# Description

This is the 1st game mod that I upload on the internet ever and the 1st mod I ever made. I made this back in ~2005 when I was messing around with the game files. I wanted to create a more realistic battle system where a couple of units don't destroy a building in 5 seconds, where Monsters and tougher creatures as well as heroes had more health & armor appropriately and where the Command Point (CP) system was more balanced (significant decrease). I also loved to have bigger armies.
I used FinalBig editor, from the then FilePlanet modding community (which is now almost extinct, probably migrated on this site, or on Moddb, or dispersed elsewhere).

Using this simple tool and learning on my own to navigate around game code from so young was most likely the reason I became a programmer.

Numerous gameplay changes have been implemented to all factions with balance and lore realism in mind.
This is not a complete list:
- All 1st tier melee / archer units cost 1 CP
- More powerful units cost higher
- Riders cost 2 CP each
- Heroes are stronger, more health overall (except Gollum and the hobbits) and cost 0  CP
- Sauron and Galadriel, but especially Sauron *MUCH* stronger. If the enemy summons Sauron and you don't have Galadriel you're pretty much done for.
- All structures now have 2-3 times the armor and more health per rank. Fortress health doubled. The Dwarven faction has even more health. All armor & wall upgrades fixed to reflect the new values
- All beasts (e.g. Trolls, Mumakils, Ents whatever) health has been tripled and armor increased by a small amount
- Trolls cost 5CP
- Mumakils cost 25CP
- Siege machines cost 5CP (some 10)
* no additional changes to siege machines except Grond which has a bigger model and is SHOUPAPOWAWFUL
- Walls health and armor tripled
* dwarven walls quadrupled
- Towers have much higher armor
- Special maps that contain fortresses, or towers, like Minas Tirith, Helm's Deep etc now feel like real fortresses from the movies. With almost 20 times as much health and 4 times the armor they make the defender a formidable opponent.


# Usage

1. Make sure Control Panel -> Folders Options -> View -> Hide Extensions for Known File Types is unchecked
2. Extract the "ini.big" file from the downloadable archive file (you can use 7zip to do that), 
3. Go into the main game folder ("~\Electronic Arts\The Battle for Middle-earth (tm) II, The Rise of the Witch-King") and make a backup of the "ini.big" file. For example rename it into "ini.big.bak".
4. Now place the supplied "ini.big" into that folder (overwrite if asked). 
Further enhancements:
For new desktop resolutions you might want to get a file that enables better zoom out of the map. If you want such a feature (highly recommended) for the game version 2.01 then:
5. Download the zoom out file "Maps.big" from here and
6. Place it into the main game folder (make backups of original files & overwrite if needed)
Note: I would put a link to a place where you could download the Maps.big file for 2.01 ROTWK but after searching online I didn't find it (specifically for the v2.01 of the game).
I have this file for MANY years now, which I downloaded from the FilePlanet community website. If anybody finds a link for that version kindly let me know and I'll remove my Maps.big file from here and link to it instead.


# Known bugs

War of the Ring campaign works, but if you have a very large army, due to severely decreased command point cost of units, it is possible for some troops to stay in the black region of the map (fog of war). Then you will have a hard time bringing them in and sometimes that may not even be possible for some troops.


# Contact

website: www.keyc0de.com


# Acknowledgements

Peter Jackson
Warner Bros
EA Games
The programmer of the FinalBig Editor program.