Middle Earth: Total War

[Jacque Schtrapp]

Oh yeah sure, post this while I'm at work

Very nice job laying out the two factions unit descriptions. My hat is off to you gentlemen. Keep up the good work

[Knight_Yellow]

Quote[/b] (ME:TW - Team @ Sep. 04 2003,07:47)]Knight Yellow

Are you sure that you installed over Medieval: Total War with the patch 1.1 installed? This mod doesn't work with VI, and I don't think you did, since that would give other errors.

If you copied anything wrong or some files were missing then the game would crash, this is something I've never seen before.Other people have no problem with the mod, so I can only suggest to re-install MTW 1.1 and then the mod.

Cheers, ME:TW - Team

damn im an idiot

with me being away from MTW for so long i forgot the 1.1 patch didnt come with MTW.

*kicks himself*

[redrooster]

Great Job man.....gonna check it out soon

[Sulla]

one word: RESPECT

*bows to the METW team*

BIG regards Kenchi_Sulla

[Emp. Conralius]

Ok, this is my deal. I've installed MTW, and after that Ive installed the v 1.1 patch as well. Then, I extracted the content of the ME mod into the main MTW directory. After this, I go to the main menu, and find nothing.

Can someone please help me ASAP? Do I need to have Winzip?

[Monk]

Just downloaded it and took a look, all that comes to mind is: WoW

you guys have done a great job , looking forward for the full release

[Alrowan]

nooooooooooooooooo

why is my CD rom stuffed now

well i guess ill wait till its fixed to play

[ME:TW - Team]

Emp. Conralius
I suggest you follow the installation notes by the letter. First make a temporary directory, you should get a file-structure similar to that of M:TW;
\Battles\
\campmap\
\loc\
\Frontend_files\
\Textures\
and two text files
Copy these files into the M:TW folder.

If you do anything different then I can't say exactly did wrong, so just follow the instructions

Cheers, ME:TW - Team

[Krodarg]

Unbelievable job everyone..I'm very impressed - especially the Warg Riders. Now I can't wait for the campaign

[jeffreyLebowski]

i just finished playing a custom battle... i can now officially say that this is the coolest damn mod of all time. excellent, excellent work guys. i'm really looking forward to the final release.

[ShadesPanther]

/me does happy dance

This is very good guys. Can't wait for Gondor and the Eleves. w00t Last Alliance battle

[Cheetah]

Great job

few comments:

1) Colours are too dark. This is OK for the orcs but Rohirrims should be brighter. It is very difficult to tell the units apart.

2) Base morale is too low for low florin battles (5k). Visit the jousting fields esp. the "5k florin battles suck" thread (I know CBR was just kidding with the title, but IMHO they do suck ). I would increase the base morale of all troops at least with +2 and that would be fine for a 5k game.
On the other hand, if you play 15k then you get all kind of problems with upgrading ranged units. For example, a v4 warg archer is better than a warg rider of comparable cost (v2w1). A v4 Rohirrim horse archer is better than Rider of rohan (v2) or even than a Royal Guard (v0w1) of comparable cost Finnaly, a v4w1 Rohirrim archer is better than a Rohirrim axemen (v2) of comparable cost.

3) Warg riders look cool but IMHO they are a bit weak. I guess you want to make Isengard an infantry heavy faction, this is fine, and they have the units for this, but still warg riders could be a bit stronger. At least 2 2 2 2 instead of the current 1 1 2 2.

keep up the good work

[Emp. Conralius]

One Word: Amazing


This mod is incredible No doubt about it I agree, the colors of the Rohirrim are a bit dark though. Besides that, this mod really gives you the feel of Middle Earth.

[Duke John]

First, thank you all for your praises. As we don't get paid for our efforts, your appreciation is the only reward we get.

Secondly some answers:
1. I like dark colours, I think it adds more realism. And I used the movie as reference for how dark the clothing would be. Just play a little longer and you'll get used it, if you don't than bummer, it's my artistic freedom

2. The stats still need to be playtested. I thought the morale was pretty good. It just depends which kind of battles you like. I think it's irrealistic if combats continue even if half of the unit is dead. I've played quite a few a battles and it's ok to me.
I know that the costs are wrong. I didn't think too much about them. Again it's still a beta and either we could hold it longer or we could release it. At the moment Cugel is playtesting this and with the help of your results we will make it more balanced.

