Coming Soon: Tolkien's Middle-Earth

[Eclipse]

Update: Check out the main post for this modpack here!


I wanted to take the opportunity to give everyone a sneak-peak at the total-game conversion mod I have been labouring over for nearly 3 weeks now. It has evolved from a simple mod consisting of new races and a few new units to a complete overall of the Civ III ruleset. Here's a run down of what the mod will include upon first release, most likely in the May 11-12 timeframe...

*16 new civilizations from M.E.
*Accurate city naming (500+ in all!)
*Animated Leaderheads
*80+ new units, all with unique paletting and/or sizing
*Revamped political system including a total of 10 governments
*Revamped Techtree
*Several new resources
*Complete Civilopedia entries for all new content
*Completely redone music score
*Some redone sounds
*Redone Erasplashes
*Redone Wonders and Improvements
*All PCXs with modern appearances have been modified, including advisors, pop-heads, and cities.

Here are items that will be included in the next version...

*Map of Middle-Earth from 1st and 2nd Ages
*Additional units (I need more animations!!!)
*Various Scenarios throughout the Ages
*Further granularity on the Techtree, Wonders, and Improvements

So far the majority of my time has been consumed with the graphics and not much toward the documentation or the rule creation in detail. This will follow in the next week or so, however I'd like to release a beta by May 1st that will include the new Civs, units, and graphics. The game play and balance will likely be very badly in need of work (which I will hammer out) but with this many unit animations I need every possible combination played out.

As things progress I will update this post with news along with any further previews I might decide to offer up early.

Thanks...
Eclipse

 

[kring]

Sounds great. I look forward to testing it when you get it done. If I can help in any other way, feel free to ask.

 

[Eclipse]

Here's a sample of the Era Splash screens. I've already completed similar work with nearly all of the other graphics in CivIII. Thank god for that! Now I can concentrate on the gameplay and civilopedia text.

 

[Eclipse]

I've also spent the time to update the Unit pictures in the Civilopedia. Here's a shady fella who should not (and would not!) be left out of any respectable ME addition!

 

[PCHighway]

Originally posted by Eclipse
*60+ new units, all with unique paletting and/or sizing
*Additional units (I need more animations!!!)

*Various Scenarios throughout the Ages

(Great Idea... But how do you plan to do the scenarios?)
And are you open for suggestions? About the gameplay?

Great shadow warrior by the way! What would you use him for?

 

[Eclipse]

It appears as though Firaxis is slowly working on implementing true scenario editing capability within the editor so I'm just thinking ahead a patch or two.

Sure, I will be open to suggestions! Once I release the initial beta everyone will have a chance to make any suggestions to help gameplay.

The Shadow Warrior will be playing the part of the Deadmen of Dunharrow or Shadowman as they are also known.

 

[PCHighway]

Originally posted by Eclipse

The Shadow Warrior will be playing the part of the Deadmen of Dunharrow or Shadowman as they are also known.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh! Now I get it. Are you going to make a scenario including the battle of the Pelennor fields?!?! This Mod is truly great news. Besides the new patch is one step closer to unit/city placement. It might seem like a long shot, but I think its possible for a senario(with the current patch)...
Example - say you made a civ called the fellowship. Then gave that civ when it started Frodo (with the settle ability ) Gandalf with the make army ability, etc. you could make an army consisting of the members. No? AND settle to upgrade your units.
And when you are finished just abandon the city
(What the hell am I talking about )

But anyway this is great and I think soon, with the help of the movies, this project will pick up steam.

 

[Eclipse]

Yes, my real hope is that the capability of creating very detailed scenarios will eventually become available. Being able to place units and cities would be a great start.

They've already begun by extending the customizable player start data. With this, I'm confident that by the time I've released the final copy of the Middle-Earth mod (post-beta), the ability to create story-driven scenarios will already exist!

As in-depth as this mod is (zip file is already tipping the scales at 42mb, and I'm not even done!) you should be able to think of it as a platform for scenario creation.

 

[Shoegaze99]

Hey E, hopefully, if these forums are stable, you've received a mail from me. If not, shoot one off to shoegaze99@hotASHELLmail.com, minus the "ASHELL," for a semi-important little bit o' stuff.

