First Age Total War

**Puddle** · March 26, 2009, 02:58 PM

I am merely curious as to why there have been no mods for this period of time, it is quite well described in the silmarillion, and it seems to be rather well suited for a total war game, with the rather large number of factions.

Thoughts?

**Elphir of Dol Amroth** · March 26, 2009, 03:20 PM

Well, let me see:

- As you said there are some quite good descriptions, but their are little visuals to work with, only some art. A Third Age mod is easier because you could work with visuals from the movie.

- You seem to think that a large number of factions is a good thing, it only means that it's a lot of work.

- A First Age mod is not that well suited for a Total War game: Dragons, Balrogs, Ents, Werewolves, Morgoth, Valar, Maiar and a lot of hero's. Those are all very difficult to do with the Total War engine.

- The enormous amount of lore that needs to be studied. Also a lot of things in the Silmarillion are described different in other books. You need to make a hard decision about which one you will follow.

- Making a pretty big map with lots of provinces, all those units that needed to be made.

- You will end up with a heavily scripted game if you want things like the arrival of the Noldor, arrival of Edain and Easterlings, right time period for Dragons to appear, etc.

There have been attempts to make First Age mods for Total War games, but untill now all of them have failed unfortunately.

**Shi Huangdi** · April 03, 2009, 01:10 PM

There is an M2TW mod for the First Age called Tales of Arda: Total War that is currently in the early stages of development: http://talesofarda.forumcircle.com/portal.php.

**Elphir of Dol Amroth** · April 03, 2009, 03:58 PM

It's not in the early stages of development, it's dead.

Lol, they never even came into early stages of development, all that they came up with was the name, they haven't even decided when this mod will start, if it is for Medieval2 or Kingdoms and what factions there were supposed to be...

I have heard rumours about another First Age mod for Kingdoms made by some Russian guys (still wip though).

Also there is someone making a First Age mod for Alexander, using LOTR-TW as a base.

**Cathar1209** · April 03, 2009, 04:40 PM

Also there is someone making a First Age mod for Alexander, using LOTR-TW as a base.

True? Never heard of it, it would be amazing if it would be completed.

**Aradan** · April 03, 2009, 04:47 PM

Don't call me pessimistic, but I'd like to see how the RTW engine can handle Maiar, Balrogs, Morgoth and generally all the magic stuff going on during the 1st Age.

**elwe_singollo** · April 03, 2009, 06:19 PM

Originally Posted by Aradan

Don't call me pessimistic, but I'd like to see how the RTW engine can handle Maiar, Balrogs, Morgoth and generally all the magic stuff going on during the 1st Age.

it would seem to me that all it would require is reskinning and tweaking a particular unit(or units)as is done to get trolls in the game?
could be wrong...i know next to nothing about modding but that seems to make sense...
i mean if they can get fell beasts into the game i can't imagine balrogs or dragons would be all that more difficult aside from the pain of skinning it.(i think wles and those cats at lotrtw managed to get ents into the forthcoming patch but who knows when it will be out).
making a dragon act as a dragon should in the battle map would be a bit tricky i suppose...

**Elphir of Dol Amroth** · April 04, 2009, 04:27 AM

Originally Posted by Aradan

Don't call me pessimistic, but I'd like to see how the RTW engine can handle Maiar, Balrogs, Morgoth and generally all the magic stuff going on during the 1st Age.

Yeah, you are right Aradan, it will be very difficult. But in the First Age there weren't that many good Maiar in Beleriand itself. Only Melian as far as I can remember and she could work as an ancillary for Thingol.

The evil Maiar are difficult but some should be possible, like Sauron for example. Dragons could indeed be reskinnend Nazgul and besides that not all dragons flied, but the difficult part of it is the fire breathing, but as far as I know some mods have that already.

Balrogs are even more difficult but there have been a few decent attempts on them, not that they looked great but it was a start.

Wlesmana is trying to implent Ents, but he had some problems with it, besides he is not really active, so it won't be in the upcoming patch I guess. Bardo is doing some balancing stuff and brings out little patches as often as he can.

This is the link about the Alexander FA mod:
http://www.lotr-tw.net/viewtopic.php...r=asc&start=30

**Aradan** · April 03, 2009, 06:24 PM

Fellbeasts should be flying, and in LotRTW they are not flying, they just give the impression they do (units with swords can hit them, walls stop them, etc). And of course the magic performed during the first age is well beyond the capabilities of the engine.

There was a Silmarllion mod for MTW, that could work better I think, due to the more simplistic engine (one didn't really expect to see flying units).

**Aradan** · April 04, 2009, 05:44 AM

I hope the submod(?) does well, I'd love to play a first age mod (or mod it, whatever

). Wles is a great modeler and Bardo a great scripter, they might be ale to pull sth good off, if they have enough time in their hands.

**Elphir of Dol Amroth** · April 05, 2009, 03:51 AM

They are not the one making the mod, it seems like they are to busy with their own mod atm.

**Aradan** · April 05, 2009, 05:48 AM

No, but they can help.

**Village Maker III** · April 05, 2009, 01:10 PM

Fellbeasts should be flying, and in LotRTW they are not flying, they just give the impression they do (units with swords can hit them, walls stop them, etc). And of course the magic performed during the first age is well beyond the capabilities of the engine.

There was a Silmarllion mod for MTW, that could work better I think, due to the more simplistic engine (one didn't really expect to see flying units).

It's primitive but this could be used to simulate 'magic'.