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5/5/2026 - Mapgen Generation Plans

By neinwhal

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:

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.

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...

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