Dagor Silmarillion [UPDATED]~ First Age Campaigns '...slain ye may be, and slain ye shall be: by weapon (bonuses) and by (coded) torment and by (scripted) grief...'

[Kurmanji]

Hello,

I am so happy that you make a mod for Silmarillion!
I wonder does this download includes *everything*, as in all campaigns etc.? Is it a part of Dagor Ennor?

[alreadyded]

All released campaigns are included in all my uploads, this thread is just for First Age campaign feedback so I don't get confused. New release should be uploaded tomorrow.

[Kurmanji]

All released campaigns are included in all my uploads, this thread is just for First Age campaign feedback so I don't get confused. New release should be uploaded tomorrow.

Hey,
I tried to install the game and I followed the instructions for steam as I have the steam version but there is a problem. If I rename the folder to another kingdoms folder name it launches the regular Third_Age_3 Total war instead of Dagor Silmarillion. Are there maybe any additional steps?

Thanks for your help in advance!

[alreadyded]

After using the swapper once you can just use your regular shortcut to start the game and it should work. I have no way of knowing what people name their folders, you will have to edit the name of the folder or the name in the file to have it launch automatically.

[ElvenKind]

Hey,
I tried to install the game and I followed the instructions for steam as I have the steam version but there is a problem. If I rename the folder to another kingdoms folder name it launches the regular Third_Age_3 Total war instead of Dagor Silmarillion. Are there maybe any additional steps?

Thanks for your help in advance!

Just add your Third_Age_3 folder name through Steam without renaming folders: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfil.../?id=517318177 ( follow steps under "ADVANCED way of running Third Age " )

[Kurmanji]

Just add your Third_Age_3 folder name through Steam without renaming folders: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfil.../?id=517318177 ( follow steps under "ADVANCED way of running Third Age " )

Hey,

Thank you so much! It worked!
Also when I tried to play custom battles it appeared that the units are the same as te third age units. Are you planning to change that?
I can maybe help if you need more people to do that.

[alreadyded]

Everything still needs to be improved, feel free to help with whatever you like. Usually people just make a submod and then I merge whatever I want from it into the main mod.



Autocampaign screenshot, almost 1000 turns in one night!

[Kurmanji]

Everything still needs to be improved, feel free to help with whatever you like. Usually people just make a submod and then I merge whatever I want from it into the main mod.



Autocampaign screenshot, almost 1000 turns in one night!

That looks magnificent!
I'll look if I got some time soon to pum out lore accurate units but I'll first need to find some good programs to make units. Do you have any suggestions?

Kind regards

[alreadyded]

Milkshape is the easiest to use and all you will ever need for making and editing models. I use 3ds Max to make stuff and Milkshape for quick edits on models and animation weighting. For UV mapping I only use 3ds Max, nothing else compares. There is also Blender, never messed with it though. Z-Brush is awesome but hard to learn. 3ds max is the best at everything by far, and has user made stuff that can do even more, but very hard to learn for even simple things.

For textures I use GIMP for a lot of quick editing of stuff off the net and it is ever so slightly better at specific things with lighting in M2TW's game engine (on my monitor) if you know how to use the Lighting and Shadows stuff, and I use Photoshop for creating most everything from scratch and anything really complicated so I can record it and have the program remember it so I can do it over and over, or an entire folder of stuff with one click of a button (what I did with all the texture improvements for terrain, etc.). There is not much difference between the two for making unit textures since they are not very high quality and you can't zoom in that close on the battlefield to even see much quality (except for the big creatures which is why they look crappy, those textures I will have to handmake in photoshop since the quality (or lack thereof) can be seen up close and they require special rather unorthodox UV mapping to allow that quality that can only be done in 3ds Max). Photoshop has a lot more user made stuff, that is a huge advantage. Sometimes making certain things in Photoshop and then doing the rest in GIMP is the best way to go. For bump maps Photoshop is the best by far, bump maps are extremely important, just like lighting and shadows. They both trick the eye to make 2d things look 3d more than anything else. Everything is actually 2d after all since your monitor is 2d.

[alreadyded]

HERE is the update.


