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Hi,
This project is a mod for Civ3 based on Tolkien's Middle Earth. It will be released in several stages. Currently it is still in the planning stages, though mapping should begin sometime in the following week. Version 1.0 will be just the map. Version 2.0 will include rule changes such as technologies, units, buildings, and races, along with some new animations. Any ideas or constructive criticism are always welcome.
There are two of us working on the mod: John (me); and Chris. We plan on having a website and email address setup for the mod sometime in the near future, and it's URL will be posted here. The ideas we've got here might not necessarily make it into the final version, but this is what we're thinking so far. It's also possible we are over estimating or misinterpretting what Civ3 can do. If so, please let us know. This document is as much a wish list as it is a design plan.
The mod is called "The History of Middle Earth." This name may change though, before we release it.
The map itself will be pretty big. We've got a Middle Earth map with the proper Civ3 grid overlayed on it. As I said, the mapping should begin over the next week. The map will be approximately 200 by 250. The reason for making it so big is mostly so that the land can be as detailed as possible. This may make travel a little slow initially, but we feel a beautiful map makes all the difference. It's designed for 16 races.
Pollution, corruption, and strategic resources would be reworked to a more Middle Earth style.
The four eras of civilization will be replaced by the four ages of Middle Earth. This is where the 'history' comes into play. Instead of technologies, the four ages will contain moments in their history, such as the forging of the Rings of Power, Smeagol finding his Precious, Sauron's return from Dol Guldur, etc. Units, buildings, and further moments in history are unlocked by researching certain earlier moments in history. For example, one cannot research "The One Ring" until "Three Rings for Elven Kings," "Seven for the Dwarf Lord," and "Nine for Mortal Men" have been researched. Once the elves research "Three Rings for Elven Kings," they are able to produce the elven rings unit. As with civilization, the power of the units made available will increase with each historical advance.
The civilizations will be the different civilizations of Middle Earth. Shire, Isengard, Mordor, High Elves, Wood Elves, Dwarves, Ents, Gondor, and Rohan to name a few. There will be 16 races, each with their own unique units, unit animations, leaders, and cities.
Each civilization will probably start with a leader. For example, Isengard would start with Saruman, Mordor with Sauron, etc. These leaders would have some advanced military abilities, and many of them will have army properties. The remaining heroes of each race would be major figures in it's history. Ideally, they would die when they lose a battle, instead of being captured like I beleive heroes are now. It would be odd to see Balin fighting for the Easterlings.
Mordor's heroes would be The Mouth of Sauron, and each of the Nazgul. The Nazgul would not have the army ability. They would be faster and stronger than most military units though. Following "The Flight to the Ford," they may be upgradable to flying Nazgul, though they would probably still technically be land units because of how things work for air units in Civ3.
We've come up with several Wonders and Small Wonders. So far we plan on using the names of major towers, The White City (resembling a city wall?), Mount Doom, and the Mirror of Galadriel as Wonders. And the Seeing Stones are an example of a small wonder.
The Rings of Power will exist, as units. This is how we are thinking of using them. Once an elven race researches "Three Rings..." (or the dwarvish race their equivalent) they would be able to produce a unit called Elvish Ring-keeper. (or something to that effect) The rings of power will be extremely slow to build. They would be capturable units. They would also be army units. (i have yet to try a unit in game with both properties) Ideally, having a ring of power would give that race certain benefits. However, we have yet to discover any way to have a unit give it's controlling civilization any overall benefits (less corruption, faster growing, benefits of that nature that buildings can give) and so this will probably not be the case. It's a possibility that there could be a Wonder associated with the rings which would give these overall benefits to the races, but we'd prefer to find a way for the units to do it. The rings will have excessively long build time, in order to keep their numbers down. We will probably try to find a way to end production of rings after a certain point. Making a unit obsolete would allow this would it not?
Ents are the one peculiar race we've discussed already. As they are quite strong, their stats will look like 7.1.1, 5.1.1, 1.4.1, etc. They would each have either a high offence or defence, and very little speed. We don't need any hasty ents! Most likely, their army unit would have a higher speed, so that when the ents decide that war is neccessary, they can rush off to battle a little quicker. If this were to prove unbalancing, we would probably change it. Ent unit improvement would be through upgrading, not building stronger units. The basic ent offensive or defensive unit can be built, but then has to be upgraded to an "older" and more powerful ent. It's also possible that all ent units built would reduce city size by 1. Again, this is only an idea. It may prove unrealistic or unbalanced to do it this way.
There is one thing that we really want to do, but are not sure if it's possible. We would like to make mountain unpassable except for certain units. (dwarves, and mountaineers could make a mountain pass for others to travel by) The reason for this is that we see great potential in the mountains of Middle Earth from the point of view of military strategy, Mordor especially. In Mordor, the land is small, but the ways in are few, allowing someone controlling this land to build up an army of sufficient size without the threat of attack. Moutain passes could be built by some, if we can single out units to be able to walk across mountains. Or we could simply build a road/rail across a mountain and call it either a mountain pass or a mine such as Moria. If anyone knows any way we can accomplish this (even if it's just making mountains unpassable and leaving it at that) please let us know!
It would also be nice to have civilizations start in their propper location, but I don't beleive there is any way to control who starts at which starting point.
Well, that's what we've got for now. Any comments are appreciated. We'll check the message board on a fairly regular basis.
And if anyone posts an idea that we use, we'll of course give you credit in the readme.
