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Previously I proposed that since Khosraw I Reforms fixed harvest tax, it could make Fields trickle metal. Also they “further elevated the figure of the sovereign above the nobles and centralized power around him”, which could be a Hero bonus and champion penalty. For my take, I'm getting quotes from the book I mentioned: The Two Eyes of the Earth, by M.P. Canepa (I went through all of it). I write down first Aura, then Bonus, then Tech. I only declined Auras in the first person, but do whatever. As usual, it’s your decision what exactly they would entail, and I’m not sure about what’s possible. “Additional” ideas I leave mostly without hints, since maybe they are unnecessary. Ardashir I Overthrower: capture bonus ("After his successful usurpation Ardashir", referring to the Parthians). Inheritance: capture resistance bonus (“Believing these regions to be his by inheritance he declared that all the countries in that area including Ionia and Caria, had been ruled by Persian governors (...). He asserted that it was proper for him to recover for the Persians the kingdom which they formerly possessed”, this was really big for him, plenty of mentions regarding his “rightful inheritance”). Holy Fire: temple tech (“Ardashir I increased the cults of the temples and ordered the fire of Ohrmazd, which was on the altar at Bagawan to be kept perpetually burning”). Shapur I Shamer: attack bonus (the defeated Romans regarded the terms of a peace treaty “shameful”). Indemnisation: loot bonus (“Philip sued for peace and paid a large indemnity to Shapur I”, leading to “his official formulation of Rome as tributary and subject”). Humiliation: enemy Hero penalty tech (he captured Valerian in battle, a first for a Roman emperor, although “despite the assertions of certain extremely hostile Roman texts that speculated on his fate, in the reliefs Valerian is not humiliated, and he keeps his insignia of office”). Additional: Universality (“he expanded his father’s claims of dominion over Ērān, to ascendancy over Ērān ud Anērān (literally, “Iran and Non-Iran”)”). Shapur II Persuader: bribing bonus, or occasional automatic conversion? (“Ammianus devotes a chapter to the defection of Antoninus, bodyguard of the dux of Mesopotamia, to Shapur II”). Recognition: champion bonus (“the Armenian commander in chief Mushel so impressed Shapur II with his chivalrous treatment of his captured wife and attendants that the Persian king of kings honored him at the royal bazm as if he were in attendance”, and at another instance he “gave the Roman defector Antoninus honorific headgear along with a designated place at the royal banquet table and a seat in the council of the king to mark Antoninus’s integration into the Sasanian court hierarchy”). Glory of Iran: Hero bonus tech (“created a province called “Shapur, the Glory of Ērān””, they were big in personality cult). Khosrow I Autocrat: capture resistance bonus for CC under Hero aura, penalty if outside (“Both empires saw increasing centralization at the expense of local power bases, with sixth-century contemporaries Justinian I and Khosrow I responsible for intensifying this movement to autocracy in their respective realms”). Royal Gifts: discount on resource transfer (“Roman-Sasanian diplomatic exchange reached its apogee in the sixth century with the long coeval reigns of Justinian and Khosrow I”, and this “included objects that were given and received as gifts, throne room rituals, as well as the entertainments, culinary displays, and sundry other activities with which the two courts regaled each other’s envoys”). Maritime Silk Route: sea trade tech (“Peaking with Khosrow I’s control of all coastal areas from the Red Sea to the Indus, the Sasanians soon dominated the Indian Ocean sea trade. Under Kosrow I, the Sasanians began to expand into Sri Lanka and even markets in Southeast Asia”). Additional: Sanctuary (“after Justinian effectively closed the Athenian Academy in 529, prohibiting the teaching of law and philosophy there and pagans from teaching anywhere, six prominent philosophers led by Damascius traveled to Ctesiphon to seek refuge at the court of Khosrow I”). Additionally, he liked hippodromes. Khosrow II Pious: regeneration bonus (“after his victory over Bahram Chobin, Khosrow II spent a week at the site circumambulating the fire while reciting the Zand and Avesta”). Royal Hunt: hunting or ranged bonus (“The Sasanian motif of the “royal hunter” was an exceptionally powerful, not to mention popular, image”, “The side relief panels of Khosrow II’s (...) are the most extensive sculptural representations of the hunt, and the dynasty’s last. On the right panel, mostly unfinished, the king of kings hunts deer in an enclosure with a bow. The left panel depicts the king of kings hunting boars…”). Monumentality: whatever-statues/monuments-do bonus (“Monumental rock relief sculpture fell out of vogue as a medium of triumphal expression for the Sasanian kings of kings, not to return until Khosrow II’s final brilliant reprise of the genre two centuries later”). I like that there's some thematic sense: Ardashir I captures and keeps, Shapur I is aggressive, Shapur II charismatic, Khosrow I a trader, and Khosrow II is more versatile.

