Difference between revisions of "The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II"
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|winehq = 4372 | |winehq = 4372 | ||
|license = commercial | |license = commercial | ||
+ | }} | ||
+ | |||
+ | {{Introduction | ||
+ | |introduction = | ||
+ | |||
+ | |release history = The base game received six official patches, the fifth of which was produced by the [https://www.gamereplays.org/battleformiddleearth2/ GameReplays.org ''BFME2'' section]. This patch is most notable for the introduction of the hard counter system. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The game received '''''The Rise of the Witch-king''''' expansion pack in November 2006, outsourced to [[Company:BreakAway Games|BreakAway Games]]. It introduced the playable Angmar faction, new units for existing factions and new campaigns. It was, however, based on an obsolete build of ''BFME2'' (earlier than 1.05 at least), and its own single official patch left the game in a state of severe balancing problems and audio mixing/volume issues in the new campaign. | ||
+ | |||
+ | As of December 31, 2010, the official [[GameSpy]] service was shut down and all purchases were halted due to [[Company:Electronic Arts|Electronic Arts]]' loss of the ''Lord of the Rings'' license.<ref>{{Refurl|url=https://www.gamereplays.org/battleformiddleearth/portals.php?show=news&news_id=709520|title=Middle-earth Online Server Shutdown Announced - Battle for Middle Earth - GameReplays.org|date=2023-08-11}}</ref> | ||
+ | |||
+ | |current state = Same as with the [[The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth|first game]], the game remains playable on modern Windows versions with some major technical hiccups that can be worked around; issues like [[#Game not starting on Windows Vista and later|errors when staring the game]] and [[#Auto-defeat after 3 minutes and 30 seconds|DRM issues]]. [[#Essential improvements|Unofficial patches]] resolve most of the game's problems; [[#Off-host delay|off-host delay]] was fixed only for ''The Rise of the Witch-king'' in unofficial patch 2.02 build 9.0.0 and newer. | ||
}} | }} | ||
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{{Availability| | {{Availability| | ||
{{Availability/row| Retail | | disc, key | {{DRM|SafeDisc|v4}}. | | Windows }} | {{Availability/row| Retail | | disc, key | {{DRM|SafeDisc|v4}}. | | Windows }} | ||
− | {{Availability/row| Origin | | Origin | | + | {{Availability/row| Origin | | Origin | Physical copies used to activate on Origin, but they no longer do.<ref>{{Refurl|url=https://answers.ea.com/t5/Other-Need-for-Speed-Games/Is-NFS-Carbon-redeemable-on-Origin/m-p/9157137/thread-id/10814|title=Solved: Is NFS Carbon Redeemable on Origin - Answer HQ|date=2020-12-03}}</ref> | | Windows | unavailable}} |
}} | }} | ||
{{--}} All versions include custom {{term|DRM}} code which can sabotage the game by destroying all units and structures owned by the player after 3 minutes and 30 seconds, triggering an automatic defeat. It can occur on legitimate copies under certain circumstances - see [[#Auto-defeat after 3 minutes and 30 seconds|Auto-defeat after 3 minutes and 30 seconds]] for instructions to fix this. | {{--}} All versions include custom {{term|DRM}} code which can sabotage the game by destroying all units and structures owned by the player after 3 minutes and 30 seconds, triggering an automatic defeat. It can occur on legitimate copies under certain circumstances - see [[#Auto-defeat after 3 minutes and 30 seconds|Auto-defeat after 3 minutes and 30 seconds]] for instructions to fix this. | ||
{{ii}} A free demo version can be downloaded from [https://www.gamefront.com/games/battle-for-middle-earth-2/file/lotr-the-battle-for-middle-earth-ii-sp-demo GameFront] or [https://www.gamepressure.com/download.asp?ID=10794 GamePressure]. | {{ii}} A free demo version can be downloaded from [https://www.gamefront.com/games/battle-for-middle-earth-2/file/lotr-the-battle-for-middle-earth-ii-sp-demo GameFront] or [https://www.gamepressure.com/download.asp?ID=10794 GamePressure]. | ||
