The Middle-Earth Roleplaying (MERP) mod

[NamesAreUseless]

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/2799/merpw.png

 

 

What is it?

 

Welcome to the Middle-Earth Roleplaying - There and Back Again (MERP) mod. This is a Total Conversion for The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion, based on the magnificent world of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings.

 

 

Who are we?

 

The MERP team is making an addition to Oblivion. That is, the world of Middle Earth! It will add all of Middle-Earth in it's entirety, obviously including such places as The Realms of: The Shire, Rohan, Rhovanion, Gondor, Mordor, Harad and many other locations!

 

Our team is made up of nearly 15 team members, dedicated to creating the world of Middle Earth!

 

 

Our Goal

 

Our goal as a team is to realize the world of J.R.R. Tolkien as closely as we can to his vision. We hold the lore to a very high standard and will not compromise the lore at all if we can. We do use the visual appearance of the films, but if there is a conflict then we always take the book over the movie. An few exsamples: there will not be any full plate armor, the outter wall of Minas Tirith will be black, and Minas Morgul will have white stone like Minas Tirith. We work very hard to bring a quality product that matches the same level, if not surpassing, the original Oblivion game. We want to make our work look like professional game developers made it!

 

Currently, we have a completed heightmap of Middle Earth (over 7 times the size of Cyrodiil!) and working on landscapping. Interiors, NPCs, new races, quests, etc. will all come in due time as this mod progress.

 

 

Preview

 

Screenshots:

http://renderfred.free.fr/oblivion/merp/MERP1440x900.jpg

 

For more screenshots go to:

http://www.modrealms.com/forums/showthread.php?t=864

 

Videos:

 

 

Download the MERP BETA:

 

Our team has recently released an early BETA of our work! You can download it HERE or HERE!

 

 

More Information:

 

To contact us, or see more of the MERP mod, you can go to:

 

Latest Bethesda Softworks Forum thread (main MERP discussion)

MERP Developer Forum (mainly for developer talk, but also a section for public viewing and posting)

MERP Moddb page

MERP Ning website (contains lots of MERP screenshots, videos, and other media)

 

We are looking for new mod developers to join the team (especially landscapers, modelers, and animators), so that Middle Earth can become a reality! If you're interested, please fill out an application in our dev forums HERE!

 

Any questions, comments, suggestions, etc. are appreciated.

[jonesjoshuar]

Good luck with it. Total Conversion are a big endevour. One town for me is a work load and a half. Looking good. It would be cool to see this in all its glory.

[Eolath]

Awesome sauce - if this ever gets into a Beta(I mean everything finished ofcourse :P ) stage, that will be a glorious day!

 

Continue with the great work! :)

[NamesAreUseless]

Good luck with it. Total Conversion are a big endevour. One town for me is a work load and a half. Looking good. It would be cool to see this in all its glory.

Indeed it would, thanks for the support :)

 

Awesome sauce - if this ever gets into a Beta(I mean everything finished ofcourse :P ) stage, that will be a glorious day!

 

Continue with the great work! :)

A nearly-finished Beta ... that's a LONG way off for sure. We're still working on landscaping the heightmap, and we've probably finished about 25% of it (its about 8-9 times larger then Cyrodiil!). We could really use some more help from other modders if we all want to see this mod become a reality.

 

Landscapers, scripters, modelers, skinners, animators, movie-makers, or even just people with ideas: we'd appreciate all the help we can get! 8)

[Tinehtele]

Holy crap. Looks unbelievable. Have zero ability to mad anything. But I want this once it's a finished BETA.

[Apophilius]

i have gone through the "new lands" section on the files browse page on the main site completely, and there is one consistent thing among all of those mods, whether they're good or bad.

 

they are all not finished yet

 

I really wish there would be a group of people that takes one of the most promising new lands mods and actually finishes it, and to me you guys are the most promising group.

 

if you've already finished all of the land of middle earth, then you're quite a bit more than a stones throw further than the majority of other new lands mods. I support you guys all the way, and wish you luck finishing the buildings, npcs, and their schedules.

 

 

ps. there isn't much detail on how u guys are going to tackle this mod, and it'd be nice to know.

