Middle Earth: Battle For Arda - Official Thread

alkexr

I've started working on the next major update. Watch this video dev diary for some of the upcoming changes.

mattbarnes

@alkexr Cool. Sounds like a lot of thought is going into the new version.

alkexr

You can find the second video about changes to Rohan and Isengard here. You can also find the previous video (and all future videos) in this playlist.

Making these videos is certainly a challenge. Uncomfortable and embarassing at times... but I think I'm going to stick to them. It's a very useful skill to learn nowadays.

Everything you see here is WIP.

Schulz

Is there any way to make terrain affects only one side? For example I want mountain territories to give +2 defense to all units but I don't want occupiers to benefit from them when they capture this area.

Hepps

@Schulz Yes... but it likely means you will have to make all units nation specific and then tailor the terrain effects to match your desired effects.

Schulz

@Hepps Actually I was just trying to mimic territory effect for capitals like giving +1 or +2 extra defense for all defenders in this area.

Is there anything in the codes that might provide this kind of bonuses for the only original owners like capital bonuses? Otherwise seems like all units will have to be specific.

Hepps

@Schulz Yes... So each terrain (capital city in this instance) would need to be individual terrains specific to the nation nation in question...

ie. Berlin Capital terrain... then the modifiers would be set up to only give a defensive bonus to German Infantry (or which ever German units you want to receive said bonus).

You would then need to repeat this for all nations setting up their own nation specific terrain and nation specific units

mattbarnes

I absolutely love this map. I don't fully understand why you want to develop it further but maybe you will make it better and better?

Why is it listed as "good quality" whereas the other Middle Earth map is "high quality"? I think Battle For Arda is the more sophisticated of the two.

The latest incarnation is great. I particularly like Rafts being buildable on all rivers, as it makes for more dynamic action, to somewhat bypass the bottlenecks.

In one recent game, Good won, with an Eagle-steamroller. I would not like to weaken the eagle unit, but should it be maybe be capped in number?

PS minor typo: Fornost has a "3" on its image, whereas it actually allows 5 units to be produced.

daneffuller

@alkexr Please consider making a version with four teams. The four team version is our favorite in my home -- we play it over and over again. Lots of varying strategies and synergies. From my previous posts, the four teams are:

Second Darkness: Dol Guldor, Mordor, Angmar, Orcs
Arkenstone Pact: Dwarves, Woodland Realm, Northmen, Freefolk
Voice Oath: Saruman, Rohan, Ruhn, Harad
Last Alliance: High Elves, Lorien, Arnor, Gondor

I glanced at your dev video. I've never considered the current map to limit gameplay in any way. If you can keep it in the update as an alternative map that can still be played, that would be great.

There appear to be two major gameplay problems people have commented on previously. Rangers are too powerful and Angmar is too weak. Therefore, I suggest making Rangers cost 7. For Angmar to have an option to hold out against an all out coordinated assault, barrow wights could cost 5, but only have a movement of 1.

alkexr

@mattbarnes Both the eagle problem and Fornost are on my radar, thanks!

@daneffuller If I were to add it as a map option (like FFA), it wouldn't display the alliances on the stats panel, so I think the best way to go is a separate map XML. But I'm not even sure I'm needed for this. I mean, I believe you can also upload mods of existing maps as a stand-alone downloadable "map", though I'm not entirely sure how. I think that would be the best option - that way you could freely mess with the balance, and I wouldn't have to do the work of maintaining it :beaming_face_with_smiling_eyes:

If you can keep it in the update as an alternative map that can still be played, that would be great.

It's unlikely you're alone with this, and I suppose it costs nothing, so why not.

As for the Angmar issue, I think I have a much more radical solution in mind :grinning_face_with_big_eyes:

alkexr

Also, I've made some progress with Eriador.

Cernel

Shouldn't mountains that are so imposing that most units cannot possibly move into them have virtually no economic value, so having production value equal to 0 (whereas caves would be valuable, of course)?

This way, you could also make mountainous territories more distinctive by giving them to a dummy player that is always allied with everyone (since they would always show the colour set for this player, similarly to having an "impassable" colour).

shawb

@alkexr is there any news as to when the next version is going to be ready?

Looking forward to trying the Isengard/Rohan changes.

In regards to feedback when playing with my friends we are finding that for the good guys stacks of rangers seem to be the norm. So some tweak to them (increase in cost/lower stat/limited in number) would probably be worth considering in my opinion?

Overall we love your map though!

alkexr

@shawb

is there any news as to when the next version is going to be ready?

Development is progressing very deliberate step by very deliberate step :grinning_face_with_sweat:
In other words, at this rate I might be able to finish an early beta version by the end of summer!
Yeah, I know.

As for rangers, I'm not yet entirely sure what I'm going to do to them, but I'm aware that they are too strong. (It's hard to miss y'all shouting at me! :smirking_face: )

zlefin

Starting to get into this map again. It feels a bit wrong that Rivendell is such a rush target. Rivendell seems like a place that should be very hard to take; and be very well defended. Maybe it should get back that Flood defense power it had many versions ago. While taking all the starting forces to try rushing a particular target is always going to be a thing in triplea maps, Rivendell just seems like it should be a bit tougher to take.

Are rivendell changes amongst the changes found in the beta versions of the map?

a weird thing: I'm getting different numbers in battle calc that I can't account for; there's some people playing on a lobby bot, and when I look at their game, if I put hobbit archers defending Tharbad, they get 6 defense per (which is incorrect). Whereas if I run a game in a lobby bot myself, or offline, they get 4 defense per. I can't find any reason for the discrepancy to exist, since the versions of the map are the same. maybe it's yet another thing affected by the bots not being fully updated; but if that were the case then how come there wasn't an issue when I ran a test myself in a different bot?

alkexr

@zlefin Here, have this! Although I reckon this will raise more questions than it answers...

As for the battle calculator thing, you should probably ask @LaFayette, I don't think the issue is map-related.

pact_of_plastic

Are there any larger mirrored maps? I.E. both sides look exactly the same, have the same units (like in chess or checkers)?

alkexr

A quick update on the upcoming version

There is a new player, the Orc Holds of the Misty Mountains (the original Orcs player will go by the name Moria)
River crossings have new unique mechanics
Tharbad is now owned by Arnor