I've recently thought about several aspects of this mod's geography that are inaccurate and do not fit with Tolkien's world:
- The lake in front of the west gate of Moria is too large and too far from the door itself. The Watcher in the Water could in no way interact with the Fellowship so far from the door. I feel like this can easily be fixed.
- The Rivendell biome is too large to house the city itself in the way Tolkien described. It was located in a narrow gorge of the river Bruinen and well hidden in the hills and cliffs. The mod, however, leaves a massive island with very little topography dedicated to the Rivendell biome. To fix this, I would recommend extending the Rivendell Hills biome into the island itself to create a narrow valley. I noticed on the wiki that Mevans made the valley larger for "balancing purposes." Any idea what this means?
- The Falls of Rauros are nonexistent. I doubt that I'm the first person to mention this, but I think that the Falls are a very iconic landmark in Middle Earth. I would suggest elevating the northern part of the Anduin and its surrounding areas. On the west side of the Anduin, the land could remain relatively flat, as it will eventually meet the Misties, thus eliminating any need for sudden changes in elevation. On the east side, the terrain could gradually decline in elevation so that it would be back to normal elevation by the time the terrain meets Mirkwood.
- Transition Zones should be added between contrasting biomes. These would be unique biomes that would not appear on the map, but they would help to provide a seamless transition between drastically different biomes, such as Emyn Muil and its surrounding regions. On that note, the Ithilien Wasteland is meant to be a transition zone between Ithilien/Gondor and the Morgul Vale/Mordor Mountains, but the wasteland is too green and alive. I would suggest making the Ithilien Wasteland slightly more brownish with less plant life.
- The overwhelming presence of cave openings above ground feels too unrealistic and breaks the illusion of Middle Earth. I understand that this is likely an aspect carried over from Vanilla Minecraft, but it's just very strange to see caves all over the Shire and in the roads throughout Middle Earth. I'm not suggesting that you remove caves; just make surface entrances less frequent.
- Okay, I recognize that you have little control over the height limit in Minecraft, but if you could find a way around that, that'd be awesome! It's nearly impossible to build a full-scale Barad-dur or Orthanc or even Minas Tirith due to the height limit restrictions. I have done a little investigating into mods that change that, but I haven't found anything for 1.7.10.
Those are my suggestions! Let me know what you all think!