Leaderboard

Hello Kicking_Bird, Regarding terrain textures: As already noted by a lot people in the thread, several terrain textures have quite some age already (as you already know the project has been going on for several years). Normal/Parallax, Specularity and AO maps were introduced in 2012 after the roman set was done. These features weren’t planned, and an awesome contributor took it and implemented them by his own (which is one of the many benefits of open source development). Before that, several artists had just a basic lighting render model where they did the best they could to make things look nice, which involved textures with shadows and highlights in them and contrast noise to counter the plain lighting. With this background, you can see that nobody made these textures like they are “on purpose” or “by mistake”, but it was a workaround of the possibilities of the engine at that time. Surely they can be improved, you’re more than welcome to start working on it and show us what you can achieve. Regarding LOD: It isn’t implemented. The contributor who made the sweet graphic improvements had it planned after he implemented deferred lighting, but sadly he disappeared from the forums and project before that (one of the inconveniences of open source). That’s the main reason artists have to work with more-limited-than-standards polycount and make use of hard edges and smoothing groups to deal with shapes and can’t go chamfering every edge. Another thing we have to deal working for 0AD is the fact that the diffuse and normal maps are shared between all the strutures sets, which doesn’t give you all the freedom you want when using them and it pushes the improvisation and creativity of the artist to make use of them in the best way possible. The only non-shared maps between same civs structures are AO maps, which are just greyscale images and doesn’t eat so much memory space than having one normalmap and one diffuse texture for each one. (And since there’s no LOD system, we can’t make use of lower res textures dynamically either) This shared textures also generates the problem of the different pixel density ratios, where even if you make your best effort designing the texture and trying to make each piece the closest to its final size on the model, there will always be situations where pixel density will vary in the model since the texture wasn’t specifically designed for that particular model. Regarding the Persian wonder: The current one in the game seems to not be as accurate as it could be, so the last decision about it was to use the Gate of all Nations. I started it some time ago but didn’t finish it yet. You can check the direction I took here: http://wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=17552 I have an updated version with more detailed/accurate columns I can upload if you would like to take it from there, unless you want to start from scratch. Last thing, I’d like to take a look at your work examples and/or older projects. Sadly the link you provided in the first post is not working for me (not found) And welcome to the forums by the way!

Great perspective Enrique, can you make a list of features the artists would most want from the engine? It sounds like you have a few in mind already, but if they aren't formally documented (with Trac ticket, design discussion, meeting topics, etc.) I'm afraid they will never happen. The more specifics, the better. Except wraitii and Philip, most of the programmers don't really think about that stuff, so it's good to have this feedback for planning. We should also have more artist involvement in the staff meetings for that reason.

pfff haha, what a thread! Wish my hands weren't tied with this whole hard drive failure thing. I have to say, my images arent loading but it seems passions are quite high seeing how youve handled this mess, id hate to see you in the position of art lead kicking bird. A lot of hard work has gone into this project; if you cant see that then you are not a suitable candidate to lead a team of volunteer artists.

this thread started rediculous, forgive my temper, but in light of recent events, im a little short on patience. i stand by what i say in that this is no way to treat your team. Seeing how many members you managed to piss off already should be indication that a change in attitude is needed. As im browsing on my phone all i can criticize is conduct. If we're talking about calming down ground textures a bit sure, i'm all for it. stealth mechanics would be neat but seeing how units can be seen through buildings, thats not really a goal here. Dont make them too boring, now.

What I got fiddling around: It's kind of a hack right now but if you like the effect I can make it work better and put it in-game after A18 is released. Current system can tint the skybox so it looks perhaps more realistic (could probably be made to only color rays that look towards the ground). I also use an optional fresnel so you can make it fully chrome or only reflective at sharper angles. Edit: yup. Can probably look right on maps where terrain won't change color much.

Hi, I'm not sure where bug reports should be sent for the website copy, so I'll post it here in the hope that someone who knows what to do will see it. The game manual at http://play0ad.com/category/game-manual/ contains a typo in section 4 "Training Units". The sentence "Rally points can can be set on resources" contains a duplicated "can". If this is the wrong place to report this, please let me know where I should report it. Thanks, Some britons.

Looks great, though, there should be quite a bit of tweaking left. I don't think the black areas are really the problem, but there are some regions where the reference image doesn't cover well, such as the back, and the legs. It looks great from the side, but in game, it'll be viewer from above most of the time. There is also quite a bit of highlight in the texture, which should preferably be painted over with a neutral grey body color (the region on his back is almost white).

Will do Ben. I'll not take into account what I think it could be made into the game or not, so it will be an extensive read...