 

[Kinboat]

This mod sounds like a great idea, can't wait for a release. Do you need help with unit animations? I just recently finished a giant squid and posted it on the units forum. I then noticed this thread and thought you could use it for the 'watcher in the water' in Moria. Feel free to use the squid if you need it.

 

[PCHighway]

Have you decided on the civ's? Could you give us a list of the civilization's when you do?
And when you said 60+ units, does this mean each civ would have mulitiple uu's.

 

[Jedi_Master201]

This is going to be SWEET!

 

[Eclipse]

Just getting back from a weekend away from home so I'm picking up again on the mod with a fervor pitch! To answer some of your questions...

Kinboat originally wrote:

This mod sounds like a great idea, can't wait for a release. Do you need help with unit animations? I just recently finished a giant squid and posted it on the units forum. I then noticed this thread and thought you could use it for the 'watcher in the water' in Moria. Feel free to use the squid if you need it.

Yes, I'm always on the look-out for additional units that can fit in with the genre. At present, that includes various swordsman, axeman, and mythical creatures (and yes, your Kraken could come in handy!) Some others that would be great to have would be Balrogs, Eagles, Dragons, authentic Orcs, Giant Spiders, and a large brawling Troll-like creature.

Lack of unique units is really the only limitation I've run into, but it is also the easiest area to modify once the animation exists, so keep 'em coming!

PCHighway originally wrote:

Have you decided on the civ's? Could you give us a list of the civilization's when you do?
And when you said 60+ units, does this mean each civ would have mulitiple uu's.

Yes, I've already decided on the first playable 16 civ's. There may be several more civs added in follow-up releases but they will, more than likely, be computer-only races. Each one has been totally fleshed-out with units, cultural traits, governments, and technologies. And yes, civs will have multiple unique and/or semi-unique units sharing them with one or two other races.

This past week gave me countless hours to spend on the rules for the mod and I made considerable progress. As far as which races, and what units are going to be present, you'll just have to wait to see!

Eclipse

 

[LaZa]

Hmmm.... thats great! I'm big J.R.R. Tolkien fan and I wait when it comes (that MOD pack) to share. Do ya have any time when you complete that?

What's those civ's (that Middle-Earth MOD's)?
Maybe there is Orcs, Goblins, Elfs, Hobbits, Halfings and such of.

Please.... Can I help ya? I do work with swet in my ears and etc. etc.... Please? If you say "YEAH this is good thing and.... It's gonna be great" or something write to me.
My E-Mail is.... lasa@lasa.zzn.com

Thanks

 

[Eclipse]

Well...Since I returned home Monday morning I have worked every hour of every day (minus 8-9 hrs/day for sleep/errands/work) on getting the initial release of the mod out the door.

I'd ran into a bit of a set-back which has caused me to hold off a another day or two on releasing the beta. Basically, the unique unit count jumped from 60 to 90 in the last couple of days and I've decided to include a rough outline of the new governments with the initial beta. I also determined I could do a better job on some of the paletting so I ended up redoing a vast majority of the units I'd already completed.

At this point, I'm happy to announce that all of the units are complete, pedia icons done, and unit_32.pcx created! Hooray! Now I just need to complete the accompanying txt files and enter everything into the BIC...

I'm hoping by this Saturday morning I'll have the beta upload and ready to testdrive!

Eclipse

 

[kring]

I m ready and waiting to be one of your beta testers.

 

[LaZa]

Me too!

 

[Eclipse]

I tried to finish the civilopedia update yesterday with just entering in the header information for each unit and I ended up working on the actual full text entry. I know it needed to be done eventually and I felt somewhat creative last night so I went ahead and started filling in the descriptions and so forth.

Unfortunately, I'm only 2/3 done the civilopedia file and I have much "work" work to do today and likely won't have time to finish it before Monday.

The good news is that the beta version will contain a little more content than originally planned!

 

[LaZa]

I'll be waitin' for monday

 

[LordMonarch]

WOW this sounds great. I am sad enough to know a little bit of Sindarin and Quenya..... So if you need any help with civilopedia or anything........ are you going to use any Elvish in the game such as Maethor(warrior)...?