Middle Earth - Path of the Hobbit 1.0.1

I have completed "Middle Earth - Path of the Hobbit".

Unless something glaring or completely Middle-Earth-shattering pops up, this will be the final release.

This has been a ten-plus year project of mine and I have put all of myself into it.......and enjoyed MOST of it.

*   *   *   *   *   *   *

It's a dangerous business, going out your front door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.......

DESCRIPTION

Adds my rendition of J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth during the time and journey of the hobbit "Bilbo Baggins" to Skyrim.
This is for "Oldrim". No, I will not begin to try and port it to SE, XBOX, or any other combination of letters you can think of putting together; but hey, thanks for askin'!
This has been a ten-plus year project of mine and I have put all of myself into it.
Leave Skyrim behind and discover the path of the famous little Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins. Journey through a beautifully and meticulously created Middle Earth from the Hobbit Hole Bag End to the Lonely Mountain of Smaug. Play as a dwarf or hobbit, if you choose, with custom clothing and armor to suit. Visit The Shire Bywater, Hobbiton, South Farthing and the North. Stop to rest and have a pint at the Inn of the Prancing Pony in the Village of Bree. Face the 3 Cave Trolls in Trollshaws and loot their Troll Hole. Learn how you can help Lord Elrond in Rivendell. Face an army of goblins and their tyrannical king in Goblin Town. Find Gollum's Cave and take the One Ring. Battle against  the spiders and other creatures of Mirkwood Forest. Make your way to Rhosgobel, a shack protruding from a growing tree. Take an automated boat-ride to the Long Marshes and face the 3 Bog Witches. Discover the Woodland Realm (Halls of Thranduil). Barter a boat ride to Lake-Town, with its many diverse people, homes, inns, and shops. Encounter Lonely Mountain to face Smaug the magnificent within. And finally, choose sides and take part in the great Battle of the Five Armies.
Inspired by J.R.R.Tolkien's "The Hobbit", this is created from my own imagination, my own interpretation, not Peter Jackson's.
Over 500 custom NPCs added. Quests, rings of power, weapons, armor, spells, and much more included. You will receive a new book, "Guide To Middle Earth" the first time you load this mod. There is also a copy in a chest on the Riverwood bridge (near the entrance to Middle Earth). Be sure to read it! Questions asked that are covered in that book or here on this site will be ignored.
I built this mod for my own game play, my own taste. At some point, I thought others may enjoy it as well. I'm not looking for "critiques". Never asked for any. You don't like it, move on.

- This mod includes my Middle Earth Mountains HD2K and 4K Parallax. It is optional in the installer. See my images for a preview.
- Be sure to "set the table" in Lord Elrond's courtyard before trying to enter his home. It more or less brings Rivendell to life.
- The main entrance to Lonely Mountain is blocked with rubble. If you side with Middle Earth against the goblins during the Battle of the Five Armies, the rubble will be removed.
- The 3 Cave Trolls in Trollshaws are from Witcher 3 which I heavily modified. I also set them up that if you kill them, they turn to stone for the rest of your game.
- I have kept the scripting to a minimum and tested my mod to great extent and worked out all the bugs. I cleaned it with Tes5Edit and TesVSnip, and also ran every .nif file through NifScan.
- You MUST equip the "Ring of Choice" BEFORE leaving Lonely Mountain interior. Removing the ring removes you from that army. Good luck on your own.

There is a lot more to this mod than meets the eye, or than I can write on this page. I built this mod for myself and I didn't want a bunch of plug-ins so I have created a ton of things that I would like to see in my game and tastefully added them into this mod. I have included a true, open-world, portable fort that can be placed anywhere in Skyrim or Middle Earth. You can be your own traveling bard with this mod. Want to cut loose and jam on a lute in the Middle of Solitude or near the peaceful river that flows through Riverwood, it's in there. Special rings of power, weapons, armor, not all Tolkien worthy, but things I created for my game and put into this mod. I could go on, but you'll find it all. Or you won't.

I put a lot of work into my Lighting, ImageSpaces, and Climates as lighting and atmosphere is probably thee most important thing in modding in my opinion.

REQUIREMENTS

Skyrim & an open mind.
Dawnguard, Dragonborn, and Hearthfire are NOT needed and never will be.

RECOMMENDATIONS

I run with my brightness at 10/20 (halfway) and uGridsToLoad=7 in my Skyrim.ini settings.
Of course every monitor as well as player's choice of settings and taste differs.
Rudy ENB v4.2 (with my own tweaks), using Boris's ENB V407 .dll

CONFLICTS

None known.

EXTRA

Although obviously not lore-correct, I have included a suite in Lake-Town for my own personal game. It is a "game" after all. The Suite will work as-is and contains no nudity.
If you would like to experience the full Suite, you can download and install the following mods.
UNP Female Bodies - Adds some nice detail to bodies in game in general. Brings the Suite to a "new level".
Dimonized UNP Clothing Resources - Adds some nice clothing for the Suite.
Summer Wear V2 - Adds some nice clothing for the Suite. Also adds follower Sukque. (She can be found in Honningbrew Meadery and will follow you to the Suite and stay there even after release. She has a bed there but will not interfere with my mod if she is not used. I navmeshed the Suite cell differently so ALL followers will stay there until you have them follow you out again.)

THANKS & CREDITS

Thank you "Ray2NJ" for just being plain ole awesome brother!
Thank you "Arthmoor" for this site and for increasing your upload file size limit so that this mod could even be possible here!
Thank you "mlsbrn" for the "nudge" to git-r-done!
agerweb, VZRedemption, ray2nj, and TheBawb for ALL of your help!
Wood stoves courtesy of Strotis Oven Resource
Treasure textures courtesy of Assorted Resources (Thank you Tamira. Saved me a ton of work.)
Hobbit Outfits courtesy of Halfling Clothes (Thank you TheBawb for the link.)
Dwarven Beards courtesy of DwemerBeards 
Cave Troll and other meshes and textures courtesy of Witcher 3.
Bethesda for the base game, the Creation Kit, and the crappy engine
Gimp2
Blender
NifSkope
Cathedral Assets Optimizer
TES5Edit
TESVSnip
All of you out there that take a moment to come back and say "Hey!"

PERMISSIONS

You may NOT use any part from this mod for any purpose without written consent from myself (Junk @ JunksMods).
I am sharing this mod here exclusively at AFK Mods.
Do not upload this mod (or any of my mods for that matter) in part or in full to any other site. (That includes the Nexus that already stole my work.)
Remember, Jesus is watchin'! And so am I.......