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Thread: Gondor Restord (Mini-Mod TBR)

  1. #1

    Icon1 Gondor Restord (Mini-Mod TBR)

    Greetings! For a Tldr; of a request for minor modding help, I'll add one in below.

    I'm currently attempting to release a mini-mod that will rebalance the Kingdom of Gondor's roster so that it focuses on the late game and centralises trecruitment to traditional Númenórean settlements. A refocus on the late has come about due to the sometimes extreme (ly enjoyable) length of Gondorian campaigns where one conquers Harad, Khand, Umbar, Mordor and even Isengard, Enedwaith and Dunland on occasion. A further centralisation to Númenórean settlements also seemed apt.
    I love the fiefdoms as a roster concept for Gondor, but iecruiting from the fiefdoms in the early game is too expensive (if you have to march your forces 10 turns towards Minas Tirith) and not worth it when you have access to late game units such as the Citadel Guard almost everywhere.

    I'm also aiming to make Gondor more tactically 'exciting'; fighting with sword/spear and board with most units can get repetetive in battles, so each unit has been designed with a particular combat function in mind.

    The bad news first; I've had to delete the Lamedon Clansmen (sorry Scotland), Stoor Hunters and am currently considering deleting the Anfalas Pikemen and/or the Pinnath Gelin cavalry, despite being among the most beautiful models in Gondor's roster.

    I've managed to replace them with 5/6 new units:
    - Gondor Shieldbearers
    Aim: Line/chokepoint holders that can be spread thinly on an open field.
    These late tier infantry units are explained in the name, they bear heavy shields. They mirror the recruitment pools of the Citadel Guard, have a low charge, slighty lowered attack, and a major defence boost from the shield. Personally, these fit with the theme that Gondor is perpetually on the defence from Mordor.

    - Mindolluin Bladesmen
    Aim: Heavy shock infantry to exploit units pinned down by standard infantry.
    Late tier Fountain Guardsmen, but with heavy two-handed swords. Haven Guard, but Gondorian. Restricted to Minas Tirith.

    - Osgiliath Warhammers
    Aim: Heavy anti-armour infantry aimed to punch through the centre of an opponents line and begin mopping up the enemy from behind.
    I felt the Osgiliath Guards are one of the best looking untis in the game, but their inferiority compared to the Fountain Guard always niggled at me. They've been equipped with AP warhammers, replaing the anti-armour role that was lost by the removal of the Lamedon Clansmen.
    Restricted to E/W Osgiliath.

    - Minas Ithil Steelbowmen
    Aim: To give Gondor some late-game heavy archers like the good-old days of
    Númenór, without stealing the thunder of the Northern Dúnedain roster.
    Minas Ithil Guardians, with heavy two-handed swords (to differentiate then from the Minas Ithil Spearmen) and steelbows. Very late game units that increases the importance of Minas Ithil.
    Restricted to Minas Ithil.

    - Knights of Osgiliath
    Aim: To give Gondor a single unit of very rare high-powered cavalry.
    I'm expecting this unit to get the most criticism, as Gondor already has access to the Swan Knights from the Fiefdom Barracks. But Gondor lacks high-tier cavalry, especially with the removal of the Pinnath Gelin cavalry, and I'd like Osgiliath to have increased relevance as a late-game recruitment base. Weakened Arthedain Knights with the Osgiliath Guard models, that are aimed to be trainable once every 40 turns.
    Restricted to E/W Osgiliath.



    Yet to be made units:
    - (TBA) Minas Ithil Rangers
    Tactical/strategic role to launch raids into Mordor. Mounted MI bowmen with light horses. Restricted to Minas Ithil.
    - (TBA) Rangers of Mordor
    Very short range bow skirmisher assassin-unit who wield medieval 'sword breakers', giving them a high defence skill to compensate for low armour protection. Small, elite unit restricted to Morannon, Cirith Ungol, Barad-dur, Durthang.



    Other Items:
    - Ancillaries based of the fiefdom ancillaries for the Lordships of:
    Angrenost, Umbar, Minas Ithil, Arthedain, and a Warden of Mordor for Morannon.
    - Ancillaries similair to the roles of a council of a kingdom, such as:
    Chancellor, Justicar, Chamberlain.
    - A new character! Thorondir, who has a new custom strat model based solely off the arnor_general and arnor_captain models.


    I've finalised the unit stats, models, textures and UI for each unit above, but for the life of me cannot get the bow to attatch itself properly to the Minas Ithil Steelbowmen and Rangers. Would anybody be willing to lend a hand and fix them? I'd be more than happy to give you equal credit for this mod!


