Hello everyone and welcome back to another adventure!
I do hope you have enjoyed the mod to this point. I am pleased to bring you news that our mod has done extraordinarily well since our release of V1.0: A Shadow Rises on August 25th 2021. We have had hundreds of downloads and I hope you have found the first release enjoyable.
I am writing today to discuss what should be coming in V1.0 Patch 1, though I may miss a few things or may include something that we might not be able or ready to do just yet, though I will have done my best to avoid this. I don't have an exact date on when we intend to have the patch released just yet though, as we still have one more faction to do some serious work on, and then we still need to make a series of unit cards.
V1.0 Patch 1: The Song of the Firstborn, will be very elven-focused, and it will include a total overhaul of:
- The Kingdom of Lothlorien: Roster completed! Though we still need to make unit cards and preview-quality images
- The Kingdom of Eryn Galen: Roster completed! Though we still need to make unit cards and preview-quality images
- The United Realm of Dorwinion: We are already hard at work with their overhaul, but it is still a WIP.
We do have this preview to reveal though!
Furthermore it will include:
- a few new models for The Kingdom of Lindon, with a few stat changes
- a new model or two for The House of Imladris, with a few stat changes. The Noldorin Riders were removed as a unit as there were already Eldarinwe Lancers which were identical in every way but with shields, so there was no need for the redundancy.
- The introduction of "Eternal Legend" units. These units are a new tier of elite bodyguards that in multiplayer will be available to certain factions only (using standard multiplayer settings). Though you might be able to find them avaialbe to other factions if you change the game era to "specials". Eternal Legend units will come with 3 HP instead of 2, and will be incredibly powerful, though they will be about 1000 florins more expensive than their 2HP counterparts to discourage their abuse. Standard etiquette in Wars of Arda multiplayer games will be that each team may include a maximum of 1. These units will never have any ranged attack of any kind, and will always be infantry bodyguards, so despite their incredible power, a reasonably skilled player should be able to handle them by one of several possible means.
- Gondor will have primary access to the new Eternal Legend: The Hallowed Knights of Amon Anwar.
These otherworldy powerful knights are of an order that was charged by Isildur himself to guard the final resting place of his father, King Elendil the Tall, who was the first king of Arnor and Gondor, and vanquisher of Sauron at the end of the Second Age! They answer to no one unless they deem a leader to be a "true son of Elendil" worthy enough of their service. Such circumstances are rare indeed as the line and power of Numenor ever fades from the Dunedain, and as the enemies of Gondor and Arnor grow ever bolder, the sacred tomb of Elendil at Amon Anwar needs protecting now more than ever. It is said though, that even the greatest servants of the Enemy, the Nazgul, won't dare approach a site where these mythical knights are gathered in strength. For even though the power of the Dunedain has begun to wane, they would be in great peril indeed should such an encounter come to blows!
Credits: -Fantasy Helmet: "Fantasy helmet" (https://skfb.ly/6TAO6) by Aartee is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
"Fantasy Sword, Winged" (https://skfb.ly/on6xH) by dudecon is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
- A second Eternal Legend unit has been created that will be primarily available to The House of Imladris: The Thalion-en-Mallos (Warriors of the Golden Flower). These lords from Valinor are rumored returned to Middle Earth with the lord Glorfindel, and thus have been given a name after his glorious history as the "lord of the House of the Golden Flower" in the days of Gondolin. Whatever the truth be about the mysterious origins of the great and noble elven lords, they are some of the mightiest warriors to ever tread Arda's soil, and it is said that a faint light follows in their wake, and all closest to them that are friend are filled with warmth, light, and awe at the power of their coming, while their foe are filled with terror and dread. Such is their majesty and wrath.
Finally:
- The Union of Ered Luin have gained a new unit of Blue Mountain Spears, which will make field battles for them much more palatable.
- Many of Gondor's "baseline" units will have had model changes with some minor stat changes. This may or may not also happen for Belfalas
- The Ice Tribes of Lossoth have lost some of their HP, have become more expensive, or both. In particular the Geyosavai Gawankal have been made dramatically more expensive
- Some other unspecified "balance changes", the specifics of which I cannot recall as of the time of writing this article. Nothing too dramatic I can assure you.
- The Housecarls of Gramia have been temporarily removed, as per the request of Divide and Conquer, who provided us with the base model, as they want to release their V5 before we release a public version using that model. This unit may need to be brought back with a different model at some point, depending on how long we need to wait for our current model.
- Various texture fixes or bug fixes as have been reported or discovered. There may still be a UI issue in the second patch, and we will still be working on adding all of our new sounds, and soundtrack.
I hope I have provided you all with something reasonable to expect in V1.0 Patch 1: The Song of the Firstborn, which hopefully will be coming soon!
Do take care and be sure to join us for all of our future adventures!
-Bilbo
