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
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 enabling war elephants.
Khosrow I: tax reform giving increased resources per resource obtained from sources, and bonuses to noble Aswaran cavalry
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.