28 replies to this topic

[dathui]

“Nern Ennorath - Tales of Middle-earth” is the first part of The Last Alliance, featuring the journeys and quests of famous characters.

“Nern Ennorath - Tales of Middle-earth” will focus on the mythical stories that J.R.R. Tolkien created throughout his life. The player will be able to re-live the epic quests of characters such as Beren Erchamion, Túrin Turambar, amongst many other characters from Professor Tolkien's Middle-earth.

The player will control a number of heroes and guide them on their way through many a peril, while experiencing the exciting adventures straight from the books. Longer stories will be broken down into individual missions, through which the player will have to play his way forward in order to advance in the story.
The heroes will become more powerful over time as the player progresses through the stories that until now have only existed in the books and people’s imaginations.

“Nern Ennorath -Tales of Middle-earth” will also feature multi-player quests, where each player will control one or more heroes in order to help, or hinder, other players from finishing their quests.

The TLA Team - October 2005

[Beren IV]

I hate to say this, but I am apprehensive. There are so many different interpretations possible of the lives on individual heroes from the books, not to mention so many different version of each story to choose from, that I fear that one "canonical" version of each will be produced with little or no room for imagination.

[NaurwenT]

Beren,
why dont you give us the chance to prove ourselves first?

[Enarwaen]

@Beren

thanks for your concerns - but rest assured that we will take utmost care to stay as close to the books as possible.
but i'll have to say one thing up front - we are not striving to present a 'canonical' version - we will present 'our' version that we think best interprets the Professor's writings.
additionally to that we will empower the community to create their own interpretations with the exact same tools and editors that we use for creating Nern Ennorath - we will just provide the basics. TLA is and will be extremely mod-friendly - so there will be ample room for the community to explore the many possible interpretations.

[Deacon_Raptor]

So, this sounds like an RPG then? lol, looking from the website with the civs and stuff I thought it was an RTS. Sounds cool though, looking forward to it!

Edited by Deacon_Raptor, 12 October 2005 - 07:10 PM.

[NaurwenT]

Deacon

The RPG mode is part of the TLA general structure.
THe RTS mode will continue to be developed in parallel with the RPG.
Consider this as the first instalment of TLA as a whole.

[Deacon_Raptor]

Ahh, now I see. Thanks for clearing that up, now Im really excited about it

[Historicity]

Maybe a combo like Warcraft III? Having RPG based storylines / characters, etc... and having RTS Engine?

:-S

[rohirwine]

Something close to this... ...but not entirely the same...

[Beren IV]

Quote

thanks for your concerns - but rest assured that we will take utmost care to stay as close to the books as possible.

That's exactly the problem, actually - which books? The different versions do not agree.

[Enarwaen]

that is true - as a rule of thumb - the 'newer' the material the more 'canon' we consider it. hope this does answer your question. although 'canon' is a term one cannot easily apply here

e.g. we consider Gil-galad to be the son of Orodreth and not the son of Fingon - just as an example.

[Beren IV]

I see. What about situations where one book that is higher 'canon' (say, LotR), implies something, but doesn't actually say it, but another book elsewhere that is lower on the priority list (say, Morgoth's Ring) explicitly says something that contradicts the implications in the book on the higher priority list?

Also, what do you do where there is nowhere anything that says something clearly? For example, it is plain and clear in every version of the Sil that Tinúviel/Lúthien has some powers that go beyond what her physical form would indicate, and she uses these powers to do some pretty impressive things, but nowhere does it say clearly what those powers are.

[Rinion]

Cool! Do we have a release date yet?

[Enarwaen]

Beren said:

I see. What about situations where one book that is higher 'canon' (say, LotR), implies something, but doesn't actually say it, but another book elsewhere that is lower on the priority list (say, Morgoth's Ring) explicitly says something that contradicts the implications in the book on the higher priority list?

what makes you say that HoME vol.10 is lower priority than LotR

no - seriously - my above example of Ereinion Gil-galad being the son of Orodreth is a good example for something like this. Here HoME vol.12 clearly takes precedence over the Silmarillion. With certain details we will make sure that - if - those details are covered elsewhere more extensively that this will influence our decisions then. it all boils down to many specific case-by-case decisions.

but this is not the end of the road. you as a member of the community will be

Beren said:

Also, what do you do where there is nowhere anything that says something clearly? For example, it is plain and clear in every version of the Sil that Tinúviel/Lúthien has some powers that go beyond what her physical form would indicate, and she uses these powers to do some pretty impressive things, but nowhere does it say clearly what those powers are.

this will be one of the hardest stories to actually translate into our Story Campaign format. we haven't started on designing this one - so i cannot say much *yet*.
regarding Lúthien's special abilities i can only say - her mother was of the Maia and her father was among the first of the Eldar to behold the Light of the Trees in Valinor. Lúthien *is* a special case and i don't think we can clearly shelf her personae and abilities to be like other Eldar of her time ...

i know this is not a satisfying answer - but as long as we haven't tackled this Narn, i cannot give any more indepth info

Rinion said:

Cool! Do we have a release date yet?

we are planning to release this a short time after 0 A.D. gets released - so cross your fingers ... currently it's too early to tell ... so we'd better say 'when it's done'

cheers
-bernd

[Deacon_Raptor]

dont suppose you need any help

btw, release just this part after 0 AD or the whole thing?

[Enarwaen]

Deacon said:

dont suppose you need any help

currently no - but we'll start a recruitment haul shortly after the new forum-driven webpage is up ...

Deacon#2 said:

btw, release just this part after 0 AD or the whole thing?

well our focus is on this 'game mode' currently - but this doesn't mean that this is gonna be the only one

[Caesar]

Sounds great !

Its good to be back

[CrazyThumbs]

So this is the big annoucement. To be honest I think the idea is ok, might play it, but as long as you keep the RTS part this game will be great.

[Deacon_Raptor]

Quote

currently no - but we'll start a recruitment haul shortly after the new forum-driven webpage is up ...

hmmmm......when will that be

Seriously though, it sounds pretty cool.....it currently sounds to me almost like the Quests part from Lords of Magic, if any of you are familiar with that reference.

[Enarwaen]

Deacon Raptor said:

hmmmm......when will that be

pretty soon - our web guys are working on it