‘Middle-earth Role Playing’ is a modification for ‘The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion’ that aims to recreate the fantastic world that J.R.R. Tolkien imagined. We thought it would be great to find out more about the mod, so we contacted the MERP development team and they graciously agreed to answer our questions for this interview. They even threw in a bunch of exclusive, never before seen, screenshots for your viewing pleasure! Read on to find out what they had to say!

MR. How would you, in a paragraph or three, describe Middle-earth Role Playing?

Large Jack: MERP (Middle Earth Roleplaying Project) There and Back Again is quintessentially a HUGE Total Conversion mod for Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion set in Middle Earth.

It means more than that though to anyone deeply involved in this project. On a personal experience, since I was a boy, (I’m 35 now so I’ve waited a long time) I’ve dreamed of exploring Middle Earth top to bottom, visiting all the famous places, and meeting all the famous characters (yes that’s right, even on my ZX Spectrum 48) . “Ooohh how long has it been made to suffer for … preciousss???” However, modern technology has now made that dream a reality, though the challenge is still enormous, but equally fun.

Suffice to say MERP will be that dream and the dream of many others… I hope. It will also prove what can be achieved with the right dedication, enthusiasm and commitment, (and we’ve been wrote off by many in the past… with phrases like “This will go the same way as other ambitious projects!”) and we aim to ensure that doesn’t happen and to be able to say at the end of it that ‘nothing’s impossible.’

There have been many attempts by professional software companies to recreate Middle Earth, and apart from the online version (which is not my forte really) nothing has come close to that ultimate Middle Earth adventure in my opinion. It will also be nice for those like myself who were disappointed when the White Council was aborted, or more likely never got off the ground. Also in these troubled times we live I hope we can bring as much pleasure to those who wish to immerse themselves in this legendary story.

I also want to say we have a wonderful team and whatever the outcome I’m really proud of them. I give special thanks to Jnor and disturbed, who without there administration and modding skills none of this would be possible. I also thank NAU for reorganizing the team and Ced for his determination on Moria.

Bree

MR: When is the starting date of the mod? Will it, and it will if I remember correctly, take place during the War of the Ring?

Large Jack: This mod will definitely take place during the War of the Ring period of the Third Age
Jnor: The events will however not be scripted to happen on the actual date it should. Even though the map is huge it is still smaller than 1:1 scale so trips are faster.

MR: Will it be possible to encounter characters – both major and minor – from the book? Personally, I’d love to have a beer or two with Barliman Butterbur or the Gaffer…

Jnor: Yes, that will be possible. We will try to add every single character mentioned in the trilogy or any other of Tolkien’s works if they are still alive by the time the game starts. Barliman Butterbur and the Gaffer will probably be included in the next release.

Desolation of the Morannon

MR: The Middle-earth Role Playing mod has gone through at least one stage of change of management when the previous leader, The Grey Wizard, left – how did that affect the mod and the team?

Fang: This (management) change was hard on the team at the time. Members dropped out, but new leaders also emerged. Keep in mind though that The Grey Wizard started MERP as a Morrowind mod-project, which puts things into perspective. This project has had a very long lifespan. The Dev-team has gone through several reforms since the start.

All this affected the mod just as much. When The Grey Wizard left, the team endured a (another) switch of heightmaps.

This meant that a lot of the terrain and landscape had to be remade. But a lot of the models could thankfully be reused. However this also meant, bluntly put, that we had a much better heightmap, made solely by Lumpypat over the span of at least a year(?).

Largejack had at this time already emerged as one of the projects new leaders.

- ex MERP-developer & historian, Fang

Mirkwood

MR: One of the first “finished” aspects of the mod is the heightmap. How much of Middle-earth does it cover, and how does it compare to the map of Cyrodiil in Oblivion? And since you’re at the limits of what the engine can handle regarding size, have you thought about ways of adding additional areas (Rhûn? Harad?) that may not “fit” at a later stage?

Jnor: As you said, we will not be able to fit Rhûn, Harad and the Iron Mountains on the heightmap. The Undying Lands will not be included either. It is not planned to add them at this point, since we already have enough to work on. If we decide to do them in the end, we already have several ideas to make the transitions. How cool would it be to be able to leave Middle-Earth with the Ringbearers!

Compared to Cyrodiil (including the regions beyond the borders), Middle-Earth is about 5 times bigger.

MR: From what we have seen so far of the mod it seems to be a blend of designs seen in the films (Gondorian plate armour, for example) and original designs based on the book. How much of the visual aspects of the mod will be influenced by the Trilogy? Would you say you’re primarily a book-based or a film-based mod – or perhaps a mix of the two?

Jnor: We are primarily based on the books but the films are a great source of inspiration for the visuals. One of our biggest discussions is regarding the actual presence of a big flaming red eye at the top of Barad-dur. We will break book lore at times when it regards minor details such as the color of Minas Tirith outer wall or the organization of the fountain level. You’ll not see Arwen come to rescue Strider and the hobbits on route to Imladris, though.

