227 replies to this topic

[ambershee]

"Great" ideas are two a penny. Chances are anyone with any skill will have their own great ideas to attend to. The other issue, is that as you're "mod illiterate", as you put it, you don't know just how much work is involved in a mod, or even what is possible - a single moderately well built faction can take a competant team a year or more. Total conversions with all sorts of new material will take several years.

The number one general rule of modding, is that if you want to see it, you've got to make it

[lycan]

T-T-T-T-T TRUE

[mike_]

I've been considering starting a mod recently, in the same vein as TEA, only involving Dwarves (it'd be for BFME 1).
As of right now, I know next to nothing in terms of modding. I know some terms, and the amount of work involved, but that's about it. However, I am willing to sacrifice my time and go the trouble to learn how to mod. All of it; modelling, skinning, coding, binding, mapping.
Now that I've hopefully dispelled any notion that I'm an arrogant n00b, here's every option that I can think of, in Tech Tree format:
Heroes-
Dain II Ironfoot
Balin, Lord of Moria
Gloin, Son of Groin
Gimli, Son of Gloin
Thorin II Stonehelm
Hadhod, of Fundin's Clan
-Summons Elegost the Dunedain to aid him in battle for a timer or until he is killed. (codeable?)
Units-
Dwarven Clansmen
-Basic Warriors
Dwarven Archers
Dwarven Campaigners
-Special Ability, "Veterans." Makes them immune to Fear from Rank 1 (codeable?), and give gives +15% attack bonus to nearby Clansmen and Archers.
Khazad Guard
-Purchasable upgrade, "Hammers." Increases damage to buildings by +35%, to Trolls and Siege Machines +65%, to units that have purchased, "Heavy Armour" +25% (codeable?)
Buildings-
Dwarven Quarry
-Settlement building, reduces cost of buildings.
Dwarven Smithery
-Standard Resource building, purchases upgrades at Rank 2.
Hall of Our Fathers
-Barracks, trains Dwarven Clansmen and Archers at Rank 1, Dwarven Campaigners at Rank 2, and Khazad Guard at Rank Three.
Stealthed Garrison
-Alternate Settlement building, stealthed (codeable?), reduces cost of Campaigners, reveals large portion of shroud around it.
Dwarven Mead Hall
-Well.
Monument to Aule
-Heroic Statue, reduces cost of heroes.
Powers-
Tier 1:
Heal, 1 PP.
Baruk Khazad!, 1 PP.
-Increases unit attack power by +45%, unit move speed by 30%.
Tier 2:
Summon Elven Allies, 3 PP.
Barzanthul, 2 PP.
-Anduril/Gandalf the White rip-off for Dain.
Like Water on a Rock, 3 PP (4 if last bit is codeable).
-Similar to Tainted Land or Elven Wood, destroys all foliage in AoE and places a "gravel"-like texture. Negates enemy leaderships in AoE, and forces enemy units to fall back to their beginning formation (codeable?)
Tiers 3 and 4:
Need help, preferably relatively, "fresh" ideas!
Play Style-
The Dwarves start off with only a few relatively strong, slow units, but through various leadership buffs can become a runaway train of Dwarven goodness. Early game relies heavily on resource gathering and securing of territory. Mid-game focuses on building an army and upgrading it. Late game is (hopefully) a slaughterfest between the armies involved..
I am by no streatch of the imagination done, as this was all typed up in the Reply Box (I know, I know...)
If you have any suggestions to add, please do!
In conclusion, if anyone can point in the direction of some tutorials for the things required to mod? I also need to know what programs to buy/preferably download, and what to do with them.
I would like to start this off relatively simple, by starting on getting the Dwarven Campaigner modelled, skinned, and coded so that I can have a kind of "template" for later projects for the mod. Also, if anyone can come with a name, I'd appreciate it. Here's my offering:
Dwarves: Stunted Warfare.
Cheers,
-mike

EDIT: I'm not looking for a team, as I'd like to learn as much as I can by myself. That, and in the past I've always worked better by myself.

Edited by elfhelm.., 18 November 2007 - 03:54 AM.

[Mathijs]

Seems like a solid idea and a good mindset. I'll be watching this one.

