TLD (The Last Days, LOTR mod) for M&B 1.011 Info

[Boiled Ice]

When I rescue Rivendell faction prisoners I can't recruit them into my party.  Instead, the come up as MY prisoners.  The best I can do is sell them back to Rivendell for some respect.

I'm playing as a Dwarf.

May be linked to the same reason why when talking to an elven host, you don't go into conversation, but the pre battle page.

 

[Thor Head]

Installing went fine.  No crashes and everything runs smooth.  About the only odd thing I have noticed so far is this: When I first entered the chieftains' tent in Northern Rhun Encampment, most of them were wearing the amazingly cool Frank Frazetta style Death Dealer horned helmet, but now they are all bareheaded!  I didn't get any missing texture prompts about this.  Not sure what happened.

I just love this mod!  It feels much more 'real' than the last version.  Getting started is much harder.  I have to scrabble and scrimp just to get decent weapons and armor.  I still need a half decent horse.  I kind of miss the money but this is more challenging.  I wish we could initiate sieges, not t hat I am anywhere near being able to.

Playing as a Dunedain I had a skirmish with orcs in Fangorn that just looked incredible with that greenish mist effect and all the foliage.  Next time I will take a screenshot.  This mod looks better than most professionally released games I have played. 

In this version, the orcs are so repulsive, I can't bear to have any in my party, even as a man of Rhun.  In .808 all my trusted companions as a Dunlending were orcs.  I haven't checked yet, but I hope you still have the warg-mounted tournaments in Isengard and one of the Mordor cities.  They had a really exciting Sword & Sorcery feel to them.

I can't wait for the patches!  Seriously, you guys should go into business.

Oh... One more thing.  The pointer is beautiful but it is so large it sometimes obscures the speed rating of parties when I try to check on them.  This has proven quite costly on several occasions. 

 

[HTAPAWASO]

I'm just wishing the Lords would actually do something. I am kinda hamstrung seeing that I can't siege towns and I have to depend on the AI to attack. The only 3 Strongholds that remain is the Rhun camp, Gundabad, and Dol Guldur. And the realms in the south are being raped by Isengard and Mordor and remain unmatched.

I'm having the same problem with Gondor.

I can singlehandedly hold off all enemies, but my allied lords just don't do anything. Prince Imrahil occasionally sets out for war and asks me to join him, but always cancels the quest within a few minutes and goes back home.


Also, in terms of balance, it seems to me that you get too many rank points for helping allies.
I can slaughter an army 5 times my size and only get a couple of points... but then I save a group of scouts from another group of scouts in a battle they probably would have won anyway and I get 40 points!
I can see the logic behind it - that you are more respected if people actually see you fight, and you're helping your faction - but the numbers seem too exaggerated.

 

[Baguette Eater]

So there was me, Faniul, Cirdil, a veteran Ithiliten Ranger, 7 Swan knights, 5 veteran Dol Amroth knights, 1 Dol Amroth knight and a Gondor veteran knight, we charged 365 orcs (my bad), killed and k/o'd 193 of them.

1/2 damage to me, 3/4 to my army, is this normal?

 

[Banok]

@above

orks are really bad yeah, especially once you get armour. only the wargs are a threat. if you want a challenge play as orks or at least put your difficulty on harder!

I'm just wishing the Lords would actually do something. I am kinda hamstrung seeing that I can't siege towns and I have to depend on the AI to attack. The only 3 Strongholds that remain is the Rhun camp, Gundabad, and Dol Guldur. And the realms in the south are being raped by Isengard and Mordor and remain unmatched.

I'm having the same problem with Gondor.

I can singlehandedly hold off all enemies, but my allied lords just don't do anything. Prince Imrahil occasionally sets out for war and asks me to join him, but always cancels the quest within a few minutes and goes back home.

Yeah this is the point I've got to. its a shame game was 100% fun (apart from all the travelling) up until then, now it is just waiting for AI allies to stop "considering next objective".

 

[Baguette Eater]

@above

orks are really bad yeah, especially once you get armour. only the wargs are a threat. if you want a challenge play as orks or at least put your difficulty on harder!

