This is something I honestly hadn’t noticed but after a handy email from our friend Geoff, we’ve been shown that there is a new map available for the Bree town map and after a quick look in the forums found that Thorin’s Gate map has been updated as well.
Bree Map
Old
New
Thorin’s Gate Map
Old
New
The Archet map was updated previously but that one is still fairly new if you wanted to take a peak at it.
I poked around a bit but didn’t immediately find any other maps that had gotten a look upgrade. If you find any others that have gotten a new look feel free to share in the comments!
Thank you Geoff for the email!
April 4, 2012 at 10:44 pm
Lorien has been redone, too
April 4, 2012 at 11:11 pm
oo have they finally started resizing them for widescreen monitors? Finally!
April 5, 2012 at 1:41 am
No, not resized, the newer map looks like a screenshot with wrong proportions.
April 4, 2012 at 11:26 pm
Okay.. I literally thought I was losing it.. I went to Thorin’s Halls today to turn in my guild item (crafted relic) and I noticed.. wtf.. when did this happen? LOL I was thinking.. maybe I just didn’t notice? LOL Thanks for the update!
April 5, 2012 at 12:45 am
I think these have been in the game since the last patch. Wasn’t sure about the style before, but I’m starting to warm up to these new maps.
April 5, 2012 at 1:24 am
I mentioned it in the forums a couple weeks ago and was told it was planned for awhile. I don’t remember reading about it before though.
I think Stangard uses this style of map too, but I’ve barely been there so could be wrong
April 5, 2012 at 1:47 am
Every Map since ROI uses this Style IMHO.
April 5, 2012 at 2:48 am
The Barrow-downs and the Old Forest have maps in this style.
April 5, 2012 at 3:32 am
I joined just a few days before U6, and I never even saw the old maps xD
April 5, 2012 at 5:55 pm
Welcome to LOTRO Ulrika! Great to have you with us and hope you enjoy the game and its representation of Middle-earth.
April 5, 2012 at 7:48 am
I think I prefer the old Bree map, I’m going to have to re-learn my way around thanks to my terrible navigation skills. Thorin’s is an improvement though, I think.
April 5, 2012 at 9:21 am
Nothing has moved, though.
April 5, 2012 at 7:58 am
The change has also been made to the Archet map.
April 5, 2012 at 8:03 am
Would have been nice if they’d done a map for the inside of thorins hall or the dunland place where you and the rangers go shortly after hitting lagterv for the first time.
The updates are ok just a bit more colour and simplified the overall look of the map. I’d guess theres a new artist at turbine since the style if different and less like the tolkien maps.
April 5, 2012 at 8:37 am
Less like the Tolkien maps… This is what does not quite feels ok in the whole thing, IMHO.
April 5, 2012 at 9:21 am
They’ve slowly been replacing maps with this style for a while now.
April 5, 2012 at 10:03 am
I don’t like the new maps, it takes away from the concept of LOTR. The maps look less middle-earth/ Tolkien an look more WOW-ish… Keep it original and classic like the stories and movies.
April 5, 2012 at 10:49 am
I like these better in general. Maybe they look less like the scrawled designs that we might see in a Tolkien book, but they are just more pleasant to look at. The old ones often just looked rushed, repetitive and pixelated.
April 5, 2012 at 1:50 pm
I feel exactly the opposite. The new maps are certainly prettier to look at, but I liked to old ones precisely *because* they looked like actual hand-drawn maps. I totally understand why they would change them, though, even if I’m mildly disappointed by it.
April 5, 2012 at 4:00 pm
I think if they got someone to seriously sit down and do awesome hand drawn Tolkien-style maps I’d be all for it. But those old ones just never cut it for me lol
April 5, 2012 at 7:20 pm
Why on earth don’t they design maps that look like this? http://news.mymiddleearth.com/files/2011/09/map-web.jpg – I know a few great artists that would love to do the job.
April 5, 2012 at 11:19 pm
My question is what happened to the Fog-of-war effect regarding new maps and areas in Middle-earth? I used to really enjoy discovering the nooks and crannies of each zone as I went, now maps show all of the locations on launch, even where every horse route and city are located. I have to make an effort to avoid the maps as I explore, but that is fairly impossible to do.
Was there ever any announcement from turbine when that change happened, why they got rid of the fog/hidden content of maps, and if it is or could be possible to make it an optional user interface choice?
April 6, 2012 at 7:14 am
Yes. This was removed back in Update 3.
http://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Update_3,_Lost_Legends_of_Eriador,_Official
April 5, 2012 at 11:48 pm
um…. i just have to wonder why? whats the point? with all they have to do, why update the maps, with in my opinion to a glossy glamour cartoony look. I prefer the Tolkien-esque hand drawn style. there is no more detail to the new ones, every point is the same its just a graphic change. no clue why they would waste time with this.
*shrugs
April 6, 2012 at 6:09 am
I was wondering if I was going nuts after seeing the new Bree map, thanks for confirming im not. At least in this respect.
April 9, 2012 at 8:04 pm
I like the new shading around grassy areas and snow, but on the whole I prefer the older style. They seem more in keeping with the game somehow, having the drawn-on houses and buildings and whatnot. The newer ones, especially Bree, look too modern to me.
And yes. I’m with a previous poster on the removal of the ‘fog’. While I did find it a little irritating as I made new alts that maps I’ve already opened were fogged out, I really enjoyed exploring and opening new areas of a map as I went along. It seems to be another step in making the game easier because it’s so easy to see where things are.
April 13, 2012 at 11:04 am
I have a collection of maps I bought for my husband called, The Maps of Tolkien’s Middle Earth. It was illustrated by John Howe who has done a lot of Tolkien work in the past.
The old style of LOTRO maps looks much like his black and white sketches, but the new ones remind me more of his colored illustrations where he added more detail after he had the general feel of where things went.
Personally, I like the newer ones better because they show the layout of where things are more clearly and with more detail. I tend to get not as lost as I used to.