Stan's texture are blurry. He say so himself. I then improve them, but that was in a different post. And English not my first language but scattershot seem like a simple word to parse even for me (it is English word of course). scat·ter·shotˈskatərˌSHät/adjective denoting something that is broad but random and haphazard in its range. "a scattershot collection of stories" Meaninh, eh hem, that because of the length of time the game is be develop, the development of the art for the game has been (of course understandable) scattershot. Are you native English speaker? If not perhap that is why your tone sound like "I just learned this all in art theory 101 and now I school all you fools." My misunderstanding. Please continue and hopefully this weekend you teach us art theory 102. Syllabus: How to overhaul 8 years of artwork to remove highlight and shadow from diffuse texture and edit massive number of XML files to include new materials and new specular maps; and adjust all colors in all textures in whole game to conform to 255 color pallette like 1999 AOK. But if you think terrain "fly under the radar" you are mistaken. It is obvious that the focus lately has been on civilization model and asset. And lately there have been push to improve unit mesh for better silhouette and aesthetic and animation. You came here under mistake assumption. Many mistaken assumption and you still don't see it. As History_Bruno said: Easy to undersyand evern by fool like me who obviously has no art training and can;t make a scene look good to save his life. I am no good for aesthetic... I have no idea how to make game look good... I don't think anyone disagree with your argument that the terrain need work. That was obvious. people jhad other priorities. You should have come to community, integrated, check out workflow, come up with idea that fits with workflow and idea of the game, and then make pitch. You would have better reception, like digital instead of analog*. That is great. Wonder for Persians was decide to be Gate of All Nations at Persepolis (one of those boring history places). persian building texture in the game is very good and probably closer to what you think is good.

I attached the files, texture is included. white_rhino.zip

Hmm, I think we set off on the wrong foot, mostly due to language, which is a pity, since the things pointed out seem to be correct (though I'm a true programmer and have no artist eye at all). kicking_bird, I think it would be best to convince us by creating a mod with some modified textures. Either replacing/modifying existing textures (if they fit in the same context), or making new textures that can be used on new maps. If you want more help on how to create a mod, please join the #0ad-dev chatroom on quakenet: https://kiwiirc.com/client/irc.quakenet.org/0ad-dev It's easy to merge mod stuff into the main game, so it's not because you're starting as a mod that it won't get included in the main game. Mods are just a good way to showcase new things.

Yup. I wasn't expecting any of this to be easy, and (unfortunately) I am suggesting there is a lot of work to do (and re-do). I will advise against working in a vacuum; Upload the mesh screenshots as soon as that is finished. Or even better, upload it when you feel you have the basic shapes down. I believe we are quite good at giving out constructive critisicm in this forum (think of it as tough love). Tweaking the model based on feedback early and there would have been very little to do, and now, ouch. I can't help but to feel like a as$hole to suggest changing something, because I know it was a lot of work at this point. As for polycount, yes. I make my models of higher polycount than what the typical zoom-level in gameplay calls for, for several reasons: 1. It's a bit of future-proofing. Mid-poly today? Low poly tomorrow! 2. If there is ever any LOD support or anything like that, It's a lot easier to collapse nodes (I made a small test of collapsing some edges, and I got it down to 350 triangles: ) without noticeable loss of detail (at this zoom-level) 3. In the end, the difference in polycount (300 triangles or so) is probably less to that of a single palm-tree in the background. Unless there is a rhino stampede (which would be awesome), there is not really any impact on the game. 4. A bit of eye-candy doesn't hurt when you zoom in!

I felt like trying to model this evening, so I went out and made a Hyena. I think the model itself is fairly accurate (enough for the game at least), I did some crap texturing job but I really suck at texturing. Will probably try to armature and possibly animate it later. Any comments? Edit: update below.

