Suggestions & Questions

[Nelduin]

Please use this thread if you have any question and/or suggestions about the mod.

[Ric_TW]

I'm sure the mod will be great. I've read some Tolkien books and my impression is that in his stories, in general, the more ancient things are, the more epic they tend to be.

My question is if the mod will have scripts in the beginning with options. Also, how many balrogs will be there? It was one of the things Tolkien changed along the years. At first, there were many, but in his last version they were only 7 I think, although more powerful.

[LordofDead]

Well, Tolkien said in one of his letters that they existed in hundreds :

"The early conception of Balrogs makes them less terrible, and certainly more destructible, than they afterwards became: they existed in 'hundreds' (p. 170), and were slain by Tuor and the Gondothlim in large numbers: "thus five fell before Tuor's great axe Dramborleg, three before Echthelion's sword, and two score were slain by the warriors of the king's house."

[Nelduin]

Balrogs will be the Generals of Angband. So I guess they would be between 5 - 10+, depending on the length of the campaign . As we have planned the campaign at the moment, there will be scripts that allow the player to make a choice between several options. The Easterlings, for example, will be able to join the Noldor or to betray them for Angband. There will be others scripts related with other factions/mechanisms but this is still WIP and under discussions, so I wouldn't say things that may change soon .

I just can tell you that Milner has a lot of surprises in his pocket.

[Drorin]

I hope that your houses of Bór and Ulfang, have no oriental appearance. Men of Eriador in the Second and Third Age are their relatives. I say this because other mods have given them a similar eastmen appearance with Oriental armor and helmets and I think that is wrong. I personally imagine them as the houses of the Edain, but more brown and ragged

[Bercor]

Here's one of their units:

[Jagmodo]

I like it. I'm not sure they would have to look raged, though... Their looks should reflect their lifestyle as with the real historical cultures. Having in mind that, I think you did really good job.

[Bercor]

That's a 2nd tier unit. Here's one from the 1st:

[Jagmodo]

They remind me of ancient Iberian people, although a bit more "barbaric" in looks. Especially disc-shaped chest plate.

[Bercor]

Well, Milner is spanish, so I guess you could say he made them look like him . The disc-shaped chest plate seems more Illyrian to me, though.

[Milner]

disc-shaped chest plate

It's taken from iberian culture

The easterlings or swarthy men are divided in 3 tiers...1st is the most barbaric, 2nd has a more nomadic/mongol/steppes culture style, and the last tier is related with elite units, more armoured and as part of a cavalry/rider culture...when we'll present the preview we show you all the concepts that i used to improve them...

[Peredhel]

I hope that your houses of Bór and Ulfang, have no oriental appearance. Men of Eriador in the Second and Third Age are their relatives. I say this because other mods have given them a similar eastmen appearance with Oriental armor and helmets and I think that is wrong. I personally imagine them as the houses of the Edain, but more brown and ragged

Not really : they are described with swarthy skin and their lifestyle seems really different, also their language and political system, I wouldn't bet they have the same type of culture.

[Stath's]

Very nice unit!

[Jagmodo]

I have one question that may double as suggestion.

So, I have seen in the old preview that Haladin will have Drúedain units. Great, that will give that faction certain uniqueness, but I have think of another.
The question is will Haladin also have female wariors? They were unique in that their women could have more political power than in other houses of Edain and even wield arms in battle; most notable example being Haleth. Of course, this shouldn't be overdone; but I think one unit wouldn't be against the lore. Maybe bodyguards of lady Haleth would be the best option, if she will be present in the mod. That would prevent players from turning Haladin into amazonian kingdom...

I find this representation of Haleth and her guardswoman by Turner Mohan really good:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Honestly, I didn't really liked his Renaissance Númenóreans much, but those new colored paintings are IMO great; especially Dwarves and Green Elves.

[Bercor]

Is that horns in the dwarven helmet I'm seeing??? Heresy!

