Ask Your Questions Here!

[Aradan]

No, there are no female units. Such units would be available only as a 'garrison', which the game doesn't support. Even if we added them for flavour and made them available when a settlement rebels, there wouldn't be any way to force them to disband afterwards.
There is a 'shieldmaiden' ancillary in TNS for Rohan, which gives a personal security bonus. We'll probably keep it, and might expand it to Rhun.


There can't be senatorial offices without a proper senate faction, which we don't have. We'll have some sort of civic offices system, at least for developed factions, which will give some bonuses, but we've not decided on it yet.
The offices in TNS were Steward of Gondor, Chief Councillor, Councillor (3), Captain of the Haven (Pelargir) and Warden of the Keys for RK, Serpent's Tongue and Captain of the Haven (Umbar) for Harad, and our Cult offices (which we'll probably turn into traits). Ideas for more are welcome.

[TesalionLortus]

Chiefdom is the term that was used by Tolkien and, in my opinion the right way to call their state.

I don't try to miss that. Of course it's the best way. What I meant was only I would like them to have 'own spirit' thru more individual name (but still as some kind of chiefdom repesented via tribes). Finally 'Chiefdom' and 'Rhun' are the terms Tolkien used to describe them from the perspective of the West. But I doubt those people themselves would say 'we live in the chiefdom of Rhun'. Or even more- they would identify themselves more with their own clan/tribe than the land. And calling the land they would call it just as (it's going to be stupid example of course xD) 'desertland' without even using 'chiefdom' term. And in the case of mod where we have whole, somehow united faction, it for sure would be in the way one tribe dominates the others so at that point they would use also some term associated with dominating tribe but still not necessery 'chiefdom'.

What I read about LOTRO, I never played it, is that it expands the story in some really wild ways to make it more interesting to players

Maybe at the begining someone could feel it weird and wild (I felt too xD) but later, when you see how the lotro creators are serious with their things (total respect, never changing anything, only adding- and if adding, adding with accuracy, using stuff from silmarilion to create whole historical backgrounds, using whole languages constructions based on Tolkien ones) it is really nice. Even more middle-earth experience and somehow it fits- finally Tolkien wasn't able to create more details and it even wasn't his purpose (like describing all 'bad' animal-creatures which were created by evil) and somehow they achieved it. But it's of course no canon and we need to tread it seperately like in the movies case. Oh, simple example of such great experience: Forochel and Lossoths where you can simply go and visit them!- very fascinating people but described but Tolkien only in short

About Khand units, yeah, I cannot exactly remember now- and now you gave another reason to re-play FATW but sadly don't have so much tiime to play perhaps I'll try at least a little custom battles. Anyway wanted only to share the lotro image coz they are cool : )

[Wambat]

There can't be senatorial offices without a proper senate faction, which we don't have.

Here is a crazy idea: What if the shire were a disguised Senate faction? You have RK and Adunabar as the competing Rome factions, and, as I recall, the Senate faction does not try to expand territorially. Has this idea been considered? You might take advantage of many of the vanilla RTW features.

[Aradan]

That's the 'superfaction' mechanic. It was used for the Senate in RTW, but it's not directly related to the senate mechanics. As for taking advantage of RTW features, trust me, no other mod even comes close.

[Casual Tactician]

How's it going, guys? I've always got an eye on DoM.

And in the next days I'll start a new WoM-campaign - if I have the time.

I'm looking forward to your - most likely - exceptional work.

(In advance) Thanks for the effort!

[Aradan]

It's going, it's going. Spent the last 2 days reviewing trade resource costs and distribution, and I'm finally happy with them. Fiddled with some province borders, reviewed some mechanics, and now plunging back into traits... No rest for the wicked!

[Wambat]

Howdy Aradan. I was getting a little burnt out on FATW so I thought I might look into some of the other BI mods. I was looking at Ogniem i Mieczem and was intrigued as I happen to have been reading up on that period recently. I noticed you mentioned as having provided some assistance on this mod, so I wanted to ask you, before installing, if installing this mod will mess up my FATW mod. Do I need to make a duplicate RTW-BI folder or can I install Ogniem i Mieczem into my current RTW-BI folder and still have FATW work?

