Thorfinn the Shallow Minded

Well, I think that they all move in unison. The benefits are on the front. (It adds 30% more attack and armor.) The real weakness of it is that it is has a movement penalty. That goes alone with the Syntagma formation. If my idea of having guys be able to hunker down, they would be immobile, but would have massive benefits at front, (I would suggest giving a good 60% more defense.) but might even be killed quicker at the right side and back. In conclusion, if somebody flanked them or attacked them from the behind there isn't much else to do than pray for those hoplites

well, they are actually semi-greek.

Just pray, oshron, just pray.

This is another personal thought. I disagree that there should be an actual unique technology that gives you access to the phalanx formation. If the phalanx was used even during the Archaic Age so why would you actually need to have a tech specifically designed for it when the the game begins around 500 B.C.? If I were to design a unique technology for the poleis faction, I would have a something that allows your hoplites to kneel down, making their hopla cover most of their body, making an almost impenetrable wall of bronze. There are actually several battles that include this, such as Mykale. There was another occurrence when a general Chabrias and his fellow outnumbered Boiotians used a similar tactic (That was around 378 B.C.). This also was a tactic used by the Athenians at Pylos (425 B.C.). Likewise, it happened during the first battle at Mantineia and at the battle of Piraieus.

I think that you should harvest crops in season and have to take out rocks, plow, kill weeds, make irrigational canals, make fires to drive away insects, spread manure, etc,.... (Not that you would have to micromanage that but it would be cool to see the citizens actually at work doing these tasks, but that would give the player a realistic feel for actual farming). The yield should be pretty large, but that all depends on the amount of work that was put into the job and the weather and pests. One option that would be nifty for soldiers would be making it so that they would stay gain experience instead of by existing, by being garrisoned in a barracks. The fighting part seems good though. I also think that for a civilization, if their infantry are ineffective in combat, they would be better in economical functions. That goes the same with cavalry of course. Lastly, I think that elite units should be able to build things just as quickly, but would have limits. For instance, they could perhaps make just barracks, fortresses, walls, and more of the military kinds of structures. Maybe they could also have an economic boost to all the friendly basic soldiers and women due to the fact that they would feel more protected.

Well, if you look at the article "Into the third dimension", by Stuart Walpole, there is a picture showing tons of unit sprites. Maybe if you contacted him, he could show you the file.

I recommend the names "centurion" or "centaur".

Well, it's better to add a faction that was planned then never add one. As a personal recommendation, I would most like the Persians or Carthaginians to be implemented first, but the Romans or the Iberians would do too.

That's nice to know. Could it by some small chance be the Germans? I have always liked guys like Herman the German. (Arminius)

Do you have any idea what it would be?

maybe for every unit, if they are under attack, you could feature it like Rome Total War where if they are attacked by arrows, it shows some arrows on the right hand corner and if they are fighting in close-quarters, it would show two swords that are crossed on the right hand corner. You could have the same thing for when they are firing like showing a bow or a javelin.

why don't you have faction unique cheats, for instance, for the Hellenes, you could have a cheat code, "This Is Sparta!!" which summons a bunch of hollywood type spartan hoplites to assist you. For the celts you could have the cheat be "Ride of the Valkyrie", which makes all of your celtic men have Wagnerish Viking helmets and the music would change to Wagner music. Maybe they could have a "Singing" aura that frightens everything but super units and heroes.

Well, the way I figure it could work is by installing mercenary camps in the land. You can pay mercenaries to make them join you; however, they will not gather resources and will not be controlled after "x" amount of fighting. Once they are near there completion of service, a flare could appear on the map telling you that your mercenary needs his pay in "x" number of seconds or he will rejoin his mercenary camp. If there are casualties, then the mercenaries at that camp will eventually replenish. You maybe could also have those kinds of mercenaries for training.

Where is the Median civilization?

This is an idea for spreading out the word of 0 A.D. Saying that there aren't very many videos about it, why don't you have a monthly 0 A.D. video competition. They could have themes like nature, battle, architecture, etc,... Maybe to give more variety to the forumers, you could also have "create a building/unit" competitions too.

I was wondering if the Persians have the ability to train camel warriors and elephants. It doesn't mention them in the wiki/trac.

That would be limiting. Why don't you have it where you can dig irrigational canals?

I couldn't agree more.

what about janissaries?

Well, that would make it limiting. I think that it would be better if you had to dig wells, do irrigation for crops, etc,... then you would have people bring the water from the stream, river, brook or a well to the town centre. The more units you have, the more water you need.

That sounds a bit like what the "borg" do in Star Trek. I think that just forcing them to gather resources would suffice. You could have it so that if you don't guard them though, they will try to flee to their home faction.

That figures. Maybe though, you could have an on and off function. I do think that the soldiers in the phalanx formation should naturally just attack that way and have no other option. One thing I do recommend is having formations like the testudo, wedge and phalanx become less as effective when they are on hilly terrain due to the fact that the formations could kind of collapse. As for another idea. I mentioned before having animals have a primitive social kind of organization, (like wolves being in packs, lions in prides, maybe even having wildebeests migrating in herds.) but I think that it would be really cool if the animals hunted, grazed, and reproduced. My thought is just having it like a life-cycle. For instance, a pack of wolves are prey on the deer (It would be really neat to have them interact realistically when they hunt by surrounding and ambushing the prey.) and begin to stuff themselves and do a lot of reproduction until the deer are next to extinction, then the wolves almost die out because of starvation, but the plants are now thriving, being so, the deer begin grow in population...... You could make it where trees reproduce, but are burnt in forest fires, trampled, and struck by lightning. That way, nature would always change, but would not grow take over. You could also have some animals like coyotes raid your stock perhaps.

I have never heard of that. Will You fill me in? The reason I was suggesting it is that then you could more easily do a kind of war of attrition tactic on your opponent, a very common thing during the ancient times. (Fabius was known for this, but so was the Persian general Mardonias.) I also think that it would be neat if the archers had a slightly slower firing rate and less effective accuracy, but a very long range and pretty devastating attacks. If you do archery, you realize that it doesn't just take about one and a half seconds to fire an arrow. It actually take more like three or four. The bow can also really surprise you with it's range. I think that it would also be pretty neat if the leaders would holler random things like "Get back in your positions." or "Charge!" etc... in their native language of course. It would also be neat to see the leader actually brandish his weapon as he would do this. Are the Persian heroes done?

In the trac/wiki, it says that when soldiers are their opponent's territory, they will rapidly lose hit points until a timer runs out. My idea is that to make it so that to restore hit points, you could send in a supply wagon and it would restore several units hit points until it runs out of supplies and must return to the civic centre or market for more. Perhaps they could also boost morale for a short period of time too.

Thanks for the info. This is one recommendation for sharks though. They should be more attracted when a unit is wounded and would be more active at night.