MUME

I can think of three main areas of expansion of the world, once the current projects of Rohan and northern Anduin Vale have been finished.

1. Down Anduin towards Gondor and Ithilien. This would mainly consist of open plains and a huge river.
2. Through Mirkwood towards Lake Town and Erebor. This would mainly consist of forest, plains and a huge lake.
3. North through the Misty Mountains towards Gundabad and the ruins of Carn Dûm. This would mainly consist of hills, mountains and caves/underground complexes.

Which one do you think would be the best or the worst, and why?

Hmm... am I wrong or do I see a tendency in how you asked that question, in how you presented each of the three options?

Here are my own thoughts:
1. Would most likely just be a huge cosmetic that required artificial means to bring players there (making Gondor the only place to mend shields, perhaps). In the timeframe of MUME, Mordor was just an empty wasteland (which is why the Gondor watchmen grew lax and didn't notice Sauron returning to rebuild his forces). Minas Morgul could be interesting if it spawned player-darkies (BNs and an Orcish subrace allied to the Tarkhnarb), but it would still just be surrounded by light forest and open plains, not great PK areas. Both Minas Morgul and the towns of Gondor would have city defences that made Bree and NOC look like it could be solo-killed by an afk level 3.

2. A potentially interesting area that could contain an option to battle Smaug for some shining chain, gold and jewels. Probably not much else to do, however.

3. By far the most interesting area in my eyes. It would contain mobs all sides could xp on and narrow, snaking mountain trails and undergound caves, where one could be ambushed while xping, would bring the pkers. While Gundabad would probably be almost as hard to raid as a town in Gondor, Carn Dûm and other Angmarian ruins or Hillmen settlements would not be safe havens for anyone and there is nothing to say all Goblin settlements in the area would be allied to either of the Tarkhnarb or the Zaugurz - and those that are need not be very strong.


PS
I tried to make my initial presentation of the options I could think of as neutral as possible. Was it the word "plains" that ruined it?
DS

They all bring their own advantages I think. My own preference is northwards, but I see strong points for the others.

Southeast adds elements of the world that people are familiar with. That's the primary strength it has. I'm pretty sure there's grounds to make Mordor something other than a total wasteland too, as the witch king retreated to there, what, 500-800 years before mume? I don't imagine he has been entirely inactive. Shelob is still there, Minas Morgul has been captured I think, I'd have to check all this.

Eastward we are right on the edge of some very cool areas. The whole of Mirkwood, from the elves in the north to Sauron in the south, and all the undiscovered other places in this huge area. A forest isn't necessarily flat ground either. The lonely mountain too, I would love to see that in the game.

North, which is my preference, of course adds a lot of scope for pk heavy areas. I also would love to see ruined angmar in the game. Being that it is the area that has had the largest effect on most of the mume map in this age of middle earth, it would be very atmospheric. Without Angmar, most of MUMEs map would be civilized. The main reason I would love to see it though? I think it would be unforgivable to include almost everything from the blue mountains to mirkwood but completely skip mount gram, gundabad, carn dum, and the like. Of course carn dum is a long way off, but Gundabad is only about 7-8 zones north of the current map. That's a lot of work but it's also the capital of the misty mountain goblins.

Yes, Minas Morgul was captured via Mordor and Ithilien deserted long before MUME's timeframe, my memory served me wrong on that. I still don't think the plains of Rohan and Gondor would be a very fun place to have clashes between whities and darkies with unraidable towns so close by.

With any imagination at all, any of the areas would end up being a fun place to travel and would do nothing but enhance gameplay. Mirkwood would be my personal choice, but I'd like to see the whole extent of the Anduin as a 'highway' between the northern and southern areas, from the Vale to Minas Tirith.

I could be completely alone in this, but I really enjoy the wide open plains, with secret exits of Rohan and whatnot, because I really do enjoy turning on the room descriptions and wandering around, picturing myself as my character in the stories. I think everyone should take some time to do it, because it makes the game so much more fun! I do it pretty much once a week or so, because I get burned out of the constant ups and downs of PK. Everyone, try it! <3

I want Rauros. And with an elven boat you can actually... *shiver*...

