Board Thread:General Mod Discussion/@comment-33763020-20180101200418

I'm planning on building a major permanent base at enemy borders and was wondering what you (long-time) players suggest for a location if my plans are based on below expectations. I currently have 2 bases, one in the Shire (only farming) and one in Minhiriath hills (alignment gathering and some farms), but both are obsolete since I realized that farms work just as well anywhere and my alignment is in the thousands with most factions, so the bleak and boring Minhiriath lands are not needed either. I would like to build a single major base in a more interesting area with following in mind:

1. Views: the main reason. I set up the Minhiriath base randomly to gather experience points and the area is quite bleak and boring to look at to all sides. I love colourful biomes like the Woodland Realm, Field of Celebrant (flower variant) or hilly regions, where there is colour and varying scenery. Since I will be spending a lot of time on the walls fighting off invasions, I would like to have a nice view of the surroundings, as well as be able to see clearly, free of trees in the close vicinity (though of course I could always set my axe to it to clear the closest area, Fangorn not being on the list, but traveling traders are important to spot quickly and trees make this a hassle). I would definitely like to have the base above "friendly" biome soil, as I hate to look at gloomy skies all the time. The romantic notion of having Mordor in front of me and friendly skies and colours behind me would be ideal, but it's very difficult to build just on enemy borders as vegetation usually has a transition area that's quite bleak.

2. Enemy border: though not on enemy soil due to the depressing surroundings, I would like to have many and challenging enemies close-by, to SLAUGHTER (hehe), with interesting loot. In Minhiriath it's so-so, as I have enough invasions (every few MC days or so, sometimes up to 3 at the time if they are not too close-by and linger on until the next invasion comes), but not much variety, mainly Angmar or Gundabad orcs/wargs with occasionally Dunlendings lately, but no Trolls, Spiders. Loot is mainly bones, furs, armour/weapons and orc steel, with rather rare extras (lore books, silver nugget, etc.). I like the Mirkwood loot of the msytery web since it's always something special, so I rather shoot hordes of spiders for loot.

3. Fertile area: if I just plant farms high above ground, does this still mean that the biome's "fertility" applies? And are there any differences in how quickly crops grow, or even some that don't? I only plant wheat, carrots and potatoes for trade and flax for string (bow repair and trade) and occasionally boost a chicken farm for feathers and a deer farm for leather, these would all be high up above ground (at least 10 blocks above the castle walls).

4. Travelling traders: a really important point, as Minhiriath is quite well provided with these and I only miss the Dorwinion traders who buy wineglasses, but money pours in anyway from selling bones or going to Rohan to sell the carrots and haybales. The best compromise seems Gondor to me, as it covers most traders' route.

5. Weather: preferrably not too hot, cold, rainy or foggy :). This rules out most of the mountains, the deserts, jungles and the evil lands.

6. Not too many trees: my current laptop is an old one and can hardly handle the 5-8 chunks I throw at it, though this will be solved soon. Lothlorien is clearly an issue (even with FastCraft) and so I try to avoid dense woods. Not sure if the Woodland Realm's border would be an issue, there are some fairly open spaces there as well.

My favorite areas at the moment for above reasons are these, I'm curious about your opinions!

1. Ithilien: lots of enemies spawning, nice coloured areas with fairly open spaces as well and I hope the traders visit it the same way as the other Gondorian areas, though I found no info on traders visiting Ithilien. The loot may be less interesting than the Woodland Realm though.

2. Woodland Realm (light forest version): I love the colour of the trees there, the whole biome is great. It is is perfectly situated for good loot from the surrounding spider population (mystery web) and trolls. The only issue I have is that it is quite dense with trees most of the time, so a lot of tree cutting would be needed to have an attack buffer for invasions. Also, as I always lure invasions in by horse, the trees obstruct a lot and lag caused by the woods makes for a diffcult return back to base with wargs on my tail.

3. Cair Andros: hopefully a good spawn place of enemies, as water surrounds it. Have no idea about trader visits though.

3. Dale: has the benefits of the Woodland Realm and open spaces for skirmish, but the views are not nearly as amazing.

4. Lothlorien edge: while it's a truly amazing place, the forest denseness just makes battle impossible for me due to lag. Loot is probably not as interesting as in the Woddland Realm either.

Ideas/Experiences? :) 