Beta 0.3 News - Big Changes

Return of Shadow Beta 0.3 News

Plans for Beta 0.3 have changed with a new faction, a faction cancelled and plans pushed back.

Big Changes

Plans for Beta 0.3 have changed in some big ways.

Rhun and Strongholds have been pushed back till Beta 0.35 to give me more time to properly finish the factions.
But since I still want to release something as part of "monthly" release schedule I'll be releasing Beta 0.3 with a new faction instead.

Beta 0.3 will still have the last of the Faction Reviews (Lorien and Rivendell are still on the list) and the Great Balancing but will include a new faction revealed below.

This decision was made because I was not confident in the Strongholds faction in being released within the next month or so (Rhun is doing a bit better but still needs work).
I want to keep releasing new Betas with new content but have almost run out of numbers to use.
This delay on the 2 factions isn't a huge one like maybe an extra month or so.

I can say this however Harad is coming along nicely and will now be coming with Beta 0.4 which will be released shortly after Rhun and Strongholds.
Other factions like Mirkwood, Arnor and Dale continue to progress slowly with Arnor shaping up to be a very interesting and unique faction.

Free Peoples will be getting a some more new stuff for Beta 0.3 including new heroes and units.
I also hope to finish adding in AI for the Freeps for Beta 0.3

Rivendell and Lindon

As part of the Faction Reviews Rivendell will be getting some changes including getting a Specialisation system.

The new Specialisations will add in units from Lindon including Cirdan and the Mithlond Guards and Swan Knights.

The other specialisation covers the Noldorin units and Gildor.

As part of these changes and to reduce overlap this means the Lindon faction has now been merged into the Rivendell faction with Beta 0.3.

I'll be revealing more information on that at a later date with the Rivendell Faction Showcase.

Morgul

Recent changes to the Mordor faction and the merging of the Lindon faction has left me with a faction spot and an excess of assets and ideas.
Taking Lindon's place will be the Morgul faction a standalone faction made of the elements from the Mordor faction.
Thankfully a lot of work has already been done on this faction as it was always planned as a possible side faction for a potential Game Mode but it is now a full fledged faction.

This faction will be led by the Witch King and will include some new units such as the King's Men, the Draugrim (Wights) and some newish heroes.

I'll be revealing more in a future Faction Showcase.

Mordor

Mordor has been undergoing a lot of changes in recent months but with the new Morgul faction comes another set of changes.

Replacing the Witch King as the "King" of Mordor will be Gothmog meaning he will now grant the additional CPL.
Shagrat is also going over to Morgul and will be improved into a second in command type role for the faction.
Gorbag remains with Mordor and will be improved as well.

The Morgul Den and its units are being moved over to the new faction.

Mordor will be getting a new unit to fill the void of the Morgul Uruks and a new early game hero Snuffler.

Snuffler is Mordor's first ranged hero he is a tracker and will function as Mordor's early game hero.

The Legions of Morgul spell will be replaced with Legions of Mordor which will now unlock that new unit as well as Gothmog.

Some other changes are in the works which will be revealed at a later date.