SP Fantasy Kingdoms of Arda (Lord of the Rings for Bannerlord)

[John_M]

Kingdoms of Arda
is a Singleplayer & Multiplayer total conversion of Mount & Blade II Bannerlord, that brings the world of Tolkien into the game. This includes: characters, locations, weapons etc. from The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Silmarillion and other works by Tolkien and media made for his universe.​

Planned Features

​

• Middle Earth Campaign Map
• Multiplayer
• Story Mode: Play as your favourite characters in scenes from the books and films
• Many New Factions 35+
• Custom Map Icons & Custom Scenes
• Known Lords and Characters from LOTR, The Hobbit and other works of Tolkien
• New playable races: Elves, Dwarves, Dúnedain, Orcs, Hobbits, Goblins, Uruks
• New creatures: Trolls, Ents, Mumakils, Wargs and many more
• New Music and Audio
• Many New Troop Trees and Mercenaries
• New Weapons, Armours and Mounts
• LOTR related Banners
• New Companions
• New Quests

As the game is not out yet we have no way to exactly know how moddable the game will be. Therefore this list is subject to change.

The Free-Folk

1.Kingdom of Gondor
2.Kingdom of Rohan
3.Kingdom of Dale
4.Dúrin's folk
5.Lothlórien
6.Woodmen and Beornings
7.The Woodland Realm
8.Imladris
9.Dúnedain of the North
10.Breeland
11.The Shire
12.Dwarves of Ered Luin
13.Elves of Lindon

Followers of Sauron

1.Mordor
2.Isengard
3.Clans of Dunland
4.Corsairs of Umbar
5.Harad
6.Khand
7.Rhûn
8.Orcs of Gundabad
9.Orcs of the Misty Mountains
10.Dol Guldur
11.Remnants of Angmar

Neutral Forces

1.Logathavuld
2.Ehwathrumavuld
3.Dorwinion
4.Hillmen of Rhudaur
5.Remnants of Cardolan
6.Remnants of Arthedain
7.Rivermen
8.Kingdom of Saralainn
9.Clans of Enedwaith
10.Woses
11.Lossoth Clans
12.Lothlann


Red = Cities Green = Castles Blue = Villages

First Release:

Spoiler

Factions: Gondor(East), Rohan, Mordor and Isengard

Second Release (The Evil Men):

Spoiler

Factions: Gondor(West), Umbar, Harad, and Dunland

Third Release(Vales of Anduin):

Spoiler

Factions: Lothlorien, Dol Guldur, Orcs of the Misty Mountains and Beornings

Fourth Release(War in the North):

Spoiler

Factions: Gundabad, Woodland Realm, Dúrin's folk, Rhûn and Kingdom of Dale

Fifth Release(Eriador):

Spoiler

Factions: Elves of Imladris, Elves of Lindon, Dwarves of Ered Luin, Breeland, The Shire, Dúnedain of the North and Angmar

Screenshots

Spoiler

Angbor and Friends

Boromir

Theoden and Royal Guard

Black Numenorean

Lossarnach Axeman

Tower Guards

Renders
Warning: Work in Progress
Gondor

Spoiler

Ithilien Rangers

Elessar's Guard

Gondor Veterans

Blackroot Vale Marksmen

Lebennin Elites

Swan Knight

Dol Amroth Captain

Gondor Crown

Mordor

Spoiler

Great Beasts

Mordor Uruks

Olog-Hai

Mordor Orc

Dwarves

Spoiler

Erebor Armour

Erebor Weapons

Elves

Spoiler

Elves of Lothlorien

Isengard

Spoiler

Fighting Uruk-Hai:

Uruk-Hai Scouts:

The Northern Dunedain

Spoiler

Soldiers of Cardolan

Rhun

Spoiler

Rhun Infantry

Concept

Spoiler

Orcs of Morgai

Videos

Spoiler

IncompleteMaking the Royal Guard: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRLP2hVzoSl18kSgRnAPP29HI7IRwcsi4
Making of the Uruk-Hai Scouts: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRLP2hVzoSl1d7QechDGWLENPhgFS_gao
Modelling Gondor Sword:
Texturing Gondor Sword:

FAQ​

Spoiler

-How can you create a mod for a game that is not out yet?
Without access to the game we cannot. However we can certainly create plans for the mod, which we are currently doing. Factions, items, quests, locations, troops and much more can be discussed. Moreover we create 3D assets to use when the game is released. This is an extremely time consuming process and can be done without any mod tools.

-How long after Bannerlord will KoA release?
We cannot say right now. It depends on how much we want to release and how quickly we can learn the tools for Bannerlord. A early estimate for a solid build is 6+ months. Of course there will be testing and maybe even an alpha before that.

-What art direction will this mod be taking?
We will be following the Weta designs for the movies almost entirely. We will use other sources such as concept, Games Workshop and previous Lord of the Rings modifications.

-When will KoA take place in?
T.A. 3016 aprox. 2 years before the fellowship leaves Rivendell.

