Heroes of Middle-Earth: Reinventing the open RPG genre

You have to be pretty crazy NOT to know the Lord of the Rings. I personally love the lord of the rings series, and so i wanted to make a game. using the Orc campaign's fundamentals (multiple maps) i want to make an open rpg based on the lord of the rings. i'm not asking for a team or anything, but i thought that people might want to know about updates and stuff. i will gladly welcome any models or skins anyone might have for the lord of the rings, but thats will be entirely on yourself.:D

i plan on making it a one-player game (://// ), where you can travel anywhere you want, while completing side quests, and mini games, and main quests.

side quests will be like helping an old woman, or rescuing a child from the forest.

mini games are where you'll be able to participate in duels, and just fun stuff

main quests will progress the story along. if you complete key events, then it will lead to other key events. (for example, you'll have to escort the people of rohan to helm's deep, and fight the wargs. then you'll have to guard the people, and fight in helm's deep) this is entirely optional.


there is also going to be an equipment system, where you'll see the weapons on the characters, and so forth.

if anyone likes my idea, then i am glad:D reply here if you have any questions or comments:D

thanks!

Final Fantasy X-2 ? "Key Event getting u new key events"

Anyway Id call that a RPG. Since there is a story and that most people would follow the path to finish the game. FFX-2 is a RPG Not an Open RPG and what ur talking about sounds like FFX-2...

Why... why must you spam?? Just... why??

Anyway, Sworddude, I'll help you with terrain, or story (especially) and generally I'll give you ideas. I'm a loremaster and while I haven't mastered the lore I know a great deal more than should be known (okay, try crafting a better sentence then that one!).

Swordmanz- catch me on either AIM or MSN
AIM= rebelzeppelin
MSN= [email protected]

-jd

Its not Spam, its a comment.

im not basing iyt off of ffx-2. this is gonna be the world of middle earth, where u can choose to progress the story or just hang around. but i feel that it will be fun to continue the story, and fight in battles like minas tirith, pelennor fields, yadda. btw, im not asking for any help, and ive read LotR multiples of times. thnx for the feedback!:D

o yea, jd, i could use side-quest ideas... just PM me if u want to help em with ideas, cuz thats one thing i dont hav very much of :p

here is what i plan on the different "Paths" to be:

Good--

The Path of the King (King Theoden and Eomer)
The Path of the Dwarf (Gimli)
The Path of the Elf (Legolas)
The Path of the Wizard (Gandalf)
The Path of the Ring (Frodo and Sam)
The Path of the Ranger (Aragorn)
The Path of the Knight (Faramir)

(note: i need some better path names, so if anyone has any ideas, let me know)

Evil--

The Path of Twilight (Witch-King)
The Path of Power (Saruman)
The Path of the Warrior (Orc Captain)
The Path of the Creation (Uruk-Hai Captain)
The Path of the Darkness (Sauron--this will only let you command units in like an RTS) {tell me if i should do this}

thnx, and post any questions or comments!:D

are this going to be like in the movie or the book?
whats the difference between aragorns/legolas/gimlis paths?

im basing it off of the books (since i think they're bettetr)

the difference is (between aragorn, legolas, gimli) is that there's gonna be more to their story. with gimli, ur gonna hav to fight some goblins in the mountains, travel to elrond's council, and join the fellowship yadda

in legolas's, ur gonna hav to help catch gollum (or something) do some other stuff, then join the fellowship

so im basically putting in some stuff that u dont see anywhere, but still stays true to the story:D

I would like you to do the saruman path.
And you could pick some names of the chapters if you dont want to take "The Path of ..." like the last march of the ents if you could play as treebeard

I mean Sauron

If you're basing it off the book, and think the books are better, bear in mind a couple of details.

The Uruk-hai were not originally created by Saruman (unless independantly.) They appeared some decades earlier along the outskirts of Mordor.
The book does suggest that Sauron was able to subtly 'suggest' most of Saruman's more corrupt endeavours, which Saruman thought were his own ideas, though, so he might have believed the Uruks were his own creation.

There's no mention of any woodland elf accompanying Aragorn and Gandalf when they track down Gollum. I'd have Legolas joining Gimli and Gloin when they pass by Thranduil's halls. Perhaps, perhaps not.

The people of Rohan were sent to Dunharrow, not to Helm's Deep. If you want a challenge on that 'level,' have Gandalf rescuing and rallying the scattered troops of the Helmingas, including Erkenbrand himself, to return and vanquish the besieging Orcs.

That said, I do like the idea, and I'm thinking of doing this myself. I was going to limit Gimli's story to a short preview cinematic (Orcrist glowing on Thorin's tomb, the approach of the Nazgul, the mention of "this least of rings, which once he stole," etc.) But I suppose you could expand it at bit, togther with Faramir's premonition. Which also raises the question of why he didn't stop off at Moria? There weren't that many other safe passes apart from the Dimrill Stair. Oh well.