    Criticism is welcomed


    Tldr; Gondor unit mod, totally inept at fixing bows back to models, "You're my only Hope"


    P.S. Since I've used models already within DaC v3 to make these new models, should I go about seeking to credit others and get permission for using their models and textures? If so, how can I find the original creators?
    P.S.S. I originally planned to release this as part of a wider submod, but Uni exams are upon me. I'll list some (frankly insane) ideas below for the future of this mod:
    - Restoration of Isengard/Minas Ithil/ other corrupted Númenórean settlements that 'cleanses' them of Morgoth's evil and adds minor boosts to recruitment and populations, to signifiy that these settlemnts have been restored to their former glory.
    - (A bat crazy idea) To make strategy in Mordor more intersting, what if the whole of the Black Lands had the effect of a forest; whereby enemies cannot see your armies, and you cannot see theirs on the campaign map. Would make it a terrifying place to campaign in. And is likely undoable/unrealistic.

  2. #2

    Default Re: Gondor Restord (Mini-Mod TBR)

    A cool submod indeed, I can help with some of the points rasied.

    Credit:
    Credit need only be given to the original TATW team, the DaC team and any team for whom you have knowingly taken a model/texture et cetera. So if one of your new units is actually implanted from an entirely different mod then they need credit (and ideally asked first!) but if everything is just from DaC/TATW then you need only give a line of credit to our teams.

    Mordor:
    The permanent forest idea is very cool indeed. Off the top of my head, you would need to do the following:
    - In order for units to hide in forests, they must think they are in forests. Battlemaps are generated from the campaign map situation so you would need to paint the whole of mordor with trees.
    - Mordor has its own 'climate' as defined in the climates file. There will be specific models it uses for trees in that climate. You would need to simply make that tree texture invisible. I would have thought a transparent TGA file would do the trick.
    - You would then need to edit the battlemaps trees that generate in Mordor to also be invisible. Again I would have thought that transparent TGA's might work.
    - Of course the transparent TGAs may well break the game but that is where the trial and error comes in. Haha.
    - Note as well that if the whole of Mordor is forested then archers will be considerably worse there as well.

    Anyway, best of luck with it sir.

    Cair a Alph!

  3. #3

    Default Re: Gondor Restord (Mini-Mod TBR)

    I'm very interested in learning more about these Minas Ithil Steelbows. Both model and statwise. Looking forward to your mod.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Gondor Restord (Mini-Mod TBR)

    Why thank you Galu!
    Excellent; I currently only need to credit the original TATW and DaC teams, though will need to ask the Reforged team if I can use their Blackwatch Garisson models for the Rangers of Mordor once they are created.
    Regarding Mordor, I'll get straight to it and begin experimenting with the text and .TGA files to see the limits of what I can do.
    Oops, I'd totally forgotten about the effects of forests upon archer units! I'll have a look into how viable that is on the battle map, but also wether I can come up with a lore/terrain reason why sight is impaired e.g. a physical shadow or cloud over Mordor.

    Á na márië!

  5. #5

    Default Re: Gondor Restord (Mini-Mod TBR)

    Looking forward to this it has potential
    Supreme Commander of the Galactic Federation, Emperor of the Virtupets Empire, Star King
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  6. #6

    Default Re: Gondor Restord (Mini-Mod TBR)

    This sounds really promising - its been a while since I played a Gondor campaign but a bunch of new units would certainly tempt me! Each unit sounds really clearly thought out and fulfils a distinct purpose without stretching the lore too far, so kudos to you.

    One thing I would say, personally, I wouldn't delete Anfalas or Pinnath Gelin units unless absolutely necessarily. Late game AoR units are great, but I feel like those two always formed a really important part of my early-to-mid game Gondor armies, and having restricted, very late-game units in their place might weaken the experience somewhat? On the other hand, I feel like getting rid of the Lamedon Clansmen is fine, since you already have the Lossarnach Axemen and the Osgiliath Unit you've added. If this is a sub-mod focusing specifically on the 'Gondor experience', may a couple of units could be removed from elsewhere?

    As far as long term plans go, one thing I've always wanted to see, but never known how to go about implementing, would be a late-game script to merge DA and Gondor. DA fills an absolutely vital role in hemming the tide of Khand, Harad and the Ardunaim, but I've always loved the idea of being able to unite the two later once the player really has domination in the south. I realise the Reunited Kingdom script will amalgamate the ND with Gondor and DA, but as I understand it this script will only affect the ND? IDK, I realise I'm doing that super annoying thing of coming up with ideas but offering absolutely no practical way of implementing them, but just thought I'd throw some logs in the fire anyway!

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