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[MERP_UK]

Hi to all, thought it was time I put something up here.

 

This campaign will be the second in the planned series of three, following on from the events of The Indanthrine Prince, released last November. At this time, Umbral Abyss is hopefully to be released towards the end of the year, all being well. It currently stands at near half completion.

 

I will post up more details as time allows. You can follow my more regular updates and commentaries via the MERP UK blog and via our group on Facebook; MERP UK.

 

In short, this campaign is intended for characters of level 12, progressing through to 20th level with approximately 30-40 hours of gameplay, depending on how you approach the game.

 

The campaign comprises of (at final count I believe) 6 modules, each representing a geographical area of Middle Earth's Rhovanion Kingdom aswell as the lands in the lesser known East, where chapter one of this campaign takes place.

 

As a brief summary of what to expect in this tale... The character begins in a compromised situation in the Easterling Lands and must fight for their freedom and return home to warn the City of Dale of a great danger preparing to strike against it and the whole of Rhovanion. An Easterling King, under the influence of the Dark Lord has successfully conquered several large Easterling tribes, bringing tens of thousands of the people under his banner. But before this great host has even begun to march, Rhovanion is under attack from within - Assassins strike within city limits, the roads become unsafe for travel and those sworn to serve the kingdom are lured by the false promises of the Dark Lord. It falls to the character and their companions to prevent the head of the Kingdom from being struck off before the real battle has even begun.

 

But, there may still be hope in the great battle to come. The survivors of a fallen house of Dwarves, known as the Silverbeards, have a proposition that may turn the tides in the inevitable Battle of Dale. With the other choice being defeat, the character and their companions join with this expedition to reclaim the lost Dwarf-city of Kibil Dum, now firmly in the possession of enemies, both common and unspoken of. Nobody has written of the horrors that lurk in the deep dark of Middle Earth... best it stays that way...

 

I will update when I can and of course, will happily answer questions and listen to suggestions

[PJ156]

That sounds an interesting story. it will be good to see how it translates to the module settings.

 

PJ

[MERP_UK]

The blog has been updated with details on the crafting system.

 

Thanks for the comments. Implementing the story is quite a challenge. The ideas on paper are always exciting, but when you get to the tools themselves, it isn't always as simple a process. But so far so good, but then you will all have to be the judge of that

[MERP_UK]

Another blog update and news on a Demo of Umbral Abyss

[MERP_UK]

Project update article on the blog, still going strong, though still much to do. Setting up city areas is slow going when you are going for detail!

[MERP_UK]

All being well, I expect to have the demo of chapter 1 of Umbral Abyss uploaded by the end of the week. The entire campaign will not be appearing until at least late in the year, so this is an opportunity for part of it to be playtested and hopefully enjoyed by folks whilst I get the full version finished.

 

Chapter 1 leads on approximately a year after the events of Indanthrine Prince and tells the tale of a daring escape from the clutches of the Easterlings. The module will have approximately 8 hours or more of gameplay and the nature of its story makes it a great stand alone tale. However, the events in the demo set things up nicely for the substantial remainder of the campaign which will feature an open world inspired section along with some exciting new adventures which include some adaptations of quests from the PnP MERP adventure series by Iron Crown.

 

Anyway, watch this space. Hope to have something very soon to whet peoples appetites.

[MERP_UK]

The demo has been uploaded.

 

New Vault

Nexus Mods

[MERP_UK]

Greetings one and all.

 

Thanks to all those who have tried the demo out and e-mailed me your feedback. A lot of stuff has been checked off my list!

 

I have finally got round to updating the blog: http://merpuk.blogspot.co.uk/

 

I have been working with the Kalister Dungeon (fantastic) which I enabled through Kamals Tileset Project. No major issues to speak of, though whilst working with Kalister Dungeon, I am getting the occasional random toolset crash when manipulating placed effects. Moving, deleting and placing these has triggered all crashes I have experienced. There is also an extended loading time when opening the area and even an occasional crash here too. In-game, no noticable performance issues or crashes in the area.

 

Any thoughts or suggestions?

[kamal_]

No idea, but happy to see my things getting used!

[Eguintir Eligard]

please update your tileset project link in the signature to a working (vault 2) link. I'd like to use it.

[kamal_]

please update your tileset project link in the signature to a working (vault 2) link. I'd like to use it.

Updated my sig to link to a tracker for me on Vault 2.0. Should hopefully make it easy to find my content.

[MERP_UK]

A small blog update. Thanks for the continued feedback on the demo. A few new things have been brought up which i've been able to deal with. Much appreciated.

 

http://merpuk.blogspot.co.uk/

[MERP_UK]

Another day, another blog update.

 

Some really pleasing stuff completed in the last couple of weeks, hopefully it rubs off on those who play the campaign too. Still a lot to get done in terms of activity aside from the main story, but then the main plot itself is more or less 2/3 complete now, so happy days

[MERP_UK]

Progress remains steady. Populating the middle of the campaign with side quests which are looking nice, still a few more to sort out. Will be looking more towards early 2015 for a release, but however things turn out, I won't be rushing anything. I took on a lot by increasing the scope of the story and the regions to be explored, but it is proving well worth the extra time and attention.

 

I have updated the blog with various news, do take a look.

 

http://merpuk.blogspot.co.uk/

[MERP_UK]

With Indanthrine Prince now 1 year old and the blog in need of an update, I have posted a piece on where things stand with the current project. Thanks to all those who tried out IP and gave me their feedback

 

http://merpuk.blogspot.co.uk/

[MERP_UK]

Blog updated with a look at the making of one of the many expansive exterior areas.

 

http://merpuk.blogspot.co.uk/

[Eguintir Eligard]

Wow now that is a detailed look. The pics Alone must have taken a while to post.

[PJ156]

The area looks good, there's a lot of work gone into that.

 

PJ

[MERP_UK]

Thanks guys. The area itself probably took around 20+ hours to put together which for my going rate is pretty quick! There is a large valley section in the middle of the area, so making that part was very easy as it was just sloped terrain with the odd tree, etc. Getting the pictures together and online wasn't too difficult. I tried to remember to take one whenever I completed a particular task. They are all .jpg so the upload was only a couple of minutes - time to refill the coffee cup.

 

I'll do some more of these "making of" posts for future exteriors. Still a few to be made.

[MERP_UK]

And it's time for another "making of"...

 

http://merpuk.blogspot.co.uk/

[rjshae]

Looking good. Personally, I like to add a little more "noise" to rivers, both in the form of fallen logs, branches, rocks, stumps, hanging trees, and reeds along the sides, and by blending a color shade that grows deeper toward the center of the water.

[MERP_UK]

Now that is something I have overlooked! I'll give it a pass over as I setup the activities in the area; much occurs along the banks anyway. Thanks

[kamal_]

A suggestion: In areas where you might like a better blend/transition between textures, using the terrain brush with size 0 and outer size of 6 is an excellent way of blending textures. You can also add some "faux" textures via coloring the terrain a bit, I personally like adding a light brown to dull the colors for a more natural look than the bright green of many of the grasses.

 

Also a time saving suggestion. There are also some pre-blended terrains on the vault. You swap the textures for the ones you want and you have smoothly blended terrain texturing. Then you just add in the textures specific to your area such as roads and river bottoms. Nicethugbert's YATT terrains work well for this, I've made some for my own use as well.

[MERP_UK]

Thanks Kamal. I will have a try with these tips for the next exterior I have planned which will need to be a more grand affair. Time saving tips are always welcome, still a fair bit to do, but if I can crank stuff out  little faster at better quality then i'll listen to any suggestions