Anyways, I'd love to help. But I'd keep the side quests to a minimum, except perhaps in R&R areas like Rivendell and Lorien. The fellowship was always rather pressed for time.
Heres an idea- Helm's Deep- Side Quest "The Slaying Game" Have Legolas and Gimli plant the killing blows on as many orcs as possible. At the end of the Main quest (survive for 80 minutes) a prize will be awarded to the winner of the contest. However, the total number slain determines the value of the prize. :)

ok, here's an update on the "Paths" tell me if they sound good:

GOOD--

The Path of the Captain (Faramir)
The Path of the King (Aragorn)
The Path of the Horselord (Eomer)
The Path of the Wizard (Gandalf)
The Path of the Elf (Legolas)
The Path of the Dwarf (Gimli)

EVIL--

The Path of Twilight (Witch King)
The Path of Power (Saruman)
The Path of the Slave (Orc, where you start off as a slave, and gain ranks to finally become an orc general dude)

I'm still deciding on whether I should do the Uruk-Hai and Sauron's path. tell me if i should people:D

sounds like a great idea. ive always wanted to make a map like that but i just havent got around to it. ive posted a forum on the hobbit because i havent seen any hobbit games out in warcraft but im not on a whole lot. read the forum if ur intrested.
ok back to u sword i think u shouldnt worry too much about the names of the paths and little details now. u should start and make the terrain. then worry about that stuff later. i dont know u might have already done that for all i know.
i havent read the books because i cant. i keep trying to skip ahead and get to a good part that i saw in the movies. maybe later on like in a few years ill read them. i know there is a lot more in the books than the movie. but if my hobbit project doesnt go through i would very much like to help u with ur map. i am good at customizing stuff. like a hero or something. i cant make models. i can do pretty much a little more than basic in everything else.

Tell me what will be attractive about this game that I haven't seen in the Orc campaign. Tell me what kinds of custom abilities you plan to use. Will I be able to learn new spells in game? Will I be able to purchase and upgrade weapons and armour? Will I have an expanded inventory? Additional camera control? An AI copilot? How will my characters gain experience? Through combat, quest completion, support casting? What novelties will the maps present? What kind of side quests do you have outlined? How do you intend to stick to the storyline while maintaining flexibility of gameplay? How do you fulfil the main quests?

P.S. Having a different path for every character is going to involve a LOT of work. I would have a storyline for evil and a storyline for good, at most. That way you only have to design ONE campaign. And you can go into more detail. Besides, a lot fof the paths will join for much of the game.

wow, thats alot of questions u have there.

well, for starters, you choose a path at the beginning, and then depending on what path you choose, the story will go a different way. If ur Aragorn, and you've progressed far enough in the story, you will be able to wield Anduril. If your Legolas, then after a while (Lothlorien) you will receive the Bow of the Galadrim. If you're the Witch King, then you will have missions such as to stop the Fellowship (Weathertop) and then later on, you will have to command the armies of Mordor. I'm planning on making it to where you will have an inventory system (i'm still arguing amongst myself on which inventory style you should have) and you will be able to pick up and wield around weapons. (actually seeing them) each weapon will require a different amount of skill to use (still need to figure out which style i should go for) for example, Gimli is not as good with the bow as Legolas, so having him shoot, and Legolas melee, is crazyness. if i can, then I will make an armor system where you can see the armor you're wearing, but i dont know if that's possible yet. Side quests are gonna be generally mild, not ranging in tremendous battles, but a quick buck is to be earned. Let's say, Bree is being threatened by the Bandits in the Return of the King. you can either choose to go help the Bree-Landers by ridding them of the bandits, or you can continue on to wherever you were going. The reason why I'm doing so much "Paths" is because, every character has more of a story to them then what you see in the book. For main quests, say whenever Gandalf is trying to find Erkenbrand, you will have a certain time limit to do so, and if you haven't brought Erkenbrand back to Helm's Deep before the time runs out, then Helm's Deep will fall, and the game will end. I'm not trying to write my own story here, so I want to keep it as Tolkien-ish as possible.:D

sorry for the double-post

i wonder if its a good idea to maybe split the game in to 3 parts: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. like, in the Fellowship of the Ring, you will only be able to travel to the outskirts of the Emyn Muil, and not beyond. While The Two Towers (think of it as kinda like an expansion pack) you can travel farther and farther into the world of Middle-Earth. And in the Return of the King, you will ba able to travel to the farthest raches (including Rhun and east of Mordor). Does this sound like a good idea? If I have enough fans after the FotR, will they want for me to make the Two Towers? or should i just cramp all of this into one single game?

tell me people:D