[BTS] Middle-earth Mod 0.4.1

topsecret · Jan 25, 2014

The Middle-earth Mod allows you to play as a leader of the greatest civilizations and empires in Arda, holding the fate of Middle-earth in your hands.

Features:
*18 Unique Civilizations with Animated Leaders
*Flavored unit art
*A completely revamped tech tree
*35+ Middle-earth Wonders
*Many new buildings and civics
*Two detailed maps of Middle-earth
*Artifacts you can craft or capture from other units

I hope you enjoy playing in Middle-earth.

This is a beta version of the mod. I am currently working on various topics.

If you want to help with the mod, please read the "How can I help?" post.

Images:

Spoiler :

Changelog (v. 0.4.1):

Spoiler :

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Current Project(s):
>Game Text
>Balance
>Unit Art
>Regions

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FAQ

Q: Are you finished? If not, when will you finish?
A: Although we're nowhere near finished, you may download the beta version of the mod here.

Q: Can I help with something?
A: Sure! I'm looking for building/unit art. Go ahead and suggest something.

Q: Will this mod have any special features?
A: Yes, many in the end. See the features list below.

Q: So, what is this mod based on? The movies or the books?
A: Both. Sometimes more the books than the movies.

Q: Is this based on FFH?
A: No. Some ideas are from the abandoned Arda mod.

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Grey features have not yet been added. Red features will be added in the next update.

Features List:

Unique Unit Art: Many civilizations will have different unit art. (Though common ones, such as Arnor & Gondor, or the elven civilizations, will have similar/identical art.)
Reworked Gameplay: There are just over 90 technologies (including vanilla ones such as Fishing), with new buildings, wonders, some new units types; basically, everything required for an accurate gameplay of Middle-earth!
Artifacts: These special one-time promotions will be very powerful. Examples include Narsil, The Rings of Power, and other such items. Artifacts can be stolen by defeating the bearer in battle.
The One Ring: This very special artifact will be forged only by Mordor at Mt. Doom. It will grant the bearer "power according to his stature", and (if he is not evil) it will eventually corrupt any bearer if he has it for too long. Thankfully, it also will grant him partial invisibility (i.e. a chance of being invisible to units). More details to come.
Unique Victory Conditions: Each civilization will be able to achieve victory by Culture, Conquest, or Domination, but there is also the option of winning your civilization's "UVC". These work like UHV's in Rhye's and Fall.
Regions: The map will divided up into regions, such as the Misty Mountains, Erebor, Ithilien, Mordor, The Shire, etc. These will be used for UHV and Wonder purposes.

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Got a suggestion? Comment? Go ahead, post away!

SleepyDingo · Feb 1, 2014

Topsecret,

Here's a cut 'n paste from al old spreadsheet (Sorry for the CAPS, but I simply cut and Paste) I had used to mod my still incomplete mod.
I have been busy and have a few more things that may or may not be useful, but will send if you are interested.