− | |||
==Monetization== | ==Monetization== | ||
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===Skip intro videos=== | ===Skip intro videos=== | ||
{{Fixbox|description=Skip intro videos|fix= | {{Fixbox|description=Skip intro videos|fix= | ||
− | # Go to {{ | + | # Go to {{folder|{{p|game}}\data\movies\}} |
# Delete or rename {{file|CS01.vp6}}, {{file|EALogo.vp6}}, {{file|TE_LOGO.vp6}}, {{file|NLC_LOGO.vp6}} and {{file|NewLineLogo.vp6}}. | # Delete or rename {{file|CS01.vp6}}, {{file|EALogo.vp6}}, {{file|TE_LOGO.vp6}}, {{file|NLC_LOGO.vp6}} and {{file|NewLineLogo.vp6}}. | ||
− | {{ii}} For languages other than English the EA logo file played is a localised version extracted from the archive file {{file|{{p|game}}\lang\LanguageName.big}}. To remove the video | + | {{ii}} For languages other than English the EA logo file played is a localised version extracted from the archive file {{file|{{p|game}}\lang\LanguageName.big}}. To remove the video, this file needs to be edited, for instance with a custom tool such as [http://wagnerma.de/yinger/showdownload.php?detail=1 FinalBIG] or [https://www.ppmsite.com/osbigeditorinfo/ OS BIG Editor]. |
}} | }} | ||
===Official patches=== | ===Official patches=== | ||
− | + | {{ii}} The latest official patch for the base game is 1.06, available from [https://www.patches-scrolls.de/patch/4254/7/32843 Patches-Scrolls], [https://www.gamefront.com/games/battle-for-middle-earth-2/category/v1-06 GameFront], and [https://cncnz.com/downloads/battle-for-middle-earth-ii-downloads/#patches CNCNZ.com]. | |
− | + | {{ii}} The latest official patch for The Rise of the Witch-king is 2.01, available from [https://www.patches-scrolls.de/patch/4256/7/32856 Patches-Scrolls], [https://www.gamefront.com/games/battle-for-middle-earth-2-rotwk/category/patches-148 GameFront] and [https://cncnz.com/downloads/rise-of-the-witch-king-downloads/#patches CNCNZ.com]. | |
===Widescreen mods for BFME2 without 1.09=== | ===Widescreen mods for BFME2 without 1.09=== | ||
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{{++}} Maintains developer-intended gameplay. | {{++}} Maintains developer-intended gameplay. | ||
{{--}} Not used by users online. | {{--}} Not used by users online. | ||
− | {{ii}} | + | {{ii}} To bypass the DRM, use the modified {{file|game.dat}} from the 1.09 patch. |
===Unofficial 1.09 patch (BFME2)=== | ===Unofficial 1.09 patch (BFME2)=== | ||
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}} | }} | ||
}} | }} | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===Off-host delay=== | ||
+ | {{--}} All games in this series suffer from a delay when giving commands, measured in seconds, if the player is not the host of the multiplayer match. | ||
+ | {{--}} For ''Battle for Middle-earth II'', there is no known fix. | ||
+ | {{++}} For ''The Rise of the Witch-king'', this issue was fixed in the [[#Unofficial 2.02 patch (RotWK)|unofficial 2.02 patch]] in builds 9.0.0 and newer. | ||
==Issues fixed== | ==Issues fixed== | ||
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{{Fixbox|description=Manually creating options.ini|ref=<ref>{{Refcheck|user=Plok|date=2021-09-14|comment=}}</ref>|fix= | {{Fixbox|description=Manually creating options.ini|ref=<ref>{{Refcheck|user=Plok|date=2021-09-14|comment=}}</ref>|fix= | ||
− | #Locate the default folder for the {{file|options.ini}} at {{ | + | #Locate the default folder for the {{file|options.ini}} at {{folder|{{p|appdata}}\My Battle for Middle-earth(tm) II Files}} and {{folder|{{p|appdata}}\My The Lord of the Rings, The Rise of the Witch-king Files}} |
#Create a new text document and name it {{file|options.ini}} | #Create a new text document and name it {{file|options.ini}} | ||
#Open the file and insert the following lines: | #Open the file and insert the following lines: | ||
