Talath Anor to the Pelennor and follow it straight through Osgiliath, and ok, swim across the Morgulduin, up and into the Gates of the Moon.

Besides, the Royal Road always got a little messy in several places: Yes, Dunland, but also around Edoras where the roads get a little sketchy, and also especially in the Eastfold, and it doesn't really come together more strongly till you get into the Beacon Hills and keep going from there. It makes sense that the different civilizations would repurpose its directions to fit their own local places and so forth.

Cheers!

[Pontin_Finnberry]

found this after getting out of bounds near Enedwaith it seems to stretch all the way along the swanfleet to lone lands and even up to Bree-land a bit.

Same I was questing on my Hobbit Guardian in Enedwaith at Gloomglens just 2 days ago, and wandered north trying get a quest to advance and saw messed up terrain with no hidden wall, and saw the nice view you posted.

[auximenes]

I explored this area pretty extensively last night, after noticing the note in the patch notes about fixing the terrain in the Gloomglens.

Did you mean the Live notes or Bullroarer notes? I took one run at finding an escape route today and didn't find a weak point. There were three locations that I got close.

[seekingerin]

Last night, as I was checking out the patch notes for today's patch, I noticed this: "Terrain issues in Gloomglens have been resolved." I had a hunch that the terrain issues in question might be a result of landscape development on an upcoming region, so naturally I had to check the landscape cahnges out before the patch erased them. I found quite a bit more than I expected.

The cliffs that line the north side of the Gloomglens had been smoothed out into a gentle, easily climbable hill; presumably this was a result of some landscape work that wasn't meant to go live. Climbing to the top of the hill, I was greeted by a wonderful view of the landscape-in-progress below. I suspect this is the next region we're going to be getting; the landscape and world building, while still definitely in progress, appear to be fairly far along. For convenience's sake, I'm going to go with Skohgar's name and call this region the Plains of Greyflood.



I've spent some time trying to figure out how the landscape I saw fits into Tolkien's map and the existing world. For reference, I'm standing at the northern edge of the Gloomglens, about halfway between Maur Tulhau and the King's Way Gate, and looking north-northwest; Maur Tulhau is on my left and the King's Way Gate are on my right. I've included a screenshot of my map showing my exact location and the direction I'm looking.

Toward the top of the image, you can see what I assume is the Swanfleet, a marshy area formed where the Hoarwell and Glanduin Rivers meet and become the Gwathlo. The Swanfleet will likely make up the heart of this new region. You can see the Glanduin River in the upper right part of the valley, streaming out of Eregion.

There are two hills north of the Swanfleet; I think they're part of a cluster of hills around Mirobel. Both, I believe, are visible in game right now; I think the hill on the right is visible from Mirobel, across the dry riverbed that forms the eastern edge of Eregion. The hill on the left, I think, is visible across the Bruinen from the southern tip of the Angle; you can see it in the images Valather89 shared earlier in this thread. On the far side of these two hills, I believe, is the chunk of land nestled between Eregion and the Angle.

On the west side of this image, you can see a river; I think this is an unnamed tributary of the Gwathlo. I'm going to call it Road River, because why not? I think it starts from a waterfall directly below where I'm standing. If you look closely, you can see a road crossing landscape and then running along the river. This is the North-South Road; it's the paved road that runs prominently through Enedwaith. It will eventually become the Greenway as it runs past Bree. In stretches all the way from the gates of Minas Tirith to the gates of Fornost, though the exact route is a little fuzzy south of Enedwaith. Also note the two large reddish hills next to the river; these will be a useful landmark later.







Above I've included a few more screenshots, taken from a location a bit farther to the west. This is about as far west as I was able to go along the hillside. (I should note that there were invisible walls surrounding the Gloomglens, which limited how far I was able to explore.) Taken together, these images give you a good panoramic view of the landscape visible from the hillside. The first image is looking northwest; you can see the hills north and west of Maur Tulhau, on the south side of Road River and on the left side of the image. The second image shows some landmarks you can match up with the image I linked above. The third image shows the hills around the King's Way Gate, looking northeast; you can see the North-South Road as it descends from the gate into the valley below. Note the elevation changes apparent in these images; there's a steep drop-off between the Gloomglens and the new area.

[seekingerin]

Let's leave the hillside now and head west to explore another part of the new region. Some of you may be familiar with the Fishing Hole; it's a hidden area south of Maur Tulhau with a little fishing pond, a hobbit house, and a fellow named Aled Madcorf. There's a path there that leads southwest past Aled's house into the new zone; the path is currently blocked by rubble, but I assume this rubble will be cleared when the new region is added to the game.