BUILDINGS AND IMPROVEMENTS CIV UNIQUE BUILDINGS NOTED
BLACKSMITH =*Requires IRON
TAVERN =*Requires BREWERY
INN
BREWERY =* Requires FERMENTATION TECH & BARLEY RESOURCE
LOREKEEPER =SCHOOL
HERBALIST
INFIRMARY (ie. HOSPITAL)
CONSTABLE / SHIRE SHERIFF
TOWN WATCH
TREASURY
WEAVER / DYER
STONECUTTER / MASON = * Requires STONEWORKING TECH
ROYAL LIBRARY
CARAVAN HOUSE
SILVERSMITH
ORCPIT = MORDOR / ISENGARD AND OTHER DARK CIVS
SLAUGHTERHOUSE = MORDOR / ISENGARD AND OTHER DARK CIVS
SHIRE MARKET = ERIADOR AND/OR ARNOR
ARCHERY RANGE
SIEGEWORKS = * Available with ADV ARCHITECTURE
HIGH WALLS
TRADE / BARTER POST =ROHIRRIM TRADE POST
SHIPSWRIGHT
GRAND SHIPYARD = (Effect like current FACTORY)
ARMORER
OBSERVATORY
BAZAAR HARAD & UMBAR CIVS
WHEELWRIGHT *Requires CARPENTER
BUTCHER
SMOKEHOUSE= * Requires BUTCHER
CHANDLER =*Requires APIARY & BUTCHER
KILN =*Requires CLAY RESOURCE
POTTER =*Requires CLAY RESOURCE & KILN BUILDING
BLASTING SHOP= ISENGARD
STOREHOUSE
JEWELER
RIVER PORT (from FFH2 Mod)
CARPENTER =*Requires SAWMILL / LUMBER MILLS
BOWYER
HUNTING LODGE
COBBLER
SCULPTORS STUDIO
PEDDLER
SCRIOTORIUM / SCRIBE
ALCHEMIST
WELL
SLAVE MARKET
DIPLOMATS HALL
EMBASSY
NAVAL BASE
BAKERY -- * Requires WHEAT RESOURCE
TANNER -- *Requires BUTCHER & SMOKEHOUSE
GATEHOUSE
PALLISADE

BUILDINGS & WONDERS (RENAMED) NOTE
VERSAILES (SUMMER PALACE) = *Convenient for a united Gondor
CELTIC DUN = DUNLAND HILLFORT
SPANISH CITADEL = ANGMAR CITADEL (UB #2)
ZULU_IKHANDA = RHUN BARRACKS
MONGOL_GER =VARIAG STABLE (RHUN)
OTTOMAN_HAMMAM = HADARIM BAZAAR
KHMER_BARAY = KHAND WATERWORKS
VIKING_TRADING_POST = DALE / NORTHMEN - LAKETOWN
CARTHAGE_COTHON = NOLDOR (HIGH ELVES) HARBOR
CUSTOM_HOUSE = GONDORAN PORT
MALI_MINT = UMBARAN TREASURY
ARABIAN_MADRASSA = LIBRARY OF SARUMAN
GROCER = MERCHANT EXCHANGE
JAIL = DUNGEON
NATIONAL_PARK = MALLORN GROVE (ELVES)
OXFORD_UNIVERSITY = ROYAL UNIVERSITY
IRON_WORKS = MINES OF MORIA (DWARVES) *Requires DEEP DELVING TECH
BLAST FURNACE = BLACK FORGE (MORDOR)
WEST_POINT
SCOTLAND_YARD = RANGERS ACADEMY
CHINESE_PAVILLION = RHUNIC

MOOT_HILL = DUNLAND

IMPROVEMENTS (ADD TO EXISTING)

BARROW
SPIDER DEN
APIARY *Requires HONEY Resource
ORCHARD
MITHRIL MINE *Use
DRAGON LAIR
TROLL CAVE
EAGLES NEST

topsecret · Feb 1, 2014

How Can I Help?

If you want to help with the Middle-earth Mod, I would love your assistance! The following is a list of ideas where you can help. If you think something else would help, let me know. Just post anything you create in this thread so that I can see it. If I think it fits with the mod's general purpose, I will include it and put you in the credits.

General/Gameplay/Ideas

Just play the mod to help me out here!

Data

I always need data so I can balance the mod. Not 300 pages of statistics :lol:

, but if you notice something like one unit is overpowered or one civ can't compete, let me know.

Ideas

I can use any and all ideas you may have about things that can be included. I won't include everything, because I am shaping the mod to a specific purpose, but every idea will at least be considered.

XML

Anyone with XML experience can help out the Middle-earth Mod. Some issues are:

Game Text

The game needs lots of strategy and civilopedia entries. Feel free to write up some entries to help me out.

Great People Names

The Great People need accurate, Middle-earth names, rather than Earth ones.

Art

If you have graphics skills, I would greatly appreciate your help!

Wonders

There's still lots of wonders that need 3D models. Download the mod to take a peek.

