Project: Arda Mod (LOTR)

[Elda King]

Well, I don't believe we could make a magic system like FFH because in Middle Earth we don't have "magic" in this way; I can't think about units in ME launching super-powerful fireballs or such. By the way, we could use a similar system for some heroes (if there are heroes) or use the same system in a diferent way (for example, a leader "inspirating" another unit or a smith giving a unit extra armor).
Also, thomas.berubeg said he already got permission to use FFH2 units, so I guess we have plenty of resources to make all units we can imagine.

I have changed a bit the civs, see the first page.

 

[thomas.berubeg]

For hereos, The nazgul seem to use a minor amount of magic against frodo, and the wizards are certainly do. we could make these units the sole magic users

 

[Elda King]

Yes, and depending of what you call magic we could also have elves using magic (Lúthien, for example), and the Balrogs and Dragons have some magic skills. I'm not saying we can't have magic, just that it shall be more subtle, not fireballs or extra movement, and more uncommon.

 

[Aragorn7]

Have you forgotten Gandalf and Saruman?
They are also not the only wizards in the realm of middle earth.
According to the Encyclopedia of Arda about wizards:

A name for the order of the Maiar more properly called Istari, who came to Middle-earth after the first millennium of the Third Age to aid the Free Peoples against the return and rise of Sauron.
Came to Middle-earth c. III 1000. Saruman was slain in III 3019 and Gandalf left Middle-earth in III 3021; the fates of the other Wizards are unknown.
Istari:
The order of Wizards, the Maiar who came to Middle-earth after the first millennium of the Third Age. Of these, five came to the northwestern regions; Saruman, Gandalf, Radagast, Alatar and Pallando.

These are five known wizards. Then you have an unknown number of others + thousand of magical artifacs of Istari and elven origin.

So don´t claim that Middle earth has no magic

 

[thomas.berubeg]

There's radagast the brown, and two blue wizards in the east, instrumental in not letting Sauron get as much reinforcments as he would have from the east.

 

[Elda King]

Allatar and Pallando went to the Northwestern regions? So the Northwest was very big, because they went far away beyond Mordor, in the East. And if there were more than 5 wizards, why did Saruman talk to Gandalf about the Staffs of the Five Wizards?
Now, stopping discuss the wizards, I already said: we'll have magic, but less evident. Gandalf could have, instead of tons of spells, an attack lauching rays or fire. Of course he will have at least one, and most heroes will have some "magic" or special skill. What I don't want is spellcaster units or incredible strong magic (game winner).

 

[thomas.berubeg]

of course... however, gandalf does use minor spells: light, unlocking doors, stuff like that, that will make him a very useful person in the recon department

 

[Aragorn7]

Hi!
Just curious about the development of this mod?

 

[thomas.berubeg]

WE have all the Civs Done, i'm just trying to finish the Leaderhead art: making sure it links to th right place

 

[Elda King]

Just remove a few bugs, and it'll be ready for launching.

 

[derflensburger]

Hi out there!
I'm impressed by what you are doing and I can't wait until the MOD is ready for download. I've read "The Lord of the Rings" several times, have played the "Middle Earth Roleplaying Game" (MERP) a lot and of course watched the movies several times as well...
So, PLEASE, go on with your fantastic project!

Greetings from Northern Germany!

 

[thomas.berubeg]

almost rewdy for first release!!!! yay

 

[roysubs]

A friend of mine made a very sensible point to me recently, which is that any MOD of Arda starting at creation and going to 3rd Age and beyond makes no sense, as Tech would go BACKWARDS. In 1st Age Beleriand, Tech was far more advanced among the Dwarves and Elves than in was in 2nd Age Middle-Earth. This is a definite fact from the books, the 3rd age Dwarves ache to get back to the tech of Belegost or Moria, and while Galadriel and Elrond have not changed in power, they are living incredibly simple scaled down lives compared to 1st Age Elves they were earlier. I think that, due to the books, that stuff should be kept in mind for modding, in putting a game MOD limit to per-age, i.e. 1st age only or 2nd only or 3rd only as Tech and power definitely declines according to The Silmarillion and Lord of the Rings.

But saying that, any/all MOD's for Beleriand and/or Middle-Earth will be great fun !

 

[Elda King]

Truly, it only applies to the Elves and Dwarves, not to the men, so it's easy to do. We're going to represent this making the elvish and dwarvish units worse and worse, until the start of the fourth age when they have no more units. By worse, I don't want to mean they have less strength or anything like this, they are always more powerful then the humans' ones, but they become much more expensive then the humans'. They shall also have less unique techs, buildings, heroes (if we put heroes in the game, not completely sure) and UUs in later ages, so a Elvish civ will be really far more powerful then Human civ, in the second age (because of their legacy) they will be as powerful as the humans, and in the third it'll be too late. The same for the dwarves, but they are going to be less powerful in the first age and more powerful in the second.

 

[thomas.berubeg]

What about the Shadow?

 

[Elda King]

It will be powerful in any age, but only in the millitary: they are very, very weak in culture, growth, economy, etc.
Oh, and I had an idea for the religions: we should have the Cult of Darkness, founded by The Shadow with a exclusive tech, and the Light of Aman founded by any elvish civ with a exclusive tech. Instead of the religion civics, we should have "racial civics", that should all require a impossible tech (so, you have to keep your starting one), and the elves', dwarves' and the shadow's should have "no non-state religion spread". (Note that it would be possible to have bad elves or bad dwarves, if the first religion to spread in their territory is the Cult of Darkness and they convert.)

 

[roysubs]

I think those ideas are all great, for religions, and about the increasing power of men vs the decreasing power of the First Born and the Dwarves and the low culture vs huge military might of the the Shadow is also very cool, but in terms of "Game Balance", that sounds like a hugely daunting challenge to get a formula that works without biasing one Civ or another as apart from Traits (and too much lesser extent, Civ-units and Civ-buildings), all Civ's in vanilla are identical, but in the Arda Mod, that will VERY much not be the case. The very best of luck in getting the Game Balance right, I would not have a clue on how to make the elements you are aiming for balance well ... but more power to you all for taking on such a big challenge and I can't wait to try out all this great stuff !!!

 

[JuanFernando]

Congratulations in such a great project. If there is anything I can help with (programming, testing, etc) just let me know. I have average skills in programming but I am a great fan of Civ and Tolkien.

 

[Elda King]

Well, we have the civs finished, but there's one thing that delays the first release: we can't make it work. The game crashes into desktop while the game is starting. We have tried everything, but we don't know what could it be, or how to make it work. We just changed XML, arts and musics. Does anyone have a sugestion?

 

[Laurino]

Well, we have the civs finished, but there's one thing that delays the first release: we can't make it work. The game crashes into desktop while the game is starting. We have tried everything, but we don't know what could it be, or how to make it work. We just changed XML, arts and musics. Does anyone have a sugestion?

Hi!

If you don't get any xml errors, either during loading, or when the "Dawn of Man" screen normally shows up, and you changed graphics, then it's this for sure, well most probably. Do you get to choose the civ? If so then it could be to the first units displayed or the icons you cuold have changed, etc. The first thing to check would be for bad XML references, or missing links in the XML Art files. The same should be done for the music folder I guess... These are probably the most annoying ones, because most of the time, if not always, the game simply crashes, without giving an error message...