3. The Warg Riders were stronger, but since they cause fear to horses making them stronger would make them far too invincible. They could crush any cavalry unit if the stats were better. Just see the Warg Riders as an anti-cavalry unit. And Isengard needs one since it's doesn't have that many anti-cavalry infantry.
Because of their speed they're also good for mopping up routing units. Use them as reserves not as front line attackers.

Thanks, Duke John

[Emp. Conralius]

Just some small nitpicks:

1)When the Horselords unit (a personal favorite) charge, you can't see their axes. The same case is with the Dunlanding units and Uruk-Hai Berserkers (in there case, no weapons at all).

2) The Rohirrim Axemen seem too weak. At valour lv 4 and weapon lv 3, they were unable to defeat Uruk-Hai Warriors with lesser bonuses.

3) Will the whole dead bodies problem be fixed? It's kinda dissapointing to see a warg or full-armored uruk-hai be killed only to have the corpse of an HRE grunt appear in its stead.

Once again these are only observations. I understand that this is only the very first release of the mod. So please, dont hold it against me

[cugel]

[Edited 9-8] My comment about the lack of weapons and graphics anomalies referred to an earlier (not released) version of the BETA that DJ sent me for playtesting. I hadn't realized for some reason that DJ had fixed all the bugs in the new release and I just hadn't installed it yet DJ sent me a note and I then installed the units. The units now look simply amazing and there are no bugs that I can tell. My mistake.

We are just starting serious playtesting of this release and would appreciate your comments See our developers forum at: http://leftzed.com/lotr/viewtopic.php?t=197. You should post here though.

The more insight people provide, the better our result will be. If you want to comment please do so in the below format so we can calibrate results:

1. All results posted should provide combat results in the form: Test 1: 128-68 W; Test 2: 89-87 (L) or (W), etc. If you don't give us the raw numbers it's really hard to evaluate your results. We are trying to get an overall idea whether to make certain units stronger or weaker, etc. We need HARD data to do this from as many people as we can get.

2. In addition, please state how many units were engaged, which side is the player's and what valor levels, etc. E.G.: 2 V0 Uruk-Hai Pike (player) v. 2 V0 Rohan Royal Guard. Terrain neutral: Test 1: 128-68 W; Test 2: 89-87 L, etc. (not a real test).

3. If you use tactics other than straight ahead, let us know, since this can affect the result.

Thanks for your help.

If you like the results of the first BETA, wait till you see the full campaign


BTW: The mod is being designed for the SP campaign game, so we don't want to increase base values too much. The reason for this is that there will be many high valor generals. The values would be too high.

[Cheetah]

I had no graphics problems, neither with the footguards nor with the riders of rohan. Both looked good, warg riders too

Another observation: cannot change faction colour. Is this intentional feature or you want to change it later? If it remains this way, this would imply that only 1 person can pick rohirims in MP and there have to be 4 different factions on each side to play a 4v4 battle

[Cheetah]

few more comments about factions and unit types

First of all, I would not be afraid making a little bit one sided armies. This would be kind of “historically” accurate and would make the game more fun. If all factions have all unit types then what is the difference between playing middle earth and lets say viking era?

Rohirrims: I would take away the cav archers (they have a crappy morale anyway ) and would give shortbows to the Riders of Rohan. Yes, this would make them a strong multi purpose unit, but they were strong and adaptable I would even give them the option to dismount before battle, this would give them a +1 att and +1 def increase (of course, it would be useful only in SP).

Isengard: As I said before warg riders should be just a little bit stronger. Perhaps a warg guard unit (20 strong) could be added with the following stats: 3 5 4 4 costing 400.