 

1. You guys gonna have multiple cities and villages with all the works (i.e. shops, guild halls, etc.)

2. Are you guys going to create npc's with full schedules, dialogue, and possibly voiceovers attached?

3. Are you going to add any new obtainable items, weapons?

4. Are you guys going to make the main quest of "The Hobbit," or "LOTR," or possibly both?

5. Are you guys going to add multiple separate questlines for a full experience?

6. If so, will you include new guilds?

7. Will you include different races as playable in the game (hobbits, dwarves, etc)

 

Sorry if that came off a little strong, but some of those are chief questions to ask with new lands mods. Its important to me because it helps me know what to expect

 

thanks

[Arcamean]

I never had much of a desire myself to play in middle earth, I was more of a norrath ( Everquest 2 ) and a Azeroth ( WoW ) person, still good luck. ATM, id settle for a mod program that told me in plain english what mod caused X error, so I can stop placing mods one ... at.. a time... too many good ones to take a month installing.

[NamesAreUseless]

Holy crap. Looks unbelievable. Have zero ability to mad anything. But I want this once it's a finished BETA.

Don't expect a FINISHED Beta for a LONG time still :confused:

 

i have gone through the "new lands" section on the files browse page on the main site completely, and there is one consistent thing among all of those mods, whether they're good or bad.

 

they are all not finished yet

 

I really wish there would be a group of people that takes one of the most promising new lands mods and actually finishes it, and to me you guys are the most promising group.

 

if you've already finished all of the land of middle earth, then you're quite a bit more than a stones throw further than the majority of other new lands mods. I support you guys all the way, and wish you luck finishing the buildings, npcs, and their schedules.

We're trying to finish the landscape before we move on. Well, at least that was the initial plan. Right now large jack the mod leader has wanted to start AI pathing for inevitable NPC enemies in completed regions.

 

ps. there isn't much detail on how u guys are going to tackle this mod, and it'd be nice to know.

 

1. You guys gonna have multiple cities and villages with all the works (i.e. shops, guild halls, etc.)

2. Are you guys going to create npc's with full schedules, dialogue, and possibly voiceovers attached?

3. Are you going to add any new obtainable items, weapons?

4. Are you guys going to make the main quest of "The Hobbit," or "LOTR," or possibly both?

5. Are you guys going to add multiple separate questlines for a full experience?

6. If so, will you include new guilds?

7. Will you include different races as playable in the game (hobbits, dwarves, etc)

 

Sorry if that came off a little strong, but some of those are chief questions to ask with new lands mods. Its important to me because it helps me know what to expect

 

thanks

1. Doing the cities kinda goes with the landscaping phase. Just recently one of the modders posted screenshots of Bree:

http://i483.photobucket.com/albums/rr197/l...creenShot18.jpg

http://i483.photobucket.com/albums/rr197/l...creenShot19.jpg

http://i483.photobucket.com/albums/rr197/l...creenShot20.jpg

Also expect plenty of factions to exist in Middle Earth, along with smaller guilds and the such ;)

2. We'll try to make NPCs as lively as possible. We have thought about only giving major NPC characters actual voicework. That way not every regular citizen needs to share the same exact voice :P

3. You kidding? Of course we are! Plenty of LOTR weapons, even the named ones: Anduril, Sting, Glamdring, ...

4. The timeline for the mod is taking place during LOTR. The initial start date for players is planned to be, at the moment, around the day that Gandalf returns to Bag End to tell Frodo the secret of the one Ring (so essentially its around the beginning of FOTR). As for the main questline ... well we're still planning, and we're trying to keep discussion of it secret for right now ;)

5. One idea has been to have seperate main questlines for each race (so I suppose at least 4). However, our first main questline idea may take a lot more effort to make then we thought. So not sure really.

6. As said before, expect plenty of factions and guilds in Middle Earth.

7. Of course! We're mainly sticking with the Free Peoples being playable in our mod to start. The four decided races are Men, Dwarves, Elves, and Hobbits.

 

Glad you're asking these questions and showing enthusiasm to the project. We can use all the enthusiasm as we can get :)

 

I never had much of a desire myself to play in middle earth, I was more of a norrath ( Everquest 2 ) and a Azeroth ( WoW ) person, still good luck. ATM, id settle for a mod program that told me in plain english what mod caused X error, so I can stop placing mods one ... at.. a time... too many good ones to take a month installing.

Well hopefully this mod will give you more of a desire to play in Middle Earth. The place is surely large enough that you'll find something for everyone :thumbsup:

[NamesAreUseless]

So, anyone wanna see some Minas Tirith?

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z133/mr...p/minasGate.jpg

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z133/mr.../minasGate2.jpg

 

Along with a video:

 

Oh, also added a link in the main post to a whole bunch of new screenshots:

http://www.modrealms.com/forums/showthread.php?t=864

 

 

So what do you all think? :)

[Cepherit]

It looks beautiful! Is mr_siika in your team? He's a talented modder... :)

 

I really hope you finish this project, and god bless you for doing this! ;)

Best of luck to you, and one question:

 

Are you recruiting? :)