Welcome to RJ - RotWK
Robert V. Johnson's modification to EA's BFMEII : The Rise of the Witch King
October & November '07 RJ News



 11/10/2007: Contest Results, Rhun Fortress Unit, Castles, and more

1) First off, the screenshot contest results are in. The beta team voted for the best overall contributor (based on each shot compared to total number) as well as best inividual shot. Congratulations to Gothmog14, who won in both votes with Grizzlez coming in a close second for overall.
Some Top Entries: 1 2 3 4 5

2) I've finished the Harad Watchtower. Slightly different than other tower structures, the Harad Towers come with Haradrim Lancers standing on top of the building. They can only hold 1 horde of Harad Lancers and you can remove them from the structure and add them back on as well as upgrading the weapon of the tower itself to poison arrows.
Screens: 1 2 3 4 5

3) Rhun Dragon. Now as far as purism goes this unit is not exactly canonical, though I could probably go into a lengthy explanation of why Rhun could have one the last remaining species of dragon. Anyway, on the front two expansion points of the Rhun fortress you can build the dragon statues. From here you can purchase one and only one small dragon/lizard from each. As the dragon gains experience it changes. At level one it runs across the ground, at level 2 it begins to use it's wings as it jumps from place to place. At level 4 you can take to the air and fly, and lastly at level 6 he is adorned with armor. (Credit to Edain-mod for the dragon ground animations)
Screens: 1 2 3 4

4) Well, a lot more work has been done on the build-plot castles. There is still a lot more to be done overall, but they are all functional and can be played in MP fashion. Again, this is only going to be on specific maps. There are three different map types you can play and this is only one.
Screens: Angmar 1 2 3 , Dwarves 1 2 , Elves 1 2 , Goblins 1 2 3 4 , Gondor 1 2 , Isengard 1 2 3 , Mordor 1 2 3 4 , Rhun 1 2 3 , Rohan 1 2 3

5) Lastly an important item. I'm looking for anyone who would like to join or help out RJ-RotWK. I'm not sure if there is any modellers/skinners that are available to help out, but I'd thought I'd put the call out. A lot of the work that is left is around structures and fx coding, though the structure of RJ is such that anything can fit and high resolution is better as the cameras can be unforgiving. So if you are interested send me a pm or e-mail (rob.n.karla@hotmail.com).

Robert J.

11/3/2007: More Elven Units, Buildplots, and more

Another good-sized update this week. Just a note, instead of including thumbnails in each update I'll just have a header image showing off some of what is included and just links to the screens.

1) First of three new units with skins by ElrondHighLord - the Elven Healer. This unit serves as support, starting off as a mini-well that can travel with your troops. They're quite expensive, but they receive xp from surrounding troops much like heroes, and their abilities grow stronger at higher levels. You can only have a maximum of 4 at a time and they do not travel on the living map in WotR mode.
Screens: 1 2 3 4

2) Second of the three units - Arwen's maidens. Currently they are only available in the Elven inn alliance and the campaign, but at a later time they might be included in the Elven main faction. They are not 100% complete, and will probably have a greater variety of horses.
Screens: 1 2 3 4

3) The last of ElrondHighLord's unist units - Mirkwood Mounted Archers. Similar to Arwen's maidens they are available in the inn alliance and will be included in the campaign, but may be included in the main Elven faction at a later time. They currently are borrowing the Rivendell Lancers/Archers horses, but will shortly have their own.
Screens: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

4) Next up are the new goblin warg riders. Currently they are going into the goblin inn alliance system. The debate is still strong whether the spider riders or warg riders will be included in the goblin main faction and the other in the alliance. As for the credits, the weapons are the amazing weapons from Morgoth's Four Ages orcs. The rest is done by EA and/or me.
Screens: 1 2 3 4 5

5) Well, more progress has been made in the BFME1 area. I've gone through and done nearly all the coding required for the BFME1 buildplot style map castles and have begun creating the first map in Fords of Isen. This includes commandset/commandbuttons for foundations, BFME1 style discounts on farms, wells, statues, etlc, removing porters, etc. I have not started to work on the AI yet, but I have idea on how to get work. Until then these are multi-player maps only. As a reminder, the goal for this mod is to be more as a BFME mod instead of a BFME1, BFME2, or RotWK mod. Thus you can play as all 10 factions in BFME2 matches, BFME1 matches, and the RJ BFME2/BFME1 mixed style matches.
Screens: 1 2 3 4

6) Lastly, Yodawarrior & Shikari had fun re-creating the battle on the slopes of Mount Doom between Sauron and the Last Allaince with Mordor and Arnor. They took some screenshots for our enjoyment.
Screens: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Robert J.

