The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth

The Battle for Middle-earth

Developers
	EA Los Angeles
Publishers
	Electronic Arts
Engines
	SAGE
Release dates
Windows	December 6, 2004
Reception
Metacritic	82
IGDB	84
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view
Controls	Multiple select, Point and select
Genres	RTS
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).

GameSpy online services have been shut down (see Network for solutions).

The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth is a singleplayer and multiplayer bird's-eye view RTS game in the The Battle for Middle-earth series.

The game received three official patches, the third of which was produced by the GameReplays.org BFME section.

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.

Same as with immediate technological predecessor, Command & Conquer: Generals, the game remains playable on modern Windows versions with some major technical hiccups that can be worked around; issues like errors when starting the game and DRM issues, and input lag. Unofficial patches resolve most of the game's problems save for off-host delay.

General information

T3A:Online - fan-hosted multiplayer server replacement

Battle for Middle-earth section on GameReplays.org

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SafeDisc v4 DRM. Released on 4 CDs or 1 DVD.

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.

Essential improvements

Official patches

The latest official patch for the base game is 1.03, available from Patches-Scrolls, GameFront, and CNCNZ.com.

Unofficial patches

Patch 1.05 fixes a lot of bugs and removes the disc requirement. Requires patch 1.03.

Patch 1.06 fixes more bugs and adds some new maps. Requires patch 1.05. Widescreen interface available here.

Patch 1.09 fixes bugs and imbalances, adds new visuals and comes with a patch switcher. Designed for multiplayer.

Skip intro videos

Skip intro videos
Go to <path-to-game>\data\movies Delete or rename EALogo.vp6, Intel.vp6, NewLineLogo.vp6 and THX.vp6. Alternatively, install the unofficial 1.05 patch or newer.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%APPDATA%\My Battle for Middle-earth Files\

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%APPDATA%\My Battle for Middle-earth Files\

Video

General settings menu

Custom graphics settings menu

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			See Widescreen resolution.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		Use -win parameter.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
High-fidelity upscaling		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Can be forced using Nvidia Control Panel (Manage 3D Settings)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Frame rate is capped at 30 FPS, with game speed tied to frame rate.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.

Widescreen resolution

Instructions
Go to %APPDATA%\My Battle for Middle-earth Files Open Options.ini. Find the following line and set it to the desired value. Resolution = YourWidth YourHeight

Alternatively
Use -xres #### -yres #### command line argument Replace #### with the desired width and height respectively

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
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		EAX3
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Simplified Chinese
Traditional Chinese
Dutch
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Norwegian
Polish
Russian
Spanish
Swedish
Thai

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.. 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.

Issues unresolved

Out of Memory

This error has no proper workaround and is a symptom of the game engine's limitations (restricted RAM indexing)

Lower graphical settings, and avoid memory-heavy mods.

Any mod that uses high-resolution textures are highly susceptible to this crash.

Some users report reinstallation fixes the issue.

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, there is no known fix.

Issues fixed

Exception Access Violation on startup

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.

Make missing options.ini
Go to %APPDATA%\My Battle for Middle-earth Files If the folder is empty, make a new text file called Options.ini. In that file, place this data: AudioLOD = Low HasSeenLogoMovies = yes IdealStaticGameLOD = VeryLow Resolution = 800 600 StaticGameLOD = VeryLow TimesInGame = 1

Auto-defeat after 3 minutes and 30 seconds

Is triggered by DRM, even on legitimate installations.

Use unofficial patches
Circumvents DRM causing this issue.

Check game's serial key registry entries

Clean reinstall of the game as administrator
Fully re-install the game with administrator privileges in hopes the registry keys will be correctly created.

Mouse input lag

Install unofficial patch 1.06 or newer

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9.0b

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Cutscenes	On2 VP6
Multiplayer	GameSpy	Shut down in 2011.

Command line arguments

Command	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 main menu animation

Modifications

BFME: HD Edition

Shadow and Flame

Legends of the 3rd Age

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	2000	XP
Processor (CPU)	1.3 GHz
System memory (RAM)	256 MB	512 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	3.5 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce2 GTS ATI Radeon 7500 32 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0b compatible	Nvidia GeForce 6800 ATI Radeon X800