Wars of Arda Demo - The Return of Shadow file

############################
##The Wars of Arda: Demo 1##
#####25th December 2007#####
############################

Contents
1.1: Introduction
1.2: Installation
1.3: New Features
1.4: Whats Included
1.6: Known Bugs
1.6: Credits/Special Thanks
1.7: Links
1.8: Copyright

1.1: Introduction
-The Wars of Arda has been in development for over a year now, in its current form, and this is our first public release. All going to plan it will be the first of a regular series of updates, including the remaining factions, additional maps, the campaign and then whole new eras.

Stay tuned for our next update, which will add new maps, fixes and another playable faction (to be revealed soon).

Thanks, and have fun,
Mordred

1.2: Installation
-Run both installers. This will put all the requisite files into your bfme folders. To remove run both uninstall files. A shortcut will be put on your desktop by the installer, however I cannot guarantee it will work. If it does not, do the following:
--1: Make a copy of an existing "Rise of the Witch King" icon.
--2: Right click on it.
--3: In the box labelled "Target" paste the following at the very end (after what is already in there)
        -mod warsofarda.big
--4: Click OK

1.3: New Features
-Minifactions: Each faction in WoA has several minifactions (for example Minas Morgul or Rivendell) which add additional units and heroes to the faction. Each minifaction is aimed towards a particular strategic area; for example, Rivendell focuses on elite units, and Dol Guldur is based on summoning infantry. Minifactions are purchased at the fortress, and then the minifaction menues at production buildings are unlocked.

-The Inn: The Inn has been heavily reworked. Instead of each faction having a single Inn unit both sides (Good and Evil) have a set of 3 minifactions. The War of the Ring era good factions (Gondor, Rohan, Lorien, Erebor) have 3 inn minifactions (the Shire, Arnor and the Oathbreakers). Other Eras will have different miniactions for good and evil.

-Naval Combat: Ships have been altered a little so far. You will now have an additional ship class for both sides (Lindon and Umbar, more ) in the shape of the Frigate (a smaller, lighter, faster battleship). Also the special weapon ships have been downgraded and turned into something much mroe strategic and less overpowering. Coming Soon: Flagships (Naval Heroes).

-Siege Warfare and Base Building: All fortifications (Fortress, Walls, Expansions) are now only vulnerable to siege and structural damage. In addition the way you build has been changed: all buildings are now subject to the build radius that formerly affected walls (although the distance for each type of building varies). One side effect of this is that you no longer see the resource radius when building farms, but this has been halved and should be little problem for you.

-Balance: Every unit in the two factions has been rebalanced heavily. A major item is that archers no longer hit with every shot (efficiency varying between 40% and 60%). Also some elite units gain splash damage when upgraded.

-Individualized Nazgul: All 9 Nazgul have their own unique skins, weapons and powers.

-Heroes: There are 3 major changes to heroes.
--1: Heroes are no longer built at the fortress. They are now built at the various production buildings (Barracks, Stables, Ent Moot, Orc Pit, Death Temple, Spider Pit, Troll Cage, Inn etc).
--2: Heroes no longer retain experience on dying. When they die they revert to level 1.
--3: You can now buy upgrades for heroes at the fortress. These upgrades may give new skins abilities and boosts. Also they can unlock mounts in the case of the Fellbeast Upgrade. Also Upgrades aren't necessarily faction dependant, for example Lorien's Elven Gifts upgrade effects all good heroes, Rohan's "Friends of Rohan" upgrade will boost Legolas and Gimli also.

-Units: There are a couple of new unit types, noticeably skirmishers and mounted skirmishers (spear throwers).

1.4: Whats Included
-This demo version includes the following
--Two completed factions: Lorien and Mordor, with minifactions Mirkwood, Rivendell, Mithlond, Fangorn, Minas Morgul, Cirith Ungol, Dol Guldur.

--Five close to completion factions: Gondor, Rohan, Erebor, Isengard and Harad

--Two new maps: Elvenking's Halls and Hidden City (many more to come, soon with support for the RJ camera switcher)

--New GUI, menu screens, splash screen, shellmap etc

The factions in WoA are far larger than EA's:

Comparison of Elves (note, thanks to minifactions WoA actually is better organised than EA's factions. Also note inn units are shared between all good factions of this era, not elf specific, so Gondor and Lorien will both have the same inn units)
        EA Elves    WoA Lorien
Units        8        19
Heroes        6        17
Inn Units    1        9
Inn Heroes    0        9

NOTE: The remaining 5 close-to-completion factions (Gondor, Rohan, Erebor, Isengard, Harad) are in there but unfinished, and no support is provided for use of them in whatever state they happen to be in.

1.5: Known Bugs
-The Witch-king has an issue with animations (you can get around this by mounting and dismounting him on a Fellbeast)-War of the Ring mode crashes frequently and is not supported-Noldor Lightbearer's forest spell doesn’t fire.

1.6: Credits
The Wars of Arda Mod Team
-Current Team
--Mordred: Coder, Website
--Digital General: Mapper
--JEV3: Site development/Skinner/2D Art
--Elrond High Lord: Skinner
--MORTW: Modeller

-Retired/Temporarily Inactive members
--Eldarion: MASTER Skinner
--Erou: Concept Artist
--The Doctor: Founder, Made original site template
--Anarion: Modeler/Skinner
--Fingulfin: Coder of fiendishly difficult problems

-Major Contributors/Special Thanks
--robnkarla: For the Camera Angle switcher (implementd but not currently in the demo maps)
--Note: we have other donations, but not currently included in the demo's playable factions
--T3A: Special thanks should go to the many people at T3A who have helped me out in various ways with some of my particularly dumb questions.
--Encyclopedia of Arda: For the dragon logo which appears in some of our art.

1.7: Links
-Site Link: www.warsofarda.co.uk
-Alternate Link: www.warsofarda.exofire.net
-Contact Mordred: danny.hewson@googlemail.com

1.7: Copyright
-The Wars of Arda mod is the property of the Valarian Mod Studios team, with the exception of content donated by other mods, which remain property of the originator. You are free to alter the mod for personal use, but it is not to be distributed in altered forms without our permissions. If you wish to use any content from the mod, you must contact Mordred.