The Road to Edain 4.0: Isengard
Today, we would like to present you another reworked faction in the new version Edain 4.0. The concept of this faction has caused us much trouble, because we needed a concept that's not only up to the high standard of our fans and ourselves, but also recaptures the gameplay and atmosphere of Battle for Middle-Earth I. We already showed you some pictures and promised to present a full concept update later. Today, we would like to make good on that promise.
ISENGARD
Isengard has been a huge problem in version 3.81, simply overwhelming other factions with its massively superior economy. Also, the fundamental gameplay was another factor frustrating the players. So, we decided to restructure some parts of this faction, mainly concerning the economy. In version 4.0, we decided that every faction should have the same initial situation regarding their economy. So, Isengarts furnaces and other resource buildings will level up in the normal way and due to the now limited number of build plots, you won't be able to build an endless number of them. The old furnace-defence-ring will be gone, but nevertheless, we know that Isengards industry is an important identification criteria of this faction. Thus, the spellbook will still contain many ways of boosting your economy.
Furthermore, the entire faction will be held together by a greater theme of upgrading and maximizing every part of your base and army, slowly building an ever-expanding machinery of war from nothing. Many of Isengard's structures will gain especially powerful bonuses at higher levels and the faction will make us of several unique upgrades. However, to balance this out, their structures are often less efficient or narrower in function at rank one than those of other factions and the upgrades often require special attention to use correctly. We want to keep Isengard's identity and strenghts, but make it more challenging (and therefore also more rewarding) for players to access them. This will result in a fairer and more enjoyable experience for both Isengard and their enemies.
We have also decided to go back to the roots in one important aspect. Until now, Isengards early game has been dominated by the wildmen of Dunland and an ever increasing economy, followed by an invincible army of Uruk-Hai. Unfortunately, this concept was only good in theory, but in the real game it failed on many levels. The enormously efficient economy just made Isengard impossible to deal with against a skilled a player, and the Dunlendings were powerful enough that you didn't even need the Uruk-Hai in many cases - even though they should have a central role in the faction. In 4.0, we tried to solve this problem, therefore, Uruk-Hai will be the standard infantry of Isengard again, as it was in Battle for Middle-Earth I, and the wildmen of Dunland will be available as a fast and cheap support you can recruit on external settlement plots.
The starting units of Isengard will be the Uruk-Scouts, available for little money in the Uruk Pit. Following the concept of the films, these Scouts can be used for exploring and disrupting your enemies. Later, the player can recruit the armed Uruk-Hai, which can be upgraded with the normal upgrades of the faction. We made the decision against orc warriors as Isengards starting unit for obvious reasons. We know that there have been orcs in Isengard, but these orcs were nothing more than workers and labourers. They were never used in any battle. So, all the animations inside and outside the Isengard buildings will shown by orcs.
Now that we have outlined our core vision for the faction, let's get down to details!
Mineshaft
The Mineshaft is a new building of Isengard, which is available in the base as well as on settlements. The mineshaft produces resources and reduces the costs of Uruks, excluding Scouts.
This building will give the player the opportunity of creating the effect of “shafts” all around his camp as in the Lord of the Rings movies. In the team and in the community there has been the wish of creating the whole Isengard camp underground, but we have to admit that this is not implementable. Also, having a shaft as the basic building, which can be upgraded to any other building was an idea, which caused many problems and difficulties. So, we decided to create this specific mineshaft building for Isengard instead, including the desired elements.
Furnace
Furnaces reduce the cost of all unit upgrades. They level automatically by producing resources and can't be leveled by upgrading any more. Unlike other economy structures, they only reduce the cost of upgrades once they reach rank three, but their cost reduction is more significant to compensate. This emphasizes Isengard's theme of building towards the most powerful industry in Middle-Earth.
Uruk-Pit
The Uruk-Pit can only recruit Scouts at rank one. In Edain 4.0, recruitment structures won't level up through upgrades, but gain experience for every unit recruited like they did in the first Battle for Middle-Earth. That way, the player has to train a small force of scouts to get access to the normal Uruks. This should symbolize Isengard's development and should guarantee that Isengard won't get to strong in the Early Game. Of course the Uruk-Pit will level fast enough so the player won't have to miss the normal Uruks too long.
