Kingdoms of Arda

[Feaden]

Tolkien's Middle Earth Mod:
Kingdoms of Arda is a Singleplayer & Multiplayer total conversion of Mount & Blade II Bannerlord, that brings the world of Tolkien into the game. This includes: characters, locations, weapons etc. from The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, Silmarillion and other works by Tolkien and media made for his universe.

Planned Features

• Middle Earth Campaign Map
  
• Multiplayer
  
• Story Mode: Play as your favourite characters in scenes from the books and films
  
• Many New Factions 35+
  
• Custom Map Icons & Custom Scenes
  
• Known Lords and Characters from LOTR, The Hobbit and other works of Tolkien
  
• New playable races: Elves, Dwarves, Dúnedain, Orcs, Hobbits, Goblins, Uruks
  
• New creatures: Trolls, Ents, Mumakils, Wargs and many more
  
• New Music and Audio
  
• Many New Troop Trees and Mercenaries
  
• New Weapons, Armours and Mounts
  
• LOTR related Banners
  
• New Companions
  
• New Quests
  
• Custom LOTR locations
  
• New siege equipment
  
• Many new features not seen in the native game
  
  

  First release will include:

• Gondor
  
• Rohan
  
• Mordor
  
• Isengard
  
• Harad
  
• Dunland
  
  

  Here is a article with some questions that have been frequently (and some not so frequently) asked questions about KoA (Kingdoms of Arda).

  
  -How long until KoA releases?
  It is impossible to answer this right now, it is still a long time until then. The mod tools have accelerated our production, but we can't and won't give a date.
  
  -What inspiration will KoA take from the movies, the books, TLD, etc?
  Our primary inspiration is from the main trilogy, the books will be used to supplement them in times of lack of creativity or poor choices. TLD is a big inspiration being the biggest LotR mod for Bannerlord's predecessor. We are familiar with the vast majority of LotR works, if we are not using ideas from one of them, its likely on purpose.
  
  -What art direction will this mod be taking?
  We will be following the Weta designs for the movies almost entirely. We will use other sources such as concept, Games Workshop and previous Lord of the Rings modifications. We will not follow much from Shadow of Mordor and LOTRO.
  
  -When will KoA take place in?
  January, 3016 T.A. (2 years before The Fellowship leaves Rivendell). It will be possible for the player to attend the Council of Elrond along with other events mentioned in the books & movies.
  
  -Where will KoA take place?
  We plan to cover a very large portion of Middle Earth (with the possibility to expand further south, north and east). Although first version will only cover Gondor, Rohan, Mordor, Isengard, Harad, and Dunland, the map will be expanded far in all directions. We will be detailing Middle-earth throughout the development of the mod.
  
  -Can you reforge Arnor?
  Arnor as part of the Reunited Kingdom, yes.
  
  -Can I join the Fellowship?
  -Yes you will be able to join The Fellowship if you are present at the Council of Elrond and have the right amount of influence etc. with certain characters. As an evil character you are able to oppose the Fellowship as well.
  
  -What races will there be?
  Playable races: Men, Dúnedain, Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits, Orcs, Goblins, Uruks *We do understand that orc and goblin describe the same thing. But the orcs from places like Moria and Goblin-Town will feature a different skeleton, facial features, skin tones, and body mass compared to an orc from somewhere like Mordor. We describe the race that typically lives in caves as "Goblins" and the ones elsewhere as "orcs". Non-playable: Trolls, Ents, Half-trolls, Oathbreakers (Ghosts), Barrow-wights Mounts: Wargs, Mumakil, Great Beasts
  
  -Will there be fellbeasts, dragons, chariots, boars, rams, goats, pigs, elk, deer or any similar type of mounts?
  No. Some of these would be impossible to add realistically and visually appealing to Bannerlord(fellbeasts and dragons). While the others are not lore-accurate, break balance (dwarven cavalry), and not visually appealing to the team, so the amount of work to put in these complex mounts would not be worth it. We will include new skeletons for various races like hobbits, dwarves, wargs, trolls, goblins etc. We plan to add Gollum as well, but it all depends if we can make visual appealing animations.
  
  -Will it be possible to kill certain characters (Frodo, Aragorn, Saruman etc.)?
  Yes! It is possible to kill pretty much everyone, but if they are known characters they will be more unlikely to die. Characters like the Nazgûl can’t be killed until Sauron is destroyed.
  
  -What are the factions and settlements?
  There will be approximately be 25 major factions factions with a large spattering of minor factions.
  
  -Will you take advantage of the crafting system?
  Currently we have no plans for using the crafting system.
  
  -Can I create my own kingdom, castle or be king?
  No. The player can be a lord and own land, but not be a faction leader.
  
  -Will music from the films be added?
  No, this is not needed because our musicians will make our own soundtrack.
  