If you go to the Fishing Hole in the live game and jump on top of Aled's house, you can get a peek at a pond on the other side. At the far side of the pond, there's a waterfall tumbling out of sight. This waterfall tumbles into a steep, narrow ravine. Along the north side of the ravine, there's a well-hidden hobbit village, which I'm going to call Cliffsburg.

Cliffsburg is built into the nearly verical side of the ravine; a series of wooden bridges allows you to climb up and down the cliff to access the various houses. It's a really cool village. I've included some images below. Unfortunately, I took these images at night; I forgot to go back and take screenshots during the daytime. Still, these give you sort of a sense of what the village looks like.

I've also included a screenshot looking town from Cliffsburg. You can see the river below as the ravine opens up into a wider gully, as well as a water-mill far below. (You can also see a slab of rock danging from a rope; this is part of a crane in Cliffsburg.)

[seekingerin]

The path leading from the Fishing Hole runs along the south side of the pond above Cliffsburg, and then runs along the top of the cliff on the opposite side of the ravine from Cliffsburg. It leads west along what I suspect is the southern edge of the new region, but I could only travel a short distance before I was blocked by an invisible wall. I've included some screenshots of the path below.

When I hit the invisible wall, I walked to the edge of the cliff to try to get some screenshots of Cliffsburg from the south side of the ravine, but--eep!--I accidentally fell off the cliff. To my surprise, though, I didn't die of adventure, so I was able to take a screenshot from the river below Cliffsburg. It gives you a good sense of how steep the walls of the ravine are. You can also see the watermill again. This was as far as I could swim down the river before hitting the invisible wall.

[seekingerin]

Cliffsburg is a bit to the west of Maur Tulhau. I wonder if they'll eventually be connected somehow, but at the moment the only way to access Cliffsburg is through a short, well-hidden tunnel. The tunnel leads to the gully formed by Cliffsburg's river. There's a network of paths running through the gully. One path leads up to the hillside where I was taking screenshots before. Another path follows the gully as it slopes down to the valley below. I've included several screenshots from the gully. I again met an invisible wall, so I was only able to follow the fully for a little while.









Here's a screenshot of the gully from above. As you can see, the river eventually feeds into Road River, around the gap between the two large red hills I pointed out earlier.

[seekingerin]

I also got a some screenshots from the other side of King's Way Gate. The road cuts through a couple of little ravines before it begins to climb down the hillside. Notice the floating flagstones!

[seekingerin]

Stepping back a bit. My best guess is that this Plains of Greyflood region will be shaped like a sort of right triangle. The southern border of the triangle will run along the cliffside below the Gloomglens, then head west from Maur Tulhau and Cliffsburg, following the road leading west from the Fishing Hole. The east border of the triangle will run alongside Enedwaith and Eregion. The west border will be the Hoarwell and Gwathlo Rivers. Altogether, I expect the zone to be about comparable in size to Enedwaith. Again, note that this is speculation; I think it makes the most sense, though, given the what I saw, the landscape that's accessible on live, and the geography of Tolkien's Middle Earth.

I imagine the zone consisting of four areas. There will be some hills, gullies, and ravines in the south of the zone, perhaps with another hobbit village or two. North of the hobbity hills will be the Swanfleet, a marshy area which is canonically similar to the Gladden Fields, where the Stoors used to dwell. I imagine the north end of the zone will consist of the area between Eregion and the Angle, and will probably serve as a transition between the two; I imagine there might be some elven ruins in this area. And the western end of the zone will probably be populated by a ruins of Arnor and Cardolan; there used to be a line of forts along the river, the ruins of which we'll probably be able to explore.

And in the southwest corner of the region, I expect we'll come to the ruined city of Tharbad. Tharbad used to be a major garrison city until it was abandoned about a century before LOTRO takes place. Now the city lies in ruins. I imagine SSG will turn the ruins of Tharbad into a major enemy based, perhaps with a couple of instances or a raid attached. Seems like it would be a perfect opportunity for that.

I envision paths leading into the Plains of Greyflood from the King's Way Gate, from the Fishing Hole, and perhaps from Maur Talhau. I'm sure there will be a path or two from Eregion as well, perhaps around Mirobel. There will probably be a path from Tornhad in the Angle. And I suspect we'll eventually be able to cross the ruined bridge Tharbad into our NEXT new region.

