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For a list of credits for each piece of the mod that was not done by me you can follow this link: (pretty much 100% of the coding, .bse building, map scripting was done by me)
http://forums.revora...showtopic=50722
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Welcome to RJ-RotWK v1.05.06 - a massive modification to EA's BFME2 Expansion - Rise of the Witch-King
Download now!
(Redirected to lordoftherings.filefront.com to alleviate traffic on revora)
As you explore the mod you'll notice that I've made many changes, enhanced many areas, and I thought I'd provide a guide to what you will find. While a lot of it has been completed, there is still a lot of work left, but I judged that the mod was in a good place to release it for everyone to play and enjoy.
To highlight some features of the mod:
- 3 factions have been added
- Men of the West has been split into a full-fledged Rohan and Gondor
- EA's Arnor has been completely revamped with new units/structures/power tree. One of the most complete Arnor's you'll find.
- Mordor has been split into Mordor and Men of the East - more details below
- Over 50+ new heroes/units/structres and more have been added, with 4 new fortress, a slew of heroes, and a new inn system.
- A return to the feel of BFME1
- Smaller combinable hordes - 100s of different combinations
- All units can level to 10, not just heroes
- Structures can level up through experience as well as a purchased upgrade
- A move towards making each faction's play style unique and different, to bring out the character of the faction
- Living World campaign similar to BFME1 - currently with 10 maps to take you through the Battle at Helm's Deep
- A preview of a linear campaign - emerse yourself in the War of the Ring
- A new play style that blends all the BFME games. Details below (RJ Maps)
- Right now a preview of the buildplot maps. There is one map that is the beginning of a complete return to BFME1.
- A camera system has been added to many of the maps, letting you explore the game and Middle-Earth in entirely new ways.
- A new inn system that allows you to ally with another faction to play with the units and even heroes from your allies
- War of the Ring mode for Arnor, Rohan, Gondor, Mordor, and some other areas has been completed to extend the mod.
- A huge amount of high-quality skins for new and existing units/heroes
- Hundreds of pieces of art for new and existing units/structures/heroes
- Many different features from BFME2 1.06 (leadership system, underlying balance, and more)
- So many other minor changes to enhance your enjoyment of the game.
Arnor:
In RotWK EA included a very basic, non-playable Arnor. RJ-RotWK has taken this faction to a completely new level. The overall idea of Arnor is that it comprises the people who fought against Angmar and the Witchking - including Arnor, remnants of Dunedain, Hobbits, & Elves. As such, you will find that each of these groups has it's own building from which you can train their troops.
But before Arnor can ally with the Dunedain and the Elves you will need to form an alliance with them. From your Amon Sul fortress you can purchase alliances with each of these factions and then you can unlock their power. Also, once you've united all the factions you can enhance your alliance with the Istari (which is a 25pp summon) to further strengthen your fortress as well as allowing the wizards to come to your aid for longer periods of time.
One area that has begun to be implemented with the Elves and partially with the Dunedain is the captain unit. The captains will serve as leaders that you train for each sub-faction. They provide basic stacking leadership and at high-levels stronger inspiration to the troops. They come in single units and are a force to be reckoned with.
OVerall, Arnor is designed to give you a feeling of bringing many of the factions of middle-earth to your aid, with flexibility and enjoyment. They are one of my favorite factions to play and their tactics are very wide open.
Rohan/Gondor:
In BFME1 Rohan and Gonder were their own unique factions. RJ-RotWK has attempted to bring that feeling back and allow you to explore a BFME2 enhanced Rohan while not diminishing Gondor. To serve this purpose many new units/heroes have been added to the game. For Rohan, Gondor, Elves, & Dwarves each faction has been given a hobbit to use in the early game. For Rohan - Erkenbrand, Gamling, Hama, Merry, & Radagast have been added. For Gondor - Imrahil, Damrod, & Pippin have been added.
