Post news Report RSS The Road to Edain 4.0: Durin's Folk

Summon the veterans of Khazad-Dûm to your side and defend a new Dwarven fortress in Edain 4.0!

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The Road to Edain 4.0: Durin's Folk



Greetings, companions of Edain!

In the last two updates we have shown you some impressions of the reworked Misty Mountain faction. Besides such big changes there are many other far smaller and far more subtle improvements we are working on. These shall not only reflect the ambience of the movie, but present you new and unique functions.

Of course, it is quite complicated to implement the movie designs as close and authentic as possible, but we are trying our best. The following update will provide a brief insight. Additionally, you might watch the new Hobbit trailer made by FG15.

Some time ago there was a user who mentioned the dwarven designs shown in the Hobbit, which we might use. Of course we have also watched the movies, so this fact was nothing new for us. Nonetheless this comment made us reconsider this topic, so we tried to find the best way to integrate these designs. We have to admit that we are very proud of our dwarven unit designs, giving each dwarf realm a unique and different look. Not wanting to throw these away, we thought the best way was to use the movie Dwarves as the new Veterans of Khazad-Dûm.

Veterans of Khazad-Dûm

The Veterans of Khazad-Dûm will keep their current conception, having the possibility to choose their weapons, so the player can equip them in the way he prefers. Also, we like to remind you of their new implementation, which we have already presented in a previous update.

The Dwarves are able to build the travel camp on their settlements. Here they gather supplies, pack horses and weapons and make plans for the departure to Khazad-dum. At regular intervals, a caravan of pack horses will be provided. You can now combine them with a bataillon of Guardians to create an expedition force. This group will then move towards the edge of the map and set off to Khazad-Dûm. Now there is a chance that the journey fails and the Dwarves are lost in Moria - but fortunately, you can send out a new force any number of times. If you're lucky, however, your Dwarves will return after a while as veterans of Khazad-Dûm. Through the dangers that they had to conquer on their way, they have become much more dangerous warriors. In addition, they were able to capture a small amount of Mithril and may now hand a shirt of the precious metal over to one of your heroes. This makes Mithril significantly scarcer than at present and implements the whole concept in a much more realistic way.

The following the pictures will give you the possibilty to get a glance at the design of the Veterans of Khazad-Dûm. The following picture shows their weapons in detail.

Veterans of Khazad-Dûm

We have also made improvements to the Dwarven structures. In Battle for Middle-Earth II the forge and siegeworks of Durin's Folk were combined in one building. This was a useful concept in the free building system, but it does not fit the building system in Edain 4.0 anymore. Building plots are a rare good in the new building system. This means we have to pay attention that no faction is able to use one build plot far more effective than everyone else. The Dwarves have got only seven build plots, so it seems to be fair that they might use one build plot a little bit more effective than the other factions. The problem was that the old dwarven forge was too useful even in that context. It provided cavalry (the battle wagons) siege engines and unit upgrades all in one building. For example, Isengart has 8 build plots, which is just one more than the Dwarves, but they need three buildings for these functions.

Our solution is that we created the forge as an unique building, so the Dwarves need at least one build plot more, even if cavalry and siege engines still are in the same building. For this reason, the two functions will be seperated. In future, the old Dwarven forge will be the Dwarven siegeworks and will contain the siege engines and battle wagons. Additionally, there will be a new Dwarven forge, where you can research the unit upgrades. The design of this building was inspired by one scene from the first Hobbit movie.

You can watch it more closely in the following video:


Those readers paying attention might have noticed that we worked on a few points the Community had critized: The consistency of coloring and design structuring. A revision ensured that both the wall segments as well as the building elements share the same style, to create a far more beautiful overall impression. We did not only rework the coloring, but we also included light effects in the fortress, which are cast by different torches at the buildings and wall.
The following screenshots will give you an impression:

Dwarven FortressDwarven Fortress

Studying the pictures closely, you can see even more new buildings. These are the new Dwarven barracks, and also Dwarven statue and the stoneworker. During the rework of the design, it seemed important to us to mimize the feeling that a dwarven building was directly built into the mountain. As an independent building that looked great, but as part of a larger fortress each structure shouldn't just be hewn from rough rock.