[mike_]

Awesome!
I've got some new ideas for my mod:
Banner Carriers
-Trained individually from the Hall of Our Fathers. Instead of joining with a battalion to increase its' Rank, they give a small stackable leadership bonus to nearby troops, +15% increase to combat experience, +20% defence increase.
Siege Machines-
Dwarven Battlering Ram
Dwarven Scorpio
-Long sight range, slow rate of fire, high attack damage, hits single targets. Low health, manned by one Dwarf.
Dwarven Onager
-Shorter range than the Scorpio, faster rate of fire, large AoE. High health, manned by several Dwarves.
Upgrades-
"Flaming Pitch," for the Dwarven Onager. Increases rate of fire, decreases range and AoE. Doubles damage to buildings and other siege weapons.
"Throwing Axes," for Dwarven Clansmen. Gives them a rechargeable ability, that allows them to throw axes, surprisingly...Campaigners come with it already equiped. (codeable?)
"Dragon Helms," for all Dwarven units except Khazad Guard. Cause fear to enemy units, and reduce Fire damage by 85%. Also reduces sight range by 5%.
Powers-
Tier 3:
Craft Long Lost, 6 PP.
-Enables purchase of Dragon Helms from Dwarven Smitheries, and Postern Gates buildable for Wall Upgrades.
Reclaimed Riches, 6 PP.
-Increases resource production of all buildings, and reduces cost of all upgrades, units, and buildings by -15% (codeable?)
Tier 4:
Summon Gandalf the Grey, 14 PP.
-Summons a rank 10 Gandalf for one minute.
Heroes-
Dain II Ironfoot.
-Rank One: King Under the Mountain, leadership bonus to all nearby troops of +5% vision, +25% combat experience, +50% defence increase against missile weapons.
-Rank One: Dwarven Cleave, powerful attack against one enemy.
-Rank Three: Name Known Far, causes fear in enemy troops.
-Rank Five: Bombard, selects one battalion of nearby Archers and orders them to fire on an area, increase of +65% to their attack rate (codeable?)
-Rank Seven: Commanding Presence, grants experience to nearby units (rechargeable).
-Rank Ten: Fortifications: Summons barricades and debris to block an area, rechargeable (codeable?)
Gimli, Son of Gloin.
-Rank One: Axe Throw.
-Rank Two: Leap.
-Rank Five: Slayer.
-Rank Six: Veteran Fighter, +25% combat experience and +70% damage.
Hadhod, Dwarf of Fundin's Clan.
-Rank One: Toggle Axes, toggle between an axe with an AoE and a siege hammer (same as Khazad Guards') (codeable?)
-Rank Two: Crippling Smash, melee version of cripple, only effects one enemy.
-Rank Four: Long Friendships, summons Elegost the Dunedain to fight for a short time.
-Rank Four: Journeyman, armor upgrade.

Cheers,
-mike

Edited by elfhelm.., 20 November 2007 - 01:57 AM.

[CNCM_BLITZ]

Summoning Gandalf the Grey...

Isnt it funny that no matter what special power you have, that Gandalf the White can pwn it to the days?

Also Craft long lost is way to expensive. It should be more like a level 1 power like heal for 1 PP.

Dain Ironfoot II's leadership bonus is useless IMO. Maybe +15% vision +100% combat experience and +50% defense vs all damage types would be decent.

Edited by CNCM_BLITZ, 20 November 2007 - 04:29 AM.

[mike_]

Gandalf Summon-
Er, I guess?
Craft Long Lost-
How is it too expensive? It basically makes all but one of your units cause fear, and your main gate somewhat useless.
Dain's Leadership-
I don't want to make it too extreme, as there's going to be all other kinds of leadership around the field-banners, other heroes, Campaigners, etc. But your reasoning is true, so I'll probably edit that.
Thanks for the feedback!
-mike

[CNCM_BLITZ]

Well, remember that all other sides have many leadership bonuses. Also I think that a Rohan army with only Aragorn at the head would have enough Leadership to defeat your dwarves and all their bonuses. Then add Theoden and Eomer to the mix along with Elven Wood and a statue, I think the dwarves would be slaughtered.

And Craft Long Lost is expensive because first you must earn many PP, and after you finally manage to purchase it, you still have to spend a bundle of cash on the upgrade itself. And every team with walls has the ability to build posterns any time they want. Its an unfair advantage.

The number of heroes IMO should be much larger. Bifur, Bofur, and Dori are still alive at the time of the WOTR. Bombur is too, but he is so fat that six young dwarves must carry him around. Gloin is the only one you are using, it seems. Why not add these? Bifur and Bofur are brothers so you could make them complement each other such as a bonus when they are near each other.

For the Khazad guard, Hammers should not be a purchaseable upgrade. Dwarves NEVER use hammers in LOTR. Instead, upgrade from walking axes to Mattocks.

