Lord of the Rings 1.00 Official Release

[hexagonian]

LINK UP HERE FOR THE CTP2 LORD OF THE RINGS MOD

The official release now contains videos for all of the Wonders, as well as a Government-specific Melee unit gameplay option. There are some small fixes to files that were not activating in the Trial Release, as well as additional graphic fixes.


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[hexagonian]

Here is the Official Readme

Requires Modswapper
Requires Activision Patch

LOTR Zipped Directory
Call to Power 2/...all LOTR folders and files

Unzip and overwrite over existing CTP2 files or unzip on desktop and copy files over existing files.

This Mod overwrites existing CTP2 files, so you will need an CTP2 installation devoted exclusively to LOTR
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History
I always wanted to do a full-blown LOTR Mod...

Back in 2003, I created a LOTR scenario, which did nor get too much fan play, but this did not detract me from expanding the ideas I had for a full Mod. I created this Mod mainly for my own enjoyment, but I am releasing it to the general public because if there is someone out there who loves Middle-Earth, then this is for them too.


What to watch for...Ingame Features
- There are many new units, buildings, wonders, tile improvements and governments, with the goal to make each Realm different from the others...so each Realm will have a different focus. You will have to play the game to unlock what those features are...and I'm not going to give specifics here.

When I revisited Cradle this past year, I immediately saw that the foundation was there to convert Cradle into a LOTR Mod. There are a lot of features that are in LOTR that are also part of Cradle. For instance, the basic tech tree of LOTR is a mirror of Cradle's tree. However, the LOTR tech tree adds many Realm-specific advances, which open the doors for unique Realm units, buildings, wonders/wonder units, feats, tile improvements and governments. There are also some in-game events that are geared towards each Realm, and the plan is to expand on some of these event in future releases.

What this does is give each Realm a unique distinction that has deeper than any other CTP2 Mod, even over Cradle III, which I felt was the pinnacle of all CTP2 Mods in this particular area of gameplay. And to top it all off, these advances are hidden because the Great Library does not give specifics for these advances. The player cannot easily map out a path to victory because he is left in the dark as to what these advances will lead to...so gaining the all-important Ringlore Knowledge Points to win is different for each Realm.

This enhances the level of discovery, the challenges and replayability, IMO...so you may need to play at an easier level.

- New intro and new wonder videos to fit the atmosphere of Middle-Earth. (Make sure to watch the intro video at least once.)

- I made an effort to follow the timeline spelled out in the Appendixes of 'Lord of the Rings.', from the middle of the Second Age, when Numenor was sunk, through the Third Age, although truthfully, this is impossible to match, because the player will choose a slightly different path path he takes each time he plays. But Realms become powerful and suffer decline, and wonders and wonder units become available to the player, based on the timeline.


Victory...
There are 2 main Victory options. Fans of Cradle will recognize the template I'm using. The information is also spelled out in the Great Library for ingame referral.

Option 1. Control the One Ring through Ringlore Knowledge
To win the game, you must have at least 2,500 Ringlore Knowledge Points, which will give you knowledge of the location of the One Ring.
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Points are gathered by:
- Researching Ring Lore and Council Lore before any other realm
- Gathering Palantir Wonders, and holding the Council of Elrond Wonder
- Creating the Realm-specific Ring Wonders for your Realm (Angmar, Mordor, Haradrim, Easterling, Dwarves, Elves)
- Constructing Courts (5 pts/5 = +1 per turn), Forges (10 pts/8 = +2 per turn), Great Halls (15 pts/10 = +3 per turn), Libraries (20 pts/15 = +4 per turn), Markets (25 pts/15 = +5 per turn), Trade Centers (30 pts/15 = +6 per turn).
- Finish the One Ring Wonder (Knowledge) before your rivals.

Once you have the Ring in your possession for 3 Turns, you (or the Ring through you...) will rule Middle Earth.

(Access Ringlore Knowledge Points by clicking on the Happiness icon at the top right of your mainmap screen.)

Option 2. Search for the One Ring
To win the game, you must have the following...
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- 10 Palaces (Each Palace requires 1 Court and 1 Castle)
- 5-25 Beacons (Each Beacon requires 1 Ballista Tower)
- Send out at least 10 Search Parties that have searched 50% of Middle-Earth. Search Parties can be created within your Realm's borders with the Search Party Tile Improvement, outside of your borders if you build a Fort to extend your borders and then build a Search Party Tile Improvement in the Fort's radius, or the Explorer unit can be disbanded anywhere outside your Realm's borders. Depending on the size of the map, you may need more than 10 Search Parties to complete the job.
- Finish the One Ring Wonder (Search) before your rivals.


Player Tips...
- The initial Realm Wonder for each civ is great in that it is cheap, it give a nice happiness bonus and it give you an incredibly strong (non-movement) garrison unit. Each Realm has one of these Wonders to build, and also has 3-5 other Wonders that are unique to that realm.