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TimesInGame = 6 | TimesInGame = 6 | ||
</pre> | </pre> | ||
− | {{ii}}Make sure to change the | + | {{ii}}Make sure to change the {{code|Resolution}} value to the preferred resolution. |
:4. Save the changes | :4. Save the changes | ||
:5. Run the game. | :5. Run the game. |
Revision as of 11:51, 11 August 2023
Developers | |
---|---|
EA Los Angeles | |
Expansion | BreakAway Games |
Publishers | |
Electronic Arts | |
Engines | |
SAGE | |
Release dates | |
Windows | March 2, 2006 |
Reception | |
Metacritic | 84 |
IGDB | 81 |
Taxonomy | |
Monetization | One-time game purchase, Expansion pack |
Microtransactions | None |
Modes | Singleplayer, Multiplayer |
Pacing | Real-time |
Perspectives | Bird's-eye view |
Controls | Multiple select, Point and select |
Genres | RTS |
Art styles | Realistic |
Themes | Fantasy |
Series | The Battle for Middle-earth |
The Battle for Middle-earth | |
---|---|
Subseries of Middle-earth | |
The Battle for Middle-earth | 2004 |
The Battle for Middle-earth II | 2006 |
Warnings
- SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see Availability for affected versions).
The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II is a singleplayer and multiplayer bird's-eye view RTS game in the The Battle for Middle-earth series.
The base game received six official patches, the fifth of which was produced by the GameReplays.org BFME2 section. This patch is most notable for the introduction of the hard counter system.
The game received The Rise of the Witch-king expansion pack in November 2006, outsourced to BreakAway Games. It introduced the playable Angmar faction, new units for existing factions and new campaigns. It was, however, based on an obsolete build of BFME2 (earlier than 1.05 at least), and its own single official patch left the game in a state of severe balancing problems and audio mixing/volume issues in the new campaign.
As of December 31, 2010, the official GameSpy service was shut down and all purchases were halted due to Electronic Arts' loss of the Lord of the Rings license.[1]
Same as with the first game, the game remains playable on modern Windows versions with some major technical hiccups that can be worked around; issues like errors when staring the game and DRM issues. Unofficial patches resolve most of the game's problems; off-host delay was fixed only for The Rise of the Witch-king in unofficial patch 2.02 build 9.0.0 and newer.
General information
- T3A:Online - fan-hosted multiplayer server replacement
- BfME II section on GameReplays.org - home to the competitive community and the unofficial 1.09 patch
- Rise of the Witch-king section on GameReplays.org - home to the competitive community and the unofficial 2.02 patch
Availability
Source | DRM | Notes | Keys | OS |
---|---|---|---|---|
Retail | SafeDisc v4 DRM[Note 1]. | |||
Origin (unavailable) | Physical copies used to activate on Origin, but they no longer do.[4] |
- SafeDisc retail DRM does not work on Windows Vista and later (see above for affected versions).
- All versions include custom DRM code which can sabotage the game by destroying all units and structures owned by the player after 3 minutes and 30 seconds, triggering an automatic defeat. It can occur on legitimate copies under certain circumstances - see Auto-defeat after 3 minutes and 30 seconds for instructions to fix this.
- A free demo version can be downloaded from GameFront or GamePressure.
Monetization
Type | Notes |
---|---|
Expansion pack | The expansion pack includes a new faction, a new campaign, maps, units, and War of the Ring mode scenarios. |
One-time game purchase | The game requires an upfront purchase to access. |
DLC and expansion packs
Name | Notes | |
---|---|---|
The Rise of the Witch-king |
Essential improvements
Skip intro videos
Skip intro videos |
---|
|
Official patches
- The latest official patch for the base game is 1.06, available from Patches-Scrolls, GameFront, and CNCNZ.com.