The Blue Mountains (Ered Luin)

MR: You have said before that you’ve intended to focus on the landscapes of Middle-earth, including cities, forests, etc., before you start on the interiors and other aspects of the world. Is this something that you’re still doing, or has work now started in earnest on other areas? Would you be able to estimate how far along you are with landscaping the mod?

Jnor: The main reason for that was that we need the landscape to be in a close-to-final state before we can add proper AI and quests so we tried to concentrate the team’s effort on that. Now, we are opening some interior claims in Bree (and soon, the Shire) and of course we need writers to give life and immersion to our mod.

The landscape development is going nicely along at the moment. Of course, there is a lot to be done still (especially the mountain ranges), but the main areas are nearly all claimed. I’d estimate that about 15% of the surface is done but that about 30% or so of the effort has been done. Some of our new members are quite fast (and good) with landscaping, so I’m not too worried about that.

Arthedain: Lake and Ruins

MR: What can you tell us about the quests we will encounter in MERP? Will there be a main storyline to follow and, if so, will it tie into events from the book? Are there any quests lifted straight from the Works of Tolkien?

Large Jack: We’re currently in a lot of debate about this. You can rest assured there will be something for everyone, and especially for those who seek an open ended RPG experience. Of course our big desire is to enact the actual War of the Ring trilogy itself in all its glory, which will obviously create a more linear, sequence of events approach as well. We aim to comprise a system which enables both forms of roleplay experience. Either way you choose you will get to meet many interesting, famous and not so famous characters along the way.

names_are_useless: We do hope to have a main questline. What this main questline will entail has been largely up to date for a long while now. I think it’s fairly unanimous that we want the main questline to follow either join the Fellowship (as an actual character from the books or a no-name tenth Fellowship member) or to be helping the Fellowship behind-the-scenes. Keep in mind that no idea has been set in stone yet.
If you’d like to give your opinion on what you think the main questline should be about, then please post your opinion on our Developer forums here.

City of Dale

MR: Which races are you including? Will they all be playable? And are you including classes?

Jnor: We will be including most (if not all) races you can think of. We decided to have many subraces, because that way Oblivion allows for more height diversity. Some races like hobbits and dwarves have no subraces. Elves have three (sindar, noldor and nandor) and humans have, at last count, fourteen. Some races like the Istari or the orcs will never be playable. In the first releases, most human races won’t. Depending on the work done on side-quests, more might be opened.

We are not going to change the models much. Some people have expressed the will to have the elven/hobbit ears redone as well as hairy feet for the hobbits. We will also include a couple custom hair meshes if we get permission.

We will include classes but nothing is decided about that yet.

Ettenmoors

MR: You’ve stated that the Balrog will be in the mod, and that Ents will probably not be. Which other creatures will you be including?

Jnor: For now, we have stolen (with permission of course ) all the available creature models that could fit into Middle-Earth. This includes Mr. Siika’s numerous animals. We have nothing decided about the Ents, but they’ll be a struggle to do as they’ll require hi-poly models and brand new animations. I think we’ll have Wargs though, as we can use existing animations (wolf or mountain lion). We have no creature modelers right now, though.

MR: Magic. It’s a huge part of Oblivion, but the magic in Middle-earth is a lot more subtle and only available to a very few. How do you plan to implement it – if at all?

Jnor: The player will not have access to many spells (if at all). Magic can be accessed through magic items/weapons or by potions. We will be using the Alchemy skill for Oblivion, but the ingredients will be new and have different effects… We’ll keep some cool spells for Gandalf though. ^^

Minas Tirith

MR: The screenshots of Minas Tirith that you have released so far are beautiful, and as far as I can see all the Seven Circles are present. Will each Circle be its own “district”, as in the Imperial City in Oblivion, or will the White City be entirely open?

Jnor: Currently, Disturbed is trying to do it in one piece. However, we fear that it will drop FPS far too much as the models are already pretty heavy on the GPU (graphic card) while the AI for many NPCs will tax on the CPU (processor).

MR: And related to the above question: will other cities and fortresses such as Edoras or Barad-dûr be instanced or open?

Jnor: This is not currently planned. The deal of Minas Tirith is that it’s very big (and we have awesome models for it). Edoras will be more reasonably sized and Barad-dur will not be instanced as it’s already done.
Caras Galadhon might or might not be. I’ll have to decide when I start my work on Lothlorien. Both sides have their goods and bads.

Arthedain: Mountains

MR: Images of the Tower of Ecthelion and the Hall of the Kings have been previewed, but are any of the other famous buildings of Minas Tirith finished and included? I’m thinking mainly of the Hallows, the Houses of Healing, Merethrond and the Old Guesthouse.

Jnor: The Houses of Healing are done modeling-wise. The other three have not been done yet. They will probably use retextured buildings since they are not portrayed much in the movies (except the Hall of Kings).

