Request: LOTR

[Questmaster]

Okay, so I suck at modding, and Civ IV has no middle ground for it. Civ's editor was great for me, because I don't have the capabilities to make a sweet mod on my own. So my ideas are lost somewhere inbetween my mind and my monitor. I would really like some help at creating a Lord of the Rings mod--I would'nt be able to do much technically, but I have quite a few ideas ready.

 

[Skippa]

Well I think that its a great idea.
Only problem is that the LOTM mod for Civ 3 began over 2 years ago and they are still trying to finish it. It'll take a lot of work to pull this one off.

 

[MrUnderhill]

Actually, it wouldn't be too hard, IMO.

Half the medieval units look LOTR-ish already, and reskinning a 3d unit takes less time and effort than making a 2d unit animation (in my experience).
Certain aspects, like the One Ring, would be even easier to implement because of scripting.
Of course, there are limitations. New units and leaderheads are as-of-yet impossible (unless someone wants to shell out $3k), and we'd need a plan and a scope. For instance, would this mod only do the War of the Ring, or will it include the Silmarillion?

 

[Kushan]

I was actually planning on doing an LOTRish mod after I get my Medieval mod working. My idea was to simulate the War of the Ring, rather then the adventures of Frodo and Sam.

New units and leaderheads are as-of-yet impossible (unless someone wants to shell out $3k), and we'd need a plan and a scope.

If anyone here ever did this, they would be the most wanted modder around. LOL

Kushan

 

[Questmaster]

What I was thinking was not to duplicate part of the series but to create a mod taking place in Middle-Earth. Be able to play as Gondor, Rohan, the Noldor, the Teleri, Mordor, Isengard, and the Dwarves.

 

[Ranbir]

I don't think it should go into specifics. Just to civ in that world will be good enough of a start.

 

[Skippa]

That actually sounds more doable. Then the mod would really be a matter of creating different civs.

Some thoughts:
I have an old civ mod with about 20 or so different LOTR civ types (maybe some ideas from there would be useful).

-As MrUnderhill mentioned, a few of the required units may cause some problems, as well as the leaderheads.
Hobbits and Dwarves could be made by changing skins and scaling down the relative size of the unit models. I'm not sure about the flying eagles or the fell beasts, though.

-Another issue may be unit balancing to get a good representation of the different LOTR civs in combat.

-Another thing is that we would have to figure out what to do with the religious system. I'm sure Mordor wouldn't even contend with giving homage to Iluvatar or Manwe and his kin in Valinor.

 

[Zurai]

-Another thing is that we would have to figure out what to do with the religious system. I'm sure Mordor wouldn't even contend with giving homage to Iluvatar or Manwe and his kin in Valinor.

Religion is easy. There are two - those who follow Iluvatar and those who follow Melkor. Mordor, Far Harad, Umbar, and Angband would start with a Melkor missionary; Gondor, Lorien, The Shire, Rohan, etc would start with an Iluvatar missionary. Both religions would have a spread of 0, meaning they would never spread on their own, and never spread if a religion is already present (even with a missionary).

If you wanted to get fancy with it, you'd write a script so that whenever a city is captured it changes to the religion of its capturing civ, and any religious buildings of the opposite religion are auto-razed.

One big advantage to this is that civs on opposite "sides" would dislike each other naturally, and civs on the same "side" would have at least some common ground.

 

[Questmaster]

My idea was to create the Civs to make a playable Middle-Earth. For example--I've created a basic version of this for Civ III. The dwarves had Dwarven Miners that could build only mines, but they built them a lot faster, and all of their melee units could mine as well. Things like that

 

[MrUnderhill]

I used to play the LoTR card game, so I can give a pretty good list of Civs and Leaders (notable seconds in parenthesis):

Spoiler :

Free Peoples:
Arnor: Aragorn (Elendil or Halbarad)
Gondor: Denethor (Faramir)
Rohan: Theoden (Eomer)
Shire: Samwise
Rivendell: Elrond (Gil-Galad)
Lorien: Galadriel
Valar and Maiar: Gandalf (or Tolkien )
Fangorn: Treebeard
Dale: Brand
Dol Amroth: Imrahil

"Evil" Cultures:
Harad (Southrons): No leader yet
Rhun (Easterlings): No leader yet
Umbar: No leader yet
Melkor: No need to state the obvious...
Sauron: See above.
Isengard: Saruman (OCC for an entire civ?)
Dunland: No leader yet
Rogue Orcs/Monsters: No leader (Barbarians?)

 

[NikG]

But Melkor, should not have a culture of this own. After all he is a God, and captured by the Valar, and thereby his is "a religion". Same with Valar & Maia. They are gods, and should be "the good religion". Maybe it Gandalf, should be a kind of unit, which can be built, and will be reborned when it dies!??