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Showing content with the highest reputation on 2014-02-15 in all areas

  1. I'd just want to give you here a link to an old Indian martial art. I think it could be used as a base to devise an Indian unit, in either Empire Besieged or 1000 A.D. This thread could be then used to discuss the faction. Beware, as it could be a-historical (the Gupta being a northern empire). This is based on the mythological origin of all the far-eastern martial arts, as being related in Wikipaedia. An Indian monk, Bodhidharma, came to the Shaolin temple in China by the turn of the 6th century A.D. He eventually developed a spiritual-martial art derived from a pre-existing Indian martial art (so it is valid for the 5th century and should be for some centuries before as well), his father being of the warrior cast. This martial art, Kalarippayatt(u), derived itself from three main influences/cultures: the old Dravidian (relation to nature and animism)the Buddhism (pacifism and energetic body)the new Aryan (art/theory/holistic of the military supremacy)Masters at arms (fencing masters?) (gurus) were doctors too and taught how to kill and how to heal. In this old time, 14 weapons had to be taught but mastering one could take many years of course (at least: staff, hand, sword, knife, spear, flail, shield). On the video links in English below, they tell about the history and the goals of this martial art. So, the idea would be to have either a costly warrior-healer-leader (possibly with minor healing capacities), or a cheaper champion with some regeneration over time, both dealing multiple mêlée damage type (indeed, all the 3 damage types). Really. Watch at the videos. I don't know whether they were armored or not, but surely, they could be the alter-ego of non mounted knights. Nowadays, this art is still taught by dynasties of masters at arms in the Kerala state in the SW. THe number of weapons taught has decreased with time. Here in English:
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  2. Hi all, is there any where - where we can see the evolution of 0ad from the first release till now via screenshots?
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  3. I think they knew at least the "Wall of shields", to form a tight line to impress the enemy, and protect against cavalry and enemy self wall of shields, because a lone average warrior caught by this kind of line would be dead: it's a 1vs3. It would be nice not only to have various formation types but also various formation "durabilities". For the Celts certainly could hold the line until first contact but then you would tell the difference between them and more disciplined cultures. It should be the same for mercenaries: they should stick to their original culture's habits, not their master's, and as such being employed in full knowledge of that fact. This discrepancy could even make for the lack of a morale system, so true is that being and keeping in a formation is an advantage (defensive or offensive).
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  4. Plato was a lot earlier than our time frame. Patañjali is from India, and we do have an Indian faction, do we not? The foundation for what is now modern linguistics were laid down in Sanskrit which is an Indo-European language just like Greek and Latin. So, not as outlandish as you might think. Well, I like exotic anyway and broadening our horizons Polybius is also fitting for what we do with the game in general, but is not especially related to the new features that will be in Alpha XVI https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polybius Interesting, thanks for pointing him out.
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  5. Merely because Plato was from Greece should not affect the choice. Plato was the forerunner of Aristotle, one of the most important figures in western philosophy. Support for multiple languages is certainly nice, but should not justify selecting outlandish name simply because of that. I would personally suggest Polybius, a truly significant contributor to our understanding of the past through his histories.
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  6. Sassanid Iconography and motifs: FARR(AH)
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  7. If alpha 16 manages to speed up the game lag considerably, especially with pathfinder (that obviously uses square roots), 'Pythagoras', or 'Pythagorean' could be a very fitting name
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