Lotro world compression

[FoxFire]

I know I'm late to some of these discussions. Only just now making my way through the backlog of podcasts for this course.

I just wanted to interject on Corey's quite right reasoning for why the world of Middle-earth does need to be compressed in a video game such as Lotro , as it would be quite tedious to walk all over the place (or run without tiring all the time like we do in Lotro. Try actually going into walk mode with no speed boosts and traveling from place to place. It's an enjoyable scenic stroll, but totally not viable for gaming.)

Still, with swift travel options the developers certainly COULD have made the world somewhat less compressed than it is, which in my opinion is too compressed. I was actually quite disappointed when I first left Comb and walked what seemed like a few feet and bam I'm at Bree town. Ha! I thought wow that's immersion breaking.

That said, another reason that the developers had to compress the game world is because each piece of landscape, every rock and tree placement, every roll of the land, every twist and turn in the rivers, is hand-crafted by the game artists and world builders.

There have been games (including online games) that have had simply massive worlds (take Daggerfall for instance), but these worlds are 90 to 99% procedurally generated, and the landscape is quite repetitive and boring, with no character.

I suspect had the developers had unlimited resources, they would have made the game world less compressed than they did.

 

[FoxFire]

Speaking of going in to walk mode to fully take in the scenery. I just did that yesterday while in post-battle Minas Tirith. On a bright sunny morning. heading down from the 6th circle where the Houses of Healing are. It was really quite a pleasure. So many details and views you pick up on as you walk that you don't really see or appreciate while running or riding. I've been so used to running and riding around the place, particularly after getting to know it from dreary Dawnless Day pre-battle times, that it just became habit.

I highly recommend people do this from time to time. Slow down, take in the scenery, smell the roses as it were. Ideally do this with all the graphics settings maxed out (if your computer can handle it). Slowing down to a walk might make that more viable for some people's computers, as it doesn't need to load things as quickly.

And if you're doing it in Minas Tirith. Make it a sunny day and head downward. Better views while leaving one tier and going down to another.

 

[Haerangil]

i've thought about this too... in comparison to tolkiens maps lotro so far is just as big as one of the smaller greek isles..

but if it was bigger in a more realistic sense it probably would be less fun adventuring... traveling would take months, there would be weeks of wilderness without npcs and probably rarely wildbeasts or creaps...
and playing through the epic storyline would take a lifetime. so in ways of entertainment, which rpgs are, its nicer this way, although very unrealistic if taken literally (i've already given my thoughts of that issue in the timeline and world compression thread... the story would not be the adventure life of one adventurer, it would be the adventures of at last ten different adventurers who would probably never even meet...)

 

[FoxFire]

Oh yeah. Obviously the developers could not make Middle-earth as big as it actually is (say they had hundreds of world designers or some advanced AI which could generate realistic diverse and unique landscapes). The 'game' aspect of it would quickly disappear (at least if you were forced to actually travel the landscape between locations and other points of interest and activity.)

Still I would have liked if Lotro was somewhat less compressed than it is. Maybe double its current size and spacing of relevant locations. I'd likely use swift travel more often than I already do, but it would be nice to have all that additional landscape to explore and have better immersion in the game world.

 

[Haerangil]

it's just a simulation after all.all regiins we get are just a microcosm of the region it would be in a bigger scaled map. and there are still large grey areas even in eriador... between ered luin and the shire for example... or between forichel,lone lands,trollshaws and angmar... mirkwoods cimpression is pretty extreme too...

 

[FoxFire]

Indeed that is a good point. There is still a great deal of landscape which has not yet been covered. Though much of it is outside the main story-line. If it was in the story-line / appendixes at all. Those are areas where SSG can get even more creative as we address whatever threats King Elessar (Aragorn) needs us to take care of. Or maybe some non-combat related quests and activities.

 

[Haerangil]

i'm quite excited with whatever theyll come up after mordor. theres an entire kingdom to be rebuilt.

 

[FoxFire]

Rebuild yes. But besides rebuilding, cleansing, and mopping up, there are also more skirmishes (battles?) to be fought and won.

As the text states "For though Sauron had passed, the hatreds and evils that he bred had not died, and the King of the West had many enemies to subdue before the White Tree could grow in peace. And wherever King Elessar went with war King Éomer went with him ..."

The Easterlings of Rhun and the Brown Lands still need to be subdued. There are stated military campaigns in Harad, Khand, Umbar. Unfortunately (or fortunately for game play purposes), everyone (particularly allies of Sauron) didn't magically become happy willing subjects of the reunited kingdom after the fall of Sauron. King Elessar did ultimately reunite the whole of Middle-earth.

In any event, the fighting isn't over after the ring is destroyed.

 

[Haerangil]

yes... but those parts of the story are more likely to happen outside the already explored lands.the rebuilding parts still could be realised in the grey areas of eriador , along the greenway and the not yet explored areas of minhiriath,southfarthing,further enedwaith and the missing parts of the puzzle between blue mts,forochel,lona lands,angmar and rhudaur. i'm excited with what they'll come up... but of course next step is bringing the story to conclusion in mordor.