*NOTE: Some of these suggestions may already be in mind, I'm just typing as I play. Also, I'm sorry if I seem very critical and skeptical :S. I know this is a beta, but I'm not sure what the changes are going to be.
General:
-There is a feeling that all buildings require much more space and flatter terain to be built in the mod.
-Most faction's buildings, particularly troop production buildings take too long to upgrade, meaning very slow tier advance in the game.
-The Elven system where you need to upgrade the fortress so you can call for more units, and then actually call for them, and then upgrade the elven training grounds needs to be simplified or made shorter, because then making diverse armies becomes increasingly tedious and hard. Also, the Call for Rivendell/Mirkwood thing takes too,too long.
-I've noticed that the animations for units attacking are sometimes jerky and repeat themselves. It looks particularly bad on ranged units as arrows/stones/whatever can fly out at times which make it look bad.
-Something such as the Battering Ram being able to join a horde of Uruk Swordsmen to do the thing in the movie where all attacks are transferred to the Uruk Swordsmen while the Battering Ram is able to move to the target destination and attack there unharmed.
Abilities:
-The ability Dark Heal should be renamed Dark Renewal because it sounds too similar to "heal" and also in the game LOTR: The Third Age, the goblin chieftains can use this ability, and it heals other units. Its just the name sounding a bit shifty XD
-Some abilities dont say what level the hero needs to be for them to be able to use them.
Buildings:
-The size of e.g. a Rivendell farm should be similar to that of e.g. a Furnace and it goes on. This makes base sizes of each faction generally the same for gameplay reasons.
-Harad buildings all look too alike, I have difficulty finding the different buildings. Maybe if there were specific indicators on each building, such as a guy working on an anvil at the smithy, horses at the stable, men training on dummies at the barracks etc.
-The Arnor Hobbit House should have a better ground texture, it looks really bad when the square shaped-green grass is put on tiled terrain or desert etc. This also applies to Arnor and Gondor farms.
-Some buildings are too big, such as the Lorien fortress.
-Gondor blacksmith costs a fortune, as do Gondor markets.
-Why do other upgrade possbilities get blacked out for the elven training grounds such as purchase training ground barracks and training ground stables when the other two upgrades are taking place although after those upgrades have been completed you can purchase the barracks/stables? This means that instead of just clicking in order what the player wants the elven training grounds to upgrade to (if he/she wants to have multiple upgrades at a time), the player must wait until the upgrade is done, then click on the next upgrade. And I think its a bit annoying to have to build two training grunds because one is devoted to infantry, the other to cavalry.
-Some buildings have no "real" building animation, its either just rising out of the ground, or just appearing there until the construction finishes, where it takes on its new textures and gets animations.
-The "extra" wall bit that comes when you build walls into cliffs for Rivendell and other Factions is different to that of all the other parts of the wall.
-Some farms have no farmer XD.
-Upgrading wall sections to different parts has been much harder than in normal BFME2, this is because the wall sections are larger and there has to be at least two sections between each upgrade. Could this be a discussion topic? And also, I hope there will be long-range defence upgrades for some of the newer factions with walls.
-There needs to be an explanation for why some buildings and units cannot be built/recruited before upgrades or other buildings are built.
-I think the Mordor Armory should actually be a crevasse in the ground with fumes coming out and then the smithy beside it. This is just like in the movie and doesn't look so weird (?a mini volcano?) :O
-The Black Uruk tent could have two uruks or something standing guard outside. This would double as a defense for the tent and an animation.
Units:
-Prince Imrahil freezes after a few seconds of being idle - his animation needs to be looped.
-Ranged units miss very badly when shooting at moving targets at around a 90 degree angle. E.g. Dunedain rangers do no damage to a moving horde of Black Numenorians about two horde-spans away. Is this supposed to happen? And if yes, is it for realism reasons etc.? And if no...well yeah, I think it shoud be reverted/fixed.
-An inspiration from WC3, I think the Spears of Loriens' spears should be metal, and S-shaped, except much more stretched vertically. http://media.photobu.../loprya/wc3.jpg
-The Noledhel should have some close range defense or else they are just dead meat. They should not only be used like trebuchets and stuff :S. They should be given damage enhancement of some kind and the ability to bombard.
-I am guessing that most heroes like Imrahil and Bilbo will be given their own voice sets and heroes without abilities will get some in the next patch
-Bard looks too much like an elf.
-Dwarves should get a cavalry unit other than the battlewagons. Perhaps it could be those beasts that pull the battlewagons ridden by phalanxes or something.
-Siege hammer guardians dont look or sound any different from normal guardians. A good distinction could make them much more different and unique.
-Snaga should be able to feast off meat, as he is always hungry.
-Aren't there supposed to be nine Nazgul (including the Witch-King?), or are the missing two supposed to be reserved for MotE?