Python/DLL

If you have coding skills, you can help in some BIG ways. Please contact me, and I will give your more ideas on how I wanted to implement these systems.

Unique Victory Conditions

I would love to program a system in DLL where you could use XML to create unique victory conditions for each civilization.

Regions

This is an idea I had to divide the map into regions, almost like continents, that would grant bonuses. I wanted to assign the region area in Worldbuilder. XML would determine what regions exist, what it takes to control them, and what bonuses they give. See example posts here and here.

Again, any and all help is greatly appreciated!

SleepyDingo · Feb 1, 2014

Good suggestion. I will use the spoiler.

I have a great deal of things I was mulling over and even worked on events, project ideas, techs, etc.

need my speed · Feb 2, 2014

Say, have you ever looked into the Lord of the Rings mod for Civilization III Conquests? I think you could take a lot of things from there.

topsecret · Feb 3, 2014

I only have the vanilla version of Civ3... but I'll see what I can find. Thanks.

SleepyDingo · Feb 5, 2014

I donwloaded it and went through the files awhile back. Did the same for the German Mittelerde Mod (http://www.civforum.de/showthread.php?53415-BtS-Mittelerde-Mod-Entwicklertagebuch) and even translated a fair portion into English. Chrome will translate the page if you don't read German.

I also have these buildings I forgot to list last week:
Dravidian Barrack
Elostirion (Wonder)
Pontus Merchant Port
Dravidian Harbor
Glassworks
Brick Forge
Halych Stronghold
and I used the Lebrakolonie (Leper Colony) for a Dunland barracks the Clan Barracks as I called it.

topsecret · Feb 7, 2014

Added a (planned) features list. Also, I've completed flavor unit art for 9/17 civs!

topsecret · Feb 22, 2014

Sneak Peek
Here's an almost finished version of the Warg Archers! (Credits to Chuggi and Rabbit, White for the parts.)

I keep getting tempted to start up as Saruman and shoot down Rohan with my Wargs. :mwaha:

Spoiler :

topsecret · Mar 7, 2014

If you think I gave up on the mod, you're (thankfully) wrong.
In fact, here's some Gondor units I've been making. (Except for the worker and the warrior, somone else made those.) Soon I'll upload them for everyone to download.

<Nexus> · Mar 27, 2014

Nice

Is there a downloadable/playable version?

topsecret · Mar 27, 2014

Sogroon said:
Nice

Is there a downloadable/playable version?

Nope, not yet.

Q: Are you finished? If not, when will you finish?
A: No, but I'm working on it. I have no idea... I'm hoping to release an alpha version in early April, or at the latest in May.

However. you can download the units. They're in my signature. Or just search for "topsecret" in the download database.

Hopefully I'll have an alpha by May.

Horatius · Mar 31, 2014

I'm interested in this. How is it going?

topsecret · Mar 31, 2014

Horatius said:
I'm interested in this. How is it going?

Pretty good. Right now I'm working on two things: Unit Art for the civilizations, and building design (I.E. choosing buildings, and etc.)

Here's a screenshot of the Second Age Elves I'm making:

Also, to everyone, sorry about not updating. I get caught up making units and forget to post pictures. :mischief:

I've added a new list that tells what I'm currently working on.

Horatius · Mar 31, 2014

Interesting, very nice. What's your ideas for religions, btw?

topsecret · Apr 1, 2014

Horatius said:
Interesting, very nice. What's your ideas for religions, btw?

So far, based on some ideas euskingc gave me, I've decided that there should be only two religions: Theme of Ilúvatar and Worship of the Shadow.

Theme of Ilúvatar will not have any temples or such, as the only places I can remember where Ilúvatar was worshipped was on Meneltarma in Númenor and The Hill of Awe in between Rohan and Gondor. Both of those places were locations, as opposed to temples.

