Edain Unchained 3.0 – Feature Highlight #1 news

Greetings once again fellow Edain Unchained Fans!

After some break in development the time for labour had come again and in the forges of the modding dungeons a new version of the submod was forged again.

We are not just happy about the release of the new 4.7 version for the Edain Mod and quickly incorporate the new 4.7 in Unchained to make it compatible with the newest Edain version but also made quite some changes ourselves for various faction – most of all for Harad:

Buildings:

If you've been following the announcement channel on our Discord server, you've already seen that the buildings for Harad Base have been completely redesigned and have a fresh look.

In these pens, Harad's beasts are trained and equipped for Sauron's war against the free peoples.

Harad's cavalry is sparsely equipped, but makes up for it in mass and speed.

This is where the tribal warriors gather and are trained for their use on the battlefield.

Forging iron is largely unknown to the Haradrim, but skilled smelters from Rhûn have begun to teach them the art of bronze casting.

Regardless of the slave markets of Umbar, there are also Haradrim who spend their days as normal traders.

The core of every market is the citadel. A place where traders and travelers meet.

Concept:

When we looked at the concept for Harad as a faction, we were pretty happy with it for the most part: the spells, the units, the heroes. However, especially when looking at the base, it felt a bit too close to Gondor and we felt like a faction that - similar to Gondor - was centered around one, or rather several, larger cities. And that feeling didn't quite fit well with Harad, although of course we had to keep in mind that Harad isn't just a faction of many small tribes living in the desert. So we tried to manage the balancing act of making the faction less “city/fortress-like” from the start and yet not making it a loose faction made up of many independent parts like the Misty Mountains.

Another thing that was only represented to a minor degree but always seemed very fitting to Harad as a faction were caravans - traders who crossed the land, bringing rare goods from one place to another and the people von Harad helped to earn a living in the sometimes harsh environment with scarce resources. That is why we reworked the base – both visually and conceptionally.

You now start without a wall and a base that is at a similar level defensively to an Isengard or Mordor base. This is the beginning of a city that will eventually attract merchant caravans and eventually become a heavily fortified castle.

As you may know, you can build a Lumber Mill on your settlement building plots, which is essential for researching upgrades and gives you some other useful benefits. Now a new upgrade has been added: Establish Trade Routes

Using the wood that the sawmill workers chop, the traders can establish trade routes to guide the camels and slaves to the King of Harad's flourishing expansion. From every farm, traders begin their journey to the base - slaves from the mills and camels from the bazaars. Once enough caravans have arrived at the base, leveling up takes place in two stages. The second stage adds a small wall that provides a certain level of security for the citizens and military facilities in the base, while the third stage adds a huge wall that restores the old strong fortress feel to the Harad base to lend. You will see an evolution from a small marketplace-like collection of buildings to a huge city with strong walls. This is also a new unique mechanic in the game that we think fits the faction perfectly and incorporates caravans in a more satisfying way than before.

Units:

All standard units have also been given a new look. Additionally, the units can have up to four different textures.

AI:

There is one more big thing that has changed for Harad. And that is the AI for the single player! You now have a working Harad AI to allow you having fun even without other people playing with you and you can select random for all the playing AI’s and don’t have to pick a faction for the in order to avoid any AI not doing anything. So have fun to all the Single Player enjoyers!

We hope you like the concept and are looking forward to your feedback!

See you in some GameRanger lobby,

Your Edain Unchained Team!