-Scouts of Isengard (Level 1)
- Uruk-Hai (Level 2)
- Uruk-Crossbowmen (Level 2)
- Uruk-Pikemen (Level 2)
- Shield Uruks (Level 3)
- Berserker (Level 3)
Scouts
In the next version, Scouts will be the starting infantry of Isengard and available without limitation. For this reason it was necessary to rework them. In the Early Game, Scouts will primary be melee units. They can't switch permanently to their bows yet, but they can frequently fire a single salvo of arrows. Later they will get access to their bows. Their upgrades don't increase their raw power as much as Forged Blades and Heavy Armor would, but they do make them more effective against heroes, powerful single units and enemy archers. However, using those upgrades to their full potential will require special attention. Our goal is to encourage the player to maintain a small force of scouts and allow your starting units to still be useful later in the game while at the same making sure that the bulk of your army will consist of the more all-purpose Uruk-Hai units. Scouts have access to the following abilities and upgrades:
-Hunting Arrows: The scouts fire a single salvo at target enemy, slowing it by 40% for 20 seconds. After using the ability, Scouts move 20% faster for 10 seconds.
-Shield Upgrade (Requirement Ugluk is on the battlefield) Arms the Scout horde with shields, increasing their armour against arrows, elemental and magic damage by 75%. Meele attacks reduce the damage dealt by enemies by 75% (against heroes 35%) for 3 seconds.
-Huntmaster (Requirement Lurtz is on the battlefield) Levels the Scouts to level 2 and allows them to use their bows permanently. Also, the ability Hunting Arrows reduces the attack speed of enemy archers by 80% and doubles the scouts' damage for a short time.
Uruk Captains
Uruk-Captains have been causing problems for some versions. Their handling was more laborious than their profit. For this reason Uruk-Captains won't be a recruitable unit any more, but a special upgrade, which can be researched in the Armory. You can buy this upgrade for any unit with a banner carrier, thus bringing it to its maximum level immediately and replacing the banner carrier with a powerful Uruk Captain. Also, the unit will be permanently resistant to fear.
Furthermore, you might see another change in this images that we did not announce yet. We re-established the small dots and stars over a unit to allow you to immediately see its level.
Warg Pit
The Warg Pit contains in total 3 different kinds of Warg Riders. These are not completely different units, but you can breed a stronger type of Warg Riders every time your pit levels up. Once again, Isengard gains special bonuses at higher ranks, but the first type of Warg Rider is a rather weak cavalry unit.
-Mountain Warg Riders (only level 1): Orcs on wild wargs.
-Brood Warg Riders (only level 2): Orcs on Wargs bred in the pits of Isengard, being more disciplined.
-Sharku's Warg Riders(only level 3): Sharkû's personal band of Warg Riders from Isengard. They steal life from their enemies with every attack and transfer it to themselves.
Siegeworks
The Siegework will stay the same as in 3.81, providing powerful siege equipment at every level.
-Battering Ram (level 1)
-Ballista (level 1)
-Siege Ladder (level 2)
-Mine Berserker(level 3)
-Explosive Mine(level 3)
Armory
The Armory is one of the few structures of Isengard that can't level up. It is expensive to build, but can research all upgrades from the beginning.
Lumbermill
Additionally to its known functions, the Lumbermill reduces the costs of buildings. Furthermore, it can get a bonus from the spellbook spell “Fuel the fires”.
Clan Hut
The Clan Hut will be built on external settlements in version 4.0. The Clan Hut can recruit the wildmen of Dunland and their leader Wulfgar, but can not level. The men of Dunland did not hail from Isengard itself in the books as well as in the movies, so we decided that it would make sense to transfer this building to the settlements. Therefore the wildmen of Dunland won't be a main element of Isengards army, but still be a good supplement. Their role is to harass the enemy and plunder their resource structures, not provide your main fighting force.
