Board Thread:Suggestions forum/@comment-25012056-20180914230512

This is a bit of a unique suggestion - it’s not like any I’ve really done before, except maybe that one about Trolls, but I do consider it something that needs to be addressed.

Orcs, currently, are second only to Ents as the least-developed (sentient) race in the mod - a sad thing considering their importance. Now, most improvements to Orcs are best detailed in suggestions about the individual factions, but there are a few things that concern all Orcs, and so I will address them all here before doing factions individually. This will help me not copy-paste as much, and it will give you poor souls less to read. None of this is in any particular order.

Skirmishing
Are you trying to start a skirmish, scum!?

Orc Skirmishes have been a thing for a loooooooooooong time, and very little has changed about them since they were added (though I believe rates have lowered from what they originally were.) This presents a problem: back when skirmishes were added, they were done so when all Orcs were represented by the same mob (well, same two mobs). Since then, they have not changed to account for more variety and new factions.

In the books, the orc skirmishes presented were always between Orcs of different breeds. They were between Gundabad Orcs and Isengarders, Mordor Orcs and Morgul Orcs, Mordor Snagae and Black Uruks, or Mordor Orcs and Mordor Trackers, but never between Orcs of the same subrace. If this were represented in the mod, it would be both more accurate and much more convenient.

I suggest that Orc skirmishes be changed in one of two ways. The best way would be to make it so that Orcs never skirmish with Orcs of the same mob type, only between different mobs (so two Mordor Orcs would never fight, but a Mordor Orc and a Black Uruk would.) That might be hard to code, however, and so it might be better to instead make Orcs skirmish only with Orcs of different subfacs, which would have the same effect at the cost of a tiny bit of accuracy.

It should be noted that this would only apply to Mordor, Isengard, and Dol Guldur, which were united military forces. Orcs and Uruks from Gundabad, being from a fractured group of clans, would skirmish as they currently do, as would the Orc-tribes that remain in Angmar.

Wargs
In the books, the Wargs were more or less their own faction, and though Gundabad Orcs used them as mounts, Tolkien specifically described the two as allies. I propose that Wargs be changed to reflect this, which would also make them more interesting.

Currently, Wargs are basically horses, but with sharp teeth and faction allegiance. You can tame them in the same way you tame horses, saddle and armor them, and even hire them from orc chieftains. But Wargs weren’t horses - they were sentient, descended from the Werewolves of Sauron, and are instead more comparable to the Eagles of Manwë than to horses.

To start, Warg-Riders would be treated more like a separate unit from Wargs, and would no longer spawn in Warg Invasions (which were suggested as attacks executed by a pack, not by cavalry.) Wargs would also no longer be hireable from chieftains, but would instead become more like Gollum. Players with sufficient alignment with a Warg’s faction to hire units would be able to hire Wargs by giving them raw meat of any variety. Once hired, they will act like hired Wargs currently do, and would also allow you to ride, saddle, and armor them without any resistance.

Furthermore, taming Wargs to use as mounts outright would be made more difficult. While the threshold would still be +50 alignment, Wargs would take longer to tame, and would have a 25% chance of attacking a player after an unsuccessful taming attempt, a chance that would gradually lower as alignment increases and would be eliminated entirely after +1500.

Wild Wargs (those without riders) would also have a decreased spawn area, and would only be found in Angmar, the foothills and forest valleys of the Misty Mountains, the Vales of Anduin, Eregion, Nan Curunír, and Mordor. In addition, Wargs should be able to jump, though only a few blocks high.

Consumables
Another place where Orcs are solely lacking is the most important of them all: booze! Orcs don’t really have an alcoholic drink that they can really call their own, and while Orc Draught and Morgul-Draught is most certainly helpful, neither have any alcohol, which is a real buzzkill. And so I suggest the addition of Orc Liquor.

Orc Liquor would be brewed with three bones and three pieces of manflesh. It would be highly alcoholic, more so even than rum (though less so than vodka), and could be find in the same places that Orc draught can be found (minus the barrels in towers.) Drinking it would give the achievement [An Orcish Drink].

