Is anyone else disappointed that Yondershire did not include Emyn Beraid?

[Barruktp]

The Tower Hills are one of the most iconic locations in W Eriador and are the only location mentioned between Ered Luin and The Shire. So as soon as Yondershire was announced I immediately thought, "Aha, Tower Hills. Awesome!" I've been busy doing other stuff so finally got my butt over there today, and alas no such luck. I mean we get a tease with Tham Amothir but obviously Emyn Beraid is S of the playable map area. So what gives? Is this simply a question of SSG not having the rights to this location (which seems strange given that it is not in Sil but is in LOTR) or is it another reason?

Urgh it seems unlikely that another zone in this area will be done in the foreseeable future. It's still a great game and I appreciate the free zones. Yondershire looks quite nice and I like the new music, but huge missed opportunity.

[Phantion]

The Tower Hills are one of the most iconic locations in W Eriador and are the only location mentioned between Ered Luin and The Shire. So as soon as Yondershire was announced I immediately thought, "Aha, Tower Hills. Awesome!" I've been busy doing other stuff so finally got my butt over there today, and alas no such luck. I mean we get a tease with Tham Amothir but obviously Emyn Beraid is S of the playable map area. So what gives? Is this simply a question of SSG not having the rights to this location (which seems strange given that it is not in Sil but is in LOTR) or is it another reason?

Urgh it seems unlikely that another zone in this area will be done in the foreseeable future. It's still a great game and I appreciate the free zones. Yondershire looks quite nice and I like the new music, but huge missed opportunity.

Like you, I was very, very, very looking forward to the Tower Hills, and when I saw those taller hills rise south by southeast of Celondim, I was very hopeful.

That said, I don't begrudge them not doing them quite yet. Tower Hills, you see, are much further southeast of Celondim and more right on the Gulf of Lhun itself, and so, it would make more sense for that region to be included along with Mithlond / Grey Havens, with the zone straddling the Gulf of Lhun on either side. So, that's my prediction of what they'll eventually do. Far Downs are more directly west by southwest of Michel Delving also.

They've said in various livestreams and places that they're not really ready to tell stories in Mithlond or Lindon broadly yet. Emyn Beraid is pretty much the easternmost fringe of that older, Elven world. It makes sense because, if you think about it, it'll be a region like West Gondor: meaning, development-wise, it's not just the playable spaces they'd need to develop. You'd need the Gulf of Lhun extending to the sea; there's just a ton of stuff that would have to be visible from afar.

So, while like you I really wish we could've visited the Tower Hills sooner, I totally "get" where the Devs are coming from here. Frankly, the bulk of their focus was more on the stuff between, say, Duillond and Kheledul and Evendim and pretty much filling-in those gaps: the gaps in the northern and northwestern Shire.

I think also there's this superstition going around that all would come to an ending if they brought the Grey Havens / Gulf of Lhun to game due to Frodo's final departure from the Havens, and the Emyn Beraid are pretty closely tied to that - especially among various hints the Dev's have given. I think it's a shame if that's so because I do think it really gives the shaft to players who are into Elves and High Elves who would've wanted to enjoy those regions, myself included. But whatever- que serra serra. Whatever shall be shall be.

Cheers!

[Halphast]

Also from a historical perspective, Westmarch was not added to the Shire until year 31 of the Fourth Age- and Westmarch only led up to the Tower Hills. Since the game is currently still in the Third Age, all those lands would be empty except for the Great East Road.

As far as I know, the Yondershire was not supposed to be Westmarch itself, but a way of connecting the Shire to Ered Luin in the Northwest, and to include towns like Nobottle which were known to be in the northwest of the Shire but weren't in the game previously.

When / if they do add Westmarch to the game, it'll extend off the road west of the Michel Delving Stablemaster / Crafting area since that would seem to be the Great East Road.

[Thormund]

Is this simply a question of SSG not having the rights to this location

They probably want to save this for future landscape expansions as it was once in the game when it was called Middle Earth Online

Early look on the Tower Hills in MEO:



Edit:

My old post with some of the early MEO screenshots
https://forums.lotro.com/forums/show...94#post7880894

Dev confirmation a few post further down
https://forums.lotro.com/forums/show...19#post7880919