I suspect there could be a lot going on in this region. There might be some elves in the north, part of the company that followed the Fellowship from Rivendell. There might be rangers, either having come from Tornhad or on their way back to Tornhad from Gondor, depending on whether this is a lower-level zone or a high-level zone. There will most definitely be hobbits. There may even be Rohirrim, since the Rohirrim will ultimately come to inhabit this region. There should be plenty of elven, human, and hobbit ruins for us to explore. As I said, I suspect there will be a large enemy presence that's gathered in Tharbad since Boromir crossed the city's ruined bridge. Depending on when in the game's timeline we come to this zone, the ringwraiths may even be in Tharbad, having been swept downriver from the Fords of Bruinen. This area has deep layers of history to explore, too, as well as plenty of opportunities for undead gooblies. This is a region that's seen a lot of tragedy and death, after all. And of course, I imagine we could see bandits, bugan, Dunlendings (friendly or hostile), orcs, goblins, possibly Angmarim and Black Numenoreans and Dourhands... the possibilities for this area are truly endless.

I have one more image for you. It's an altered version of Valather89's map from earlier in this thread; hopefully they don't mind me piggybacking off of it. I've marked out what I imagine to be the borders of the Plains of Greyflood, as well as what I expect to be the next two major zones, which I'm calling the Cardolan Marches and the South Downs. I think it makes sense for us, now that we've started to follow the North-South Road northward, to connect it all the way up. It certainly fits with SSG's current focus on expanding Eriador and filling in Tolkien's map and their desire to explore sunnier and less dire regions. I could see the epic picking up again as well, taking us back to Eriador to discover its remaining dangers, parallelling the hobbits' return to the Shire.



To lend some evidence to this idea, I'll point out the fact that the terrain in the Gloomglens wasn't the ONLY terrain SSG had to correct in today's patch; they also had to fix the terrain on teh south side of the Bree-Land Homesteads. If you go to Andrath, climb to the top of the ruins, and look south through the gate, you can see ruins that are floating in midair. They've definitely been doing some work south of the Bree-Lands.

I think we're probably going to finally get our River Hobbits alongside one of the upcoming regions. River Hobbits... as in the hobbits that still live in the area of the Gwathlo, Glanduin, and Hoarwell Rivers.

And my guess for the next area after the South Downs? My money's on the Southfarthing.

[Carallot]

Stepping back a bit. My best guess is that this Plains of Greyflood region will be shaped like a sort of right triangle. The southern border of the triangle will run along the cliffside below the Gloomglens, then head west from Maur Tulhau and Cliffsburg, following the road leading west from the Fishing Hole. The east border of the triangle will run alongside Enedwaith and Eregion. The west border will be the Hoarwell and Gwathlo Rivers. Altogether, I expect the zone to be about comparable in size to Enedwaith. Again, note that this is speculation; I think it makes the most sense, though, given the what I saw, the landscape that's accessible on live, and the geography of Tolkien's Middle Earth.

I imagine the zone consisting of four areas. There will be some hills, gullies, and ravines in the south of the zone, perhaps with another hobbit village or two. North of the hobbity hills will be the Swanfleet, a marshy area which is canonically similar to the Gladden Fields, where the Stoors used to dwell. I imagine the north end of the zone will consist of the area between Eregion and the Angle, and will probably serve as a transition between the two; I imagine there might be some elven ruins in this area. And the western end of the zone will probably be populated by a ruins of Arnor and Cardolan; there used to be a line of forts along the river, the ruins of which we'll probably be able to explore.

And in the southwest corner of the region, I expect we'll come to the ruined city of Tharbad. Tharbad used to be a major garrison city until it was abandoned about a century before LOTRO takes place. Now the city lies in ruins. I imagine SSG will turn the ruins of Tharbad into a major enemy based, perhaps with a couple of instances or a raid attached. Seems like it would be a perfect opportunity for that.

I envision paths leading into the Plains of Greyflood from the King's Way Gate, from the Fishing Hole, and perhaps from Maur Talhau. I'm sure there will be a path or two from Eregion as well, perhaps around Mirobel. There will probably be a path from Tornhad in the Angle. And I suspect we'll eventually be able to cross the ruined bridge Tharbad into our NEXT new region.

I suspect there could be a lot going on in this region. There might be some elves in the north, part of the company that followed the Fellowship from Rivendell. There might be rangers, either having come from Tornhad or on their way back to Tornhad from Gondor, depending on whether this is a lower-level zone or a high-level zone. There will most definitely be hobbits. There may even be Rohirrim, since the Rohirrim will ultimately come to inhabit this region. There should be plenty of elven, human, and hobbit ruins for us to explore. As I said, I suspect there will be a large enemy presence that's gathered in Tharbad since Boromir crossed the city's ruined bridge. Depending on when in the game's timeline we come to this zone, the ringwraiths may even be in Tharbad, having been swept downriver from the Fords of Bruinen. This area has deep layers of history to explore, too, as well as plenty of opportunities for undead gooblies. This is a region that's seen a lot of tragedy and death, after all. And of course, I imagine we could see bandits, bugan, Dunlendings (friendly or hostile), orcs, goblins, possibly Angmarim and Black Numenoreans and Dourhands... the possibilities for this area are truly endless.

