The Midnight Chronicles - WIP

[Aedelric]

Download Mod at the bottom of second post.

The Midnight Chronicles

Based of the Lords of Midnight trilogy by Mike Singleton.

Each game was released with a novelette, the first is available to read below. It is recommended to all that wish to play the modification as it gives insights into the setting, characters and events.

The Lords of Midnight Novelette - Attachment at the bottom of the page.

Details on each game can be found on their respective Wiki pages found below.

The Lords of Midnight
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lords_of_Midnight

Doomdark's Revenge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doomdark%27s_Revenge

The Citadel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lords_o..._:_The_Citadel

To this day The Lords of Midnight has a strong community, kept alive by many passionate fans through various websites, forums and even a yahoo group. Below is a list of the major Midnight websites that can be found.

Icemark
http://www.icemark.com/

http://wiki.icemark.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

Icemark, it contains any and all information one could possibly want to know about the Midnight games. It also hosts a remake, a Midnight related Wiki and various links to other Lords of Midnight websites.

Midnight/MU
http://www.midnightmu.com/games_home.php

http://forum.midnightmu.com/

Midnight Multi User is a browser based Lords of Midnight adaptation. it also has forums not only dedicated to the browser game but Lords of Midnight in general

War of the Solstice
http://www.frozenempire.net/

One of the most impressive remakes can be found on Frozen Empire,using 3D engine, even with it's age starting to show it is one of the more beautiful remakes that can be found.


Lords of Midnight: Total War
http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=97798

This was a remake for the Rome Total War engine, unfortunately their was no public release and progress was halted quite a while ago.


Other Midnight related links can be found below, if you wish to add any others then please let me know.

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/midnight

[Aedelric]

I have said this before, do not waste your time downloading or playing this Alpha unless you know and enjoy the original Lords of Midnight by Mike Singleton. If you have not already, read the included novelette which explains the setting, characters and events, it is also a good read.


This modification is recommended to those that know The Lords of Midnight, if you do not know it, you may not enjoy this modification. Also be aware that the modification is a work in progress, everything is subject to change, some features do not fully work and the Alpha may contain bugs. Though based of The Lords of Midnight, the game is not a direct clone, some features had to be dropped due to engine limitations or game mechanic conflicts. In all I feel this is a fair adaptations retaining the spirit of the original with the enjoyable real time strategy of Total War.

The reason I have released my work is that if I ever go missing or stop working on this project, at least what has been done is available to those that want to try the game or even continue the project. For now I still work on it every now and then.

The modification works for me but I do not guarantee this will work for everyone, I do not have any play testers or feedback for that matter, I am also the only person working on this project. If you do find obvious bugs or problems, just drop a post here in this topic and I will try to fix it for you.

Credits.
All assets in the game was created by myself Aedelric "Wolfen/Akallabeth" unless otherwise stated in the credit section in the game. I am positive all permission was obtained and credit given. I do still have the PMs in my inbox as confirmation, but if I did forget you, please know that was not intentional.



As requested below are several screenshots of the modification

The Land of Midnight is inhospitable, constantly in a state of severe winter, below is a map of the Land, from the back of the original game manual. I have tried to remain as faithful to this map as possible.



First thing you see when starting the modification.


The modification does not have the traditional battle images for loading screens, some unique quotes are in, it is all still a work in progress.


Main game menu.


Campaign Selection menu.


Faction selection menu.


The game has five factions, four are playable, no shield icons as of yet as when this was discussed no one could come to an agreement on what they should be.


The game has or will include many custom ancillaries.


Each faction has its own selection of portraits, to help easily identify between them.


The mod will have building info and icons transformed to winter setting, it is still in early stages.


Each settlement/stronghold has a snowy feel.


The Citadel of dreams and the custom henge strat model.


Titles are in.


Some poor excuses for units.


Originally I planned to have Sever winter and light winter cycles, easy to do on the strat my as you can see by my image, but the battle map requires hex editing, which is beyond me. For now this has been put on hold. Good news is all year round the map is frozen, strat and battle.


Free/Fey alliance, these two factions hold and alliance and as such can recruit each others troops in their allies lands.


