A Message in the Dark... news - Legends of the 3rd Age mod for Battle for Middle-earth

Hello everyone,

I'm not sure how many people are still following. I have good and bad news regarding BWM, and some news that I dare not yet classify. Maybe you can help me with that. So where do I begin... First of all, I'm working full-speed on the mod right now - at least I dedicate as much free time as I can find towards a new release (good news?). I have made some drastic decisions regarding the faction designs and hope to get a little bit of feedback (unsure news). Goblins will not yet be in the next release (bad news), but it's progressing, and hopefully it will hit the stores around mid-time this year (good news - can't promise but it's a goal).
In the first half of 2019, BWM will get a major update. This update will include:

- Spellbook rework for all factions
- New units (and possibly heroes) for some factions
- Redesign and/or removal of certain heroes and powers.
- Possibly GameRanger support for those who can't connect on the server

Let me elaborate each point. Here goes the long version:

[Spellbook rework for all factions]
As a long time BFME player and former active Clan Wars and Quick Match player, balance has always been a top priority for me. Of course, I am aware that this is a modification and more about fun and stuff, but that doesn't mean that it can't be balanced also. With the spell book rework I want to address certain issues, for instance if your own team is Double Mordor and you're up against a Gondor and Rohan combination, your chances are rather grim in most cases. There's a similar issue with other double match-ups. As such, I have started changing each factions' spell book to offer more versatility in desperate situations (such as bad match-ups) so decision-making might play a role in the outcome of a game. The spell book size has been increased to 12 Spells (from 8 Spells), as depicted here:

I'm confident that this change will make games a lot more interesting because the possibilities of power point routes increases drastically. Also, the free spell that every faction has from the beginning is gone. That's it for the spell books, I might reveal a new spell book in the coming days or weeks (Gondor, Isengard and Mordor are pretty much layed out, but not finalized yet). Please note that this involves a series of changes, including AI behavior as they will need to adjust to the new Spell Books. This update will take time to implement.

Please leave feedback about this, and whether you think the 12-power Spell Book good idea or not and why. I will listen to your feedback. It took me a long time to finally realize this, and I'm very careful with the implementation.

[New units and heroes for some factions]
Well, not much to say about this, but new spell book powers ask for new units and heroes. Generally, versatility also increases the amount of different strategies a player can utilize. One of the major issues of the original BFME game (in my eyes) is the small amount of different units and repetition of strategies due to lack of alternatives. I'm aware that quality still goes over quantity, which is why I'm carefully planning the units that are being added to each faction.

[Redesign and/or removal of certain heroes and powers]
Now, this point is probably the most important one, and I would love to hear your feedback. As of now, no hero was kicked out entirely. But, looking especially at Elves and also at Mordor to a certain degree, there are some heroes with no real purpose within the faction. Elves' hero power is ridiculous. They have Galadriel, Elrond and Celeborn as the monster trio, but also "lesser" heroes such as Glorfindel or Landroval should not be underestimated. All heroes are major power houses. Nerfing certain heroes would be an option, but it would not really do any of these heroes justice - they are supposed to be strong. When I started this mod, I was all like "yee boom boom bang powers". And while I still approve this idea in general (to me, the most important thing in mods is exploring), as the mod leader I also have to notice that it can be too much and there needs to be a better balance between each factions "boom boom bang powers". I've decided now that something needs to be done about them. Eventually I might have to split up Elves - which I do not really want to do - but power-wise it would probably be the best thing in the long run. Don't worry, in the next update Elves will still be there as one faction, but some heroes might change - or even go - along the way to the next release.
Similar for Mordor, I don't see why they need two Black Riders, so one of them might be dropped. In any case, I intend to rework the Witch-king because I'm not happy with his abilities.

Please, also leave feedback about what you think and if you feel similarly about this.

If you read through all this - great - if not, well. Don't know what to say. Go read it. It won't take you as long as it took me to write this.

- Oh yeah, and I'm still looking for a 3D-Modeller who has too much time on his hands and wants to join the team. So if you have some modelling experience (I don't expect you to be an expert, I'm not myself), drop me a PM. I keep losing interest in developing this because working on my own is often very frustrating.

This newspost on Revora: Forums.revora.net

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