# LOTT Blog # 3/1/2026 - A new chapter? By *wrynvera* It has been 6 years since we announced LTTA and frankly that hasn't been much development in it. Lot of things in my life have changed since then, but this remains a consistent hope to finish one day... Here's to hoping this blog post marks the beginning of something new... # Todo List *By Amaz* A list of things that need to be done at some point, at some time, with no particular priority (if they're done at some point in the next ten years, that would be good...) # Tools This is pretty high on the list of things to be done. Some basis needs to be added... Some format for how they're going to work, their levels, their crafting method, etc... Basic progression idea: - As not all trees can be dug by hand, leaves -> sticks. - Sticks + flint -> first tools - -> stone? - -> Metals Then there's the question of crafting. # Mobs The world needs to become alive - at the moment, there's a map - a good start, but it's dead. It needs some mobs adding to enliven it a little. Some mobs (animals, certain monsters) can be added on a world-wide basis, but there are others that need to be done on a biome by biome basis (hobbits, elves...) A base needs to be decided (mobs redo?). Idea: Bandits in wild countries: [![screenshot_20260102_232037.png](https://wiki.awharf.xyz/uploads/images/gallery/2026-01/scaled-1680-/ejDaK52iove0CKix-screenshot-20260102-232037.png)](https://wiki.awharf.xyz/uploads/images/gallery/2026-01/ejDaK52iove0CKix-screenshot-20260102-232037.png) # Mapgen The mapgen is in a pretty good state, but needs to be finished off. Structures need to be added. How? Schems? Lua code? tbd. *For structures, we need to add more decorative blocks.* The **sea coast** needs to be finished. At the moment, it drops down too rapidly. The patch for perfecting hight transitions needs to be pushed. More plants (farming, athelas, etc.) need to be added to the mapgen. The paths mod could easily be addapted (with the same equations as in the LOTRMC mod?) to add roads to the world - roads make exploring soo much easier! # 5/5/2026 - Mapgen Generation Plans *By wrynvera* ### Background The map generation of Lord of the Test has came a long way from its original beginnings. When I made Lord of the Test about 13 years ago, the only map generation features were just some ores, there were no biomes, no structures. Then Amaz hopped on and with another developer working on other things, I was able to adapt paramat's paragenv7 mod into a messy LOTR-based non-positional biomes map generation, which is still pretty much in Lord of the Test today. Later on of course, structures and various tiny enhancements were made to LOTT map generation from various contributions between myself, Amaz and other contributors, but it has mostly stayed using the paragenv7 base. ### Third Age When talks of a rework of LOTT came about 6 years ago, one of the major focus of it was to work on an accurate map of Middle Earth and of course while we had some clue how to do it, we still were mostly clueless. Amaz made a major breakthrough around early 2022 that created our first accurate map of Middle Earth. This was further iterated along the next three years by him, along with making an async mapgen (which funny enough is the latest commit made to Third Age) ### Current Status I have had the opportunity to look at it as of the last few months and am able to iterate on Amaz's amazing base. The post also serve as a way for me to consolidate my plans and thoughts for future biomes. Here's the new biome map I am working on: [![](https://wiki.awharf.xyz/uploads/images/gallery/2026-05/scaled-1680-/y7k5gdn3ZOB5FLP3-image-1777996403061.png)](https://wiki.awharf.xyz/uploads/images/gallery/2026-05/y7k5gdn3ZOB5FLP3-image-1777996403061.png) Each unique color represents a unique territory/biome, there remains a lot of polish and details and some regions are definitely underdeveloped, but i think this will create a good base. There are also various other maps! For detailing of heights, waters, and much more potential for the future... [![](https://wiki.awharf.xyz/uploads/images/gallery/2026-09/scaled-1680-/bCW7rPXEN5EQGh35-image-1788813223759.png)](https://wiki.awharf.xyz/uploads/images/gallery/2026-09/bCW7rPXEN5EQGh35-image-1788813223759.png) The map is primarily divided into 9 main regions: #### **East Region** - Lindon - lightly forested region - Lindon Forests - heavily forested regions of Lindon - Blue Mountains - Eryn Vorn - heavily forested region with dark pine trees - Tol Fuin - a mysterious surviving region of beleriand - Tol Morwen - coastal, rocky island - Himling - rocky forested island - Grey Havens - populated regions of Lindon, where elven ports lay *Future Additions:* - determine what secrets Tol Fuin can contain? - split up Lindon into more regions - split up Grey Havens into more unique populated regions - possible ruins and inhabited zones along the blue mountains? #### **North Region** - Forodwaith - northern empty wastelands - Bay of Forochel - regions sparsely populated by the Lossoth - Forodwaith Mountains - broken remains of the iron mountains - Angmar Mountains - surviving remnants of the witch king army - Grey Mountains - desolated mountainous region - Withered Heath - devastated desolated burnt plains - Gundabad Mountains - orc infested mountains *Future Additions:* - better transition between the northern wastelands - possible remnants of Melkor in the frozen wastelands? - consolidate orc populated regions within the infested mountains #### **Central Region** - Tower Hills - rolling green hills - Far Downs - Hilly region - Evendim Hills - Hilly region - North Downs - Hilly region - Weather Hills - Hilly region - South Downs - Hilly region - Shire - Hobbits! - Old Forest - a dense forested region - Barrow Downs - Hilly region with some tombs of old - Chetwood - forested region - Midgewater - wetlands - Breeland - populated lightly forested region - Eriador - lightly forested region for the remainder of the unspecified central region *Future Additions:* - Split up shire into more distinct zones - Ruins and more regions of the fallen Arnor #### **Left of Misty Mountains** - Ettenmoors - barren hilly zone with spare vegetation - Rhudaur - pine tree forested hilly region with tons of caves - Trollshaws - heavily pine forested region infested with troll caves - Rivendell - forested hidden valley - The Angle - forested region - Eregion - barren lightly forested region with ruins - Swanfleet - marshy lands - Enedwaith - vast plains - Dunland - vast plains inhabited by the dunlendings *Future Additions:* - consolidate populated/inhabited zones #### **Right of Misty Mountains** - Wilderland - vast plains - Misty Mountains - Lothlorien - the golden forest - Naith - core populated lorien region - Gladden Fields - marsh lands - Fangorn - heavily dense forest - The Wold - vast grasslands - Brown Lands - devastated grasslands - Mirkwood Mountains - Greenwood - clean part of Mirkwood - Mirkwood - dense forests infested with dark things - Amon Lanc - center of Mirkwood infestations - East Bight - deforested devastated plains - Erebor - the lonely mountain - Iron Hills - series of mineral rich hills - Anduin Vale - lightly forested valley - Fields of Celebrant - flowering plains *Future Additions* - Split up anduin vale into more specific regions - Split up fangorn into more specific regions - Split up misty mountains into specific mineral regions and orc infested areas #### **Dale Region** (mostly still WIP) - Dale Plains - Dale Foothills #### **Rhun Region** (mostly still WIP) - Rhun Plains - Rhun Hills - Rhun Steppe - Red Mountains (North) - Red Mountains (South) #### **Gondor Region** ##### North Gondor - Isengard - Gap of Rohan - West Rohan - East Rohan - Anorien - Emyn Muil - rocky maze lands - Nindalf - marshy lands - Dead Marshes - dying marshy lands - Mouths of Entwash - river delta ##### Central Gondor - Gondor Plains - plains convering most of this region - Pelennor Fields - series of farmlands - Lossarnach - flowering fields - Lebennin - vast plains - Belfalas - vast plains - Dol Amroth - Pinnath Gelin - rolling hills - Mouths of Anduin - river delta - Anfalas - plains/beach - Blackroot Vale - heavily forested valley - White Mountains - Andrast - forested area - Old Pukel-land - forested area ##### East Gondor - Ithilien - forested area - South Ithilien - forested area - Harondor #### **Mordor Region** - Morannon - plains wastelands - Udun - volcanic plains - Ash Mountains - Gorgoroth - volcanic plains - Morgul Vale - sickly lightly forested valley - Nurn - vast grasslands - Shadow Mountains Harad region is the lowest priority so is not even considered for now. And obviously both the Gondor and Mordor region does have a lot more to be detailed... # 8/9/2026 - Legacy Fork By *wrynvera* Echoing the first dev blog post [here](https://wiki.awharf.xyz/books/lott-blog/page/312026-a-new-chapter); It has been *6 years* since we announced LTTA and frankly that hasn't been much development in it. As of today, I have started a new official fork of LOTT: [Lord of the Test: Legacy](https://github.com/minetest-LOTR/Legacy). Legacy attempts to maybe try to mitigate the staleness of LTTA. A major hurdle of LTTA was the fact that we were starting from scratch (which to Amaz's defense, he didn't wanted to at first, but he did eventually agree with my proposed rewrite which became LTTA). *(In hindsight; sorry Amaz :p)* The main reason LTTA was started was because LOTT's code base is a complete mess, it originated from a time where both me and Amaz were just hobbyist teens trying to make something inbetween our school breaks, that honestly became something way bigger than I expected. And by the time I've reached an understanding of code etiquette and perhaps, more of an ambition; it was really hard to add significant new features without breaking compatibility and end up *rewriting* something anyways. All of which, *on paper* makes a rewrite like LTTA sound like a good idea. But that also makes LTTA a bad idea; it was a *complete rewrite*, all the years of established gameplay systems