Thanks,
John & Chris
This project is a mod for Civ3 based on Tolkien's Middle Earth. It will be released in several stages. Currently it is still in the planning stages, though mapping should begin sometime in the following week. Version 1.0 will be just the map. Version 2.0 will include rule changes such as technologies, units, buildings, and races, along with some new animations. Any ideas or constructive criticism are always welcome.
There are two of us working on the mod: John (me); and Chris. We plan on having a website and email address setup for the mod sometime in the near future, and it's URL will be posted here. The ideas we've got here might not necessarily make it into the final version, but this is what we're thinking so far. It's also possible we are over estimating or misinterpretting what Civ3 can do. If so, please let us know. This document is as much a wish list as it is a design plan.
The mod is called "The History of Middle Earth." This name may change though, before we release it.
The map itself will be pretty big. We've got a Middle Earth map with the proper Civ3 grid overlayed on it. As I said, the mapping should begin over the next week. The map will be approximately 200 by 250. The reason for making it so big is mostly so that the land can be as detailed as possible. This may make travel a little slow initially, but we feel a beautiful map makes all the difference. It's designed for 16 races.
Pollution, corruption, and strategic resources would be reworked to a more Middle Earth style.
The four eras of civilization will be replaced by the four ages of Middle Earth. This is where the 'history' comes into play. Instead of technologies, the four ages will contain moments in their history, such as the forging of the Rings of Power, Smeagol finding his Precious, Sauron's return from Dol Guldur, etc. Units, buildings, and further moments in history are unlocked by researching certain earlier moments in history. For example, one cannot research "The One Ring" until "Three Rings for Elven Kings," "Seven for the Dwarf Lord," and "Nine for Mortal Men" have been researched. Once the elves research "Three Rings for Elven Kings," they are able to produce the elven rings unit. As with civilization, the power of the units made available will increase with each historical advance.
The civilizations will be the different civilizations of Middle Earth. Shire, Isengard, Mordor, High Elves, Wood Elves, Dwarves, Ents, Gondor, and Rohan to name a few. There will be 16 races, each with their own unique units, unit animations, leaders, and cities.
Each civilization will probably start with a leader. For example, Isengard would start with Saruman, Mordor with Sauron, etc. These leaders would have some advanced military abilities, and many of them will have army properties. The remaining heroes of each race would be major figures in it's history. Ideally, they would die when they lose a battle, instead of being captured like I beleive heroes are now. It would be odd to see Balin fighting for the Easterlings.
Mordor's heroes would be The Mouth of Sauron, and each of the Nazgul. The Nazgul would not have the army ability. They would be faster and stronger than most military units though. Following "The Flight to the Ford," they may be upgradable to flying Nazgul, though they would probably still technically be land units because of how things work for air units in Civ3.
We've come up with several Wonders and Small Wonders. So far we plan on using the names of major towers, The White City (resembling a city wall?), Mount Doom, and the Mirror of Galadriel as Wonders. And the Seeing Stones are an example of a small wonder.
The Rings of Power will exist, as units. This is how we are thinking of using them. Once an elven race researches "Three Rings..." (or the dwarvish race their equivalent) they would be able to produce a unit called Elvish Ring-keeper. (or something to that effect) The rings of power will be extremely slow to build. They would be capturable units. They would also be army units. (i have yet to try a unit in game with both properties) Ideally, having a ring of power would give that race certain benefits. However, we have yet to discover any way to have a unit give it's controlling civilization any overall benefits (less corruption, faster growing, benefits of that nature that buildings can give) and so this will probably not be the case. It's a possibility that there could be a Wonder associated with the rings which would give these overall benefits to the races, but we'd prefer to find a way for the units to do it. The rings will have excessively long build time, in order to keep their numbers down. We will probably try to find a way to end production of rings after a certain point. Making a unit obsolete would allow this would it not?
Ents are the one peculiar race we've discussed already. As they are quite strong, their stats will look like 7.1.1, 5.1.1, 1.4.1, etc. They would each have either a high offence or defence, and very little speed. We don't need any hasty ents! Most likely, their army unit would have a higher speed, so that when the ents decide that war is neccessary, they can rush off to battle a little quicker. If this were to prove unbalancing, we would probably change it. Ent unit improvement would be through upgrading, not building stronger units. The basic ent offensive or defensive unit can be built, but then has to be upgraded to an "older" and more powerful ent. It's also possible that all ent units built would reduce city size by 1. Again, this is only an idea. It may prove unrealistic or unbalanced to do it this way.
There is one thing that we really want to do, but are not sure if it's possible. We would like to make mountain unpassable except for certain units. (dwarves, and mountaineers could make a mountain pass for others to travel by) The reason for this is that we see great potential in the mountains of Middle Earth from the point of view of military strategy, Mordor especially. In Mordor, the land is small, but the ways in are few, allowing someone controlling this land to build up an army of sufficient size without the threat of attack. Moutain passes could be built by some, if we can single out units to be able to walk across mountains. Or we could simply build a road/rail across a mountain and call it either a mountain pass or a mine such as Moria. If anyone knows any way we can accomplish this (even if it's just making mountains unpassable and leaving it at that) please let us know!
It would also be nice to have civilizations start in their propper location, but I don't beleive there is any way to control who starts at which starting point.
Well, that's what we've got for now. Any comments are appreciated. We'll check the message board on a fairly regular basis.
And if anyone posts an idea that we use, we'll of course give you credit in the readme.
Thanks,
John & Chris
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