The Dominion of Men 3.1 - Cities of Middle-earth Patch Released!

[webba84]

The Dominion of Men 3.1 - Cities of Middle-earth

Patch 3.1 - Cities of Middle-earth for Fourth Age Total War: The Dominion of Men is here! The first in a series of addons that aims to bring lore accurate, fully functional, and beautiful custom settlements to The Dominion of Men full conversion mod.

This patch requires FATW: The Dominion of Men v3.0 Full Release. It is NOT savegame compatible.

Installation Instructions
1. Unzip the fatw31patch.rar file to a location of your choice.
2. Copy the data folder inside into your .../bi/fatw folder.
3. When promted, choose to overwrite all existing files and folders.
4. Start FATW: DoM in your usual way and enjoy!

Major Changes
New Hornburg custom settlement! Many thanks to Lord of the Rings: Total War for allowing us to use their assets as a base.


The keep, hall, and tower of Hornburg clearly display their Dúnedain origins.


In the peaceful early years of the Fourth Age the city quickly outgrew it's walls.


Gimli's Dwarves, though now gone, have also left their mark on the fortress.


Assaulting the gates of the keep remains as daunting a prospect as it was in the Third Age.

In addition to the new settlement the other major change to this patch is that Elves and Dwarves are now split into their own (provincial) campaigns. This was done so that we could keep them as passive factions while under ai control but still have public order and rioting a big part of campaign balance while under player control (since those two features happen to be hardcoded together in the same campaign). You can find the Elven and Dwarven campaigns in their own sub-menu.

We have also included many minor changes, additions, and bug fixes. For a full list please see the patch notes included in the download.

Other News
Work has already begun on the second patch in the series, 'Cities of Middle-earth'. The next release will feature the dread city of Minas Ithil, long a ruin during the early years of the Fourth Age but now being rebuilt as the capital and chief city of a resurgent Adunabar.

Finally, if you are enjoying the mod and would like to support us a quick review or rating over on moddb would be very much appreciated. And if you know other Tolkien fans, or Total War fans, who you think would enjoy the mod please do spread the word around, we want as many people to enjoy it as possible!

[SnuggleBunnies]

Congratulations and thank you for the release! Now I'll play my long awaited Rohan and Dunland campaigns.

[Beorn]

nice job! Time for a Dunleding campaign

[demagogos nicator]

Great job, I am looking forward to give it a try. Btw. aAe there any news on the progres with civil wars for manish factions?

[Nelduin]

Great work, Can't wait already to see the next custom city! +Rep

[Tulkasthevaliant]

Ah, perfect timing. Yippie!

[webba84]

Great job, I am looking forward to give it a try. Btw. aAe there any news on the progres with civil wars for manish factions?

yup, Aradan will complete it as soon as he finds the time. In the meanwhile feedback about FL authority and FM opinion of liege balance is very useful, as those will be key factors in the rebellion mechanic.

[SnuggleBunnies]

I noticed in the change log that cultic conversion buildings are cheaper. Does that mean an increased chance of the ai choosing to build them over mod/motw?

[webba84]

Possibly, though how the ai balances cost vs building effects is really not well known.

[hrolphi]

Wow looks so great.. Looking very much forward to Minas Ithil as well!

[_Tartaros_]

Really nice work done!
Downloading soon

[Stath's]

Fantastic work!!!

[James_Northstar]

What differs about the Elven/Dwarven provincial campaigns other than the rioting mechanics? Do they still fight on the same map? Also, I'm not sure allowing their settlements to riot without some other buffs to compensate is a good idea- the Elves in particular were already unduely weak (I can understand their population being limited- but their buildings shouldn't be so expensive! The Elves were master craftsmen- which means their buildings should be cheaper if anything...)

[CountMRVHS]

The non-Mannish campaign uses the same map. Other changes include a tweak to the diplomatic setup so the Elves in particular won't be quite so secure in the eastern parts of their territory.

[webba84]

Ive tested the Elven campaign with rioting extensively. It is well balanced - no more winning on turn 30 because you blitzed Eriador and the Beornings without having to pacify.

[Wambat]

What differs about the Elven/Dwarven provincial campaigns other than the rioting mechanics? Do they still fight on the same map? Also, I'm not sure allowing their settlements to riot without some other buffs to compensate is a good idea- the Elves in particular were already unduely weak (I can understand their population being limited- but their buildings shouldn't be so expensive! The Elves were master craftsmen- which means their buildings should be cheaper if anything...)

Considering the advantages Elves enjoy on the battle map, it is not likely the developers are looking for ways to make things easier on the campaign map.

[webba84]

Wambat has it quite correct. In fact, the campaign was always designed and balanced to be played as though the riot mechanic was in place. In testing I would never hold a settlement if I could not keep the happiness above 65%, either abandoning or giving away if no enemy was nearby to take it. I encouraged everyone to do the same, and assumed that people would, since doing other-wise made things much t0o fast and easy and imho not fun at all.

However, when I saw that even Count(!) was unable to resist taking and holding cities in a way that would never be possible with rioting in play I realised that we had to enforce this on players, otherwise they just wouldn't get the experience intended while playing as the elves.

Now if only there was a way to prevent disbanding mannish units in Elven lands...

[CountMRVHS]

Hehe, yes, the fastest campaign victory I'd ever achieved in DoM

I can attest that having the rioting mechanic in place for the Dwarves doesn't make things impossible; you just have to have a plan to hold newly conquered settlements. Often that will mean moving around your capital. And mercs can be useful to increase the garrison presence. Apart from that, expand carefully, build provincial control/dominion, and it should work out similar to the Mannish factions. Haven't played the Elves with the new changes but I imagine it works much the same way.

[Wambat]

Two other things players should keep in mind if they wish to play a non-mannish campaign with the intended balance:

1. No expelling populations, unless you make sure to remove all governors from non-mannish settlements first.

2. No disbanding mannish troops in non-mannish settlements.

Naturally, nobody can stop you from doing these things, but they will unbalance your game.

A helpful reminder for those struggling to expand far flung empires: It takes at least two contiguous turns of revolting for a province to rebel. By juggling your capital back and forth each turn you can make sure this doesn’t happen and give your provinces time to implement pacification.

[paradamed]

Cool!!