Hi everyone,
it is time for a longer announcement. I just finished coding the spell book for the new faction. From here on, lots of testing and visual improvements will happen. I know it's a lot of text, but please bear with me.
The new Faction
It took me a long time to figure out where I want this new faction to go. The broad dev name was "Goblins". The original idea was to just have a "Wild" faction including many evil wild creatures in Middle-Earth, similar to BFME2, but there was too much to pick from and the entire faction felt too much like a random composition. I tried to keep the faction somewhat unique and not take too many elements from BFME2's Goblin faction, but at the same time also not get too close to Gundabad from the Shadow and Flame modification (which were kind enough to let me use some of their assets). I have decided to now finally name the faction "Moria". It will mostly contain units and features from the Moria and Misty Mountain regions, but not entirely limited to it. Just like Rohan has Elven Warriors, Moria will also have units from other close or far regions.
Release plans
I know that it has been a long time since the original announcement of Goblins, and I assume your expectations are quite high. And despite the fact that I spend a lot of time thinking and try to get creative with BFME 1's limited engine, I want to remind you that the progress I have made in the last months is close to none. I had the heaviest semester in all my time at university, but now it's over and I have some time again. I will keep you updated on the progress, and possibly initiate a live stream as soon as there is more to test and show. My personal goal is to get something release-worthy done in a month, but take this with a grain of salt. I have also addressed several bugs for the next version.
The future after the next update
So, what is planned after Goblins is done? Frankly, I had originally planned a lot more than there is now. But instead of senselessly pumping out new factions, I want to first focus on brightening up the current factions, as well as balance them as good as I can. That means that currently, no other faction is planned and realistically speaking, I don't think I will have the motivation and resources to create another faction from scratch after that. It simply is too much work to accomplish on my own. And despite all the help and support I received (especially regarding art and maps) from other modders and modding teams, which I am very very thankful for (!), it simply is too much of a random factor to rely on when planning an entire new faction again.
Thank you for your understanding and patience.
balance and bugfixes are far more important than new content, although new content is also always fine.
