RJ Rotwk Mod

4/1 - Another major update to the mod!

What is in this release? 1) Two new maps have been added to the campaign - The Sieges of Isengard and Helm's Deep. Almost all of the Rohan portion of the campaign is now complete. 2) All of the new heroes for the good campaign are found in the mod. To play some of them, select Minas Tirith in either Skirmish or Mutliplayer. For this map I have added more hereos to the Men, Elves, & Dwarves. 3) Rohan has been added enabled in Skirmish and Multiplayer. They are not a fully complete faction in terms of AI and WotR. The next release will be to ensure their AI is working properly as well as allow them to play in WotR fully. 4) A brand new gameplay style has been introduced. You will be able to find "BFME1 RJ - Fords of Isen" in the Skirmish/Multiplayer maps. See below for more details. 5) Some changes to previous maps as well as bug fixes. Iron Hills should not be so terribly overwhelming.

There was probably other smaller items, but these are the major.

Now for the new gameplay style - think BFME1 combined with BFME2.

This new gameplay style came about as part of the conversion of the BFME1 campaign maps. For some of those maps I wanted to be able to have the castles and camps of the original BFME1 maps, so I set about ensuring all of the castle base files were intact. While the files were there, they did not function as well as I'd like and I wanted to create new bases for pretty much everyone except for Gondor (MotW) and Rohan.

As I was putting some of the bases together, I really had a desire to make some single-player and multi-player skirmish maps with the new bases as well as the campaign maps that they were originally intended for. I wanted to also add my own twist to the maps, so instead of building the bases with the building plots, the bases are now more of a shell. You still have your porters, but you can build anywhere inside of the base. This also forced a re-write of the AI bases (70+ just for the castles and the AI), which is also complete with the first release.

So, to get the basics of how to play these maps:

1) You will start the map with the base for the faction that you selected. Each faction has their own base, and they all can be AI controlled. 2) In this base, there are two building ranges. ----The outer range spreads a little outside of the base, allowing for a ring of money producing buildings as well as the Ent Moots for now. ----The inner range is about the size of your camp. Most of the buildings can only be built within the walls/fences of your base. 3) VERY IMPORTANT!! The map currently is based on the idea that if you lose your fortress, you lose the game. For this reason, all of the fortresses have an armor improvement only for these maps. 4) That is the basic idea at this moment. Just build your base and attack.

As I work through any of the bugs and decide how I'm going to handle command points, outposts, starting units, etc. I'll update this guide. (I'm liking the idea of outlying buildings that you must capture to gain bonuses. I like having fixed areas of contention on the map).

As for the maps. The Fords of Isen is currently available (with ring heroes). Among the maps I plan on including: Anorien Dunharrow Mouth of the Entwash The Brown Lands

If there are any maps you want to see converted, head on over to the forums and let me know. Or if you would like to design a map for me to include, let me know in the forums.

So head on over to the bases page to view each factions base. These will be updated/improved over time as I fine tune them or in Arnor's case, create their own unique base.

Also, I already hear people asking what will be in the next update. For the next update I am going to focus on a couple of items. First, there has been so much content released with each version, I'm going to do a VERY thorough check to esure that all the heroes have appropriate AI, all units have the correct textures, all hordes have the correct banner carrier, etc. After this, I will be completing Rohan as a fully fledged faction - meaning I will be finishing their Power tree, adding the AI bases, ensuring the AI works properly on everything, etc. Next, I will be creating the evil heroes. I've done all of the good so far, and I would like to have all of the evil heroes created. Lastly, if this does not run too late, I will work on the next set of maps. So that is all for now, but I'd thought I'd give a heads up.

As always, thank you for playing.

I will have a website up shortly. Look for this in a few days.