187 replies to this topic

[Arthadan]

Very nice!

I'd keep "Paths of the Dead", that's how the cave complex was named.

[MattTheLegoman]

Went to the big library today and got some information that justifies me modding a perfectly fine map, back to Paths of the Dead.
From A Reader's Guide to the Silmarillion, by Paul H. Kocher page 234

Quote

"Farther afield, they [the Faithful Numenoreans] built defences also at Helm's Deep and at Erech, where lay Isildur's Stone of Erech."

[Gollum]

Hmmm I see what you're saying but it is called the Paths of the Dead in the Movies and since this mod is mainly based off of the movies I would leave it as Paths of the Dead.

[MattTheLegoman]

Who would like this map in SEE? (Screenshot from EA's Campaign movie.)

It is the Good Campaign Wild Fortress. I have converted it fully into a single player map, with some minor edits on the wall (tis like the one in the Campaign movie).


P.S.
This happens to be my advertisement for it.

link

Edited by MattTheLegoman, 19 October 2011 - 12:07 PM.

[njm1983]

Looks, tried getting this map converted myself. Lost it though with the hard drive crash..

Now to my critiques... don't think the enter should be there. Its a nice thought, but way too far north. The hidden wild allies should go too this will imbalance the players if one gets them first. In all maps players must be effected equally as possible, including.g creeps outposts inns etc.

The fortress looks good, I assume its merely decorative? One of the maps will need a new name, ill have to reviews my middle earth maps to get one.

Edit: perhaps this map stays ettenmoors, and the original becomes Coldfells. By the way there should be troll creeps on the map since ettenmoors literally means troll hills.

Edited by njm1983, 19 October 2011 - 03:16 PM.

[Nazgûl]

Matt (and NJM). Just a note - scaling is fine, if you keep track of what has been scaled and how much so the same amount can be coded into the objects geometry

[Námo]

njm1983 said:

Edit: perhaps this map stays ettenmoors, and the original becomes Coldfells. By the way there should be troll creeps on the map since ettenmoors literally means troll hills.

If the map contains the Goblin City (Goblin Town) it should definitely be named Ettenmoors, or Trollfells (those two names are synonymous in Old English). Coldfells is to the north of the Ettenmoors.

The Goblin City were situated not much north of the High Pass, and thus not very far from Rivendell either.

[njm1983]

Im looking at my maps here Namo, and Im not seeing any that have the coldfells north of ettenmoors. on each Ive seen the coldfells are southeast of the ettenmoors north of rivendell in Rhuadaur. Its a small matter, and its really not important whos right or wrong.

Id rather not use Goblin-town as the name- Ive always envisioned something inside a cave or mountain for that place. Dont know why, its just stuck there.

@ Naz np, I dont have plans to scale any units. In fact Im avoiding anything that will use geometry work as much as possible - the exception being scenery maps. I dont have any going at the moment.

[MattTheLegoman]

Trees are the only things that have been scaled in this map. I did consider the walls, way back earlier, but it wasn't needed to get them looking realistic.
But that scaling thing, does that mean I can continue Minas Morgul Macro?


Also could someone test this map? They get a fully playable map and all I need to know is whether or not to get rid of the lower player.

Possible names:

Carn Dum (the campaign reconed this map was a re-habited Carn Dum, not going with this)
Ettenmoor Fortress (I still like this)
Ettenmoors
Coldfells
Goblin Town (maybe this map is just an entrance to the underground town)

Will say more later today.
Thanks for the brilliant support and suggestions everyone!

[njm1983]

Id be happy to test it out, Id also recommend you get an outside opinion as well.

Carn Dum has actually been remade by yours truely using EA's map from Rotwk, and ironically I used the goblin walls, towers, and fortress object. Never made a public debut though.



This is my problem with minas morgul. The models are just bad bad bad, and as a result even with uber scaling - it just wont look like it should and therefore wont be used. Id really hate for you to spend countless hours to have the map dimissed because of that. I share your passion though, I really do, but theres just no way to fix it. On a side note: we do plan to have several scaled scenery maps - Isengard is in need of a much larger and more accurate map.

[Valaquenta10]

I'm sure your imagination can make more then 3 pairs of Walls for Carn Dum , a real Fortress dose not have places for farming fields?!
It should be more of a Castle (plus having to break 3 walls + a fortress as attacker is pretty damn hard ) , the first levels should be a little more packed .

Btw I like your maps .Keep them coming .

[njm1983]

True on all counts, Im just lazy. This isnt really a fortress map any more. The walls are ruined, theres no gates. Its just a map with the remains of the fortress on it. Players still utalize their normal fortress and buildings.

Perhaps in the future I could revisit this but for now it'll have to do, my project list is quite long at the moment.

[MattTheLegoman]

On the topic of NJM's maps I have appropriated (Oh no!) NJM's lost Barad-dur.
I have already shown the master mapper and have his

Here is a screen.



P.S. It would be awesome if a modeler could make a large piece of lava.
All it needs to be is a flat shape and have a moving lava texture. That is it.

P.P.S. I found this funny

Quote

Then at last his gaze was held: wall upon wall,

battlement upon battlement, black, immeasurably strong,

mountain of iron, gate of steel,

tower of adamant, he saw it:

Barad-dûr, Fortress of Sauron.

All hope left him.

Edited by MattTheLegoman, 28 October 2011 - 12:02 PM.

[Fudge]

BLOODY HELL , It's great to see the whole of Barad dur in One map.

I thought there already was a river texture that was meant to look like Lava?

[njm1983]

Fine by me, I really didn't wanna redo it anyway. Yours looks brilliant. There's a lava texture for the river. Just use that.

[Námo]

@njm: just noticed your post today.

njm1983 said:

Im looking at my maps here Namo, and Im not seeing any that have the coldfells north of ettenmoors. on each Ive seen the coldfells are southeast of the ettenmoors north of rivendell in Rhuadaur. Its a small matter, and its really not important whos right or wrong.

In fact nobody is right or wrong, it's a matter of interpretation.

Tolkien did only mention Coldfells once, in the appendix to LotR, and we do not know the exact location. Placing Coldfells north of Ettenmoors is my personal interpretation, and I've posted a more detailed reasoning concerning that choise in this post in the Lore Forum.

[njm1983]

That was a good read, and I like your logic behind the conclusion. makes sense to me. However I usually review maps in order to find locations for naming / renaming. Once I find a seemingly suitable place on the map I then follow up by reading the lore on the area in question. I always appreciate your input though, helps keep us mappers honest.

[MattTheLegoman]

Agreed!

[Námo]

njm1983 said:

I usually review maps in order to find locations for naming / renaming. Once I find a seemingly suitable place on the map I then follow up by reading the lore on the area in question.

Why not the other way around? It might yield some interesting, and sometimes surprising, possibilities for making some unique maps.

njm1983 said:

I always appreciate your input though, helps keep us mappers honest.

Careful now, I might have some hidden agenda for providing certain information.

Did I ever use the phrase "Mini Fortress Map" without really going into any details? Well, if so, you can safely bet that there were some considerations behind. I haven't had much time for experimenting with mapping (mostly wasting my time with writing all this stupid useless lore), but I believe there might be a lot of unexplored potential for making some unique (and realistic) gameplay for some of the 'historic' places in Middle-earth.

[njm1983]

My problem is I have trouble visualizing tolkiens writings. Sometimes I'm just trying to use a map made for a specific location and change it just enough to fit into an area near its original location. Without elaborating more on mini fortress maps, I have no clue what that could mean. Bree is unique in my opinion. Rivendell will be as well.