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Hi! I know some Egyptian and can type the diacritics (and also the unicode hieroglyphs, although this forum thinks they're emojis and won't let me add them) I've done my best to vocalize them so they're kind of pronounceable (if you're going to record them?) Here they are... I can do more later, if you guys want me to: Structures: Barracks : per-mešʿayu (house of soldiers) Blacksmith : ḥemu ḫʿay-n-ro‘a (weapon smith)　 Civil Centre : Per-nesu (palace, royal residence)　 Corral : Iḥy(stall)　 Defense Tower : Ṯesmet ʿo (great battlement)　 Dock : Meriyet (harbour)　 Farmstead : Šenut (granary)　 Field : Seḫet (field, countryside)　 Fortress : Ḫetem (fortress, stronghold)　 House : Per (house)　 Market : Per-Sebet (house of exchange)　 Outpost : Terter (counterwork)　 Pyramid large : Merwer (great pyramid) Pyramid small : Mer (pyramid)　 Sentry Tower : Ṯesmet (battlement)　 Storehouse : Weḏot (storehouse)　 Temple Amun : Per-‘Amun (house of Amun)　 Temple Apedemak: Per-‘Apedemak (house of Apedemak)　 Wall Gate : Ruwiyet (gate, door)　 Wall : Sebty (wall, fortress, stronghold)　 Wall Tower : Sowut (battlement, wall)　 Wonder : Menu Naḫt (mighty monument)　 Pronunciation Guide š -- English "sh" ḥ -- heavy h, same sound as Arabic: ح; https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Voiceless_pharyngeal_fricative.ogg ẖ and ḫ -- kh like the ch in Bach (these were two separate sounds earlier in Egyptian history--later were pronounced the same) ʿ -- pharyngeal sound, Arabic ʿayin, https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Voiced_pharyngeal_fricative.ogg -- it's like the heavy h but voiced, if it is too hard to say, it is thought that the sound became a glottal stop, like the sound after uh in uh-oh, after the Egyptian New Kingdom... ' (regular apostrophe) -- glottal stop (before a in 'Amun, also in 'Apedemak) ṯ -- like English ch, also can be written tj ḏ -- like the G in giraffe, can also be written dj EDIT: i've attached the unicode hierolgyphs...it would be really cool to see them implemented in the game (both for the Kushites and the Ptolemies!) kushitebuildings.pdf

@Thorfinn the Shallow Minded I think you're generally correct about the towers. It is mostly just a (fun) RTS convention... I think there is some debate possible about the outposts though. They look just like modern hunting posts or observation posts, which are used all over the world. It's just a simple timber construction providing some elevation, and thus an improved line of sight. They can be put up in a day, and would be very useful in any drawn out conflict. They wouldn't leave any trace in the archaeological record on account of their light design, and might have been such a no-brainer/standard/considdered too insignificant to mention to appear richely in written history. Just speculation on my part though.

Yeah me too. Maybe it's the ambient occlusion messing up.

Finished:

