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I will share interesting maps and threads from @Maptysk from twitter. https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1970760638709354543.html https://x.com/Maptysk/status/1970760638709354543 Here a copy paste of his thread on the Suebi / Elbe Germanic people : Map of Archaeological Finds of the Suebi/Elbe germanic Groups and the Alamanni, with Quotes from Tacitus. The Suebi were the largest and most powerful tribal confederation in Germania, constituting of the Hermunduri, Semnones, Langobards, Warini, Markomanni, Quadi, Naristi, Marsingi and Buri. High resolution map below: The Suebi first appear under Ariovistus, invading Gaul in search of new land, possibly leaving the Suebi homeland due to pressure from the Vandals. A group of finds of the Großromstedt Culture (early Elbegermnaic) along the Rhine possibly allows tracing the Suebi of Ariovistus in the material record. The Großromstedt Culture also briefly settled large parts of Western Germany, where they possibly contributed to and were later replaced by the Weser-Rhine Germanic Groups. The Markomanni, prior to their migration to Czechia, most likely lived in the Main area, where they were defeated utterly by the Romans under Drusus that they were forced to migrate. It was after this point that they came to be ruled by Marbod, a man that parallels Arminius in almost all aspects. Marbod grew up in Rome, just like Arminius, where he learnt Roman ways, culture, and most important military strategy and organization. Marbod returned to the Markomanni after their defeat to assume leadership, although probably not with Roman consent and sanctioning. Marbod would lead the Markomanni to settle Bohemia, the land which was previously inhabited by the Celtic Boii... Or was it? Archaeological Evidence actually suggests that Bohemia had been settled by the Großromstedt Culture (Early Suebi) in 40 BC already, 30 years prior to the Markomanni migration. This early Suebi group is called the Planany Group (Plananska Skupina) in archaeological literature. It is plausible that they were the early Quadi. Comparing the early Suebic Settlement and Celtic Settlement, it is clear that the Celts were far more populous and settled than the Suebi, and the sites of the Planany Group are much fewer than those of the Boii of the La Tène Culture. The claim that the Markomanni drove out the Boii is also false. The Boii abandoned their settlements together with the Helvetii to embark to Gaul, and these early Germanic settlers found largely completely abandoned land. This is also visible for Southern Germany, where Germanic Groups moved in around 60-40 BC to find largely empty land, with no reuse of La Tène sites, and far sparse habitations. Around 10 BC, the Markomanni proper arrive into Bohemia, the time of Marbod's Empire is called the Dobrichov Group in archaeological literature, and during this time the southern part of Bohemia was temporarily abandoned. Around 5-3 BC Marbod expands his empire also toward Moravia and the Quadi. It is unclear when exactly the Quadi arrived in Slovakia, but I find it plausible to be between the times of the Markomannic arrival and the expansion of Marbod's Empire. The full extent of Marbod's Empire was massive, including the Hermunduri, Langobardi, Quadi, Semnones, Lugii, and possibly the Gotones. The Markomannic empire contested with the federation Arminius had forged, where the two men who both grew up in Rome, to both return to their ancestral tribes to lead them to greatness came to war. Marbod and Arminius were as much parallels as they were inversions of another, as Arminius was a staunch enemy of Rome while Marbod was friendly to Rome and sought alliance with them, and refused Arminius' initial offer for an alliance against Rome. After Marbod's defeat by Arminius, he was usurped by another Markomanni called Catualda, who was exiled by Marbod in his youth to live amongst the Goths until he returned to his home, probably with Gothic military support, to dethrone Marbod and assume the throne for himself. This did not last long however, as quickly after the Quadi under Vannius along with the Vandals declared war on the Markomanni and Catualda was dethroned by Vannius, who ruled over both the Markomanni and Quadi until 51 AD. Vannius himself would be deposed by the Hermunduri under Vibilus, who conquered and then settled Markomanni territory in Northern Bohemia and Moravia. The other constituent tribes of the Suebi do not have a history as well recorded as that of the Markomanni, but here are what Tacitus had to say on them. I do not wish to paraphrase Germania, as the original text is amazing and worth a read yourself: Back to the origins of the Suebi and the Großromstedt culture: The Großromstedt culture developed on the basis of the Late Jastorf "Seedorf" phase, with influence from the Celts to their south, but seemingly under occupation by the Vandals since either 150 or 100 BC. The presence of Przeworsk Culture sites in Central Germany is characterizing of the period 150 BC - 50 BC, the "Origo Gentis Langobardorum" possibly mentions this Vandalic presence in speaking of the Langobardic origin myth, in which they were previously called "Winnili", until winning a battle with the Vandals, after which they assumed the name Langobards, which was already recorded in the 1st century AD. Indeed, we do see evidence of elements moving from the North, in the Langobardic homeland, to the south, mainly the situlae of the Großromstedt Culture, although its other elements develop in Central Germany. Sometime in the 3rd Century, the Alamanni start appearing, from where they moved southwards and invade the Agri Decumates of the Roman Empire and force the Limes back to the Rhine and Alps. Around this time in the 3rd Century, another Suebic Group moves Northeast, driving out the Goths and the Lubus Culture. This group is called the Debczyno Culture, and its unclear what tribe they could be linked to. The Hermunduri and Semnones would later evolve into the Thuringians, who also settle Bohemia and as such end the Markomanni. The Langobards would migrate south and take Moravia, then Transdanubia and finally Italy, becoming the Lombards. The Quadi hold out, surviving as the "Danube Suevi", while other Suebi cross the Rhine and invade Iberia, forming the Suebi Kingdom. It is also likely that the Bajuvari, later Bavarians, develop out of the Alamanni. That concludes the thread.