Not looking for a challenge, just some fun, and butchering orc is fun.

 

[ferryman]

@above

I'm just wishing the Lords would actually do something. I am kinda hamstrung seeing that I can't siege towns and I have to depend on the AI to attack. The only 3 Strongholds that remain is the Rhun camp, Gundabad, and Dol Guldur. And the realms in the south are being raped by Isengard and Mordor and remain unmatched.

I'm having the same problem with Gondor.

I can singlehandedly hold off all enemies, but my allied lords just don't do anything. Prince Imrahil occasionally sets out for war and asks me to join him, but always cancels the quest within a few minutes and goes back home.

Yeah this is the point I've got to. its a shame game was 100% fun (apart from all the travelling) up until then, now it is just waiting for AI allies to stop "considering next objective".

I have a similar problem. My Lords are besieging some Rhun camp, and I was camping by, waiting for the siege to begin, however the camp spawns scout party once in a while which results in them breaking the siege and attacking it. I spent two weeks there until my food ran out.

 

[Alerione]

On a positive note, the scout chasing problem doesn't concern the dwarves, too slow so scout parties escape easily. 
Well, what are the actual reqs. for main camps of a faction to be siege-able? Since it seems to have no connection to the spawned camps being burnt down.
Btw, what is the Oath of Vengeance quest goal? (The one you swear on a mound of a dead allied leader) Since it doesn't appear in the quest log(WAD?) I seem to have failed it and become a ... Oathbreaker! (My first trait none the less ^^')

Anyway, the mod is lovely overaly, and except the expected crash-on-battle-start from time to time I had no serious bugs.

 

[Merlkir]

Loving the mod so far! Just one quick question. Is there a way to disable the swaying trees and plants? It looks great and everything but when ever I am fighting in a heavily forested area I tend to lag allot

The vertex shader itself isn't very performance heavy, it's the quantity of trees themselves that are causing a slowdown.

Btw, what is the Oath of Vengeance quest goal? (The one you swear on a mound of a dead allied leader) Since it doesn't appear in the quest log(WAD?) I seem to have failed it and become a ... Oathbreaker! (My first trait none the less ^^')

To address the Oath quest - it does work. It doesn't show up in the quest list, true. But it's active. You are to defeat as many enemy parties of the faction that killed the hero as possible. Depending on your performance you get either Oathbreaker, or Oathkeeper.
(and I tested this specifically, it is possible to get Oathkeeper by killing even smaller parties.)

 

[Mandible]

Now I see where my tunnel props got used. Some day, I'll have to return to Moria and try to actually find my way through those caverns. I have already spent far too much time stumbling in the dark. What a labyrinth!

 

[YourStepDad]

I was surprised at how bug free this mod is until I gathered a larger army. the game crashes sometime during the battle, it's random, sometimes almost instantly, sometimes it takes a minute or two. I should say that was in a thick mirkwood forest, though I don' think that matters much.

i tried many things, sometimes when i escape the battle by leaving soldiers to sacrifice themselves, and then proceed to load the game, it crashes. not always though.

i tried decreasing the video settings but they didn't really help.

oh, and the cutscenes crash, even when i instantly press tab, had to disable them.

Anyway, loving every(non-problematic) second of this mod, can we expect a patch anytime soon? Thanks

 

[Merlkir]

Something that caught my attention - other than battles, what would you like to do later in the game? What is TLD missing compared to those "Warband mods" mentioned?

(and please, if it's anything like building villages, collecting taxes and running your own kingdom, I'm sorry. We won't ever add that.)

 

[Merlkir]

Spoiler

I was surprised at how bug free this mod is until I gathered a larger army. the game crashes sometime during the battle, it's random, sometimes almost instantly, sometimes it takes a minute or two. I should say that was in a thick mirkwood forest, though I don' think that matters much.

i tried many things, sometimes when i escape the battle by leaving soldiers to sacrifice themselves, and then proceed to load the game, it crashes. not always though.

i tried decreasing the video settings but they didn't really help.

oh, and the cutscenes crash, even when i instantly press tab, had to disable them.

