"War of the Ring" thread

[Keir Maxwell]

Ok some progress has been made.

There are many tricky design decisions which will shape the game and thats what I'm working on at present. Here is what I'm coming up with.

Two sides each of three players.

Evil

1. Sauron - Castles/forts in Barad-dur, Minas Morgul, Morannon, Dol Gulder, Umbar (Corsairs), and Near Harad (Haradrim).

2. King of the Mountain Goblins - Castles/forts in Mt Gundabad, Moria, Sea of Rhun (Easterlings).

3. Saruman - Isengard

Good guys

1. Gondor/Rohan - Minis Tirith, Dol Amroth, Pelargir, Helms Deep, Edoras.

2. Elrond/Galadrial/Thranduil - Rivendel, Lothlorien, Mirkwood.

3. Dain - Lonely Mountain/Dale, Iron hills.

I have grouped peoples so that those that fought together in the War of the Ring may do so. thus Rohan is with Gondor so that they may fight alongside each other and Harad and Mordor likewise.

It would be possible to do a much more free for all scenario but having decided to leave the quest out for the moment I don't want to give up on too much more of the specific charachter of the books.

I'm working away on units and if anyone compiles a list of equipment I would love to see it.

I would like to have items such as orc mail, light orc mail, crude orc mail, full orc mail, dwarf mail, elvish longbows etc and I assumming this is do-able.

One task which is avaliable for any keen soul is starting work on a master list of charachters, and their items, worked out in the format of the mod files. This could then be worked on and the characters cut and pasted into the appropriate place.

I'm not going away on holiday and should get the opportunity to get quite a bit done in the next month. I will organise a friend to get a web page up for me to post files at for ease of communication/access.

Cheers

Keir

[ December 15, 2003, 03:10: Message edited by: Keir Maxwell ]

[Keir Maxwell]

re the quest to destroy the Ring.

I'm sorry but I'm going to dodge questions on this for now. I have many, many ideas, but I fear that writing them done and discussing them would take up the time I should spend on working on step one - the military game. Once that works the issue of quest will be vastly more do-able.

However I will make one point - the key to it all is the will of Sauron (death gem income) and the different pressures on Saurons attention. Given no distractiosn he will toast the Hobbit and take the Ring but if distracted . . .

Cheers

Keir

[Keir Maxwell]

LI Idea for the mod.

Grade all LI as a size 2 troop.

If I understand things right this means that only 1 can fit in a square and smaller troops (size 1 HI/MI) can move through. If there are no size 2 tramplers (perhaps no size 2 troops other than LI) in the mod what problems would this create other than?

LI not being able to interpenetrate LI is the obvious answer but its still probably an advantage on not having a LI role.

I had a flash and thought "hey I can make all the Orc sprites a bit bigger and improve the detail." Then I realised this would mean redoing the rest of the sprites I used and the cloud of insanity passed.

Cheers

Keir

[PvK]

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

PvK

[Keir Maxwell]

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

PvK

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

[Pocus]

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. "

[Keir Maxwell]

Originally posted by Pocus:

*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.

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 ]