- When building a Wonder, reference the Great Library to see if the Wonder will give you Wonder units. Make sure you have room in your city garrison to accommodate the creation of these units too, when the Wonder is complete. One Wonder, in particular gives 6 units in addition to a regular Wonder bonus.

- Realm-specific units are better than the default units (they are often cheaper and a little more powerful), so if you have access to them, use them. But build a few default units if for no other reason that they have a chance to become Heroes and Great Commanders.

- The same holds true with Realm Governments...but since you do not know which Realms have them and when, you may want to hold off on a government switch. Usually they will be available to research once you research the default Governments though.

- If your alignment is Good, you cannot slave or enslave after a battle. Too bad...

- The most powerful Realm (on paper, at least IMO) is Mordor, so if you want to get your feet wet, play them. They get the greatest access to the most Ringlore Knowledge points. The fact that you cannot enslave if you are a good Realm also means that the Evil Realms are generally more powerful in the player's hands too. And the Good Realms also lose production over time, so that will make a difference. The goal is to mirror the books, and to give the player different levels of difficulty when setting up his game.

- The weakest Realms militarily are the Hobbits (no Realm units, other than 3 Wonder units) and the Northmen. Actually, the Northmen have no bonuses at all other than than their Realm Wonder.

- Upgrading of old units takes place on the highest Unit advance of that type of unit (Melee, Flanker, Ranged, Bombard) and the gold cost will be approximately the numerical production cost of the new unit type. Be warned...If you do not have enough gold when you reach the new advance, you will not be able to upgrade that old unit at any other time in the game.

- Three gameplay features…Default, Epic (Advances are 33% more expensive) and Hordes of Mordor (all realms except Mordor have government-specific Melee units)

Enjoy!!! If you have feedback, PM me, or post here in this thread.

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[EPW]

Sorry about not giving you much feedback; but the crashes are a bit too frequent with the source code edition to make it playable. I'll have to play it with the vanilla version.

[hexagonian]

At least it appears that the mod is playable in the Default setup... .

Based on what you could see in your game, do you have any overall impressions about the gameplay elements and structure of the Mod?

(I realize that because this is CTP2, there aren't many downloads for this Mod, so I am looking for any sort of feedback I can get... )

[EPW]

Well, for the first 100 turns or so, my impression was that it was extremely similar to Cradle.

[hexagonian]

No surprise there...The main differences are a little more subtle.


1. Cradle has been in existence for 8 years now...it is time for a change of scenery, and since LOTR was always in the back of my mind, it was my first choice for something different. I actually had considered a Candle'Bre setup (the indie project I had been working on with Vel), but I felt LOTR opened more doors for others to play.

And remember, I Mod the game for enjoyment first...though I will not be tackling anything this extensive again for a long time


2. I wanted to place a greater emphasis on each Realm being distinct from the others in the game - which meant more units, buildings, wonders, etc for each Realm.

For instance, I could have simply added more civ-specific buildings to Cradle, but I was already capped out on the 64-limit. LOTR is limited to 12 Realms, and there is still a lot of room for additional buildings to be added into the mix for the future.

There were also a lot more civs to deal with in Cradle, so that would mean a lot more research on my part for each civ to figure out which specific units, buildings and wonders to add to the mix.

I figured that it would actually be easier to strip everything away from Cradle and start from scratch.


3. Probably the greatest difference...
More of a focus on research through the tech tree...I wanted to make Maq's culture setup the centerpiece for the main victory option. Cradle has always played open-ended...it was just a question of when the player would win, rather than the threat of the AI actually beating the player.

I have already seen that the AI can pull this off in Cradle, and it was a natural for the RingQuest setup I wanted. But rather than allow the player to simply map out and beeline to the important Advances, like he can do in Cradle (you simply beeline to the Religions), I decided to keep the info somewhat hidden from the player, so in order to win the player may have to play it several times.

I fully realize that this may frustrate some players too. But some players may like the added mystery involved, as well as the added sense of discovery that type of gameplay creates. It's similar to the older Nintendo formats...you have to play it to figure out the path to take.


4. The setup moves the game more away from straight-conquest into a primarily research/builder oriented game. Eliminating slavery for many of the realms means that military is further downplayed as an end-all strategy. Obviously, you will still need a military, but slavery tends to be a crutch that allows greater freedom to neglect growth-based tile improvements, buildings and wonders, and more freedom to create more units. Cradle keeps slavery because it is extremely significant in history, but LOTR has little to say about the subject.


5. With greater distinction regarding Realms traits, this allowed me greater control over how the cheats are used, so the player can continue to get a more (or less) honest game...The game is easier or harder, based on who you choose to play. (so if you want a real challenge, play as the Northmen because they do not gain any ingame Ringlore knowledge points at all)


6. When playing Cradle I also noticed this...
- I tended to follow the same path, and concentrate on getting the same wonders, no matter who I played. There were wonders that I knew I could get, and those that I really did not have a shot at. And as the game progressed, inevitably, there would be a single civ that would get the bulk of the wonders (either me or a rival) So the setup I have developed helps all the civs get good wonders. My hope is that this will create a greater balance...and fewer civs getting left in the dust.


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