av_nefardec
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Posts posted by av_nefardec
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Hmm, I am not sure about the Hobbit. The main reason is it's so much different from Tolkien's other work, since it was written for nine-year olds
I'd rather start with LotR. -
I'm not sure about the word some
lol, I was trying to be as general as possible, so as not to offend the "many" or the "little" camp.
The truth is we don't know a lot about Taliska, the language of the Edain, since it hasn't been published yet. According to at least two sources I've read, Tolkien DID complete a fairly extensive bit about Taliska, and from what I know it is related to the historical Gothic language.
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but the majority of the game will be battle and military oriented.
I don't know if that's the best way to put it. There's a lot more to Middle-earth and so we've been designing it to adapt to player preferences.
Also the ratio of battle to other elements changes for each civilization. The Forces of Morgoth will likely have a more active military game than say, the Nandor.
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No that was a performance. I'll have to ask my roommate about the performer.
My roommate's friend at MIT has a lot of web space so he offered to host it.
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No, definitely not professionals.
We're just a group of normal (well maybe abnormal) people who are passionate enough about Tolkien's work, as well as designing something that might be able to give another dimension of it. We all have (Very busy) lives outside of TLA, and we're about as amateur as it gets
The only reason why we have been as successful as we have been is because of pure committment and love for the project. It's because we don't let the flame burn out, and we try to rekindle the flame in eachother when it starts to wane. Pretty much the secret to success in anything is dedication and committment. Ocassionally you'll get lucky, like when Quellion offered his services. But I spent months searching for and soliciting artists to join our project until we got another one.
HistoryGuy - I guess the only advice I can honestly give you is stay committed, stay passionate. If you want to make it in this, you are going to have to go in all the way and put your head under the water. By this I am referring both to actual game development and studies of Tolkien's work. It must be rigoruous and there is some level of discipline involved.
Anything else I tell you is probably all garbage anyways. I'm not an expert, not a professional. Maybe I have some ideas of team leadership, but it's all based on personal experience. Maybe if I have one more thing to tell you it's that, from my experience, it's always better to lead by example. For instance, I know a good amount about music, about art, architecture, linguistics, programming, web design, game design, etc . I study these things on my own separately, and so I have a background in a lot of areas. This allows me to give valuable advice, criticism, and vision in a number of areas as the project leader. If you simply direct people and tell them what to do, rather than actually working alongside your teammates, then (again from my experience i am saying this) you'll probably not develop a close sense of common goal, team spirit, and general fondness for your teammates. It's a nice thing to have trust within the team, and I know I can trust my teammates, and I want them to know they can trust me as their leader, when need arises. Again, this is related to dedication.
It's important to realize that it takes a long time. A ridiculously long time. You can never lose site of your goals though. It's never wise to rush something just because you want to see it done. It's definitely tempting. But before making leaps you've got to make sure the ground is steady, and that you can backtrack if the need arises.
Also my final bit of advice, which I feel I may have disregarded myself earlier, is just to be kind to teammates and others related to your project, and to maintain a sense of "professionalism". By this I don't mean pretending to be professional, but a general behavior that is closely associated with honesty, integrity, understanding, and quality.
I may have been a bit short with you in previous posts, because as much as I want to help you, my time is limited. Maybe this advice will be of use to you.
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all confused now (and geez - it's hard to think about grammatical reasons when i successfully forgot all that crap in school already biggrin.gif i just know what's right and what's not - but don't ask my why wink.gif
Oops - I thought der as a genitive article was only feminine and not plural -
What's "denen" used for then?
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Hey, other question, will you be able to easily edit the banners?
Yes, if you can use a program like Adobe Photoshop. The entire game will be quite easy to mod.
However, we definitely don't want to see mods out there that use TLA to "pervert" Tolkien's work - but we will condone and support and mod that seeks to refine our mistakes and misconceptions. Also any mod that simply offers alternative viewpoints about Tolkien which are valid and accurate.
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Actually please ignore those images.
They should have been removed a long time ago but we've been slow to do so.
Those were early sketches by an early member of the project for Númenor which we will not be using as conceptual artwork.
The reason they are labeled "edain" is because of the old organizational system we used to have for the civilizations, where we had one race called the "Edain" which had three different manifestations in the three ages of the sun. We've since changed the civilization concept completely.
In each age you'll be able to select from a different group of civilizations.
In the first age, it's possible to play as the major houses of the Edain, those of Bëor and Hador. In the second age, you can choose Númenor, and in the Third Age, the Dúnedain.
The Halethians will be a minor civilization in the first age, an AI-controlled mini-civilization that interacts with players on a more or less minor basis compared to the "major" civs.
As for "style", it is not that we deliberately set out to create a "style" for each civilization like a brand or a label, but that what we will eventually perceive as style should be influenced by the Professor's writing first and foremost, and after that should be influenced as the culture actually would have been influenced in Arda. For instance, we know that the Edainic culture descended from a common ancestor of it and the Northmen (the ancesotrs of the Eotheod/Rohirrim and also the men of Celduin and Dale) Thus we can do what we could call "comparative cultura reconstruction" and by examining aspects of the later Northmen, then the earlier northmen, develop an idea of this common ancestor culture, and then use that culture to reconstruct the Edainic culture.
