Fast Travel System

Full colour waypoint map of Middle-earth (also available in sepia colours)

The fast travel system is a convenient method of transport which allows the player to travel large distances across the Middle-earth map without having to walk, ride, or sail through the space between.

The system was added to the Mod in Public Beta 14, shortly after the release of Middle-earth terrain generation.

Since Public Beta 24, a new full screen map is available (large size here). A full interactive map of the Mod is also available in this page.

Mechanics

There are fast travel waypoints all across the map of Middle-earth allowing access to most regions. However, the waypoints must be activated first. To activate a waypoint, simply enter the region in which it is located. Upon entering a region, all the waypoints within will become available for use. For some waypoints you also need to have a certain alignment; for example, waypoints in Mordor are not available for players with negative Mordor alignment to use, even after travelling to Mordor.

There is also a cooldown period between use of fast travel, currently set at 30 minutes by default, but can be changed if you have access to cheats or commands. As of Public Beta 23, the more you use a particular fast travel point, the shorter the cooldown time for that waypoint becomes, until it reaches 10% of the default setting. For example, if the fast travel cooldown time is 20 minutes and you go to the High Pass waypoint 5 times, the cooldown for it may decrease to 15 minutes.

As of Public Beta 21, there is a 10 second countdown before fast traveling after selecting your teleport. Any movement during this wait period will cancel the fast travel countdown and you will have to start again. This was added to prevent players abusing fast travel as a 'teleport' out of tricky situations. However, movement as a result of hired units pushing you does not cancel the countdown. If a bandit attacks you while you are waiting to fast travel, it will cancel the countdown and allow you the chance to get your items back. You are not able to start fast travel while under attack.

As of Public Beta 32, you will be notified in chat when fast travel is ready to use.

When fast travelling, all your nearby hired units (except those which are halted or guarding) will come with you, and if you are riding a mount, that will be transported as well. You have to be riding the mount if you want it to be transported - nearby mounts which are not being ridden will not come along! You can also fast travel with animals on leads.

Starting out with Fast Travel

If enabled (see below), the fast travel system is available instantly upon entering Middle-earth. Combine this with the fact that the Shire has a waypoint (Sarn Ford) located right on its border, and you can use fast travel to be well on your way into the heart of Middle-earth in just a couple of minutes.

Players often complain that it takes ages to get out of the Shire biome. Notwithstanding the point that the Shire is one of the most feature-packed biomes in Middle-earth, this is not a valid complaint, for two reasons: Firstly, the journey can be made in well under 20 minutes with adequate food supplies - and secondly, thanks to fast travel, you can get out almost straight away!

The best strategy is to fast travel as near to a region border as possible (e.g. Sarn Ford for the Shire), then move across the border to unlock some new waypoints (possibly use a mount). Repeat this over and over until you reach your desired destination. Some regions (like the Great Desert) are huge and still need a lot of effort and multiple ingame days to cross, even with this strategy. In this case, set some intermediate custom waypoints to prevent having to start all over in case you die.

Fast Travel Screen

A loading screen when fast travelling from Far Harad to the Trollshaws.

The fast travel screen zooming in on its final destination.

The fast travel screen features an animation of the map, smoothly zooming from your origin to intended destination and a nice quote from the books to pass the time!

List of quotes (Click here to expand)

• "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to."
• "Home is behind, the world ahead, and there are many paths to tread..."
• "Through shadows to the edge of night, until the stars are all alight..."
• "Then world behind and home ahead, we'll wander back to home and bed..."
• "The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places."
• "That's the only place in all the lands we've ever heard of that we don't want to see any closer; and that's the one place we're trying to get to!"
• "His old life lay behind in the mists, dark adventure lay in front."
• "Then shouldering their burdens, they set off..."
• "I'll get there, if I leave everything but my bones behind."
• "Not all those who wander are lost..."
• "I want to see mountains again, Gandalf – mountains; and then find somewhere where I can rest."
• "He looked at maps, and wondered what lay beyond their edges: maps made in the Shire showed mostly white spaces beyond its borders."
• "Roads go ever ever on, over rock and under tree..."
• "Roads go ever ever on, under cloud and under star..."
• "Yet feet that wandering have gone, turn at last to home afar..."
• "The Road goes ever on and on, out from the door where it began..."
• "Now far ahead the Road has gone, and I must follow, if I can..."
• "Now far ahead the Road has gone. Let others follow, if they can!"
• "End? No, the journey doesn't end here..."
• "We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!"
• "What am I going to get out of it? And am I going to come back alive?"
• "Far over the Misty Mountains cold, to dungeons deep and caverns old..."
• "I come from under the hill, and under the hills and over the hills my paths led. And through the air. I am he that walks unseen..."
• "Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens."
• "Courage is found in unlikely places."
• "It's the job that's never started as takes longest to finish."
• "There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after."

Commands and Configuration

The Mod offers two commands to edit the fast travel system:

/fastTravelTimer <ticks> [player]

This command lets you change the time until the next fast travelling in available to another value. The value is measured in ticks (1/20 sec.). The player argument is optional and allows you to set the timer of someone else.

/fastTravelCooldown <ticks>

This command lets you determine the default cooldown for the fast travel system. The value is measured in ticks (1/20 sec.). This setting is global, that means it affects all players. This command is useful to set the cooldown when starting a new world so that you don't have to mind /fastTravelTimer in the game. You can also disable the cooldown by setting it to 0.

The Mod also offers a configuration to disable the fast travel system in the lotr.cfg configuration file, mostly used on servers:

B:"Enable Fast Travel"=true

If set to false, no fast travelling is possible. Players trying to do so will get an error message.

Unrestricted Map Teleports

When commands for a world are available, it is possible to use the map screen to teleport to any point on the map. Note that this is not actual 'fast travel', it is simply a more user friendly way of using an ordinary /tp command and therefore it has none of the benefits of fast travel (i.e. mount and hired troop transport), and it also has no effect on fast travel cooldown times.

To use this, just hold the cursor at your desired position at the map and press 'M' (default-key). There is also a help text for this function under the map.

Gameplay mechanics of the Lord of the Rings Mod Basic Mechanics: Alignment • Books • Crafting • Equipment Modifiers • Factions • Farming Fellowships • Fishing • Gameplay Guide • Menu • Millstone • Pledging • Shire Reckoning Status Effects • Trading (Respawning, Travelling) • Undyeing • Unit Hiring • Unsmeltery The World: Biomes (Variants) • Clock • Compass • Fast Travel System • Roads Sky (Clouds, Weather, Northern Lights, Moon, Sun) Transportation (Mounts, Breeding) • Waypoints • World Types Achievements and Quests: Achievements • Mini-Quest • Shields • Titles • The Red Book • Tutorial In-Game Events: Bandits • Bloodmoon • Invasions • Player Respawning • Skirmishes • Thieves Combat: Banners • Boss Mechanics • Combat System • Conquest • Fort Besieging Tips • Fort Defense Tips Hired Units • Pacifism • Reforging • Table of Command • Tactics Against Factions • Weapons Brewing: Alcoholicity • Barrel • Brewing • Magical drinks • Poisoned drinks Portals: Elven Portal • Morgul Portal • Ring Portal • Utumno Other / Technical: Block/Item IDs • Commands • Configuration • Entities • Entity Alignment Registry List of All Miniquests • Names • NBT-data • Overview • Sounds • Spawners • Speech