  -What is story mode?
  Story mode is entirely separate from our campaign. It is a series of scenarios that can be played from the perspective of a hero or soldier. Examples are Aragorn at Helm’s Deep or Éowyn at the Battle of Pelennor Fields.
  
  -Can I donate money to the modding team?
  No, we are not accepting donations.
  
  -Can I help?
  If you would like to apply to the team, please look at #recruitment on the discord.
  
  

  Edit:

  Discord - Youtube and OST links have been removed due to steam rules.
  
  Thank you all so much for your support.

[Gnasty Gnorc]

引用自 Clovis Sangrail：

引用自 Ruffio：

Only way to get around it would probably be going heavy on "parody", but I don't really see anyone release such a conversion that is fully a parody. (an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.")

That's what the world needs -- a 'Bored of the Rings' video game. Follow the adventures of Arrowroot, Gimlet, Legolamb, and the boggies Frito Buggers, Spam, Moxie and Pepsi as they trek across Lower Middle Earth on their way to the land of Fordor.

"Boggies are an unattractive but annoying people. Slow and sullen, and yet dull, they prefer to lead simple lives of pastoral squalor. They don't like machines more complicated than a blackjack, garrote or lugar, and they tend to avoid big folk except on those occasions when a hundred or so get together to dry-gulch a farmer."

Or something close to that. My memory isn't what it used to be, but then, it never was.

Edited to add -- Hoom-hah! There was a video game -- a text adventure in 1985 -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bored_of_the_Rings_(video_game). How did I ever miss that? I had the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy text adventure.

Frito Buggers made me laugh harder than it should have.

[peterspam]

Just a heads-up on licensing: Minecraft has a superb mod for LotR that has a large following and it is being developed by a guy called Mevans, who also does a mod for the Lion King. The mod has matured a lot since its inception in 2013, so has most likely not gone unnoticed by the Tolkien Estate either.

Perhaps it is worth reaching out to Mevans via the official Discord as his mod has probably been through the same process of getting approval from the estate (if needed), unless Minecraft has some license inherent to mods. The mod adds so many new mechanics to the core game, it is basically a creation by itself, but the dev is sticking to Tolkien lore to the extremes, which is hard when you need to combine it with Minecraft limitations.
https://lotrminecraftmod.fandom.com/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings_Minecraft_Mod_Wiki

[Legion]

I'll be keeping an eye on this mod once the game actually releases....instead being in Early Access 2.0.

[u8mypizza24]

引用自 Legion：

I'll be keeping an eye on this mod once the game actually releases....instead being in Early Access 2.0.

lol

[bonnell41]

引用自 RJboxer：

My ex-wife was an Attorney. An IP attorney at that (then switched to Product Liability Defense)... Yes, she was at a big firm. There are no "small firms" regarding PL Defense, or IP defense.

Long ago, we discussed what gets someone sued (shhh. Secret. She once had to buy some website from some 20 yr old.. who owned some weird dumb name, I forget. But Pepsi wanted it. So they hire a firm to buy it all secret like.. Kid got 3500 bucks. Knew it was from a big company, but didnt know who. Felt like he was getting robbed. He wasn't. That was 20 years ago, and Pepsi never used that name as far as I know. So kid got a free 3500 bucks). Anyway, we discussed why pepsi doesn't just sue the kid. Since they Trademarked the name.. and he was now a "squatter". On that domain name, with no use. Let's pretend it was Purple Soda. (it wasn't). Pepsi trademarks/copyrights (I forget which is for which, and it is far more complicated than googling those words). And now owns PURPLE SODA. Well kid is squatting on PurpleSoda.com and has it as a blank page.

It is NOW pepsi's if they want it. why not sue? why pay the kid 3500?

Well, there are MULTIPLE small trash companies that buy patents/trademarks/copyrights.. thats all they do, then have their own private mini law firms, that sue over and over.. For millions, and settle for "tens of thousands". That is the WHOLE business plan. Own the IP, sue others. Google it. There are many firms like this. Why do companies "settle". because 100 grand is NOTHING to a big firm, compared to their legal fees. So to fight off the IP troll, is a minimum of 100k, maybe 2-5 million. what if You win? you might get some legal fees back? good luck. That firm goes bankrupt, and re-orgs under a new name.

Anyway. That's why they settle.
Why don'they sue? Same reason Wizards of The Coast bowed to pressure on the new OGL license. They have every legal right in the known world.. to do whatever they want with it. but they tried pulling a fast one, and their customers revolted. DnD suffered tremendously. And after a week, Backed off the new plan, and in fact to TRY and stop the impending revolt (which is probably too late) made a new OGL that is MORE free than the old one, and made it irrevocable. In other words "stay with us, we effed up, we made it better, and can NEVER revoke it" (this was all in the last month)

In Business they lost "Goodwill". yep, that's a thing and it has a VALUE on the balance sheet.