Anyway, loving every(non-problematic) second of this mod, can we expect a patch anytime soon? Thanks

no bugs there, just performance issues of MnB. All we can do is add more LODs and optimize a bit, but we've already done a lot of that.
Try the usual routine we suggest to everyone having crashes - read the Optimization part of the Manual, install Enhanced version, lower various options and observe if that helps. And eventually - the unfortunate one - get a better computer.

 

[GetAssista]

Well, whatever I would write, will be panned, but as before, I need to write this
It's obvious that gameplay in M&B boils down to fighting but such an approach is a bit "bringing down" in the era of WB mods, that have other things than fighting.
This just doesn't make this mod the best on whole scene, but one of the very best on M&B.

I don't see any reason to pan things expressed in a polite and reasonable manner. Contrary to assholery that happened before.

We have tons of non-fighting related ideas (including a dozen of quests) that did not make it into first beta release, stay tuned. Still, first task for us is to balance combat and fix critical bugs, so that TLD has good and fun fighting and smooth transition between fightings. Gameplay, especially strategic one, needs a lot of balancing a bit later down the line, with all the AI issues included. This is the task that can't be done internally, dev team (that lately had 4 active members) has too little time on hands to play the game extensively.
Compared to other WB mods: what will never make it into TLD is kingdom management or industry or extended diplomacy/aristocracy. No place for that in MiddleEarth. I did not see any other significant additions to gameplay, that other big mods offered.

Well, what are the actual reqs. for main camps of a faction to be siege-able? Since it seems to have no connection to the spawned camps being burnt down.

You need to beat the enemy faction to a sufficiently weak state. Then good AI will agree that it's time to finish the buggers and send siege.

Yeah this is the point I've got to. its a shame game was 100% fun (apart from all the travelling) up until then, now it is just waiting for AI allies to stop "considering next objective".

Continue beatings "until morale improves" and enemy faction breaks In old TLD you were the main beater in late game. We will certainly look into strategic AI issues more, but later.

When I rescue Rivendell faction prisoners I can't recruit them into my party.  Instead, the come up as MY prisoners. ...
May be linked to the same reason why when talking to an elven host, you don't go into conversation, but the pre battle page.

Yup, it certainly is. Fixed in next patch

 

[Friedrich_von_Reichshaus]

Is there a way to be a regular soldier, serving in the army of the king / prince? As in mod Freelancer for Warband.

 

[Merlkir]

Oh I also made a suggestions topic on MBX:

http://mbx.streetofeyes.com/index.php/topic,2490.0.html

 

[YourStepDad]

Spoiler

I was surprised at how bug free this mod is until I gathered a larger army. the game crashes sometime during the battle, it's random, sometimes almost instantly, sometimes it takes a minute or two. I should say that was in a thick mirkwood forest, though I don' think that matters much.

i tried many things, sometimes when i escape the battle by leaving soldiers to sacrifice themselves, and then proceed to load the game, it crashes. not always though.

i tried decreasing the video settings but they didn't really help.

oh, and the cutscenes crash, even when i instantly press tab, had to disable them.

Anyway, loving every(non-problematic) second of this mod, can we expect a patch anytime soon? Thanks

no bugs there, just performance issues of MnB. All we can do is add more LODs and optimize a bit, but we've already done a lot of that.
Try the usual routine we suggest to everyone having crashes - read the Optimization part of the Manual, install Enhanced version, lower various options and observe if that helps. And eventually - the unfortunate one - get a better computer.

Will do check the optimization tips in the manual.

Still, I have the Enhanced version and have a computer that can handle M&B with no problems. C'mon, we're talking M&B here, not warband, barely 100 soldiers were on the screen. Hell, in Warband my PC can handle 400 guys with little to no lag at all.

 

[kosmik]

It might have been asked already, but are arenas or tournaments still in? (couldn't find them yesterday)

 

[Merlkir]

It might have been asked already, but are arenas or tournaments still in? (couldn't find them yesterday)

yes, look for the Training option in Barracks.

 

[HoJu]

I love this mod. Walking across Edoras to the Golden Hall was awesome.

Didn't find any bugs so far (war is not started yet) and only had some lag in big scenes or battles (have only 2gb RAM)

Best Tolkien experience ever.