I saw Ayakashi's great post about the Tang Dynasty and think that the Chinese faction wouldn't be complete without Song Dynasty for part II of Millennium A.D. Here's my proposal: Song Dynasty (960 - 1279AD) Brief history After a period of upheaval and unrest that was the turbulent Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the Song Dynasty rose up and reunite the Chinese people once again (to certain extent). A period of relative peace soon followed, and Chinese cultural, economic and scientific advancements were at all time heights during the Song Dynasty. Nevertheless, the Chinese have to constantly struggle with the even more powerful Khitan Liao Dynasty, the Jurchen Jin Dynasty, the Tangut Western Xia Dynasty, and eventually, faced their demise at the hand of the Mongols. The Chinese would not endure their Mongol overlord for long, and quickly overthrow the Yuan Dynasty to form the Ming Dynasty. Gameplay Attrition warfare: Turtling and booming. With reform, Song player can adjust their military to focus on: * Gigantic swarms of cheap infantry unit. * Early access of expensive foreign elite units. * Late game high tech units and champions. Song Dynasty is even more catered for turtle player than its predecessor, the Tang Dynasty. While Tang Dynasty was militarily strong, with a fierce contingent of light cavalry backed by very competent infantry, the same cannot be said for the Song Dynasty. At this period the Chinese were constantly troubled by severe lack of horse, so their army was almost entirely infantry-based. Low social status of soldiers and the tendency to distrust or even execute capable military commander certainly did not help matters. In stark contrast to their weak army, Chinese advanced tremendously in almost every field related to economy: Agriculture, metallurgy, as well as commerce and foreign trade. Major exports were silk, porcelain and tea. (The claim that Song Dynasty had 80% GDP share of the world is totally false, however). Also around this time we saw large-scale use of gunpowder weapons for the first time, both by the Chinese and their enemies. Due to their maritime trade, Song Chinese were very advanced in naval and navigation technology, inventing watertight compartment as well as utilizing paddle-wheel warships (and a blue water navy) on large scale. Civilization Traits * Imperial society - The Chinese did not live in a feudal society. Song civilization start with the usual civic center building instead of castle/fortress typical of Millennium A.D. * Forbidden army of eight hundred thousand - The Song Dynasty was able to maintain a truly mind-boggling amount of full-time professional troops, but not all of them combat worthy. Most Song infantry are cheap, train fast, and extremely tough for their price. However, they cannot perform economic task. * Defennd oriented - The Song Dynasty defensive strategy was heavily reliant on passive defense and developed superior defensive construction as a result. Civilization Bonuses Advanced Agriculture 1 History: Chinese mastery in agriculture was unsurpassed up until early modern period (don't quote me, but they were quite far ahead of the rest of world during our time frame AFAIK). They had farming treaties, multiple-tube seed drills and curved iron crankshaft plow, to name but a few. (And these are just the inventions of the previous dynasties) Effect: Increase farm yield. Silk & Porcelain Trade History: The main export of the Chinese since the Han Dynasty. Effect: 15% gain to both trader and merchant ship. Civilization Disadvantages * Overpriced cavalry: Cavalry of the Song Dynasty are massively overpriced, but only of moderate quality. * Slow infantry: Infantry of the Song Dynasty are weighted down by their extra-heavy armor. * Slow expansion: The general slowness of the Song army means that they also cannot expand effectively. However, their overwhelmingly powerful economic technologies ensure that they stay ahead of their opponents economically without expanding territory. Team Bonuses Tribute Mission History: The Chinese were no longer the dominant superpower of the Far East that could automatically attract tribute from the so-called 'lesser' countries. Tribute mission of this period was useful to put up the facade that Song Dynasty was still powerful and, more importantly, to maintain foreign relationship as (more or less) equals. Although Song Dynasty was the one that was receiving tribute, they tend to give more than they receive. Effect: Allied traders and merchant ships gain +60% trade profit when trading with the Song civilization. Not applicable to Song civilization itself. Researched Unique Technologies Odometer and South-Pointing Chariot History: The combination of odometer and compass makes charting map much easier. Effect: All Song building and land unit gain +25% vision range. Advanced Agriculture 2 History: During the Northern Song, introduction of foreign crop from Champa (modern day Vietnam), Korea, India and Middle East greatly improved food producton, while the invention of Yang Ma (秧馬) or 'Seedling Horse' made planting and harvesting crops faster and easier. Effect: Increase farm yield even more and reduce harvest intervals. Stack with Advanced Agriculture 1. Tea-Horse Trade History: The Chinese traded tea for horses. Effect: Reduce training cost of cavalry. (To other civilizations, this could be a borderline OP upgrade. To the Chinese, this only makes their cavalry somewhat more viable.) Gunpowder Formula History: The first detailed formula of gunpowder was recorded in the Northern Song military encyclopedia Wujing Zongyao. Effect: Song Dynasty siege weapons gain explosive ammunition. Double-piston Flamethrower History: The Chinese invented a variant of the Greek Fire that can spill out continuous flame. Effect: Song Dynasty defensive tower gains a devastating flame attack. Reform Technologies <Reform 1> New Policies/Wang Anshi Reform (王安石變法) History: A massive centralization project conducted by Northern Song minister Wang Anshi. Effect: * Reduce cost of farm plot. * Increase house capacity. * Increase trade efficiency. * Reduce cost of all military unit. * Reduce cost of military research. * Civic center, house and defensive tower gain additional arrow attack. <Reform 2> Alliance of the Sea (海上之盟) History: Northern Song Dynasty formed an alliance with the Jin Dynasty in order to destroy the Liao. Effect: Access to powerful but expensive Jin Dynasty units. (Ironically, this has nothing to do with navy) <Reform 3> Jian Yan Exodus (建炎南渡) History: Northern Song Dynasty was destroyed, only to be replaced by Southern Song Dynasty. Effect: Drastic restructuring of the entire army and access to many new weapon, technologies and upgrades. Unlock technology: Advanced Agriculture 3 Unlock technology: Coke Fuel Unlock technology: Watertight Compartment Proposed Unit Roster Support Unit Female Citizen Military Laborer (廂兵) - Only unit in the entire civilization that can build military building. Trader Merchant Ship Fishing Boat Healer - (Personally I oppose to the "religious personnel as healer" approach. While this is somewhat true for Christian faith, Chinese medicine for the most part was very secularized.) Forbidden Army (禁軍) * Forbidden Army units cannot gather resource or construct building. Spearman (槍手) - General purpose infantry. Counter cavalry. Glaiveman (刀斧手) - Fragile (by Chinese standard, they are still heavily armored infantry) anti-everything heavy hitter. Vulnerable to ranged unit. Javelin Pavisier (鏢牌手) - Very tough meatshield/tarpit infanty. Counter ranged unit. Archer (弓手) Crossbowman (弩手) Cavalry (馬軍) Siege Weapon Whirlwind Trebuchet (旋風車砲) Siege Crossbow (床子弩) Warship Paddle Wheel Tower Ship Hero Unit Di Qing (狄青) Yue Fei (岳飛) *Third Hero TBD <Reform 2 Unit> Jurchen "Iron Pagoda" Superheavy Cataphract (鐵浮屠) Jurchen Dismounted "Iron Pagoda" Cataphract Jurchen Medium Cavalry (拐子馬) <Reform 3 Unit> Bamboo Gunner (突火槍) War Wagon (如意戰車) Counterweight Trebuchet (回回砲) Heavy War Junk (尖底海船) Ironclad Rammer Warship (鐵壁鏵嘴船)