-Needs to be description for what Morannon Orcs are good against.
-Sorry about my obssession with the movie, but just to differentiate Orc Pikemen from Uruk Pikemen more, they have more jagged armour and shorter, rusty pikes. There is variation between each type of pike, there ranges from sickle-like pikes, to mace-like pikes and the orcs look too human and too tall and upright ><.
-The skinning of the Black Orcs is too simple, I hope they will become more detailed in the next patch.
-Black Uruks should have the helmet shown in the Palantir picture, as there are some in the movie ><. I was also thinking that they would be heavily armoured.
Icons/pictures/models/skins:
-Gondor Heavy Armour and Forged Blades icons look too different from the other icons. Also the Gondor Citadel Guards' icons are like this.
-I just think that Gondor soldiers maybe mistaken for pikemen due to the two stick things in the icon. Perhaps they could be replaced with swords.
-Perhaps upgrade icons could be a picture of a building belonging to that faction with scaffolding on it to make it more relevant to what it does.
-Ranged units miss very badly when shooting at moving targets at around a 90 degree angle. E.g. Dunedain rangers do no damage to a moving horde of Black Numenorians about two horde-spans away. Is this supposed to happen? And if yes, is it for realism reasons etc.? And if no...well yeah, I think it shoud be reverted/fixed.
-The icons for Rivendell Sword Masters look a bit like angry officemen wielding sticks :S, I think their swords need more curvature and their helments emphasised. Their collarpiece looks abit like a tie :S.
-Wulfs icon is abit too vague, as in you can't really tell what he looks like.
I am yet to look at the other factions, probably tomorrow. I am sure that the next version of the mod will have completed some of the WIP's. Also, some units that do not have the WIP picture still seem to be WIP's
***Further Additions***
General:
-Some units can't be refunded back at the fortress.
-Some notifications on the top right of the screen are not corresponding to the correct thing.
-Sometimes, if a unit that doesn't have specific upgrades is combined with a unit with some upgrades, it gets them for free. E.g. Arnor archer w/flaming arrow combines with Arnor archer without flaming arrow then both will have flaming arrow
-Although I understand the thing with Ents, some of the Rohan fortress upgrades are like the Elves of the original RotWK.
-Ability for infantry to "garrison" gates which both defends and strengthens it. (Imagine soldiers holding the gate closed and some soldiers on top of it shooting arrows/dropping stuff onto attackers. They should be still vulnerable to attack though.
-There is no button for "all heroes select".
Buildings:
-Arnor base expansions dont really "fit". A reskin of the brickwork will do.
-Very small thing but just to make farms more varied, Rohan farms should have wooden walls and fences
(so just make the wall higher + reskin), Arnor farms have like a round hut, and Gondor farms stay the same :S.-Men of Rohan love bars and taverns, so maybe the barracks should be renamed or something.
-Rohan is does not have much valuable stone to build statues with, but they do have towers with bells in them that are used to rally the Rohirrim (a possible replacement for the statue).
-The Vigilant Ent expansion for Rohan needs a ground texture else it looks a bit unnatural. It also has a very high minimum range, making it vulnerable to close ranged people. This is why I have suggested the below. Also, they don't benefit from the flaming munitions upgrade.
-An upgrade which allows the fortress to drop a barrage of rocks onto nearby attackers. Much like the Mordor lava thing.
-A small thing, the Rohan fortress is missing a torch on the left.
-The Rohan fortress needs the amount of space that a "normal" fortress does, but doesn't take up that much space. Maybe it should be a bit like the Arnor fortress, expanding a bit as it is upgraded to justify the large amout of build space needed.
-The morning mist of Rohan...is...a bit...like pee colour... I would suggest a different upgrade, as it makes Rohan too much like Elves, such as...erm something a bit like Numenor stonework, but is a barricade around the fortress with spikes sticking out which both reduces melee vulnerability of walls and fortress and compensates for the Vigilant Ent's inability to defend itself.
-Look, the Horn of Helm Hammerhand is in Helm's Deep, and there is already the Cloud Break ability, I think that instead of the Ents being summoned at a moot, they are summoned from the fortress, so its like the Nest of Eagles thing, except for a battalion of ents, lead by the "banner carrier", Treebeard. Ents didn't directly help Rohan in the War of the Ring, and so this would be like, Treebeard and his army coming to Rohan's aid. Also, the Ent Moot doesn't blend in with the Rohan buildings. If this suggestion is taken into consideration, I would like to then suggest a replacement for the Ent in terms of siege - an mangonel, this is a simple and small catapult which is suitable to the humble ways of the Rohirrim. It is probably designed to fire rocks of medium size (cave troll rocks) and should be horse-drawn. I think it would be suitable for quick-sieges as it should be a fast-moving and versatile siege weapon (different upgrades, e.g. one upgrade lets it shoot a cloud of arrows for anti-infantry, another gives it extra anti-structure potential). For ideas of what it looks like: http://upload.wikime...oman_Onager.jpg
-The Rohan infantry recruitment system is very similar to the Elven one, where the barracks will "rally" a type of unit. The archery range only enables the building of specific ranged units, the research of fire arrows and makes the "elven warriors" who kind of look like they're wearing nightgowns...(don't they have a bit of chest armour?) I would combine this suggestion with the one about bars and taverns to create a tavern-building which accomodates all of the infantry needs of Rohan.