Grishnákh's Boys
Grishnákh and his Boys won't be recruitable any more, but replace the Dunland summon in the spellbook. This spell has been in the spellbook since Battle for Middle-Earth II, when the wildmen of Dunland were only available in the Inn, but as you can recruit them directly in Edain, it has been just an unnecessary duplication for a long time and it was long overdue to replace it.
Grishnákh
Grishnákh has got a rework, too, being forbidden in every Multiplayer games. His new concept is based on a community idea drive, but as a spellbook hero he won't get a full ability set.
-Prepare an ambush: Grishnákh is hidden 10 seconds. In this time he can perform an ambush
- Ambush – Poisoned Blade: Grishnákh attacks the target hero with his poisoned blade, dealing him poison damage for 10 seconds. The ability cancels the stealth. Grishnákh can use only one blade.
- Ambush : Toothed Blade - Grishnákh attacks the target hero with his toothed blade, dealing him medium damage and slowing him for 10 seconds. The ability cancels the stealth. Grishnákh can use only one blade
-Incite: Grishnákh incites nearby allied units and heroes before a mission. For a short time, these get twice as much experience, but have 15% less armour.
-Scouting: Grishnákh orders two of his orcs, to stay back and watch the area. These orcs can not be controlled and cause no. A maximum of ten orcs can be sent scouting.
With his new concept, Grishnákh's is able to support allied troops, but more skill is needed to deal with enemy heroes and use the full potential of this hero. We hope this rework will both increase the popularity of Grishnákh as well as correctly presenting his background, due to being rather a servant of Sauron than one of Saruman.
The citadel
The citadel is the main building of Isengard. In contrast to other factions, Isengard has not only the possibility to recruit their heroes in the citadel, but to research faction specific upgrades, too. These upgrades will advance your economy as well as granting more tactical possibilities. Additionally, Saruman will be able to enter this building to cast spells from its top.
Creating a design for this building was very difficult. First of all, this building should not look like the Orthanc, because the Orthanc is a unique building only existing in Isengard itself. Also, the citadel should fit to the design of the other buildings and lastly, would Saruman enter any rickety wood tower, built by orc scum?
Our result is the design you can see below. The player starts with a simple wood tower which can be improved by diverse upgrades. Every upgrade changes the design of the building a bit, especially the Wizard Tower upgrade which completely replaces it with a completely different tower, built of black shining stones like those which were used for the Orthanc. This tower looks quite similar to the Orthanc, but main differences as the shape of the tower, allow no doubt that this is not the Orthanc itself, but a replica. Furthermore, to include the element of shafts, as seen in the movie, the tower rises from an industrial pit which will be filled with diverse elements as soon as an upgrade is purchased. So, Isengard is the only faction having the possibility to massively improve their citadel and making it an active element in the game.
The following upgrades are available in the citadel:
-Murder of Crows: The player can temporary summon some Crebain.
-War Machinery: Reduces the cost of all machines - 1 citadel 10%, 2 citadels 20%, 3 citadels 25%
-Burning Forges: Reduces the cost of all Isengard Upgrades - 1 citadel 10%, 2 citadels 20%, 3 citadels 25%
-Wizard's Tower: Create a more powerful focus for Saruman's powers. Saruman can now use all of his abilities from the tower as if he were rank ten.
On the left image, you can see the citadel without any upgrade and on the right image with all it's upgrades. The image above shows the fully build up fortress.
Saruman
Until now, Saruman's abilities on the tower and on ground were completely different. So, many players first used all his ground abilities, then entered the tower to use all of these abilities and then get back on the ground again. This was exactly the opposite of our intentions, so we had to find a solution linking both forms. Additionally to these troubles, there was the problem of his far too large number of abilities, many of which were overlapping. We decided to streamline him with a focus on his main characteristics without making his system far too complicated. The result was this concept:
Saruman won't have a palantir switch, so he won't overtax players with his complexity. Also, these abilities were too similar for being unique. For this reason, we removed the Toggle Button, the Leadership, Saruman's Words and the spell Curunir. Removing the toggle button gave us one more free slot. His resource ability will be represented by the spellbook spell Industry, so we got another free slot. Saruman's Words was just a copy of his Wormtongue-ability and it even reduced the uniqueness of the Mouth of Sauron. So it made sense to delete this ability, too. Afterwards, we had few enough abilities to combine them in one Palantir.