A little explanation. For performance issues, having a big mesh, is less heavy for a computer than having a thousand little meshes, therefore I attempt, to make a big patch (pattern) with trees. So there will be two releases. First One Mesh/One Texture Then A separate mesh for each object or object group, Since It's a huge task i'll be posting some pictures of the models that i made until I'm done. Deprecated

Welcome to the forums! Thanks fore reporting this, it's now fixed.

I think the bushes could be diferent green hue may be more dark( brightness) and less yellow(hue)

I think this is an important topic, albeit a difficult one to address due to the complexity of the community working on it. I'm sorry to see comments like 'history is boring' on this forum, because historical accuracy is a central element in this project. I'd love to see more specific suggestions and links to tutorials that could improve the knowledge and understanding of the artists working on the game. I myself am skilled with programs like Gimp, but have no experience drawing textures for games like this, so I would have to learn the basics before I could contribute. One specific point I had trouble with was finding the bushes with the berries on the mainland map. Everything seems to be the same color in the vegetation. This could probably be improved with a few tweaks in the colors of the surrounding vegetation? Or it all could be a case of "The grass is greener in the other game"

That seems like a good idea.

We'll discuss this further soon. I've made some better columns for seleucids. Overall the texture you made is quite good, I'm going to touch some values and probably make it 2048*1024 to have some more room for more stuff

The first two screenshots are just pre-release eye candy, I believe, to make something that looked impressive but wasn't exactly practical, possibly for trailers - thus the heavy use of alpha grass textures (need someone who was around back then to comment). The third is a much more primitive state of the game, you can tell from the models. One thing is the lighting model of the engine has changed since then, that doesn't change the source textures obviously, but I think if you loaded the same maps, models and textures in the engine today, they would look different (better or worse, I can't say). Even now, if you set the renderer to fixed function vs. shader it looks very different, similarly if you have minimal graphics options enabled vs. maximum. So we need to tweak the rendering or the textures themselves, perhaps both. I remember there were quite a bit of lighting adjustments required for the changes around ~2012, it doesn't look the same and it may be brighter in general. Finally, you could delve into SVN history and find the terrain textures from that time period and see if they are different, how they changed. You could even install one of the old alpha/pre-alphas from that era - much better than screenshots.

