Middle-Earth: Lord of the Mods (5)

LotR Thread I:
LotR Modders UNITE!!!
LotR ThreadII:
Middle-Earth: Lord of the Mods
LotR Thread III:
Middle-Earth:Lord of the Mods(cont)
LotR thread IV:
Middle-Earth: Lord of the Mods(4)[Latest]

This may be unnecessary to the regulars, feel free to skip it.
We started working on this MOD as a ‘gathering’ of Modders, who had an acute interest in Lord of the Rings. This is a continuation of four threads created, as seen at the Links above. We made some significant progress in actually working together to make a collaboration of ideas, to please everyone.

In the third installment of our collaboration, significant work was completed on the buildings\wonder\improvement front. Unfortunately it was sort of sporadic, and it's hard to define just what we did .
Discussion of the maps also took place, at which point Yoda Power offered to make an oder version of Middle-earth, you can see this here

In the Fourth thread, we have gathered some new blood, and discussed about how to implement certain civilizations into the game, namely Isengard and Rohan. We set our course to make it clear, to stomp on the sporadic-ness of the third thread.

1.)Resources (pretty much completed)
2.)Tech Tree
3.)Random Map Civ listings
4.)Finalize Units
5.) Update 'engine'
6.)Governments *Beta Released
7.)Fine tuning Undefined period-
The buildings have been completed.

We will be trying to decide on some of the finer aspects of the MOD in this thread, as well as work on the tech tree.

FAQ
What is going to be in the MOD? When will it span? What are the Civs? Has work started yet?

1.)When will it span?
Well, we decided that the Mod should start slightly before the coming of man. Like this:

• Era#1 First Age (middle-late first age, with the arrival of man)
• Era#2 Time of the Rings (Elven supremacy and Saurons Power)
• Era#3 Time of the Númenóreans\Dark Age (Supremacy of Man, Numenor and it's later subdivisions\Last Alliance)
• Era#4 Third Age(Best known, time of the peace, yet weakened state, time of the fellowship)

This way it won’t be strange to have all civs in existence, and yet it still has the remarkable, mythological ‘old middle-earth’ in tact.

2.)What are the Civs?
We haven’t been able to agree on Civs at this point, we have all the important ones but have some minor squabbles, such as: is Arnor, Gondor, and Numenorë really necessary? Should Umbar and the Southrons be one civ? Should there be two Dwarf Civs? We have been arguing about this forever, it seems to lean towards accepting Gondor and Arnor, but leaving out Numenor.
Yet for the Random Map, perhaps Numenor should be included? We would really love your input.

The Important Civs we have made lists for can be located here:
The Shire
Gondor
The Dwarves
Mordor
High Elves (Noldorian)

3.) What is going to be in the MOD?
We plan on four versions of the Mod, most important first.

Mod Types

• Random Map Mod (regular)
• Middle Earth- Map of Middle Earth, with specific placed things (like dragons)
• Lord Of the Rings quest- (You can only choose out of 3 Civs, though the rest make an appearance, but depending on the Civ you choose, you have a specific Victory cond.)
• Older version- This will have modified ages, and different civs, such as the Vanyar, and unique buildings\wonders.

4.) Has Work Started on the .bix yet?
Yes, Celeborn has been working on the .bix for a bit now, we still remain in the red however, and need some more direction from fellow LotR fans. As seen above, the Beta will be revealed in do time. Work on the .bix isn't really necessary until a little bit later, we will have it all mapped out by then.

5.) I would like to join in this project, is there anything I can do to make the production go faster?
Well, we will always have need of those talented artists. If you would like to make some building graphics, just pick one off the list below, but make sure work on that hasn't already started or been completed.
If you would like to make units for the game, certain ones we are looking for are:

• Silvian Archer
  A Wood Elf type of unit, used for, Well an Elven archer unit. Preferably hooded .
• Troll
  We already have the Cave Troll, and this unit is great, but we would like to use an early offensive unit that would act as one of the expensive 'behemoth units' for Mordor, similar to the Cave Troll, yet smaller, but more lithe.
• Medieval Worker-
  A worker, more heavily clothed than the Civ3 counterpart, yet still more 'medieval' than the Civ3 Modern Worker.

We would also appreciate civilopedia entries, but we can't comment on those yet.
-end FAQ

Buildings

Code:

Palace		same
Barracks		same
City Walls		same
Library		Lore-house
Marketplace		same
Aqueduct		same\City Reservoir 
Granary		same
Temple		Altar
Courthouse		Gallows
Harbor		Port
Civil Defense	Keep
Wealth		Trade
Police Station	City Guard
Colloseum		Tavern
Factory		Sawmill
Cathedral		Temple
University		Library
Bank		Merchant's Guild
Commercial Dock	Trading Port
Stock Exchange	Treasury
Manufacturing Plant	Smithy
Coal Plant		Furnace
Hydro plant	Mill
Hospital		Apothecary
Research lab	Royal Archives
Offshore 		PlatformFishery 
Mass transit	Ferry 
Nuclear Plant	Mithril Mine

Iron Works           	Ruins of Utumno          
Heroic Epic          	Narn i Hin Hurin\Lay of Luthien           
Pentagon             	Falls Rauros      
Miltary Academy      	Halls of Moot          
Forbidden Palace              
Wall Street          	Treasury    
Apollo               	delete                   
SDI                  	delete          
Intelligence Center  	Dome of Stars               
Battlefield Medicine 	Houses of Healing?       

