All posts by Wrath of Ancalagon

Although I believe that the dimension as it is is great already, I have a few suggestions for improving Utumno. Along with the jail cells, treasure rooms, torture chambers, laboratories and Warg pits mentioned in the Utumno structures thread (all of which are great ideas), I think several other features could be added - these will be detailed below. -structures/biomes 1. mines/slave pits - areas in the fire levels of Utumno where slaves are forced to extract ores to make new armour and weaponry for Melkor's former army. These should contain rare ores and Orc steel to repair Utumno armour (this should give an additional incentive for players to enter the deepest levels of the underworld), as well as forges and new mobs (detailed below). 2. Utumno supply tunnels - a new biome in Utumno, which can be accessed via certain archways in the far western reaches of the obsidian and fire levels (most frequently in the latter). Once the player enters these arches, they will enter a series of interconnecting tunnels filled with various Utumno mobs, including Orcs, Tormented Elves and Ice Spiders. These would resemble vanilla Minecraft's abandoned mineshafts, but far larger and far from abandoned. There are also areas for the orcs to recieve water - the further west the payer goes, the more of these will have a primitive form of filter above them to remove salt from the water, and more of the tunnels closest to the surface will be blocked off...
note: should the player go west enough from the first set of tunnels, they will enter another version of regular Utumno, albiet with more wear and less of the ice levels being accessable; however, should the player go further west through a second ste of supply tunnels, they will enter... 3. The Utumno Sanctum/Greater Utumno - the main section of Utumno, where Melkor held court before the War of Powers, which has partially been rebuilt in the thousands of years since that conflict (only the deepest fire levels are accessable - the rest have been blocked off to prevent the sea from flooding what remains of the fortress). It mostly resembles the fire level of regular Utumno, but with higher cielings and wider corridors, but has two distinct sub-biomes: . Stagnant Lakes - underground lakes which have formed from sea water getting through the barriers the creatures of Utumno made to keep it out. The bricks around them should be Utumno Obsidian brick, as the fires have been put out by the water. Thre are some wooden bridges which allow players to cross them, but are regularly used by the slaves to darkness which have made their home in the fortress. .The Infernal Hall - at the very lowest level of the Sanctum, there is a long, wide corridor leading straight on into the dark. No regular mobs spawn here, but new minibosses (detailed below) will spawn near the beginning of it, and near the end, one (or more) Balrog(s) will stand guard. The reason for this intense security becomes clear once the player reaches the end of the hall (presuming they survive long enough to get there) - they will reach the Great Door: the doorway to Melkor's throne room. If the player right-clicks to open the door, they will recieve a warning message stating that: "Behind this door is the former court of the Dark Enemy, master of the Great Eye of Mordor. None know what now lies in the throne room save perhaps the Valar themselves - this is your last chance to turn back..." Once the message is dismissed, a fully activated Melkor plate will appear, ready to return the player to the surface. If the player ignores this, and right-clicks on the Great Door again, it will swing open, allowing them to enter. Once inside, the Door will close behind the player, who will then see... (the contents of the room will be left to the mod development team to decide) (the thread is continued in the next post)

I know that the evil forces in Mirkwood are alredy reasonably developed, but I feel that they could be improved in several ways that would greatly flesh out the region. 1. Castellans of Dol Guldur - autonomous scions of the fortress of Dol Guldur, these phantoms are well-armoured (wearing a slightly tougher variant of Dol Guldur armour, probably granting 18 protection points instead of the usual 15), have a reasonable amount of health (50 health points) and wield Dol Guldur swords and daggers (one in each hand), making them very dangerous opponents (akin to minibosses). They only spawn around the hill of Dol Guldur itself, so enemies of Dol Guldur will not face their wrath as long as they do not plan a direct assault on the hill. Being guardians of Sauron's former abode, they do not take intruders lightly, and will attack anyone under +500 alignment with the faction.
(note: these beings don't have any real lore on them, as they were soley invented for Games Workshop's LotR miniatures game - the models can be seen here: https://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/Castellans-of-Dol-Guldur. However, I do not believe that their addition would contradict any established lore.) 2. Dol Guldur Wargs - Essentially the same as any other Warg (bar those from Utumno) - used by Dol Guldur Orcs as mounts (since the Mirkwood Spiders are too hostile towards them to be ridden). Like all Wargs, they will only attack the player if they have a negative alignment with their respective faction. They are a very dark brown or muddy green colour, and should be equipped with Dol Guldur Warg armour (a new item). They also have the same amount of health as other Wargs. 3. Mactans the spider queen - a boss inhabiting a dark, web-filled cave in Mirkwood Corrupted. She is the mother of most of the Mirkwood Spiders and a daughter of Shelob, and so is incredibly powerful. Her health is around 400 points and she has an armour value of 5. Ulike other bosses, she does not need to be summoned, as she is already blighting Mirkwood through command of her malicious brood. She has three phases in her boss fight - in the first phase, she fights the player alone, and her bite gives the nausea effect for a short period of time. In phase two (when her health has been lowered to half), she will start spawning regular Mirkwood Spiders (of all types and sizes) to protect her and start spitting Webs of Ungoliant at the player to slow them down. In phase three (when her health points have been lowered to 50), she will start trying to charge into the player and her bite will now deal the poison effect. Once she is slain, the player will earn the achievement "the Liberation of Mirkwood", the title "Spider Slayer" and a shield (the Spiderbane Shield). However, if you have at least a +100 Dol Guldur alignment and find Mactans, she will not harm the player unless provoked. In addition, once major quests and canon characters are implemented, she will give a quest to assassinate Thranduil, rewarding the player with +1000 Dol Guldur alignment once it is completed, along with a special Horn of Conquest that summons an army of Mirkwood Spiders no matter where the horn is used. Similarly, Silvan Elves will grant a similar quest for the player to kill Mactans if they have a positive alignment with the Woodland Realm faction. (note: Mactans is not an actual character in the lore [her namesake is a similar giant spider from a mobile tower defence game], so I will understand if the mod development team choose not to implement her) I hope that at least one of these suggestions is implemented into the mod to flesh out the Dol Guldur faction (which I feel has not been as well-developed as it could be), but if they are not, I will understand.