Sillmarilion

[Pratputajao]

Hey all. I was wondering if anyone made a scenario/Mod based on the Sillmarilion or are useing the charecters from the Sil.. (Morgoth, Valar, Miar, Firstborn elves)? I havent bought this game yet but will be soon. From what I can tell this game would be really good for a first age Middle Earth Scenario/Mod. Thanx

[Wahnsinniger]

Well, The Lord of the Rings universe has never really been magic-heavy. I haven't read the books in like ~7 years, but if I recall correctly, the only time Gandalf ever really used any destructive magic was frying a bunch of Goblins with lighting in The Hobbit.

But then again, with Morgoth/Valar/Miar being the gods that they are, Magic would fit in well enough. Such a mod would require making the appropriate map(s), and modding in a bunch of civs, so it'd probably be a lot of work.

I read the silmarillion again this past winter, so I think the civs would probably be:
Morgoth
Valar/Miar
High Elves? (the ones that stayed in Valinor)
High Elves? (the ones that followed Feanor back to fight Morgoth)
Dark Elves? (the ones that never went to Valinor)
Dwarves
Men
Note: I don't recall the specific names, like Noldar/Sindar and such.
And the "Characters" would only be useful as pretenders or heros, so you wouldn't get to use them all the much anyway.

In any case, I'm not sure how well Lord of the Rings fits in with the Dominions universe.

[Tharivol_Street_Prince]

You'd wanna add an Orcs/Trolls/Dragons/Balrogs race in there too. Corrupted humans might merit a race on their own too.
But yeah, it'd be a lot of work, but totally worth it.

[Pratputajao]

I agree about LOTR 3rd age Middle earth. But 1st age seemed extreemly magical to me even though spells as such wearnt mentioned much. I have always thought it would be a great setting for high fantasy, HIGH power in a game ...so far no one has done it in any game( though age of magic has a few LOTR mods)

True Gandalf didnt overtly use magic but he was a Miar (Istari) of Manwe and was not to use power so openly I believe. He did kill a Balrog as well. Though no real description was given of the fight I find it hard to believe that he didnt use quite a few spells in dealing with it. But I am not really intersted in 3rd age anyway, just thought 1st age would be perfect.

I havent played this game yet, maybe it is not what I am anticipating?

[Pratputajao]

How easy is it to create and add new races/units to the game?

[Wahnsinniger]

The hardest part I think is actually getting graphics for all the units. I haven't modded for Dominions, but from what I understand, its not complicated.

Gandalf was a Miar huh? don't recall every reading about what the wizards actually were...but I haven't read all of the LoTR extra stuff either. I knew Sauron was a Miar though. I guess it would make sense overall.

I wouldn't think corrupted humans would warrant a race, I'd think they'd all fall under Morgoth's group.

[Pratputajao]

Yeah Gandalf ( and Sauruman and Radaghast) is/are Miar but not of the same power level as Tom Bomadil Or Sauron; powerful non the less though. Much more powerful than he is written in the books. I believe there is more about this in -"Unfinished tales"

A real good resource for then different names and power levels is from the Old TLOTR role playing game (based on the Role master system)--The lords of Middle earth Vol 1 and 2. They helps to make sence of all the differant names in the books. Also the website "Encyclopedia of Arda" is outstanding.

[PvK]

Gotta protect the rights o' the corporations that somehow own every thought and expression related to the work of someone who's dead and had nothing to do with those corporations when he was alive.

Oh ya. Sigh.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolkien_Enterprises

[Gandalf Parker]

I dont think we have acted on text content before. Mostly its been things abit more obvious such as graphics and sound clips taken directly from other sources. Especially if the person publicly says thats where they got them. As I used to tell my charges in the military "I might not go hunting for violations, but dont expect me to break my neck trying to look the other way if you hold it up in front of me".

Whether its logical or not, I would hope that anyone would be careful about endangering Shrapnel and Illwinter.

[thejeff]

So did Illwinter get permission from whoever owns the Lovecraft copyrights for R'lyeh and Deep Ones, and from WoTC for illithids and Aboleths? (I'm pretty sure both of those are original to D&D, though certainly inspired by the Cthulhu Mythos)