With the upcoming release of Early Access for Bannerlord on March 31st, I wanted to make an article to update the community of the state of Kingdoms of Arda and modding in Bannerlord.
Addressing the main concern and impact of this year; modding in Bannerlord. There will be no modding tools with the release of early access on the 31st. This means modding will be very limited until we have the tools and as far as we know, modding tools will not come until the full release of Bannerlord. Despite this there are some things that we can achieve without modding tools. A new member, Ster, has been able to engineer ways for us to access features like Custom Games battles so we can test troop balance and more. Plenty should be possible in the future!
Onto the mod!
Music
Arktos has been busy continuing on creating soundtracks for all of Middle Earth, some of which seen in his latest article: Moddb.com . For now we will share the faction themes for the factions that will be first released.
Mordor
Isengard
Rohan
Gondor
User Interface
With access to the Bannerlord's files, we can see a lot of the UI elements that Taleworlds will use for Bannerlord, combined with UI images released online, we have a good layout and image of what we will do for UI. Our 2D artist Simon has been working on these UI pieces, an example below:
In this example the inventory slots are changed to the Gondorian culture. Eventually most icons will be changed to have an aesthetic that matches the player's culture.
2D Art
Plenty of unit designs have been made over the past year, here are some of them:
Uruk-Hai mid tier units for the Legion made by Dimas, who made the Morgai concept as well. Isengard will see a large update on their models before we will have them in Bannerlord, with these images as reference.
We also have some Mordor Uruk designs, which we hopefully will see come to 3D soon along with remade high tier armour too.
BLBoca has created concept for the Variags of Khand, inspired with influences of the other Eastern faction Rhun but with its own aesthetic. This concept showing one of Khands main units, their heavy axemen.
Roman painted visuals for the tiers below the Lebennin armour posted awhile ago Moddb.com that Jannis will also take to 3D.
Jannis has done some of his own 2D work, with the concept for Pelargir Marines posted below.
We have yet another iteration of the Black Numenoreans by Roman, this being the final draft we will make before finally finishing it in 3D.
3D Art
Much of the 3D progress has been posted already. Even more projects are in the progress which will hopefully see completion soon.
Starting off with the new artist, Renault's Rohan Royal Guard. This will get a proper preview when all of the related assets are finished. You can see more renders on artstation here: Artstation.com
The Gondor armours have been updated for the 73rd time. They might be included in a future preview with new assets to show alongside them.
Game Design
The Factions Revamped article has been rewritten: Moddb.com It was getting out of date, so now it should be more clear about the factions and how they will work.
That is all to share for now. Thanks for reading, feel free to leave any questions or comments down below.
Great work guys
This article gave me a boner
Same.
Bannerlord is not released yet, but I already know which mod will be my favorite) You make amazing work as always!
Absolutely beautiful
TEST
Lebbenin was already my favourite fiefdom, but that Pelargir marine design? It just jumped to a new level
It will be amazing
beautiful work
wow
If you make Umbar a corsair kingdom ruled by black Numenoreans it will be great. That Black Numenorean model is just top notch! We are the Kings men!!!
We dont want to copy fan fiction from other works like DaC. Sorry to say the Kings Men are not an addition we are planning,
First of all: It's your mod so you decide, i respect your decision even if i don't like it.
Second: But please don't say it's because it's fan fiction. You already use tons of fan fiction.Which is good,it makes the mod more fun to play. For example: Tolkien never, ever, mentioned plate armor being used. Nor did he ever say anything specific about Dorwinion. While he did mention that Numenor did create colonies and ports in the south of Middle Earth. Since those settlements were clearly not Dunedain, it is logical to assume that they were created and ruled by the Kings Man, and that some of them survived there the fall on Numenor. So, while - yes, Umbar being ruled by the Kings Men can be considered fan fiction, it is not directly contravening Tolkien in any way. It can even be considered quite plausible.But as i said - it's your mod - your decision.
Anyway, now that i got that out of my system, when playing Mordor will it be possible to make a Black Numenorean character, or just those snaga filth?
Sorry, didnt see the reply.
Yes we are making our own fan fiction, I specified that we are going to make our own content instead of copying others. With the books and movies as a base.
Yes its plausible that there were "Kings Men" further south, but Tolkien did tell us about Umbar and how it makes no sense for such a culture to be there. We also know that those Kings Men had no significant impact on the War of the Ring.
Yes, Black Numenoreans will be an option for players.
Alright, fair enough. Thank you for the answer.
This team is full of talents ! A real "dream team"
It's the A-Team! :D I bet one of them is B.A.Baracus
One of my favorites TV show when i was kid !
nice
looks epic! cant wait to play it!
👏👏
Really hyped to see some Northern Dunedain and Dwarven 3D art concepts. This article was absolutely amazing.
Dunedain and Dwarves will come later down the line, but the will come eventually!
Will the Dwarven themes also be shown later down the line? Really curious to how you will differentiate the themes of Erebor and Ered Luin. The dwarves of EL need some love.
Ered Luin is strongly rooted in Erebor's music material, but features lighter orchestrations. Other than that Ered Luin won't differ much from typical stoic dwarven soundscapes and only has few dedicated themes.
Looks fantastic.. Keep going guys :D
The black numenoreans look so kickass
You guys are heros we need but dont deserve!!
do you guys have a discord?
Here you go: Discord.gg
Great work guys!
Will Dol Amroth be a standalone faction like in DaC? (mod for third age total war)
Nope, Dol Amroth is a fiefdom of Gondor.
when will the full game come out? I really want you to do the mod
We dont know when the full game will be released.
I'm a really big mount and blade fan and an even bigger Lord of the Rings fan. This literally is amazing. The Rohan armor picture made me so happy. I love Rohan's armor and this looks exactly like it. Keep up the great work! Can't wait to play your mod!
Glad you like it, hopefully we can show some more soon.
Kind regards
All the music is awesome too.
and they are not going to give the modification tools to you who have been with the mod for years?
Not until full release.
I would like to say, this is a literally a dream of mine and you guys are making it happen. Good work, y'all have a Patreon I can support?
No Patreon or donating.
What do you have made of the mod?
Amazing work!
are you already working on the mod?
We have been for years.
you are amazing! Keep up the good work! I know which mod will be my favourite :D
Remember to vote when 'Mod of the year' is a thing :D
How many factions? I saw the map, and it shows a lot more faction names.
Moddb.com
Great Work
There won't be Dol Amroth?
Dol Amroth is a settlement within Belfalas