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@Thalatta I recommend you buy a good book and read it cover to cover, then tell me what the armies of Palmyra looked like, their composition, mercenaries, and equipment, detail by detail. It would save me time. Save me time? Not just me... everyone. Thanks for reading.

I read quite a bit, thanks. If the AI bothers you, just say so; you don't have to act like some kind of crazy person. I've already dealt with people like you who want hyper-realism in a game. You should be more concerned about the units getting disorganized in combat. You're new here, I'm only seeing you this year. Stop telling me what I can and can't do. This is how we sometimes lose people who come to work on our project. You need to be smart and leave your ridiculous fanaticism outside. (It doesn't impress me.) @Anaxandridas ho Skandiates had already given me this level of trouble in the past. It's a bit hypocritical to say I can't use AI to play or imagine when Depends Est uses quite a bit of it. But I'm not criticizing WoW; he's an artist, and I understand.

They didn't know and nobody complained about it until today. Not everyone is obligated to know what others do. Although artists are trained to know everything.

You and the commissioned artist judge what the original artist intended to do. Your definition of modern is different from my definition of modern.

That which only existed recently and for which there's no evidence to have existed centuries ago... And I've just discussed it to expose bad AI. Indeed plenty of things have not survived, and one has to also consider artistic and literary sources, although not mindlessly. I'd have hoped that since "several artists create initial designs, which are then evaluated by the community and experts", obvious mistakes from ancient representations like spiral configurations in torsion siege engines wouldn't have made it into the game, and yet they did. That is one of the many things I'll point out in my post on the Athenians, but I'm still, at least, 2 books worth 800 dense pages to go (I'd recommend you to read more and play with AI generators less, but if you are not that inclined to do that, then at least try to learn not to gratuitously wave away proper criticism). Obviously utterly irrelevant for the points made. You can also save the rest of the you-are-new-splaining, which went truly nowhere. The boots I pointed out are clearly modern, that's part of the discussion expected to be had regarding dubious AI images, and that's evidently the end of it.

Does it have mod support?

Amazing ! Is it playable and can you assign hotkeys using the controller buttons ?

Support for NVK/Vulkan over OpenGL

@Stan` would it be possible to get this moved to the Announcements sub forum?

I must and ner take into account that 0 AD has CS (citizen soldiers). Therefore, I need to find three equipment levels: basic, advanced, and elite.

I've had problems with the Palmyran archers; I don't want to take the easy way out, opting for the Syrian Auxiliar Archer. At least judging by the look of the archer from the Principate era I-II AD.That would be very lazy of me. If you notice, I'm not looking for cataphracts; those references are very easy and popular. There are no direct references to Palmyrene archers, it only says that they could very well have been Syrian Roman auxiliaries, but we do not know what they looked like in the third century.

The second phase is to find secondary sources. Illustrations and photos of the renaactor or of reconstructed parts/pieces. As you can see, not all the armor belongs to infantry, or at least I'm skeptical about using it en masse. I need more references for this idea... and I'm look around trying to drawings and wargaming figures or even Total war forums/Tale forums. I also read, but for an artist, reading is not the same as watching. And if not, I resort to making drawings or asking an artist to do it for me. We used to turn to Lorgood for sketching. Lately we've been resorting to @Obskiuras We had several artists, none of them active. Some of our artists have gone on to work on current Age of Empires projects.

I'll show you an example of something very problematic. This unit is problematic. This is the primary evidence. As far as I know, there is no archaeological evidence of this equipment. When I say archaeological, I mean that this equipment was never found. It was only found artistically. Again, I repeat, as far as I know.

What is modern to you? Fantasy is more probably and best choice of words. You're missing something very important; I'm not the one who's going to design the final textures. You're new here... I'm not, maybe my username is. The process that our units go through is very detailed. They will not be based on a single illustration. Then one or several artists create initial designs, which are then evaluated by the community and experts. Forums are for discussing and presenting evidence. What I want from AI is for it to save me from having to combine several concepts at the same time. I can tell you to take the helmet from one side, take the armor from the other. I will open a topic on the use of AI in 2026 because probably another year of advancement, investment in data center and memory, plus learning, will allow it to do detailed things. It would be interesting if Angus McBride himself drew oriental archers that Palmyra could have used.

Hi everyone, as some of you may already know, @SneakEP is hosting a summer tournament. I have the honour to announce, that thanks to @freyabartok, this tournament has the most epic prize that i have seen so far. You can win this hand-embroidered 0 AD - Pullover ! If you want to join the tournament and stay informed follow: https://discord.gg/bWZS85Sj7 D05C85DC-110C-4F6D-ACE7-5205E8FF6371.MP4

Which is my point. Your image now is much closer to what we actually know about. Both styles are quite different.

"Looking like that" I don't think boots that look like a draw exist. https://www.res-bellica.com/en/shop/calcei-4/ Second, I'm not focusing on footwear.(Right now). @Thalatta you know to draw? How do I know if this boot is modern or not? I see a bunch of very blurry pixels.

Can you show evidence of any ancient boot, Persian or otherwise, looking like that?

There were boots of Persian origin at that time; they don't seem modern to me. But she is not trained to make Persian boots, very specific Roman helmets, very specific trousers. Mostly, I take an existing drawing and use it to show me a better version. For example, I need to better appreciate the riders.

Pants? Look at those boots, that design looks so modern I'm sure I can go out and buy them in the next hour. I think one has to be way more careful with AI, not the first dubious thing I've seen around lately.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modius_(headdress) Another item of clothing worn by the units is the modius hat. I'm not sure if it was only used by priests.

@ThePoshBarbarian This is the image you wanted.

I'm going to put this label up to be more transparent. I requested this image based on the previous images. I'm not happy with how the pants were designed. The helmets that this unit would use are very specific. Auxiliary cavalry helmets.

http://byzantinemilitary.blogspot.com/2024/12/roman-camel-cavalry.html?m=1 My intention was only to show Arab clothing used by some Palmyrene units; it's complicated to show a single look for the troops. The most outstanding and different units in the Palmyra army that distinguish them from other civs are the camel riders. "Dromedarii were camel-riding auxiliary forces recruited in the desert provinces of the late Roman Empire in Roman Syria". "A 1000-strong dromedarius unit, the ala I Ulpia Dromedariorum milliaria, was established by Trajan in Syria. A small number of dromedarii is recorded as part of the Cohors XX Palmyrenorum based in Dura-Europos in Roman Syria".

The original uses javelins, but the descriptions mention multiple weapons: swords, spears, javelins, and arrows. I am using AI to refer to units that have hardly any illustrations. https://www.historiascripta.org/classical-antiquity/dromedarii-camel-riders-in-the-roman-army/ "Palmyra / Tadmor, Homs governorate, Syria: Palmyra Museum. Caravan camel guarded by men armed with spear and sword".