I was trying to combine something we talked about in pm with the current game set up. I forget what game it was but if I recall correctly you said you start with a unit, you send the unit to the barracks and train it as either a swordman, spearman, archer etc? So when units are first created they should be identical health/resistances etc.. right? Then you train it to be an archer and it gets more dmg via the bow, and maybe a little extra amor than a regular unit ie civilian... where as if you want a peltast it would be equipped with a pelta and little to no armor. But a hoplite would have full , the shield (aspis) which would slow it down. But a roman legionaries shield (scutum) would be even heavier, slowing them down more. But then a hoplite would wear more armor overall/plus the fact that a spear is more cumbersome than a sword, and the hoplite ends up being slower than the legionary.

I just wanted to say THANK YOU for this thread. I have been creating some content (yes via AI, sorry) for a story I am writing about Amanirenas. Here she is with a matriarch elephant she will use in her calvary, and a Kushite Mercenary Archer force overlooking a Parthian calvary in the passes of Syria.

I’ve already written on historical shield and armor changes in Thoughts on the Spartans. “your unit starts off with "no armor" just a shield and weapon... and then you decide which ones you want to give which units, at a loss of speed”: we’ve already talked extensively about armor evolution, so it should be beyond clear to you that, from an historical standpoint, this just makes no sense, at all, and what happened was closer to the opposite of this.

If you find someone let us know Well, if you are familiar with 3D video for instance in Blender then the learning curve exists but isn't to steep either, no new concepts, just a new tool. The scripting part for making things lively might be the hardest.

Ardashir I: progenitor of the Sasanian dynasty, reinvigorated the idea of a Persian empire as a successor of Achaemenid Persia. May have an aura or tech about adding vigor to the civ, for example increases building construction speed. Maybe enables Immortals (Zhayedan). Shapur I: tolerance for religions other than the prevailing Zoroastrianism such as Manichaeism or Judaism may present an interesting opportunity. Especially Manichaeism as a potential world religion in a what-if scenario perhaps? May give increased influence over the map such as increased territory bonus. Maybe also enable some Armenian unit via his conquest of Armenia and governorship of his son and successor. Shapur II: counter to Shapur I, something about religious doctrine, such as stronger priests or temples? Also enables or strengthens war elephants. See the references in this article for reference: https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/elephant-ii-sasanian-army/ Khosrow I: tax reform giving increased resources per resource obtained from sources, and bonuses to noble Aswaran cavalry. See: https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/kosrow-1-parent/kosrow-i-ii-reforms/ Khosrow II: not sure, he appears to be partly responsible to bring the empire down? Why not something to represent quick expansion and loss, such as globally reducing building capture, or to make it a bonus, reduce own building capture and while reducing capturing enemy building even more.

Bildschirmaufnahme 2026-06-05 113133.mp4 I could add a person (or a donkey?) pushing the grindstone in a circle? Or maybe that's too much (performance wise and visually)? I can take a look into it. The han forge has something similar where we can get some inspiration.

Okay, but what changes in DE would make that happen? I'm at a loss.

Nice. Which part are you animating? The grindstone? I wonder of you'd be willing to help animate the Sasanian farmstead. It has two sail-driven grindstones. Perhaps as with the forge smoke, the sails can turn when the farmstead is researching (rule of cool).

I fixed a few refs in research manager and had a match vs AI where their units didn't go idle. I'll attempt some more test matches tonight. EDIT: Nevermind. Still happening: I see they have plenty of food, but have stopped gathering the wood needed for phase-up for some reason.

