LOTR's MOD

[unmerged(15101)]

Is this project dead?

Not dead, it's more like comatose and on life support

I do still want to finish the mod, and have been doing some work here and there when I have the time. The support here on the forum, while limited, has been very enthusiastic so I'm hoping to get a version ready for you guys to test before the end of the year. Part of the problem is that I started too many things at once (map design, events, techs, new improvements) and they are currently all half-finished, so I will need to tie up some loose ends before I have a playable demo to post. Things have also been hectic at work and I'm getting ready to move so my time for modding has been very limited lately. Late December and early January things will settle down some and I hope to have more time for the project.

I'm currently working on rewriting the advances_discovery and advances_spread files, which is taking a lot of time for coding and testing. Here are the new tech trees I have so far:

Elvish weapons-focused on light cav, archers, horse archers
Dwarven weapons -heavy inf, pikemen
Orc weapons -light inf, heavy inf
armor trees for all three races -improved armors as well as shield techs which give morale bonuses for infantry

Humans don't have any unique weapons or armor, but if they are on good terms with the dwarves or elves they can learn lower level advances from them.

Elvish medicine -these advances give morale bonuses and improve chances of recovery from wounds/illness (combat wounds are much more common than in vanilla CK), also allow you to build a House of Healing which fights disease and heals characters in the province. These also help educate characters with a specialization in healing.

Alchemy -orcs and some human cultures have access to these advances, which allow things like poison arrows and poison blades (increase shock attack value), improved siege weapons, and improved healing

Orc siege weapons - more damaging siege engines only for the evil guys

Servants of Morgoth - trolls, werewolves, dragons...allow Morgoth to spread harmful province effects to enemy provinces. Trolls allow larger siege weapons and special unit types (one province has troll culture, and while the size of armies that can be raised there is very small, the units have HUGE attack/defense ratings)

 

[unmerged(15101)]

What can you do to help, you ask?

-suggestions for events, province improvements, and advances. Just throw out any ideas or wishes you might have, I'll see if I can find a way to include them.

-help with lists of character names...obscure names from any Tolkien works, recombined elvish root words, lists of names from old norse epics (where Tolkien lifted many of his names to begin with), or names you make up yourself that fit the theme

-links to tolkien-inspired artwork for use in event graphics

-character portraits, its really time consuming to go through creating portraits for every character in the scenario. Just send me the DNA strings with the character names, or just send a bunch and I'll find the best places to use them.

-any graphic artists out there? I would love to eventually include more CoA's, event graphics, custom interfaces, orc character portraits, and unit sprites (I did create one custom sprite with my limited Photoshop skills, by shrinking the templar sprite down to dwarf size, you can see it in one of the screenshots I posted

-suggestions/brainstorming on how to incorporate the Silmarils and the Oath of Feanor into the game. The strongest characters should occasionally get an option to undertake a quest to steal a Silmaril from Morgoth. If someone does recover one, the sons of Feanor should develop a fierce hatred for them (big loyalty/relations penalties) and get claims to go to war against them. Posessing a silmaril should give some major bonuses to the person holding it, or if the character is unworthy (low piety/kinslayer traits) it should drive them insane or kill them. What do you think is the best way to represent this part of the story? Should the silmarils be represented as a title? a character trait? an advance or improvement tied to a province?

 

[Wämö]

Is this about only Silmarillion era? If so, I can easily come up with a plot.

 

[unmerged(15101)]

Is this about only Silmarillion era? If so, I can easily come up with a plot.

I've got two scenarios right now:
Return of the Noldor - First Age Year 1 (Thingol is King of Beleriand with Cirdan as his vassal, Morgoth controls all of the north. Feanor and his sons have just landed at Losgar and control one province, Fingolfin has just led his people across the Helcaraxe and controls one province.)

Battle of Sudden Flame - First Age year 455 (The high point of the kingdom of the Noldor in Beleriand, Morgoth has just unleashed his army to destroy them)

It would be great it the scenario could extend through the Second Age and the rise and fall of Numenor, but there are two major problems with that. First, all of Beleriand is lost under the sea at the end of the first age, that would be hard to represent. Second, I could not find a good way to fit the full map of Middle Earth into the CK map. I kept ending up with problems like having all of Gondor as one province in the Black sea which doesn't work very well.

Here is a good map showing how the maps from the Silmarillion (1st Age) and Lord of the Rings (2nd-4th Age) fit together. The map I created for these two scenarios only includes everything west of Eriador.

If someone can find a good way to overlay this map on the CK map of Europe, just send me a pic and I will start creating the scenario files.
(edit: the entire bottom part of the map doesn't have to be included, you can cut it off at the top of the white box.)