- The latest official patch for The Rise of the Witch-king is 2.01, available from Patches-Scrolls, GameFront and CNCNZ.com.
Widescreen mods for BFME2 without 1.09
- Modified interface download link
- Maps with modified zoom download link (breaks compatibility with originals)
- Maintains developer-intended gameplay.
- Not used by users online.
- To bypass the DRM, use the modified
game.dat
from the 1.09 patch.
Unofficial 1.09 patch (BFME2)
- Does not require the disc.
- Adapts the main game interface for widescreen resolutions and fixes a lot of the bugs and imbalances left after the official 1.06 patch.
- Includes a patch switcher for switching between the official 1.00 and 1.06 versions, as well as 1.09.
- Breaks compatibility with the Rise of the Witch-king expansion.
- Changes visuals extensively.
Unofficial 2.02 patch (RotWK)
- Does not require the disc.
- Adapts the main game interface for widescreen resolutions and fixes a lot of the bugs and imbalances left after the official 2.01 patch. As of release 9.0.0 (February 4, 2023), an engine-level bug plaguing all games in the series that caused delayed commands in multiplayer has been fixed.
- Active multiplayer community.
- Requires the BFME2 1.09 unofficial patch to be deactivated to run.
Game data
Configuration file(s) location
System | Location |
---|---|
Windows | %APPDATA%\<Localized My Battle for Middle-earth(tm) II Files>\options.ini %APPDATA%\<Localized My The Lord of the Rings, The Rise of the Witch-king Files>\options.ini |
Save game data location
System | Location |
---|---|
Windows | %APPDATA%\<Localized My Battle for Middle-earth(tm) II Files>\save %APPDATA%\<Localized My The Lord of the Rings, The Rise of the Witch-king Files>\save |
Save game cloud syncing
System | Native | Notes |
---|---|---|
Origin |
Video
Graphics feature | State | WSGF | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Widescreen resolution | See Widescreen mods for BFME2 without 1.09 or use an unofficial patch. Exact resolutions need to be changed in the configuration file(s) or in the unofficial patch launcher(s). | ||
Multi-monitor | |||
Ultra-widescreen | |||
4K Ultra HD | |||
Field of view (FOV) | No FOV sliders exist; the maps themselves need to be manually edited. For FOV adapted to 16:9 resolutions, see Widescreen mods for BFME2 without 1.09 or use an unofficial patch. | ||
Windowed | Use -win parameter. |
||
Borderless fullscreen windowed | |||
Anisotropic filtering (AF) | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. | ||
Anti-aliasing (AA) | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. | ||
Vertical sync (Vsync) | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. | ||
60 FPS and 120+ FPS | Frame rate is capped at 30 FPS[5], with game speed tied to frame rate. | ||
High dynamic range display (HDR) | See the glossary page for potential alternatives. |
Input
Keyboard and mouse | State | Notes |
---|---|---|
Remapping | See the glossary page for potential workarounds. | |
Mouse acceleration | ||
Mouse sensitivity | ||
Mouse input in menus | ||
Mouse Y-axis inversion | ||
Controller | ||
Controller support |
Controller types |
---|
Audio
Audio feature | State | Notes |
---|---|---|
Separate volume controls | ||
Surround sound | ||
Subtitles | ||
Closed captions | ||
Mute on focus lost | ||
EAX support | ||
Royalty free audio |
Localizations
Language | UI | Audio | Sub | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
English | ||||
Simplified Chinese | ||||
Traditional Chinese | ||||
French | ||||
German | ||||
Italian | ||||
Norwegian | ||||
Polish | ||||
Russian | ||||
Spanish | ||||
Swedish | ||||
Thai |
Off-host delay
- All games in this series suffer from a delay when giving commands, measured in seconds, if the player is not the host of the multiplayer match.
- For Battle for Middle-earth II, there is no known fix.
- For The Rise of the Witch-king, this issue was fixed in the unofficial 2.02 patch in builds 9.0.0 and newer.