Elfs: Not surprisingly I would make them a ranged heavy faction. They can have 5 or 6 (or even more) hybrid archer unit types (like “common” elfs, forest elfs, elven guards, etc.), that is, skilled archers, but also decent hand-to-hand fighters. They can have a few skirmishing archer unit types (i.e. cheap but weak HTH), also only a few melee unit types, like 1 basic spearmen and 1 “elven naginata” which can hold for long but kills slowly. They can be weak on cavs too, perhaps only two types, one royal guard (this should be very very good ) and one light cavalry.

Dwarfs: I would make them a separate faction both because of SP and MP reasons. They should be an infantry only faction. I would give them 5 or 6 different types of axemen: common dwarfs, dwarf guards, “naginata” dwarfs (excellent defense but weak attack), berserker dwarfs , some lightly armoured “fast” dwarfs, and finally axe throwing dwarfs (they should be a decent HTH fighters too)

Gondor: IMHO Gondor should be the only faction which has a full range of unit types at its disposal. Light infantry, heavy infantry, spearmen, pikemen, various archers, light cavalry, heavy cavalry etc.

Mordor: It should be an infantry heavy faction like Isengard, of course spiced up with some trolls and alike They should have the southeners too at their disposal with war elephants, etc. Last but not least they should have the nazguls, though I wonder how can you implement them. Perhaps some “uber” cavalry unit, 1 man strong, with stats like 10 10 10 10 (or even higher)?

I just cannot wait for the campaign

Also, I would be glad to help to make battlemaps and set up "historical" battles.

[_Martyr_]

Cheetah, come join the team if you want to help. Once you have joined the forum, join the "battle map makers" usergroup. Then you can see what we are working on and what needs to be done.


There will be a map pack released in the next few days. It will contain maps for both faction's homelands, plus a few others. I will post it here in the next few days (once we feel they are ready).

Also, a "battle sound" release is on the horizon. Hint: snarling Orcs and screaming wargs etc...

[Emp. Conralius]

How will the men of Gondor be portrayed? WIll they look like the ones of Jackson's films?

[Cheetah]

PYJ99 posted it in the Entrance Hall:

Quote[/b] ]METWBetav01 INFO

About Units weapons&shields in METWBetav01:

The post from CUGEL in the METW thread in the dungeon is incorrect.

In the version released all units have Weapons & Shields positionned... Except the followings:

Dunland Axemen & Wildmen
Warg riders & archers
Berserkers

So for most units it is weapon fighting & not wrestling

DUKE John's post earlier in this thread is correct.

regards,

PYJ99

PS: Sorry to insist on them but this important for would-be users of the mod to know that graphics are nearly complete. Moreover, I did the Weapon positionning & it was hard work

PPS: could an administrator move this message to the METW mod thread in the dungeon, please.

[Wellington]

Quote[/b] (Emp. Conralius @ Sep. 06 2003,19:17)]Just some small nitpicks:

3) Will the whole dead bodies problem be fixed? It's kinda dissapointing to see a warg or full-armored uruk-hai be killed only to have the corpse of an HRE grunt appear in its stead.

This will probably be corrected in time but there are a few problems with generating DeadPage images for entirely new units.

1st roblem is the Deadpage is only 256x256 and hence cannot cater for all current BIFs (there are 34 BIFs in MTW but the DeadPage only has images for 4 mounts and 17 Figures - hence there is already a lot of doubling-up)

2nd problem is the Palette. As the DeadPage is a 256-colour palette, any new images with entirely different colours will require a new palette that caters (as best as possible) for the range of colours contained in the new BIFs

3rd problem is that, obviously from the above, you canonly build a DeadPage when ALL BIFs have been completed - and as they hav'nt yet - no DeadPage yet.

4rd problem is when ME:TW goes to VI - inwhich case we have 10 more BIFs (44 in total) but only enough space in the DeadPage for a maximum of 21 BIFs.

What is really required is a 512x512 DeadPage (and ideally true colour) but I doubt whether this will be incorporated in the VI patch.

Welly

[cugel]

Quote[/b] ]Rohirrims: I would take away the cav archers (they have a crappy morale anyway ) and would give shortbows to the Riders of Rohan. Yes, this would make them a strong multi purpose unit, but they were strong and adaptable I would even give them the option to dismount before battle, this would give them a +1 att and +1 def increase (of course, it would be useful only in SP).

