17 replies to this topic

[Egalmoth]

The Age of Kings mod is looking for members.
The mod is set over the entire of the 3rd age, and incorporates an ageing system similar to that of age of empires, however instead of every faction simply improving, each age represents the faction at that point in the third age, for example Gondor start off as a very powerful war like faction with descendants of numenor making up most of their people, as the third age advances they become less powerful and rely more on separate fiefdoms to provide their strength, therefore a player must decide whether or not to advance as there are both advantages and disadvantages, this also means that each faction can have several different styles of play.

When playing ROTWK (especially against the computer) I find that unless you can destroy your opponent quickly, the game just deteriorates into an endless siege about who can summon all their super powers at once to destroy the enemy's fortress, I find this boring as it is not about tactics just sheer firepower. This is why instead of starting with a massive fortress players will start with a camp keep similar to that in BFME without the walls and siege weapons will only become available in the last 'War of the Ring' age.

Currently the age system is implemented in almost every faction with the factions being:

-Gondor
-Mordor
-Isengard
-Men of the South
-Northmen
-Dwarves
-Angmar
-Elves
-Arnor

A breakdown of each faction is too much to fit on this post instead I will try to produce a document outlining the units for each faction.

As an example I will give a breakdown of the new Gondor faction.

First Age

Buildings:
Gondor Hall:
-Gondor Footmen
-Gondor Bowmen
-Gondor Spearmen
-Gondor Specialists

Armoury:
-Longbows
-Armour of the Kings
-Banner Carrier
-Tempered Steel
-Horses
-Horse Shields

Stables:
-Gondor Knight
-Gondor Lancer

That is a basic breakdown of the first age of Gondor, there are 3 ages in total, and as Gondor progresses through these ages the emphasis changes from having massive armies of basic units to having a smaller army with a variety of units.

I have been working on this mod on and off for some time now and I have finally decided to go further with it to see if I can recruit some members to help move the mod along, I am mainly looking for modellers and mappers, but I wouldn't say no to additional 2d artists and coders.

I have attached some pictures of things from the mod, including some of Gondor's units which have had a very slight reskin compared to the original numenorean skin. There are also pictures of these units with the armour of the kings upgrade which significantly increases unit armour and represents the wealth and power of Gondor during its 'first age'.

Feel free to pm me if you have any questions about the mod.

Image of Spearmen with Armour Upgrade:
http://imageshack.us.../sshot0013.png/

Gondor Barracks 1:
http://img59.imagesh.../sshot0004e.png

Gondor Barracks 2:
http://img846.images...3/sshot0005.png

Fortress with Age upgrade buttons:
http://img228.images.../sshot0015e.png

Attached Files

•  sshot0010.bmp   1.37MB   69 downloads
•  sshot0017.bmp   1.37MB   75 downloads

[Irenë Hawnetyne]

Not to shoot you down, but if by 'first age' you mean Arda's First Age of the Sun, Gondor was not present. The Kingdom of Gondor was founded in the Second Age, post-Akallabeth.
I apologize if you mean a different meaning of Age, but it seems most likely. I must say, this system is rather intriguing, though faulted.

[Elric]

This is really kinda ironic because for From Book to Game we were thinking of doing something similar...

[Egalmoth]

No I know how the ages are split, what I have done is split the 3rd age into 3 sections, eras I will call them to prevent confusion. When I say first age I mean first era this era generally covers the time from the start of the third age after the last alliance to the time when the stewards take over rule of Gondor in the mod this is called the age of kings. The next era is the age of stewards and charters Gondor's decline in power and stature. The 3rd era is just the war of the ring.

[Bofur]

Don't aim too high at the start of the mod, just aim to inorporate the era system into all of the original factions at first, then, once it works satisfactorially, only then add in more factions.

[Egalmoth]

thanks but I am not starting a mod I have been doing this for a while I am looking for members to help move the mod along

[Unknown]

Hmmmm, nine new factions eh?
Seems like a lot don't you think?
Do you have experience in modelling or skinning or texturing?
Because all I really see is code here
It's pretty hard to find people that are willing to help these days...
Not trying to kill your motivation but perhaps aim a bit smaller?
Enjoy.

