I'd like to thank Tom Francis of PC Gamer UK Magazine for his insightful interview a few months back, and as a result, we're proud to be able to let people see this article released in this month's issue of PC Gamer.

It could'nt have come at a better time, given the arguments that seem to have swamped the forum in the last 48 hours.

I hope it answers everything about "is the mod dead" a little.

Suzerain

Thats cool. I didn't know them details about the main plot sounds cool. I especially liked the little bit near the end '...any day now.'

And, now that it's in the mag, the landscape shot, of the White Towers, in-situ, although with temporary textures and models on the rocks.

I'm glad we can finally release that one, unlike the old white tower roughs.

Suz

hmm...we can have a family...does this mean kids of our own? if they are in it would be cool if they aged over time and became companions...but i guess you'd have to play the game for a long time. ..unless it was in chapters

Quick question, i noticed that the map in the magazine has writing on which i assume is place names, has this map been released on here yet, or do we only have the blank one?

He spelt my name wrong and put a space in it...

...I demand a reprint!

Ent-ertainment?

Hopefully this thread will get things started up around here again. By this, I mean more active users, topics, enthusiasm about the mod, etc....

Hopefully it'll lighten things up, too....

Is it just me or does no one notice that the first screenshot of in-game terrain and architecture has just been released?

By the way, absolutely stunning work!

<R>

Yes, here it is:


edited by suzerain.

the images there, apart from being test cells, also contained a peice of elven armour copied from WETA Workshops' designs for "The Fellowship of the Ring".
The current MeMod team no longer supports the use and theft of images and designs from WETA, and therefore, the image has been removed. thankyou, Slaiv for pointing out that it still existed online in a large scale image.

I just wanted to say congrats to all of you! You deserve the attention, and this is the first step on the road to stardom! I guess reding this article is a real boost to the confidence of both devs and teamsters and fans! I know it had me all fired up after reading the depressing thread which has sprung up over night...

Slaiv, you just killed my modem... This will take forever to load, but I'm happy anyway!

Wow, there's alot of people reading this topic.

Anyway, I would've added it in thumbnail mode, but I don't have the option of uploading here. Anydangway, it wouldn't have mattered.

A hundred members may be a bit exagerated...

Thanks anyway suz for posting this, our local magazinestore doesnt have pcgamer.

Yes Suze, thanks very much. Here in Spain there is no PCGamer at all

It was a couple of months ago in a local magazine too but since noone knows dutch i don't think its usefull too put the article online

There has been hundreds of members Ilu. Many have come and gone...

Does this mean that we will have the chance to play as an elf?



pharzon..

Why it doesn't matter if Elves are playable, all you do when you get the mod is not play as an elf

I wonder does it need tribunal and bloodmoon

IIRC it required both expansion, but dont shoot me if I'm wrong.

And i was wondering in the screengrab of the white tower, what sword/dagger have you got, and what is that strange ring too?

it'll most likely need one expansion or the other ...probably bloodmoon

Yes. You need Bloodmoon.

It's been said before.... I asked and got flamed.

The dagger is the mighty developer dagger used to slice the throats of the ignorant, while the ring is the ring of development which allows us to look pretty while we code the MOD...


or, "I don't know"

Of course not. The sword is GodSlayer +10, and the ring is The Ring. This screenshot was taken shortly before fighting Sauron and his Balrog army and claiming your position as god and ruler of Middle Earth.

In summary, nothing special. At this point in the game, we had so many poweful magic items we had to leave them in piles beside the road when we ran out of inventory space. Those two items aren't even the best, we just liked how they look on the test character.

Well, how disappointing. I was convinced that, in this game, there was no way whatsoever of "running out of inventory space". Why bother the player with such trivial matters as weight and encumberance? Let him take with him at least two weapons of each type (including the most powerful weapon in Middle Earth, that is, "Sauron's 203 grenade launcher of Black Despair", a whole library filled with books, clothes for three weeks, a hundred potions or so, and a huge quantity of bricks should you decide to build your own tower in Mordor.

And... I hope that the defeat of Sauron and his mighty Balrog army won't be the final goal of the game! Did you scrap the whole part about the Invasion of Aman and the final confrontation against Iluvatar and his Undead Legions?

Yeah, we had to dump the infinite inventory idea... anything more than 5000 tons of equipment, and the game starts to crash trying to scroll through it all. Sadly after finding your first few million magic rings, you have to start picking which ones to keep.

The tower in Mordor, on the other hand, is definitely in. Once you take over, you just have the party's wizard Bob wave a hand and it appears.

Will you then be able to throw parties in the new Mordor Residence, with balloons and a barbecue grill? You could always invite Arwen Evenstar over for some fun... I bet Middle Earth gets really boring after you've killed nearly everyone and solved the Great Alien Conspiracy of Rivendell...
One last thing, I hope a multiplayer feature will be implemented. And make sure to add the ability to play bowling with your online friends by using the palantiri as bowls, dat wud be soooo kewl! lolololz!

*sighs knowing that maybe someone in the Forums is actually taking me seriously, and thinking that it'd be a great idea.*

Sorry for being an idiot, but to make this clear, I will need to buy Bloodmoon to play MEMod? (Just making sure, don't want to go out and buy it for nothing.)

Congrats on the PC Gamer spot!! Ya'll are doing a great job!

Er... ... ... ?

*points to Rynos' post*

RYNOS (Posted: Sep 5 2004, 10:10 PM )
"Yes. You need Bloodmoon".

Anyway, buying Bloodmoon for its own worth wouldn't be a waste of money. It's a good expansion pack, so it wouldn't be "buying it for nothing" anyway.

its 5 bucks over at comp usa near me lol.

Ok screenshot, although I think there should be more bushes and statics on the ground. And the textures on the bridge looks kind of strange the more you look to the left. But congratulations on your article in PCGamer!

MY GOD!!!!! So the elves DID create the first Saturn 5 rocket!!!

I love to see what that tower will look like in game, she is a Beaute!! When you start to release actual screenies(down the road) you should show this allong with the final version of this land/tower-scape to show all the progress.

This isn't a request (or a subtle nag), but I'm dieing to see what you people have done with armor, furniture, the woodworks of Meduseld and other things of fine detail. The concept art left me VERY excited to see what the game will hold.

peace

Arg! Don't talk about Mordor, I haven't got my head round [censored by omnipresent devness] yet.

For some reason I imagine an bleak twisted wasteland tastefully decorated in H.P Lovecrafts nightmares.

Ember.

So, am I wrong in thinking that shot of the White Towers was in-game, or is it?

<R>

Rynos... I told you... the whole Tolkienite community would stop at nothing in order to find out what the timeline of the mod is... it wouldn't amaze me if this wasn't just a wrong assumption but rather a trap for you devs to see what you'd answer to that

How do know Rynos didn't say that just to mislead you into thinking Rohan isn't in MEMod when it actually IS?

MUWAHAHAHAAHA! That....

Wahahaha do you really think you could outsmart us Memod crew/Gods ?!?!?!

I thought that the surprise was that we were going to make the timeline way in the future, where hobbits have spaceships and live in holes on the moon.

If you refer to the actual piece of land as it's called near the end of the Third Age, well, maybe we would have the dev's permission to say that land will be in there.

But if you refer to the people and the culture that was there at the times of the War of the Ring, well, refer to Rynos' post