Giving a melee unit a bow and ammo causes problems for the AI, since the AI behavior routine defaults to skirmish The "strong" unit now runs away from it's foes instead of attacking as it should. This was a problem with pilum/javelin wielding infantry in the Patrician mod. Allowing the unit to dismount also doesn't help the AI since it never does this.

In any case, we like Rohan mounted archers They are mentioned in the Two Towers and are quite useful (just as they are in MTW) if handled properly. Altogether one of my more favorite units.

[Cheetah]

I want to play the rohirrims I would never give them to the AI Good points Cugel, I did not consider the issue from the AI's point of view. I have no problems with horse archers, to the contrary. I did not know that the rohirrims had pure horse archers, if so it is fine with me. But at least give them a decent morale.

[Tatsumaru Rokkaku]

has anyone ever thought of horse archers that shoot while charging?...that would add to more realism don't u think?? i don't even know if thats possible...

[Wellington]

Quote[/b] (Tatsumaru Rokkaku @ Sep. 09 2003,20:53)]has anyone ever thought of horse archers that shoot while charging?...that would add to more realism don't u think?? i don't even know if thats possible...

It isn't.

[Emp. Conralius]

DJ, are you going to make a medium-infantry Uruk-Hai unit for Isengard. It would wield the broadsword of the Uruks of WH but it would have a bow as well. Im imagining it would look like that Uruk-Hai captain who killed Boromir in The fellowship film (White hand on face, no helmet, long hair.) Is that gonna happen?

How will the men of Gondor appear? What faction banner colors? Will they look of Peter Jackson's interpretation of Gondorian men?

What of Mordor? Will their orcs be hunched and bow-legged like the first version of your uruk-hai model?

I know you have more work to do on Rohan and Isengard, but can you give us ANY new info on the Elven, Dwarven, Gondor and Mordor factions?

And lastly, what siege weapons will be implemented?

[Maelstrom]

Downloaded the Beta yesterday and had a run through last night.

My first comment is that this is a staggering piece of work. The units on the whole look excellent - noticably better than the MTW originals, IMHO.

I am with DJ on the unit colours - the darker tones give a much more "realistic" feel to the battle maps.

The only issues that I spotted in this first (admitedly brief) run through were:

The Warg rider sprites seemed to show some odd behaviour when I got close to them. Sometimes they appeared to be rotated through 90 degrees and standing on their tails (this was on a slope, as I recall). Also there appeared to be occasional fragments of the images appearing at the edges of a rectangular boundary around the individual sprites. - I think this was at its most pronounced when at a low angle, looking through layered sprites. - I only saw this on the Warg Riders.

The second issue was frame rates - the battles themselves were very choppy and slow. Historically, I have had some trouble with this in MTW, but have not seen it for some time and do not see it in my current (separately installed V2) campaign.

My final comment is that I appreciate that you cannot claim any financial reward for this work. All I can say is that that is a shame. From what I have seen so far, I would be more than happy to pay full price for the final product.

If I can help support this project in any way, I will.

[Emp. Conralius]

DJ, are you going to make a medium-infantry Uruk-Hai unit for Isengard. It would wield the broadsword of the Uruks of WH but it would have a bow as well. Im imagining it would look like that Uruk-Hai captain who killed Boromir in The fellowship film (White hand on face, no helmet, long hair.) Maybe a name would be Fighting Uruk-Hai, Uruk-Hai Stalkers, Uruk-Hai Scouts? They should have smaller armour than Uruks of the WH or Pike Uruks. What do you think? A medium infantry unit would be good for Isengard. No?

How will the men of Gondor appear? What faction banner colors? Will they look of Peter Jackson's interpretation of Gondorian men?

What of Mordor? Will their orcs be hunched and bow-legged like the first version of your uruk-hai model?

I know you have more work to do on Rohan and Isengard, but can you give us ANY new info on the Elven, Dwarven, Gondor and Mordor factions?

And lastly, what siege weapons will be implemented?

[ShadesPanther]

Their forums have most of the ideas in it so I would advise you to look there if you want to know about the other factions