[Dúnedain76]

I must say, I really hope you're able to get this mod moving. It was definitely one of the mods I was really looking forward to back when I first discovered the3rdage.

[Egalmoth]

Yes I have experience in modelling and skinning I made the models for the gondor spearmen, reskinned both their normal skin, heavy armour skin and their shields.
Its hardly nine new factions, the only new ones are the men of the south and the northmen, the others are more reshuffles.
I also can't really decide on whether to have Angmar and Arnor in the game as they don't exist for the whole of the 3rd age and I feel the current in game Angmar faction is very rushed and doesn't fit in with the rest of the game meaning it would need a complete revamp.

[Radspakr Wolfbane]

To be honest this sounds exactly the same as my original plan for Age of Numenor.

[Ridder Blauw]

Yes I have experience in modelling and skinning I made the models for the gondor spearmen, reskinned both their normal skin, heavy armour skin and their shields.
Its hardly nine new factions, the only new ones are the men of the south and the northmen, the others are more reshuffles.
I also can't really decide on whether to have Angmar and Arnor in the game as they don't exist for the whole of the 3rd age and I feel the current in game Angmar faction is very rushed and doesn't fit in with the rest of the game meaning it would need a complete revamp.

Huh? Angmar and Arnor are majorly present in the early third age, I think you have the third age confused with the War of the Ring, or do you mean that they do not exist in the entire third age? Either way your point is moot as Isengard didn't exist (as evil) in most of the third age, neither is Mordor always inhabited by Sauron and his minions.

The second point however could be true.

[Bofur]

Well, you could have Mordor to Angmar then back to a stronger Mordor, or does this defeat the object?

[Egalmoth]

I mean that Angmar and Arnor don't exist for the entire of the third age. I am aware Isengard only really exists as a faction in the war of the ring and so it would be the odd one out but I will ensure that this does not affect balance. I am also aware that the conventional mordor does not exist for the whole of the third age, and therefore my mordor will consist of the wainriders and the balcoth in the first two eras.

[Ridder Blauw]

So if you're up for that, switch Angmar over into Moria and Arnor over into Eriador?

[Egalmoth]

So if you're up for that, switch Angmar over into Moria and Arnor over into Eriador?

good idea but I'm not really wanting to focus on that area of middle earth in the mod, its more about the south perhaps I will consider doing that at a later stage

[Ridder Blauw]

-Gondor
-Mordor
-Isengard
-Men of the South
-Northmen
-Dwarves
-Elves

So if you're up for that, switch Angmar over into Moria and Arnor over into Eriador?

good idea but I'm not really wanting to focus on that area of middle earth in the mod, its more about the south perhaps I will consider doing that at a later stage

3 out of the 7 factions are from the North?

If you really want to focus on the South, throw out those three and add Rohan.

Edited by Ridder Blauw, 29 June 2012 - 08:20 AM.

[Lauri]

Well, Rohan can be seen as part of the Northmen. They were living in the north before helping Gondor, so yeah..

As for Elves and Dwarves; They're hard to remove, seeing as they did influence the wars, but when you don't have Rhûn or Goblins, I don't see much of a reason to have Dwarves either.
And Men of the South, is that Harad?

[Egalmoth]

-Gondor
-Mordor
-Isengard
-Men of the South
-Northmen
-Dwarves
-Elves

So if you're up for that, switch Angmar over into Moria and Arnor over into Eriador?

good idea but I'm not really wanting to focus on that area of middle earth in the mod, its more about the south perhaps I will consider doing that at a later stage

3 out of the 7 factions are from the North?

If you really want to focus on the South, throw out those three and add Rohan.

I don't want to purely focus on the south, its more that I think the events that happen in the area west of the misty mountains during the third age have already been covered by the campaign of the ROTWK and so I would prefer to explore other areas of middle earth instead such as the events that occur in the south.

Rhun is incorporated into mordor.

Goblins is a difficult issue as I don't think they need their own stand alone faction, my initial idea was to also incorporate them into mordor as they follow instruction directly from sauron and so really they are just another part of mordor.

Men of the South consists of both Harad and Umbar