[Jagmodo]

[Bercor]

Honestly, we didn't talk about this in this point of development, since the Edain are still to be done. Anyway, Haleth will, most certainly, have a female bodyguard unit (and I agree, that concept is pretty good). Personally, I think that's enough for female units, but my horny team fellows may disagree, and I don't want to turn this mod into Amazon Total War II!

Furthermore, you do raise an interesting question (even unintentionally), which is how are we going to deal with the fact that RTW doesn't allows female generals or family members outside the faceless spouse. I'm guessing lesbian Haleth married with another woman will be inevitable .

[Jagmodo]

Furthermore, you do raise an interesting question (even unintentionally), which is how are we going to deal with the fact that RTW doesn't allows female generals or family members outside the faceless spouse. I'm guessing lesbian Haleth married with another woman will be inevitable .

Yeah...

That's why I sad if she will be in the mod. She could be the retinue of old Haldad or Haldar, but that's more than unsatisfactory. I'm sure he wouldn't complain, though! He lives and gets the female bodyguards; good deal I'd say. But the inheritance; or disappearance of the retinue with the faction leader is the big problem...

Otherwise, her "wife" could be renamed to something as in the LOTR:TW (e.g. Galadriel)- imaginary title/something reserved for her. Also, you would have to prevent love child of her and her "wife"... So add to that infertility (trait) too. But the problem is the wife picture. It would have to be changed for all faction members, right? Also this title/name could reaper? Solution would be to lock all relationships and make everyone immortal as LOTR:TW did...

None of those solutions are perfect...

[Peredhel]

Honestly, we didn't talk about this in this point of development, since the Edain are still to be done. Anyway, Haleth will, most certainly, have a female bodyguard unit (and I agree, that concept is pretty good). Personally, I think that's enough for female units, but my horny team fellows may disagree, and I don't want to turn this mod into Amazon Total War II !

In fact I did adress that subject here. My call was to have a female counterpart for all the "militia" units of the Halethrim (something like two or three units) to represent that almost half of their potential warriors were women even though they weren't fighting outside of Brethil. The best way to represent that, in my opinion, would be to have them less costly than male units but with a really big cost of maintenance. That will force the player to keep them as townguards*, which was their role anyway, and not making them the most of his armies.

* I was talking here of the Medieval 2 system in which militians don't cost anything when kept as twonguards but I don't remember if the same thing exist in RTW or if we can create it ourselves ?

Furthermore, you do raise an interesting question (even unintentionally), which is how are we going to deal with the fact that RTW doesn't allows female generals or family members outside the faceless spouse. I'm guessing lesbian Haleth married with another woman will be inevitable .

Haleth didn't have children and all leaders of the Halethrim after her were men so I guess it's possible to have her as a "male" general. The only problem is : can we prevent her from getting married through a script ?

Edit Jagmodo : Yep that's a problem to adress but don't worry for the name, "Haleth" used to be a man in Tolkien's writing, and if the "eth" is feminine in Sindarin we have no indication that her name was in Sindarin. A son of Helm was named 'Haleth', though not in the same tongue.

[Bercor]

In fact I did adress that subject here. My call was to have a female counterpart for all the "militia" units of the Halethrim (something like two or three units) to represent that almost half of their potential warriors were women even though they weren't fighting outside of Brethil. The best way to represent that, in my opinion, would be to have them less costly than male units but with a really big cost of maintenance. That will force the player to keep them as townguards*, which was their role anyway, and not making them the most of his armies.

* I was talking here of the Medieval 2 system in which militians don't cost anything when kept as twonguards but I don't remember if the same thing exist in RTW or if we can create it ourselves ?

That system doesn't exist in RTW, and I don't think it's possible to create it.

Haleth didn't have children and all leaders of the Halethrim after her were men so I guess it's possible to have her as a "male" general. The only problem is : can we prevent her from getting married through a script ?

I'll let Milner answer to that, but I have the idea every character must be married.