10/27/2007: ElrondHighLord, Contest, Rohan, and more

 Well, due to a whole lot of things I missed last week's update, but I sure hope you all will like this week's update. I've got more I could show, but this is all I'll do this week:

1) RJ-RotWK has a new contributor/skinner. Coming with work on WoA, ElrondHighLord has provided RJ-RotWK with more skins than I can code/model/etc. all at once. So I'll show off some of the work. (Models by me, skins by ElrondHighLord)

Celeborn - a new armored version of Celeborn added to the mod. (2nd and 3rd pic)



Arwen - similar to The Elven Alliance, when Arwen is purchased you will get one of six variations of Arwen. Whether in WotR or Skirmish, whichever Arwen model you get will stay with your through the rest of the game or she is armored in the final skin.

#1


#2


#3


#4


#5


#6


Armored (Forgot to take a mounted screen)


This is just the beginning of ElrondHighLord. Join me in welcoming him to the mod.

2) I've gotten many requests from those who want to join the private beta team, and one of the ways you can be added in the next round of testing for 1.05.05 is a screenshot contest. A number of great entries have been received and I hope to see many more. At least the winner of the contest will be added to the beta team, if not more. I want to include at least a few more testers soon, so here is your chance. More information for the contest can be found at:
http://forums.revora.net/index.php?showtopic=54992

3) Yeoman (Rohan infantry) Well, Rohan's infantry yeoman units have been completely enhanced with the addition of more units/skins/combos and more. Now the idea is similar to the Thrall Masters, but in a way that fits Rohan.

Herald - This unit can be purchased from either the Archery Range or the Barracks, and is used to rally the yeoman to war. Once purchased the Herald (Rohan infantry banner carrier) can rally troops for free based on which upgrades are purchased.


When purchased at the beginning the only thing that can be summoned are Yeoman Swordsmen. But the equipment of other units can be purchased as well at the archery range and barracks. Archery Range - Spears for Throwing, Bow/Arrows. Barracks - Pikemen Spears, Axes. Once the equipment is purchased the herald can then rally yeoman that can use the weaponry. Some things of note - a CHOP damage type has been fully enhanced to be used by Yeoman Axemen and others that are suitable. This damage type follows SLASH, but is stronger against structures and non-upgraded units and weaker against upgraded units. There are other things to be mentioned, but for now here are screens of the different units:

Swordsmen: Model - The Dead Player, Skin - Nazgul


Axemen: Model - The Dead Player, Skin - Battles of Gondor (Stealthsnake)


Spearmen: (I'll be doing a higher quality skin at some point)


Archers: Skin - Nazgul


Spear Thrower: Model - Me


Now with the addition of the new units and such, the number of combo horde combinations has definitely increased for the Yeoman:


4) Rohan Cavalry - I added 2 new units. Rohirrim Axemen - used more against structures than the spearmen. And Yeoman Scouts - these come in battalions of three and are the fastest cavalary for Rohan with the best vision. They also have 2 different abilities at other levels for a tempory speed boost and a permanent vision bonus.

Scout: Model by me, and horse skins from WoA (Eldarion)


Axemen: Model by Battles of Gondor, and skins from WoA (Eldarion)


And all of the Rohirrim Combos:


5) The last thing I'll do is mention some of the work with Arnor. As I mentioned in the last update the elves have been revamped for Arnor. Since then, I've done all the combo hordes for them - seven different combinations in total. Also, I've added the first of the captain units - the imladris captain. For Arnor, they are broken up into 3 factions so far. Arnor, Dunedain Rangers, and Elves. (Hopefully hobbits to come). For each faction a single units can be purchased as captains for them that provide small amount leadership as well has other items. Here is the elven captain:



That's all this week. I hope to have more good stuff next week as I'll be releasing 1.05.05 to the private team this week or next.