A scripted battle will make it harder to hold the plains of Blood, as is traditional in the Lords of Midnight, good luck!


To make the game more interesting and to help resolve the issue of having vast empty regions, a new faction is present, brigands, also note the new siege model.


Foul Cavalry lead by Doomdark.


Army of the Free.


A unique script will allow you to select a classic game closer to the original, or advanced, with archers, building and other features. (note this is not fully functional yet)


A unique script will allow you to send Morkin on a quest to destroy the icecrown.


morkin's quest text example.


Unique event images for Morkin's quest.


Winter Siege Engines.



Below are images of the War of the Solstice setting


















The Midnight Chronicles Alpha v110519

Download - The Midnight Chronicles


I am open to suggestions and any tips you have, please post your comments below. If anyone wants to help, just PM what kind of things you prefer to work on and we will see what can be done. As for what is desperately needed, are several strat map resource models. I am not able to do this myself, so if anyone volunteers for that, it would be great.

[y2day]

Wow you have done a lot of work here. I must say the map looks great, hell everything looks great! +rep

[Aedelric]

Thank you y2day.

It looks like a lot, but I still have plenty more to do, for example;

Fix up traits.
Finish Ancillaries.
Start Building Tree. (I am not looking forward to this)
Fully implement classic and advanced campaign versions.
Expand Morkin's quest.
Implement basic Icefear.
Somehow get a few strat models made.

And that is not even starting on campaign II.

[Lord_Wishmaster]

Thank You so much for sharing these images. Wow! Very impressive indeed.

[Beorn]

U have done some amazing work here, Kasabian

[Lord_Wishmaster]

Wolfen, hope you don't mind, but I was so impressed at what I saw I couldn't resist posting a link to this thread on the Midnight/MU forum. People there are impressed also!

[Swagger]

nice stuff men

[Aedelric]

Thank you everyone, but it is still very much a work in progress, I have massive list of things I still need to fix or change.

I have recently made basic Icefear functional. Unfortunately I have not worked out a way to have it removed when the Icecrown is destroyed. I need to experiment a little.

Removed several unwanted traits. (I personally dislike how Total War has so many negative traits.)

Korinel & Thimrath now called the Fey, as in original.

Fixed some of the Icemark Shields, added a short campaign description, fixed faction relations, changed minor details and cleaned up some files for easy editing later.

[abob101]

Wolves are abroad!

Nice work Wolfen, I think it captures the feel of the original series nicely. I went and registered to post some words of encouragement. Good stuff!

[Aedelric]

Thank you abob101, no real progress the last week or so, being the festive season I have spent my time doing other things. But as usual I will be back to modding again, probably after new years.

Of course the mod would be a hundred times better if I had someone help me, specifically a talented 2D artist and a talented model maker. But as I don't, one has to do with everything looking very basic.

I have tried to retain the spirit of the Lords of Midnight, obviously some changes need to be made for the sake of gameplay or engine limitations. But what matters is correct, the map, the Lords and a frosty atmosphere for the land of Midnight. Lakes were dropped due to the effect looking wrong on the strat map, towers, wolves and other such things could be included if someone volunteered to make them, but unfortunately no one has.

Regardless I still have things to do, highest priority is sort out that building tree as it is a mess and then complete the expanded script.

Edit - Just in case I am not online, happy new year everyone.

[paradamed]

This is a very interesting project.

[Aedelric]

Thank you Paradamed.

[SigniferOne]

Glad you've made progress since having posted a few of those map screens long ago. +rep

[Aedelric]

Ha! You remembered that post, thank you for your comment SigniferOne.

It was long ago, good progress has been made, but I still have more go go. If I did it as a job it would have been completed long ago, but because it is just a side project for my own amusement it will still be ages till I am completely satisfied and it is done.

[Aedelric]

A New Day Dawns

`Wolfen stands at the Tower of the Moon looking east to the Forest of Shadows.´

If anyone is interested I am still working on this, on and off. My change list is growing slowly, this is what I have added/fixed since the last update.

