Final Map and some thoughts

[HBI]

Will the final map for FA have a map of Arnor? I ask because i have been toying with the idea of starting a Fall of Arnor mod for either BI or Medieval II. Ive done some unit editing on my own before and i feel pretty comfortable modding in that respect, (though i'll certainly have to recruit a team) but if im gonna try this eventually i'd like to use someone else's Arnor map as a base to start off of (with your permission of course).

I think that part of the 3rd age is extremely interesting, left just enough vague by Tolkien. We know basic events of that time period, and it wouldnt take much to flesh it out into an excellent mod with factions like Arthedain, Cardolan, Lindon and Rivendell at war with Rhudaur, Angmar, during the war of 1409.

Thanks!

[Hanny]

Will the final map for FA have a map of Arnor? I ask because i have been toying with the idea of starting a Fall of Arnor mod for either BI or Medieval II. Ive done some unit editing on my own before and i feel pretty comfortable modding in that respect, (though i'll certainly have to recruit a team) but if im gonna try this eventually i'd like to use someone else's Arnor map as a base to start off of (with your permission of course).

I think that part of the 3rd age is extremely interesting, left just enough vague by Tolkien. We know basic events of that time period, and it wouldnt take much to flesh it out into an excellent mod with factions like Arthedain, Cardolan, Lindon and Rivendell at war with Rhudaur, Angmar, during the war of 1409.

Thanks!

If you trolll through all there files you will see that all ME is mapped out already acording to the maps left in game, custom resources to rerpresent things in anor can be used in the CI map by adding them into it to see some of the cool ideas they have incorporated into the main game. Its well worth looking at all there files to get a teaser of where they are going with the main game.


Side bar.


Crossing of Poros has a barrow for the 2 princes of Rohan who fell there, it might be better to name it as JRRT named it rather than the generic at present barrow of the past. I nice touch that just needs finishing a little better by text editting.

[MasterOfNone]

I'm afraid we cannot release the map of Arnor before we ourselves have released it. I would suggest - as you will almost certainly struggle to get a team - that you join the Fourth Age if you have good modding skills. If you do not have modding skills then, imho, do not start a mod. Even a small submod is a great deal of work.

Hanny, the problem with your suggestion is that there are a limited number of slots for such features and were we to establish a non-generic description for the barrows we would be in need of more slots, which we do not have.

[Hanny]

Hanny, the problem with your suggestion is that there are a limited number of slots for such features and were we to establish a non-generic description for the barrows we would be in need of more slots, which we do not have.

Ok so the barrows on the barrow downs are also generic ones the same as the one at the crossing of porus, ( and elsshere i might assume) and you simply used existing resources as different new features and had finite limit on how many you had, but are not new resources fairly simple to add in game as i believe they are? or have i missed a limit to the absolute number of resources?.

[MasterOfNone]

You cannot add new visible resources. Their number is hardcoded. What we would include and what we would leave out, what we would make unique and generic, had a lot of thought put into it - I think we have it optimal right now and it is hard to see how it could be improved.

[HBI]

I'm afraid we cannot release the map of Arnor before we ourselves have released it. I would suggest - as you will almost certainly struggle to get a team - that you join the Fourth Age if you have good modding skills. If you do not have modding skills then, imho, do not start a mod. Even a small submod is a great deal of work.

Well the kind of mod im thinking of is basically editing the full Fourth Age campaign into a Third Age campaign for battles in Arnor. Units for Arthedain and Cardolan can be reskinned or even the original RK units. Angmar and Rhudaur are Orcs and Hillmen. Elves are Elves so even that shouldn't pose too much of a problem either.

Where i think most of the work comes in is the actual campaign and editing the map to represent 3rd Age Arnor. Dividing Arnor into the three kingdoms, starting armies, forts and the tower of Amon Sul that sort of thing.

So like i said before i have some skill in editing the export_descr_unit file effectively and I know way too much about Middle Earth, but not a whole lot else i guess.

[MasterOfNone]

There is a general view that modding is something that can be done relatively quickly and only involves models, textures and the EDU file. This is far from the truth. There are many many other files and areas that even a submod would require tweaking or recoding.

Just to give you an example, I would estimate that the Corsair Invasion took about 3000 man hours before 1.0 was released, and that is just from Jan 06 to Nov 06 and did not include the map research and basic map, or even many of the unit models.

It is true a submod would take less time (though some time understanding what the Mod Team has done to the files will be necessary), but establishing a new faction, changing the map, and so forth impact other areas of coding that may cause CTDs or stop things functioning as they should.

We thank you for your interest but, if you still choose to engage in such a task, you must wait in order to access the full map and also to avoid repeating work that we may already be working on or have scheduled.

We think, to be clear, that submods are a good idea but that they should be set within the framework of the currently-released map and request of us any approval if the submod is to be for anything other than personal use.

[HBI]

Oh i completely understand that, its just an idea that ive been toying around in my head. Thanks alot for your insight and consideration though.

[Ciaran S]

Will the final map for FA have a map of Arnor? I ask because i have been toying with the idea of starting a Fall of Arnor mod for either BI or Medieval II. Ive done some unit editing on my own before and i feel pretty comfortable modding in that respect, (though i'll certainly have to recruit a team) but if im gonna try this eventually i'd like to use someone else's Arnor map as a base to start off of (with your permission of course).

I think that part of the 3rd age is extremely interesting, left just enough vague by Tolkien. We know basic events of that time period, and it wouldnt take much to flesh it out into an excellent mod with factions like Arthedain, Cardolan, Lindon and Rivendell at war with Rhudaur, Angmar, during the war of 1409.

Thanks!

I agree. Not that I don´t like FATW - quite the opposite, but the 14th century of the Third Age would certainly have made a good Middle-Earth mod background as well.
By the way, check this site: http://www.taivaansusi.net/roolipeli...ion/index.html
Even though part of it is in finnish, the English parts of it are very interesting.