Dude I'm sorry to be a bit of a pain again. But I strongly, and I have to stress STRONGLY, disagree with cutting the Nest of Bees unit and I urge you to put it back. It's such an awesome and unique unit with so much character and potential and so representative of early Ming gunpowder warfare it just HAS to be included. IMO its role don't overlap anymore than Cavalry Lancer vs Five Armies Battalion, or the Hand gunner vs Divine Engine Battalion, or a WWII Light Tank vs a Heavy Tank. One is weaker, cheaper, more mobile and is an infantry, the other a stronger, more expensive, slower and is a seige unit. IMO, it's not really that many units. Many are just upgrades/replacements of other units like in Age of Empires.

...just wondering, why do women have more crush armor (15) than skirmishers or archers (10)? Since they also have 1 pierce/hack, they are better armored than the citizen skirmishers/archers. Sounds nonsense to me ..

The entire source can be browsed in our bugtracker, and here is the file where Fixed are defined: http://trac.wildfiregames.com/browser/ps/trunk/source/maths/Fixed.h The 'fixed' type we use is defined line 334: typedef CFixed<i32, (i32)0x7fffffff, 32, 15, 16, 65536> CFixed_15_16;typedef CFixed_15_16 fixed;

The description of rocket wheelbarrow in Ming Shi about the war of Jingnan is too vague for me to make any sense of, but I agree with you about the nest of bees infantry being 'out of place' for a siege unit. Modified my post. Nevertheless, 40+ units is way too much for a faction. Probably need to trim it down a little bit in the future. The good news is, visual difference between Song and early Ming infantry can be sum up as "they wear different hat", at least for the Basic version.

Well on the rocket launcher wheelbarrow. They were used in the Jingnan War of 1401 which fits into our timeframe. According to Grandhistorian: Termed the Huo Che or "Fire Cart", these appeared in Ming dynasty descriptions of special Huo Che armed military units ca. A.D. 1401 and were used in the Jingnan war of A.D. 1401-1403 which saw Emperor Zhu Di replace Emperor Jianwen on the celestial throne. These early wheeled rocket launchers were simple collections of four Chang She Po Di Jian (Long Serpent Kill Enemy Arrows) launchers on the top, and two Bai Hu Qi Ben Jian (Hundred Tiger Together Run Arrows) launchers at the side, strung together to be fired all at once or fired individually, to allow for a more sustained fire directed at opposing enemy troops. Manned by four soldiers, two manning the rockets and two providing the motive power, the Huo Che was an incredible weapon capable of letting loose up to a fantastic total of 320 rockets from all six launch tubes." See that same link as above post but click on Huo Che "Fire Cart". In terms of gameplay I'd see it as being stronger than nest of bees, but more slow and expensive. So it's like a 'proper seige engine' and nest of bees being an infantry from the barracks. Have it replace the siege crossbow instead because don't you think it's a bit weird to replace a large siege engine that takes a whole team to operate with a single footsoldier? And maybe even have it so nest of bees can mount and shoot rockets from towers, walls and some ships and the rocket carts can't. As for the counterweight trebuchet, My bad 'cause I didn't make it clear that I never meant it as an upgrade to the traction one. The traction trebuchet would be more mobile, has quicker fire rate and is AOE anti-unit. The counterweight one would have to be deployed and is anti building. This should be consistant with their historical use. I'd have it exclusive to Reform 1. As for the rest: Good point I agree! Nice new update BTW! Goes perfectly with the mod's idea of 3rd phase specialization! Now that I think about it this addresses what to do with the Yuan: A 3rd phase specialization for the Mongols. They can choose either Yuan Dynasty or Golden Horde.

We are using fixed-point numbers for anything that requires synchronisation, which fixes the issue.

Look, as things stand we have an applicant who is clearly skilled in the use of art. It would be great it we could just set aside all these meaningless verbal attacks and focus on making the game better. We got off on the wrong foot so let's just shut up about it and move on. Because this is a forum, tone can come out rather different to different people. Critisism can seem aggressive or insightful depending on your viewpoint. Seriously, this is getting ridiculous.

