The Official WIP Features Thread

[Aradan]

It's been a while since our last update and people have been asking for a 'mechanics preview', so here goes a list of gameplay features you can expect to see in DoM, in no particular order and in somewhat informal style. Some are major, some not so much.
Keep in mind that anything in that list might change by the time the mod is released, as I seem to have a crazy new idea or discover a new mechanic every other day or so...
Also, if you don't see something you were expecting to see or have a suggestion, feel free to post, there is always the chance I forgot something.

Dominion of Men Gameplay Features

Provincial Control

Before any construction or recruitment can take place, a form of provincial control must be established by the province owner, simulating pacifying the province after its conquest, driving the remaining enemies away, stabilising it and establishing a government. In order to do that the previous owners' provincial control must be destroyed. Don't expect the transition period to be entirely smooth; population growth, trade, taxation and public order will suffer during it.



Population-independent Provincial Development

Settlement development has been disassociated from population, in order to help the AI which cannot manage it effectively. All settlements start at their maximum possible level (large or huge cities) so that all their buildings are theoretically available regardless of the settlement's population size. The role of measuring the progress of the settlement and the province in general has been assigned to a new building, the different levels of which function as a requirements for other buildings' upgrades.



Provincial Policies

Provinces of mannish factions can now follow one out of three different policies, each policy allowing certain buildings while restricting others. The available policies are Military, Administrative (only Haradrim and Dunedain), and Financial, as well as an Open policy available to all mannish factions only in chief-cities, which allows all buildings to be constructed. For instance, military settlements get high-level barracks but low-level markets and libraries, Financial settlements get high-level markets but low-level barracks and libraries and Administrative settlements get high-level libraries but low-level barracks and markets. Dwarven and Elven provinces do not have policies and can always construct all available buildings.



Empire Maintenance Costs

Each province held by a faction increases the faction's 'empire maintenance cost' by a different amount, depending on whether it is a homeland, fiefdom or outland. The maintenance cost is deducted from each province's tax income. The more provinces a faction controls, the higher the maintenance cost, so the less money an each individual province makes.



Building Maintenance Costs

Certain buildings have maintenance costs, which is deducted from a province's total tax income. So, for example, in order to upgrade a province's military infrastructure a certain amount of money will be needed, but a small amount will also be required every turn in order to maintain it.



Province-specific Income Effects

Provinces offer different economic (currently just tax) bonuses depending on them being homelands, fiefdoms or outlands to the owning faction.



Non-mannish Homeland Scattering

Elven, Dwarven and Hobbit Lands can be 'scattered' and converted to mannish, simulating the withdrawal/removal from the province of the native population and its replacement with mannish settlers (eg the Imladris province can be converted from 'Elven Lands' to 'Eriador Outlands'). This will disable native unit recruitment, increase pop growth, unlock certain Men-specific buildings/capabilities/units, and change the populace-related effects (loyalty, cultural conversion, etc). Orkish strongholds can also be 'cleansed' and turned into mannish. This is a one-way process, and once a province is converted to mannish, it cannot change again.



Non-mannish Faction Characteristics

Non-mannish factions are set in 'passive mode' and have certain distinguishing characteristics. When under AI control they do not expand, they guard their provinces quite well and focus on upgrading their settlements. They also do not suffer from revolts and can survive without family members. However those 'perks' are offset by other effects, like very limited recruitment and pop growth.



Loyalty for Mannish Factions

All mannish factions have loyalty activated. Settlements will go independent (rebel) if they revolt, and generals might also go rogue. It might also happen the other way around: a governor with enough power and not enough loyalty might convince the locals that they are better off independent and cause an entire province to turn rebel, possibly along with other not-so-loyal characters in the settlement.



