This new update came right on time. I was just finishing of the Gates of Morannon as a woodelf when i saw the ashes of what used to be the better part of Gondor. This let me to the decision to start a new game as gondorian (remembered it to be somewhat frustrating). The next day the game suddenly looked different and when i started a fresh game, it also felt different.

Gondor is a lot stronger now, it doesn't feel like constantly hanging by a thread anymore. In some way it takes away from the towering menace Mordor used to be, but still feels like an uphill battle.

Gomdors cities are rarely besieged (compared to 3.3), which also leads to more enemy hosts roaming the countryside. Usually on campaign. For travelling, thats a huge pitb but fits to the whole war scenario.

The countles scouting partys like to draw me into fights that are happily joined by the evil hosts, especially around Minas Tirith - even though West Osgiliath is still Gondorian.

I found it strange that troops could cross the river unchallanged (same at Pelaghir, At Cair Andros at least the dark side seems to spawn a bunch of troops/patrol with high density)

Works both ways. How can i use the (destroyed osgiliath Bridge if both bridgeheads are held by Orcs?)

I know this might be hard to Implement, but maybe there is way (script the spawning of war partys and patrolling the narrow areas of the crossings) to give those crossing points more strategic value. From a strategic perspective, this would have been the reason why Cair Andros was build in the first place.

Just got summoned by Prince Imrahil, and he didn't have a host with him. I was the only one following him (~40 mid tier troops) but he dived headlong into huge battles against staggering odds. With his handful of Towerguard swordsmen he was also way too fast to follow.

I could almost prevent (delay) the capturing of Cair Andros:
lvl 10, ~250 defenders, ~750 Attackers when i went down there were ~60 attackers left. If i had higher powerdraw and/or a better bow i am certain it would have turned the tide. Needing two arrows per Goblin slowed me down. So if any other Gondorian host would have joined this Battle, the city's name would still be white (for a few days).

Day 60 /lvl 22: West Osgiliath is still under human control, no Gondorian town got razed yet. Never seen that before. Ok, i have only strayed as far as Rohan since the war started (and I've been busy)

Now I'm curious wether the north gets it's act together and how long i can stall the horde by diigging my heels in at Minas Tirith

More Lords means more tasks means more fedex runs, and a lot of them reach across the Ered Nimrais - which is mildly annoying. Erech and Hornburg might seem close to each other for the AI, but it is a quite long ride.

I'll update as i make more progress

THIS IS VALUABLE FEEDBACK!

Thank you! I need more of these, so I can adjust the AI accordingly. Campaign AI is quite difficult to code so i really need all the tests that I can get. Also, the longer the campaign, the more the Ai can be observed.

There is another mod out there (12th, by Chinese modders), that has a feature where enemy factions are not allowed access to certain areas in the world map (you have to take over the gate to do so). Perhaps I can ask them how they did that so we can then allow/disallow access to the river. We need to discuss this.

Re: Imrahil campaigning W/O a host... that is strange. I don't think that should have happened. I will look into it.

Re: The north getting their act together - without player help, it will take a while. So I do suggest that you head up north and help out. I have a quest in mind that will lead the player up north (or perhaps Rohan) to seek help. So stay tuned for that!

Re: Gondor towns not being razed - I think that is mostly because of your intervention :) Perhaps we buffed Gondor too much too, but I am willing to bet that you were always around saving Gondor's butt! You can try another campaign, perhaps as Rohan, and keep an eye on Gondor and see if their towns get razed.

RE: Fedex runs - I totally understand. I guess it is a way for the player to go beyond Gondor and campaign there. But I can understand that it can get annoying.

In our current nightly build, I allowed for more parties on the map. This is a big balance change (hence why it is not on Steam yet). That means: more scouts, more caravans, more raiders/patrols --> more battles --> more faction strength changes. I think this will lead to a more fun gameplay, but I need more people playing that build and giving me more feedback to know :)

Thanks again, and I look forward to more!

If it does help i happily continue posting.

Restrict Areas:
In viking conquest there is this bridge in Denmark with the long-axe dude. Plus, they use ferry stations that prompt dialouges which should be a lot easier to script. But i don't know whether the AI can be made to use them as well.

Re:Fedex; when i was tasked to forward a missive to king Theoden it felt right, and i gladly rode to Edoras (the lore tells me the beacons where lit already but it still made sense). But hunting down murderers in rohan across the mountains seemed a bit odd. Same with deliveries. This mostly happend in Erech and Calembel.

For this run through of the game i set a personal goal of protecting Gondor's cities at all cost. (I also don't bother about elven gear/rewards or higher rank companions in other Regions, thats why i tried to seize the time i had before the war) I know this is a special role-playing decision but i assume it will net a considerable amount of experience concerning Gondor

just a moment ago i found kind of a bug or whatever it can be... so i have two quests: eliminate 6 runnic armies(dont no how it`s exactly sound in english version of the game) and free 16 prisoners. after one of the battle where was 4 dwarf prisoners (yes i add them to my party) they are was count as 4 runnic armies in first quest... and "defeated parties" in that quest switched to "freed prisoners:4"
hopefully my english was not too bad and you guys understand what i trying to say :D if not i can switch to english version and make a screenshot for you

After leaving Gondor for merely one quest, it all went south:
West Osgiliath was taken, Lossanarch and Pelagir got besieged.

-> So far the balancing seems good.