1) Actually, I wanted to emulate the historical fact that all hundred thousands of Song troops are full-time professional soldiers on government payroll, and generally leave the dirty works to Xiang Bing, which are also under full-time military employment, but totally unreliable in combat. (I also want the Chinese faction to have a unique 'feel' to it, different from all other faction) 2) 硬弩手 is just a generic term for 'heavy crossbowman'. For the most part I prefer generic name for ordinary units, because we don't usually see something like "windlass steel crossbowman" for other faction, just "crossbowman". Besides, the Song Chinese actually improved upon the 神臂弓 to create an even more devastating 克敵弓, quite a hassle to rename a unit every so often. 3) Nobody expects the SpaniMing Dynasty Inquisition! This is a pretty cool idea. At the moment 0ad doesn't have any spy unit yet, vanilla or otherwise. But I am all for it anyway. 4) I am not sure whether making three different models (traction trebuchet > counterweight trebuchet > bombard) for a siege weapon is worth the effort -- let's wait and see how other factions handle this transition (traction > counterweight trebuchet) and decide later. 5 & 6) Earliest drawing of Chinese Rocket Wheelbarrow that I could find is from the Wu Bei Zhi, which is from late Ming Dynasty (i.e. outside of our time frame). Besides, it overlaps with the handheld version. 7) Same reason as the Tang Dynasty thread - no evidence of its use as field weapon. I make it into an upgrade for the defense tower though. Fit nicely with the turtling strategy of this faction. 8) Good point. 9 & 10) Could be the same unit - But I need to check whether this 'bomb ship' fit into the time period (Do not trust Osprey books). 11) Liaodi Pagoda is actually a leftover from when this thread is still just about Song Dynasty.

I don't know if that's a limitation of those devices, or that 0 A.D.'s performance problems affecting all platforms are simply more noticeable. Of course it's not optimized for Android mobile devices and never will be, but there are things to do which will help (reduce memory usage, add quality settings for lower end hardware). This is quite unlikely and IMO wouldn't be a good use of our time. There are just too many higher priority things to work on.

As stated, it was only an example to show normal mapping on terrain, which you claimed doesn't work I'm not a texture artist, so I'm not about to attempt a more realistic example, but if you want to try, that's how it's done. The current terrain textures weren't selected with that in mind, however, because it wasn't implemented at the time.

A well researched update to the proposal mate so hats off to you! I Espically like how you handle the transition into early Ming and your knowledge of Ming 禁衛軍 Jin-Wei-Jun champion units! A few suggestions I would add to your unit roster though, if you don't mind: 1) Maybe at least allow Barracks units to build some military buildings like barracks, towers and walls. 2) 神臂弩 Divine Arms Crossbowmen. Good vs heavy infantry and cavalry. One of the most famous of Song weapons. Or are 硬弩手 Crossbowmen the same thing? 3) 錦衣衛 Jinyiwei. Post reform champion unit for spying and espionage. Armed with boardsword. Big line of sight. Can disguise as enemy units in order to assassinate enemy heroes. Loses disguise when attacking. 4) 回回砲 Muslim Trebuchet. Mid game counterweight trebuchet that the Song reverse-engineered from the Mongols. Maybe have it replaced by heavy bombard post reform? 5) 火箭車 Rocket launcher wheelbarrows! 6) Post-reform maybe replace siege crossbows with a lighter bombard that shoots giant iron tipped wooden arrows instead so it can still fulfil the same function? Although info on it are hard to find, and I'm having trouble trying find the right name for it from a Chinese source. This link: http://www.grandhistorian.com/chinesesiegewarfare/index-english12122007.html (click on 'fire arrows') calls it 神機箭 (Shenji Jian), but I thought the term was used for rockets. Campare with the Korean Chongtongjeon. 7) Why the removal of Flamethrowers? 8) It would be cool if the Treasure Ship is like a naval hero unit. You can only build one. But it has massive HP and good vs enemy ships. It can function like a mobile trading port, so you can use a merchant ship to have it set a trade route between it and an ally's dock. And finally can also train non-elite ground units when next to land. 9) You must have heard of it. That ship which the front is filled with bombs and can be detatched after latching onto an enemy ship with spikes. That could make for an interesting unit! 10) Maybe have certain ships be able to deploy water mines. 11) What about having the Porcelain Tower of Nanjing as the wonder? It was built during the early 1400s so it fits the timeframe and it makes sense since Wonders are meant to be final phase structures. I know other games have done it before but hey, its one of the 7 medieval wonders and Liaodi Pagoda IMO isn't as pretty!

Let´s wait for the weeken ´d we ´ll have a nice surprise Ibelieve.

