32 replies to this topic

[robnkarla]

Another good-sized update this week. Just a note, instead of including thumbnails in each update I'll just have a header image showing off some of what is included and just links to the screens.

1) First of three new units with skins by ElrondHighLord - the Elven Healer. This unit serves as support, starting off as a mini-well that can travel with your troops. They're quite expensive, but they receive xp from surrounding troops much like heroes, and their abilities grow stronger at higher levels. You can only have a maximum of 4 at a time and they do not travel on the living map in WotR mode.
Screens: 1 2 3 4

2) Second of the three units - Arwen's maidens. Currently they are only available in the Elven inn alliance and the campaign, but at a later time they might be included in the Elven main faction. They are not 100% complete, and will probably have a greater variety of horses.
Screens: 1 2 3 4

3) The last of ElrondHighLord's unist units - Mirkwood Mounted Archers. Similar to Arwen's maidens they are available in the inn alliance and will be included in the campaign, but may be included in the main Elven faction at a later time. They currently are borrowing the Rivendell Lancers/Archers horses, but will shortly have their own.
Screens: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

4) Next up are the new goblin warg riders. Currently they are going into the goblin inn alliance system. The debate is still strong whether the spider riders or warg riders will be included in the goblin main faction and the other in the alliance. As for the credits, the weapons are the amazing weapons from Morgoth's Four Ages orcs. The rest is done by EA and/or me.
Screens: 1 2 3 4 5

5) Well, more progress has been made in the BFME1 area. I've gone through and done nearly all the coding required for the BFME1 buildplot style map castles and have begun creating the first map in Fords of Isen. This includes commandset/commandbuttons for foundations, BFME1 style discounts on farms, wells, statues, etlc, removing porters, etc. I have not started to work on the AI yet, but I have idea on how to get work. Until then these are multi-player maps only. As a reminder, the goal for this mod is to be more as a BFME mod instead of a BFME1, BFME2, or RotWK mod. Thus you can play as all 10 factions in BFME2 matches, BFME1 matches, and the RJ BFME2/BFME1 mixed style matches.
Screens: 1 2 3 4

6) Lastly, Yodawarrior & Shikari had fun re-creating the battle on the slopes of Mount Doom between Sauron and the Last Allaince with Mordor and Arnor. They took some screenshots for our enjoyment.
Screens: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Robert J.

[Gothmog14]

Another amazing update. I really hope you can figure out the AI for the buildplots, good luck with that.
The Elves look amazing. I can see the Elven faction is becoming more and more unique every update. The healers are a great idea. And the Goblin Warg Riders are amazing with all that weapon diversity and rusty armor. I can't wait to play with them. Amazing update, good luck with that AI.

[Zyzzyva]

Nice

Question: Will the Goblin Warg Riders be like Spider Riders, Isen Warg Riders, or something different?

2nd Question: Has/will there be any more Rj-Rotwk maps since the last Public Release?

3rd Question: Has/will War of the Ring been updated?

Overall, very good! I know Elves and Mordor have gotten new units, and now gobos have got one too! Should be fun when next public comes out!

Edited by Zyzzyva, 05 November 2007 - 01:41 AM.

[mike_]

@ the LA reinactment-
Dear God.
@ everything else-
superb quality, good luck on the BFME revisited maps!
Cheers,
-mike

[robnkarla]

Well, here is something really quick. I've gotten the how done for at least the initial base building. Now it's just a matter of scripting it all. Then ensure the AI will re-build, then expansion spots, outpost spots, etc.

http://www.rjrotwk.t...dor_AI_Base.JPG

At least they will not HAVE to be MP only.

Robert J

[fehik]

Fantastic update!!!

[Xingdao Fan]

Good work. I assume the Healers are on the Shrine of Illuvatar building?

I would still like to have the Lindon Horse Archers, though. Make Lindon Horse Archers have more HP and armor, and Mirkwood Mounted Archers could have less HP and armor but a high damage.
Or just give a Mount ability to Mirkwood Archers once they get to a certain level.

[Gothmog14]

So you're putting back the outposts and economy build plots (the single ones) like in BFME as well? God, I really hope you can get that to work. Sounds like some tough work you've got there. Is that base completely built by the enemy AI? It looks really good. Hope you can get rebuilding and everything else to work, good luck with that.

What is the purpose for Arwen's Maidens and Mirkwood Horsemen? They sound just like Riverdell Riders and Lindon Horse Archers to me. Are they more specialized? more powerful? Ohh, and please keep some units solely for the Inns, it would really be great to have Inn exclusive units. If you want my vote (though I doubt it counts ), Spider Riders should move to the Inn, Warg Riders should be in the faction (just makes more sense, in the Goblin army in the Hobbit there were Warg (or Wolf rather) Riders, I've never heard a mention of riding spiders, silly EA).

