Hi guys! We have some nice stuff to show you this time!
Exteriors
First of all we begin with the 2 new towns we have in the works! Well, a city and a small town to be more precise, Pelargir and Gobel Tolfalas, developped by tryadelion and pkyrkos respectively !
Pelargir is a port city in Lebennin in Gondor which was built in the Second Age by the Faithful Numenoreans before the Fall. During the War of the Ring, however, it was captured by the Corsairs in order to build their fleet. So here is what's done so far:
I'll post some more shots from inside the city along with some showing Gobel Tolfalas in the next news update ;)
Visual Development
We have a new elven ship to show you! Justb is working on it for a week now and it's nearly finished! You might recognise it as it's the ship Frodo leaves Middle Earth with, in the last scenes of the movie ;) So here it is:
The detail is just incredible! Here is an older image of it, in-game, so that you can see its size:
Next thing i wanted to tell you about is that we are discussing about the use of the compass. Oblivion has it with markers on it showing inns, quest objectives, caves etc. You know what i'm talking about! Well, what do you think we should do?
1)Remove it completely
2)Keep it with only the directions shown and maybe quest objectives too
3)Keep it as it is
4)Something else (suggest something)
(For any of the 2,3,4 we could change the appearance of the compass too)
Removing it completely would add to the realism and would give the player the ability to find his way by looking at some carriable maps that we'll probably implement, by signs and marks, by memory etc.
What do you say?
We also decided to implement spears in MERP! Who wouldn't like to kill some orcs or wargs with a spear? :P Oh and the trailer is still in development and it will be probably ready in around 2 weeks!
We got 3 new team members too, EaqueNerevar, Pirius and Diablo! Welcome aboard guys! :D
As always don't forget to visit:
Our official website for images,
our Dev forums if you want to contact us or you need any help and
our new YouTube Channel
If you want to apply for MERP post an application HERE
Any ideas and suggestions are always welcome!
That's all for this news update! I hope you liked it! Thank you for your support!
MERP team
sweet
Make the compass only show found places, and all city locations (the cities themselfs and all inns, smiths etc)
Maybe the objective too.
IMO
yeah, if you could make it so it shows places you've been, but not display the dim "not found yet" icon, that'd be cool.
Another thing that would be nice, but I don't know if it is possible, is to change the "map marker added" thing.
In Oblivion I know when NPCs told you about a place, it gave you a unfound map marker. While I like this in concept, I didn't like how it basically told you right where it would be. It would be nice if when an NPC tells you of a place, it would give you a map marker in the general area, but not exactly where the real marker would be. Is this possible?
Yes and we'll probably let the player add markers on the map after gathering info from NPCs etc ;)
I think the compass should only show found locations and major city or landmarks (ie: Shire, Bree, Osgiliath, Mordor, etc..)
Maybe you could also include a choice for players on whether or not to add objective to the Compass, players like myself may like the challenge in finding their own route and want to get lost in the mountains like Frodo and Sam for example, while others may simply want a straight path like in Vanilla Oblivion.
We are considering to give the player the ability to add his own notes, objectives and marks on the maps ;)
I agree 100%. A lot of this depends on whether or not we can navigate by the sun and/or shadows (I imagine it would be easier to do it by the sun). I think it would be best if you could have the compass a purchasable item. This way we could assign a hotkey to the compass, and everytime we hit the hotkey it would show text at the top of the screen in which direction we are headed, such as 225 degrees SW or 359 degrees North (easier); or when you use the compass you can have a small popup window that will show you your direction (harder and way too much effort for gain imo). If you do decide to go with the compass item, you shoud definately make it a requirement that for it to be used, you need to have one hand free, either sword and no sheild, or weapon sheathed (for 2h weapons or sword and shield).
I also very much like the idea of us adding our own map markers on the map. Aside from Major landmarks the map should be empty. Even so, the major landmarks should only appear on your map once you have discovered them yourself, and those should be few and far between (if at all). I'm all for marking our own map.
I don't think the compass should be removed, but maybe remove the markers on it. That way you have to check your map to see where you're going, and know to go SW from your position to get to town A ect. Will the players position be shown on the map?
Perhaps to add a bit more realism, make a compass and map an equipable item, so you can bring them out and they will be held out in front of you, with one hand holding a compass and the other hand holding the map (obviously this would only work while in the first person perspective). This may be a bit difficult to implement though, but would be a very cool feature.
The maps will probably be equipable so the player won't be shown on the them. This is not 100% sure as we are considering to also have the world map like oblivion does. I don't think the player can hold them though. We'll make them as notes. When you press on them in the inventory a paper appears with the drawing of the map on it. That said, the only thing that needs a lot of work are the drawings ;)
I like option Nº 1, but it would be difficul for things like missions and all. Maybe 2? Or a 1.5...
Use the maps etc, but also keep one 'player map' which you can write on yourself.
In this map, automatically add locations you have visited with a special key, which would play an animation of your character writing on the map. Thus, bingo, you now know where that forest is.
So have a world map thats blank which you can note on, and then of course add stuff via the above suggestion.
The compass should only show important things like cities and quest-related places.
But I think the best would be if possible to bind a key to make the compass appear/disappear. That way you have a compass that shows important place, but if someone doesn't want one it could be easily deactivated.
I think the compass should still be there, but it should not show the exact locations for quests, like objects, npc.s etc, it gets so extremely easy that way :/ or make it so you can toggle it on/off :P
The main problem with the Oblivion compass is that it shows EVERYTHING at once sometimes, so only the important stuff should show up. i agree with bikkebakke on the idea of it being toggled, so maybe something like Fallout: New Vegas' hardcore mode?
anyway, this mod's got me interested, and i'm not the only one so keep it going and good luck :)
Yeah, I hate the little GPS quest signal, it's like the character went into the future and bought himself a gps tracking device for any and all places. Morrowind had no tracker and actually made you listen to npcs and read the journal, how it should be imho.
First of all, very good-looking news update!
About the compass, there are two fair scenarios that I can think off.
1. Don't show any location info on the compass.
2. Show only the places you have discovered; else there's so much less fun in exploring things. Not to mention quest objecives.. If possible, I don't even want to see the quest-location on the map. That pretty much ruined the exploration aspect in Oblivion for me.
If I had to pick one, I would go for the first one. Or maybe even remove the compass entirely from the HUD.
How much electricity does this mod use?
I pick 3.
perhaps, this is a bit wild now, but do you remeber the light given to frodo by the elves? why not have that(when activated) shine towards your objective? might be a bit wild but i'll put it out there.
It's lore-breaking sorry..
make it so you can turn it off or on
Get rid of the compass!
Games are too easy these days.
But a game that is really hard will have people coming back to it time and time again, no matter how many times they give up.
Getting rid of the compass would also make a great sense of adventure, not to mention the benfits from having to learn the way to a place on you own.
Make the map update though, so when you find a town you know where it is on the map and can find it again easier
OK, this is probably a noob question, but anyways.
Since you're implementing spears, is there any way for you to implement fighting from horses?
I mean, since there is Rohan and stuff. (would be lame to see Rohirrim charge and then dismount right in front of the enemy...)
We will ;)
Remove the compass comletely
btw, what do you want to do with fast travel? I'd like to see it the way it was in Morrowind. having some horse stations would be more realistic than travelling from the Gates of Moria to Pelargir in one second
We'll remove it completely and we might do something like in Morrowind ;)
i think it should be just like a real compass nsew but the major locations map markers and quest locations should show up on your big map but use you compass to head general north east ect
Is it maybe possible, to add the compass as an option... You can turn it on or off.
Other wise, a very detailed map should be enough to let the players explore, (I think).