Greetings, companions of the Edain!
After this year's April Fools joke, we are back with more news about version 4.6. Some time ago we already presented you our ideas for Smaug the Mighty, the King under the Mountain. Today we complete his concept and at the same time present the resulting last major new concept of the Misty Mountains: the Ring Hero.
We decided quite some time ago that Smaug, unlike Shelob, would remain the Ring Hero of the Misty Mountains faction. Shelob is no longer available as a Misty Mountains hero, after all she was in no way allied with the wild orcs during the War of the Ring and stayed in a completely different mountain range. So the best and only choice for a Ring Hero is Smaug, who has no equal among orcs and other monsters. And the Misty Mountains, more than any other race, follow the law of strength - so its obviously unquestionable that Smaug, greedy as he is, would never let any of the orcs take the One Ring and would claim it for himself.
So we thought about which characteristics of a dragon are most fanned by the One Ring. Fanned is exactly the right word: with the ring, an insatiable fire, a fanatical greed and distrust of every living thing flares up inside Smaug. Whereas without the Ring he already has little trust (if at all) in the orcs,his mistrust becomes paranoia with the Ring, such that he sees only enemies and thieves everywhere.
But even a brutally powerful and cunning creature like Smaug feels the weight of the Ring, which is why with the Ring he will mostly stay on the ground. His abilities there are as follows:
Inner Fire (Level 1): Smaug's greed and nature literally burn within him. He is completely surrounded by a glow that damages all units in his immediate vicinity and sets the ground around him on fire. Passive Ability.
Avarice (Level 3): Driven by the One Ring, Smaug goes in search of new treasures. Attacks an allied or enemy economic building and generates a high amount of money.
Greed of the Last Dragon (Level 5): The greed of the golden dragon is insatiable, so a tribute must be paid to him consistently. For every 1500 gold in the player's possession, Smaug demands higher tribute, but in return receives +20% attack and armour up to a maximum of +100%. In addition, Smaug captures resources for defeated enemies. Passive Ability.
Burning Skies (Level 7): Smaug briefly rises into the air to burn all enemies. However, weighed down by the One Ring, he cannot move. He has access to new abilities until he lands again after a maximum of 60 seconds.
Infernal Force of Nature (Level 10): Smaug soars into the air and leaps to his enemies. In the area of his swoop, he causes an earthquake in a large radius and briefly sets the ground on fire. Damages everything.
As you can see, the game changes a lot for Smaug once he picks up the One Ring. He can no longer simply fly away quickly from battles or hide above high peaks. However, he also leaves a trail of devastation in his wake. The player must be careful that the orcs do not burn to death as well. In addition, Smaug now becomes so greedy with the ring that he constantly steals money from the player! This loss of resources depends on how much gold the player has - if you are poor, Smaug cannot take much from you and even a few resource buildings make up for the loss. However, the richer the player gets, the more he has to pay the Golden Dragon. Although Smaug receives huge bonuses to his armour and damage in this way, he also devours enormous sums of gold.
Avarice is an adapted version of the Golden Dragon's Greed from his normal form. It synergises greatly with his passive ability at level 5, making it easier for Smaug to reach his full potential. With Burning Sky, Smaug will engulf entire cities or armies in fire, as you can see below. Finally, he unleashes terrible destruction with his Infernal Beast, which allows him to leap over medium distances and bring destruction and ruin directly to the enemy.
The decision to not let Smaug fly around completely freely was not easy for us. In the end, it did not only solve a technical problem (if Smaug had been shot out of the air over impassable terrain, the ring would then have been unreachable), but also gave us the opportunity to make the corrupting influence of the ring palpable. Rising into the air costs Smaug strength and exposes his body to dangerous archers, which is why he only stays up there for a short time. In return, he unleashes a barrage of devastating attacks. He has the following new abilities while Burning Sky is active:
Ring Madness (Level 1): The weight of the One Ring and the fear of losing it weigh Smaug down, so he cannot change his position and lands back on the ground after 60 seconds, exhausted. He attacks enemies from a distance with fireballs. Passive Ability.
Landing (Level 1):Fearing for the ring, Smaug lands again.
Fire Flight (Level 7): Smaug fires a flaming projectile at his enemies, causing devastating damage.
Sea of Flames (level 10): Driven by the madness of the ring, Smaug feels safe only in the midst of fire, which destroys all other creatures. Smaug creates a vast inferno beneath him, which burns all living creatures. Near the resulting wasteland, Smaug is healed.
As long as Smaug is in the air, all other creatures should take to their heels. His standard attack is now a fireball, which he can use to attack enemies further away, and the already known Fire Flight destroys even steeled warriors in a large radius. Sea of Flames gives Smaug a way to heal himself and also deals high building damage - particularly useful as buildings cannot run away from the stationary Smaug. So if Smaug can fight his way into enemy camps and take to the air, his fire will devour all but the strongest fortifications.
We hope you enjoyed this update and are, as always, looking forward to your feedback!
Your Edain Team
First of all, thanks for another update.
