323 replies to this topic

[m@tt]

Wait until the release. As there wont be any minifaction plots, there's nothing in them that makes them RAyfied except for adding dwarven AI to the Player List. But I have tweaked them.

[Radspakr Wolfbane]

Some nice maps the _Haldir_ nice use of lighting.

[Dúnedain76]

I don't know if you guys still need any, but I'd be glad to do a couple of maps for TDH. Most of the ones right now are Arnor based maps but I could make others if needed.

EDIT: How do you make thumbnails again?

Edited by Dunedain Ranger76, 14 July 2011 - 04:20 PM.

[Spartan184]

Nice maps. I see what you did with Minas Tirith, very nice.

Edited by Spartan184, 14 July 2011 - 03:12 AM.

[Lauri]

You show us two of the same picture

[Dúnedain76]

Fixed


Another map: Lake Nenuial

Edited by Dunedain Ranger76, 14 July 2011 - 06:07 PM.

[_Haldir_]

They look good to me Though the mod already has a Minas Tirith map that m@tt did, with a walkable 3rd level and stairs up to the catacombs.

Do you have any shots of your Arnor-based ones, or are they still in progress?

[Dúnedain76]

Lake Nenuial (Post above) and the Greenway (Earlier post) are both Arnor based maps. I'm working on the Coldfells (Ettenmoors) and may start on a Trollshaws map soon.

[_Haldir_]

Ah of course, i tend to think of snow when in hear Arnor They certainly look good enough for the mod to me, but it's really up to Nertea or m@tt.

[Námo]

Annúminas, Lake Nenunial and River Brandywine are placed topographically correct. However, the Hills of Evendim (Emyn Uial) were not concentric around Lake Nenuial, but rather longitudinal ridges concentric around Weathertop (Amon Sul), i.e. EastSouthEast of the northern part of Lake Nenuial.

ERIADOR was the name of all the lands between the Misty Mountains and the Blue. On Tolkien's map the entire region appeared as one integrated whole, with a series of uplands whose longitudinal axes formed concentric rings. Many of those uplands were downs — the Far (Fox) Downs, the White Downs, the North Downs, the South Downs, and the Barrow-downs. Interspersed with the downlands were the Hills of Evendim and the Tower Hills, which also fit the ringlike pattern [...]

Downs occur when layers of sedimentary rock dip away from hills or mountains and begin eroding back, peeling off layer after layer of rock. The more resistant rock layers stand up as long ridges, sometimes extending hundreds of miles, while weaker sediments are eroded more quickly, forming lowlands. The ridges have a steep erosional face called the scarp and a long, gently dipping backslope.

Circular down ridges most often develop around a dome, such as the Wold and Downs near Fangorn, Less commonly, the concentric ridges could erode back from hills enclosing a broad round basin. Eriador centered on the Weather Hills, but also was almost encircled by the Blue Mountains on the west and northwest and the Misty Mountains on the east, northeast, and north; so its assorted downs could have been eroding back from either the central hills, or the outlying mountains, or both. [...] Evaluation of those two features has resulted in the illustration of Eriador as one gigantic round basin. This roughly circular shape was retained as a series of sedimentary layers eroded back over the eons of time — circular ridges and complementary lowlands.

Source: Karen Wynn Fonstad: The Atlas of Middle-earth, p. 72

[Dúnedain76]

But that's not what This map shows?




Edit: Or I'm just horribly confused on what you meant.

Edited by Dunedain Ranger76, 14 July 2011 - 07:47 PM.

[Nertea]

Ah of course, i tend to think of snow when in hear Arnor They certainly look good enough for the mod to me, but it's really up to Nertea or m@tt.

I'm kinda clueless when it comes to maps, so I'll let you decide .

[Lauri]

I'll chip in some thoughts..

