Comments - WoodlandGuard

There is a bounty of opportunities to have the Woodland Realm be a unique faction - you've (as a team) just decided that you're not going to do it. There is enough lore to go on - if you really delve deep - to combine with the aspects from the films, as you've done/implemented with other factions to make it work beautifully but you've all just decided it's not going to happen. For some mysterious reason / reasons. You can keep repeating that it's logical and lore-based, but the latter is simply not true and the former is null and void if placed alongside your efforts concerning other factions and the latter (lore). Just to clarify: I am really impressed with your mod, and have played it a lot. Considering what you have done with the Woodland Realm design-wise (and all the other factions besides), that's what makes it all the more frustrating. It continues to baffle me that you've marginalised (and continue to do so) a faction with such potential. If it ever comes out, I'm really looking forward to the Ridder Clan Mod's take on the Woodland Realm, as by all accounts it looks like that mod'll treat it with more respect than Edain has up until now - which is to say as an equal to Lothlórien and not some lackey / support faction (which they very much were not and had/have never been). Hoping to see something good on the same topic from BOTTA in the future. A real shame that you’ve decided to go this way where the Woodland Realm is concerned. That aside (and it’s a heavy aside for me), I’m still very much looking forward to your next update and continue to be impressed by your continued improvements to Battle for Middle-earth. Hope to see an update soon.

When you play Rivendell you keep getting the same few tracks repeating, most of which aren't even directly related to Rivendell or The Last Alliance (or the White Council) - and the abundance of Rivendell themes from The Hobbit are omitted, whereas when you play Lothlórien you do get a few of those Rivendell themes from The Hobbit but you're missing some of the extended Lothlórien themes from The Lord of the Rings. Any chance the team could look into that?

I accidentally downvoted this instead of upvoting it and am not allowed to vote again or change my vote (apparently) so thought I'd endorse this comment in a reply!

Your updates for the upcoming new version of the mod look promising! Any chance of another update? It has been nearly two months...

Gameplay-wise I would say 'fair enough', maybe even lore-wise (that there are many differences between Angmar and Mordor) but bigger picture-wise none of this makes any sense. And by this I mean how / where you have chosen to house / represent various factions and how you have chosen to argue / justify your choices. Your using vanishing of Elves as an argument to explain your omitting the Woodland Realm as a full faction is implausible and ironic – of all the Elven realms it is the one that was the least diminished in the Third Age and into the Fourth where it lasted. And as we’re talking Third Age, not Second Age, you can’t be throwing Lindon in there as a credible argument – Lindon was vastly diminished in the Third Age by the passing of many Elves (of Lindon) into the West (as you said), and arguably the only military action they undertook was a relatively small-scale attempt at aid to Arnor in their battle with Angmar – I don't believe you can compare them to the Woodland Realm in that time-frame (the Third Age). The men got stronger in the Third Age? Really? Because as far as I know Arnor was destroyed, Gondor was diminished and Rohan poisoned and weakened in the Third Age. And the only reason there are two human factions is you chose to make it so – the men of the North (of Dale and Esgaroth) don’t have their own faction even though they were their own people and not subservient to the Dwarves. Arnor fell in the Third Age and are not fully included yet Angmar falls in the Third Age and is? Imladris is not even entirely an Elven faction by the way, so you currently have 1.5 Elven factions – not 2. And you’re omitting a realm (the Woodland Realm) which played a non-subservient part in at least three reputable, separate battles (the Battle of Dagorlad / Siege of Mordor, the Battle of Five Armies and the Battle under Trees)? For someone who ‘s attempting to level lore at me to justify themselves you seem to simply be ignoring/missing the screamingly obvious: even the men of the North were at least ‘battle buddies’ with the Dwarves and so were Arnor with Gondor – Lothlórien and the Woodland Realm were not so inclined, at all: the only time they met was when they met up for the Last Alliance and after the War in the North, and that last one wasn’t even an alliance – they had fought their battles in that war separately. Not to mention the fact that Lothlórien and the Woodland Realm aren’t even balanced in their ill-conceived put-together faction in your mod: Lothlórien is the core, the Woodland Realm is subservient. Yet you don’t find any of this strange… I would urge you and the rest of the Edain team to reconsider/rethink. If you or anyone else wants to read more on this consider visiting my blog.

Angmar should be to Mordor what Arnor is to Gondor: map-specific. You should give their place/spot as a faction to the Woodland Realm - does it not sound strange to you yourself even when you say "the elves will be divided" [only] "in Imladris and Lorien"?

Rivendell had a strong alliance with the Kings of Arnor and after the fall of Arthedain it became a refuge for the Rangers of the North and the heirs of Isildur. That's why the concept of the Dunedain for Imladris is sound and completely understandable. The same cannot be said for the "similar concept" of the Woodland Elves for Lothlórien. "In the Second Age their king, Oropher [father of Thranduil], had withdrawn northward beyond the Gladden Fields. This he did to be free from the power and encroachments of the Dwarves of Moria, which had grown to be the greatest of the mansions of the Dwarves recorded in history; and also he resented the intrusions of Celeborn and Galadriel into Lórien. But as yet there was little to fear between the Greenwood and the Mountains and there was constant intercourse between his people and their kin across the River, until the War of the Last Alliance." As this game - and this mod - are set firmly in the Third Age it just doesn't make any sense to have them serve as a support faction for Lórien. It wouldn't even make any sense if it wasn't set in the Third Age but at least a/the link between the two would make more sense than this concept currently does. Can you offer any kind/form/type of explanation as to how you see sense in this / why you're doing this?

but not to fight... so why have him wield it as a weapon? I understand it's a cool feature to give him and it is majestic but why not do like "RandomZombi3" said and give him an upgrade at a certain level that gives him his heavy armor as well as substituting his staff for his second sword of the set (at that same level) to combine the two aspects..? That way you'd get the best of both worlds (so to speak), I'd think.

Saying the Elves of Mirkwood looked heavy and defensive in the Hobbit-films is like saying the Elves of Lothlórien looked heavy and defensive in the Lord of the Rings-films - you're saying nothing. The Woodland Guards weren't heavy, the Palace Guards were. The Lorien Marchwardens weren't heavy, the Galadhrim were. What's your point? We all know they both have both light, agile, stealthy units and heavily armoured units. Differentiating between factions on that basis is silly. And the only elf that should ride an Elk is Thranduil. As filmed.

Looking good! However Tauriel carries her arrows / quiver on her left side / left hip in the film, and the quiver is very obviously brown- and gold-coloured - like her bow. Also the hair-thing, like Araval said. And of course the fact that she wields twin daggers that are character-specific - like Legolas - instead of a sword.