Thorfinn the Shallow Minded

Here is an article on Skiritae. Skiritae were some of the most reliable alien soldiers serving in the Spartan military. They always had the honor of remaining on the left flank of a Spartan phalanx and (Thucydides 5.67) were deployed to face the any problem which could come to bear the army. (Xenophon 4.2.1-4) The source material for Thucydides is from his work The History of the Peloponnesian War and the one by Xenophon is from his work, The Education of Cyrus. I will write up citations when I find the time if they are considered necessary. Sorry for the delay. Maybe I will tackle Iphikrates later.

Realize that huscarls were more or less associated with the Anglo-Saxons, not Northmen. As far as horsemen went, the Normans (who were Norse to some extent) are shown in period pictures to field knights.

I just downloaded the next alpha and it looks great! The only issue is that it is completely unplayable; I assume this is due to my having a retina display. Is there any chance of that being supported anytime soon? Realize that I don't want to sound ungrateful. You all have done a fantastic job with implementing the Ptolemies and the multiplier. Keep up the good work.

As Alpha XV Osiris has been released, tis the season to commence discussing the potential titles for the upcoming alpha release. The next will have a name starting with the letter 'P' so post your thoughts and the rational behind such a name.

Currently cannot all units can walk through forests? Perhaps the Gauls and Britons could have a slightly weaker ambush system in which they can hide while motionless but not when they move.

With that point made, what about in the next part of 0 A.D. with pristine cathedrals being demolished. Christians will be outraged! (there may be a certain amount of sarcasm to the last sentence) Seriously, the temple was destroyed in history. How could having the possibility of destroying a currently nonexistent structure offend Jews that much? One could infer that since you do not include the miraculous deeds of Yahweh during the time of Moses, Joshua, and other Israelites, that would be completely heretical. I understand the concern over frustrating people, but I think that the problem is being taken a bit too seriously.

Adding in Mesoamerican nations, realize, would be extremely out of place compared to the addition of more European cultures such as the Etruscans, Syracusans, Celt-Iberians, Illyrians, Epirots, and various Germanic Tribes merely to name a few. I am not trying to say that having a Mesoamerican culture is bad, but it would be a lot of work for a nation when there are more relevant cultures.

Use heavily garrisoned towers and scramble the attacks with your own fighters.

There could potentially be a limit to the way the bonus would work. It could perhaps go more along the lines of choosing merely a limited number of types based upon the amount of players in game.

I am the copyright holder of original works I post in the Wildfire Games 0 A.D. Art Development forum. I hereby release all original works I uploaded to this forum in the past, and those I will upload in the future, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. I am not sure if I would call history articles part of the art, but just in case.

Perhaps you could consider Athena to be a slightly reasonable goddess. She is, after all, the goddess of wisdom.

An alternative for the alarm directed for citizen soldiers is to have those which are gathering resources to drop them off at, ideally, the closest drop site and ready themselves for combat in the most practical manner. This could be one of two things: they could return to the drop site using the attack-move command so as to not ignore everything in their path, or they could merely standby waiting for further orders. Either would be a practical option. Builders, on the other hand, should not cease construction as that would probably cause more annoyance to the player than what it is worth.

I would actually prefer two. If there is a second one though, I would only recommend having citizen soldiers at half health garrisoning. Furthermore, would it be possible for the retreating units to be programmed to run akin to the way they do when attempting to move in formation while the alert is sounded.

If anything should be changed with the Spartans, I recommend the houses. They should look far more simple than they currently are.

Light suggestion here, but if there is a rock under the house, it would be nice to have a couple variations.

I am inclined to agree with the above comment. I personally would say that it would be better to have there be less of an emphasis on a counter relationship between units and more of a system which deals with the formation interaction.

I do not see any valid basis for this mechanic. True, there were historical instances of soldiers being captured and sold into slavery, but for real time strategy, many gamers like to see their native units do an epic final stand while their enemies would not care less. With mercenary units though....

@ Second query: Yes, there is a new Roman unit according to the change log. It is, as far as I can say, a javelin cavalryman that would help the romans counter pesky skirmishers and archers better. Its generic name is Italic Allied Cavalry, or properly in the ancient Italic language, Italiko Syndemeno Hippiko. Disclaimer: The last phrase was transcribed from modern Greek so do not count on it being so.

Actually it is relevant to mention other reforms, but since you yourself stated that the title makes such topic acceptable, I suppose we are in agreement. The thing that should be asked is if there would be any game improvement made by implementing any of the above reforms and if so how?

The primary suggestion I make does not consist of that many difficulties. Allow me to elaborate. For the Romans, the Marian reforms would only require one unit, which exists in game. Obviously a previous one could be introduced if possible, but even that is unnecessary. The Spartan reforms would be quite simple I should think. The Perioikoi could possibly become hoplite peltast hybrids at some point while the Spartiate would change from a hoplite to a pikeman. (Another unit which exists.) The Athenian reform would be similarly simple. (The champions are post-reform so they could be unlocked or upgraded upon research while peltasts require only a few changes which are not that hard. (consider the possibility of using Macedonian skirmisher assets)) The Macedonians would be pretty easy to do also since it requires simply using assets of the generic Hellenes. That leaves it to the Ptolemies and the Seleucids, and I am having a difficult time envisioning much anything for them other than Romanization as Sighvatr mentioned.

I am not actually opposed at all to the idea of introducing reforms to the Romans in game. It would introduce an intriguing aspect to the game which could overlap over to other nations. To that extent then, the Macedonians could commence the game with hoplites and then alter them to pikemen, the Spartans could perhaps do the same later, the Athenians could have a similar mechanic with upgrading their peltasts to ridiculously powerful javelin/hoplite hybrids. Even the Persians could have a technology for changing their infantry to a hoplite form.

I installed it, but it does not work on fullscreen with a retina display. I could try again as I may have not installed your more recent version. Thanks for working on it though; that is greatly appreciated.

You failed to point out that the Athenians have superior siege weaponry and access to ranged units. Additionally, the Spartans have a complete lack of walls.

I am inclined to disagree. Without the accents, a reader may not be able to enunciate the second 'e' correctly with the example you just brought up. This could be the same case with many other words.

One other point for possible for improvement. The eagle looks a little too American to me. It would seem strange to some gamers to see the Romans represented similarly to the United States. That is not to say that the work isn't amazingly well done of course.