Culture as Religion

The 3 alignments of previous FATW instalments (Men of the West/Darkness/Cult) are gone. They have been replaced by 9 alignments (local, cultic, elven, dwarven, dunedanic, haradrian, northmen, barbarian, other), each one simulating a different culture - and in the case of "local" creating unrest. Apart from being a more detailed representation of the cultural differences between provinces, the new alignment system is also tailored to create more balanced unrest levels, unlike the previous configuration.



Cultic faction-wide 'Reforms'

Adunabar, Harad, Rhun and Dunland have the option to build cultic temples in their provinces, converting the population from its local culture to cultic. When the cultic presence within a faction reaches a certain threshold (currently half of the faction's provinces), then "cultic dominance" is activated, and the faction loses access its 'regular' unit roster (either partially or entirely, depending on the faction) and gains access to a cultic roster instead; this happens faction-wide instead of the per-province way it occurred in TNS.



AI-specific Bonuses / Custom-tailored Campaigns

There are various AI-only bonuses, like decreases in construction costs, law and income bonuses and so on, tailored to the faction the player controls. If, for example, the player is RK, Adunabar will receive higher bonuses than what it'd get if the player was Dale. The starting conditions (money, armies, buildings, etc) will also differ between campaigns, with factions having a harder time if player-controlled.



AI Destroys/Chooses buildings

The AI can destroy buildings it cannot use, as soon as a province is stabilised (the official settlement 'culture' is either non-existant or is a majority in a settlement). No more handicapped AI that leaves your buildings in tact for you to find when you retake a lost province. Lose a settlement to the AI, and when you take it back you'll have to spend a fair amount of time and money re-building your military infrastructure or establishing your provincial control from scratch. The AI will can make specific choices in specific provinces when it comes to multiple upgrade options; for example, it can be set to always build a Mumakil Pen in Achas Annabon or a Financial Policy in Esgaroth, etc.



Auto-resolve Balance

The system, that was also present in TNS, changes the auto-resolve performance of units without affecting their behaviour on their battlemap. Since the majority of the battles in a campaign (AI vs AI) are auto-resolved, it's hugely important that the mechanic is not skewed. No more multi-HP units trumping everything, or severely underpowered cavalry/missile units, which means auto-resolve battles have much more accurate results.



'Invisible' Provinces

Certain parts of the map like Fangorn, the Misty Mountains, Forodwaith, Wetwang, etc have been turned into separate provinces, not owned by any active faction. Those are invisible to the AI, and help it 'understand' where real borders are; this also increases accuracy, as certain areas were not considered part of any province. For instance, Rohan and Gondor no longer share a border along the White Mountains (which are now a province on their own) and their only border is Anorien/Eastfold, so the AI knows where it must defend.



Impassable Areas

Certain areas/tiles of the map are now impassable, even though they are neither mountains nor dense forest. No more armies marching through the Dead Marshes or Forodwaith. Some steep hills might also be impassable.



Permanent Alliances

There are near-permanent alliances between RK-Rohan and Dale-Dwarves. The player can break them at any time, and the AI can break them only under very specific circumstances (eg Rohan might break alliance with RK if RK attacks Elves). While those alliances are active, one party will always declare war to the enemies of the other party and will even send military aid; some times also request it as well.



Prohibited Alliances

Certain alliances are prohibited for AI factions. Elves, Dwarves and Hobbits will never ally themselves to Adunabar, Harad, Harondor, Far Harad, Rhun, Khand or Dunland. The player is not bound by those limitations and can form alliances with them when he controls Elves or Dwarves.



Emergent and Horde Faction Targeting

There is an emergent faction in DoM, as well as factions that can horde. Unlike vanilla where factions without settlements wander aimlessly or make huge journeys in order to reach a target settlement losing half their strength in the process, those factions in DoM have specific settlements they will set as realistic targets and try to capture.



Population Control

Population growth rates and limits have been balanced and are much more controlled now. Settlements will not get population booms that result in over-population and unrest, but will instead grow relatively slowly. Negative growth is now also a possibility, especially during transitional periods when the new owners assert their dominance over a province, or when a mannish faction occupies a non-mannish province.