No problem! Glad to help out!--unfortunately I don't know any Meroitic...it's a cool language though, from what I hear. If you have a ton of time, there's this grammar that people really like: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/the-meroitic-language-and-writing-system/D1534C93DCCA955D82E0594CE92598FC @Sundiata I'm having trouble figuring out what language you used for the ethnonyms in your unit translations? Are they (ie: Noba etc...) from the Egyptian, Meroitic, or Greek? Also it would be really cool to see if the names could appear in hieroglyphs (see my previous attached file). I'm happy to type them up, if there is support for the hieroglyph section of unicode in the game's fonts. Off the top of my head, here are those phrases for the recordings: For the IPA (not sure if you're familiar with it), the apostrophe (') means the syllable after it is stressed, and the colon (:) means the vowel is long (like the difference between the Greek epsilon and eta). The other symbols can be looked up on wikipedia (and usually have nice sound clips) Late Egyptian IPA What is it? Ya-merak iḫ? ja'merak ix My lord? Payi Neb? pa:'ji: neb I will walk Tu-i r ḫantaš tu: i: r 'xantaʃ I will go out against them Tu-i r šem r-šoʿ-san tu: i: r ʃem r 'ʃo:ʕsan I will build Tu-i r qode tu: i: r 'qo:de I will work land [lit. Dig a canal] Tu-i r garag-meru tu: i: garag'me:ru: I will gather together Tu-i r ʿawo tu: i: r ʕa'wo: I will herd Tu-i m mini tu: i: m 'mi:ni: I will fish Tu-i m weḥʿa-remu tu: i: m weħʕa're:mu: I will attack! Tu-i r ʿaḥo tu: i: r ʕa'ħo: I will repair Tu-i r ʿayin se tu: i: r ʕa'ji:n se: I will hunt Tu-i r boḥas tu: i: r 'bo:ħas I will heal [Lit. Live, Prosper, and Be Healthy!] ʿOnḫ, Waḏo, Sonb! ʕo:nx wa'dʲo: 'so:nb̩ I will march! Tu-i r moša tu: i: r 'mo:ʃa I will retreat! Tu-i r poẖer tayi wot tu: i: 'po:xer ta:'ji: wo:t Battle cry [Lit. We are like Sakhmet in her rage!] Tu-en mi Saḫmet m-tayes ot! tu: n mi: saxmet m ta:jes o:t I will garrison Tu-en ẖar peru tu: n xar peru:

Okay... that's not exactly true... There is no debate about the fact that "Aithiopia" primarily refers to the areas directly to the south of Egypt in Antiquity. Only later does it become more widely used, as the true extent of Sub-Saharan Africa started becoming apparent. Aethiops means something like burnt face, and refers to black people in general. The vast majority of black people in the Mediterranean of antiquity, however, would have been from Kush or its periphery, by simple virtue of geography and recorded history. Areas further south of Sudan only become more widely known to the Greeks after Alexander, but even then, direct contact between the Eritrean coast and the Greeks of Ptolemaic Egypt was mostly limited to the city of Adulis... Herodotus is not the only one who referred to Kush specifically as Aethiopia, even naming Meroë specifically as the "capital of the other Aethiopians"... Strabo narrates the Kushite-Roman war (in his Geography, Book XVII, 54), and specifically refers to the areas south of Egypt as Aethiopia, including "Aethiopian cities" like Pselchis (Dakka) and Nabata (Napata). How about the words of Emperor Augustus himself? He too, leaves no ambiguity about what he meant with "Ethiopia": "On my order and under my auspices two armies were led, at almost the same time, into Ethiopia and into Arabia which is called the "Happy," and very large forces of the enemy of both races were cut to pieces in battle and many towns were captured. Ethiopia was penetrated as far as the town of Nabata, which is next to Meroë" - Emperor Agustus - from the "Res Gestae Divi Augusti" (The Deeds of the Divine Augustus), the funerary inscription of the first Roman Emperor, giving a first-person record of his life and accomplishments, including the invasion of Kush. Even the Bible refers to "Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians" in the New Testament story of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:26-40). Kandake was the Meroitic title for the queens of Kush, including the ruling queens of the 1st century AD... Notwithstanding that the Ancient Hebrew term "Cush", from the Old Testament is invariably translated as "Ethiopia" in the Greek version, for example: "King Tirhakah of Cush" became "King Tirhakah of Ethiopia". Obviously referring to the Kushite King Taharqa... The specific facial features of most Africans portrayed in Mediterranean art (including Greek and Roman), usually referred as "Ethiopians/aethiopians", clearly show people of Nilo-Saharan ancestry, as you would find among the Kushites, not people with Afro-Semitic Habesha features, as you would find among the Afro-Asiatic speakers of D'mt or Axum. Axum only becomes dominant in the horn of Africa from the 4th century AD, and they definitely had some Byzantine influence, but you shouldn't conflate the more narrow meaning of Aethiopia in Classical Antiquity, referring to the area directly south of Egypt, with the broader meaning of Aethiopia from late Antiquity and the early medieval period onwards, referring to black Africa as a whole. Only later still, does it become more specifically associated with the modern day country of Ethiopia, which in itself was primarily known as Abyssinia until 1935-ish.

