Features » Interviews
Battle for Middle Earth 2 » Mod Information
» Official Site
» Screenshots
» Press Release
Battle for Middle Earth » Mod Information
» Official Site
» Official Ladder
» System Requirements
» Features
» Screenshots
» How to install a map
» Downloads
- Maps
- Mods
- Movies
- Official
- Other
- Saves
- Utilities
Lord of the Rings Online » Mod Information
» Official Site
» Features
» Screenshots
» Downloads
- Maps
- Mods
- Movies
- Official
- Other
- Saves
- Utilities
The Community » Links
» BFME Forums
- General Discussion
- Modding & Editing
- Clan Forums
- Problems & Help
- Rants & Raves
» LOTRO Forums
- General Discussion
- Modding & Editing
- Clan Forums
- Problems & Help
- Rants & Raves
The Site » Staff
» Job Applications
» Link To Us
» Affiliate With Us
» Contact
» Make Start Page
» Add to favorites
Hosted Sites » Batte in Moria
» Get Free Hosting!
Battle For Middle Earth 2 Exclusive Interview
This Page has been viewed 2906 times since March 2004!
We got an exclusive interview with the Amer Ajami, Associate Producer for BFME2. I managed to send Amer Ajami 13 questions related to BFME2 and he kindly took the time out from working on this title to answer the questions we had for him. Here´s the interview!
Jamie: Could you tell us something about the story behind BFME2?
Amer Ajami: EA was able to unify the book rights from Tolkien Enterprises with our existing film rights from New Line; therefore, we are able to tell an expanded story in The Battle for Middle-earth II. Specifically, the single-player campaign focuses on the war in the north that happened concurrently with the events in the movies, even though they were only portrayed in the books. In fact, as large as the battles for Helms Deep and Minas Tirith were, the books talk about even larger battles at places like Mirkwood and Dol Goldur, and we’re excited to be able to visualize those battles in our game.
Jamie: Can you tell us a bit about the multiplayer side of the game?
Amer Ajami: In addition to standard and team-based skirmish battles, we are introducing a new mode called War of the Ring. This element of our multiplayer game is turn-based similar to the board game Risk. You can build heroes, armies, and structures in a gorgeous 3D map in your bid to conquer all of Middle-earth. You can auto-resolve battles or jump into RTS mode and fight your battles on that specific map. Multiplayer will support up to eight players either online or over a LAN across nearly 40 different territories.
Jamie: Are there any features we don´t currently know about that you´d like to share?
Amer Ajami: I mentioned the War of the Ring mode above, which we have not talked about before. Where we certainly have not revealed everything yet, we will be revealing additional features leading up to launch.
Jamie: What can you tell us about the graphical and physics features?
Amer Ajami: I am glad you asked this question. We were very proud of the look established by our art team for the original The Battle for Middle-earth last year. When we sat down to develop the sequel, we realized early on that there several technical improvements to be made. We now have things like normal mapping on our structures and terrain, distance fog, specular lighting on our water and terrain, perspective shadows on every object in the world, and more.
As for the physics in the game, we use Havoc to pre-animate some of our structure destruction, and we use what we call meta-impact to throw units around like when a troll swings a tree and hits a pack of soldiers.
Jamie: What are the improvements in the engine for BFME2?
Amer Ajami: The improvements in the engine are mostly the graphical changes. We did a lot of optimizations that allow us to increase the amount of units in our hordes from 5 to 15. Additionally, we vastly improved our melee and path-finding code behavior.
Jamie: Will system requirements be greatly increased?
Amer Ajami: We are trying to keep all system requirements the same but are upping our required video card from a GeForce 2 to a GeForce 3 to support all of the graphical upgrades we have implemented.
Jamie: Will there be changes to the map editor and modding tools? If so what kind of changes will these be?
We’ve cleaned some portions of our map editor, World Builder. As for modding tools, we may release some form of an SDK post-launch. We will be sure to keep you posted of any news relating to this.
Jamie: What kind of support is the game going to have after it´s released?
Amer Ajami: We will be providing patches with new maps and balance changes per our community feedback. This year, we have a dedicated community manager, Aaron Kaufman, who provides support to our community and keeps them informed of any and all new developments. We focus a lot of our efforts post-launch on the players and the community.
Jamie: Can you give us an assessment of the health and long-term viability?
Amer Ajami: We anticipate that The Battle for Middle-earth II will have legs -- People are still playing the original The Battle for Middle-earth. In fact, we recently had the millionth quick-match played online. The Battle for Middle-earth II is largely being built for the hardcore audience, and we think that, combined with features like War of the Ring multiplayer, will lend itself to the game being played for years to come.
Jamie: Are there any secret bonus features built in the game?
Amer Ajami: We do have a few surprises, which we will unveil soon. What I can tell you now, is that the fans of the Lord of the Rings fiction will greatly appreciate them.
Jamie: What has been the hardest part of development so far?
Amer Ajami: One thing that has been challenging is carrying over the art style of the films to places and units that were only portrayed in the fiction. As we start to see the world come to life, I think we have done a great job of keeping the consistency true to both the films and the fiction.
Jamie: Is the game still set for the announced release date? The game will ship in early 2006.
Jamie: Is there anything you´d like to say to the BFME community before we wrap this up?
Amer Ajami: The BFME community has been great to work with. They´re the most dedicated group of fans of any game that I´ve worked on, and they do a solid job of keeping us honest and making sure that we deliver a quality product. I can´t wait to see their reactions to BFME2.
Jamie: Thanks for taking the time out and answering these questions for us Amer!
bon c´est sur qu´il y aura un mode RTS et des surprises pouir les fans du livre comme moi
de plus il y aura de nouvelles map (c´est logique) bon rien de bien super super mais c´est deja ca
pour les fans de batailles (comme moi)
il y aura mirkwood et dol guldur (comme je l´avais dit)
![[jillgalad]](https://image.jeuxvideo.com/avatar-md/default.jpg)