Except for the part where this is not a work environment but a public forum and work ethics have no place here. And that was an offensive comment. That was an offensive comment because it assumed that as a programmer I don't know @#$% about art, design, and things like that, and you didn't even have the guts to say it straight. You were even assuming I was only a programmer, which I'm really not. Now what you said there ^ is honest, literal, and likely true in general. I have no quarrel with that. Let's be straightforward. Also if you think no-one has noticed that our terrains were burned out or too bright, that our textures were sometimes ugly and hard to read, you're delusional. We just never got around to fix it. I personally think someone ought to redo all ground textures and make them coherent between biomes, but it's a huge task. That's what we aim for. And I'm not saying AOEO has a bad art direction or is incoherent or anything. It's great in that aspect. It's just that they chose the worst possible direction, in my opinion, and taking context into account everything is ugly about it. It's an extreme example of something very very bad done very very well. And well, the market agreed. And about those older terrains: dunno what happened, but if they're no longer here, it's probably because we lost the right to use them. I agree that the parallax grass doesn't really look good though. It was a proof of concept, but it's quite meh.

The grass in the first two images is made using 3D grass actors. Nice to see but a pain in the @#$% performance-wise.

Actually it was ready to release at the end of last week but we had to fix two last-last minute bugs that made us repackage the game twice (and packaging takes hours, plus we have to coordinate the packaging to be able to upload the RCs, in a word it takes days). Currently the RC3 is available here: http://releases.wildfiregames.com/rc/0.0.18-rc3/ If nobody finds a bug in it we can release, everything else is ready. We're really sorry for the time it takes, we're also a bit tired of waiting because we can't push modifications to the game during the meantime!

I'm passionate in history and strategy and I have a background of classical studies. I also have a little bit of experience in programming with java and C++, if it can help. I already have an idea for the first 3 missions of a campaign, 7 maps can be enough? If you'd like it I could even include real quotation in latin in the text. The idea came from the reading of a book "Annibale" by Gianni Granzotto, an italian journalist, I don't know if you can't find it in english, it is a brief and smart summary of the history. It's the first time I use the map editor, but i think it is fun and I got this idea... I'll try what I can do, anyway every suggestion will be appreciated. If you want to cooperate even with the map editing it may be good, we can talk about it in the IRC channel. The story of Hannibal Barca is perfect for a campaign, he was grown up and trained by his father to become a warrior and for sure is one of the greatest in human history, I will send you the complete idea with all the goals for each mission, as soon as i write the first draft. One last thing I'd like to know if it would be hard to program the AI to perform special tasks in the missions.

Hi Gussebb! I sure hope I don't come off as a too negative here, but I think there are some anatomical issues with the model. Some time ago, I made a model for a white rhino (but noone ever got around to texture or animate it), which lookes like this: The thread is here: http://wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=17411 While I do realize i sound like a pompous @#$%, I was very happy with how the model turned out. Perhaps you could switch out the model for your animation skeleton? (also, everyone should feel free to modify any of my meshes if they think I've done something badly!)

My first animated blender model hope you can use it. (all files in the zip folder 100% free to use) rhinoceros.zip