gone, there was zero gameplay and zero systems now that have to be rebuilt from scratch, and that was, to say the least, a very daunting task; which coupled with growing up, made LTTA a really near-impossible task. Meanwhile after 7 years since the [final feature release of LOTT](https://github.com/minetest-LOTR/Lord-of-the-Test/releases/tag/v.1.2.0), LOTT still receive an active audience, much more than I expected, for a broken, buggy mess cobbled together; and occasionally now and then the discord/irc still fires up with a newbie question on trying to get into LOTT. And in that way, I sorta feel guilty for making people waiting for something that while I do *really hope* will be completed one day - has just too many hurdles... That being said, LTTA at its current stage *isn't that far* from basic gameplay either, thanks to Amaz's effort; it does have more than enough of a basic base and does mainly only depend on mobs to sorta add in some *basic* gameplay, if you are interested to check out Amaz's progress on LTTA; he has made a [TODO list post](https://wiki.awharf.xyz/books/lott-blog/chapter/todo-list) a while ago. But it doesn't really achieve a state that I'm satisfied with; it is mostly a barebones shell, heck, I would say even LOTT has more gameplay... I've been procastinating less recently that I've been making attempts at bringing LTTA to the polished vision that I have in mind; namely helping [further expanding the mapgen](https://wiki.awharf.xyz/books/lott-blog/page/552026-mapgen-generation-plans). Amongst my attempts though, those **hurdles** just kept coming in my way again, I need a flora system? Wait there isn't one yet, mobs? Nope. Buildings? Nope... This is why I've decided to just ***make a fork of LOTT***. #### An official fork?? What does that even mean? Why not just continue on LOTT directly? Three reasons. 1. LOTT provides a base, *an very ugly base, yes*, but a base that function very well as placeholders when needed when working/expanding on features. That makes it *a lot* easier than pausing midway while working on a feature to work on another that it depends on because that doesn't exist yet. 2. One of the major things we promised for LOTT when it reached EOD was no compatibility breakage, *that is very hard*; A fork removes that pressure... This fork promise **zero** compatibility, and is just focused on advancing gameplay features/polish. 3. Consider Legacy as an inbetween of LOTT & LTTA, what does that mean? I'll explain shortly... #### What about LTTA? **"Lord of the Test: Third Age" is here to stay and will remain for the foreseeable future.** So is my hope to eventually complete it. Legacy exists as a bridge. It allows me to quickly iterate and test features *for Third Age* with LOTT current gameplay loop. But there still remains where Legacy can't really beat Third Age, it *still contains* the burden that LOTT's code rot comes with and buggy systems way too intertwined with each other to extract and patch. That is when Third Age comes in, upon reaching such a hurdle - that's when I can bring the iterated features that has already been properly tested and built in Legacy to Third Age! Ultimately, Third Age does still stay as the final goal, Legacy just makes that easier to reach. *At the same time, provide maybe a bit more of a polished gameplay experience than old LOTT for people waiting.* #### Cool.. So erm.. legacy release date wen? I've just made the [first commit to Legacy](https://github.com/minetest-LOTR/Legacy/commit/c0161ae38cb942d7eecf349d8c0ec0c7967e847a) where it adds the [experimental mapgen that I was working for Third Age](https://wiki.awharf.xyz/books/lott-blog/page/552026-mapgen-generation-plans) to it, it is simplified to fit LOTT base, but it's a good base, it adds quite a bit of base capability to manually construct the world such that it actually resembles Middle Earth, not just LOTT's biome soup... And I can already populate it with existing LOTT gameplay (yay). Here's a (wip) preview (which btw you can already test with the commit made above! but don't expect it to be stable nor complete..): *Exiting lothlórien on the Anduin with the Misty Mountains in the background* [![](https://wiki.awharf.xyz/uploads/images/gallery/2026-09/scaled-1680-/iI6jiNV3Ab5QkQv7-image-1788812319034.png)](https://wiki.awharf.xyz/uploads/images/gallery/2026-09/iI6jiNV3Ab5QkQv7-image-1788812319034.png) I am excited to mess with Legacy, to be able to test and build partial systems that would be a drag for Third Age. This does leave me both hopeful and excited to see what I (and of course, anyone is welcome to contribute anything!); We will make for Legacy and Third Age. I hope the reader here feels the same too! Thanks for reading! If all goes well, I hope to maybe release the first stable version of Legacy within a few months or less! ~wrynvera [![](https://wiki.awharf.xyz/uploads/images/gallery/2026-09/scaled-1680-/7WSA03Ux7FrhW9eL-image-1788813639523.png)](https://wiki.awharf.xyz/uploads/images/gallery/2026-09/7WSA03Ux7FrhW9eL-image-1788813639523.png)