Robert J.

p.s. One last note. I wanted to mention those who have contributed 2d art on the beta team. So many good things I'll show off in an update.

Allathar
el kevo
Thorin III Stonehelm
astrinax
Caluadan
Shikari (and thank you for the team sigs)

Edit: - lol I forgot one thing. It's small but it's been bugging me since I first had BFME1 and so I thought I'd do more work in this area. See if you can spot what it is. (I made this too easy.)



 10/13/2007: Trailer, Elven Siege, Helm's Deep Screens, Capture Flags

 Well, another week and another update.

1) First I spent a couple of hours throwing some sort of video together for the mod. Sometime in the future I'll spend more time thoroughly going through and doing a trailer, but until then sit back and enjoy:

640x480 - 55mb wmv

320x240 - 55mb wmv

Credits for eveything seen can be referenced in my credits topic.

(The video was all captured during actual gameplay, with no scripted maps outside of the normal campaign. This is gameplay you can expect. It was Ultra High for the most part captured at 1024x768, so that added lag. When I was not capturing full quality video the lag was unnoticable. And sometime I'll fix the one annoying transition. Just did not want to sit around for a couple of hours for it to render again in premiere.)

2) Next up - elven siege units, the Nolėdhel. In a quest to try to remove all but the logical duplicate units/heroes, the ents are being removed from the Elven faction. The beta testers have seen these units in the mod, though I have not added their powers.

So what are the Nolėdhel? They are not canonical, but they are Elven loremasters that have knowlegde of the three elements of the Elven Rings - Fire, Water, Wind/Air. There are a lot of intricacies to the unit, but I'll give a general idea of how they function. From their altar you can purchase single units, either of water, wind, or fire. As a single unit they have powers in their elements to affect structure to tear them down to return the land to a natural state or repair the naturalistic structures.

They are weak to melee attacks, and can be countered quite easily by cavalry and other units. Each element has 2 powers that they can use, but one unit can also combine with another unit of a different element. When combined this also unlocks 1-2 powers that combine the elements. For example, combine wind and water to create a tidal wave, or fire and water to create a mist to hid units in. Again, combine all three elements together to combine for more abilities that use all three elements.

So that in general is a basic overview of some of the functionality of the units. I'll be doing a lot of fx programming shortly for all the combinations of powers, but it should give you an idea. If anyone wishes to help out with some of the FX I would not mind.



Credits - Megilaglar and Yoda Warrior for help in concept design, Edain-mod for the basis of the design of the unit (Water unit)

3) More Screens! Here are some screenshots taken by Shikari from Helm's Deep:





4) Capture flags for inns. Everyone finally has their own flag. So here are the three new ones, though under horrible lighting:

Arnor


Men of the East


Rohan


Last note, 1.05.04 was released this week to the test team. They have all been a great help in chasing down all the bugs, finding things faster than I can fix :grin: but I'm going through and getting as many bugs out as I can. I'm not sure how much longer until the next public release quite yet. The goal is to get all of EvilMen/Arnor in game for that, which includes a lot of FX/power/ability coding which I'll be doing soon. Some of the changes in 1.05.04:

- Bug fixes from the bug report topic
- Arnor Elves completely re-done with four units, an elven captain, and a new structure.
- Arnor Ranger Cavalry added.
- Elven Lore Masters aadded (to eventually replace Ents for the elves) They are single units that can combine together up to three units.
- More scaling done for units (Ents, Mumakil, summon dragon, etc)
- More Ent units
- Added range/vision bonus etc. to walls
- Adjust height bonus for all units
- Have fun killing fellbeasts as well as the eagles
- Adjusted some heroes (Legolas, Eomer, etc. power levels)
- Added corsair ballista.
- Among some balance changes, Cavalry again is now a definite counter to catapults, trebs, ballista same as BFME1
- Evil Men use the Rhun Castle as the Fortress
- Evil Men do not crash the game when the AI controls them. There is no AI yet, but the game will not crash
- Fixed buildings on RJ maps, all buildings should follow rules
- and more

Well, I hope you enjoyed this week's update,
Robert J.