Scrapped Civilization Proposal Non-Combat Unit Woman Healer (Taoism, Buddhism, or Neo-Confucianism) Trader Fishing Boat Trading Junk Civic Center Unit / Citizen Soldier xiang bing （廂兵）- The only citizen soldier for this faction. Armed with a spear, this unit is extremely weak but also very cheap and train fast. * This unit is removed if reform tech 2 is researched. Barrack Unit / Champion Unit Spearman （槍牌手） - Anti cavalry and meat shield unit. Armed with spear or halberd, as well as heavy pavise. Highly resistant to missile damage. Heavy Axeman （劍斧手）- Shock troops that use not only axes, but also glaives. Have no shield. Archer （弓箭手） Crossbowman （硬弩手） Heavy Cavalry（馬軍）- Become Cataphract on Elite status. <Reform 1> Bamboo Gunner（突火槍） <Reform 2> Pikeman （長槍手） - Replace spearman. <Reform 2> Swordsman （刀牌手）- Swift anti archer unit that is highly resistant to missile damage. Replace axeman. <Reform 2> Archer （弓箭手）- Replace original archer. <Reform 2> Hand Gunner （铳手） - Replace crossbowman. <Reform 2> Rocket Infantry （九龍筒）- Shoots nine rockets per salvo. Wildly inaccurate. <Reform 2> Cavalry Lancer （驍騎） - Replace heavy cavalry <Reform 2> Horse Archer （輕騎） *Although considered Champion unit (thus cannot perform gathering or construction), they are only on par with Citizen Soldiers of other factions, and generally lose to 'true' Champion units. However, they are available very early in the game, and can gain promotions. ** If reform tech 2 is researched, they become Citizen Soldier. Fortress Unit / Elite Champion Unit<Reform 1> Bei Wei Cavalry（背嵬馬軍）*- Elite personal guard of Yue Fei. Heavy Cataphract armed with glaive and axe.<Reform 1> Bei Wei Infantry （背嵬步軍）*- Infantry version of the Bei Wei Cavalry. <Reform 2> Divine Engine Battalion （神機營）- Elite Hand Gunner that shoots poisoned arrow instead of bullet, with extended range.<Reform 2> Five Armies Battalion （五軍營）- Elite Cavalry Lancer.<Reform 2> Three Thousand Battalion （三千營） - Elite Mongolian Horse Archer<Reform 2> Jinyiwei（錦衣衛） - Special agent specialized in espionage and assassination. Siege Weapon War cart （如意戰車）*- A cheaper and slightly faster "siege tower lite". Can form into special "laager formation" that encircle other ranged siege unit. Garrisonable to up to three troops. Highly resistant to arrow and cavalry attack. Mobile Whirwind Trebuchet （旋風車砲） Siege Crossbow （弩車）*- A carroballista. Basic unit has one bow, Advanced unit has double bows, Elite unit has triple bows. Fairly tough for a siege unit. <Reform 1> Counterweight Trebuchet （回回炮）*- Need to deploy to shoot. <Reform 2> Rocket Cart （火箭車）*- Replace war cart. Cannot be garrisoned anymore. <Reform 2> Siege Tower （臨衝呂公車） - Use RoTE siege tower model. <Reform 2> Bombard （大銃）- Replace whirlwind trebuchet. Warship Superheavy War Junk （尖底海船） - Giant 2000 liao (Gross tonnage 450 tons, displacement 600 tons) warship, larger than the famous Flor de la Mar. Heavy War Junk （巡船） - Heavy warship of 1000 liao displacement.Ironclad Rammer（鐵壁鏵嘴船）* - Heavily armored hybrid oar & paddle wheel war boat designed for ramming attack. <Reform 2> Heavy War Junk （戰座船）- 400 liao (166 tons), similar to most carrack.<Reform 2> War Junk （戰船）- 200 liao (83 tons) light warship.<Reform 2> Camouflaged Fire Ship （火船）- It looked like a normal fishing junk. * Song Dynasty had a riverine navy, a coastal navy, and a blue water navy, AND some hybrid riverine-coastal warships, so it is really hard to decide which ship to put in. I chose mainly junk-type warships to represent the Song Dynasty lineup so that it will not differ too much from the Ming-era warships. This also means the Chinese will have access to Carrack sized heavy warships armed with gunpowder weaponry (albeit without effective broadside cannons like the 16th century carracks and galleons), while everyone else are still using galleys and cogs. Heroes<Reform 1> Di Qing 狄青 (Horse archer/Horse flailman) - Northern Song general who always wear a bronze mask and keep his hair unkempt during battle.<Reform 1> Yue Fei 岳飛 (Cataphract) - Famous Southern Song general and national hero of China.<Reform 1> Yang Miao Zhen 楊妙真 (Fire lance cavalry) - Female Southern Song general famed for her fire lance. <Reform 2> Chang Yu Chun 常遇春 (Horse Archer) - Fierce warrior from early Ming Dynasty. Closest thing we have to a Romance of Three Kingdom-esque ‘superhuman’ in real life.<Reform 2> Zhu Di 朱棣 (Spear Cavalry) - The King of Yan, and later Yongle Emperor. One of the rare and fiercest martial emperor of China that fought his way to the throne, and then continue to led his army at the front line. <Reform 2> Treasure Ship 寶船 - Gigantic Trade-Warship Hybrid. It has poor firepower relative to its size, and functions more like a fire magnet or troop transport than real warship. Special Building <Reform 2> Land mine （地雷）- Explode when stepped on (duh). Proposed Wonder <Reform 1> Su Song's Astronomical Clock Tower OR <Reform 2> Porcelain Tower of Nanjing Misc Skirmisher （標牌手）- Armed with large pavise and shield. <Reform 2> Cluster Rocket （一窩蜂）- After checking Wu Bei Zhi, I found that Nest of Bees is in fact a wagon-mounted rocket....Cavalry Crossbowman Battering Ram （撞車） Mobile Double-piston Flamethrower （猛火油櫃） Song Dynasty horse archer and Ming Dynasty crossbowman.

Based on the awesome concept of Ayakashi. This was ultra fun to make Bixie statues closeup: From Ayakashi's concept:

Modified and textured: Sadly, those textures are 256*256, which is double the resolution it will be in the in-game version, so details will be lost. (they won't be noticed in the game anyway ) @Stan: Please, use the mirror/symmetry modifier when modeling helmets or whatever other symmetric prop. It makes things much easier.