Scripted basic icefear.
Tweaked leader battlemap crown.
Fixed racial ancestry traits, factional dread/chivalry and additional trait errors.
Removed several unwanted traits. (I personally dislike how Total War has so many negative traits.)
Korinel & Thimrath now called the Fey, as in original.
Fixed some of the Icemark Shields, changed minor details and cleaned up some files for easy editing later.
Added Icemark campaign Description.
Fixed faction relations for Icemark.
Included snow covered siege engines. (see credits section.)
Basic building tree implemented, lacks details, icons and descriptions.
Various small Midnight_Script fixes.
Added additional Morkin Quest event images.
map_"faction".tga tweaked, X now marks the spot.
Castles now referred to as Keeps, more accurate to Midnight setting.
Relevant vanilla cultures renamed to Free, Fey, Icelord and Targ.
Archers and Spearmen now recruitable, making the total an amazing four, yes, four units!

Obviously I still plenty to do;
Fix up traits.
Finish Ancillaries.
Various text descriptions.
Fully implement classic and advanced campaign versions.

I welcome any comments/suggestion or help.

`Wolfen thinks again...´

[Aedelric]

Night Has Fallen

`On the plains of Blood stands Wolfen, he commands no army.´

My hard drive has been playing up this week, strangely it does not seem to be the drive itself but the cable. Unfortunately it means I have had to disconnect my second drive and use it's cable instead, meaning I have no access to my WIP files, all my games are also installed on that drive, Medieval II: Total War included.

Good news it I have not lost anything, my main mod is stored on an external and I still have internet access. But to be extra safe I have uploaded the latest version, it was fully working yesterday when I last made a few changes. If you have problems I can not guarantee I can help you out as I can not play Medieval to test the mod.

Download

Scripted basic icefear.
Tweaked leader battlemap crown.
Fixed racial ancestry traits, factional dread/chivalry and additional trait errors.
Removed several unwanted traits. (I personally dislike how Total War has so many negative traits.)
Korinel & Thimrath now called the Fey, as in original.
Corrected Icemark Shields, changed minor details and cleaned up some files for easy editing later.
Added Icemark campaign Description.
Fixed faction relations for Icemark.
Included snow covered siege engines. (See credits section in game.)
Basic building tree implemented, lacks details, icons and descriptions.
Various small Midnight_Script fixes.
Added additional Morkin Quest event images.
map_"faction".tga tweaked, X now marks the spot.
Castles now referred to as Keeps, more accurate to Midnight setting.
Relevant vanilla cultures renamed to Free, Fey, Icelord and Targ.
Archers and Spearmen now recruitable, making the total an amazing four, yes, four units!
Added alpha to unit icons. (Horsemen icons lack horses, my MS3D trial ran out so I am unable to remake the icon.)
Tweaked Gryfallons portrait, looks less yellow, darker beard and slightly red eyes.
A few very minor menu colour tweaks.
Factions general battle map model and texture are now correct.
Starting leaders strat models are now correct.
Added additional quote, the watchwords of Midnight.
Fixed an error in the map_climates.tga.


This has for the most part been a solo project for my own enjoyment, originally I did not have the intention of sharing it, but if one or two people enjoy it, then it was worth posting.

I am nearly at my modding limits, to truly make this mod unique it requires a talented 2D and 3D artist, if you love the Lords of Midnight and want to help or donate something useful, just give me a PM. If you have other talents and want to help, just let me know what you can do.

`The Icefear is very mild, Wolfen is utterly afraid.´

[Beorn]

Keep it going; and making mods for swlf enjoyment is much heathier than making one mod just for counting how many clicks the dld link has

[Aedelric]

The amount of downloads it even gets reset when I upload a new version. I see it the same way, one should mod out of enjoyment and desire to complete a vision, not as a popularity competition. Anyway, thanks for your support Beorn.


So after a bunch of fixes and improvements, next on my list is;
Fix up traits.
Finish Ancillaries.
Sort buildings build order.
Complete various text descriptions.
Fully implement classic and advanced campaign versions.
Balance.

Once Midnight is completed I will start on the Icemark campaign, I also have a basic Bloodmarch map, but it is nowhere near a finished state.

[Russian Gondor]

Amazing! + Rep!