Rebel-specific Recruitment/Construction Settings

The rebels use a separate culture to all other factions and their own 'sub-faction', and so they have their own independent recruitment and construction (or deconstruction!) settings. That means the 'Men of the Westfold' rebel faction can recruit units when the Rohan faction cannot or destroy buildings the Rohan faction wouldn't, and so can become quite potent.



Functional Building-based Conditionals

DoM has fully-functional building conditionals that don't produce CTDs or visual bugs. Effects or recruitment from buildings that require other buildings to be present before they are constructed will now be disabled when the 'conditional building' is destroyed. So, if a Pikemen Training School (requires military development lvl4, gives access to better Tribal Pikes and Elite Pikes) is built and the military development gets destroyed, the units will no longer be available from the School until the military development building is restored.



Military Development All-in-one

Barracks and Stables have been merged into a single building line called 'Military Development', which simulates the entire process of organising and maintaining a military presence in a province and not just some buildings. It is of course expensive and takes time to build.



Resource-specific Industries

Each trade resource on the map can be fully exploited by developing and upgrading one of 11 available industries, which are grouped into 4 ddifferent categories depending on the type of goods they process. Some industries will increase income from trade, others will increase income from taxes and some will decrease the cost of construction or the cost of fortifications, while some developed industries will offer faction-wide benefits.



Trade-/War-Harbours Split

Ports have been split into trade- and war-harbours, the war-harbours being military expansions to the trade ones. Anything better than a very light ship will require a War-harbour.



Restricted Fleet Embarkment

Armies are allowed to embark fleets only when these are docked in a haven, in order to increase the strategic importance of ports and their locations on the campaign map. Disebarking is allowed everywhere. This feature applies only to the player.



Treasure Hoards

Dwarven settlements have treasure hoards amassed, their number/size depending on the settlement's size and wealth. Those can either be destroyed/sold for a large price, or they can be left in tact, generating a small amount of income over time. There is also a chance of finding smaller Troll-hoards in orkish strongholds.



Permanent Forts

There are several settlements around the map with very low population and no buildings available, but where fortifications (usually high level) already exist. Those 'forts' usually guard important areas/passages, and also serve as retraining centres for local mercenaries (as long as their very low population allows that). Some of them have small villages in their vicinity, which provide a bit of income.



Landmark Markers

Every known mountain, mountain-range, river, forest, swamp, island or other feature of the map has a marker on it with its name, which you can either see when you mouse-over the model or is visible all the time, depending on the preferences settings. Just a visual treat for those eager to sharpen their knowledge about Middle-earth's geography.



Minor Town Emergence

After a settlement has reached 'city' level, minor towns will appear on the map, simulating the process of people abandoning the small villages and following a more urban way of life. The same will happen when a non-mannish settlement is converted to mannish, simulating new (mannish) towns founded by the settlers. The new towns will contribute to the province's wealth as well, as a source of income separate to the tax and trade of the main settlement; certain buildings might also increase that type of income.



Unique Retrainable/Unrecruitable Units

There are certain unique (and powerful) units which are retrainable, but not recruitable. Take care of them and they will serve you well, but if such a unit is destroyed, you will not be able to raise it again.



Provincial Lordship Titles

Each province has its own lordship title which can be granted to a noble, making him its lord. In order for the province to be governed optimally, the provincial lord needs to reside in his titled settlement, in which cases he receives certain benefits. If there is no lord for a province or if he is absent from his settlement, the province will still offer benefits, but not contribute to the faction's power at its full capacity.



