Hello my dear Edainers!
After a burst of good thoughts, and the pretty supportive feedback from some members of the community I decided to create a fully pledged article to represent my suggestion. For those who don’t know about it, some weeks ago I talked about an idea I had for a new hero for the Dwarves of the Iron Hills. (NOTE: Get ready for a long post, hope you will make it through the end of it fellow reader
).
As we all know, right now the faction has only four heroes, Dain, Thorin, Murin and Drar. The biggest problem concerning the creation of a fifth hero is the lack of proper source material. No other notable dwarves are mentioned as far as Iron Hills are concerned both in the novels but also from non-canon sources. Thus I came up with a solution, a unique hero distinguishable from the others which can fill out the missing spot for the beloved sub faction while adding more diversity to the mod in general.
So the idea is to add an exclusive type of unit , a chariot hero! Inspired by the war machines used in the extended edition of The Battle of the five armies this new addition will serve as an “updated” version of the current battle wagons used by the dwarves right from the vanilla game. Lets be a little bit more specific
a) Concerning the name :
The great thing about the chariot hero is the fact that it doesn’t require a certain name of a character. The chariot will be manned by a specialized crew of some unnamed, yet courageous dwarves. In order to distinguish it from the countless siege machines used by the various factions of the game a nickname could be given to it. Things like “The Crasher”, “The Hammer/Spear of Durin”, “The Mountain/Erebor Reclaimer” sound pretty good to me, and are a great way to express the dwarven love of warfare and machinery.
b) The Role:
Its seems that a chariot can only be used as a mass-slaying weapon, able to tear the various enemies of the dwarves with a combination of excellent craftsmanship and tactics along with brutality and viciousness . After giving it some thought I also decided to add a little bit of unit-support skills in the design, mainly because of how important for such kind of weapon to be presented upon the battlefield (more on that later). Still its main role will remain the destruction of the enemy units, a thing which may create some problems with the current situation concerning the faction. Murin seems to have the mass-slayer role right now, and its probably a thing that will not change with the upcoming version of the mod.
c) The Abilities/ Mechanics
So this is where thing turn a little bit more complicated. I thought about this section a lot and I tried to understand the mechanics currently used by the battle wagons in the game. Unfortunately it seems that the options are pretty limited. Yet I tried to do my best to give an interesting and unique suggestion. A chariot hero should not be able to earn levels and experience like the other heroes (mainly because it doesn’t serve a thematic role but also because of the very easy way to earn experience with a wagon in the game while massively killing infantry). Instead I suggest an upgrade system close to the one Billy Ferny uses (Isengard) along with Gorthaur’s transformation system but with some twists.
The chariot will be recruited at level 1 and can only achieve levels by buying upgrades for it. Each upgrade represent a different way of using it, similar to a stance/function system. The player will be able to pick from 3 different upgrades with scaling prices and will be able to unlock a fourth upgrade if the other three are unlocked. The first three upgrades will be the following :
1) Spears
2) Repeating Crossbows
3) Wheel blades
Each upgrade will unlock an active ability for the player to use which shares a cooldown with the other three, making the decisions pretty meaningful according to the situation
The “Spears Upgrade” will equip the crew with the weapon in order to fight against most types of the enemy army. If this “stance” is active the chariot will have medium speed and acceleration decrease while dealing extra damage to cavalry and monster units. The armor will also be increased slightly against spears (which is the main way to counter this unit) in order to keep the machine in one piece in case it gets surrounded. The bad thing is the increased damage from infantry.
Using the “Repeating crossbows” makes things a bit more different. In order to aim, the chariot will have decreased move speed in exchange for ranged damage which also pierces armor. It will be an effective way to kite the enemy, hit the heavier units harder and most importantly to counter the enemy pikes while keeping a distance from them. The weapon itself cant be an exact copy of the one used in the films. Instead I would go with a smaller design close to the ones used in the later medieval times (coming back to this later)
Activating the “Wheel” blades (like the ones in the movie) means that the chariot is prepared to dive into the fray of battle with almost top speed. The crew will remain inactive because of the increased speed and the wheels will damage many more enemies (effectively increasing the chariots hitbox) without losing much acceleration. The downside is the massively decreased armor especially against spears and monsters. Kinda like a “glass cannon situation”.
So, choosing a stance will depend on the situation and the enemy’s army. Against an infantry consisted force the player will decided to use the wheel blades to deal with it. Repeating crossbows are best used against armored enemies or when the enemy has a lot of pikes forcing you to keep your distance. Finally the spears should be used against forces of cavalry or monsters and in most general situation when you will not be able to micro-manage the chariot for a long time (due to the increased armor).
The last and final update will not be stance but will unlock an activated power which has a separate longer cooldown. The name I propose for the ability is “Khazad Ai Menu!”. Using it will give a an attack and speed buff to your soldiers which stand close enough to the chariot and will also give the chariot invulnerability (or a massive armor increase) while decreasing the acceleration decrease to almost zero. To make things simpler, the final upgrade ability is an epic chariot charge for a few seconds which also inspires your army.
The whole concept can be described as a high risk/high reward system. In order for the chariot to function in the best way possible the player must give proper attention to it by changing its position and stances according to the situation.
d) The design
This is the section which the team will mostly decide what to do mostly because of the engines limitations. I hope that the chariot will be possibly pulled by 4 rams (even two can make a difference) to make it look more unique compared to the battle wagons. It would also be great if the machine itself can be broadened, to make it look bigger. As far as the crossbows are concerned I believe a handheld model used by two of the crew (one of each side) will be something possible without requiring new animations (only a new “heavier” model) which will fire faster than the other crossbows already in the game. I drew a sketch with a design inspired both by the movie (and the concept art) along with current design of the wagons. Plus an extra sketch for the crossbows.
Closing thoughts:
(NOTE: Glad to see you making it up to here fellow reader !) The suggestions still requires improvements mainly because of my lack of knowledge for the tools the team may have to create this. Still I hope I gave you a pretty detailed view of my idea and I also hope you like it. Please don’t forget to give some much needed feedback (both positive and negative) in order for the suggestion to become better. Have a wonderful day
