Difference between revisions of "The Fourth Age: Total War"
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Revision as of 12:33, 21 March 2007
The Fourth Age: Total War is a full-conversion modification for BI 1.6. With an aim to staying true to the works and spirit of J.R.R. Tolkien's world of Middle-earth, whilst also aspiring to original creative excellence, the Fourth Age: Total War is set to be a must-have for anyone who loves the setting and peoples of Tolkien's mythic world.
It's set in the Fourth Age of Middle-earth, approximately 200 years after the events of the war of the ring (the trilogy). It is based solely on the books, nothing from the movies.
Contents
Features
- City Development & Diversification
Large cities can now be developed along a path of your choosing, ultimately providing greater diversification for your faction. For example, if you are playing as Rhûn (aka the Easterlings) you might choose to develop a Thrall Stockade in order to have that settlement rely upon cheap slave labour for the construction of buildings, or you may opt to bolster your economy by developing a Cattle Trader, or perhaps you may wish to develop a Wain Workshop to allow your Settlers to use Wains so that they can move greater distances and thus increase population growth and spread.
- Wonder-capture
When you take a region with a Wonder you will not immediately gain all its effects. You will need to seize the Wonder, then secure it and then exploit it. Each of these phases will bring more of the Wonder's benefits to your faction. Wonders offer some faction-wide bonuses but such effects will vary by faction.
- Marvels
In addition to Wonders there will also be Marvels such as The White Tree of Gondor. These Marvels act much like Wonders except that they exist in or by a settlement rather than distant from it and as such they are considered captured when the settlement itself is taken. Guard these Marvels well as they can bring great blessings to your faction!
- Unique Cities
Minas Tirith, Thranduil's Halls and other well-known cities of Middle-earth will populate the landscape of the campaign map, each graphically designed and modelled to be unique and accurate.
- Landmark Features
Various features of Middle-earth that we all know and love will also be represented on the map - and some will even afford your faction with beneficial effects. These will include the Beacon-tower Hills of Gondor, the Carrock, the Sea-ward Tower of Dol Amroth and other less prominent features such as castle ruins and barrows.
- MEZoRS
The Middle-earth Zone of Recruitment System has been designed like no other. As you would expect with any good ZoR system, units are not immediately able to be recruited as soon as you capture a foreign region but certain local levies drawn from the conquered population may be; you will need to build your own recruitment buildings in order to start training and recruiting your own troops. MEZoRS discriminates between the Mannish, Elven, Orkish and Dwarven races. It establishes up to three types of region per faction (homelands, fiefdoms and outlands) taking into account old loyalties as well as old hatreds. It allows for the deepening of loyalty among local levies but also restricts the building of certain troops that might be available in your faction's homelands.
- Assimilation Units
If you take a chief city of another faction, or (where they exist) the chief city of a subculture of a faction, you may in process of time be able to recruit a unit assimilated from the conquered faction. For example, if Dale was to capture Edoras it would have Riders of the Mark available for recruitment once it had built up to the appropriate level of stables.
- Settlers & Population Dispersion
Peasants have been renamed to Settlers, downgraded in ability and cost, upgraded in unit size and given zero-time recruitment. Their chief purpose will be to move your population about between settlements. They should be guarded by your armies when on the move, for although they will be able to engage battle they are very likely to run away, unless they seriously outnumber a foe. They should no longer be considered military units. They will also be recruited in a more realistic manner according to the geographic spread of the population.
- Factional Fertility
A relatively simple yet slick system has been implemented to base population growth more directly upon race/faction rather than region alone. In Middle-earth, the Elves and the Dwarves had few children, whereas the Orcs multiplied like the proverbial rabbits (except not so cute!). This system allows us to represent such factors in the game regardless of which regions those races occupy.
- Seven Cultures
We will be incorporating the extra culture slot to provide you a full complement of cultures to populate Middle-earth, and some of these will even have subcultures. The cultures represented in the Mod will the Dúnedanic, Northmen, Barbarian, Haradrian, Elven, Dwarven and Orkish.
Team
The development team consists of these persons (in alphabetical order):
- -apocalypsis- - Team leader and faction design manager
- Arakorn-eir - Audio manager and co-webmaster
- Astaldo - Assistant faction design manager, researcher & writer
- Balbor - Team leader and graphics manager
- Cronus - Co-webmaster, 2d-artist and composer
- Palantir - Team leader, coding manager and former assistant faction design manager. Also known as MasterOfNone at TWC and DolGuldur at the Org.
- Spraehbauer - 2d-artist, skinner and the man behind the interface
- Tittils - Map manager
Some old members that has been on the team:
Releases
Here are the releases by the FATW team.
The Fourth Age: Total War - The New Shadow
The New Shadow is the yet unreleased full mod, consisting of 10 factions, and most of the known Middle-earth. There is no expected release date of it yet.
Forth Eorlingas
The Fourth Age: Total War - Forth Eorlingas with Patch 1.7.
The Forth Eorlingas-expansion pack adds two new factions to the old Corsair Invasion mini-campaign; The Kingdom of Rohan and The Chiefdom of Dunland. The other playable factions are The Reunited Kingdom (of Gondor and Arnor), The Empire of Harad, and The Chiefdom of Rhûn. It has an expanded map, now including roughly half of western Middle-earth, with five wonders; The Stone of Erech, The Ruins of Osgiliath, Edhellond, The Treegarth of Orthanc, and The Argonath, 3 unique cities Minas Tirith, Helm’s Deep, and Edoras, and three Marvels (wonder-like structures): The Sea-ward Tower (Tirith Aear), The White Tree of Gondor, and The Gardens of Ithilien.
Corsair Invasion
The Corsair Invasion is the first release with a campaign map by the Fourth Age: Total War. It includes three factions; The Reunited Kingdom, The Chiefdom of Rhûn, and the Empire of Harad, and two factions for custom battles; The Kingdom of Rohan and the Chiefdom of Dunland. The map consists of the lands of Gondor and Northern Harad, with some of the territories eastern of Mordor, where the hordes of the Easterlings are.
Corsair Invasion 1.0 and patch 1.2.
Demo: Battle of the Crossings of Poros
The first release was finally released, a year delayed, but with a historical battle; the Battle of the Crossings of Poros. It also has four playable factions in Custom battles; Dunland, Gondor, Harad and Rohan.