Also, I think it is time to split this thread into a seperate discussion for your Dwarf mod. Either make a new topic or let a moderator split the thread.

Edited by CNCM_BLITZ, 20 November 2007 - 08:00 PM.

[mike_]

Thanks for all the feedback dude, I'll adress your post in the new Thread in this Forum.
Cheers,
-mike

[Beleg]

I know that TCs are nearly impossible, but has anyone thought of a mod based on the Trojan War. I just got finished reading both the Illiad and the Odyssey and I thought it might be a neet idea for a mod. Of course, this would be really hard tog et off the ground, but I think it might be possible.

Any interest?

[CNCM_BLITZ]

Well you could base it off the movie Troy. That would be easier to pull off since you have all those designs and picture material to work with. Brad Pitt as Achilles would work well.:

Edited by CNCM_BLITZ, 21 November 2007 - 04:36 AM.

[Taralom]

if you'd just make a large troy city
go ahead i'd say. I'll help you with whatever i can

[ambershee]

TCs are totally possible. As a bit of a spoiler, I'm working on a mod in my spare time that's sort of a 'Supreme Commander' style game. Nothing to do with anything even vaguely LOTR..

[astralith]

In advance, I'm sorry for breaking some rules here but I think this is such a great idea that some will excuse this post. 1) I can't mod, so in effect I'm asking someone else to make this... BUT you might want to! 2) The material invloved is copyrighted in that it's from a movie but I don't know if it will make waves as no one is profitting from it.

I have a great idea for a simple mini-mod. The Army of Darkness Mod. I have no modding skill but I’d love to see this one. Maybe graphics from Fistful of Boomstick can be extracted and rescaled for the graphics along with re-coloring of Oathbreakers? I don’t know… work with me here. The mod only involves adding 2 Hero units that are nearly identical graphically and about 2 or 3 more. No buildings or faction-adding work is needed.

My Grand Vision:

Start of with a weak Ash at level-1. He drops in, literally, out of the sky in his car, causing meta-damage. He come out of the car and the car itself should be kept as a slow, non-damaging unit until later…

Ash Powers:
-Toggle Weapon between Chain Saw and Rifle

When Ash is defeated Evil Ash spawns at level-1
Evil Ash Powers:
-Goodie-Goodie-Two-Shoes (special close attack)
-Shattered Ash (glass breaking sound, summons battalion of evil micro-Ashes)

Ash resurrects fairly cheaply as Groovy Ash (level-2, with metal hand)
Groovy Ash Powers:
-Boom Sick (Shouts “BOOM STICK”; same as Horn of Gondor or War Chant)
-Primitive Screw-Heads (Trains allies)

When Evil Ash is defeated he cheaply resurrects as Deadite Evil Ash
Deadite Evil Ash Powers:
Summon Deadites (Shouts, “Klaatu!-Verata!-Ni-hrumph.” and spawns Deadite Battalion)

Groovy Ash level-3 (now with Coarse Blanket Cape!)
More Powers:
-Mount Horse
-Necronimicon (summons Deadites and flying, biting Book of the Dead. These spawn in stand-ground defensive mode and will do damage to ANY units, good or bad, in range!)

Deadite Evil Ash continues to level up with greater Deadite Summoning eventually including Deadite Witches with toggle-able wings!
More Powers:
Convert (turns good units including heroes into Deadites)

Groovy Ash continues to level up with greater Primitive Screw-Heads
More Powers:
-Summon King Eric’s Men
-Convert Car (Remember the usless car spawing level-1 Ash? Now it becomes a war machine with spinning blades!)
Note: when “Boom Stick” used on Deadites, “Lets get the hell out of here” is screamed.

Any takers?

[Lauri]

nope, and there is a 110% chance that nobody will take it

*feels stupid that I acctually screwed the rest of the topic sorry fellas *

[CNCM_BLITZ]

LOL! Sorry, but no matter how cool you think the idea is Astralith, you still cant break the rules that way. You must LEARN to mod. And even then you cant start out with a total conversion. Even most pros never even try to make a total conversion. Thinks like an Army of Darkness mod are only good dreams.

[Eonwe]

Well beleg there is the 300 mod..... That is kinda in that era.

[CNCM_BLITZ]

But they are totally different wars though. Persia verses Sparta, and Greece verses Troy.

[Beleg]

if you'd just make a large troy city
go ahead i'd say. I'll help you with whatever i can

I like this idea
only i can't map at all
I can do everything else needed

[ambershee]

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