Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-29098880-20160914160458/@comment-26172435-20160915082908

Please note that the objective of this is would be to support / enable creation of Middle-Earth based worlds (with or without Valinor / Dark Lands, etc.) that either are according to lore, like the FA and SA worlds, or based on lore, like assuming alternate historical development for any age, including fourth. It would stretch too far to want to achieve more.

Additionally, the mod team is considering to also support / enable creation of dedicated resource packs with textures and music ... for which the same reasoning is applicable.

Changing alignment / stance between factions is one of the least complex goals as all alignment / stance related info is in one file with a clearly repetitive structure. Changing the spawns in biomes, or any other specific biome coded feature is less obvious as the structure of the biome code files is not the same, nor is their parent-child structure used in the same manner. This is one of the reasons why I believe it would be much simpler to just have the people who really want to do this, find it out for themselves. I also believe only very few will then effectively use this, and only the really bold and skilled will eventually be successful and produce a mod-worthy and mod-based variant of ME for MC. Finally consider that the experience gathered from that work may help Mevans improve the core mod. This means it could be extra beneficial for him, and the mod team, to focus on a license based release of the keys to a sub-mod, enabling creation of only a few, specific custom worlds. It will allow them to select their 'annexes' and ensure these will provide their experience with mod-modding in return.

Overall I think a sub-mod should encompass files for: map, biome and biome variant generation, faction alignment / stance, textures, music, roads and waypoints (haven't looked into that in detail yet), and relevant others like quests and speechbanks (which are also faction stance dependent). Nothing more, especially no core files, defining functions and such, and no additional freedom to add factions, NPCs, recipes and all ... just the detailling features that affects the way the gameplay environment looks and feels, without changing any of the core features of the mod. This both honours and protects the work of Tolkien and Mevans and his buddies and allows for spectacular alternate ME gameplay environments. Still a lot to cover and to offer, methinks!

P.S.: All note that it's ITLAPD soon!