@Alexandermb, nice... My final suggestions would be something along the lines of this crude mock up: Centred dome and reduced its height and increased its diameter. Added some Byzantine pillars and paving for the front door. Don't forget some props, of course

I was on it, and its almost done

Wow... Thank you sooooo much! That's incredibly useful, and can replace my written attempts for alpha 24... It will also help with recordings a lot! I would love to see the diacritics for the unit list as well. I was planning on doing this in the following months, but because I don't speak ancient Egyptian (and am not too familiar with diacritics), it's a bit of a pain... We'd especially need words/phrases and their phonetics for the following list for recordings. Anything from Late Egyptian to the Napatan Dialect is ok. Unless you're one of those 5 people in the world that understands some Meroitic, then that would be pretty cool too English What is it? My lord? I will walk I will go out against I will build I will work land I will gather together I will herd I will fish I will attack! I will repair I will hunt I will heal I will march! I will retreat! Battle cry I will garrison Unless the list has been updated? @wowgetoffyourcellphone Something like this: Archery Range: Pr Pdt (house of the bow) Cavalry Stable: Ih Ssmt (horse stable) Elephant Stable: Ih Abu (elephants stable) or probably more appropriate Meroitic: Ih Abore Siege Workshop: Pr iwn n ms (house of the movable tower)

I just wanted to quickly mention that freestanding towers outside of the Roman Empire generally didn't exist, and having them as part of the game aside from just editor buildings would be an inaccurate portrayal of civilisations aside from the Romans. They already have a limited utility with being able to be built only in friendly territory, and walls with their turrets more or less cover that function already. If towers are removed, maps can (and should already) be better designed to allow players to wall since that would be the only viable defence aside from a fortress. Also, outposts in their current iteration are inaccurate as far as I see (I could be incorrect on this matter). I will admit that they provide a fun gameplay options with their line of sight and neutral territory capabilities, however. The only reason that both of these exist is because of former RTS games like Age of Empires having them.

Did you guys enjoyed Stronghold crusader, I did, so wouldn't it be cool if there are some moat mechanics, also the tower selection and labors around/in the buildings, and you can see what are they doing. Also the war dogs and oil smelters. The wall building was good.

They need fix wall placement and new alternatives, like traps, mantles..etc

Like those tiny rectangular fields, farmed right in the centre of town, next to the Civic Centre? :p I would personally love to see more differentiation from the classic RTS conventions, as long as it's sensible and history based

The AI does have some limitations at the moment, yet the end resulting gameplay should not be dictated by the current issues. As the AI develops, it can use better defence algorithms. The AI would still have access to fortresses to assert a major defensive presence and Civic Centres to a lesser extent. Removal of towers would force players to make more strategic placements of their defences due to the large investment required. I will admit that the argument against outposts is less substantial. I find that they offer interesting strategic possibilities for games and it is highly plausible that they were used to some extent; I just am calling to question the fact that 0 A.D. is practically copy and pasting mechanics from Age of Kings with that aspect specifically.

We must follow the color palette of the Theodosian walls. The dominant color must be a light colored brick. Plus the red brick must be thinner than lighter bricks and the sections it occupies must be thinner too compared to the rest of the sections. (Or this could vary per building) I think those plastered/repaired sections should be introduced as props. A combination of meshes and alpha-channel texture materials.

The sign on the banner is 漢 (汉 in simplified). It is said "hàn" in modern chinese and signifies the Han Dynasty, so I believe the flag is accurate.

You also should add statues and crosses

You're completely right, free standing towers belong to the Medieval times, not really to Antiquity. Unfortunately, the AI is unable to construct walls, and if outposts and towers were to be removed, the AI would be significantly more vulnerable than it is already.