Dwarven Hall of WarriorsDwarven Stoneworker

The stoneworker produces ressources and can upgrade the fortress in different ways. This seemed fitting for the Dwarves, being a faction with great expertise and craftmanship. The upgrades which can be researched by the stoneworker are:

- Battle tower training -> Fortress battle towers are improved with forged axes.
- Structural engineering -> Brings all structures in the fortress to level 3.
- Line of defense -> Allows the player to use a second line of defense directly in front of their citadel.

The Battle tower training is equivalent to the Gondor fortress, which can improve their towers with fire arrows. Structural Engineering allows a new tactical possibility, so the player can level all his buildings up to their maximum level by paying money. The third upgrade, line of defense, enables two build plots directly in front of the citadel. On these you can build battle towers, hearths or statues.

This screenshot shows the fortress with that upgrade:

Dwarven Fortress Secondary Defenses

At last, we like to present you the new Edain-Trailer made by FG15, which is again the exact reproduction of an original trailer within Edain.


We hope that you enjoyed this preview and would like to read your opinion and feedback in the comment section! If you liked what you saw, we'd be very grateful if you could honor us with your vote for Mod of the Year as well!

Your Edain Team

Post comment Comments  (0 - 50 of 84)
saruman_the_wise
saruman_the_wise

I swear too god you guys are trying to give me a heart attack :D

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saruman_the_wise
saruman_the_wise

also is the new heroic statue for the dwarves also act as durins grave and there multiple ones can be built

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FG15
FG15

The durin statue will have the ring function of durins grave, and you can build more than one.

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HerrSeuchenMarine
HerrSeuchenMarine

Looks great! I've never been more excited to play as the Dwarves! Two questions though: (1) Will the buildings differ between each of the Dwarven realms as in the previous version (or will it be the same design but with different units and banners) and (2) For the Dwarven Stoneworker, will the player be able to research each of the three previously described upgrades or only one to make him/her choose the best course for his/her battle?
I'm quite excited to see what you'll do with Mordor....

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FG15
FG15

The buildings will only differ in units and banners, because the old buildings weren't fitting with the new building system.
The player will be able to research all the three upgrades in the Stonepit.

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HerrSeuchenMarine
HerrSeuchenMarine

Ausgeexcellent! Vielen Thanks! (The Rune textures have become the icing on the Dwarven cake!)

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admiral_trenchx
admiral_trenchx

MY GOD the dwarven structures look amazing. cant wait for this. And sorry to ask the same question everyone keeps asking but is 4.0 going to be translated? ive already figured everything out in german but still, would be nice :D

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LordDainOfIronHills
LordDainOfIronHills

4.0 version will be in both English and German! :)

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UomoSurreale
UomoSurreale

one word, magnificent!

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LordDainOfIronHills
LordDainOfIronHills

This awesome Dwarves were always my favorite faction and thought they can't get cooler and better than they already are but this is perfect and awesome!!I will play them and have even more fun! :)

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Guest
Guest

When The Mod Will Be Released

The Turks Are Very Curious

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costanzofan
costanzofan

More news PLEASE!One vote from me for the best mode!

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TheReaper1
TheReaper1

This is just getting better and better :D

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Glemli
Glemli

Perhaps this is a dumb question, but I'm new to modding, so: do you have to download something new if you want the entire game in English or will the update do that?
Also: when will this version come out? Can't you even tell us vaguely? ^^

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Gnomi
Gnomi

The update is a complete new version - so if you download the version (and install it with our starter) it should delete the old version and integrate the enw version (in the language you want)

And no, we can't give you a date. The problem is that we are no professionals and this is just a hobby. Therefore we don't know how much time we can spare for working on the mod and therefore can't tell you when we've finished working on the new version.
If we give you a date, but don't manage it in time there would be some people flaming and raging at us for not fulfilling our promisses.

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Glemli
Glemli

Ok, yes I understand that. :-) Thank you!

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SebaZ_16
SebaZ_16

Awesome!! I have only one question, I noticed in other mods that had a "dwarven fortress" that the catapult expansion was vulnerable to infantry atacks. Will that happen in your fortress?
Also, the only remaining factions to be done are: Isengard, Lorien and Mordor. Am I right?

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TKAzA
TKAzA

wow, nice work!

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Саурон
Саурон

When the mod will be released? Already can't wait!

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nooblordz
nooblordz

Hi Gnomi, Angmar, Rohan, Misty Mountain and Dwarves u released them and they are really good work. But I have a question, we need to wait all race news until relase mod? or can we play this mod in 1-2 month?
-Keep up good work, ty for all works, good luck :P

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Guest
Guest

About when I can download it?

