The Road to Edain 4.0: Your feedback

[Garlodur]

I was very happy to see the update on Círdan a few days ago. It seems his personality is now much better reflected in-game, focusing on supporting ships, buildings and siege engines. Very cool concept.

However, I would like to start/renew the debate on Narya, the Ring of Fire, which he carries and actively wields in this conceptualisation. I believe this is a strong violation of the lore with regards to the time period during which the Edain Mod has organised the game.

During the War of the Ring Círdan never even wore Narya, and there are some textual references from Tolkien convincing enough to suggest he never meant to wield it either. Now I understand the ET's interpretation of the Narya ability, which is unique, and it shows perhaps a more undercover use of the Ring (similar to how Gandalf never openly shows his wearing it, or channelling his powers through it). What bothers me most is that both versions of Círdan (representing Arnor in Third Age ca. 1975, and Imladris in Third Age ca. 2941-3018) should not have the Ring: he had already given it to Gandalf as he arrived on the western shores of Middle-Earth at the beginning of the Third Age.

I really hope a debate will be sparked in the community in order to convince the team of this lore violation. In terms of implementing Narya in the mod (like Vilya and Nenya are respectively with Elrond and Galadriel), I have some suggestions to incorporate it with Gandalf.

[Walküre]

Your timing is simply perfect, Garlodur. We are in fact discussing about a possible repatriation of Narya to its legitimate owner during the War of the Ring: Gandalf.

I have been personally accepting the idea of Círdan wielding the Ring of Fire until recently, but I eventually made up my mind and shifted to the lore-accuracy issue which is ever present in dealing with the Edain Mod. I thus agree with you. Nothing to add under this perspective 

[FG15]

This update has alreadybeen published on ModdB some time ago, but for all who haven't seen it yet:
The Road to Edain 4.5: Cirdan

[FG15]

The Road to Edain 4.5: Theodred

[Garlodur]

Never expected to see work done on Theodred but it is certainly a very pleasant surprise. The Edain Team clearly has a strong focus on bringing siege more to the foreground and there are wonderfully still ways in which they can find niches for abilities, heroes and units.

A few questions though: will the attack outpost still fire arrows at nearby enemies or will it only spawn NPC or creep-like Westfold soldiers who will attack any enemy building in range automatically?
Also, the Hay Cart and the Petardiers can be recruted there but will they also have a place in existing buildings like the Armory (Hay Cart) or the Archery Range (Petardiers after Fire Arrow upgrade)?

All in all very excited to see Theodred in action: this stance system gives a lot of in-game utlities and tactical opportunities.

[FG15]

No, the tower doesn't shoot arrows anymore. But the spawned units can be controlled through the attack orders of the tower.
Hay cards and Petardiers can be recruited also in normal buildings of Rohan.

[FG15]

The Road to Edain 4.5: The Spellbook

[Julio229]

This is awesome! The other day I was thinking about possible spellbook layouts, but I'd never come up with this one! It will make the players able to focus on whatever strategy they want, and I'm always hyped for more LOTR uniqueness in the mod. I can't wait to play with the new changes, thanks for your amazing work!

[Slawek56703]

That looks really impressive guys you make splendid work on reworking spellbook tree for even better strategic view and this gives player new paths and choices . I can't wait to see those changes along with new and reworked spells in 4.5 .

[Trapper]

The Road to Edain 4.5: Faction-specific spellbooks

[Odysseus]

Nice to see you helping out with the updates Trapper! I do enjoy me some of your maps .

I have to say, initially, I was against the changing of the spellbook, because it had proven to work, but now, I am finally starting to adapt. The lazy point and click heal spells are gone it seems, which took a fair bit of time to adjust to, but in the end, I think it is for the better.

Testing these things internally has been fun!

[Sawman]

Alright well now that the Gondor spell book is out I will tell you what you did right and wrong in my opinion.

The right:

1. You got rid of arrow volley for barrage looks op but we will see
2. You made GTW better
3. You made Rohan answers better

The wrong:

1. Grey company was fine the way it was if you wanted to improve it you should've just gave them fire arrows or just made them do more damage in general because now it's just going to be useless
2. I know I'll get a lot of flak for saying this but YOU GOT RID OF HEAL? I'm sorry but why, you the Edain Team said it yourself you want to try to keep iconic things in the mod and heal is one of if not the most iconic bfme ability ever, it has never changed, it's always been for the good factions and for good reason. I just don't understand you were so hell bent on keeping Gandlafs ability roster the same because it's so "iconic" but he has changed through out the history of bfme, how much health he has, how much he costs, does he give leadership etc
 But heal has always been the same and should remain through out all good factions

Just some thoughts

[Trapper]

Thanks for your Feedback!

The Grey Company now has a real reason to exist in the Gondorian spellbook. With its healing abilities and the diversity of the Summoned troops the concept is more complete than it was before. It wasnt necessarily about making the spell stronger but giving it a viable and fitting role in the spellbook of Gondor

Furthermore we understand that the healing spell was a very comfortable and popular spell before, but that is the exact reason we decided to remove it. It was existent in multiple spellbook, which was a real dealbreaker for the spellbook overhaul.
We hope you can find different ways to heal your army in the upcoming patch (Wells, Aragorn or Grey Company).

[Elendils Cousin 3. Grades]

A lot of people will miss the Heal or miss it already, you're not alone with that one. I personally would have much preferred it over the repair as well, but you can't have everything I suppose. The Grey Company on the other hand has actually become more useful imo, the healing capabilities of Halbarad and the Twins are very strong. The previous iteration with three archers obviously had more offensive potential (which still wasn't a lot for 6 SP), but this one makes up for it with its utility.

[Odysseus]

Indeed. The removal of the healing spell will require a major adjustment, but in the end, I think it was a good idea, because out of the initial three tier 1 spells, there was usually very little reason to not go for the heal, because it is an ability that is always useful, and scales very well. It was an oppressive ability, when it comes to making a choice in your spellbook, if you catch my drift.

Not to devalue the ''iconic'' ability argument of course, it is definetely a valid argument. However, you can see that Edain puts more emphasis on uniqueness or a niche if necessary.

Nevertheless, it remains hit or miss. The new Grey Company has exceptional utility, and utility always shines at higher levels of play if you know how to make use of it as a player. I predict it will be a hit. We'll see about the removal of the heal spell. That will probably be a tougher pill to swallow. Maybe we'll see Wells now? I certainly hope so.