Worship of the Shadow, on the other hand, will definitely have a temple, considering the only known temple I can think of in Arda was Sauron's Temple to Morgoth.

c13Garrison · Apr 1, 2014

TopSecret,

I have thought about a mod like this a lot, as Tolkien is nearly a sacred work to my mind; I cherish his mere use of language. The units you're creating look fantastic, and far exceed my skill to create or edit. I think I will limit myself to a few general observations, if I may be so bold as to impose a foreign thought or two upon you.

I would encourage you to permit the return of the creator of the Ring (presumably only Sauron, but I don't know how you're constructing that aspect) if he is defeated without destroying the Ring. If there were some mechanism where he lingered somewhere as that "shadow of malice", only to re-emerge on a frontier or taking over an NPC state upon some random or event-driven stroke (the destruction of a power, or city, or large army perhaps), it would add remarkably to the game's long-term playability.

I have not met you, & so do not know your end-game intentions or philosophies, but I would also encourage you to limit the "blasting fire" (gun powder) of Saruman's invention to some type of siege miners and not be tempted to add any other form of gunpowder weapon to the end of the tech tree. Bombards or Musketry would only shatter the experience of enjoying 10 hours of restoring Gondor to the pinnacle of its power.

A game of Civ is quite random, in that your neighbors may decide for war or peace with you. It was part of Sauron's intent to divide the Free Peoples, but I believe there should ideally be some type of intervention possible, an "Istari Event" if you will, whereby a Great Person can be used to powerfully sway an NPC state towards friendship with you. Something like a Great Spy, only an Istari (an appearance of Gandalf, or perhaps one of the other wizards) could be sent to the foreign power's capitol and 'spent' to add political points.

I could brainstorm on this topic for hours, but I'll limit myself to these first simple points until I might learn that further exchange of conceptuals would be welcome. I wish you the best of luck Top, and look forward to enjoying the fruits of your labor, or any other assistance I might meaningfully provide.

g

topsecret · Apr 3, 2014

c13Garrison said:
TopSecret,

I have thought about a mod like this a lot, as Tolkien is nearly a sacred work to my mind; I cherish his mere use of language. The units you're creating look fantastic, and far exceed my skill to create or edit. I think I will limit myself to a few general observations, if I may be so bold as to impose a foreign thought or two upon you.

Of course! I always appreciate comments, or even constructive criticism.

I would encourage you to permit the return of the creator of the Ring (presumably only Sauron, but I don't know how you're constructing that aspect) if he is defeated without destroying the Ring. If there were some mechanism where he lingered somewhere as that "shadow of malice", only to re-emerge on a frontier or taking over an NPC state upon some random or event-driven stroke (the destruction of a power, or city, or large army perhaps), it would add remarkably to the game's long-term playability.

Only Sauron can create the Ring, and then only at Mt. Doom, and only with the right technology.
I have decided that Sauron can return over and over as long as the Ring has not been destroyed. Of course, it will not be instant, and it would only occur for the AI, not when the human player is playing Sauron. I have considered that perhaps after so many turns (say 50) Sauron would take over Mordor again. It might have to be shorter, to ensure urgency on the quest to find and destroy the One Ring.

I have not met you, & so do not know your end-game intentions or philosophies, but I would also encourage you to limit the "blasting fire" (gun powder) of Saruman's invention to some type of siege miners and not be tempted to add any other form of gunpowder weapon to the end of the tech tree. Bombards or Musketry would only shatter the experience of enjoying 10 hours of restoring Gondor to the pinnacle of its power.

Do not worry for one minute. When I first encountered Lord of the Rings through the movies, I thought, "There's no way whoever wrote this put gunpowder in the books; it's just for the movie." I now know that Tolkien did put gunpowder in the books, but even so, it was at the end of the Third Age, and only Saruman had it. So, I will probably only add some sort of UU or item for Isengard that allows them to besiege cities with it; there will be no muskets or cannons.

A game of Civ is quite random, in that your neighbors may decide for war or peace with you. It was part of Sauron's intent to divide the Free Peoples, but I believe there should ideally be some type of intervention possible, an "Istari Event" if you will, whereby a Great Person can be used to powerfully sway an NPC state towards friendship with you. Something like a Great Spy, only an Istari (an appearance of Gandalf, or perhaps one of the other wizards) could be sent to the foreign power's capitol and 'spent' to add political points.

