44 replies to this topic

[Allathar]

Hmmm I thought Grísnakh fled with his orcs and later came back.

[Devon]

hmm, now that i think about it, i think thats correct. they left, but grishnak came back to make sure orders were carried out correctly. My original point is still the same though.

[robnkarla]

Well, I took a break from the BFME1 gameplay to do a hero.

So here is the first of heroes: Búrzolog - an Olag-Hai chieftain.


He is of course non-canonical, but I'm debating if for the good campaign he was one of the trolls at Minas Tirith or the Olag Aragorn faced in Morannon. (I like name that better than Búrzash thought I believe in RotK he was only named as a Olag.) I'll list the powers as I build them and will include the portrait and button image.

For the Evil campaign he will be a playable hero when released. I'll probably make the 3 troll heroes, and a couple of the others before finishing all of the 7 maps to be released for the gameplay.

Edited by robnkarla, 21 April 2007 - 09:54 PM.

[robnkarla]

An introduction to the next Troll Hero: Lozenarjâ - Snow Troll from the frozen wastes of Forodwaith.



He is of course non-canonical as well. The idea for this Troll is that he is the dominant Snow Troll in the far north. Instructed by one of the Nazgul he starts uprising in the frozen tundra. If anyone has other/different ideas for Lozenarjâ feel free to share. I'll list the powers as I build them and will include the portrait and button image.

For the Evil campaign he will be another playable hero when released. These are all still work in progress, but I thought I'd release the SS and ideas.

Edited by robnkarla, 21 April 2007 - 09:53 PM.

[Allathar]

Will Lotho Sacksville-baggins be playable evil hero?

[Devon]

wonderful ideas! I assume the third troll will be a hill troll? I like your choices of armor too

[Allathar]

Awesome armour!

[robnkarla]

Thank you.

Yes, the third troll will be a hill troll as listed in the main post. The armor is a mixture of stuff, but slight changes to the CaH armor textures. I thought the Snow Troll should have an icy feel and the Olag-Hai should have an old dark slightly-reddish iron feel. I still might tweak them a little as I go, but I'm happy with them so far.

[robnkarla]

Well, here is the third troll hero: Ghûndor - Hill Troll in the Northwest - Rhudaur/Fornost Area.



He is of course non-canonical as well. The idea for this Troll is that he is one of the Hill Trolls who infest Rhudaur & Fornost. In the good campaign you must help the rangers cleanse rhudaur and the Angle from the Hill Trolls. In Fornost, they have taken residence in the abandoned fortress. Led by Ghûndor, they must be destroyed in order for order to be restored in the northern kingdoms under Aragorn's rule. I'll list the powers as I build them and will include the portrait and button image.

For the Evil campaign he will be another playable hero when released.

Also, here are some shots of all three trolls together:



As for Lotho Sackville-Baggins I will not probably include him as a hero for Isengard. For a cheap hero I would rather choose Bill Ferny as he is more aligned to Isengard than Lotho. Also, I just don't think Lotho is that evil but instead more greedy for the power and did not know what he got himself into, and you got to feel sorry for anyone who might have been eaten by Grima.

As for the hero powers - I have a few ideas on what to do with each hero, but I'm open to any ideas. What type of powers would you like to see on the heroes? (Nazguls, Troll, Uruks, Goblins, Evil Men, etc.) I'm always open to ideas

Edited by robnkarla, 21 April 2007 - 10:09 PM.

[fehik]

Well for the Nazgul, of course all kinds of mounts(fellbeast and horse), for Burzolog an earthshaker , and some unique powers, like "hero slayer"(a powerful attack with his club, which can kill a hero like Aragorn, and massive damage to heroes like Gandalf, and Galadriel), some kind of troll summon power, for Lozenarja,the leap for surely(he's a snow troll), and an avalanche power, but not that strong like the Angmar avalanche, a "Charge " power , which tramples all units, including Heroes, for Ghundor give the ability to throw rocks, and another power, which is " Hero throw" , this does a massive amount of damage for all heroes(grabs a hero, and throws, him\her away), and a Hill troll summon power. These are just some ideas....

[Allathar]

For Uglúk I'd like to see a passive power, like leader-ship, but instead of an armor and dmg boost he gives a 100% speed boost to nearby Uruks.

