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



9/29/2007: Skies, Radagast, Gondor Skins, Private Beta, and more

Another busy week for RJ-RotWK, and this will high-light some of the items of the mod.

1) Campaign screenshots

I've added the cameras to Moria and Lothlorien in the campaign, and here are some screenshots to show off the maps:

Moria:










Lothlorien:






2) New skies for maps
Minas Morgul:


Buckland (Video):


Grey Mountains (Video):


3) Gondor Skins

Well, I've finally put together the gondor skins for the gondor Knights, Soldiers, Archers, & Pikemen. (Credit go to Eldarion, Nazgul, Caluadan, and me)



Regular Armor:


Heavy Armor:


Comparison:


4) Mounted Radagast

I've done a mounted Radagast:




5) Golasgil Household Knights

Nertea has been gracious enough for me to use his Golasgil Household Knights. So here they are in game. There is still a little work I need to do to fix my binding and add them as a banner carrier, but here you go:

Regular Armor:


Well, that's enough screens. I can't add anymore to a post.

6) Private Beta

The first release of the private beta happened this week-end. Along with the release, I've also released a worldbuilder friendly version of the mod, complete with an asset.dat, lotr.str, etc. so that you can see some new models in WB and more. There are still some bugs, but at least the first WB version is out for mappers.

Now to gain access to the beta, there are a couple of ways. First, anyone who's donated/contributed to the mod just let me know and I'll grant you access. Same for the future, one sure way of getting in on the beta is to help out the mod by donating HQ stuff to the mod (models, skins, maps, etc.) Another way is I'll be doing contests soon where the prize is a beta spot and I plan to hold a tournement after the next public release.

I know I missed people for the initial beta group. Please send me a pm if you think you should have been involved in private beta. It's also been crazy the past week, so I might have missed your pm if you sent one already.

As always, thank you for playing,
Robert J.

9/22/2007: Rhun Fortress, Walls, Screens, and More

I hope you all like this update. It takes a lot of work for a bunch of this so enjoy!

Men of the East
(Faction name winning in the poll - will be final with public release of 1.05.03) - Screen by Shikari


1) First up for Men of the East is a new fortress for Rhun:


I do not show the upgrades here as they will be for another day, but they will be basically the same as they are in game with a couple of changes. Along with the pics I also a short (compressed to < 30 secs) video showing off the build-up for the fortress. Click the pic below to see the video:



2) Now what would a fortress for Rhun be without some walls to protect it? Well, here is my Rhun wall system complete with walls, hubs, towers, gate, & Postern Gate. The walls are meant to be large, same with a bunch of Rhun architecture. This will be one of the down-sides of the choice between Rhun and Harad. Rhun's buildings take up more space in the fortress while Harad will easily fit most of the buildings in a tight space. These walls will also be used in Rhun's Castle, which will be Rohan Castle in shape and the walls will be similar to Angmar in style.





And here is a little animation for the gate. It's a little slow from lag on ultra high, but you can check it out:



3) Well, the good guys felt a little left out, especially Arnor so I've also done some work on their wall system. Arnor is slowly being made over to be less of a clone of Gondor, and more based on Amon Sul. They are getting new units/buildings and more. There are some segment upgrades I still need to work on but here are some screens:





4) The first release of the private beta is going to be within the week, and I've begun sending out invites to the private beta. I absolutely know I've missed people. If you do not get the invite and you think you should be include, please send me a PM.

5) Now for some more fun player-submitted screenshots. Remember if you want to see your screenshots in the update (I'm also always looking for good screenshot takes to try out the new stuff as well in the beta). Many of these show off the different skies and views to let you explore Middle-Earth.

Allathar and Men of the East




Yoda Warrior and the Battle for the Shire pt 1








Shikari - Elves


Well, that's all for the update this week. I hope you enjoyed and as always, thank you for playing,
Robert J.

9/16/2007: Player-submitted screens

This week has been a little crazy, and I'm working towards a larger update for next week so I thought I'd introduce something I've been wanting to do for some time.

Me personally, I love to look at screenshots, whether RJ-RotWK or other mods/games. So I put out the request for some of the testers/players to go out and grab some screens for the weekly updates. I would like to include in each update some submitted screens, so this time I'd start with a whole bunch. (If you would like to see your screenshot here, submit them via pm or e-mail them to me at rob.n.karla@hotmail.com)

Allathar's screens:




Dalf32's submissions:


Yodawarrior's submissions:




Shikari's submissions:

Angmar:






Arnor:




Dwarves:




Thank you to everyone who submitted this week. I've held onto some to show off in coming weeks, and please submit more as you wish. If you want to see the credits for different models and such:
http://forums.revora.net/index.php?showtopic=50722

Thank you to T3A team for allowing me to be hosted and the new forum. Also, let me know what you think of the mod at the overall level, whether you love it or hate it and general comments for those visiting T3A:
http://www.the3rdage.net/item-108?addview

Last note. I'm making a small list of the private beta team members. I KNOW I will miss people. Once the private forum is up and the list annouce, if you feel like did not include you and you should be included, just let me know. I want to start very small and grow as needed. And I do have things that I could include in this update, but I'm holding off till next week. I really would like to get the screenshot program going.

