The White City of Gondor, Final LOTR Release Options

[RCTycoon14 View Member Profile]

You had to have worked from the middle to the outside! This is really great! I think this is my favorite one of them all. You have my download. I will most likely use all of the LOTR stuff in my future parks, except Super Mario Bro. Co. because I'm using my custom scenery, and the basic scenery, but my scenery will be nothing like this though.

[yellowrose View Member Profile]

*****WOW***** Oh My Godness

i can't believe my eyes. When I looked at those screenshots all the memories of reading the books and seeing the movies came rushing back.

Brad and Marco have done a MAGNIFICENT job on this project. I can only hope to do it all justice with my current undertaking.

can't find an emoticon to fit so

!!!! 2 Thumbs 8 fingers and 10 toes up !!!!

take a break boys the both of you deserve it while the rest of us TRY to make you as proud of the parks we make using these items as we are of you for this awesome accomplishment.

Yellowrose

[RCTycoon14 View Member Profile]

Well said Yellow Rose

[MidwestBoyInLA View Member Profile]

I wanted to provide some screenshots as "tutorials" on how to use some of the scenery in the new tabs.

The most complicated set is the 2x2 Tile Towers. There are 11 tower sizes/shapes and 9 dome sizes/shapes; 2 of the Domes can be used on 2 different tower pieces. The tab is arranged with the largest pieces at the bottom and the smallest on top.



Here you can see which domes correspond to which tower pieces:



When the 11 different pieces are assembled on top of one another, you get the shape of the tower on the left. But you can mix up the pieces in many different combinations and don't need to use all 11 together in order to make a variety of different sizes and shaped towers:

[RCTycoon14 View Member Profile]

ooo...pretty!

and useful!

This post has been edited by RCTycoon14: Dec 16 2004, 11:30 PM

[SythDude View Member Profile]

Thanks for that tidbit of information Brad.

Everything you do is always so complex and I get so jealous of your talents. I'm glad you shared this small but very useful secret with us all. Now we can all grow up and be talented like you.

[MidwestBoyInLA View Member Profile]

There are also several variations to the gates you can use.

There are 2 gates that are fully assembled 4x2 pieces... one with the gates open and one with the gates closed (top 2 pieces). I've also made it so you can build the gates out of individual pieces which allows you to put a path down the center, that is if you use the open gates (closed gates would not allow a path - bottom 2 pieces):



Among the pieced gates, there are several variations, too. There's a basic arch without any doors. Also included is a center piece that allows you to make wider arches, if desired:



You can create a set with the gates open. Note how the top arch pieces in these contain a raised portcullis piece (vs. the basic arch that is empty in the arch area):



And there are also closed gate pieces. If you use the center extension piece you will have a gap in the center, as there is no gate piece to make the closed gates wider. However there is a center/extension portcullis piece for the top of the arch:



Note that there is some glitch with these pieces and part of the gate "top" (the flat part on the top of the objects) will appear through whatever objects you place directly on top of the gates. Also, given that the pieces are "empty" to allow the path to pass through the gates, the supports of the path will fill the space below (pictured on the right below). So you can't really put a path directly on top of the objects. However, if you place a row of blocks first, then the path on top of that, it should get rid of the glitches (on left):

[Neeltje View Member Profile]

It has been said before many times, but I just want to say again that you both are very talented, you have created a masterpiece. I admire your talent as well as your dedication and your hard work that have resulted in this amazing sets.

[MidwestBoyInLA View Member Profile]

Thanks everyone... but wait, there's more!

The citadel is pretty easy to build, but I wanted to point out a few things.

There's a front and back. The front has the steps and doors while the back has the rotunda which covered the throne (at the back of the citadel). There's a single roof piece that fills in the roof between the front and back:



There's supposed to be 5 towers on each side (including the corners). There's 4 types of pre-built towers in the Citadel tab: tower with no windows, one with windows on 2 sides (opposite), one with windows on 2 sides (corners) and one with windows on 4 sides. Use the ones with windows on 2 sides (corners) for the corner towers; for the rest use the one with windows on 2 sides (opposite):



Then you fill in with the "window" pieces.



I wanted to make stained glass windows, but was having trouble coming up with something that looked decent in the game. So what I did was took paintings by reknowned Tolkien illustrator Alan Lee (who was also a conceptual designer on the films) and turned them into windows. This was my little homage to one of the people who really shaped the look of the films, and who's inspired the imagination of Tolkien readers over the years.

Not all of his paintings converted well to windows, so I only picked 11 of them to make into actual windows. Here's the 11 pieces with small thumbnails of his original paintings:

[MidwestBoyInLA View Member Profile]

People who downloaded the Moria set will notice all of the Moria rocks are in the Minas Tirith Citadel tab, but now are colorable. You'll also notice the mountain pieces from the Harry Potter set are included as well, also colorable. I needed to create the white/grey rock of Minas Tirith and didn't want to make extra pieces, so just repurposed what I already had.

So the pinnacle can be created by stacking the angled rock pieces. Topping off the pinnacle with the courtyard takes a little work, and a trick.

The lettered pieces are the ones that will be used:



While A and B look similar, they have to be used opposite one another or the edge of the courtyard railing won't line up (as seen in the foreground of the assembly picture below). So use B in the foreground and A on the back side. If you use B in the background, it'll look ok when viewed from the front, but when you rotate the board it'll look offset (as A does in the foreground above).

I'm sure it's an alignment glitch I could have fixed, but would have required me to completely rebuild pieces D-I so I made 2 1x1 pieces to accomodate the "glitch" instead. Lazy, I know, but a lot less work.

Piece C can be used anywhere you have a 1x1 tile where rock meets brick. It has 4 unique sides so you can rotate it for variety. D & G are to be used at the end of the pinnacle. The set was built to have at least 1 tile of path between them, but you can use more if you want. Also note that the path drops 1 level (steps down) toward the tip of the pinnacle.



Stack colorable rock 1x1 tiles below C (as in the back of the pinnacle) and stack blank brick tiles on top of C (as seen at point of pinnacle) to finish the effect.