The War of the Ring (custom campaign)

I´m proud to present my first custom campain for AOE:DE, The War of the Ring

The campaign consists of nine scenarios set in J.R.R Tolkien´s Middle-earth. In these scenarios, we follow the life and career of Aefundil, a captain of Gondor, throughout the war of the ring. The aim of the campaign is to tell a compelling story within Tolkien´s epic from the viewpoint of a minor (fictional) character. The story of Aefundil will take you from the lush forests of Ithilien and the harsh deserts of Haradwaith to the beautiful coasts of Lebennin and the splendour of Minas Tirith.

The scenarios are of differing levels of difficulty. Some may focus on narrative and exploration and can be completed on a first try, whilst others will be extremely challanging and require trial and error to complete. None the less, if you feel that one particular scenario is too hard to beat, or simply laughably easy, feel free to tell me so - and i might take a second look.

I welcome all critique of this campaign, and will continue to do so in all future scenarios and campaigns - as long as it is constructive. So don´t hesitate to point something out that might need fixing or rebalancing. I would love to hear what you think regardless if it´s positive or negative.

Enjoy!

//VainWarlord

THE FORUMS WONT LET ME POST DISCUSSION WITH A LINK. THE LINK IS IN MY SIGNATURE!!!

As far as I understood how this forum works, posts with links need to be accepted by moderators, they’ll appear after, this can require several days… I made a topic about these problems some months ago : https://forums.ageofempires.com/discussion/2337/about-the-forum-and-comments-in-news-bugs

@Danicela said:
As far as I understood how this forum works, posts with links need to be accepted by moderators, they’ll appear after, this can require several days… I made a topic about these problems some months ago : https://forums.ageofempires.com/discussion/2337/about-the-forum-and-comments-in-news-bugs

Yeah, I figured that was the case. It´s infuriating.
Feels like an archaic system of forum moderation to me.

Love the maps btws…especially the idea of using the same area for multiple scenarios which gives a feeling of accomplishing something

Hi. Do you have the direction or link to download the campaign?, I’d like to play your campaign. Thank you.

The link is at the bottom of each of his posts. I do want to ask him though, did you make/use any unique ai or per files in your campaigns? If so how did you get them into/out of the stupid locked folder

@Potdindy said:
Love the maps btws…especially the idea of using the same area for multiple scenarios which gives a feeling of accomplishing something

Thanks a lot! Was really trying to create that sence of progression, especially throughout those three scenarios. Any thoughts about the other scenarios - any weak points? :slight_smile:

@Potdindy said:
I do want to ask him though, did you make/use any unique ai or per files in your campaigns? If so how did you get them into/out of the stupid locked folder

No. I don´t think there´s a way to access those files yet, and if there is - I haven´t figured it out yet. Would love to access the folders in order to place my own bitmaps into the campaign.
The AI is unfortinatly not unique. Just the typical build order stuff like “IMMORTAL HITTITE” and personality stuff like “AGGRESSIVE NO DEFENCE”

@jogarmel said:
Hi. Do you have the direction or link to download the campaign?, I’d like to play your campaign. Thank you.

The system for posting links on the forum is broken at the moment. There´s a link in my signature though. You should also be able to find it in the Mods/Scenario section of the website.

Nice to see some new campaign content coming out. Will have to check this out when I get the time!

@VainWarlord said:

@Potdindy said:
Love the maps btws…especially the idea of using the same area for multiple scenarios which gives a feeling of accomplishing something

Thanks a lot! Was really trying to create that sence of progression, especially throughout those three scenarios. Any thoughts about the other scenarios - any weak points? :slight_smile:

@Potdindy said:
I do want to ask him though, did you make/use any unique ai or per files in your campaigns? If so how did you get them into/out of the stupid locked folder

No. I don´t think there´s a way to access those files yet, and if there is - I haven´t figured it out yet. Would love to access the folders in order to place my own bitmaps into the campaign.
The AI is unfortinatly not unique. Just the typical build order stuff like “IMMORTAL HITTITE” and personality stuff like “AGGRESSIVE NO DEFENCE”

Bro, you don’t even know it, but you solved the problem. The folder where you install the campaign also has AI and Per folders…just place your custom file in the correct folder and…value. Already put an edited one from AOE and it works. One thing I used to do, was to make an AI file that had, say 50 swordsman, in one line, and thats it. Then in a scenario, I’d place several barracks, give them food and gold, and you have a sword spawning machine. That would work well with Mordor so you dont have villagers farming lol. Same for Rohan in the great battle of our time

@VainWarlord I already played your campaign a bit! I hope I can continue soon and really liking it so far :slight_smile: Also your 401 AD multiplayer scenario is great. The map design is really gorgeous! But you made it with the old editor and edited a bit in the new one, if I’m correct :smiley: Many things from the old editor sadly don’t work in the new one anymore, but we have therefore other possibilities!
And as @Potdindy mentioned, you can add own AI and PER files. The easiest access is in the main menu. If you click on options, you can “open game folder”. There you open game content/AI Data :smile:

@OverUSedChewToy said:
Nice to see some new campaign content coming out. Will have to check this out when I get the time!