And while not a major thing, it would also be nice if Dwarf-Flesh were to be added alongside manflesh, for those Gundabad Orcs out there.

Skins
Currently, the skins for most Orc mobs are all shared, with the exception of the Uruks of Isengard and Mordor. While this is certainly easier, it isn’t entirely accurate, as Orcs have been living in dramatically different climates with little contact with each other for many years, and would have diverged at least a little bit long ago. As such, I suggest that each Orc mob type (counting archers and whatnot alongside normal orcs) have a different set of skins.

Many skins would still be shared, of course, among most groups, though some would have their own unique bank of skins, like the Isengard Uruks and Black Uruks both do. Here is a full list of the changes that I believe should be made:


 * Mordor Orcs would inherit the current bank of skins with no changes; they would be considered the default.
 * Dol Guldur Orcs would use the same skins as Mordor, as they’re pretty much Mordor Orcs.
 * Black Uruks are fine, but could use a bit more variety.
 * Isengard Uruks are fine as they are.
 * Isengard Snagae would have a narrower range of skin color considering how localized they are, preferably ranging from a light tan to a brown a touch lighter than their Uruk cousins. Skins can be pulled out of the Mordor skinbank for this, alongside new ones. Snaga skins should have a bit of a beat-up look, considering how the Uruks treat them.
 * Angmar Orcs would have a more greyish range of color, ranging from the grey of the original orc skin to a greyish-green. They would also have different clothes beneath their armor, which would appear better-suited for the cold of the North.
 * Gundabad Orcs would use the skins of all other kinds of Orcs, along with a few exclusive ones of their own. These would include greenish Moria-like skins (more of which should come with the Moria Orcs), skins with a very pale tan, and variants of the normal skins with a deformed look to them.
 * Gundabad Uruks should not use the same skins as Gundabad Orcs. Their skins should range from pale tan to slightly lighter than Isengard Uruks, and would be similar to other Uruk skins.

Speech
As with everything else, the Orcs all use the same speechbanks, making what they say either universally applicable or vague. This gets quite repetitive quite fast, and is kind of unrealistic, as Orcs living in different regions would have different dialects. While a lot of the current speechbanks works universally, I think that Orcs of different factions should add lines of their own to it, for the sake of depth. New lines would include the following:


 * References to different leaders in different ways. Orcs of Mordor and Dol Guldur could refer to Sauron and the Nazgûl with fear and resentment, while Isengarders would refer to Saruman as a creator, Angmar Orcs would occasionally reference exaggerated tales of the ancient Witch-King, and Gundabad Orcs would talk about chieftains with varying degrees of respect and resentment.
 * Different attitude. The more militaristic Orcs would have a bit more respect for allies once they prove themselves and a bit more disdain for those who haven’t, while the “wild” Orcs would talk to friends and foes in similar tones.
 * More specific discussion of enemies. Currently, Orcs all have lines that quite vaguely shout about death to Men and Elves, but nearly every other NPC has lines referencing more specific enemies. Mordor and Isengard would be primarily concerned with Gondor and Rohan (and Men in general), while Dol Guldur Orcs would rant about Elves, Angmar Orcs about the Rangers, and Gundabad Orcs about the Dwarves (and Woodmen.)
 * References to fortresses and lands. The same point as the above.
 * Inter-Orc references. Changing speechbanks like this would allow Orcs to shit-talk other Orcs that they don’t like, which is currently impossible due to the universality of the speechbanks. Mordor Orcs can curse the Isengarders as they did in the book, Isengarders can talk about their self-perceived superiority, and Gundabad Orcs can rant about everyone else.
 * I daresay you get the gist.

I hope you enjoyed this suggestion, and will be on the lookout for more.

Gen. Grievous1138 (LOTR Mod Wiki Admin) comlink 23:05, September 14, 2018 (UTC) 