[robnkarla]

Well for the Nazgul, of course all kinds of mounts(fellbeast and horse), for Burzolog an earthshaker , and some unique powers, like "hero slayer"(a powerful attack with his club, which can kill a hero like Aragorn, and massive damage to heroes like Gandalf, and Galadriel), some kind of troll summon power, for Lozenarja,the leap for surely(he's a snow troll), and an avalanche power, but not that strong like the Angmar avalanche, a "Charge " power , which tramples all units, including Heroes, for Ghundor give the ability to throw rocks, and another power, which is " Hero throw" , this does a massive amount of damage for all heroes(grabs a hero, and throws, him\her away), and a Hill troll summon power. These are just some ideas....

I like the ideas. I definitely want to see if there is animation available for the troll heroes to grab and throw an object or grab and eat. It don't know if it is there, but I would love it if it were.

I was thinking of giving Lozenarja Earthshaker (L5 or L7) type - but with a twist as he is the one with the huge hammer. I was going to give him an avalance/flood type power on L10. His weapon will be more of a meta damage and less direct damage than the other two. On L2 I was going to give him an attack that will have a larger radius as he swings his weapon around.

For Ghundor - He will have less much meta damage, but a higher direct damage. I would like him to throw rocks, but I will have to look in the code to see if they have the animation. If not, I'd have to find someone to animate it for me. I have not done 3D animation in over 7 years so I'm a little rusty, but he would have a summon hill trolls. His last power is still to be decided.

For Burzolog - He will have leap. His weapon is between the 2 - medium direct damage and medium meta. He will have a dominate ability - like Rogash but it extends to orcs/goblins/trolls from other teams, simliar to saruman's/wormtongues/CAH wizard's ability. Lastly he'll have a attribute bonus that will allow him to "smash" through troops. Think of Gimli's slayer speed with trample abilities even trees.

For the nazgul - each will have 1 unique power. I am leaning towards getting rid of the black riders and giving Mordor all nine nazgul as heroes. At some point, each nazgul will mount a fellbeast, mount a horse, & go on foot. The witchking will have a Nazgul to start, but the other nazguls will start with just foot/horse. An upgrade can be purchased at the fortress to "obtain" fellbeasts. Then when a nazgul reaches level 4-5 they can mount a fellbeast with the upgrade. (I have to see how this will affect WotR as the late game could totally be unbalanced if I did not counter.) Also, they would each have generic powers depending on their condition:

Mounted - Screech, Black Breath (Dread Visage), Morgul Blade
Foot - Screech, Black Breath (Dread Visage), Morgul Blade
Fellbeast - Screech, Shadow of the Beast (a negative attribute modifier that reduces vision/sight that I would like to stack - if all 9 nazgul are there, little vision.)

Unique nazgul powers:
Witchking or Angmar - this will be changed from what EA has

Khamûl the Easterling:
Summon easterling wraiths

Uvatha the Horseman:
Horse Master - Summons an evil "flood" Wave of Darkness with the morgul-horses crashing through

Morgramir:
Ruin - strong against buildings

Akhôrahil:
Dark Blast - Wizard Blast, but slightly different

Dwar of Waw:
Summon dark hounds

Hoarmûrath of Dír:
Chill Death - freezes a small radius of units, slowing them down

Jí Indûr Dawndeath:
Summon's Haradrim wraiths

Ren the Unclean:
Weaponsmaster - a boost in attack power.

These were just some of the ideas I've been working with. I'd like to have them included in the next update. All the heroes will be available on the "Hero" maps. Currently it is just Minas Tirith, but I'll be choose at least 4 of the maps to use this on and they will be unique until I make the changes globably.

I've been debating on whether to make a new Mordor hero-horde, but I don't think they'll need one. (If they do it would be a set of 3 trolls, but can I say OP?)


For Uglúk - A speed boost seems appropriate - "Whip of Saruman", "Drive them forward" or something, but I think it would be a boost like Dain's mighty rage and I'll have to calculate the speed so that Palantir & the power would be a little slower than the fastest cavalry. A passive power would be a little too much I think or it would not be as powerful. I'ld like toHis spell would only be castable on Isengard Infantry. (Talk about your fast Wargs. They are already one of the fastest units in the mod.)

For the campaign I would like him to be part of the attack force in Amon Hen. He would also be running through Eastfold with Merry and Pippin. And lastly, he would be killed in Eaves of Fangorn. He would replace one of the generic units in the intro. For the evil campaign he will be either replace Lurtz part or he would join him in his battles.