So can Tolkien and their scummy overlords (do research on them and their trash IP protection, they are like the cthulu scrubs) easily sue? yep. Anyone. . And they have more money than you. They'd win. FOR SURE.
But at what cost? another Wizards of the Coast fiasco?

Some folks making a fan fiction, or homage in a Mod for a game might hit Tolkien radar.

Tolkien estate and their money hungry leeches (the living ones never did anything for the IP, just leech off it. Kind of like the Chicago Bears Current Ownership) used to go after tons of people just so it had more value in negotiations for their Next (88th ??) LotR game. Or NEXT (112th ??) new tv/movie/book/cartoon. So Yeah. they could. But I doubt they would.

TLDR: Any IP holder can sue for any reason. Small firms are far more likely. Tolkien is rare in that they are a famous Brand who also are D-Bags and go after non-harming entities paying homage to their father/grandfather who created the Tolkien world. Even so, they'd have to be utter morons to go after some modder in Warband who made a non offensive, non racist, totally neutral Politically correct mod for a game that most people never heard of.

I missed the DnD rage, but totally would have been all over their forums and petitions if I had. By the time I heard about it, it was 2 days into the fiasco, and WoTC was already Done. They lost, and knew it. it took about 2-3 weeks to surrender. And it is too late probably. But if Tolkien went after a modder in a game? hahahaha. I'd be ALL over that. And getting all my friends from OTHER games to also swarm the forums/petitions/reddits etc.

I'm sure I wouldnt be the only one. And I don't even like the LoTR mod for warband lol.

Wow the Chocago Bears reference really hit home

[King Eggplant]

whem release

[mathieuld]

i was thinking the other day how convenient the devs can create stuff for their game without paying for a franchise, i am not accusing anyone, its just makes sens.

[ShadowFox]

Gotta ask... Will there be nudity?

[Sober]

Hi, what is the status of this mod?

[Morkonan]

引用自 Sober：

Hi, what is the status of this mod? :onering:

There's a moddb page, here: https://www.moddb.com/mods/a-lord-of-the-rings-mod-kingdoms-of-arda

It has a discord link. (I don't "discord," so... /shrug)

There's a youtube, here: https://www.youtube.com/@MacbethofGondor/videos

But, while there's some "Official" claim there, I don't know that it's true. There are other links there to Instagram and Twitter, but I don't "Instagram" or "Twitter," so... /shrug :))

Check the TW forums, as you may get more up-to-date infos, there: https://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php?threads/kingdoms-of-arda-lord-of-the-rings-for-bannerlord.357303/

According to that thread, as of Jan, 2023, the project was still in production with no release date, yet.

[Maryondo]

If you want to get news and ask questions - or to join the team, you should head to the Discord Server:

https://discord.com/invite/QvgaWF4

This threat and its information are a bit outdated. I doubt it's official tbh. I never heard we have something on Steam lol.

[TTV DeluxeLemur]

It's hard to get excited about a lotr considering its been like 8 years or so since the first talk about it on moddb. Like in 8 years with a relatively sizeable team, there couldnt have been a released version for the general public? I mean get popular people like jackie fish for example having access to it because you want to drive up the wants for the mod and all and get everyone pumped for the release. And even with people on the team wanting everything to be polished as much as possible which is understandable, we all know that despite all the hard work and effort and time put into this first real release, there are going to be an astronomical number of issues with the mod. Anywhere from super unbalanced items like weapons, terrible balance of the in game economy when it comes to trading, or just factions that are way stronger than they should be or vice versa. One of the leaders keeps going on about how they want it to be very polished run well and make sure its as good as can be. We all understand that concept. But nearly a decade later and the community still is sitting here waiting?
Also who the hell came up with the factions upon first release? Harad and Dunland while yes are important groups that should be added in the game, are but a mere fraction as popular as some of the other faction like dwarves, elves, gundabad etc. Almost across the board factions like dunland, harad, hell even moria, are nowhere near as popular as some of the others. So it really doesnt make sense when you look at the time put in to something like this, and then look at tje clearly overlooked ideas and decisions that really make you wonder why people are shooting themselves in the foot.

[Ulfkarl]

there is literally a LOTR mod for every game in existence

[lubed_assassin]

i really doubt the estate would do much about this unless they planned a similar game in the future and yes there is a LOTR mod for every game. The last time they had a real lawsuit was over some dude writing his own book series who then later sued amazon for the lord of crap (amazons crappy series) infringing on his infringing works.... tried to sue for $250 million, got counter sued for legal fees of like $150k i think lol.

[BigBadFall]

Will the player be able to acquire one of the ring of power during the campaign?