Building the Realm of Middle-Earth.

[kevinflemming]

Due to the Gondorian armour, I'm itching to turn a faction into the Realm of Gondor. But before I start messing around with changing everything in Morgh's, I'm just curious as to whether anybody already done anything similar to this or attempted such a task? I have a couple of questions too, if I may.

[list type=decimal]
[*]How easy is this to accomplish, simply by using Morgh's?
[*]Are there any restrictions to things, such as amount of upgrade paths or number of troops?
[*]How is the amount of experience dealt with, between upgrades?
[/list]

I'm not entirely sure if what I would like to do is possible, as this is slightly different from changing an Companion's starting gear and stats. Might have to add some new troop upgrade paths (something I haven't dabbled with before, but you learn by doing right?).

So, the faction I'm thinking of changing? Most likely Falcon, I've been eyeing-up their area for some time now and they are pure cavalry, by the looks of it. Something I'm not a fan of and would never play. I'll most likely edit the gear of the Elvarie first, to remove all of the Gondorian armours from their inventories and replace it with more of the Elven Redwood gear. A fairly simple task.

Aside from the logistics and provided everything goes smoothly, this is what I'm hoping the troop tree will look like:

Infantry
Recruit - Footman - Swordsman - Veteran Swordsman - Master Swordsman - Tower Guard
Recruit - Footman - Spearman - Veteran Spearman - Master Spearman - Fountain Guard

Archers
Recruit - Scout - Bowman - Archer - Veteran Archer - Master Archer
Recruit - Scout - Bowman - Ranger - Veteran Ranger - Master Ranger - Ranger of Ithilien

Cavalry
Recruit - Scout - Squire - Veteran Squire - Knight - Veteran Knight - Master Knight - Citadel Knight

Each troop will have a prefix or suffix too. Just didn't want to type them all out now. Gondorian Recruit (or Levy),  Footman of Gondor, etc. Most likely mix the two for whatever sounds better. Names are easy to change, as and when.

Would that be too complicated, or a complete hassle to achieve? I'm not starting until tomorrow, so any help/advice/suggestions are more than welcome.

 

[Takeshi]

I have done something similar (not LoR flavored however) and was fairly easy using morgh's. All the new Troops, to my understanding, need to be at the bottom of the list and linkd via the upgrade paths. Renaming is fairly easy just by picking singular and plural.

The exp part im not all that sure with but i think adjusting lvl's to match other factions top end elites would give ya a fairly balanced troop tree. As long as everything is linkd with upgrade paths it "should" work fine but from personal experience, never expect it to work properly the first time around.

My best advice would be, be patient and expect alot of, interesting, results. 

 

[kevinflemming]

Been "busy" playing other modules lately, so I hadn't started editing troops until a little earlier. But I have made a start. Changed the Elvarie gear, so most of them use the Redwood-style armours in place of the Gondorian. Also started playing around with the cheat menu, seeing what works well together for different troop types. Only got around to making a Veteran or Master Gondorian Archer, but he looks pretty cool. Especially considering I'm not editing any of the gear's looks and using what is already there. Not bad for a half-asleep attempt. Looking at it, I'll most likely change the boots and gauntlets to fit a little better.

隐藏

Most of the troop tree has been laid-out and I have a good idea of what I want to do. Just need to play with stats, give them gear and do a little testing. I'll add a special Gondor unit too, so there is something to hire from the main town. Possibly a named unit, such as Dol Amroth Knight or something along those lines. That might be better than my original idea of having Rangers of Ithilien. I like the Ranger tree and didn't want to scrap it.

If I go with a special Knight troop, I'll make the Citadel Knights slightly weaker than I planned. But only slightly.

EDIT: None of the blue gear looks right to make a Knight of Dol Amroth, if it matched in tone then I could wing it but it's all different shades lol. So that's out of the window. I was thinking of making Dúnedain Rangers instead and limiting how many I hire. Two or three at a time, at most. Need something to counteract those bloody Elves, so it might not be a bad idea to have a few strong ranged units tagging along.

Can't really think of any other "special" Gondor troops at the moment, need sleep. Something to mull over tomorrow.

I have done...
...of, interesting, results. 

Hopefully, everything should be fine. I've edited a few troops in another module, so I know what to do now. I'll probably edit the Lords and King too, at a later date.

 

[kevinflemming]

I've noticed that when editing a troop's stats, they will often retain some points and add them onto their final amount when you load up a new game. Is there a way around this? Other than finding each troop's original stats (ugh, I hope not), working out then subtracting the difference so they level-out to the original value I set in Morgh's. It appears to be random, as they haven't kept everything. Just the odd rogue point in a stat they no longer use, or some 20+ extra weapon skill. While it's not overly important, it does make my OCD twinge a little.