Also, are familiar enough with Ogniem i Mieczem to recommend it as a worthy work?

[Aradan]

I can't for the life of me remember how I contributed there. Probably by answering Granto's questions...

I'm afraid I haven't played the mod, so I can neither recommend it nor say if it's modfoldered. Easy enough to find out about the latter though: either ask in their forum or download and extract the files somewhere outside the RTW directory. If there are files inside the package's RTW/data or RTW/bi/data folder, then it will probably mess FATW (and all other mods) up. If not, good to go.

[breenma]

Hello Araden I just was wondering if you had a rough percentage of completion. Nothing to specific but like if you guys are half way, one third, ninety percent. Anything is appreciated.

[Aradan]

That's a trick question, isn't it?

We're way above half, but maybe not quite ninety. It's mainly an issue of art department man-power now. A modeller and a 2d artist would come very handy...

[GRANTO]

Howdy Aradan. I was getting a little burnt out on FATW so I thought I might look into some of the other BI mods. I was looking at Ogniem i Mieczem and was intrigued as I happen to have been reading up on that period recently. I noticed you mentioned as having provided some assistance on this mod, so I wanted to ask you, before installing, if installing this mod will mess up my FATW mod. Do I need to make a duplicate RTW-BI folder or can I install Ogniem i Mieczem into my current RTW-BI folder and still have FATW work?

Also, are familiar enough with Ogniem i Mieczem to recommend it as a worthy work?

hi , no it is not mod foldered , it never has been {original or my version} and yes aradan is a fount of knowledge and saved me many a brain strain

[Wambat]

hi , no it is not mod foldered , it never has been {original or my version} and yes aradan is a fount of knowledge and saved me many a brain strain

I am both lazy and not mod savvy. So, Ogniem i Mieczem not being mod foldered, does this mean I need to install it into a RTW folder dedicated to this mod only, or can it be installed into the RTW folder shared with other mods?

[Basileos Predator]

You need a dedicateed RTW folder for it as it replaces corre files of the game.

[Casual Tactician]

It's going, it's going. Spent the last 2 days reviewing trade resource costs and distribution, and I'm finally happy with them. Fiddled with some province borders, reviewed some mechanics, and now plunging back into traits... No rest for the wicked!

You're plowing and sowing around the guts of DoM then. Great!

The work You, Eorl and the entire team have done already is looking really, really good. All the best, guys!


PS: Go on and take a rest now and then, we can wait...

PPS: But not to long a rest ... we're all really eager to see your work!

[Jagmodo]

One question crossed my mind. I’m wandering will DoM be more like original TNS or more like WoM in aspects of difficulty, player penalties and faction-specific campaigns?

[Aradan]

It will combine the best of both worlds. A single campaign, but the AI gets bonuses depending on which faction the player controls. Difficulty-wise, somewhere between the two on average, I'd say, though we still haven't started on campaign balance. My main concern is making the campaign challenging even after having 10-ish settlements, though that will take some effort...

[Wambat]

It will combine the best of both worlds. A single campaign, but the AI gets bonuses depending on which faction the player controls. Difficulty-wise, somewhere between the two on average, I'd say, though we still haven't started on campaign balance. My main concern is making the campaign challenging even after having 10-ish settlements, though that will take some effort...

Knowing nothing technical about such matters, I must say the most frustrating thing about the AI is the lack of aggressive expansion. I seams like the AI gets hung up on certain priority objectives for expansion and ignores opportunities on other fronts. Maybe this jives with the lore; even the Dark Lord seems to have been more interested in hegemony than empire; but RTW is an empire game, and hegemonic objectives don't really have any practical realization in the game, seems to me.

