Thorin's Halls

[dgsgomes]

Introduction

For this map, I had the idea of reworking the Blue Mountains map from BFME2 Campaign, which was pretty nostalgic to me and gave me the possibility of creating the refuge of Durin's folk, which have to live in these mountains after Smaug invaded Erebor. Again, Gnomi helped me quite a bit, but most things of the map were already made from EA as a campaign scenario; even though I made several changes. Well, as it is not a generic representation of the Blue Mountains but a representation of the new fortress city (for the Ered Luin dwarves) that lies in these mountains, I decided to call the map Thorin's Halls; if both the Edain and the community likes the map, it may be implemented officially!


Lore

Well, the lore is well known for most. The Blue Mountains, also called Ered Luin, are mountains ranging between Eriador and Lindon and were home of the dwarves led by Thorin after the dragon Smaug invaded Erebor. These dwarves created a very prosperous home in the Blue Mountains; one day though, the company of Thorin decided to seize a chance to take back Erebor.


The Map

Description
These halls lie inside the Blue Mountains, which range along the border between Lindon and Eriador, and became the refuge of Durin's folk.
This is a 1v2 fortress map.

Starting Points: Camps
Expansion Points: 2 Outposts and 15 Settlements



Details
The map itself has most of it's overall design based on BFME2's map. However, I decided to make several changes concerning gameplay and lore aspects of the map.



For gameplay changes, I decided to make it a 2v1 map; 2 players would try to invade the dwarven halls, which therefore are guarded by soldier and fortifications. To make it possible for 2 players being outside, I had to expand the extern territory of the map, cutting some mountains parts. Another change was to remove the main gate, as it bugged the game a bit (the A.I. always focused on destroying it even with non siege units, but most of times it could not attack it for some reason). Also, one of the most important things that had to be done was to make a southern pass through the mountains to the dwarven halls; this was done to avoid a very back and forth game with only one way in or out - now, there are much more game possibilities. Also, instead of creeps, in order to get an early economic boost, players need to collect dwarven treasures around the map, which are spread all over the map; some of them are guarded by enemies of the invader team though. Lastly, to make the map as close to balanced as possible, the team in the fortress will have permanent vision of most of the halls, which are guarded by several allied units and protected by defensive buildings; the fortress team will also get a huge economic boost which will allow getting stronger units faster.

Concerning lore, I tried to make a representation of the map as being the prosperous kingdom of Ered Luin dwarves at it's peak - and this was quite a challenge, as the campaign map I used was mainly ruins of these dwarven halls after the invasion of a goblin army led by Drogoth, the dragon lord. In order to make it possible, I had to remove every feature of the map that made it look like abandoned/invaded halls, like goblin units, skeletons, broken barricades, collapsed ruins, ground holes. Instead, I gave the halls lots of Ered Luin dwarves, some Lake-town men and some Lindon elves (they probably had a close relation with these dwarves) protecting it; also, many features were implemented to make it look like a city, with the addition of many men and dwarven citiziens and Lake-town and dwarven architectures.

Here are some pictures of the halls:













Gameplay

AI as attacker:
GOOD. As most of the A.I.s still lack producing siege (specially long range siege weapons) in Camp maps, you can't expect a very challenging match in this map unless you are facing a faction that always use siege in Camp maps as the defences of Thorin's Halls are quite strong (however, the use of siege from the A.I. may be improved a little in the next Edain patches). Anyway, you will need quite some effort to reach the enemy bases while facing multiple enemies on the way.

AI as defender:
GREAT. The fact that the economy of the player defending Thorin's Halls is enhanced through additional expansion points and resource buildings increases the capabilities of the A.I., besides, invading such a well defended dwarven city consists of a very interesting match.

Online matches:
AWESOME. This map was mainly balanced for Multiplayer, as the A.I. is always susceptible to change and playing online brings the best of Edain Mod's gameplay features. Anyway, as said above, Skirmishes in this map work very well.


Summary

Hopefully the community will like this map as I liked making it; I've made several tests on it, including online matches, and it still amuses me everytime I play. If this is the wish of the Edain Team and Community, Thorin's Halls will find it's official place on the Mod.

I'd like to thank everyone that supported me with suggestions and feedback!

Here is the link to download
https://www.moddb.com/addons/thorins-halls

Please, try the map and support it here if you like it!



In Favour
matheusantos98 (Mod DB)
GDSG (GameRanger)
Firímar


Against