Thanks man, would love to hear what you think when you have given it a go!

@Potdindy said:
Bro, you don’t even know it, but you solved the problem. The folder where you install the campaign also has AI and Per folders…just place your custom file in the correct folder and…value. Already put an edited one from AOE and it works. One thing I used to do, was to make an AI file that had, say 50 swordsman, in one line, and thats it. Then in a scenario, I’d place several barracks, give them food and gold, and you have a sword spawning machine. That would work well with Mordor so you dont have villagers farming lol. Same for Rohan in the great battle of our time

Really??!!

That´s awesome news! Didn´t know it was that simple - will have to look into it.
Might actually go back and make some revisions to the campaign, or if not - I´ll definitly fiddle around with it in coming campaigns and scenarios. :slight_smile: thanks for the help mate.

@“Decius Flavius” said:
@VainWarlord I already played your campaign a bit! I hope I can continue soon and really liking it so far :slight_smile: Also your 401 AD multiplayer scenario is great. The map design is really gorgeous! But you made it with the old editor and edited a bit in the new one, if I’m correct :smiley: Many things from the old editor sadly don’t work in the new one anymore, but we have therefore other possibilities!
And as @Potdindy mentioned, you can add own AI and PER files. The easiest access is in the main menu. If you click on options, you can “open game folder”. There you open game content/AI Data :smile:

Thanks a lot! You´re the one that made the seleucid campaign, right? Have played a bit of that one and really liked it so far! keep up the good work!
Thank you, yeah - the eyecandy on 401 took some time, but i think it payed off in the end :slight_smile: It´s actually not made in the old editor. If you´re referring to stuff like grass patch and rocks being placed off grid, you can unlock that using ctrl+g, and enable placement off grid using ctrl+s.
Did you have a chance to try out the 401 scenario in multiplayer? If so, I´d love to hear what you think of it gameplay-wise.

Exactly, the seleucid campaign is from me :smiley: Glad to hear, that you like it, thank you very much! :slight_smile: But I still have a lot of work to do for it and not that much time, but I’m making progress^^

Ah okay, didn’t know that (off grid placement). Thank you a lot! This information is awesome :slight_smile: * rub hands *
But more interesting and great is, that your map (401 AD) works fine, although you used the biggest map size and that much objects for the eye candy in the Definitive Edition. Because in the original game, I had always crashes to the desktop in such scenarios. So I had to stick to smaller map sizes or to use much less objects (less eye candy). Or did you have not such issues in the original game?

Sadly not :frowning: But I would really like to play your scenario in multiplayer! I really like the style of your scenario. I like to play RM in multiplayer, but interesting and beautiful designed scenarios are even cooler (also Coop scenarios) :smiley:

@“Decius Flavius” said:
Exactly, the seleucid campaign is from me :smiley: Glad to hear, that you like it, thank you very much! :slight_smile: But I still have a lot of work to do for it and not that much time, but I’m making progress^^

Ah okay, didn’t know that (off grid placement). Thank you a lot! This information is awesome :slight_smile: * rub hands *
But more interesting and great is, that your map (401 AD) works fine, although you used the biggest map size and that much objects for the eye candy in the Definitive Edition. Because in the original game, I had always crashes to the desktop in such scenarios. So I had to stick to smaller map sizes or to use much less objects (less eye candy). Or did you have not such issues in the original game?

Sadly not :frowning: But I would really like to play your scenario in multiplayer! I really like the style of your scenario. I like to play RM in multiplayer, but interesting and beautiful designed scenarios are even cooler (also Coop scenarios) :smiley:

It´s shaping up to be really good!
Yep, placing stuff off grid really elevates what you´re able to do desing-wise.
Hmm, no - Whilst I know that it´s not the case for many, I´m actually able to run both the original and the Definitive edition fine, even when there are lot of units or objects cluttering up the screen.
Yeah - we definetly need a better system for map sharing though. You can´t post links in the multiplayer chat, and the scenario is not automaticly downloaded when you enter the lobby.

Neat, will give it a try.

@“Chief Jericho” said:
Neat, will give it a try.

Thanks! Let me know what you think when you´re done! :slight_smile:

forums won’t let you post link but you can put in signature? That’s stupid. Anyway thanks, I love LOTR

oh wait I tried the link and it doesn’t work… how can I get it???

@LiviuMarin said:
oh wait I tried the link and it doesn’t work… how can I get it???

Does the link take you to the scenario page?
If so you should be able to download the campaign.
Unzip the campaign file and place it in your game directory (in the folder game content, campaign)