[FA] Give me a date !

[Arralen]

While writing on my AR of Nulin the dwarven ranger I noticed that it is pretty much possible to narrow down the events in FAangband to a comparatively short timespan between 495 and 499 of the First Age - after the sacking of Nargothrond and before the slaying of Glaurung and the fall of Gondolin.

472	Túrin is sent to be fostered in Doriath.
	Marriage of Huor and Rían; Tuor is born later in the year.
	Huor is slain in the Fen of Serech, and Húrin is captured by Morgoth.
	Fingon is slain in the Nirnaeth. Turgon becomes High King of the Noldor.
	Spring The Nirnaeth Arnoediad.


495	Handir falls in battle, and is succeeded as Lord of Brethil by his son Brandir.
	Tuor escapes through the Cirith Ninniach and meets Voronwë at Vinyamar;
       together they travel to Gondolin.
       Autumn The Battle of Tumhalad and Sack of Nargothrond.


499	Release of Hűrin from Angband.
	Slaying of Glaurung, and deaths of Túrin Turambar and Nienor Níniel in Brethil.


509	Maeglin is captured by agents of Morgoth, and betrays the location of Gondolin.
	Assault by the Sons of Fëanor on Menegroth. Dior, Celegorm, Curufin and Caranthir
       are all slain; Elwing flees to the Mouths of Sirion with the Silmaril.

510	Glorfindel slays a Balrog in the Encircling Mountains, and is himself slain.
	Fall of Gondolin and death of Turgon.

And the hero setting off to kill Morgoth isn't that far-fetched: 2 heros where able to steal on of the Silmarils back from Morgoth, catching him unawares, while the big army of elves, dwarves and men failed to beat him (because of treachery, but nevertheless). Sending out one (or more ) heros to beat him and his captains may be the last effort of the Valar to save Beleriand from destruction ...

I wonder if this was intended or is pure coincidence ?

On a second thought .. we all know what happened :

583	War of Wrath and the destruction of Beleriand.
590	Morgoth is banished from the World.

So all those FAangband winners must be fake


Just had an idea:
Would it be possible to really stick to the timeline in FAangband, and e.g. have the player start maybe a year or so before the fall of Gondolin, and if he trundles around for too long, he'll come back to Gondolin to find it destroyed and infested by Morgoth' abominations?
On a plus side, he might be rid of Glaurung at some point without any risk ...


All dates taken from the Encyclopedia of Arda

[Nick]

Originally Posted by Arralen

I wonder if this was intended or is pure coincidence ?

Well, I did try to be consistent with times, but there are really lots of anachronisms, like

1. Many of the uniques should have been dead - Khim, Eol, Ulfang's sons, Draugluin ...
2. The Girdle of Melian was still in place, so the player (and more particularly, orcs) shouldn't be able to pass through Doriath
3. Earendil wasn't born, but has a shield
4. Tol-In-Gaurhoth was supposed to have been cleaned up permanently by Beren and Luthien, rather than Sauron going back there (in fact, it wasn't clear where he went - probably back to Angband with his tail between his legs. His precursor was, after all, Tevildo...)

Would it be possible to really stick to the timeline in FAangband, and e.g. have the player start maybe a year or so before the fall of Gondolin, and if he trundles around for too long, he'll come back to Gondolin to find it destroyed and infested by Morgoth' abominations?

I have considered that possibility, but decided I don't really want to get into that sort of thing - especially given the inconsistencies I've already mentioned. There are some nice themed wilderness levels coming in the next version, though.

[Arralen]

... by the way ...
How many "turns" does a day (and a night) have in FA now?

themed wilderness levels
Would it be possible to tie those themed levels to certain dungeons/areas?
E.g. a "Last stand of the House of Hardor" in the Fens of Serech ?

[Nick]

Originally Posted by Arralen

... by the way ...
How many "turns" does a day (and a night) have in FA now?

2000 - 1000 day and 1000 night.

themed wilderness levels
Would it be possible to tie those themed levels to certain dungeons/areas?

That's the plan - in fact it's implemented and working in the dev version (well, it was before I completely broke the dev version to do object changes).

[Arralen]

Originally Posted by Nick

2000 turns - 1000 day and 1000 night.

Hmmm... hmmmm ... char dump says "1706822 turns" .. but the message logs says "This is day 86." ?!?! That would make a day roughly 20k turns ?!
I'm pretty sure I started this dwarf with v0.3.6 ...

[Pete Mack]

Nick was using nominal turns not time ticks. (There are 10 ticks in a turn. Ticks are what is displayed.)