Oracle               	Stone of the Hapless          
Great Library        	Mathom-house             
Great Lighthouse     	Elostirion                    
Sistine Chapel       	Thousand Caves             
Sun Tzu              	Tower of the Guard                   
Leonardo's           	The forges of Barad-dur  
JS Bach              	Golden Perch             
Newtons uni          	Chamber of Mazarbul      
Pyramids             	Mrtn's 'three pit' idea  
Smith's trading      	North Road Of Eriador    
Shakespear's         	Hall of Fire            
Hanging Gardens      	Great Hall of Feasts     
Colossus             	Tower of the King         
Great Wall           	Gates of Mordor
Magellan             	Voyage of Earendil   
Copernicus           	Tower of Ecthelion       
Universal Suffrage   	Tower of Dol Guldur       
Hoover Dam           	delete                      
Manhattan            	delete                                      
Cure for Cancer      	Hornbowers Farms         
Longevity            	Haven of Umbar           
Theory of Evolution  	Red Book of Westmarch   
UN                   	Councils of Aragorn     
SETI                 	House of the M¡rdain     
Internet             	delete  [/COLOR][/b]

Resources These are under debate-
Strategic:
Iron: +2s +0f +0: mountain, hills
Horses: +1s +0f +1c: Grassland, Hills, Plains
Timber: +1s +0f +0c: forest
Stone: +2s +0f +1c: mountain, hills
Wolves: -0s -1f -1c: tundra, forest

Luxuries:
Mithril: +4s +0f +4c: mountains
Wine: +0s +1f +2c: hills\grassland
Pipeweed:+0s +0f +2c: grassland\plains
Salt: +0s +1f +2c: hills
Gems:+0s +0f +2c: hills\mountains
Gold: +0s +0f +3c: hills\mountains
Wool:+1s +1f +1c: hills\grassland
Lebethron:+0s +0f +2c: forests

Bounus:
Wheat:+0s +2f +0c: grassland\plains\flood plain*
Oliphaunts:+2s +0f +0c: plains
Coneys:+0s +1f +0c: forests\grasslands\plains\hills
Deer:+1s +1f +0c: forest\hills\mountains
Cattle:+1s +2f +1c: grassland\plains
Fish:+0s +2f +1c: coast\sea
Silver:+0s +0f +2c: hills\mountains
Taters:+0s +2f +0c: grassland
Mushrooms:+0s +1f +0c: grassland\forest
Wasteland: -1s -1f -1c: Wilderland

Unit Lines
A word on the difference between civilizations unit lines.

Elves-
The idea we have so far, if to make Elven units better, let them only get slightly better, in the last age, and go up in Shield Cost Substantially, after all, they weren’t weaker then men, just fewer.

Mordor-
The idea was to make their Offensive line weaker, half or a third as cheap as the Mens. And going further, they get stronger behemoth units, that cost much more than the Mens'. Giving them something to look forward to.

Men-
They act sort of like a standard. Everything is weaker, or more powerful compared to their units, they are the default.

Hobbits-
A passive Civ, We may make only the Space Race Victory available to them, only it will be different, and called something like ‘Journey to Mt. Doom’. All their units are Def. oriented.

Dwarves-
The Dwarves are dwellers of the mountains, they will get a slew of unique bonuses, such as certain resources unique to them, and the ability to travel through mountains easier than most Civs.

Bombard- We gave all the archer units a Bombard ability, they will not be able to attack the ground, but when a group of 2 archers are attacked, the first archer will fire at the attacker (depending on the Bombard Strength) they should wound the offender accordingly. Lethal Bombardment will probably be checked.

If you would like to download the Unit lists, you can do so here, they are available in two formats, the first being of better quality, the second is the lists straight forward, in standard text format.

Word Pad-Rich Text Doc.(Recommended)
Standard Text Document

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• Dwarven archer unit-
  If this was made we would be sure to find a use for it, as it is one thing of which this civilization is lacking.

Originally posted by PCHighway
We should probably start on the tech tree now. Any ideas?

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Originally posted by Doc M
About splash screen:
I think that main problem with splash screen in LOTR mod is to many different
buildings. The civilizations (elfs, dwarfs, Mordor...) and their buildings are so different that you can't make an unique splash screen. That is why I thought of making splash screen looking as an Middle-Earth map and with each splash, the map would show borders of civilizatios, growing or shrinking as they did in books. The only problem with this idea is that I don't remember that Tolkien in any of his books wrote how, for an example, mordor growth through time.

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Perhaps it could be compromised so that the acrhers wouldhave both the bombard ability and the attack\defence ability..

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Originally posted by Doc M
...But before I make anything else, I would like to hear opinions of others.
We need complete list of graphics that are made, that way it will be much easier to make new ones. Can someone make this?

About the techtree,
we should put techs that are common to every civilization in the first two lines and we should allow basic worker actions to every civilization, why should I have to wait to discover a new tech, so that I can build roads or do some other basic worker actions?

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• Battering ram unit-
  If the attack flc. was made to show the two units (men) swinging a wooden log, we could then easily replace artillery units, which don’t really belong for certain LotR civs. If it was possible to make a small modification, where there was some sort of covering over the battering ram, we could make double use of it, and have a upgrade ready.

Originally posted by PCHighway
...As for the techs, I think we could combine Noldodans techs with Mrtn’s tree. Mrtn, remember that non-screenshot tech tree you posted three or two threads back? Do you still have it, as it would be easier for us to use it as a format (just erase the names and re-write them).

All in all, I think Mrtn tech tree is good, and should save us a lot of work, I think we just need to change some of the names a bit, and ion some cases, change the techs around. For instance, I think that siege craft and all it’s sub-forms should be expensive, and not lead to anywhere (not required for era advancement).

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