[Allathar]

Mauhúr in Eaves of Fangorn would also be good. Perhaps in that level of the Evil Campaign you get the objective first where you have to kill Ghríshnakh and his Mordor orcs. After that a timer is set with the reinforcements of Mauhúr (in the books Mauhúr leads a group of reinforcements).

[robnkarla]

An update on the Nazgul. Well I've done the piece that so many other mods have done. (I have the 9 ready and they can all go from Foot>Horse>Nazgul.) The last piece, which I do not know is even possible, was to add the required upgrade to enable the Nazgul. I've tried a number of items to get it to work, and I have a few more I have not tried yet.

If anyone has been able to get something like this to work successfully, without locking the nazgul onto the horse. I can always require the upgrade to press the fellbeast button, but then you will not be able to dismount the horse. If I am unable to get this to work, which is probably likely, I will be using the following scenario:

For the campaign maps - I will be using all nine nazgul that can walk, mount a horse, & mount a fellbeast with no required upgrade.

For the hero maps - (Similar to the current Minas Tirith map) I will be probably using the same method above, or I will be using a mixture of the Witchking, 2 that cn mount all three, and 6 that can be horse & foot.

For everything else - I will have the Witchking and 2 that can mount all three, and either the horde of 6 or 6 individual units. I'd like to see if I can maybe give the player a choice on which they would like to use. (An upgrade on the Fortress or something, but I'm not sure if that is possible.)

Robert J.

Hmm...another thought that would be different - maybe the nazgul should ride the horse until they are killed. Once they die and after a long respawn time they can mount fellbeast. Would follow the books a little closer with the horses being killed - they start as mounted black riders and they respawn as winged nazgul. (I think this can be handled with respawn templates and four different objects. 2 on foot, 1 on horseback, and 1 on a fellbeast. Or 3 objects and just not let the fellbeast dismount) I can just see the new tactics, buy the nazgul and kill them off as soon as possible. Maybe then I can add a higher level power to the black rider that the player will only have as long as they keep them alive, like their unique power.

Actually, if I can get this to work I just might do this if only to make the mod more unique campared to others. I can then add all 9 nazgul, keep Mordor at least somewhat balance with the addition of all the heroes. I'll just have to work with some of the other factions that currently could not handle the very late game with 9 flying siege heroes soaring through the air.

Edit - Yeah! It worked. I've got my nazguls down. The only difference to that listed above is that I will add a purchasable upgrade at the fortress that allows the purchase of a fellbeast. So basically, the cost per nazgul will either be 1100 or 1500. After the respawn the cost of the upgrade in total will probably be 2000 for the player upgrade and the 500-1000 for each fellbeast purchased for the nazgul. Yeah, if anyone is still here.

Lastly, here are some of the powers to look at:
Uvatha's horsemaster - Witchking is casting it -
http://www.rjrotwk.t...nazgulhorse.wmv

Lozenarjâ's Snow Troll Avalanche -
http://www.rjrotwk.t...llAvalanche.wmv

Edited by robnkarla, 25 April 2007 - 06:42 AM.

[Allathar]

Cool effect with the horsemaster - is it a black-effected version of the elven flood power?

[JEV3]

Too much black with the horsemaster and it has too wide a radius...

[robnkarla]

Too much black with the horsemaster and it has too wide a radius...

This was the first draft, I'll be tweaking it some I've been playing with a number of effects with the particle systems and I will be softening the black and I've also played with a number of formations, but keep in mind this will be his level10 power.

[Devon]

wow, i love the black horses. Cool that the naz get their own powers now

[Allathar]

'bout Evil Men heroes, I found this on wikipedia:

The Middle-earth Role Playing game and the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game, the latter based on Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, both include original material about Harad and the Haradrim. In the former, the Haradrim language is called "Haradiac". In the latter the leader Théoden kills is called "Suladân the Serpent Lord", its forces include assassins called "hasharin", and other names such as "Dalamyr", "Kârna", "Badharkân", "Hidâr", "Nâfarat", "Abrakân", and "Dhâran-sar" appear.
However, original information from these and any other games is not considered canonical.

Castamir, a corsair of Umbar, is a canonical early-third age hero (BoG uses him), other than that first age heroes of the easterlings were Ulfang, Ulwarth, Uldor and Ulfast. Men often named themselves after their ancestors so it'll fit into it.