-Since Rhun has such few Fortress upgrades, I would like to suggest one - it is called "Ambush" or something, since the Men of Rhun are sneaky people, their fortress may be able to temporarily to surround itself in fog, and out of the fog comes "temporary" reinforcements, which will slay any attackers. Or, the fortress can just have traps around it which "regenerate" a few minutes after they have caught a victim. Or, some kind of device which just "sinks" in the ground around the fortress and underneath are spikes and close range attackers get impaled.
-I thought only Goblins had close ties with Dragons. I am referring to the Rhun base expansion called Dragon's Nest. That gives me an idea. Some may/may not believe that the inclusion of dragon's in the ranks of Rhun may be a bit farfetched but I believe that a base defense called "Dragonfire" would be more "believable". Dragonfire could be like a cross between a Floodgate and a Nolhedel. Dragonfire could retain the Dragon's nest model but shoots like fire out of the mouth or something XD.
-The Harad Oasis upgrade for the Fortress could be a bit like the pool of water around the Elven base in normal RotWK except its like a moat inbetween the bazaar, the palace and the fortress itself.
-For the Horn of Haradrim, perhaps some animation or effect could be displayed at the Fortress which fired it.
-Since the Bazaar is just a slightly different Men of the West Marketplace, perhaps it could be made more "eastern" by replacing the stone with sticks or something and covering the whole building in an animal skin-cloth thing.
-Another expansion for the Harad fortress could be a small tower garrisoned with a sorceror who e.g. calls down fireballs from the sky. This would be a long range defense. Actually, look at both the Rhun "Dragonfire" base-defense proposal and this one, they are similar, but Rhun are the faction who build the Istari Alcove, so maybe the sorceror defense is for Rhun and Dragonfire for Harad - I don't know.
Units:
-Azog's attack animation is either too early, or the damage dealt comes too late after he attacks. This only applies when he's attacking buildings. Also applies to Argeleb and others.
-Soldier/pike/whatever and archer combinations should retain the ability to bombard. E.g. Arnor archers fire while the soldiers stand guard. Likewise, the soldiers/pikemen have lost the porcupine and shield formation abilities. I acknowledge that this may be due to the difficulty of mixed battalions. Also, mixes of ranged/melee hordes will only attack with the ranged units :O.
-Mithlond Senrty's weapon switch animation is jerky.
-Archers seem to have a longer range than siege weapons.
-Longshot doesn't work!
-Some units which aren't too good by themselves can't combine with other units.
-Why can't yeoman soldiers do line formation? I ask because they are the only basic infantry of the sort apart from peasants for Rohan.
-Morinehtar and the Nazgul Dawndeath have uneven recruit costs? Just a small thing.
-A corsair ballista is too much alike the Isengard ballista. I suggest a siege weapon of a different kind (><). I'm not sure what its called, but I've researched about towers with hooks which could pull walls down in a few tugs. So, in BFME2, there could be some modifications to the Siege Tower Model and Skins. As for long-range siege, umm I actually don't mind using the ballista, but it would just be nicer to have no similarities and there is already the catapult. After all, this mod is reknowned for its variation. Another idea (very farfetched) for a siege weapon, is an air balloon. Its just an airballoon with some men in it who will chuck down bags of volatile powders and then drop down a torch, setting off the explosives and doing damage. I imagine that the animation for this once it is recruited is that it is carried out of the armory like an Isengard Mine, then inflated and released into the air.
-Soldiers of Rhun become un-commandable after the "porcupine formation" command.
-I see the potential in the Wain Riders - The animations need a bit more smoothing and theres a glitchy thing where when they are told to line up, they all "go into each other" to form 1 rider.
-The Rhun sorcerors only die when the cast the first spell. They don't sacrifice themselves to cast the spell for anything else.
Art:
-Some building destruction animations are simple - hoping that more will be done.
-The Rhun windmill's animation goes haywire at specific stages of damage.
-Easterling look more like a hotel - they need some sort of identification that they are stables. Also, the build animation shows it in "damaged" mode.
-The Rhun Armory could have a chimney to identify it as an armory.
-Easterling barracks could have a ground texture (not important).
That's all for my suggestions so far. I may edit/add/delete some in the future. For now I just await comment from others and by the actual Modding guys
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Edited by jwfoo555, 01 April 2009 - 12:04 PM.