1) Currently, walls are almost never used, at least not in any "pro" game I've watched. 2) Defenses are pathetically weak now. Towers are stupid easy to capture, and by the time you get Fortresses (which are otherwise useless now), the enemy has access to siege. And siege wrecks buildings in this game. I support almost every change laid out here, except adding instant stone mining to Carthage and changing Longswordsmen.

Strongly agree. Experienced players know that Alpha 24 was a big disappointment, because it was very turtle-focussed. Almost everyone hated it. This new community mod version is very similar.

On theses changes I only know about the changes to structures (The rest I haven't tested enough or have enough elements to form an strong opinion): Cheap Walls, Palisades especially spammed*, are very annoying for the game-play in current context. They just make pathfinder bug (I know it's not a bug, but a feature of the gates, but it feels like a pathfinder bug); when they are a lot of them, even breached, they kinda take too much visual space; most players don't like stalled games... Basically more walls = more frustrations. I'll rather have them actually strong, and hope for a feature to make them easier to snap with other buildings or even terrain. *In your PR you say that since they are weaker, they will be spammed less, but that's unlikely to be the case, cheaper but weaker incentivize spam, not the opposite. Fort Accuracy; defenses are already super strong this alpha, especially forts, increasing their ability to kill single units like hero doesn't make sens to me. Capture Regeneration Rate of Structures; again, defenses are already very strong currently. But if you really think some famous structures players strategically surround with defensive wheat fields needs be harder to capture, then I would rather increase capture points rather then capture regeneration. This would make capturing and defending easier to learn, because evaluating the effects of regeneration is kinda tricky. A lot of players complain that enemies always capture their structure so easily but themself can't, because they have not yet the experience of the trickiness (exponential effects) of capture regeneration.

Lack of communication. Sincerely

I was taking about polls to add stuff to the community mod ala a26, and I thought that’s what you were bringing up. It’s worked pretty well I think to use the com mod as a place to experiment and collect feedback.

Likely to be much more time managing the discussions. The goal isn't to make it easier to write changes (tweaking templates isn't really hard-work to begin with, and require minimal technical skills too, anyone could do it), more like to try to leverage the wisdom of the masses/the community to validate or not balancing ideas. Having theses polls would open discussions framed around existing PRs (and available in com mod possibly to be tested); avoid oversights, or validate changes you suggests. If all these changes just go from com mod to next release what's the point of calling them "tested". At time of writing, all changes seems to be approved, so if ever some would complain later, you would at least be able to point to the poll and say they were voted in, and players complaining should have contributed to the debate then.

Well, I'm glad that we can all agree on the Carthage changes, lol.

We did it like this for more than 25 years. In the 90's, control groups were the killer feature. Now, we have things like auto-scouting. Kids don't even want to play the game anymore, just watch pretty pictures.

You cant modify the group an unit belongs to once its on the ship, and you also can not see it in the group. This makes it difficult to keep track of the units and groups and also makes it hard to intuitively know what will happen if you try to for example merge groups that have garrisoned units in them. It might be better to change how control groups work instead, but this feature would be much easier to implement and adds some QOL.

In general I wouldn't oppose a special button or hotkey—if there's enough place for that in the GUI. I guess you will answer with QOL, but what hinders you to add your troops to a control group (CTRL+<0-9>) before garrisoning the ship with them? Then send your ship to the destination press U (unload all) followed by <0-9>?

Under that approach, managing discussions and polls took almost as much time as writing the changes. I think its generally more time-efficient to deliver changes to the community mod and see what sticks.

Yes, several of these are in the community mod current version. For the walls stuff you will have to go back 1 version if i remember correctly. I only made PRs for things that I thought were moderately to well received when playtesting. For example, I left out the 3x cav counter, which seemed to go poorly.

My bad, I need to link the git PR. Also remember changes are in com mod.

Could you give more details about some changes?

Disclaimer : Doing this poll on my own initiative. I didn't consult @real_tabasco_sauce about it but I believe that it would be at least interesting to have votes on balancing ideas that are probably going to be introduced in a28; or even maybe, it could be default of how balancing changes are introduced (like it was for the first version of com mod a26). Ideally votes should be only submitted after testing and building a good opinion on the changes through community mod. PR links for more infos: Cheaper Wall Han Ministers rework Carth Techs, Bonus and Unit rework Fort Accuracy Nerf Capture Elephants and Longswords tweak Mauryas Maiden rework

Bring back 130 HP champion cavalry, lol. Good changes, thanks.

It's a good idea, they were supposed to tire quickly, couldn't fight for long, and were slow for cavalry.

In the short term, I think we should go with the health nerf for the regular melee champ cav, and for the cataphracts which are so tanky, we can significantly reduce their speed, which will create better differentiation for the cataphracts (possibly also nerf the +100 hp tech for them too).

The places of the icons of both techs need to be swapped urgently, they are both at the wrong place. Wicker basket needs to be left from the plough, not above that.

Which is the entire world that 0ad covers. And yeah, stirrups (which allowed the couched lance charge) weren’t invented till the late medieval ages, at which point armor and metal weapons were already beginning to be replaced by arqubuses (guns).

Oh ok, I misunderstood what you meant previously then.. So if this create 0 issues, others techs that would do something similar wouldn't have either, in mods or in future balancing stuff, I guess you already have the proper solution then.

I understand. That doesn't happen anyway, even without investigating WickerBasket. Thanks!

@guerringuerrin your hack is perfectly suited for this. As you said, the likelihood of not having Wicker Baskets researched until you can capture an enemy maury farmstead then research Ahimsa is very very edge case... And wouldn't even break anything. If you really want to hustle it, here two 'long-term' improvements ideas: Support template attribute to mark as 'non-civ specific' techs and structure to be ignored in civ overview Support paired techs to use existing 'normal' techs (Ideal)

Maybe, @Vantha can help me with this?