Eventually I may consider that, but think of the Last Alliance of Men and Elves; I don't think there was a wizard there. So there could be multiple ways to influence other civilizations to side with you. I haven't thought about a Great Person before, but I'll definitely think about this more as the mod develops!

I could brainstorm on this topic for hours, but I'll limit myself to these first simple points until I might learn that further exchange of conceptuals would be welcome. I wish you the best of luck Top, and look forward to enjoying the fruits of your labor, or any other assistance I might meaningfully provide.

g

Thank you very much! Also, you might want to be interested to know that the first release of the mod will not have special features such as the Ring or such in it; I have to get the Tech tree and everything else balanced before I throw in the Rings of Power!

c13Garrison · Apr 3, 2014

Its good to hear something of your discovery story for LotR. I think Peter Jackson did a unsurpassable job with the movies in a visual sense, though I could quibble with the screenplay quite a bit. Yet its safe to say that there will never need to be another production of LotR, unless someone attempts a massively long (and financially unviable) un-abridged project.

I hope you've taken the opportunity to see the DVD extras of the movies, since your first exposure was through cinema. The cast and crew provide enormous background on what was important to Tolkien, and having someone like Christopher Lee on the cast (a life-long Tolkien scholar) aided their cause tremendously. I have to admit, I watch the "extras" far more often than the movies these days. There is also a Tolkien Library at Wheaton College here in Illinois, just a few miles from me. There is an amazing quantity of material that has been written about the works. Christopher Tolkien's History of Middle-Earth (a 12 volume set, included a voluminous quantity of his father's unpublished writings) is an invaluable source.

I'm very curious about your project scope and projections. Something this ambitious could quite easily lose steam if it is guided by inspiration and zeal alone. If my broad and general knowledge of both Civ IV & Tolkien (less general & more in-depth with Tolkien actually) could be of any use to you, I would be delighted to help.

Cheers!

topsecret · Apr 3, 2014

Announcement:I've released the Elf units here. I'm going to take a break from units, and go back to work on the building XML for a while...

:shake:

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c13Garrison said:
Its good to hear something of your discovery story for LotR. I think Peter Jackson did a unsurpassable job with the movies in a visual sense, though I could quibble with the screenplay quite a bit. Yet its safe to say that there will never need to be another production of LotR, unless someone attempts a massively long (and financially unviable) un-abridged project.

I hope you've taken the opportunity to see the DVD extras of the movies, since your first exposure was through cinema. The cast and crew provide enormous background on what was important to Tolkien, and having someone like Christopher Lee on the cast (a life-long Tolkien scholar) aided their cause tremendously. I have to admit, I watch the "extras" far more often than the movies these days. There is also a Tolkien Library at Wheaton College here in Illinois, just a few miles from me. There is an amazing quantity of material that has been written about the works. Christopher Tolkien's History of Middle-Earth (a 12 volume set, included a voluminous quantity of his father's unpublished writings) is an invaluable source.

Yes, I have seen the extras, though only part of them. I own them, so it's just a matter of getting down to watching them. And I have read whatever History of Middle-Earth, Unfinished Tales, and any other Tolkien book I could get my hands on at the library. It's very good they have most of them, because I'm not exactly rich enough to buy them!

I'm very curious about your project scope and projections. Something this ambitious could quite easily lose steam if it is guided by inspiration and zeal alone. If my broad and general knowledge of both Civ IV & Tolkien (less general & more in-depth with Tolkien actually) could be of any use to you, I would be delighted to help.

Cheers!

I actually have a quite extensive list of goals, but I've been keeping them a secret so the mod will be more of a surprise. :mischief:

However, fire away on any and all ideas; After all, I'll take every idea I can get, and you can always mod my mod if I don't do things just right!

[BTS] Middle-earth Mod 0.4.1

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