MR: Another great fortress we’ve seen screens of is the Hornburg. Do you plan to include all (or most) of the great cities and strongholds of Middle-earth? Has there been any progress on any of those that you have not shown us yet?

Jnor: We plan to have all the cities of Middle-Earth that are within the boundaries of our heightmap.
In terms of strongholds, we of course have Barad-dur which is already modeled. We also have the Shire towns well developed on the exterior and Bree has some interiors already.

Harlindon

MR: One of the most atmospheric places in Middle-earth for me personally – in both the films and the book – is Moria. Have you started work on that? Do you think you’ll be able make the vast halls and caverns of the ruined underground city, and capture the oppressing darkness and feeling of dread?

Ced: To answer the first question, yes, Moria is in the works, but is kind of put aside of late, there are many other tasks and priorities such as getting the landscape done. The truth is Moria is only about 1% finished so that will give us alot of work in the future. Maybe we will include preview(s) of Moria in our next release(s).
Our goal is to create Moria as good as the Oblivion game engine lets us. That said we will be able to create Moria at almost the same level as in the films and books. So yes we will capture the feeling of dread for sure, just wait and see!

Dale: Bridge over River Running

MR: Do you have modellers/skinners on the team dedicated to making items, weapons and armour, or do you rely mostly on donations from “freelancers”? What would be your favourite item currently in the mod, and which item would you most want to see made?

Jnor: We have some modelers in our team but we also rely on freelancers such as Mr. Siika who’s doing Minas Tirith. We have used some resources from TESNexus and PES too.

The model I’m most looking for is probably something elvish. I’ll know when I’ll see it.

MR: I’ve read that you don’t plan on using Howard Shore’s music from the films – do you have someone composing a MERP soundtrack for you? Will you include voice acting, or do you feel that that is outside of the scope of the mod?

Ced: No, we don’t plan on using any of the original LOTR soundtracks due to copyright. But instead we got our own composers who make the tracks sound a bit similar to the official LOTR tracks but are still different. And our songs will sure have the same power and elegance that Howard Shore’s tracks.

Jnor: We will hopefully have voice-overs for at least the main quests and the greetings. Really, it will depend on the number of lines we need done. We have had several people show interest in doing voice-acting for us though.

Ettenmoors in Rain

MR: Oblivion isn’t exactly famous for its large scale battles, to use an understatement. Is this something you’re going to have to live with, or are you working on ways around that with MERP?

Ghostfig: The reason oblivion didn’t have large battles is because the AI takes up so much of the processing power. I have a beta I’ve worked with on the old MERP that would keep most of the AI deactivated until the player got near the NPCs.

MR: Are there any features in the mod that you are especially proud of, or any you think players will enjoy more than others?

Lumpypat: One of the defining moments for this mod was the switch from the old Heightmap to the new one. When the mod started, most of the work was being done with a smaller disjointed height map that I just didn’t like (no offence to anyone, we wouldn’t be anywhere right now if it wasn’t for the Grey-Wizards models and vision) To make a long story short, for many reasons I started working on my own heightmap to fully capture the size and beauty of just the basic landscape of middle earth, without trees or anything. Almost all of this beauty lies in the distant LOD so make sure you have this activated if you are playing this MOD! It took two years to custom create the heightmap, probably significantly more than any commercial game, and I am very proud of the results. To this day I never get tired of going for long walks in Middle Earth!

The Blue Mountains (Ered Luin): Mountainside

MR: You’ve currently got a BETA version of the mod released, which allows players to run around in some of the environments you’ve created. Are there any plans for more releases of this sort?

Jnor: We decided not to release our current version to the public because it’s pretty useless really. It’s not elaborate enough for people to enjoy it and the old BETA still attracts some modders to us.

After the next merge (where we merge all the work done since the last release into the main esm), we will most likely release it for BETA testing if we manage to fit enough content in the Shire and Bree-land.

The Blue Mountains (Ered Luin): Mountain in Sunset

MR: Is there anything else about MERP that you feel we haven’t touched on, but you would want to say something about?

names_are_useless: We would like to thank you for the interview opportunity Amroth and all the staff here at Modrealms.com. Oh, and we also have some never-before released screenshots we would like to show to the public.

MR: The ‘Middle-earth Role Playing’ team have our thanks for letting us bombard them with questions. Find out more about MERP on their website, on their official forums, and their hosted forums here at MR.

Dale: Statue

Discuss in the forums.

Tags: Arthedain, Bethesda, Blue Mountains, Bree, Celduin, Dale, Desolation of the Morannon, Ered Luin, Ettenmoors, Fantasy, Harlindon, Interview, Lord of the Rings, LotR, MERP, Middle-earth, Middle-earth Role Playing, Minas Tirith, Mirkwood, River Running, TES:IV, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, There and Back Again, Tolkien