 

[kevinflemming]

Finally finished the troop tree. It took practically all day sorting out gear and such (having to go back and forth between the cheat menu and Morgh's is a bit of a pain lol) but it was completely worth it. Everything looks cool, although I need to sort out the fact that the troops are all clones except for a few different hairstyles. Blonde hairstyles at that. Weird, as it didn't happen the first time I tested. Luckily, it's just a case of copy/pasting some face codes.

Changed the faction name to Realm of Gondor and the colour to white. Also changed the names of towns and villages to places in Gondor. It's not 100% accurate to the official area though, as I'm not altering placement of towns and villages. Wouldn't know where to start and there isn't much of a need, to be honest. It's just a bit of fun.

The map change:

隐藏

Instead of recruiting Dúnedain Rangers, I decided on having Citadel Knights as the mercenary unit you can hire from the main town. It worked out better this way, as I already have Rangers of Ithilien on the troop tree and they were practically the same troop anyway (something I only noticed afterwards). Plus it tidied-up the tree a little.

Citadel Knight recruiter, Eradur:

隐藏

Just playing a little and testing what I've done so far, hopefully it all runs smoothly. Will post up some screenshots of the troops soon. Not worth showing stats, really. They're not much different from the rest, aside from I work in equal numbers (screwed-up by the game assigning random extra points, mind you!).

 

[kevinflemming]

Eventually finished the whole troop tree! I'll post some close-ups, if anybody is interested but in the meantime here are them all standing together. Always a pain to take screenshots of your troops while in "Take a walk" as they never stand in a line perfectly, always off to the bloody side.

隐藏

 

[kevinflemming]

Here are some screenshots of the troops I've made. Couldn't get the buggers to line-up in order or face in one direction most of the time. Seems to be a common theme using "Take a walk" cheat. They often spin around too. Managed to get some half-decent shots of them though.

Gondor Swordsmen. From left to right: Recruit, Footman, Swordsman, Master Swordsman, Tower Guard, Veteran Swordsman.

隐藏

Gondor Spearmen. Fountain Guard, Veteran Spearman, Spearman, Master Spearman.

隐藏

Gondor Archers. Archer, Veteran Archer, Master Archer, Scout, Bowman.

隐藏

Gondor Rangers. Ranger of Ithilien, Ranger, Veteran Ranger, Master Ranger.

隐藏

Gondor Knights. Knight, Master Knight, Veteran Squire, Squire, Veteran Knight.

隐藏

I've also changed the companions into LotR-related characters but they're not too good. I just picked the basic look and didn't play with the settings too much, as you can't manipulate some of the faces too much. But you can see who they are meant to be anyhow. Pictures to follow.

 

[Racsoix]

Wow! These look incredible!

 

[kevinflemming]

Wow! These look incredible!

Thanks very much.

Testing the companions now and all seems to work fine. Aside from I picked helmets for Eowyn, Hadhod and Gimli that didn't fit properly so their heads were all weird-looking. Eowyn now looks cool with a Rohan-style helm and swapped the dwarf helmets for Soldier's Enchantments instead. There aren't any that look similar enough to the originals, but hey it'll do. I'll take some shots after I find one final companion (always one you can't get on the first day, even Ctrl-clicking) and after I've had some food.

 

[kevinflemming]

Still can't find Legolas or Arwen, the sneaky Elves.

But here are some shots of the others. They're all one after the other, so quite a few pictures will load up. Couldn't be arsed to spoiler them separately. If you don't recognize any names, that's because I added some characters from the game The Third Age.

隐藏

Went for "Dunedain Ranger" Aragorn, so that I had another archer. Most are melee.

 

[Modder223]

Great job! 

 

[kevinflemming]

Great job! 

Thanks a lot, much appreciated.

Found Legolas and Arwen (originally, the Elvarie Queen was called Arwen but I changed it to Silivethiel as a bit of a tribute to my favourite Perisno companion).

隐藏

Used a Human face for Arwen, as the Elvarie females aren't that attractive lol.

Edited the names of the patrols and such, to reflect the Gondorian troops. Ranger Scouting Party, etc.

Just noticed that Berethor is missing too. Damn it, another one to find lol.

EDIT: Changed Morwen's armour to look more practical, as she is a "berserker" type. Also, that overly-shiny Ankars gear just hurts my eyes.

隐藏

EDIT 2: Found Berethor, eventually.

隐藏

 

[kevinflemming]

The finished Gondor troop tree.

隐藏

Mounted troops come from the Squires (Nobles) and follow the same original route.

And just started changing the Kaikoth Federation into Mordor. While it could easily just become the dwarves, as they already are, the area is too perfect for it. Directly east from Gondor (Falcon) and even has a "Mount Doom" style mountain/volcano. Hornogoth Keep will serve nicely as Morannon (The Black Gate) too, the entrance into Mordor.

