Wow. Third Age Total War rocks.

[Darth Wong]

It's amazing what some of these "total conversion mods" can be like nowadays. I don't know how many people work on these things, or how many hours they pile up, but the results can look downright professional.

Having gotten fed up with Empire Total War's lagginess and crashes, I went back to Medieval 2 Total War and discovered the Third Age mod, which is a Lord of the Rings mod. It uses pictures and music from the movies; I'm not sure of the legality of this, but it's available for download right now. It's not perfect, but it's remarkably polished, and I quite prefer it to the "Battle for Middle Earth" games with their ridiculously small units and shitty flimsy fortresses.

Anyway, if any of you are Total War fans and wanted to give it a try, you can get it at http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=253976

Warning: the two parts of this download add up to roughly 2 GB. It's huge.

PS. If you have trouble with the 1.1b patch file download from FileFront, try going to http://hosted.filefront.com/KingKongVideo and then finding TATW_1.1b_Patch.exe in his hosted files list. Then, click on the "Download Now" button without bothering to view the file info page.

[wautd]

Wow, looks like a lot has changed since the last time I saw some previews. Checking out the Mordor preview and all I can is impressive. Very impressive

[Vympel]

It looks impressive - are they just making units up, or are they taking them from the tabletop figure game (i.e. the Games Workshop property)?

As for Empire - are they ever going to fucking release a new patch? Or do they think the game's satisfactory in the fucked state it's apparently in?

[Darth Wong]

It looks impressive - are they just making units up, or are they taking them from the tabletop figure game (i.e. the Games Workshop property)?

As for Empire - are they ever going to fucking release a new patch? Or do they think the game's satisfactory in the fucked state it's apparently in?

I don't know about the Games Workshop material, but the units seem generally familiar. I didn't see anything that seemed made-up or ridiculous or out of line.

PS. When Mordor starts deploying the armoured trolls, it gets difficult. They are really hard to kill.

[Darth Wong]

Wow, looks like a lot has changed since the last time I saw some previews. Checking out the Mordor preview and all I can is impressive. Very impressive

I didn't even realize it was finished until earlier this week. I remember seeing previews and it seemed like it was a long way from completion, and then suddenly I find that it's complete and ready for download.

[Serafina]

Judging from the images on modDB, they are using units from the Tabletop.
Given that GW has the licence to use all Tolkien materials, not just the movie, thats a good idea: way more background they can use.

Gotta try this mod.

[Stark]

I don't see how using the GW units is even remotely important.

That said, TCs like this are the only way I've been able to play a Total War game in a long time. Many of them have silly idiosyncracies, but on balance it turns out a bunch of unpaid amateurs are better than CA's incompetent professionals.

[Serafina]

It's not worth something in itself - but it has certain advantages:
-You can model your units after the miniatures, which is easier than making it up all on your own (for things not present in the movie).
-Looks are generally modeled after the movie, which gives you more coherent looks.
-GW has already done a lot of research, so you do not have to do that on your own.

[Vympel]

I don't see how using the GW units is even remotely important.

What Oberst said - plus I really like the look of the GW units.

[Stark]

He didn't say anything; plenty of non GW 'inspired' (lol) mods for games have looked pretty much exactly the same, and the idea that GW has some magical affinity for 'correct' unit types is asinine.

Frankly I'm just glad they didn't get obsessive and decide they needed to do 'non-movie' viking style shit.

[Vympel]

He didn't say anything; plenty of non GW 'inspired' (lol) mods for games have looked pretty much exactly the same, and the idea that GW has some magical affinity for 'correct' unit types is asinine.

No one said anything about 'correct' unit types. Only that it's easier to do and consistency with a licensed property based off the films is nice.

[wautd]

Hmm, the filefront download link is giving me troubles for some reason. It takes ages to load and it doesn't work when I click to download.

[Darth Wong]

Filefront is shit. The first time I downloaded it, I discovered that somebody had hijacked the link somehow so it was pointing to a Trojan-infected file on a .info server.

I had better luck by going to http://hosted.filefront.com/KingKongVideo, finding TATW_1.1b_Patch.exe in his hosted files list, and then clicking on the "Download Now" button without bothering to view the file info page.

If you still have trouble, maybe I can put it on a upload directory for you.

[wautd]

Filefront is shit. The first time I downloaded it, I discovered that somebody had hijacked the link somehow so it was pointing to a Trojan-infected file on a .info server.

I had better luck by going to http://hosted.filefront.com/KingKongVideo, finding TATW_1.1b_Patch.exe in his hosted files list, and then clicking on the "Download Now" button without bothering to view the file info page.

Same issue. I keep getting connection disconnected error when I click on download

If you still have trouble, maybe I can put it on a upload directory for you.

If you wouldn't mind that would be great.

[Thanas]

I've always found the RTW conversions to be the best, especially Rio's excellent IBFD.

[Darth Wong]

If you still have trouble, maybe I can put it on a upload directory for you.

If you wouldn't mind that would be great.

http://www.stardestroyer.net/tmp/TATW_1.1b_Patch.exe

I don't want to leave it up indefinitely, lest Google pick it up and random strangers start downloading it. But if any of you are having trouble with that horrible FileFront link, you can use this for the next few days.

[wautd]

If you still have trouble, maybe I can put it on a upload directory for you.

If you wouldn't mind that would be great.

http://www.stardestroyer.net/tmp/TATW_1.1b_Patch.exe

I don't want to leave it up indefinitely, lest Google pick it up and random strangers start downloading it. But if any of you are having trouble with that horrible FileFront link, you can use this for the next few days.

Got it. Cheers

[wautd]

"Battle for Middle Earth" games with their shitty flimsy fortresses.

I've yet to attack one of the famous strongholds like Minas Tirith, Helms Deep or Isengard. Did they mod those as well or will it be the standard towns and castles from Medieval?

[ray245]

"Battle for Middle Earth" games with their shitty flimsy fortresses.

I've yet to attack one of the famous strongholds like Minas Tirith, Helms Deep or Isengard. Did they mod those as well or will it be the standard towns and castles from Medieval?

It's impossible to mod buildings at the moment due to hardcoded buildings.

[wautd]

"Battle for Middle Earth" games with their shitty flimsy fortresses.

I've yet to attack one of the famous strongholds like Minas Tirith, Helms Deep or Isengard. Did they mod those as well or will it be the standard towns and castles from Medieval?

It's impossible to mod buildings at the moment due to hardcoded buildings.

Yeah, I was afraid of that.

Medieval with a good castle editor would have made it complete. (I remember spending more time in building castles in Stronghold 2 than actually playing the game itself)

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Not to highjack the thread, but how is Stronghold 2 when it comes to castle building? I love screwing around in the original, does the sequel improve upon it much?

[wautd]

Not to highjack the thread, but how is Stronghold 2 when it comes to castle building? I love screwing around in the original, does the sequel improve upon it much?

I believe so. More options but still very intuitive and much more polished if I remember correctly.

[Setzer]

I didn't like Stronghold 2. I felt there were too many things and not enough thought as to how to integrate them smoothly. The last straw for me was where my castle was starving because the only baker was in jail, and the game didn't allow another baker to take his place.

[wautd]

Right, what is this shit. I havn't played this for a week but I wanted to try another game and I suddenly get Securerom bitch I'm supposidly using a CD image instead of the original CD and it won't let me play the game
Any way to get around this?

[Thanas]

Did you reinstall the game?

If so, you need to go through the registry and delete the references to MTW first. Otherwise, there are other less savory means to get around this.