It's much more valid to say, for instance, that Edainic culture could have germanic qualities to it, because we see that the Men of Dale and the Northmen, who are related, have germanic qualities of which Tolkien described outright than it is for us to say, I feel that the Edain should be more germanic/more scandinavian, etc. The latter way is a more arbitrary way of looking at a complex cultural and historical phenomena - we need to complement Tolkien's complex developments with equally in-depth investigations and analysis.
But to answer the question I know you were getting at - TLA's Edain might resemble what you'd call early germanic cultures in our own history, with a definite Noldorin influence in the aspects of the Edainic culture in which the Noldor had direct contact. We know the Dwarves, too, had early contacts with the Edain, and so some dwarven culture might have influenced the Edain. It's all a giant research problem.
BTW, do you guys accept any ideas from none-team members, as I have a few (poorly) drawn designs and ideas for various civilizations that you might be interested in using...If they are clear, accurate, high-quality, and have a strong sense of style, then we might consider them for "official" conceptual art. As a project we require high quality conceptual art both for communication to artists and to other members of the team such as game designers, but also because we pride ourselves in quality work, and talent attracts talent. In other words, the better the conceptual art, the more the team will seem like a valid usage of time to potential talented members of other disciplines. Not to mention it's good PR and everyone loves strong artwork.
Alternatively you could just post them here - eventually we'll have a fan-art gallery up where anyone is welcome to post anything appropriate.
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Could you provide a link to the placeholder article you speak of?
Also, thanks for signing up on ardaquenta.
Make sure you put a header in any new articles you create. Here's the code you need for that, just copy/paste
{| cellspacing="0px" cellpadding="2px" style="border: 1px solid #B0B093; background-color:#FFFFFF;"
|colspan=2 rowspan=1 valign="top" style="background-color:#B0B093;"|
<div style="font-size:8pt; color:#FFFFFF;">'''Information at a Glance'''</div>
|-
|colspan=1 rowspan=5 width="20%" valign="top" cellspacing="2px"|
<div style="font-size:8pt;">Origin:</div>
<div style="font-size:8pt;">Races / Peoples:</div>
<div style="font-size:8pt;">Pronounciation:</div>
<div style="font-size:8pt;">Names / Titles:</div>
<div style="font-size:8pt;">Textual Sources:</div>
<div style="font-size:8pt;">Notes:</div>
|colspan=1 rowspan=5 width="80%" valign="top" cellspacing="2px"|
<div style="font-size:8pt;">Blah</div>
<div style="font-size:8pt;">Blah</div>
<div style="font-size:8pt;">Blah</div>
<div style="font-size:8pt;">Blah</div>
<div style="font-size:8pt;">Blah</div>
<div style="font-size:8pt;">Blah</div>
|}== Then start you article here ==
If you need to change the information in this block, it's pretty straightforward, but just ask if you need help.
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We're definitely not going to use the THX opening though
It was just for fun, but it's serious copyright infringment.
Actually we did this little video as sort of a test for the new equipment we have, and we ended up just calling it the trailer.
Thanks for your comments.
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It might say "Du hasst mich" or "Du hast mich" - meaning "You're hating me" or "You've got me"
Yeah - it's "Du hast" by the german industrial/gothic band Rammstein.
The song is spelled "Du hast mich" but Rammstein translated it to "You hate me", which means it should have been spelled "Du hasst mich".
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This was one of my favorite games growing up. I used to play the original civilization when it came out, and when II came out, it blew my mind - and Alpha Centauri was amazing too.
But Civilization II remains one of my favorite games of all time.
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I'm taking a diachronic linguistics course right now about the development of English from its roots to present day, and we talk a lot about some of these crazy things.
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TLA only has packable homesteads for the Rohirrim.
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Haha, wait until we do the entire thing.
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What competition are you referring to? Is this some sort of bribe to get me to give you advice at your beck and call?
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V-One - Dead Cities
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It's dangerous to look that deeply into things with no textual support.
We run into such problems all the time in game design, mainly when we are trying to justify something that seems other than purist for gameplay reasons
We always end up changing it then.Also, Galadriel was an outstanding Noldo - that she is a woman is really unique in Tolkien's work, since it is mainly a male dominated mythology.
Yet just like in Greek mythology, which is male-dominated, there are females of great power. Athena, for example.
I think a safe assumption is that Elrond had the Bruinen valley under his command in a way analogous to the way Thngol and Melian had Doriath under their control.
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It will differ as Tolkien wrote it, for instance, Tolkien describes Fëanor's house as having a red plume.
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I don't think it's something the team will spend time discussing, but if you think it worth your own time, you're welcome to make such a list.
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nevermind, that's between me and Adam. :-P
Technically that is your own affair, and you have enlisted my opinion. I do not hide anything from my teammates.
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Yeah, definitely no scanning and distributing of Tolkien's work here.
The only time I consider using electronic versions (and they do exist) is when I actually own the texts, and I can scan their contents then on the computer OR actually flip pages, which is what I prefer.
Part of getting to know Tolkien's works better is making both an academic and a financial committment to reading them. There's something about buying a new volume of HoME that you've been dying to read, for example, that makes one feel very near to the books, as a participant, and not simply a user or a consumer.
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Well those were coming anyways
What are you listening to right now?
in Arts and Entertainment
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Cygnus X - Superstrings (Rank 1 Remix)