It's a shame there isn't an African/black skin colour. Something which isn't in any module I've played actually, looking back Then I could make some of the troops into lightly-armoured Orcs and not have to worry about skin showing and even make some Uruk-Hai for Isengard. Most likely change Tolrania for that. But I'll probably just cover everything with armour instead. No big deal, to be honest.

So much for playing lol.

Perhaps I should rename the thread to Building the Realm of Middle Earth.

 

[gsanders]

Phosphor has black skin for one race.
  If you need assistance changing the topic just sing out.

 

[kevinflemming]

Phosphor has black skin for one race.
  If you need assistance changing the topic just sing out.

Oh, that's good.

Thinking about it, weird how there are so few African/black races in fantasy-related things actually. Most tend to be based on white or Middle-Eastern cultures. I mean the darkest skin you get in most modules, is either Tan (210,180,140) or Peru (205,133,63), never any darker. There might be some though, as I haven't played every module ever created but the fantasy-based ones that I have, it's non-existent. Even if there aren't any factions using the skin colour, the option to have it should be there, at least.

Thank you for the offer, GS. I just went back and changed the first post. No hassle.

 

[kevinflemming]

Okay, I seem to have started editing everything. I'll play properly one day.

So, faction/group change ideas so far:

Falcon -> Gondor
Nearly done with this. Just need to alter the King and Lords, perhaps tweak some stats skills a little. It's at least 90% finished.

Kaikoth -> Mordor (This will be the next faction I alter)
Troops are going to be just Orcs. Can't add Trolls but it's not really a problem though, I'm happy with whatever. Using the Dwarf race, as Orcs are generally shorter than men. Concept of a small Orc Archer.

隐藏

Just felt like seeing what could be done with what was available. I'll try to get some slight variation in gear, without showing too much skin. But this is pretty good for a heavily-armoured Archer.

Knocked-up a quick Witch King (while waiting for my dinner to cook) as well. Increased the size of the Fell Beast to 200 and he sits on it quite nicely. There won't be loads of these, so it won't look out-of-place.

隐藏

Others will include:
Tolrania -> Isengard
Hakkon -> Rohirrim
Redwood -> Elves (Didn't see that one coming, right?)
Valihir -> Dwarves
Drahara -> Harad
Maccavia -> Eriador/Hobbits?
Reich -> Either Dale or Beorning

Also had an idea of what to do with the Zann invasion. Hopefully, I'll be turning them into a mix of Mordor, Isengard and Haradrim troops. Looking at Morgh's, there are three reinforcement groups and three Zann parties (infantry, archers and raiders), so I figured one for each. Some of the bandit groups will be turned into raiding parties of Orcs and Uruk-Hai too.

Not sure if I can change which towns and villages are assigned to a specific faction using Morgh's. There is a "Faction" drop-down menu for each place but unsure whether that would permanently assign it or not, perhaps breaking something. Can I alter this at all? Ideally, I'd like to rearrange the fiefs held a little, to compliment the layout of the new factions. It's not an issue if I can't, would just be nice is all.

 

[kevinflemming]

After a little swapping of gear and increasing the size of the (now renamed) Fell Beast to 250... the new Witch King of Angmar.

隐藏

Gave him a morningstar in place of a flail, but it still looks cool. I'll make sure nobody else uses those weapons and increase the reach, so he can actually hit things. I'll increase the Charge of the Fell Beast too, as a bit of compensation.

EDIT: Hmm, actually if I increase the weapon's reach it will be affected on-foot too as he would be able to hit troops from quite far away. Might have to shrink the Fell Beast down again. I'll do some testing first though and leave him unmounted for the time being.

Although, the Witch King was able to use magic (not portrayed so much in the films) so it might not be such a bad thing to give him a long reach. This is the Witch King we're talking about here, not some bloody pansy.

EDIT 2: Reduced the Fell Beast to 200, as it looked better. They're not actually that big, looking at them properly.

 

[kevinflemming]

Actually, I can't be bothered anymore. It's so time-consuming and I haven't really done that much. I'd rather just play instead of this back and forth with editing, loading, waiting, reloading, more waiting. I don't know how people have the patience for modding lol.

Please delete this thread.

 

[gsanders]

Actually, I can't be bothered anymore. It's so time-consuming and I haven't really done that much. I'd rather just play instead of this back and forth with editing, loading, waiting, reloading, more waiting. I don't know how people have the patience for modding lol.

Please delete this thread.

  Heh at least you dabbled, and can say you got results.  This was exactly how Mel's Perisno was created last year.
  It's easy to get burned out on modding.  Every so often you need to take a break and move on.  the thread should stay alive but be allowed to "retire" if no one finds it interesting.  It will slowly stop being on the first page but can give ideas for the future.

 

[Sleeeves]

It's been interesting to follow along.  Nothing wrong with parking it for a while and taking a break, and coming back to it (or not) when the time is right.  Good luck!