Since I have started to play Lord of the Rings Online, I hated the gap between Ered Luin and the Shire. The Westmarch is the zone filling this void.
I don’t understand, why this zone hasn't been done earlier, as it has a lot of potential.
Who lives in the Westmarch and which places does it cover?
The southern border are the Tower Hills. Elostirion is the tallest tower on the Tower Hills and once held the Palantir of the Northern Kingdom. Even though the Palantir has been long removed, the towers still might hold some secrets to be uncovered by some adventurers.
Near the main tower, is the future site of Untertowers, a village founded after the coming wars. I want this place to be special. A place where the grass is greener than in the other fields and where there are more flowers. A place where the eldest daughter of Sam Gamgee would want to live. There will be no settlements of Hobbits, but one or two could wander the wild.
To the west, we find the Gulf of Lûne with the Elven settlement of Mithlond, the Grey Havens. From here to the north we can either travel by boat to Celondim or by foot to Ered Luin through the now unblocked pass near Rath Teraig.
The zone has the shape of the letter J, the south-western part being Mithlond. I wouldn't make the zone so big, that it reaches Forochel to the north. On the parchment map on the LotRO site, there is a small forest on the eastern side of the river Lhûn the river being the western border.
Finally, we would be able to explore the castle we have seen from the Wardspire.
Besides the Grey Haven, I would not add a major settlement. There are some ruins, like the towers and the castle I mentioned before. But in general, there would be an empty place with some bandits and wildlife.
Quest hubs would be Mithlond, where we could try to convince elves not to leave Middle Earth and to fight Sauron. Other quests could evolve around two feuding families, one farming and one nomad shepherds who are in conflict over land. Of course there could also be a Romeo and Juliet story ongoing where the player could either help the farmers the shepherds or the young in love.
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This would be a great zone and I agree that it should be done, but the question is - what level range would it be? Does it really make sense to have a max level zone in between two of the starter zones? It'd really break the flow of the game. I don't have a good answer for this question.
ReplyDeleteI don't know enough about the region, but is there a way it could be tied in with the dwarves somehow? Then you could make it a mid-high 40s type zone and tie in the dwarves, sarnur and erid luin into the broader world a bit more perhaps. It'd also help grind out dwarf rep to get your goat as you prepare to go into moria. I'm saying this purely from a gameplay perspective, no idea if it could work lore-wise.
I would make it a zone with two level-ranges.
ReplyDeleteThe first would be a low-level area which would contain the southern part (Tower Hills) and the isntances should be scaleable (from level 20 on).
This would allow low level players to travel from the Shire to Ered Luin without too much danger.
The rest would be a rather small area. Combining it with the Sarnur level range would make sence. I would on the other hand not have dwarves having a major role here. An other zone, north of Ered Luin would make more sence here.
This zone I would combine with Lindorn and I would center my focus on the rivalry of Elves and Dwarves.