The Lord of the Rings: Crusades

The Lord of the Rings: Crusades would be a game for most current systems, and the sequel to Lord of the Rings: Conquest. This is something I've been planning for a while, but forgot about until very recently. For the longest time, I've always been convinced that there should be a video game that accurately captures the feel of a battle between the forces of good and evil in the fantastical Lord of the Rings universe. Conquest, in my opinion, was a step in the right direction, and a good move by Pandemic, the company that made the original Star Wars Battlefront games. However, I still think they could have captured the fantasy atmosphere much better while still maintaining the strategic gameplay elements they were going for.

That's why I decided to make this idea; it would incorporate elements from Star Wars Battlefront, as well as games like Chivalry: Medieval Warfare and the more recent Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. My overall goal is to create an outline for a well-balanced tactical medieval battling game, but one that also does justice to its excellent source material.

Gameplay
The gameplay would take place much like the average shooter or PvP-oriented game: on sizable maps. The combat itself would put priority on responsive and fluid controls, so as not to make the player feel disconnected from the character he/she is playing as.

Melee Combat
Player movement would be controllable at all times, without melee moves carrying the player in a particular direction and disorienting them. However, there would be separate heavy and light attacks, with heavier, more powerful attacks requiring more deliberation. As such, swinging wildly would be an inferior strategy to planning movements according to surroundings. Unlike Lord of the Rings: Conquest, there would also be no system of elaborate combos. Combos would instead be simple, and meant to take opponents by surprise or overpower them, but they'd also expose certain vulnerabilities that could be taken advantage of if the user isn't careful.

Magic
Magic use in this game would be oriented towards area-of-effect attacks, attacks from a short distance, and support, much like in your typical MOBA-type game. This is not to say a wizard character couldn't defend himself at close range, but his close-range abilities are far inferior to those of melee-oriented characters. Powers in a magic user's arsenal would include slow fireballs, lightning bolts, lightning storms, and shields, among others. His or her purpose would be primarily to put enemy groups at a disadvantage to his or her allies, but a wizard on its own could be a niche specialty class.

Ranged Combat
Everybody knows about  Lord of the Rings' s elves, and their legendary mastery of the bow and arrow. There would certainly be a lot of elven goodness in this game's ranged class, along with crossbow users and users of other weapons, such as spears. Much like with every other class, the weapon loadout could be changed, and every ranged weapon would have noticeably different control dynamics, much like in Chivalry. The ranged class would generally be able to operate either from a very long distance or a very close range. Grouping up against it would be a dominating strategy.