A good example is Rohan, which seems to refuse to expand beyond the Brown Lands, despite that being the only direction I have allowed them to expand in. But I also find many unclaimed territories in the east, that should long since have been claimed by Rhun or Harad. Instead these factions have five full stacks each trying to get to Minas Tirith. Why wouldn't the AI devote just the fraction of that force required to consolidate their eastern holdings?

[Wambat]

Another problem is the Harad territory to the west of Gondor. I have found that in many games that territory will rebel early in the game, and when it does, the large Harad army there does not try to recapture the settlement, nor try for any others, or even attack RK armies. Rather, it starts a weird and circuitous overland journey up through Rohan; I guess trying to get back to Harad territory. It rather upsets the balance of threats meant to confront the human player at the beginning of an RK campaign.

[Aradan]

Knowing nothing technical about such matters, I must say the most frustrating thing about the AI is the lack of aggressive expansion. I seams like the AI gets hung up on certain priority objectives for expansion and ignores opportunities on other fronts. Maybe this jives with the lore; even the Dark Lord seems to have been more interested in hegemony than empire; but RTW is an empire game, and hegemonic objectives don't really have any practical realization in the game, seems to me.

A good example is Rohan, which seems to refuse to expand beyond the Brown Lands, despite that being the only direction I have allowed them to expand in. But I also find many unclaimed territories in the east, that should long since have been claimed by Rhun or Harad. Instead these factions have five full stacks each trying to get to Minas Tirith. Why wouldn't the AI devote just the fraction of that force required to consolidate their eastern holdings?

That's how the AI works in RTW. It prioritizes targets based on the situation of the map (as it perceives it) and goes after them. There *is* a reason, or a combination of reasons, why Rohan doesn't want to expand into Rhovanion. It might like/fear Rhun more than you, it might find the provinces you have more desired/attainable goals, you might be holding some of its victory condition provinces, etc. Whatever the reason, it's not something we can really influence.

Another problem is the Harad territory to the west of Gondor. I have found that in many games that territory will rebel early in the game, and when it does, the large Harad army there does not try to recapture the settlement, nor try for any others, or even attack RK armies. Rather, it starts a weird and circuitous overland journey up through Rohan; I guess trying to get back to Harad territory. It rather upsets the balance of threats meant to confront the human player at the beginning of an RK campaign.

Yes, that was a bad attempt at forcing Harad to attack RK from the west. However, the AI only targets provinces that border its own, so once Andrast is lost, the army there simply tries to get back home. In the stupidest way possible on occasion. Harad doesn't start with the province in DoM, so that particular issue is not a problem any more.

[Wambat]

That's how the AI works in RTW. It prioritizes targets based on the situation of the map (as it perceives it) and goes after them. There *is* a reason, or a combination of reasons, why Rohan doesn't want to expand into Rhovanion. It might like/fear Rhun more than you, it might find the provinces you have more desired/attainable goals, you might be holding some of its victory condition provinces, etc. Whatever the reason, it's not something we can really influence.



Yes, that was a bad attempt at forcing Harad to attack RK from the west. However, the AI only targets provinces that border its own, so once Andrast is lost, the army there simply tries to get back home. In the stupidest way possible on occasion. Harad doesn't start with the province in DoM, so that particular issue is not a problem any more.

It seems like a good fix for these issues might be as follows:

- Set different victory conditions for the factions under AI control than they would have under human control; maybe set objectives at the extreme of each point of the compass . In the case of unbreakable alliances, make sure the AI's objectives are not any of the territories initially held by the human faction.

- If Harad is to have a territory west of Gondor, give that territory a special Men of Darkness cultural bonus, or a governor with sufficient attributes to ensure the settlement does not revolt. The Governor could have zero movement points to ensure he does not leave the city, allowing it to revolt.

A further example of poor AI performance, which might be considered in the next mod, is that the AI does not seem to know what to do with spies and assassins deep in enemy lines. The spies and such Adunabar has in Gondor at the beginning of the RK campaign seem to do no more than provide an irrelevant cult of shadow cultural bonus.