• We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.

Grell74

Captain
11 Badges
May 5, 2004
441
281
  • Hearts of Iron II: Armageddon
  • Crusader Kings II
  • Deus Vult
  • Divine Wind
  • Europa Universalis IV
  • Heir to the Throne
  • Europa Universalis: Rome
  • Sword of the Stars
  • 500k Club
  • Crusader Kings II: Holy Knight (pre-order)
  • Europa Universalis IV: Pre-order
*New Version* 2.0 :D
Thanks to kadvael56 I have squashed the bugs, I have tested for hundreds of years several times and not had ANY CTDs!

I have also updated characters in the Elven, Dwarven courts and Realm of Angmar. I have Fleshed out the feudal structure of Arthedain and Rhuduar and many other minor improvements.

This mod includes a whole new map of Middle Earth for CK. Currently I have only populated the NW region of Arnor.

Version 2.0 Download: http://sharebee.com/bbe86416
Version 1.1 Download: http://sharebee.com/39bae639

I recommend using jdrou's no time limit patches:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=447599

I have posted some earlier screenshots in this forum http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=439312

"There were fortresses on the heights. Kings of little kingdoms
fought together, and the young Sun shone like fire on the red metal
of their new and greedy swords. There was victory and defeat; and
towers fell, fortresses were burned, and flames went up into the
sky." Tom Bombadil LOTR

The game starts in Third Age 1080. There seems to be no way around the hardcoded date range of 1066 – 1450. So I had the Witch King lurking in Gundabad slightly earlier than was recorded. Although, like Sauron he hardly announced his presence and took great pains to reveal his true identity and sought to insinuate himself as Edainil “friend of men” and weaken the Edain kingdoms through their own rivalries. The setting of Arnor with a tabla rasa of warring feudal Kingdoms, racial tensions and the peripheral menace of Orcs and Dunlendings is perfect for the CK engine.

“Kings made tombs more splendid than houses of the living, and counted old names in the rolls of their descent dearer than the names of sons. Childless lords sat in aged halls musing on heraldry; in secret chambers withered men compounded strong elixirs, or in high cold towers asked questions of the stars”. LOTR TT

The nature of CK is more suited to role-playing the feudal machinations of a lesser human kingdom in this setting. Such an experience would not be as enjoyable with the immortal Elrond. The only unique events I have currently included so far are the racial aging (pure Dúnedain around 250 years, lesser 150 years). Elves of course cannot die of old age. I would not reccommend playing an elf (although there is one playable Elven county as described in the MERP sourcebooks).

"Thus the Elves and Men of Eriador are slowly sundered. Unable to see past the Witch-king's throne and glimpse the hand of the reborn Sauron behind it, most Elves still view the struggle with Angmar as another war of Men. When Elves intervene in the wars of Men, it is said, "fewer Elves come back then went forth; and always there is a new generation of Men, another tyrant, and another war." As time passes, more Elves accept the offer of refuge made by the Valar at the end of the First Age, and each year a few board the ships made by Cirdan and his wrights and sail into the farthest West, away from the troubles and risks of Middle-earth."

Work still to do:
-Middle Earth themed event including:
-Rampaging Trolls, Dragons (there were mention of many lesser drakes than Smaug in the North) and other beasts.
-Racial tensions between the haughty greater and lesser Dúnedain and of course Northmen and Dunlendings.
-Events to depict the decline of the purity of Dúnedain blood (e.g. reduce pop or increase pop and change culture to Lesser Dúnedain).
-Events relating to Palantir and the representation of religion as Seers, Astrologers and Genealogists. The jealousy of the immortal Elves leading to dabbling in the Dark Arts, etc.
-Elves departing for the West and passing through the lands.
-Dwarven trading (techs?).
-Hobbits as events or even agricultural buildings (in this period they resided mostly around Rhudaur and the “Angle”.

Long term goal is to populate the rest of the map which I have created which just needs the Scenario data. In this period Sauron had not yet returned to Mordor, however the Gondor Kinstrife, Black Numenorean wars, Easterling battles and Eothraim founding the Kingdom of Rohan offer some intriguing possibilities.

Disclaimer: I used canon lore from Tolkien where possible, but as fleeting mention was made of this area and period I relied mainly on the MERP Sourcebooks and my own imgaination. Fans of the movies rather than the books might be disappointed. Personally I could not stand the absurd dwarf tossing in Helm’s Deep (and the trivializing of the whole Gimil character), but that was a minor quibble compared to the travesty of the broad faced swarthy Orlando Bloom in a blonde wig shield-boarding off an Oliphant’s tusk. Perhaps only topped by the ridiculous girl-power PC idiocy of ninja Arwen replacing Glorfindel. I much prefer the artistic realization of the works of Angus McBride and the writings of Tolkien himself, as such I have steered clear of anything the movies have done (unlike other game mods e.g. MTW which have tended to use art and graphics from the films).

MERP lore is sometimes contradictory or poorly conceived, for the Arnor Kings I instead used another site which I felt was an improvement:

http://northernkingdom.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=memberstories&action=display&thread=81
 
Last edited:
Here are some more screenshots of the game and also one of the repeatable error message that seems to happen around 3 months into the game every time.
 

Attachments

  • SS1.jpg
    SS1.jpg
    245,4 KB · Views: 1.710
  • SS2.jpg
    SS2.jpg
    241,3 KB · Views: 1.765
  • SS3.jpg
    SS3.jpg
    208,6 KB · Views: 1.685
  • Error.jpg
    Error.jpg
    11,6 KB · Views: 467
Hello Grell74, first I would like to thank you for the great work you have done.

