Carltonus

Just to let you know that the current actor used for the Champion "spearman" is in the Iphicratean manner (gear and all), not a mere typical "elite" force in the literature you provided.

As Nibbles said twice in Tom & Jerry, "C'est la guerre!"; well, c'est la vie to all of us... Am grateful for your service to the free world; 0 A.D. will never be the same again after this passing of torches.

They're all in the Norse faction in the Millennium A.D. mod.

It has reasonable changes for the next alpha, but will the reformed Spartan Pikemen be of good use in the future? A further suggestion could be a forked technology for city phase: one for traditional and other reform; the latter will have the pikemen, walls, and three new heroes of the late era, among others. Another distinction for the Spartans!

Please, please, please: have a look on the progress for the debated "Iphicratean Reforms" first! Currently a deadlock.

From just looking at the three playable heroes, both.

Starting off, and to be fair, the "main" faction catafalque should be one of the more-notable Buddhist saints, such as Ānanda (highly-knowledgeable/bahuśruta: slight decrease in training time of citizens and monks, treasurer of the dharma/dharma-bhaṇḍāgārika: reduced glory and maybe other costs of certain technology/research) or Mahākāśyapa (ascetism/tapasyā: monks/priests healing rate and walking speed bonus, at the cost of around 1/4 to 1/2 of healing range when in range of catafalque; first patriarch/???: technology research time decrease for temple and maybe other structures). But generic śarīra (other eight disciples?) can have a common bonus of slight increase in healing (for monks/priests), attack (melee warriors), and harvest/collection (citizens) rates when in range of the "catafalque" (community/sangha/saṃgha), and glory trickle (veneration/pratīkṣā). A set number of relics can also be placed in different locations as map elements, outside of capture the relic mode. If conflicting accounts of the Gautama Buddha's life can be dated to around the 0 A.D. era, he could be the main or Atlas-only catafalque, otherwise his wife or son; specific bonuses to be determined or based on the generic.

With the inclusion of Bindusara as the actual third hero, better change the catafalque name! If "Śarīra" is used, then the generic name shouldn't be "Catafalque" but something like "Buddhist relics", with unit description rewritten to reflect this as the "remains of a notable Buddhist disciple or saint".

You meant, "where you live?" Sure, in JavaScript terms, a location close to "America/Los Angeles"; but right now currently on vacation for a few weeks in a location close to "Asia/Manila".

You see, the Asia/Kolkata entry is unique to the others as it has an entry that isn't an integer, i.e. "3.5". Can you try reproducing with another location in a different time zone? such as "America/Newfoundland" or "Asia/Kathmandu" where these would be rendered also as non-integers too.

const Asia_Kolkata = formatTime( new Date(nextHalfHour.getTime() + 3.5 * 60 * 60 * 1000), "Asia/Kolkata", Guess the period/decimal point is the issue here...

Just read the previous posts... overlooked; whose idea was putting the stoa "thureophoros" generic champion javelineer (and the thorakites swordsman) for the Hellenic factions until around Alpha 24?

I'm now seeing a few red flags regarding changeset 27779: the elite hoplite can now promote to epilektos, which makes not much sense. The latter, so-called "champion hoplite", is a by-product of the Iphicratean reforms, from the change of gear. Why overlook this in the name of balancing? Still waiting for the possible name change of technology and/or correction, as well as the reintroduction of champion javelineers.

All work done in this game, especially modifications, is on a volunteer basis; what a little kid. The .tga files uploaded by @d34d svn are extracted from a Rome: Total War modification, not intended for use in this one. You can start by learning how to use a modelling program, create the required bits and pieces relating to these two Persian factions, add a texture, and eventually know how to stand up for yourself. Just saying.

Pardon the double post, here is an illustration of an Iphicratean peltast as an early form of pikeman: ...from a Russian-language forum.