The only problem left was his ability set on the tower. These abilities were both too numerous to be manageable as well as overlapping between each other. These chunks of ice, falling on the fellowship, were they really summoned by Saruman, or has it rather been the thunderbolt destroying the mountain? If Saruman is able to cast a lightning on the ground, why does he also need a seperate avalanche spell? For these reasons, it was clear that it was necessary redistribute his abilities. Our solution was to give Saruman the same arsenal of five spells on the ground and on the tower, but with altered effects depending on where you use them.
From now on, Saruman has got the same set of abilities, both on the battlefield and on the Wizard's Tower, but with different effects. If Saruman uses his Wizard Blast on the ground, and then enters the Wizard's Tower, he will not be able use the Wizard Blast again, but has to wait until the reload time is over. And similiarly, if Saruman uses his Fireball on the tower, he will have to wait for the cooldown even when he leaves it and wants to use another Fireball back on the ground. Every ability is linked this way so you really have to decide how to use them instead of simply using both of them every time.
Saruman's abilities on the ground:
- Level 1: Wizard Blast - Close range attack that blasts back enemies
- Level 3: Power of speech – Saruman's voice increases the experience of all target units
- Level 5: Fireball - Throws a ball of fire at his enemies
- Level 7: Wormtongue - The White Wizard blinds his foes with his words and convinces them to fight for you for a time.
- Level 10: Thunderbolt – The Lord of Isengard calls down a single powerful lightning bolt on target enemy, dealing high damage and paralysing them for a short time
Saruman's abilities on the ground are quite offensive and helpful at the front. Not only, did we reposition his abilities, but also we reintroduced his ability set from Battle for Middle-Earth 2. However, each of them has a different effect when used from the tower.
Saruman's abilities on the tower:
- Level 1: Wizard Blast - Saruman throws all enemies in target area into the air
- Level 3: Power of speech - Saruman's voice increases the experience of the target building. This is particularly useful for Isengard with all their level bonuses. In particular, if the enemy destroys your Uruk Pit, you can level it back up again without having to recruit more scouts.
- Level 5: Fireball – Throws a ball of fire at his enemies. This Fireball deals less area damage than the one used on the ground, but is more effective against single targets
- Level 7: Wormtongue – The White Wizard tries to manipulate his enemies with his words with three different random outcomes:
1.Variant: The enemies of Isengard won't get manipulated
2.Variant: All enemy troops in the target area start to attack each other.
3.Variant: All enemy troops and heroes in the target area start to attack each other
- Level 10: Thunderbolt - Saruman conjures enormous thunderclouds which spread lightning bolts over his enemies, dealing low damage to a large number of foes. However, the storm is less powerful against single targets.
As you can see, he have kept the main elements of the Edain Saruman and gave him a history and gameplay fitting concept, improving the feel and the balance. Saruman will keep casting fireballs and thunderstorms as well as enhancing the industry and confusing his enemies, but has to be more thoughtful and clever about it. On the ground your arsenal is better suited for direct combat: Your Wormtongue ability has no random element to it and your Power of Speech upgrades your combat units directly. On the tower, you can defend and upgrade your base and send magic all over the map without danger. However, Saruman can't gain experience on the tower. We still wanted to give players the ability to choose which form they prefer though, so for extra money you can upgrade your tower and grant Saruman all of his abilities - but only as long as he remains in the tower. We hope that this will allow you a freedom of playstyle but also force you to think hard about you best want to use Saruman.
In this video, you can watch all the functions of Saruman closely:
In our opinion, Isengard's new concept allows the player to use more tactical opportunities and provides a smoother and more natural gameplay.
We hope that you enjoyed this preview and would like to read your opinion and feedback in the comment section!