Robert J.

9/9/2007: Forged Blades, Banner Carriers, etc.

Well, this week's update is more of a clean-up update and screenshots. As mentioned last week I've been re-doing a lot of forged blades effects, but on top of that I've also been going through and cleaning up models, fixing selection problems, etc.

1) A preview of the re-work done on Gondor and what will be done across all the factions. Among the changes:
- Reworked model weapons and/or shields
- Forged Blades re-colored (White for Gondor)
- Banner Carrier glow recolored to match forged blades color (White for Gondor)
- Visual upgrades added to the banner carriers to match the horde
- All bounding boxes fixed to be the correct size to make selection easier
- Misc. bugs fixed

Gondor Soldier:


Gondor Pikemen:


Gondor Knight:


Ithilien Ranger:


Fountain Guards:


Rest of the Units and Army:


2) Other Armies Forged Blades. Here is a glimpse at the forged blades of some of the other armies and other stuff. Everything will be re-worked to the extent of Gondor.

Rohan (Slight gold tint):


Dwarves (Silver tint):


Goblins (Green tint):


3) Lastly, if anyone is interested I'm looking for help on RJ-RotWK.

The areas that would help the most:

- Hero/unit powers (fx, etc.)

- Skins (Not my strongest area. I'm looking for more Easterling/Haradrim sknis. I also need to do damaged building states as well as bibs/floors for the new buildings)

- Models (I've got most of my models that I want for each of the factions, though there are a couple that I'm going to be doing and I'll be doing more. Mainly in this area I want to do more factions for the inn alliance - shire, rivendell, iron hills, etc. As well as fleshing out the Arnor/Angmar alliances.) Getting rid of CaH heroes is always a good thing. I am also looking to add more weapons/armor in game for the units - maybe to the point of doing actual forged blades. I'll do all the binding/re-binding for this.

- Voices - there are a number of overused voices that I would like to replace.

- Overall fx. There are a number of things I'm planning on doing that I will be doing fx work on.

The way I like to work best is a free-lance type/contributions type. That keeps any pressure I think off those who help, so if someone does some work in the past they don't feel obligated to continue to help out.

Anyone interested can pm me, send an e-mail to rob.n.karla@hotmail.com or contact me via MSN using rob.n.karla@hotmail.com.

Robert J.

Credits for items used in screens:
Gondor Pikemen - Argolis/Mordred (Model) / Eldarion (Skin)
Citadel Guard - Cahik (They are in there with forged blades)
Yeoman Solder - The Dead Player (Model) / Nazgul (Skin for body)

9/2/2007: Evil Men Buildings, Mordor Walls, Forged Blades, etc.

More progress has been made this week for Evil Men, Mordor, and units in general.

1) I've re-created all of the Mordor walls and upgrades including wall segments, wall hubs, catapults, towers, gates, etc. will all the appropriate animations and states. I've also create the morgul sorcery upgrades for each of the segments.


2) Next up are a series of Harad and Rhun buildings. I've modified EA's structures for level upgrades, arrow bones, animations for the windmill, and more. These are the ones finished this week. I've begun working on the damages states and I want to do custom floors/bibs for each building as well.









3) Now it's on to the animations. I've re-done the bulid-up animations for the Harad Farm & Rhun Battle Tower for the new mapping plus improving some of the animation. I've also done the build-up animations for the re-worked buildings - Harad Armory, Harad Stables, & Rhun Windmill. Click the image to view the animation.



4) This is a quick item - I fixed the "shiny" wain riders. I love this model by Mullers_11 so I thought I'd show it off again.



5) Last item. Just announcing one more crazy item that I've begun modding - Forged Blades. The first thing I'm doing is going through all the added models and ensuring that the forged blades bugs are all fixed. (Shadow blocks behind buildings, etc.) On top of that, I've begun to go through and re-do the colors/intensity of the forged blades. Go to the following topic to see what changes are happening:

http://forums.revora.net/index.php?showtopic=53724&st=0&#entry507856



Well that's enough for this week. Much more will be in each week.

Thank you for playing!
Robert J.

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