 

[Wämö]

Girls:
Calenwen
Caranwen
Morwen
Duwen
Celebwen
Culwen
Erwen
Dinwen
Curuwen
Durwen
Gaerwen
Edhelwen
Elwen
Elenwen
Fëawen
Finwen
Forwen
Gilwen
Golodhwen (only for Noldoli)
Gonwen
Hirilwen
Hithwen
Harwen
Galwen
Linwen
Lomewen
Loswen
Lothwen
Luinwen
Malwen
Melwen
Mirwen
Mithwen
Mothwen
Nenwen
Neldorwen
Nimwen
Ornwen
Rilwen
Rochwen
Rhunwen
Roswen
Thilwen
Sirwen
Sulwen
Talwen
Tarwen
Tatharwen
Taurwen
Telwen
Thalionwen
Thinwen
Tholwen
Thonwen
Thoronwen
Tilwen
Tinwen
Turwen
Urwen
Balwen

Boys will come later.

 

[unmerged(15101)]

Just that kind of list is exactly what I need, thanks Wämö. I'll mix those up with different endings as well like -ien -ian -iel or -el as well.

Also one small request, in the future can you send name lists as a PM or link to a text file? Just to avoid cluttering up any discussions on the thread.

 

[Wämö]

Sure thing. I'd advice you to remove wen before adding another ending, as wen means young woman/maid or something like that.

 

[unmerged(15101)]

Right, I meant I'll replace the endings. The surnames (of the House of Fingolfin, of the House of Feanor, etc.) are already long enough that a few of the names run off the edge of the character screen, even without having first names like Thalionweniel

 

[unmerged(15101)]

One other thing, I lost access to the site that was hosting the screenshots. Does anyone have a spot where I can link to screenshots and eventually the zipped scenario files?

 

[Wämö]

Maybe Angelfire?

 

[tombom]

One other thing, I lost access to the site that was hosting the screenshots. Does anyone have a spot where I can link to screenshots and eventually the zipped scenario files?

upl.silentwhisper.net is good for files. imageshack.us is good for images.

 

[unmerged(17042)]

Would like to see this project get a little further! Here's a series of names, mostly suitable for dwarves, lifted from the Eddas of Norse folklore...

"Nyi and Nidi,
Nordri, Sudri,
Austri and Vestri,
Althjof, Dvalin,
Bivor,Bavor
Bombur, Nori,
An and Anar,
Ai, Mjodvitnir,
Veignr and Gandalf,
Vindalf, Thorin,
Thror and Thrain,
Thekkur,
Litur, Vitur,
Nar and Nyradur,
Fili, Kili,
Fundin, Nali Hefti,
Vili, Hanar, Sviur,
Billing, Bruni,
Bildur,and Buri,
Frar, Hornbori Fraegur,
Loni, Aurvangur, Jari, Eikinskjaldi:
(All Durin's folk I have duly named,) "
"There was Draupnir
and Dolgthrasir,
Har, Haugspori,
Hlevangur, Gloi,
Dori, Ori,
Dufur, Andvari, Skirvir,
Virvir Skafidur,
Ai, Alf and Yngvi,
Eikinskjaldi,
Fjalar and Frosti,
Finn and Ginnar: "
{copyright to "Norse Poems ",
Translated by W.H. Auden and P.B. Taylor }

 

[unmerged(30040)]

Lemme brush up on my Silmarillion knowledge here.....

I think Morgoth should either start out with or get events for doling out a few vassals. IIRC Sauron became lieutenant of Minas Tirith (the first age one on river Sirion) so you have a good way to use him and his cool coat of arms. Other than that, the black enemy of the world wasn't terribly keen on delegating power. Though later on, when he took Hithlum, it became Easterling or something. When Morgoth really gets rolling, there should be an event representing the treason that led to the fall of Gondolin (the fortress could be somehow made less effective.) I don't know how to mod this though. Looks like a nice project.

 

[unmerged(20873)]

Hey.. I've got Simarillion in my shelf! *wanders off to read it*
I get CK on wendsday, and I hope to be able to help in any way. Allthough I didn't get it about the provinces. Do you create new, or do you use an already existing area (example: Brittish Isles) and place the game there?

 

[I Killed Kenny]

@ Klas_Knas, he used the provinces allready created, but he "draws" the rest of the map ( seas and stuff ) simply by making such provinces sea provinces...

 

[unmerged(20873)]

@ Klas_Knas, he used the provinces allready created, but he "draws" the rest of the map ( seas and stuff ) simply by making such provinces sea provinces...

Ah. Didn't know that you could do so. Is this only possible for CK or can it be done with EUI/HOI/VIC?

 

[unmerged(30040)]

Ah. Didn't know that you could do so. Is this only possible for CK or can it be done with EUI/HOI/VIC?

You can probably do it there too, but I don't know how....

 

[Ciçatrix]

In the EU2 forum they are also doing a Silmarillion mod, or more likely, they haven't started, they are afraid of copyright.

 

[I Killed Kenny]

copyright? lol..

 

[Wämö]

In the EU2 forum they are also doing a Silmarillion mod, or more likely, they haven't started, they are afraid of copyright.

Not started, not afraid. Lack of time.