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Guest
Guest

I would just like to say 3.75 was released to day 2 years ago when will 4.0 be released

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Guest
Guest

Hey, not to trouble you guys overmuch, but can you give us a rough guestimate of when 4.0 may come out? I'm just curious. (You guys have done an awesome job, keep up the good work!)

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Dark_Ansem
Dark_Ansem

with all these buildings, will you enlarge the maps too?

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Gnomi
Gnomi

No.
We can't just make the maps larger, as we would have to rework all maps for that. (it would be like creating every map completely new)

Additionally, the enginge can't handle larger maps without problems - if we make larger maps, the game would start lagging as soon as you have 2-3 batallions on the battlefield.

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Cauliflower_Face
Cauliflower_Face

I have a question. Ok so the default version of Lotr:Bfme 2 ROTWK dosn't appear to support 1920x1080 resoloution. Will Edain 4.0 support it?

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Guest
Guest

date of release?

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Guest
Guest

I've been watching this for a while, it's amazing to see so much work going into a game I started playing 8 years ago. You're doing an incredible job with this mod.

I know you can't say when it will be done, but about how much do you have left to do?

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Guest
Guest

can someone tell my when the release date is off EDAIN 4.0

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Gnomi
Gnomi

No, as we (the team) never give any release dates.
The mod is just a hobby and we don't know when other things (school, work, university, ..) need more time and we don't have time for continue modding.

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Guest
Guest

Are you going to re-design Smaug to the movie design? or closer to it ?

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Gnomi
Gnomi

We'll see. Probably he will remain a dragon and won't become a wyvern. (smaug in the movie was NOT a dragon, but a wyvern)
But perhaps the layout may change.
I personally like our look more, as it is much closer to tolkien's picture of smaug, but we'll see.^^

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ultimate_legion
ultimate_legion

maybe just the movie design (wings, horns, head, tail) with the missing pair of legs? so it would be a dragon-like and no wyvenr-like, also if you put Cumberbatch voice in game that would be awesome :D

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SamwiseJenkins
SamwiseJenkins

Aww pleeeeeeeeease design a wyvern, perhaps as an alternative version i.e film smaug?

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Corypheus
Corypheus

He was a Dragon he breathed fire wyverns cant breath fire.
The reasons for his design in the movie was most likely because its easier to animate more natural to.

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Guest
Guest

los trasgos no tienen heroes a distancia

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Oversun
Oversun

Good afternoon.
Dwarven Castle you will be too dark, cold and gray . Waiting for your mod version 4.0 installed first part BFME and found some interesting mods. One of them : The Dwarf Halls adds gnomes. Their strength is not only different from the standard form of fractions , but looks colorful. On the floor, carpets, lights and a lighter stone. He remembered a standard card " Erebor " , which was attended such interior details.
Tell me, is something like you ? Maybe in the process of studies in the main fortress , will change its appearance ? Or will it be the same ? Then, though , lay carpets , dwarves froze himself heel .

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Guest
Guest

might wanna work on your google translate skills

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Oversun
Oversun

It is with the help of Google Translate I translated your text. But unfortunately your phrase could not understand, even with his help, perhaps because of the punctuation.
Sorry that my comment ignored Edain fashion creators. Want to hear their response.

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lord_ellessar
lord_ellessar

are you going to change the maps of erebor, esgaroth, ... :)

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GirordashurAgar
GirordashurAgar

So are you going to do with the dwarves the same system you did with the goblins? The three subfactions on different outposts? Or will you be able to just choose the dwarvenfaction you want to play in the beginning.

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Lucafaka93
Lucafaka93

So now we just have to wait the updates of the remaining factions??Or you have still to adjust balance and stuff like that?Thank you all

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Glemli
Glemli

Will Bard's look be altered to that of the movie?
Also: I seem to have problems with invoking Fili and Kili. How do you precisely do that? Because when the power becomes available I can click on it, but I can't click on enemies to actually call upon Fili and Kili..

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Proxyy
Proxyy

Can't wait for the 4.0 !
But one thing, I hope you guys change the gameplay with Isengard
Honestly, the build limit that the black circle gives, is kinda "annoying"
I'm the type of player who loves to build big cities, very organized and etc ..

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