In BFME1 Rohan had virtually no infantry, which kept the faction unique. I've attempted to keep it unique by giving them a new unit - the yeoman herald. In times of war the herald calls forth for all who will rise up and fight. You can purchase the herald from an Archery Range or the barracks. By default they can rally yeoman with swords, but you can purchase equipment upgrades for Archers, Axemen, Spears, & Spearthrowers. Once the upgrade is purchased, rallying the troops is still free. Rohan as a Horse nation, still has the most diversified cavalry in the game, with 5 cavalry units and many of their heroes being able to mount. Horse shields have also been added back in as an upgrade for Rohan and Gondor. Rohan's power-tree is filled with their own unique powers, from muster the rohirrim to the three hunters and stampede.
For RJ, Gondor has also been enhanced to fill the vacancy of the Rohan units. The tower guards from BFME1 have returned and been enhanced into the Fountain Guards. Also available are basic pikemen & citadel guards. To note, a power called Heroes of Gondor has been added. With this power Araogrn gains the Anduril power, Gandalf will be Gandalf the White, while Pippin, Boromir, & Faramir gain armor upgrades.
Mordor/Men of the East:
To flesh out the campaign with an evil men faction, RJ has decided to implement a new Men of the East faction, bringing Harad and Rhun together as sub-factions. While not complete (heroes still need to be fleshed out with powers and a new power tree), the faction has come very far and it enjoyable to play.
When you start a standard BFME2 game, you will see an unpacked castle from BFME1 instead of a fortress. From this castle you will then select whether you want to start with Harad or Rhun. Make your selection and then the castle will be unpacked into the fortress of your choice. With this choice, you will get a 40% discount on the sub-faction selected. So if a structure normally costs you 500, then you will be able to purchase it for 300. This discount applies to structures, units, and heroes at this point. The porter for the Men of the East has a switching commandset that allows you to switch between each of the sub-factions' structures, giving Men of the East the broadest range of choices available in the game.
Mordor, with the loss of the Haradrim & Easterlings have been enhanced in a few areas. Once you have a level 2 Orc pit you will be able to purchase an Uruk tent, allowing you to build Morannon Orcs, Orc Chasers, Morgul Orcs, & Black Uruks. I'm still in the process of fleshing each of these out, but they are all available to play. Mordor is meant to be filled with Orcs, strong single unit monsters, and one of the largest selection of heroes. Some of the heroes added : Burzolog, Olag-Hai chief; Snaga, a weak orc slave that can grow in strength/armor; Gothmog can mount a warg; and a unique nazguls.
A new nazgul system has been introduced in RJ-RotWK. There are 9 unique nazguls in the game, 7 for Mordor & 2 for Men of the East. Each nazgul has a unique, powerful level 10 power. For Mordor, when purchased all the nazguls except the witchking can toggle between foot and horse. Like the books and the movies, once the nazgul is killed, you can revive them but they can only stay on foot until you purchase a fellbeast for them. Thus in an end game you can have 7 nazguls flying around with their own unique powers to reign havoc.
Living World Campaign:
A new campaign style was introduced in RJ-RotWK. From the War of the Ring menu you can select the RJ-War of the Ring scenario. Select Gondor as your faction and you will begin the campaign. You'll start in Dunland and you can move the Fellowship to Moria. From there you can travel through Lothlorien, Amon Hen, and defend Rohan while you defeat Isengard. Other maps available are Rivendell, Iron Hills, & Rhudaur. This style of campaign is meant to give you incredible flexibility as you play out the War of the Ring. Defend Helms Deep with the Elves and call in reinforcements from the Dwarves. You choose how it is played. This is still a work in process, and I'm about to dive back in and flesh this out completely to take you through the entire War of the Ring struggle.
RJ Maps:
RJ maps attempt to blend the worlds of BFME1, BFME2, & RotWK. Bringing you BFME1 castles, Capturable buildings, build-anywhere within a radius. Enjoy doing battle in 7 different maps. (Fords of Isen, Dunharrow, Cair Andros, Mouths of the Entwash, Anorien, Belfalas, The Brown Lands)
1) You will start the map with the base for the faction that you selected. Each faction has their own base, and they all can be AI controlled. (Except Men of the East)
2) In this base, there are two building ranges. There are only defensive build plots, everything else is build anywhere. Capture an Wayfarer's Inn or another Castle to build in more areas.