Your Edain Team
Well done Edain. I simply cannot wait to play this. I really like the citadel design aswell because it suits Isenguard much better then the origional citadel in BFME 1. Thank you for bringing us this wonderful mod. Good luck.
When?
...Soon...
I tried to download the latest edition but it said the software wasn't compatible with the version of Windows I'm running. It says contact the publisher, and check my computer to see if I need an x86 or x64 version of the program. Can anyone help? I really want to try this mod :)
Well, the installer normally works fine with every windows, except Windows 8 RT, since this is based on ARM architecture. But the game also wont work on RT. Which Windows are you using?
Normally redownloading the mod solves most of the issues. The Moddb server dont seem to be good with big files, since a lot people have problems when they downloaded it from there so try to download it from our server: Modding-union.com
Does that mean you can't get the mod working on windows 8?
No. The mod works Fine on Windows 8, but not on Windows 8 RT. Just Google the difference, RT is more like a mobile operating system, it cant even start exe files.
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I saw in the video 0 CP despite the starting units and Saruman in the camp. Does this mean he will be available from the beginning? (that would be awesome! :D)
Saruman won't be a starting unit ;)
But heroes won't cost any CP anymore.
Ah, what a pity xD. Well, at least heroes no longer cost CP, just like in the dear old BFME I. Great work!
YES, you have made my dreams come true!
This looks great, you guys are doing art here, seriously !
I bet the rework on Mordor is going to be breath taking. Thank you for working hard on this .
Love this, answered all my questions. I wish though that you could get all ring heroes at no cost (like Sauron) with the upgrading of fortresses. So you can do upgrades with the tower, but the tower does not stand on its own. Saruman has to be in the tower to make use of its abilities. Will other factions citadels lose their offensive capabilities as well?
A hero you could get for no cost, has to be worth "no cost" or he would be far too strong. The necromancer is so much handycaped, that it is ok for him to be so cheap, but a Saruman who would cost nearly nothing would have been far weaker than now. so, I prefer having an expensive Saruman who can deal damage.
What exactly do you mean with offensive capabilities? The fortress upgrades?
Yeah, like Mordor citadel shooting a fireball, gondor seeing, etc.
Okay, hero explanation sounds great. I hope you do Imladris or Mordor next!
Yes, these fortress abilities will be gone.
Gondor's seeing will be included in Denethor, but Gondor won't have anyother fortress upgrades.
Imladris has already be announced, you mean Lorien ;)
Uh, no but okay. I am fine with Lorien or Mordor or Rohan being next. Actually Rohan would be awesome next.
Rohan has been completly presented, too. (Expect their ring hero :P)
Hey FG15 I'd like to mention something about Sauron. Have you considered of making the Eye unusable when he is summoned? All I say is that it's a bit out of place to have him on the battlefield and using the Eye at the same time.
Thank you for bringing us the best BFME experince out there!
Another thing! I have a comment in the Angmar update section about the trolls that concerns most of the players around here. Could you please answer there as well?
(I'm pretty sure that you'll make a Mordor worthy of the movies and the books, with less Morgul Riders)
In the books this big eye is not Sauron himself, it is just a symbol for him. So, we decided that it would be ok, if both are on the map at the same time.
Ok, I will look into the Angmar update section.
Thanks for clearing that out!
I think badger-brock really meant imladris since the announcement of that faction barelly had any details compared to the last ones.
Thanks Earendil, yes you are right.
I swear to god if Edaiin Team developed the game itself, it would've been even better, well done Edain, looking forward to play this :D
Well,...what more needs to be said? You've DONE IT AGAIN!
YES!!! We've waiting for a preview for a long time. Isengard looks amazing. I cant wait for Lorien and Mordor!! Good luck and I hope we hear more news soon!
Fantastic, as usual! Great to see Isengard's unique role as a faction continue to evolve and grow. I feel like their war machine's momentum will translate much more literally with the return of the building leveling system.