I have one more image for you. It's an altered version of Valather89's map from earlier in this thread; hopefully they don't mind me piggybacking off of it. I've marked out what I imagine to be the borders of the Plains of Greyflood, as well as what I expect to be the next two major zones, which I'm calling the Cardolan Marches and the South Downs. I think it makes sense for us, now that we've started to follow the North-South Road northward, to connect it all the way up. It certainly fits with SSG's current focus on expanding Eriador and filling in Tolkien's map and their desire to explore sunnier and less dire regions. I could see the epic picking up again as well, taking us back to Eriador to discover its remaining dangers, parallelling the hobbits' return to the Shire.



To lend some evidence to this idea, I'll point out the fact that the terrain in the Gloomglens wasn't the ONLY terrain SSG had to correct in today's patch; they also had to fix the terrain on teh south side of the Bree-Land Homesteads. If you go to Andrath, climb to the top of the ruins, and look south through the gate, you can see ruins that are floating in midair. They've definitely been doing some work south of the Bree-Lands.

I think we're probably going to finally get our River Hobbits alongside one of the upcoming regions. River Hobbits... as in the hobbits that still live in the area of the Gwathlo, Glanduin, and Hoarwell Rivers.

And my guess for the next area after the South Downs? My money's on the Southfarthing.

Big big thank you!


Edited: Removed where I believed an April's Fool from Ghyn about a new Ranger class, at least I gave you a good laugh!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmGjCGS5_78

[auximenes]

Stepping back a bit.

Thank you so much for your investigation. I love watching new areas develop. I got into pre-release Evendim back in the dawn of the game and I have been testing the boundaries ever since. My favourite out-of-bounds expereince was escaping the southern bounds of Mirkwood and got into what turned into the Great River, Brown Lands, Wildermore, and Fangorn.

[Tirian-Hammerfist]

Big big thank you!

I suspect that this is also for the upcoming "Ranger", I guess that will be a beorning-like class tied to a specific unique race (Dúnedain-Ranger) and races need starting points (and this is not an obscure one semi-hidden in a few lines of the book, this is Aragorn!). They cannot re-use the North Downs so I guess that adding Tornhad is just an advancement of what will come (like was Stangard in The Great River).

You know that this video was posted on 1st April? Sadly, I don’t think there’s been any hint that the Ranger class/race will be coming soon.

[Tirian-Hammerfist]

Stepping back a bit. My best guess is that this Plains of Greyflood region will be shaped like a sort of right triangle. The southern border of the triangle will run along the cliffside below the Gloomglens, then head west from Maur Tulhau and Cliffsburg, following the road leading west from the Fishing Hole. The east border of the triangle will run alongside Enedwaith and Eregion. The west border will be the Hoarwell and Gwathlo Rivers. Altogether, I expect the zone to be about comparable in size to Enedwaith. Again, note that this is speculation; I think it makes the most sense, though, given the what I saw, the landscape that's accessible on live, and the geography of Tolkien's Middle Earth.

I imagine the zone consisting of four areas. There will be some hills, gullies, and ravines in the south of the zone, perhaps with another hobbit village or two. North of the hobbity hills will be the Swanfleet, a marshy area which is canonically similar to the Gladden Fields, where the Stoors used to dwell. I imagine the north end of the zone will consist of the area between Eregion and the Angle, and will probably serve as a transition between the two; I imagine there might be some elven ruins in this area. And the western end of the zone will probably be populated by a ruins of Arnor and Cardolan; there used to be a line of forts along the river, the ruins of which we'll probably be able to explore.

And in the southwest corner of the region, I expect we'll come to the ruined city of Tharbad. Tharbad used to be a major garrison city until it was abandoned about a century before LOTRO takes place. Now the city lies in ruins. I imagine SSG will turn the ruins of Tharbad into a major enemy based, perhaps with a couple of instances or a raid attached. Seems like it would be a perfect opportunity for that.

I envision paths leading into the Plains of Greyflood from the King's Way Gate, from the Fishing Hole, and perhaps from Maur Talhau. I'm sure there will be a path or two from Eregion as well, perhaps around Mirobel. There will probably be a path from Tornhad in the Angle. And I suspect we'll eventually be able to cross the ruined bridge Tharbad into our NEXT new region.