Although I understand it's not easy to be creative all the time and hold Edain to the highest standard as in the past. Likewise, I understand that specifically for Smaug it was hard to create a concept that was unique and still fit the gameplay. Even the users on Modding-Union didn't come up with something like that, though they came extremely close to it and should be appreciated for their efforts and great discussions (I have participated in them myself in the past, by the way).
So, to be honest, I have two major reservations with this concept. First, it's not unique, as the gameplay is basically Gandalf the Black, only in dragon form. Slow and encumbered by a ring albeit with fire abilities. And the second is that dragons are meant to fly. It's not a lizard on the ground. There are only a few flying creatures in the game, and it's a shame that the ring dragon can only take flight for a limited time. It unnecessarily spoils the enjoyment of the game.
I don't see this as a criticism, of course it's to give it time and maybe re-evaluate it in the future (after all, a number of heroes have been re-evaluated for the better over time). I was just simply expecting more, as I really liked the redesign of the Misty Mountains from the original intent years ago, and the Ring Smaug was supposed to be the icing on the cake. Too bad it isn't.
Still, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for the finishing touches on the whole faction and looking forward to finally playing it since it was first announced all those years ago. :o)
That Smaug can't fly is sadly a technical limitation that we tried to circumvent, but it didn't work out. The dropping on unpassable ground just isn't fun for neither player. And Smaug only flying above pathable ground doesn't feel good either.
So flying but stationary, with a huge power boost (he throws fireballs as his standard attack), is the best compromise that we could manage.
Also, there is only so much that you can do with a flying hero, because flying units can only be interacted with so much.
And for me, Smaug is the most unique ring hero in Edain, simply for the fact that he interacts with the players money, something no other ring hero or hero does.
Could you expand on that?
The very same should happen with dwarven ring Hero, an interaction with the players money, for good or for Ill.
Also im a bit saddened, because I thought ring Smaug would use The Hobbit movies desing.
Then if nothing can be done, could the model be standing diferent? As dear Tiberius says, change him from a lizard snaking in the ground to a proud Dragon Lord, Like this, as Gandalfs vision at Dol guldur:
Thranduilthings.tumblr.com
That would most likely require a different animation set which would have to be custom made.
Indeed but Scathas model somehow could be used, Also the dragon strike model or even Drogoths skeleton!
Scatha: Youtu.be
Dragon strike: Youtu.be
Drogoth: Youtu.be
Its an interesting design, and I think it quite encapsulates what would become of Smaug if he managed to acquire the Ring.
Since the moment I found out Smaug was to be the Ring-Hero, I've been curious to see how you guys would handle it, and I'm glad to have my questions answered :)
I'm not so sure about the ideas behind this, to be honest.
I understand that it would suck to lose the Ring in water or impassable terrain, but doesn't the Ring despawn after some time in Edain? So can't it then just reappear with Gollum? That sounds like a minor sacrifice compared to the major restriction of grounding the greatest winged wyrm of the Third Age. Giving him the Ring should intuitively feel like an upgrade, removing his ability to fly is something you *might* be able to balance out but it's never going to feel good.
I feel like this solution is a consequence of approaching an ideal gameplay flow too strictly, and ending up with a worse result than just accepting that the Ring may, very rarely, get dropped somewhere a player can't go.
Just reappearing with Gollum would means that Gollum would respawn on that impassible terrain and won't get away from there.
And the sacrifice of staying on the ground is full intentional. In Edain there are hardly any ring heroes, who just get a full powerup (Gandalf the White and Sauron). Most ring heroes have to either sacrifice something in order to not be affected by the ring or loose part of themselves by being corrupted by the ring.
If every hero with the ring just became a stronger version of itself, that would be incredibly boring and lazy design.
And it is not just a random sacrifice. We look at, in what way each ring hero would be affected by the ring and as written above for Smaug it increases his greed and suspicion of anyone trying to harm him or his treasure. And it honestly fits Smaug much better than just swooping over enemies and attacking them with his claws.
He is not grounded, though? He can still fly? He gains access to his Fireball as a standard attack, Firefly which deals even more damage, and Sea of Flames as an incredibly powerful lvl 10 ability. He also constantly sets the ground on fire and burns enemies around him from the start - that sure feels like an upgrade to me and is visible right from the start.
Love the idea. Like others, I hoped for a flying Ringhero but the fact Smaug's power is connected to the player's amount of ressources is something very unique, and this is what make the Edain mod different from others.
Keep heart until the release, that's great !
This looks great! A greedy Smaug turned out even more greedy with ring! Do you plan to make any Ring-Roles for Great Goblin or The Defiler too?
Like as an example; The Great Goblin even though wasn't had much of characteristic on the book, judging from the movie, maybe he can get more fierce with the ring? More stronger, surrounded by goblins, but also extremely slower with doing crush damage to everyone -allies, enemies- around him?
By the way is the texture of Smaug revised? His skin tone looks a bit darker, idk is it about the image though.
Radagast did indeed change Smaug's skin, good catch.
As we said in the article, Smaug is the only logical candidate for us. In the Misty Mountains, the biggest and strongest take what they want - that is why they were almost never a unified faction - and nobody is bigger or stronger than Smaug.
What about Durin's Bane? After all, he/it was a powerful Maia spirit more than capable of mastering the ring