Oh, and fighting in the outskirts of Osgiliath is great, love the scenery and the tactical possibilities (and limitations) it entails.

Hi people , been enjoying TLD since 2014 and just started using the steam version to make life easier and handier , though i was accustomed to copy pasting the files, .txt resources etc, but today after a new start on 3.5 35 days in, just had a battle crash as i put a sword through an isengard uruk , Dol Amroth toon, fighting outside west emet , the sound started to stick on my character doing a battle cry and the game froze crashed , I copied the error before closing if its of any help
.problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: mb_warband.exe
Application Version: 1.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 58b92c81
Fault Module Name: fmodex.dll
Fault Module Version: 0.4.40.3
Fault Module Timestamp: 4f4ef6a4
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00002e73
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48
Locale ID: 2057
Additional Information 1: 0a9e
Additional Information 2: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Additional Information 3: 0a9e
Additional Information 4: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
i also have the .dmp file available if it was of any assistance.
Still the most fantastic mod , regards and thanks for all the teams hard work and efforts in the evolvement of TLD

Bug found, when playing as a black numenorian of Mordor, i do the quest to raid a village of Gondor. However, ALL of the troops in the fight are hostile to me. Not just the Gondorians, but all the orcs as well. This needs fixing asap imho. I'll tell you if i find any more bugs in my playthrough.

I assume this is a bug as well; the village does not disappear after the quest timed out. It just stays there.

Finally: My companions can get experience to spend on weapon skills, but not spend the experience. This might not be a bug, but it bugs me.

@Svamp weapon proficiencies can only be increased with points until you reach a certain cap defined by the character's 'weapon mastery' skill

A LOT more about Gondor: Part 2 is bugs, Part 1 gameplay report/balancing:

Part 1: Balancing

Morder is the first faction that got destroyed. This seems unusual, but it was hard work, and sometimes i even resorted to reloads (fighting the legions).

(the rural parts of Rohan are in ashes, Dale and Erebor are barely standing and Beorning has lost a city. The elves are in the defense as well.)

I would deem this appropriate balancing, there are still threads: Khand remains average, Umbar and Harad are weakend/spend and wavering but still spawn big hosts: Shib/Admiral ~250.

And the war in the North rages on with full intensity (Moria & Gundabad are still strong, Dol Guldur average)

But: If Imrahils host would work, this could be different


How it came to pass:

After countless quests and battles, Gondor reached a strength of > 4000 again and began to besiege Cair Andros, West Osgiliath and Morannon. None of the cities where taken, the walls where never attacked, but it greatly helped to pin down enemy parties and my cavalry tampled numerous supply trains, raiding parties, warbands and hosts into the dust. When the legions where spawned, i destroyed 4 of them (are there more?)

I had to do it mostly alone, because allied commanders don't know how to fight against those high level troops [spolier]10-15 Olog Hais in tiny places like the death marshes are challenging[/spolier]

So no big sieges, Mordor got defeated by human perseverance (and shortage on supplies i guess)

When the message apeared that Mordor is history, West & East Osgiliath and Cair Andros became white again.(-> Bugs!!) Those 3 cities seemed to have more Noblemen to recruit than the other cities, nice reward (if it even was intentional)

Dol Amroth usually has 30+ recruits, which i find a little bit too much, i don't think those knights should be disposable, maybe reduce it to 20?


Part 2: Bugs

RE: Defeat enemy parties
I fought 3 Mordor War Parties at once, only one counted. When i started the game the next time, the questlog showed -1 out of 7.
After i fought one more party: 2 out of 7.
After another one: 3 out of 7.
Then i joined a battle (scouts got attacked) - didn't count.
After another one: -1 out of 7.

....something does not work.


Small Gondorian parties are very aggressive: no mather how big the enemy force, scouts and foragers attack them on sight. (Also trolls, troublesome goblins) While this is fine to pin them down when i am near but to slow to catch them, most of the time this is suicide (as shown by the numeros prisoners and prisoner trains) Plus, it makes completing quests difficult, since it still doesnt count if the battle was started by someone else.

RE:Imrahil: If Gondor has under 4000 strength, he only has 11 swordsmen of the towerguard with him, but still summons his vassals to campaign.

If his country rises above 4000, he has 220+ troops, ~ cavalry, but there is nothing in between. (normal lords had ~70 under 4000, 120+ above 4000).

To slow him down, so i could follow him, i gave him 70 soldiers on foot. But as soon as he sends you away to scout towns, he is doomed.

I accompanied him also if he did not summon me, and out of nothing suddenly his army exploded to ~260.


In the North, the size of the hosts used to be dependent on the faction strength, Umbar and Harad still spawned full size parties when they where weakend.


-----> If this is fixed, and Imrahil has a mediocre troop size and the evil guys are scaled down. (worked with mordor) it might become too easy.


West & East Osgiliath and Cair Andros:
They are ours again, but have bugs:

Their smiths , stable and warehouse all share their inventory with Minas Tirith.
In the Town-Menu, i can talk to the "Tirith Guildmaster" and "Go to the Citadel".( "Stewards smiths" as well)

In East Osgiliath, the CO in the barracks is an Orc Archer, and it's garrison consists of Orcs and Lothlorien elves!

Oh, and i have save with Imrahils 'glorious 12' while i have to follow him on his campaign (strength <4000) If this helps in anyway i can mail/upload it.