Will the Edain team give the sword powerup on Gondor power tree to both Aragorn and Gandalf since they have superior swords to anybody? Also what will become of Ered Luin Gandalf and Gondor Gandalf. Will Shadowfax be replaced with at least one of the Ered Luin powers? Thanks FG or Gnomi, appreicate the input. I also hope Sauron has more than one palantir list.
The passive Anduril spell has been removed due too the bugs it caused. (Aragorn could get 2500 damage)
The Ered Luin Gandalf will remain in some form, but Gondor Gandalf won't be changed.
Sauron will be reworked.
Ah, really? No more Anduril? But that is from BFME 1, you guys really couldn't make it work or work out the bugs? Come on.
So Gondor is essentially the same as BFME 1. That should be a fast update.
Sauron--I hope for the better, and I like transforming.
No, it wasn't possible, we have tried many ways, but bfme II is another game than bfme i and with our aragorn system it is not possible to make it. We also liked the spell very much, but the engine of bfme is rather bad... Therefore we can't make all the things we want. :/
Sighs, its okay, you guys are doing good. Keep up the hard work. But hey, look at my idea about the Gondorian library in the comment summary section. If you can't find it, let me know, but I basically gave an idea to build a gandalf blend from both Ered Luin and Gondor.
Just a question, what's going to happen with the two blue wizards? They were in the inn, but since the inn is removed in edain 4.0...
Good question, I don't know.
I wished to clarify one thing about Isengard's orcs, anyway. It's not true they were mainly used for work. In the battle of the Fords of Isen, in the books as well as in a deleted scene in The Two Towers, Isengard's units are just orcs. And in the book version of the battle of the Helm's Deep (though I prefer the movie version), the main core of Isengard's army is made of Orcs and Dunlendings, while the Uruk-hai are just the elite soldiers. Maybe you could implement the orcs by recruiting them in the settlements, and no more than a certain amount of bataillons. Also, to remove their presence in the late game, you could disable them once an Uruk-pit reaches level 2. This way, the player will have access both to the Uruk Scouts from the Uruk-pit as well as to a much cheaper, though much weaker, variant: orcs
Also, a question: what will happen to Bill Ferny? Will he be still recruitable? Or will he be a Spellbook power?
Sounds great! But have you ever considered walls for Isengaard?
Yes, but we won't integrate them.
What about as an upgrade?
Very nice work with Isengard!!It seemed it will be very funny playing with and against them. I hope in a few weeks there will be an update for an other faction. Til then, good work Edain Team :)
I have installed something which translated much of the German into Google-Translate-English
But now the Dwarf campaign is gone, is this normal..?
Klem's translation isn't made by the edain team, so we have no idea what it actually changes. Perhaps the campaign is still there and just has another name?
This is sooooooo sick!!
The stuff you guys manage to pull off here is breathtaking! I just cant wait to play this ^^
Once it is released, can I make a donation somewhere to you guys? You really deserve something for all this. Not that I am rich or anything but I wanna show my appreciation for people doing this amazing work for the community :)
No, we don't want to take any money. We are doing this as a hobby, mostly because we have fun doing it. Even though it's always nice to hear that people would pay for our work we think that taking no donations would be the bst for everyone. Otherwise perhaps people who donates something think that we have to integrate their ideas and get very angry when we don't. But we want to stay independent. :)
I don't understand. If it is possible to make mineshaft, why you can not make movie-like uruk pit?
it's not that they can't it's that there is nothing wrong with ea's one so why change it
We thought that it would be impossible, but we found a way to do such things.
The problem with an uruk pit is that the uruks would always spawn on top of the area. The terrain just gest invisible, but units can't run on all of the parts under the normal terrain. Therefore spawning units would look horrible.
Additionally the hole would need to be far too big, as without a bridge big enough for units would need a lot of space. Such a building would be far too huge for the building system.
Youtube.com EADIN THE BEST!
Hey Edain Folk! About the Isengard Captains, I noticed that their model is the same, independent of which horde you apply them to. Is it possible to alter it? Between hordes? And also, the model is the same of the Uruk Hai. Is it possible to change him?