Don't worry, just stating for the record :)

Moved. Also I merged your two posts Lion. About the initial question, if I get it it will be to take a look at how they did the 3D Models

Sadly we do not have support for fonts, It would make some things really easier, as instead of generating images we could just use ttf files.

Cool to see the mod catching up again! Very nice work! As a sidenote: I think the building texture is bit too dark

It used to work IIRC, but I just tried it and it and upon loading up a match it threw all kinds of shader errors.

Yeah, openGL3 is still beyond what I'm prepared to do right now. I'm not really sure whether the lag from grass is draw calls or fragment writing or what though. That'd be a good candidate for profiling. I've been editing model_transparent.xml for that. Actually depending on how you set it up they don't necessarily look that horrible. Well, technically I didn't completely disable alpha blending, I just turned it off for the opaque pass. There are lots of different ways of going about that, although none of them work particularly well. I actually saw that, but from the searching around I did I couldn't actually locate anything in the code that would use force alpha test. It doesn't seem to be implemented.

Some grass and some trees use alpha blending (necessary for making leaves look halfway good). This means we render them twice, and once with transparency enabled. Furthermore, the game has no real instancing (we merely sort stuff in a semi-clever way) so lag is to be expected, we start doing a looooot of draw calls. edit: btw you can disable the alpha blending somewhat easily, and you'll see that our leaves are horrible without it. There might be some trick to that, but I don't know it.

Could use terms for: Archery Range Cavalry Stable Siege Workshop

It does in mass amount, if a huge amount of grass its going to be added it will need to have some slider or setting controlling the amount of grass i've tested in skyrim Grass Performance mods and the vanilla as well tweaking the grass amount and texture resolutions from 2k to 128 (Its very easy to tweak when it comes to graphical settings) they have quite low plane polys for flowers and basic grass with some 512 or 4k texture resolution, and i imagine this is what any1 wish to achive "Video link" but it drains too much fps when the amount is too much even at low resolutions i hope that will not be the case in 0 AD.

See #2103

I take that back, with the ridiculous amount of grass I spammed it does in fact lag fairly significantly, although it's still less than the lag caused by the palm tree spam on gold oasis or siwa oasis. I'm glad you brought up grass though. Not only is it freaking gorgeous but it also highlights some interesting lighting concerns that have convinced me of the need for custom shaders for different kinds of transparent models. In particular the dark lines you see on grass when looking straight down at it are caused by using NdotL lighting on grass, which is dumb given how translucent real grass is and bad because all it does is highlight the grass model's true shape, which is undesirable. The same thing but with the sun directly overhead: As for increasing grass usage, now I'm seriously thinking about implementing a grass map feature so that you can paint and unpaint grass/flowers/etc as easily as you can do with terrain texture. Having nicer grass models/textures would also be nice. A lot of the current textures use fake lighting where the grass is darker towards the bottom, which also creates ugly grey lines. A fancy profiler wasn't necessary. If I enabled soft shadows for transparent objects I literally got zero fps when panning over the trees in the center of gold oasis, and when I disabled soft shadows for transparent objects it became playable again. They work fine for terrain and solid models.

Actually its the only one wich is nearly similar to the vanilla factions the only difference is the semi donut shape but the others are like government centers or a public plaza and not like the other germanic factions wich are more like the king or the leader house:

Potential props

Thanks, i'll try some changes on the vertex weight and commit if i found one where it doesn't clip. on the other hand i've made what i had in mind but now i having doubts about it, it could end looking gorgeous with flora and the roads and more props but idk yet.

added 2 basic variants:

Add the upper part (chainmail) of the coif too. I modified your helmet textures. I am thinking of adding player color to the hollow part/gaps on the top part of the helm. I'm just not sure if the Byzantines of the period continued the practice just like their Hellenistic age ancestors. Tagging some history buffs for opinions. @wowgetoffyourcellphone @Nescio

The Tarim Basin