Our primary inspiration is from the main trilogy, the books will be used to supplement them in times of lack of creativity or poor choices. What inspiration will KoA take from the movies, the books, TLD, etc?
The mod tools have accelerated our production, but we can't and won't give a date. It is impossible to answer this right now, it is still a long time until then. Here is a article with some questions that have been frequently (and some not so frequently) asked questions about KoA (Kingdoms of Arda).