First post updated with direct links and posted info.txt. No changelog, all good stuff though.



Info for general balance testing;

Beor should be able to hold out for around 100 turns most games now, with effort. Going horde before that is fine though.

Fingolfin should last past 100 turns, as in not go horde at all.

Feanor should be able to hold at least one starting region in the east for the first hundred turns or more.

Ungoliant losing its regions doesn't matter, there are scripts to move Ungoliant further south and east each time the faction loses its regions. The faction should never actually die though.

Morgoth's factions should win for the first few hundred turns at least, after that the tide starts to shift. Keeping other factions alive by helping them, or using them effectively to your own ends, should be a big part of the gameplay.

All the other factions should not die for at least 150 turns, going horde is fine if they get focused and/or abandoned that game. If they go horde for no good reason that is bad and needs fixing, probably all their family members died or some other rare condition that needs to be accounted for.

[regnak999]

Do we need to install both files you posted today or just the first age campaigns alpha?

[alreadyded]

Both to be safe, but probably just the Campaigns have the needed updated files. I had to pack everything differently and use a professional installer this time around so I don't know for sure.

[regnak999]

Both on top of the install I did earlier this month? That is the first release of the Dagor Simarillion. It installed ok but I just have not played it much yet. Do I need to

A:make a new copy of TATW and install these two files,
B:to install them over what I already have or
C:just install the campaigns over the current?

[alreadyded]

No need for a fresh install, no need to use the file cleaner again either. Installing over any old release of mine is always fine. I just recommend installing both releases from today, in the future only the Campaigns uploads will be updated (these should contain all the updated files from the earlier release but I don't know), the Core Files are files that don't get updated much if ever so you will not have to download that stuff again in future updates.

The Core Files do contain the custom tile files for the campaigns that I know, but these are not currently coded in yet for the First Age campaigns so they don't matter yet if you are only playing the First Age.

[hitdark]

Amazing work again.
Thanks for all the fun you're giving us!

[alreadyded]

No thanks required (I was trashed the entire time anyway so it was fun), feedback to improve it is appreciated.

Edit; Honestly, the hardest part was trying to learn Installshield these past few weeks. Which has more to do with real life than this mod. That program is so confusing and can do so much, lethal combo. Plus there are many ways to go about doing each thing and each way overrides all the others, took me a bit of failure to figure that out.

[regnak999]

No need for a fresh install, no need to use the file cleaner again either. Installing over any old release of mine is always fine. I just recommend installing both releases from today, in the future only the Campaigns uploads will be updated (these should contain all the updated files from the earlier release but I don't know), the Core Files are files that don't get updated much if ever so you will not have to download that stuff again in future updates.

The Core Files do contain the custom tile files for the campaigns that I know, but these are not currently coded in yet for the First Age campaigns so they don't matter yet if you are only playing the First Age.

Ok thanks.

[regnak999]

I am about 75 turns in and having a blast in spite of occasional crashes(mostly from the city screen). One of the good factions was eliminated a about 10 turns back but I didn't write down who it was. Think it was a mannish faction though. Feanor is still alive but has been a people in flight 2 or 3 times. I am just about to be able to upgrade my first village to town and I turned one of the other ruins into a Motte and Bailey. I really love that option. I hope the feedback is useful to you.

Editing to add: Host of Feanor dead on turn 84.

[regnak999]

Ok 3 days later and still having a blast however something really odd just happened and if I can remember how to attach a screen shot you shall see.

those 4 units of snagas used to be human. Something in Mt Gundabad turned them but thankfully spared the rest of the army. Here you see me sending them off to die.

[KabooseTheOx]

Hey, I recently downloaded this mod and have been unable to get it working. Whenever I try to launch the game (either directly from the .bat file or from steam) the game instantly crashes as soon as I get to the first age loading screen. I reinstalled the mod twice on fresh copies of TATW doing exactly as instructed and could not find the problem. My vanilla, DaC, and MoS copies work without crashes so I've been trying to isolate a problem to no avail. This is a link (https://www.docdroid.net/zeu3D2x/systemlog.txt.html) I uploaded of my crash log to so I was hoping someone may be able to help me. Thanks in Advance.