----The outer range spreads a little outside of the base, allowing for a ring of money producing buildings as well as the Ent Moots for now.
----The inner range is about the size of your camp. Most of the buildings can only be built within the walls/fences of your base.
3) Each faction will have a set of starting units. These will be outlined below.
4) VERY IMPORTANT!! If you lose your Fortress you will lose your walls and you will be unable to build again until you have captured a castle.
5) There are 3 types of capturable buildings available on all maps, and 1 that will be available on some maps. Each building has their own upgrades/discounts. (The idea and the models chosen follow much of BT2DC's Conquest mode. Thank you MaDDoX for allowing their use.)
Camera System:
With RJ you can explore the mod and Middle-Earth in new ways. Based on a system from Morgoth's Minas Tirith Map and the 4th Age, I've extended the camera systems to allow you to view the game in 4 different angles. On the maps, you will be granted 4 new powers - General View, Commander View, Unit View, & Ground View. Click on the power to adjust the angle of the camera to what you desire. Skies have been added to the different maps to enhance the feeling of being immersed into Middle-Earth. The maps that have the system:
All RJ maps; the buildplot map; Moria, Lothlorien, & Amon Hen in the Campaign; Anfalas; Evendim; Grey Mountains; Hardlindon; Weathertop; Black Gate; Bucklandl Dagorland; Dol Guldur; Ettenmoors; Grey Havens; Harad; Helms Deep; Minas Morgul; Minas Tirith; Mount Doom; Rhun; The Shire
Inn System:
Last area that I'll cover in this readme is the inn system. When playing the WotR era factions (all except Angmar & Arnor), when you capture an inn you will be able to purchase alliances with the other factions. The alliances available are:
Gondor, Rohan, Elves, Dwarves, Southern Fiefdoms, Rhun, Harad, Mordor, Goblins, & Isengard.
When you purchase the alliance to the faction you can then begin the basis for the alliance. As you train more troops more levels of the alliance are available allowing you to purchase upgrades for the troops, elite troops, and even some heroes. IMPORTANT: for this release only troops are available right now for purchase, and the ugprades only work for the Southern Fiefdoms alliance. But the commandset and such are there to let you explore the future of this exciting area.
Well, that's all for now in this readme. Enjoy the mod and if you need anything, have questions, or want to see the progress of the mod go to:
http://rjrotwk.the3rdage.net
Thank you for playing.
Robert J.
Terms of Use:
Many items found in the mod are not my creation and thus I cannot give permission for their use. Check the credits for who to contact if seeking permission. At this time no one is allowed to use items found within the mod for another public mod witout the express permission given by Robert J./robnkarla. This will change once the mod is complete, but until then nothing can be used elsewhere without consent.
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Installation:
Welcome to RJ-RotWK v1.05.06
The installation should be easy and painless if you follow the below instructions.
1) Open the RJ_RotWK.rar file
2) Extract the contents of the file to your c:\ drive. (If you are using winRar, just drag the RJ_RotWK folder to you c:\ drive)
3) In the contents of your C:\ drive directory you will see a RJ_RotWK shortcut, or you can also find it in the .rar file. Move that wherever you would like to store it
4) Double-click the shortcut and the mod will run
A checklist for trouble-shooting:
- Verify that the folder RJ_RotWK is in your C:\ directory. (Or you can move it wherever you want, but you'll need to change the path in the shortcut)
- Verify that you are using the 2.01 patch
- Verify that the shortcut has the correct path for where you installed the game. By default it will assume that you installed it here - "C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Lord of the Rings, The Rise of the Witch-king"
If you have any problems or questions, please go to my site and click on forums to get to ask any questions:
rjrotwk.the3rdage.net
Thank you for playing,
Robert J. (robnkarla)
Edited by robnkarla, 07 February 2008 - 04:01 AM.