You kinda could. They way I invivision it is a low kit unit would have the same actor for all 3 ranks…. Then if you get a tech for spearman increased body armor say, all spearman would “promote” they would have to go back to rank 1, but then the “new” unit would have a new actor…. So you may need 9 templates just for that civ’s units if you have 3 “kit” upgrades.

Sadly, we can't currently only change props from techs, we can only swap in a whole unit actor. So, the best you could do is "levels" of gear, like "Basic Kit" -> "Medium Armor" -> "Heavy Panoply", which is fine and can definitely work. Then attack could increase by ranking.

Best would be to add a poll to the thread @Baelish

For the context, please read https://gitea.wildfiregames.com/0ad/0ad/issues/8599. I want to explain why I choose 5 gatherers for small ruins. Many entities inherit from template_gaia_ruins.xml, with different amount of stone and metal. I will do a summary of them: STONE stone_statues_kushite_bird, stone_statues_kushite_lion, stone_statues_kushite_ram 200 standing_stone, stone_statues_egyptian, stone_statues_kushite, stone_statues_roman, stone_structure_small 300 stone_column_roman 400 column_doric, roman_rostrum, stone_statues_persian_lamassu, stone_structure_farmstead, stone_structure_house, stone_structure_tower 500 METAL metal_statue_discobolus, metal_statue_poseidon 400 metal_statue_apollo, metal_statue_isis, metal_statue_wolf 800 As reference a small cut of rock has 1000 of stone and 12 gatherers, so I thought that would be a good deal to set 5 gatherers for something that has around 400

may even take it a step further, custCWA chart - Sheet10.pdfomize the weapons too (not the graphics though, just the stats, length, speed etc) based on this chart, if you find it fairly accurate.

correct, and all ranking up does for you is give you a little bit more health and a little bit more melee attack or range accuarcy.

If i remember correctly, Age of Mythology had this, and it looked pretty well. So ranking up does not impact visually except the rank icon right?

@OutisI was just using spearman as an example, but yes it would be for each melee unit... And what I would do for techs, with the help of you and @Thalatta over time is, I would have one armor one for spearman, swordman, pikeman, clubmen, axeman. So basicaly your unit starts off with "no armor" just a shield and weapon... and then you decide which ones you want to give which units, at a loss of speed... your gear or "kit" wouldnt look different as you ranked up... instead if you got a tech it would change the appearance of gear.

I am rather fond of techs. In fact, i recommend to check this mod for unit specific upgrades. I think it is a great way to differentiate civs. Some civs may need to research some upgrades, some civs could have the upgrade for free, some civs could be missing some completely.

My opinion: why differentiate shields only for spearmen? If you are going that route, i would base movement speed on the complete gear. However, keep in mind: this will be complex for both the team to balance as well as for casual player to notice the nuances. I say go for it and let's see how it works .

Removing an invocation of `pickRandom` doesn't invalidate another. (Worst case is that in DE the AI might not be serializeable.) I tried to bisect it but wasn't successful there are always like 10 units idle.

Could also get rid of some of the forge techs for shields... and the armor ones could be based on which civs used what types of armors. One for melee and one for ranged... a little more custimisation, and diversity. With hopefully "history" behind most of the units, techs, etc and why some civs have but others don't....

tell me if you think I’m crazy…. I was gonna lower all melee armor to 1/1/1..then set movement speed based on weapons, swords/maces first, then axes, then spear than pike. Then I was gonna differentiate “spearman” with a mixin based off of the type of shield they used…. I’ve played around with it for javelneers. I have the peltast, the caetra, the Parma, Celtic shield and noba shield. Then like @wowgetoffyourcellphone did with Thebes mod I can add a "history" which will give a little info on all the different shields, make things a little more educational and a lot more diverse. @Thalatta @Outis thoughts?

I tried exporting an animation and it gives me the error that the animation failed to load and the file is marked as bad and it doesn't export the prop points somehow. My prop-empties and the object are parented to the armature. Before exporting I select the props and the object, then at last I select the armature, so that it's highlighted. I created the skeleton file using the python script by @Stan` Any ideas what I'm doing wrong? EDIT: Nvm, I solved it, wrong name of the animation file in the actor editor.