I suspect there could be a lot going on in this region. There might be some elves in the north, part of the company that followed the Fellowship from Rivendell. There might be rangers, either having come from Tornhad or on their way back to Tornhad from Gondor, depending on whether this is a lower-level zone or a high-level zone. There will most definitely be hobbits. There may even be Rohirrim, since the Rohirrim will ultimately come to inhabit this region. There should be plenty of elven, human, and hobbit ruins for us to explore. As I said, I suspect there will be a large enemy presence that's gathered in Tharbad since Boromir crossed the city's ruined bridge. Depending on when in the game's timeline we come to this zone, the ringwraiths may even be in Tharbad, having been swept downriver from the Fords of Bruinen. This area has deep layers of history to explore, too, as well as plenty of opportunities for undead gooblies. This is a region that's seen a lot of tragedy and death, after all. And of course, I imagine we could see bandits, bugan, Dunlendings (friendly or hostile), orcs, goblins, possibly Angmarim and Black Numenoreans and Dourhands... the possibilities for this area are truly endless.

I have one more image for you. It's an altered version of Valather89's map from earlier in this thread; hopefully they don't mind me piggybacking off of it. I've marked out what I imagine to be the borders of the Plains of Greyflood, as well as what I expect to be the next two major zones, which I'm calling the Cardolan Marches and the South Downs. I think it makes sense for us, now that we've started to follow the North-South Road northward, to connect it all the way up. It certainly fits with SSG's current focus on expanding Eriador and filling in Tolkien's map and their desire to explore sunnier and less dire regions. I could see the epic picking up again as well, taking us back to Eriador to discover its remaining dangers, parallelling the hobbits' return to the Shire.



To lend some evidence to this idea, I'll point out the fact that the terrain in the Gloomglens wasn't the ONLY terrain SSG had to correct in today's patch; they also had to fix the terrain on teh south side of the Bree-Land Homesteads. If you go to Andrath, climb to the top of the ruins, and look south through the gate, you can see ruins that are floating in midair. They've definitely been doing some work south of the Bree-Lands.

I think we're probably going to finally get our River Hobbits alongside one of the upcoming regions. River Hobbits... as in the hobbits that still live in the area of the Gwathlo, Glanduin, and Hoarwell Rivers.

And my guess for the next area after the South Downs? My money's on the Southfarthing.

This is awesome, thanks so much for sharing.

Based on the level of development here, it seems pretty likely that this is the next zone. I think a few questions remain:

1) Will this zone include the neglected chunk between Eregion and the Angle? Scenario’s reference to this as part of the ‘Swanfleet’ region suggested it might be. It would be a shame to leave a big chunk of inaccessible territory in the middle of newly connected land.

2) As you mentioned, other areas have seen some changes too (I’d also seen the floating rocks south of Andrath, and Valather’s image shows development on the eastern bank of the Gwathlo/Hoarwell - although whether this is just to make it look pretty while we’re still on the western bank, I’m not sure. Essentially, I’m wondering whether all of the purple regions you suggest here (plus the blue Swanfleet zone) might be part of an expansion, rather than a series of content updates. Not sure, but a hunch, given that we’re approaching expansion season!

3) I wonder what the level range here would be. Do they go around 65 to align with Enedwaith, or do they go to cap and then just make the links to older lands clearly signposted as danger this way? For an expansion, Id think the latter - although it would mean that we wouldn’t see the earlier story elements here.

4) Final question in my mind is whether they are finishing up this zone up to the Gwathlo, then using this whole area for a Second Age expanded Eregion, as the expansion, and saving the purple areas you identified for content updates. I think this is unlikely, but it is a possibility.

[Valather89]

Some great discussion and screenshots going on here. Best thread on the forums right now, thank you so much for all your contributions. And sure, feel free to use any map or anything of the sort I bring to this thread.

[Carallot]

You know that this video was posted on 1st April? Sadly, I don’t think there’s been any hint that the Ranger class/race will be coming soon.

Thank you. Where I live we don't celebrate April's Fool.

[auximenes]

If they expand further south then they're going to have to move Moria.

[Skohgar]

Despite what this map show Moria is actually located in Rhovanion not Eriador

[Phantion]

Despite what this map show Moria is actually located in Rhovanion not Eriador

That's right. Its likely from Garan's "Google-Earth"-style view of LOTRO drawn from his Terrain-Map plugin, which was assembled from across the different zone regions onto the same map.

In actuality, Moria and Gundabad are both, coordinates-wise, in those positions but on the "Rhovanion main world map," meaning, it wouldn't affect anything on the "Eriador main world map"; I like to think of them as basically gigantic instances.

[auximenes]

OK, I thought that's where the coords put it but I didn't check to see if that was actually the case. Thanks.