Re: "War of the Ring" thread
 

It might make the LI easier to hit with missiles and spells than they "should" be. Otherwise, it seems like a reasonable idea.

PvK

Re: "War of the Ring" thread
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I was thinking it would make them both harder and easier to hit by spreading them out over a greater area and reducing the number in any given target square to 1. However I'm not really up on how the targeting works for missiles and spells so I may well be wrong.

I would prefer to reduce the vunerability of LI to missile fire than increase it - that would not be good.

Cheers

Keir

Re: "War of the Ring" thread
 

some misc points:

*There is no possibilites as of now to script events. You can script starting positions, but thats it.

*Online encyclopedia on Middle earth:
http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/

*According to many sources, authoritative, and from ICE modules too, the sea of Nurn is somehow fertile, and populated either by Humans or Orcs. To see Mordor as a complete wasteland is a false view, IMHO.
"The name given to the southern regions of Mordor, more fertile than Gorgoroth in the north, in which the great inland sea of Núrnen lay. "

Re: "War of the Ring" thread
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">No question - Nurn is farmed by the "Slaves of Mordor" - can't remember the source. The way I intend to make that possible is through alternate sources of dominion which prevent the spread of the worst of Saurons dominion beyond the core area of Mordor. This is also why I don't want to have a full Ermor dominion for Sauron as the effect on population would be far too drastic for areas like Nurn and Khand.

The ICE modules are an interesting source of information and I have access to the bulk - if not all of them. They have, by necessity, made up a great deal. Some of which I intend to use as it will add flavour while other parts I will ommit as they don't fit the time of the War of the Ring so well - most ICE modules are based earlier. For example the terms for Gondorian military inspired by earlier Numenorean and Arnorian practice (Roquen etc) are all very cute but it is better to use the exact terms from the book even if they are less fanciful. On the other hand some of their names for Easterling tribes will be great to use as there is no other source of information.

I am somewhat cautious of using secondary material as some of it is very questionable. The key is the three books, with appendices, and using the same langauge as used there and working to create something of the feel.

Cheers

Keir

[ December 20, 2003, 09:13: Message edited by: Keir Maxwell ]

Re: "War of the Ring" thread
 

There are 17 nations which can be altered (I wonder if a mod file hits a limit the way the other files did)

Im getting an impression that Ermor has become the Mordor nation. If more units but not quite "same army" units are needed then possibly another nation such as Ctis can be modified and declared ally to Ermor/Mordor. The wont share an army but they wont attack each other. So possibly that area you were discussing could be setup with "evil men" or whatever.

Ive seen a list here of the various "sides" in this conflict. But what I havent seen and rather expected was a breakdown of what dominions nations would fit those sides.

I know that a nation can be totally rewritten but it might help avoid some rewrite if we got kindof close with a nation whose units and attitudes and style of play seemed to fit.

Saruman would be squeezed into Arcos? Pythium for Easterlings? Marignon for Gondor?
Tien chin is Rohan? Vanheim are elves? Caelum might work for elves since they make pretty good use of bow and spells in combat,or easterlings since the elephants wuold play right. Matchaka for goblins? Abysia for dwarves or Ulm?

Also of interest is that apparently you can change the independents that show up and they will still show up randomly as the race you chose. The trolls are probably fine as they are, and the hoburgs. Change something that shows up only occassionally into Ents? Woodsmen would show up in forests but they dont attack right. Hvy Infantry show up too much, same with Barbs. Raptors maybe would work. They do charge to attack (in a way) and show up rarely in random placement. The big treelords (maybe toned down abit) with lesser entlings as the troop units?

Anyway, just tossing stuff in the pot and stirring. Carry on.

Re: "War of the Ring" thread
 

well said Keir. For what its worth I rely on ICE when infos are not available from Master Tolkien http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif , thinking naively that they try their best to not stray from the writing if possible.

Do you have the modules dealing with Khand, Far Harad, etc. Thats mostly data constructed by ICE, but still you can grab from them names & places.

Re: "War of the Ring" thread
 

Any news on the progress over christmas? I am very much looking forward to this one.

Re: "War of the Ring" thread
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I'm sorry to say but I'm suffering from patch watching. When I heard the patch was going to out before christmas I put away my text files. Since then its always been a case of the patch is coming soon (not meaning to complain as I understand there are valid reasons for these things) and so I've kept hanging off for the patch with the mod tools - I'm not that up on the whole scripting/programming side anymore so the thought of what might be an easier interface is very appealing. Hopefully the patch with mod tools will be any day now but sadly much of my holiday time is gone. Still seeing the Return of the King was a big boost and I'm looking forward to making some progress.

I did spend the down time usefully though as I played alot of dom2 and have a better feel for the game now.

Cheers

Keir

Re: "War of the Ring" thread
 

If anyone has a preference on the map I use please speak now. The links to the maps I'm choosing between can be found early in this thread.

The choice is between a very tidy, somewhat cutsy, map in light colors and a somewhat roughy scanned map in the old map style with light browns. I lean towards the older looking map but worry it won't look so good once the interface is over the top while the more colorful map might suit the dom interface better. Looking at the map of Britain gives you an idea of what I'm talking about.

If you have an opinion speak now or forever hold your peace.

Cheers

Keir

Re: "War of the Ring" thread
 

While I dearly love the old map (I actually have one of the fold out ones from an old hardback copy)...

I hate Brittan's map look. I can never seem to tell what type of enviroment a province is so I know what to expect.

I vote tidy and neat for playability while my soul says "Remember Helm's Deep!"