[Drawde]

Having worked on this game for several months now, I wondered if anyone else was interested in it, and I thought that this
forum would be the best place to post it as people here are obviously interested in both Middle Earth, computer RPGs and modding/programming.
This is a game I am writing in C++.

First a "disclaimer", this game is NOT in any way intended to be a rival/competitor to the ME-Mod (or any commercial LOTR
games). It's just a project I'm working on in my spare time, and though I'll hopefully release test alpha/beta versions for download
in the future, it will be a long time till the game is complete.

Secondly, it is not intended to infringe on any of the film copyrights (it is set centuries before the events of LOTR, or even The Hobbit)
and does not feature any of the film's events, or most of the characters (other than some, such as the Istari, Sauron, and some of the Elves, for
obvious reasons), and none of the game's artwork is even remotely based on the film.
As for the books, though it -is- possible to cause events to happen that never happened in the books, no disrespect is intended to Tolkien
in this - this is just a computer game, a virtual world based on the world of Middle-Earth, not a re-writing of the books.

The game will be an open-ended, first/third-person 3D single-player RPG, similar to Morrowind, but with significant
strategy elements (the ability to rule towns and land, and raise/command armies) similar to "Age of Wonders" or "Heroes of Might and
Magic".
The strategy elements will be optional, however, there are three ways you can play the game - as well as the "standard" mode, where you start
as an adventurer but can eventually gain the ability to own/control towns, guilds etc., and command armies and henchmen, there will be a pure
RPG mode, where the strategic options are disabled, and a pure strategy mode, where you start off with towns and troops under your control (though
the RPG elements are still present).

Firstly, development-wise - I've finished the basic 3D engine and game engine, and a lot of the code for the game "functionality" (such
as stats, inventory, combat and spells) is at least partly complete (much of the code is in but not actually working in the game yet, as I haven't
added the data for it yet). I've created a 3D relief map of Middle Earth (though it will need lot of retouching and detailing in the future), and have
created most of the textures for buildings and scenery, as well as some basic randomly-generated trees and grass.
Next stage is to create buildings - towns, ruins etc., improve the scenery, and add some NPCs. Currently I'm drawing sketches of the various buildings and
will then create the 3D models to put in the game.

About the way the game will work:

The game is set around the middle of the Third Age, before any of the events of the books, or even before the Ring was found, but about
the time that Sauron and the Ringwraiths started to reappear, and Saruman started to become evil and fortify Isengard.

Playable races will be the obvious - Men (with various different starting nations/towns such as Gondor, Rohan, Esgaroth, Harad, Umbar etc.) ,
Elves (High Elves and Silvan Elves, with again a number of starting locations such as the Havens, Rivendell, Mirkwood and Lorien), Dwarves (again
with a number of locations such as the Iron Hills, Blue Mountains and Misty Mountains) and Hobbits (who can only start the game in the Shire, obviously)

Also playable will be Orcs (subdivided into Goblins, Uruks and Uruk-hai, and who can either be in the forces of Sauron, Saruman (since the game is set
at the time when Saruman started to turn to evil and form an army of Orcs and Uruk-hai) or an independent tribe. Trolls (and Olog-hai) are also a possibility,
but I'm not sure they'd really make sense as playable characters as they don't really have any society or settlements of their own as far as I can tell.
Ents are also not really suitable, as their very reclusive nature would not really make them suited to an adventurer character.

Players can basically be good, evil, or neutral (with either good or evil tendencies). Orcs (and Trolls) can only be evil (there is no indication in any of Tolkien's
writings that I've read that Orcs can be anything other than evil and savage) and will be attacked on sight by all good or neutral races.
Men can, if they want, join the forces of evil via various quests or actions - nations such as the Haradrim and Easterlings who often fought on the side
of Sauron/Morgoth will find this easier. Elves can never join the forces of the Enemy (though it may be possible for them to become "renegades" such as Feanor) and
Dwarves and Hobbits will also probably not either (though I'm not totally certain about this; I don't recall any really evil dwarves or hobbits in any of the books I've read, though)

I'll post more information in the future if anyone has any questions!

[Daerk]

I've been writing my own engine as well, using C++ and Scheme48 (for the AI).

I'm interested, and might wish to further discuss this with you.

As such, i'll leave your post here in the General MEMod Discussion board, however it's a bit misplaced. This board is generally only allowed threads/posts relative to MEMod discussion. Since i'm interested and we might be able to collaborate a bit on an engine, it will remain here.

I'd like some statistical detail on your engine including benchmarks, footprint, etc. I plan on writing modules in C++ for my engine, and making the executable itself in Binary for better resource usage and management, as well as smaller footprint.

-- D

[Betelgeuze]

Wow cool!

Is it possible to use your engine for MP games(mmorpg)?
Can we see some screenshots please?!

[Xionith]

Sounds awesome! Tell us when you release the Beta!

[Drawde]

The 3D engine is a very basic software one I wrote myself, it is texture-mapped, but is fairly ugly and not
very fast or efficient. No idea of the memory footprint.
The game world is a heightmap-generated terrain with polygonal buildings and scenery placed on top (fairly similar
to how Morrowind works, I think). I've no idea how I'll create underground environments, but I'll have to find some way,
at least if I'm going to include Dwarves in the game!

I am more interested in the game design, logic, AI, artwork, world creation, etc. aspect
of creating games, rather than the technical/low-level aspect, so once I've got a 3D engine
that at least works I tend to leave it at that and concentrate on the more creative aspects
of the game!

As far as releasing the game, it'll be months at least before it's worthy of the name "beta" but hopefully I'll release
a pre-alpha "tech demo" in the fairly near future. First I want to create a few building/city models, add the code for NPCs
and items, add region-specific scenery (i.e no green trees in Mordor etc.) and clean up the interface/UI a bit.

BTW, I posted in the ME-Mod forum because I thought it would be far more likely to be noticed by other Tolkien/LOTR enthusiasts
there, and would be less likely to get lost amongst all the other off-topic posts. Sorry - I didn't realise that this board was
intended only for ME-Mod posts - I thought it would be OK to post something that was still Middle Earth-related.
Maybe the "Tolkien lore" forum could also become a general LOTR/Middle Earth discussion forum?

[Ëlwe (Thingol)]

I though if you just ain't SELLING any of ur games but giving it away u won't be overriding copywright, isn't it? Of course as not knowing peasant in this world I have a big chance of being wrong so don't bother correcting me. :bleh:

Ëlwe

[TheGnome]

This sounds really great. :!:
Dont stop your work, this happens too often (with such great projects)

Maybe Daerk and Drawde can combine their talent

[Kahenraz]

It depends on what is copyrighted and what is licensed. For instance, shareware is basically freeware with limits in gameplay. Even though you can make copies and hand it out legally, you do not have access to the source code or engine because that is owned by the producer and is under a different copyright.

[Slaiv]

THis is awesome......Do you have/plan to have a site/section of a site with updates and the like? I know this is not in any way supposed to rival the MEMod, but an example would be memod.co.uk......

[_DMKW_]

wow this sounds really great! keep us updated here and if you can post some screenshots when the time is right