How would you design a The Lord of the Rings civilization for a AOE 2 mod? There would probably be wild balance changes and new ways to generate resources. New forms of relics to generate resources. And possible monuments around the map to capture for greater resources production. Probably things like Sacred Groves even to generate trees.
Le’t try stick same number of bonuses of AOE 2 to some degree. But I’ll come up with first civ. Feel free to make your own version in response.
Mordor. Orc fodder horde faction and monster faction.
Civ bonus Infantry, archers and skirmisher are 90% cheaper. Blacksmiths only have Padded Archer Armor, Fletching, and Forging. Farms are free, but work 50% slower. Trolls are 50% cheaper. Defeated enemies give five food per kill. Villagers are free. You get 5 food per unit of your own back if they are killed. Barracks work 50% faster. Orc infantry and orc archers only take one quarter of a population slot. So, 4 orcs will take just one slot. Can train elite easterling units from castle, but slow train time.
Unique units. Olog-hai. Super heavy troll from castle. Black Numenorean, very slow train time, 5 minutes per unit. Longbowmen/heavy swordsmen with arrows that ignore armor. Can switch to a two-handed for close combat. Increases armor of nearby orcs by 1/1.
Nazgul, heavy swordsman unit with charge screaming attack (recharge every 30 seconds.) that causes enemy units to be stunned for 5 seconds, enemy can’t attack or move when they stunned. Only 9 can be made, if killed it takes 10 minutes to recruit another one.
There was a mod created for the original game but unfortunately it was removed from everywhere due to copy rights issues.
But only using LOTR names and plot elements, without any modified graphics, hasn’t been problematic so far? Just wondering.
From what I can remember it was mainly due to using music from the movies.
The mod had brand new graphics for units and buildings.
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Hm, unique unit based on the group you want to add, then building the civilization logic arround it, with strength and weakness. Like rohirim, you want the deep helm defense capability, while having wooden palissade for the main city. You want horses, horses, horses, and horses again. So low infantry, average archery, badass cavalry, average building, low siege, low navy, strong monastery, average economy.
Team bonus, something about horses, line of sight, or training speed maybe.
Civ bonus, faster moving horses, fortified wall available earlier, something about the white flower on the monastery like discount
Unique unit, rohirim rider, with charging ability (using special ability from the monoreme line)
Also, no bombard tower not late game tower defenses, inspire from the goths, but cavalry version.
That’s how I would design civ for LoTR thematic, taking their identity, then developping arround it.
I’d combine the orcs and dwarves into one civ, add the elves, then add three star wars civs to complement those two.
I would add more stuff to expand upon the Dwarves.
Mines last 50% longer. Units revive 50 less damage from cavalry. Can unlock a 4th upgrade in the blacksmith, for additional armor. Infantry double hit points, but move slower, but have the ability to block melee attacks and ranged attacks, 1 of each every 5 seconds. Infantry have a powerful charged throwing axe attack ability, every 10 seconds, which they auto throw. Immune to Nazgul stun, since they are ferocious warriors.
Tower Shield Spearmen gain 1/1 more armor for every 5 units, with a max of 4 with 20 spearmen.
The balance would be quite tough as you’d expect some civs to rely considerably more on quantity (orcs) while others (elves) are about quality.
The game engine allows units that count for more or less than 1 pop (karambit warrior, SWGB cruiser) so it should absolutely be used, with human troops counting as one (dwarves probably too), orcs maybe 1/2 if not even less for very weak ones, elves and numenoreans (from the second age, in which they were beasts) easily 2 each, large monsters like trolls and mumakils even more…
This would also mean most units are regional/unique units. If you don’t have that many civs and they are very different, why even try having a one-size-fits-all ? Take a human faction (Rohan or Gondor) as a vanilla reference point then adjust other civs around them.
Flying units (eagles, nazguls) ? It can be done (SWGB)
Spells ? Units that cause fear ? T3K adds more options to the engine.
The key is using all tools in the engine, and taking existing LOTR games (BFME, Third Age TW…) as reference to get good ideas.
For anyone who is interested.