I want them all!

More bottlenecks doesn't sound like much fun with my link, but if there were a few good closables it would be kinda nice. I agree with Syd, the wide open plains are just a nice place to walk around and soak up the atmosphere, but there should be lots of hidden exits and other interesting things like that. I think it would be cool to have Minas Tirith in game, especially since it's not too far from Edoras which is in construction now I guess.

Emyn Muil (spelling?) Would be awesome too, it could be such a fun and difficult area to navigate, imagine trying to flee from enemies through there Though I guess that's a little off the beaten track.

I'd prefer Erebor and Laketown - areas that Tolkien described in The Hobbit. A dragon, an empty dwarven city, a ruined city (Dale) and a prospering trade town (a little more safe than Tharbad, but I doubt the would turn Black Numenoreans money away). And forest that are unfriendly if you leave the path.
Second is the land north of Mordor - dead and deadly lands, lacking everything pleasant. Described by Tolkien in the LotR.
Angmar in the time Mume is an abandoned land, crushed by the elves and gondorian forces in 1975 T.A. We got enough of such areas, I doubt it would be really interesting. And Angmar was never described in detail by Tolkien.

All the proposed options are clearly viable and based on Tolkien. For already mentioned reasons I'd also prefer the northern direction and the Mirkwood direction.

However, there are always possibilities within the frame (those narrow zone-lines really do make up a frame of a sort ) which is already built. Stretching out towards farther and farther areas is not always good in itself. A mere stretched-out dead-end will end up as either (nearly) abandoned (like the plains-zones aside Lorien before Lorien was opened) or as a place what only exping or smobing groups visit (like Dunland before the new areas eastward). Thus, one should always search for possibilities in furthering the already existing frame, building depth and diversity within it.

The north is only an empty wasteland if you think gundabad, grey mountains, ettenmoors, the lands of the hillmen etc are not interesting places

Something that will go north of Trollshaws (Wobbler already wrote about it). Expanding from NOC or Fornost would be either too darkie or too whitie based, Trollshaws has a nice position in the middle. Something like this:



On the other hand, building from NOC through Angmar to Fornost would maybe get darkies to play more? North of Fornost is a pretty dangerous zone so I'd imagine no rangers would roam there, thus making Fornost-PK viable?

I would like to see the area between Rivendell and Tharbad linked and also Bree to Moria (mostly rural), essentially a big X in the centre of the map. Although this would not be terribly exciting in itself it would not take the brains of a NASA scientist to see how this would open a whole new dimension to the PK arena.

I've always thought it would be fun to have some sort of direct connection between Fornost and the Warrens or Hillmen area, but there isn't really much to put in there.
Perhaps, if an Angmarian area is made that connects to W and maybe also the zone west of Z, a westward expansion could serve as a smob trail for whities upon which darkies could easily pick up tracks of smob groups. That would be very far into the future, however - I think expanding the Misties and the Trollshaws towards Angmar should be the main focus, with a Fornost connection something to build only if the Maia unemployment rate is higher than desireable.

Edit: I've always wanted the Sarn Ford area to be installed and connecting to RtT too, but that would have very little impact on PK; at most, it could be an area for BNs to check for xpers heading towards Tharbad.

Rogon wrote:The north is only an empty wasteland if you think gundabad, grey mountains, ettenmoors, the lands of the hillmen etc are not interesting places

I think there are very very few zones which are interesting places entirely thanks to themselves. Moria for one.

What I rather emphasised is that just making a loooong stretch to any of the proposed directions is not a good idea. Any new direction should be combined with existing areas and linked to the general play-sphere (if I may use such a word...) more than just 'de jure'.

Like, lets take Tharbad for example. You're an old player, I'm sure you remember. 1: Tharbad before the zones which linked it eastwards (oie), 2. Tharbad after the eastern link was opened. Now, tell me, from your point of view - how much more 'interesting' did the zone get because of that?