 10/6/2007: Amon Hen, Mounted Rangers, Rhun Castle (Early shots), and more

 Well, I've been away for most of the week, but I've been able to get some things done and get some stuff ready for the update. Even though I did not make it back in time for T3A update, here we go:

1) Amon Hen. Well, I think I've got the amon hen bug gone. I've played now 7 times in a row and no game.dat error. Along with the fix I've added the camera system and a sky:











2) Mounted Rangers. This is one of the arnor units I've done. I'll annouce all that I'm doing with Arnor in a little bit, but this is just one of the units.



3) Rhun Castle. These are some early shots of the Rhun Castle. I still have a bunch of work to do, but it's the beginning of one of the Evil Men fortresses.



4) Well, here is some boring coding stuff. Hero xp. One of the things I've overhauled is the rate at which heroes gain xp and the amount of xp they give as a reward for killing them. I've re-done each of the heroes into 6 groups, based on cost, exp reward, exp needed, etc. They each have their own upgrade path and xp paths. I wanted to make the levels more gradual instead of jumps at 4 and 7. So here we go:

Group 1:
Exp Needed = 1 / 110 / 270 / 480 / 740 / 1050 / 1410 / 1820 / 2280 / 2750
Exp Award = 70 / 80 / 90 / 100 / 120 / 150 / 180 / 210 / 250 / 300
Buildcost = >3000

Heroes:
Angmar_Witchking, Arnor_Elrond, Drogoth, Elrond, Galadriel, Gandalf, Mordor_Witchking, Morinehtar, Radagast, Romestamo
___________________________________________________________________________
Group 2:
Exp Needed = 1 / 80 / 210 / 390 / 620 / 900 / 1230 / 1610 / 2040 / 2500
Exp Award = 55 / 65 / 75 / 85 / 105 / 135 / 165 / 195 / 230 / 275
Buildcost = 3000

Heroes:
Aragorn, Arveleg, Burzolog, Celeborn, Cirdan, Duramlug, Ghundor, Gimli, Lozenarja, Rogash, Saruman, Theoden, Thranduil
___________________________________________________________________________
Group 3:
Exp Needed = 1 / 60 / 160 / 300 / 480 / 700 / 960 / 1260 / 1600 / 2000
Exp Award = 50 / 60 / 70 / 80 / 95 / 120 / 145 / 170 / 205 / 250
Buildcost = 2000

Heroes:
Arvedui, Borin, Dain, Elladan, Eomer, Erkenbrand, Glorfindel, Imrahil, Karsh, Legolas, Mouth_of_Sauron, Shelob, Wormtongue
___________________________________________________________________________
Group 4:
Exp Needed = 1 / 60 / 150 / 270 / 430 / 620 / 850 / 1110 / 1410 / 1750
Exp Award = 50 / 60 / 70 / 80 / 95 / 120 / 145 / 170 / 205 / 250
Buildcost = 1500

Heroes:
Arnor_Glorfindel, Azog, Brand, Easterling Captain, Eowyn, Faramir, Haldir, Harad_Overseer, Lurtz, Nazguls, Sharku, Thorin
___________________________________________________________________________
Group 5:
Exp Needed = 1 / 50 / 130 / 240 / 380 / 550 / 750 / 980 / 1240 / 1500
Exp Award = 25 / 35 / 45 / 55 / 70 / 95 / 120 / 145 / 180 / 225
Buildcost = 1100

Heroes:
Angmar_Morgomir, Argeleb, Arwen, Bard, Boromir, Damrod, Gamling, Gloin, Goblin_King, Gothmog, Hama, Hwaldar, Lalaith, Ugluk, Wildman_Chief
___________________________________________________________________________
Group 6:
Exp Needed = 1 / 40 / 100 / 190 / 300 / 440 / 600 / 790 / 1000 / 1250
Exp Award = 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 / 55 / 80 / 105 / 130 / 160 / 200
Buildcost = 500

Heroes:
Snaga

5) Some more player submitted screenshots. Here are Shikari's evil men shots from 1.05.02:









6) Last item that I'll do this week. I've updated the credits topic with a couple more items. Thank you to Morgoth and Four Ages for their permission among others.

http://forums.revora.net/index.php?showtopic=50722

Robert J.

One Ring to Rule Them All, One Ring to Find Them,
One Ring Bring Them All and in the Darkness Bind Them