Issues fixed
Game not starting on Windows Vista and later
- When first starting the game after the installation, the game instantly crashes with an error.
- Caused by the installer not creating a crucial
options.ini
file automatically. - If the game is uninstalled and reinstalled on the same system, the file is always deleted and has to be created anew every time the game is installed.
Manually creating options.ini[6] |
---|
AudioLOD = High FlashTutorial = 0 HasSeenLogoMovies = yes IdealStaticGameLOD = High Resolution = 1024 768 StaticGameLOD = High TimesInGame = 6
|
Auto-defeat after 3 minutes and 30 seconds
- Is triggered by DRM, even on legitimate installations.
Use unofficial patches[7] |
---|
|
Check game's serial key registry entries[8] |
---|
Clean reinstall of the game as administrator[9] |
---|
|
Network
Multiplayer types
Type | Native | Players | Notes | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Local play | ||||
LAN play | 8 | Versus |
||
Online play | 8 | Versus The official GameSpy service has been shut down on December 31, 2010 due to Electronic Arts losing the Lord of the Rings license.[10]. Replaced by T3A:Online. |
Connection types
Type | Native | Notes |
---|---|---|
Matchmaking | ||
Peer-to-peer | ||
Dedicated | ||
Self-hosting | ||
Direct IP |
Ports
Protocol | Port(s) and/or port range(s) |
---|---|
UDP | 16000 |
- Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.
Other information
API
Technical specs | Supported | Notes |
---|---|---|
Direct3D | 9.0c |
Executable | 32-bit | 64-bit | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Windows |
Middleware
Middleware | Notes | |
---|---|---|
Cutscenes | On2 VP6 | |
Multiplayer | GameSpy |
Command line arguments
Command[11] | Description |
---|---|
-win | Runs the game in windowed mode |
-mod [path to .big file] | Runs the game with the selected mod |
-xres [number] | Sets resolution width |
-yres [number] | Sets resolution height |
-noaudio | Disables the game audio |
-noshellmap | Disables the Argonath animation in the main menu |
Modifications
Base game
Rise of the Witch-king
- RotWK HD Edition
- Age of the Ring - requires the unofficial 2.02 patch
- Edain Mod - incompatible with the unofficial 2.02 patch
- RJ RotWK - incompatible with the unofficial 2.02 patch
System requirements
Windows | ||
---|---|---|
Minimum | Recommended | |
Operating system (OS) | XP | |
Processor (CPU) | 1.6 GHz | Intel Pentium 4 3 GHz AMD Athlon XP 3 GHz |
System memory (RAM) | 256 MB | 1 GB |
Hard disk drive (HDD) | 6 GB | |
Video card (GPU) | Nvidia GeForce 3 ATI Radeon 8500 64 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible | Nvidia GeForce 7800 128 MB of VRAM |
- Online mode requires 512 MB of system RAM.
Notes
References
- ↑ Middle-earth Online Server Shutdown Announced - Battle for Middle Earth - GameReplays.org - last accessed on 2023-08-11
- ↑ Not Loading in Windows 10; this will break thousands of - Microsoft Community - last accessed on 2017-01-16
- ↑ Microsoft - MS15-097: Description of the security update for the graphics component in Windows: September 8, 2015 - last accessed on 2018-02-16
- ↑ Solved: Is NFS Carbon Redeemable on Origin - Answer HQ - last accessed on 2020-12-03
- ↑ LOTR: Battle For Middle Earth II FPS Unlocker!!!! NO MORE 30 FPS LIMIT - Guru3D.com Forums - last accessed on May 2023
- ↑ Verified by User:Plok on 2021-09-14
- ↑ Verified by User:Plok on 2022-08-10
- ↑ Verified by User:Plok on 2022-08-10
- ↑ Verified by User:Plok on 2022-08-10
- ↑ Middle-earth Online Server Shutdown Announced - last accessed on May 2023
- ↑ List of ROTWK command line switches. - GameReplays.org - last accessed on May 2023