[ElrondHighLord]

Arwen maidens and mirkwood archers, will be different and specialised from the other current horse riders, yet their exact differences will be decided on later, with other elven ideas ,but there are some current ideas in mind., whhich will expand the playing capacity of the elves. Unit diversity is always a good thing in the bfmes

Edited by ElrondHighLord, 05 November 2007 - 04:57 PM.

[Xingdao Fan]

Arwen's Maidens could be the special cavalry unit of the Elves. Noldor Warriors are not all that good after all.

[Vithar-133]

Intresting. Very intresting. Extremely great work.

[Devon]

sweet

[Dangarello]

Mirkwood mounted archers. If they have the range and attack power of the usual mirkwood archers combined with the speed of a horse and fully upgradeable they will be tanks. Undestroyable tanks. But i like the idea anyway....

[Xingdao Fan]

That's why it's better to just give a Mount ability to them at lvl 7 or something, would make Elves unique in that way. Mirkwood Archers become faster and can trample 1 or 2 units, and the damage of cavalry and infantry is slightly reduced, but they take more damage from pikes.

[Devon]

theyre going to inn for now, until rob decides what hes gonna do with them. dont worry about balance, it will be figured out eventually

[Gothmog14]

I like the idea of them being confined to the Inn. It really adds to it having new units (even if they're just skins or models) coming from the Inns, instead of other factions already available units. I hope it stays that way.

Edited by Gothmog14, 06 November 2007 - 09:58 PM.

[Elrond]

Im goin to have a heart failure this is simply marvulous

i must say there is nothing i like more then new elven units

and finnaly gobos on warg im speechless

:Elrond

[Black Dragon]

Looks excellant, can't wait for the next update. Unfortunatly I did intend to assist with some aspects of the mod but i've suddenly gotten very busy. If I get the chance to provide some things, whether its used or not I will hand them over.

As for the update, I agree that Spider Riders should go into the Inn, it never really made much sense for Spider Riders to exist and was obviously an attempt by EA to diversify the Goblins. Some possible ideas:

-Inn-
Spiderlings/Spider riders can only be accessed from the Inn in an alliance called something like Shelob Alliance?

-Seperate Mount Structures-
Wargs, Spiderlings (and perhaps Drake Riders) can be built from independant mount structures. So Goblins get access to 3 extra buildings that focus on each mount type...Mostly this should be for asthetic purposes...giving plays a choice over what mounts they use. (In my view there doesn't need to be any difference between Warg/Spider riders other than appearance)

-Summon Power-
Spider riders could become a summonable ability. Either as a spellbook power OR perhaps a wild idea as a Shelob Level 10 ability. I'm not entirely too keen on this idea, but it would give more benefit to Shelob.

Just some thoughts

[lotrfan]

I personally liked the spider riders. Even though they weren't in the book, i think it is a cool idea. I know that they actually rode wargs, but still it does diversify goblins a little bit. Actually the faction is really supposed to be called "The Wild" or something. I liked how this faction was made up of all of the rest of the wild creatures. The cave trolls, spiders, goblins, and dragons. Wargs would have maybe been fine, but now it makes them kinda like isengard.

Logically, if an Uruk warg rider fought a Goblin warg rider, who would win? Logically the uruk warg rider would win. I know the counter argument is that Goblins would be faster and more numerous, but spiders seem more appropriate for the role. The spiderlings are already very fast. Logically it makes sense that spiders are faster than wargs, so I think this would make spiders a better choice.

For now though, I still am not completely against the idea of adding Goblin Warg Riders to the faction. I actually think it would be pretty interesting to see and test. I really liked how they were in the hobbit, but Spider Riders seem better for the faction as said above because

1. Wargs are taken by Isengard
2. Spiders seem more appropriate for the role the Goblin rider is supposed to have: Quick and Numerous.

Plus i like the new poison damage idea which was introduced in BFME2.

Honestly i am kinda unsure about what to do with the whole goblin warg issue.

I do want the spiders to stay, at least for now, but not in the inn. Inns are not available on all maps.

I think a building should be added for the goblins which is a warg lair, and that, for now, they should get the Warg Pack( cuz warg is part of wild) and Goblin Riders. Nothing should happen to the spider pit).

Keep up the good work
Look forward to the next patch.

[Zyzzyva]

Well, since Ive put in a couple of mounted ideas in the past, I think that Spider Riders and Warg Riders should both be available, as Spider Riders are a rather expensive sword/ archer idea. What I would do to make it a little different is to make the Spider Rider spear actually a spear type damage. Then the Warg Riders would become the relatively cheap, fast cavalry, while Spider Riders would become more unique and (possibly) more expensive. The other idea I had in the past was to make a Warg Rider that was really like the mount power for heroes, just makes them faster movement and weak to pikes. Then, when dismounted, they would wield a torch. This would do no/little damage to units, but to good damage to buildings.

But of course, this is just my random ideas

P.S. with either of my ideas I would think maybe there would be a seperate building for warg riders, with maybe the wargs from isengard moved to this faction and replaced in the Isen faction, since there is no mention whatsoever of Saruman ever using Wargs by themselves, while seperate wargs appeared in the hobbit