-Where will KoA take place?
We plan to cover a very large portion of Middle Earth. Although first only Gondor, Rohan and Mordor the map will be expanded far in all directions. Possible even reaching the Orocarni Mountains at a point.

-Will X troop have X equipment?
We will try to make every troop unique as possible. No orc will share equipment with a human and no man shall use a native armour.

-What races will there be?
Men, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Goblins, Uruks and Trolls.

-How will races differ?
Each race will have preset abilities. Dwarves will be much stronger and have more hitpoints while being slower and abominable riders. Elves will be more agile and Men will be overall average. Of course each will have special skeletons and equipment restrictions.

-Will there be banners on the field of battle?
If there are no field banners in the base game we will take it upon ourselves to add them in.

-Can I help?
Currently we are not taking on new members.

You can find more pictures and information on our page at Moddb page http://www.moddb.com/mods/a-lord-of-the-rings-mod-kingdoms-of-arda some are out dated but may give you an idea of what is to come. All new images will be posted here at Taleworlds as well as Moddb.

 

[John_M]

Reserved

 

[Cynfar]

Good luck  , hopefully you can start working on this soon

 

[KhivalrousBear]

Stalking, right, now.

 

[SixRibbons]

Looks promising, hope we don't have to wait forever

 

[Uhtred Ragnarson]

I mean... it is not even out yet. How do you know what tools or resources you will have with the damn game? 

 

[John_M]

From the way they are advertising about it we will have better tools than in Warband, or at least better supported. So everything that is in the plan is possible in Warband. We WANT to do plenty more but most of that is back seat.
You do know what Bannerlord's selling point is right? Have faith logic.

 

[kalarhan]

what tools or resources you will have

the only way to push devs for better tools is by having modders asking for them.

We WANT to do plenty more

Design looks promissing. Looking forward to play it in the future.

 

[SixRibbons]

Will all the equipment(For Gondor, Elvesetc.) be based on movies or will you have some artistic freedom and logical adjustments?

 

[John_M]

Will all the equipment(For Gondor, Elvesetc.) be based on movies or will you have some artistic freedom and logical adjustments?

It will be mostly based on what we see in the movies and on Weta designs. The artistic freedom will be for things not seen in the movies, although based to match Weta designs. We are willing to stray from the movies and take things out like goat/hog riders. But Im not entirely sure what you mean by logical adjustments, could you provide an example perhaps?

 

[SixRibbons]

I said logical but its really about my preferrence, not everyone have to agree. For example I find extensive use of plate armor kinda weird.

 

[John_M]

Fair enough. While there is still plate we try to reduce the amount used overall. For example no village recruits will be able to get it. Only elites/nobles recuited from cities can get plate armour.

 

[kraggrim]

I'm curious about your process for creating assets before release. Are you guys just kinda guestimating polycounts/formats and the like from looking at the videos? Is this stuff easy to adjust/convert later? I've only ever made things for WB so no idea about it .

And good luck!

 

[John_M]

Yeah we have no real range to base off of so we make them as low as possible while remaining detailed. We can look off other games but that's not exactly the best example for a game like Bannerlord. So looking at the content we've seen we can only guess.
A complete set of armour for us is averaging around 5-7 thousand vertices. Also our textures are 1K and 2K.
Texture sizes are of course the easiest and fastest to change, formats as well.
Cutting down on the poly count may be the most time consuming but isn't exactly difficult. You'd probably have to re UV map and touch up textures after adjustments. The most likely problem I see is that our models will not match Bannerlord skeletons. This won't be a problem for our custom races of course but for the human skeletons it's almost guaranteed that every one of our models will be off slightly. I foresee a lot of adjustments Thankfully that doesn't apply to weapons, scene assets, helmets and shields. 

And thanks

 

[Mandible]

Your models and such are all looking good. Better than I was expecting, based on the rather large number of attempted LOTR mods. I wish you the best!

I do think that your wishlist is impossibly large and you would be wise to cut things down a bit to reach something actually achievable. Unless you've got a large mod team of dedicated, skilled and fast modders at your disposal, I just don't see you realistically implementing that enormous list of factions. I would love to be proven wrong, so please do so if you can!

 

[John_M]

Thanks!
Also for the heads up. But the team is ready for Bannerlord, when the time comes. The large amount of factions is indeed daunting for any short time period. That is why we have planned to divide our mod releases into multiple regions. Our initial scope is 8 factions, to replace the Bannerlord factions one to one(Currently Gondor, Rohan, Lothlorien, Mordor, Isengard, Rhun, Dunland and Harad). We think it is much better to focus on smaller tasks than to take on the whole thing at once. Once troops, items, scenes and such are fully developed for each faction we will expand the map to encompass more factions, to ensure proper depth.

 

[ryancup123]

So excited for this mod.

 

[John_M]

So excited for this mod.

Glad to hear it!

 

[Thrandy]

I'll join you in January. The models are so good! I hope we'll make some handsome models!


I haven't been on these Forums for a veeeeery long time!

 

[John_M]

Sounds good and welcome back!