I downloaded your mod and tried to play it on my mac and I could not start the game, it crashed when the scenario was being loaded, I had a look at the files and I found the following things:

-In the scenario_characters file:

For Ulrin (id = 314), the dynasty 1226 did not exist in the dynasties file so I used the dynasty 314 instead.

For Izilor (id = 431), the dynasty 1232 did not exist in the dynasties file so I used the dynasty 431 instead.

For Dilort (id = 434), the dynasty 1222 did not exist in the dynasties file so I used the dynasty 434 instead.

For Filiniel (id = 119), I did not know if she should have been a countess or if her lands belonged to the king, I assumed she is a countess and so I changed country = FRAN to country = C119.

-In the scenario_countries file:

For Eldathorn (id = 78), I assumed he was not a count and the county C078 belonged to the king so I removed C078 as an independent country.

For the country DERB the problem was that he tag should have been DERB and not C114 and the capital should have been 114 instead of DERB.

-In the scenario_provinces file:
Many provinces were missing so I added them by making copies of existing ones and I removed most of the techs for hillmen and other evils. You can downlad the file I modified here.

-In the scenario_titles file:
C150 was put twice, I removed one.

With these changes, I have been able to load the scenario and I played Arthedain for 40 years without any problem.

I hope that you will keep up the good work.
 
I am really grateful Kadvael. I had almost abandoned this project out of frustration. I am at work at the moment (where to be honest I had done alot of the mundane Excel stuff :D horay for a secluded desk). I will make the fixes you located (by the way how did you spot these?) and make the finishing touches.

<spends the rest of the 7 hours at work making up Middle Earth flavoured events>
 
Grell74 said:
I will make the fixes you located (by the way how did you spot these?) and make the finishing touches.
I opened the scenario characters file and checked that every character was only once, when parents were applicable I checked the existed, I also opened the dynasties file to check everyone was right (and found 3 missing), and then checked all the other scenario files. It took me about 7 hours but it was worth it.

I noticed there are characters named xxxx, I do not know what you want to call them, also while playing I think I saw a province called Catalyud which does not sound like a Middle Earth's name.

Thanks again and once more: keep up the good work.
 
I bought CKDV (complete) from Amazon, read a ton of forum posts and watched several long videos on how to play. I did start as Apiua (sp) as suggested and am now King of Sicily.

But I can't post anywhere but HERE for some reason. (no key number included- contacted the staff)

So- hello & I hope to chat with everyone soon!
 
Perhaps only topped by the ridiculous girl-power PC idiocy of ninja Arwen replacing Glorfindel.
Uhh. She had a sword and she rode a horse. There was nothing "ninja" or outlandish about it. But I'm sorry you're so attached to a completely inconsequential character from the books that you can't let the movies be slightly more inclusive.

I mean, really, you're going to get mad about this very short and minor scene having one character replaced? Just because you think it's "PC" (a very tired, overused criticism) and "girl-power" (as if there's something wrong with female empowerment)? I can't even imagine how mad you'd be if they'd replaced a major male character with a female one.
 
I can't even imagine how mad you'd be if they'd replaced a major male character with a female one.

I imagine he, as well as many other people would be increasingly angry; to replace a major character's gender would cause it to no longer be lord of the rings. The issue isn't "female empowerment," the issue is dedication to source material.
 
Uhh, if that was really the only issue, there would be no need to bring up the tired old "PC" bogeyman or to denigrate "girl-power." And again, who the hell even cares? Glorfindel is a completely inconsequential character. I'm sorry that the tiniest of concessions to female viewers (who are, believe it or not, about 50% of human beings) offends you so much, though.
 
Some of us do, in fact, like Glorfindel; he isn't so minute in the Silmarillion. Also, it is out of character for Arwen to fight, she's a princess. Not to mention that it makes the whole theme with Eowyn a bit redundant. Once again, this isn't because of any sort of an anti-feminist movement. And seeing an elf warrior princess is so cliche for the fantasy genre, it would have been nice if they stayed away from the topic.

Am I completely dismissing the movie? No, but do I like that particular scene? No, I prefer to see Tolkien's work unchanged. Now I understand in the context of a movie, seeing as it is a different medium, that certain things might need to be cut for times sake (such as Tom Bombadil) but I see no need for "Artistic License" to allow someone to completely change something.

Really though, this isn't that big of a deal, I shouldn't have gotten involved, so this will be my last post on the topic.
 
Calanctus - who says Arwen had a sword and a warhorse? Peter Jackskson maybe, but this certainly wasnt mentioned by Tolkien who wrote of her as more of a quietly dignified muse for Aragorn than warrior princess http://www.elfenomeno.com/info/ver/19209/titulo/Arwen-por-Angus-McBride. Why the need to distort cannon art and histories into contemporary morals? I made the mistake of watching Ridley Scott's Robin Hood last night and I am guessing the ridiculousness of Cate Blanchett as Maid Marion charging into melee on horseback armed in chainmail was added in to appeal to people like you. I didnt realise women were so eager to see violent militaristic women on screen, I personally dont think such "concessions" and warping of logic and cannon are necessary.

As Zefert pointed out there was already a female warrior character in Eowyn, and Galadriel is described as the most powerful individual in Middle Earth, referred to somewhere as the only being in ME who could challenge Sauron 1v1. Tolkien wrote at a time when women didnt have the pressure to be corporate "warriors" as well as balancing the roles of nurturing and motherhood. I dont see why Arwen could not have been kept as Tolkien wrote of her. Does everything have to be homoginised and made "equal"? Surely the inclusion of Eowyn and Galadriel is remarkable enough. Anyway this is a CK forum so I would rather not get into debates about feminism and Tolkien am happy to continue in PMs if you wish.
 
Last edited:
Fantastic mod!
Can't wait for it to be completly finished.
 
Last edited: