Not a Spartan

Some stuff from my enormous repository of screenshots. I'm a prolific screenshotter but I hardly ever bother to review them later. Like what I do with vacation photos. But anyway, here's some Macedonian phalangites and cavalry doing some general rampaging and whatnot;

Hello! The earlier post I was typing out disappeared (ugh, backspace button, must you do that?), but anyway, first of all, I do love the new effects and secondary features, but I do have a complaint: I don't like how the spear units' stats have been modified and standardised. I don't think hoplites would be equal to Celtic warriors, and I'd like the differences between the standard units of the factions to be more than cosmetic. Hoplite battles also take seconds to finish now, and I'd prefer if they lasted a while, like before. Javelin units are almost sitting ducks now; it's definitely an alternative to long chases, but I'd prefer if minimum distance for ranged units could be switched on/off (as a global setting perhaps). Oh yes, and last but not least, I'm excited for the diadochi factions- thank for rolling out all these features!

I've been working on an Etruscan document- see the 'Some Suggestions for 0AD' thread in the General forum.

I like tall walls- they actually look genuinely defensive. Short wooden walls would just look like an elevated walkway. Also, the multilevelled internal design is terrific, even if non-intentional.

These look great! I don't feel Boudicca the Middle-Aged Warrior Queen (I like how you put it) looks masculine either; Mythos Ruler's narrower nose suggestion probably should do, at most. As for the units thing, perhaps full-body portraits that don't take too much artistic licence would do, as the case already is for some of the Hellenes' units? This'd also make way for more contributing opportunities for the non-programming types. I'd love to see my stickmen in the game.

Thanks! I'm really learning as I go along- I'm still very new to the Etruscans, and ancient history in general. Anyway, I decided to continue a bit tonight with some sketching: The Etruscans, if they do appear in game and are anything like my interpretation of them, might be the only users of the old mono-oar pentekoter, which I'm trying to distinguish by adding a above-waterline ram (mostly cosmetic) and a crow's nest, giving it the vision range of a somewhat larger ship. Overall, it'll be cheap and fast- a scouting ship that's hopefully reasonably historically accurate. edit: excuse the images, I don't have a scanner handy now

Sorry- nothing too constructive to add, but I've just stumbled upon this thread and found this image oddly amusing. Those poor Iberians never saw it coming.

Oh Claudius! If only those volumes had survived... Updated my little document today to add Samnite and Ligurian mercenary units. If we ever get around to non-Rome Latin civs perhaps all of them would share an embassy type building with common Samnite/Etruscan/etc. units? https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vLEmFxBv5zntacp8YP2q7CKI4XIKW3HBnT-PZuyFUpk/edit?usp=sharing

lilstewie has linked this site in the Sea Peoples thread already, but if anyone's missed it, this is a fabulous resource: http://www.salimbeti.com/micenei/

Rome was part of the Etruscans during its kingdom phase- Rome only became a republic in 509 BC after overthrowing their Etruscan king, Tarquinus Superbus. In stages, they later assimilated the Etruscans, who kept their culture and influenced Rome for several more centuries. Anyway, I've spent my evening trying to put something together for the Etruscans! Progress so far.

Wouldn't having Seleucids and Achaemenid Persians together be a bit odd? (I love new factions as much as the next player, just needed to note the strangeness)

Some of the helmets look pretty Corinthian to me. Then again, I'm no Spartan… As for the Samnites, there are a few Samnites units in Atlas, though any additional stuff would likely be on the back burner for now. I think they're trying to do Plotemiac Egypt next. Obviously I'd love more units though… …and yes, more Etruscan representation would be nice. Just borrowed a little British Musuem pocket guidebook on them (I'm hardly big on history); maybe I can try typing a rough miniciv profile on them tomorrow?

Yep, alpha 12. Maybe this was since fixed? It goes 'Error calling component script function GetCurrentSpeed'.

This suggestion sounds fantastic. I remember the previous alpha had Hack Attack 60 naked fanatic placeholder units for the Mauryan special units. Quite fun to toy around with in custom scenarios- they'd absolutely destroy spear units.

A quick Wikipedia trip to read about Edmund Gorey turned into a Linky Goodness! distraction adventure again and I soon found myself reading about ancient big ships. Definitely pretty impressive stuff there, like the Syracusia. Anyway, I thought that a big barge would make a fun editor-only special unit. It'd transport a lot of units and would be armed with a catapult, as well as act as a mobile dropsite.

Oooh, scaffolding! Lovely. I assume they only appear around certain buildings for now? If they're going to appear often some simple variation (wood colour shades, placement) would be visually nice. Speaking of editor errors, the P-51 Easter Egg produces a constant error message in Pyrogenesis- something about GetCurrentSpeed.

Seems pretty far from our time period. (The cat & mouse armour sure looks nifty though. They'd make fun easter eggs!) I'm not in favour of grunge being too visible- from an eye candy perspective, a bunch of elephants all with the same grunge patterns on their armour would look a tad odd. (Wonder if there's any way to procedurally generate/paste a layer of grunge on them...)

This site's pretty excellent: www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/index.html

Phoenician ships: www.oocities.org/capitolhill/parliament/2587/ships.html

I always thought the Etruscans would be better off as a main program miniciv, seeing that they immediately preceded the Roman Republic. I'll see what I can find, anyway! (edit: saw your post in the main thread...let's get that design document up!)

Oddly, I was just thinking yesterday that the Etruscans would be a good miniciv to work on after the Mauryans. Anyway, I can't contribute much, but I'll be watching with interest!

I wouldn't mind some of their units being in the game as Easter eggs. I'd imagine that having full, or even mini civ profiles for some of the more obscure civs would be difficult though. And what about those that were both obscure and peaceful? (Minoans, Indus Valley)

I like those little bazaarish stalls, but I'm a bit more partial to the column/courtyard style market. It'd look unique. The Roman market may be a bit big and cumbersome, but it's pretty!

Thanks! I'm afraid I'm not a perfect hero though. The main purpose of microcivs is really to spice up the randomised 'Unknown' maps a bit, with the trading post thing just a fun extra. I could imagine them being actually useful in the 'Unknown Nomad' or low-resource maps, but there's usually plenty of resources to go around.

Thanks for the info nugget!