Subculture System

Each faction in the game is divided into a 3-7 subcultures, different 'ethnicities' within the faction, represented through character traits and each subculture is associated with various characteristics that are generally typical of its members: some are traditionally tall, others are renowned warriors but may be uncharismatic, others are good traders but poor generals, some have skill with horses and leading mounted troops, etc. Those associations between subcultures and skills do not always apply, but they denote general tendencies. A character's subculture depends heavily on his origin, so, for example, Adunabar characters with origin from the province of Lithlad have a high chance to be "Men of Nurn", while Empire of Harad characters with origin from Umbar have high chances to be "Corsairs". Characters that are born into the faction (not adopted or married into it) inherit their father's subculture, regardless of where they were born.



Subfaction System

Similarly to the subculture system, each faction also has a number of major subfactions (houses/tribes) within it. Those are rarely associated with specific characteristics (though members of specific subfactions tend to belong to specific subcultures), but the subfaction that a character belongs to plays an important role when it comes to loyalty, rebellions or naming the faction's next heir. Characters born into the faction inherit their fathers' subfaction, while characters adopted/married into the family are assigned to one randomly depending on their subculture (usually a minor subfaction). Children of adopted characters might also inherit the subfaction of their father's benefactor.



Core-Attribute-based Trait Acquisition

When a characters enters the game, he is assigned values to 6 core attributes. Those attributes, which can be affected by a character's race or subculture, determine further acquisition of traits, in order to ensure a consistent trait 'profile' for each character, without mutually incompatible personality traits.



Accurate Origin-based Surnames

Characters in DoM no longer get generic surnames picked randomly from a list. Instead they get surnames related to their 'province of origin'. This marks the province where a character supposedly grew up. In the case of a character born into the faction, origin is determined by the last settlement his father stayed in before the character came of age, while in the case of married/adopted characters, a settlement is picked at random amongst the ones owned by their faction at the time. Agents' origins and surnames are associated with the settlement/province they were recruited from.



Authority/Succession Priority System

The 'Influence' attribute in DoM has two distinct roles. For every character except the faction-leader, it denotes the his priority for succession. This is affected by a character's relation to the former and current leader and to the current heir, their political/diplomatic skills and their prestige (both personal and subfaction-related). The importance of those factors depends on the faction. There are factions where one's diplomatic skill plays little role in succession, others where belonging to the traditional ruling subfaction is more prestigious than belonging to the currently ruling one, etc. For the faction-leader, Influence is a measure of his authority, which is affected by the length of his reign, his diplomatic/political skill and his prestige (for personal and faction achievements). It affects how much a leader's vassals like him, but also how much they must dislike him before they decide to take matters in their own hands.



Functional Military Hierarchy

Characters in DoM have a military rank, depending on their being faction leaders or heirs, any offices they might hold and whether they are lords of a province. This rank enforces a hierarchy, so that in an army with multiple characters, the highest-ranking one will always be the leader, even if his command skills are inferior.

[Aikanár]

Gooorn I say, pretty woody old chap!

[Beorn]

Very interesting read, Aradan! Looking even more forward to the actual release

[Thangaror]

Woah, that's so awesome stuff! We will get a whole new mod!

Provincial Control

Before any construction or recruitment can take place, a form of provincial control must be established by the province owner, simulating pacifying the province after its conquest, driving the remaining enemies away, stabilising it and establishing a government. In order to do that the previous owners' provincial control must be destroyed. Don't expect the transition period to be entirely smooth; population growth, trade, taxation and public order will suffer during it.

Seriously, can you read my mind? Similar system I've implemented in my mod.

Treasure Hoards

Dwarven settlements have treasure hoards amassed, their number/size depending on the settlement's size and wealth. Those can either be destroyed/sold for a large price, or they can be left in tact, generating a small amount of income over time. There is also a chance of finding smaller Troll-hoards in orkish strongholds.


Permanent Forts

There are several settlements around the map with very low population and no buildings available, but where fortifications (usually high level) already exist. Those 'forts' usually guard important areas/passages, and also serve as retraining centres for local mercenaries (as long as their very low population allows that). Some of them have small villages in their vicinity, which provide a bit of income.