Greenway:
1. The player in the upper right corner has all the econ- and expansion plots much closer to his main base, so he has an advantage over the other
2. That being said, I don't think there's enough econ-plots around. Two per player seems to little
3. For being lost\abandoned it seems rather pale when it comes to nature-props. Most of the worn-down "buildings" don't even have trees\bushes\ect around them. That might very well be WB simply blocking out trees that are to far away, but
4. The placement of these ruins seem random. They don't seem to form a collective former "city\outpost", because they're wide and spread, in addition to being way to few ruins, and if it was a city\outpost there before, would the road be dirt instead of tiles if it really went through the city\outpost?
5. I'd drop the pre-textured "here is a base" terrain from the bases. You know, the dirt part that basically points the two bases toward eachother. If you've gotta have it, have it around the entire base instead of infront, because Gondor and Erebor are the only camps who really points in a direction, the rest are open.

Lake Nenuial:
1. The river needs work on it's edges (especially the shallow part you can cross)
2. Again, the outposts and econ-plots are unbalanced.
3. Upper right area could be made more interesting.
4. The mountains seems to be too white, makes it look like a big quarry
5. It's not your fault, but I've gotta say it. I hate the BFME water!

[Dúnedain76]

New more Balanced Versions


The Greenway:

1. Hopefully fixed
2. Fixed
3. I have placed bushes around the ruins and yes it's WB fault for them not Showing
4. The reason for the ruins being placed in random spots is to show old houses along the North-South Road (The Greenway) that had bean ruined over time and from the Witch King's attacks from Angmar. For it being dirt, I didn't have any references of the Greenway being made of stone.
5. Fixed

EDIT: I forgot to turn off the damn passibility thing.
Lake Nenuial:

1. I think I fixed it, If I need to I'll go and improve it.
2. Should be better
3. Added more Ruins and an Economy Plot
4. I think the Mountain looks nice with white stone. Either way I originally wanted this map to be like LOTRO's Lake Evendim Territory, in which it was a green land with scattered tombs and white mountains. Along with a huge Annuminas. (Although Annuminas is sort of small.)
5. I fully agree with you.

Edited by Dunedain Ranger76, 16 July 2011 - 10:20 PM.

[Námo]

But that's not what This map shows?

Nothing wrong with that map ... it's a fair reproduction of Tolkien's "First Map" [so called because it's the first one appearing in vol. one of The Lord of the Rings trilogy; the map appearing in the last vol. is called the "Second Map"]; you can find some a short description of the 'first map' here.

However, this map isn't very well suited as basis for BfMe-maps (if you have aspirations of making these mirror Tolkien's Middle-earth), for the following reasons:

• As the map covers the whole of the known part of Middle-earth, there are very few details.
• The map is made as a 'picturesque' map, not a topographic one.
• A lot of names etc. are not shown, especially those referring to times before the War of the Ring.

The various texts by Tolkien gives a lot more details of various kind, especially concerning important and/or historical sites; the texts also gives info or clues concerning various topics, like climate, geology etc.

You can find all this info extracted from Tolkien's texts in Karen Wynn Fonstad's Atlas of Middle-earth.

[Spartan184]

Very nice maps Dunedain. But I still think you could improve the river and the mountains on the lake map.

[Námo]

Sorry, but the 'Greenway' map is about the most uninspiring map I've ever seen; besides it has no features whatsoever that relates it to the Greenway of Eriador.

Lauri is right on his point 4. concerning the ruins. Such ruins didn't exist along the Greenway, neither in the vicinity of Fornost (which I suppose the map is intended to picture), nor at the crossing west of Bree or in the vicinity of Tharbad.

[Dúnedain76]

So what am I supposed to do, delete the whole map and say it was never created?

Maybe if you give me some suggestions on what else to call it or even what to fix to make it more like the Greenway would actually help me, because right now, you aren't really giving ANY helpful advice so I could at least try to make my maps more lore friendly.

[Mathijs]

For your Greenway map, have you considered adding dense (dense!) forests along it's edges and painting them impassable to recreate choke-points without using ruins or mountains? You could add large rocks to the impassable areas as well.

And I don't think your primary focus should be to make them lore-friendly; if you want to have ruins along the road that sounds just fine. Don't hold back just so they can be lore-friendly, using some imagination is a good thing.

Edited by Matias, 17 July 2011 - 03:42 PM.

[Dúnedain76]

Hmm.....I guess i could try that out. There's already a whole bunch of woods along the edge so I guess I could make some parts more dense and impassable.


Heh, thanks Matias.

Edited by Dunedain Ranger76, 17 July 2011 - 03:47 PM.