The newsletter for March is getting a bit longer again, have a nice read!
Activity at modding
At the game Mount & Blade: Warband the developers of Persistent Lord of the Rings (PLotR) posted a gameplay video, showcasing a bit the region of Rhovanion in the upcoming update at the end of March.
At LotR: Realms in Exile for Crusader Kings III the next update got a release date, it's going to be the third of April. The update will feature the realms of Gondor, Mordor and Umbar. We got a nice sneak peak at the world map and some Gondor castle holdings.
Venlesh wrote an article about the Hiatus of his modding project Legends of Middle-Earth 5.0 for Age of Mythology: The Titans. He is stopping the work at his meanwhile five year old mod due to a lack of Community Interest of the game and also time and live. His article also contains LOME concepts which he never realised yet, so perhaps someone of you feels the call for continuing the work at this fascinating project.
It was also nice to see some new activity at The Last Battle of Middle Earth for the game Civilization V. There we got a new Gondor Scout Camp.
With this we are coming to the Total War series, starting as usual with Medieval II: Total War: Kingdoms. At the mod Silmarillion: Total War we got now some hero units coming up: Mablung of the Heavy Hand, Beleg Cuthalion, Warden of Doriath, Galdor the Tall, Lord of the House of the Tree, Prince Gwindor of Nargothrond, and Denethor, Son of Lenwë, Lord of the Green Elves.
Third Age Total War 4.0 got an update. Main features are the new faction of the Orocarni Dwarves, new "lore accurate" unique and generic faction settlements as well as custom titles. Also there is a new feature called "Ruins", allowing the player to explore iconic places in search for treasures. Beside that bug fixes, new mechanics, etc.
We also got to see some more fancy units at Castellan's Visual Enhancemets & Overhaul for Divide And Conquer, Ar-Pharazon's Faithful and Aduniam Captains
At Third Age: Reforged the Nazguls got an overhaul as well as khamuls Chosen.
At the modding project Conflicts of Eriador the developers presented a new bodyguard unit for Dunland and Bonded Champions of Dunland in-game.
Total War: Rise of Mordor for Total War: Attila got an update, version 0.4.0 got released. The update features a revamped and complete Erebor faction, a new unit for Lindon, tweaks for other factions, one new siege map, one field map, a weather overhaul and balancing overhaul. You can read more about the update here. Maeron also painted plenty of new design concepts for Harad, it feels a bit like they have imprisoned him in a cellar and he only gets food if he finished one drawing :D
Also they managed to create curved walls now which will serve well at new maps. And we got a glance one the new Galadhrim Warriors.
Coming with this to the BfME series, starting with the update at Power Of the Ring - Campaigns Of Middle Earth for Battle for Middle-earth II which fixes minor issues and bugs and tests the balance.
Then we got Axe-elves of the Golden Wood at the modding project Age of the Ring for Battle for Middle-earth II: Rise of the Witch King, they didn't made it into the last newsletter.
At the mod Wars of the Firstborn based on The Ridder Clan Mod we got some showcases about the AI and new animations. You can have a short read about the High-Elves BFME1 AI at the article here. The developers gave us also a few nice screenshots.
The developers of Edain Mod wrote an article about the road to Edain 4.6: Moria. They are giving informations there about the buildings, troops and heroes of this upcoming faction, you can have a full read here.
And at LOTR Weapon and Armour Designs we got some Dwarven Throwing Axe.
Tolkien in games outside the modding area
MikeTheEmperor released the second demo version of The Ring Roleplay Project - TRRP. He wrote a short article about what to expect here. And here you got also some nice in-game screenshots to give you a first impression.
At The Battle for Middle-Earth: Reforged the developers showed off Elves of Rivendell and a concept art for Tom Bombadil.
That's it for the first half of March 2021. I hope it was a nice and informative overview for you about the happenings in the Tolkien Modding Community!
As always, should I have forgotten to show off the recent progress of some of your favourite mod teams, don't forget to comment about them. They will be mentioned then in the next news article. Feel also free to join the Tolkien Modding Community Discordapp.com
Best regards,
Earendil
Ahahahaha poor Maeron! But does an excellent work
Really good updates i've seen, really good models in this newsletter :)
That Haradrim knows how to protect himself from Covid-19, respect. :P
But I do wonder why recently some lotr mods has become on hold / hiatus...
Well, it's always a coming and going at LotR mods. Which other ones are now on hold or hiatus?
Well you know Folk of Middle Earth has on hold, and now LOME is become on hiatus. :(
Ah, yes, Folk of Middle Earth. A pity, yes.
Great
Some really good stuff! Elves of Rivendell are wow!