Landmark Markers

Every known mountain, mountain-range, river, forest, swamp, island or other feature of the map has a marker on it with its name, which you can either see when you mouse-over the model or is visible all the time, depending on the preferences settings. Just a visual treat for those eager to sharpen their knowledge about Middle-earth's geography.

Love that!

Although I don't need Landmark Markers, for sure!

Fiefs

Each region may be organised into one or more fiefs (eg Gondor has the fiefs of Pelennor, Lebennin, Lamedon, Belfalas, etc), each fief including one or more provinces. There is a lordship title for each province and for each fief, with appropriate benefits. Lords that stay in their fiefs will receive

Will receive?

Gooorn I say, pretty woody old chap!

No Python quoting!

[Bull3pr00f de Bodemloze]

Very intriguing. It'll definitely add more "flavour" to the campaign; can't wait to play!

Of a lot of these things I can think of the mechanics behind those features, of some I simply can't and will have to wait until release

[Aradan]

Woah, that's so awesome stuff! We will get a whole new mod!

That's the goal.

Seriously, can you read my mind? Similar system I've implemented in my mod.

Well, it's not *such* an original concept. The implementation is what makes it original, because it's faction-specific, with 3 variants per faction, and still only takes up 1 building tree and displays fine on the browser. No player will of course care for any of that, but I do, plus it's such a satisfaction to have more buildings in DoM than TNS and yet still have a dozen unused EDB slots.

Most of these ideas had been concepts in my mind for a long while now, but thinking about them and implementing them in the best way possible and without any bugs/kinks are two quite different things.

Will receive?

Fixed.



If someone wants a feature that's not on the list, please share, cheers.

[Stark1]

These new features sound revolutionary! I've never seen anything similar in a RTW mod.

I was slowly getting bored with EB and wanted to return to Middle-earth, but now I really can't wait for release.

[Blatta Optima Maxima]

EPIC!

[Agent007]

Very-really-mega awesome. Job well done!

[Jagmodo]

Wow! I’ll have to learn playing this mod from the beginning. Difference will be astonishing! When the DoM is released, I will be condemned to life only between university, and my laptop. Good bye sunshine... gollum. Provided shock from seen doesn’t kill me. And I am sure Aradan something spectacular kept as a surprise. I hope I will survive inevitable heart attack.

Or, maybe this all new features are well planed and wicked first April joke.

Non-mannish Faction Characteristics
...can survive without family members...

Hmm, will this be the solution for the aging problem? There will be no elven, dwarven and maybe hobbiten family members?

[Aradan]

Nah, we're still going to have elven and dwarven FMs. Would be boring without, I think.

[Jagmodo]

Hahaha, you could not make this mod boring even if you remove half of the announced new features. But you are right, family members give to gameplay interesting flavour, and would be less fun without. And the interesting “thingies/retinues” too.

[Beorn]

Strange day it seems that was chosen for the announcement of the "features", isn't it

[Gen. Chris]

Yeah...Better not be an April Fools prank...

[Aikanár]

Strange day it seems that was chosen for the announcement of the "features", isn't it

Yeah...Better not be an April Fools prank...

Darn they figured it out Aradan, now you've to reveal what your WIP Feature progress really is like:

[Aradan]

Damn...

[Éorl]

No April Fool's - that'd be an even worse one than the one they pulled (or botched, kinda) on TWC a few days ago. Nice preview, Aradan (and I finally don't have to allude anymore to the devilries Aradan has hatched in his coding dungeon during the past months).

[Beorn]

C'mon, Eorl, I watrying to pesuade Aradan telling that's an April Fool's joke for a while; I dunno how the others would react, but I would laugh to death

[Éorl]

Ah, well, you should've communicated with me, too, then .

Also, I think no one would've believed it was a joke...

[Beorn]

C'mon, they believed what "happened" to TWC, which was the worst-made-prank-ever