Acumen
-
Posts
4.095 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Posts posted by Acumen
-
-
How many of you get so tired during the day that you just want to sleep?
5 days a week, every hour at work. But then I guess that's why caffeine and deadlines were created.
-
Just bought it this morning, after hearing about it from this thread. Going to give it to my father for Christmas, with the added bonus of being able to watch it over the holidays for myself.
-
Of course, they could be deliberately toying with us. eg We might refresh one day to find:
"2300 BC, Sargon I unifies Sumeria""559 BC, Cyrus the Great becomes King of Persia"
... And they'll keep advancing forward through history (encouraging rampant speculation and hype along the way) until they eventually progress down to the colonial age. Evil, eh?
OT: I'm with Michael about the "all of history in one game" style (which is a fine boast, certainly, but usually amounts to "tenuously linked, edited highlights from all of history crammed into one package"). While there's plenty of variety in such a format, a game where you're playing with camels one minute then upgrading them to tanks the next means you get to sample only a brief taste of each era, rather than reconstructing the rich history and atmosphere of a specific time period.
-
Since airplanes weren't in common use in the classical era, implementing that isn't the highest of priorities. In all honestly, we'll probably be more than exhausted enough trying to implement what's required for 0 A.D. However, gameplay script should hopefully be adaptable enough to incorporate such logic in one's mod.
-
The general idea was that completing the challenge would flag availability of that cheat in your user profile. The code wouldn't work until flagged. Of course, someone could just upload his profile, or figure out how to modify the profile to change which campaigns and challenges he's completed, so even if it's not cheat-code-based, I don't think we could ever get around the unlock being plastered over the Internet in some form (especially with the game being so mod-friendly).
But for those that want to have the satisfaction of completing a single-player challenge and being rewarded for it (rather than the hollow victory of downloading someone else's hack), the option's there.
-
Thanks for replying to this, Michael. Correct, we plan to revise the Cultures section in more detail when all civ buildings and units have been implemented and tweaked. We have a pretty thorough plan, but it's liable to get a serious hammering as we put it into action, and then the website info would just be constantly out of date as the game evolved.
Also we don't want to create disappointment if we preview something and then have to change it later (eg get everybody worked up with special Hellenic Onagers that hurl Greek Fire, only to remove that later because it hadn't been invented yet in this period). We'd like to first ensure that things are working reliably so that we can more accurately reflect what will be in the game.
Finally, it lets us do a better job on the Cultures section because we'll have more final material to include. For example, we could include a polished in-game snapshot of each unit/building, alongside the piece of concept art that inspired it.
-
And a friend of mine wanted to buy the game but it's only available for dvd ... ANd I don't have a dvd-rom.
I feel your pain. I had exactly the same problem, and Steam doesn't recognise my debit card (so I figured I'll get a DVD writer for Christmas and pick up HL2 in the January sales).
DVDs might be standard in new systems nowadays, but IMO there's enough legacy hardware around to lose a lot of potential customers. I had similar problems with Thief: Deadly Shadows and DX2 (the former is currently sitting on my bookshelf gathering dust since I was too amped to notice the then-rare-on-PC-game-boxes DVD-ROM symbol). But they still got my money, right?
Incidentally, am I misreading the box blurb, or does HL2 have a 4.2/2.4Gb installation (thus effectively unloading most of the DVD to your HDD)? I guess that has something to do with it being capable of a removeable-media-less format through Steam.
-
Actually, if I recall correctly, Big Huge Games themselves had a similar problem when developing RoN (I remember reading about it somewhere, possibly their gamasutra postmortem) ...
Since historical RTSes all base themselves on the source material, they had a hard time trying to make their units and buildings look distinct from other games in the genre.
This particularly proved a problem for promotional material. They opted in the end to focus on the futuristic units in their screenshots where they had a little more artistic license.
Not particularly helpful to you, of course, but just a fact bite to let you know you're not alone.
-
As a user of legacy software (ie a cheap git), in my experience Win98 CDs aren't bootable (unless you're using a version with which I'm unfamiliar). I remember being most jubilant when my Win2k install CD booted without me having to hassle with DOS drivers and floppy disks.
-
rquader:
I would like to point out that Asiya does not mean mill. Jangi means soldier in general.Thanks for your comments on Tonto_Sanjab's translations. Could you please let us know what Persian words you feel should be used in these cases, and then we can go about correcting them?
-
No, it means that we plan for the game to have one or more expansion packs.
The first edition will ship with six civilisations that peaked within the period of 500 B.C. to 1 B.C. (those civs are covered in the Cultures section elsewhere on the site, but they're the same ones you already know of).
In the expansion(s), we plan to start to add A.D. civs to the mix (those that peaked in 1 A.D to 500 A.D.), as well as adding trickier backburner features that we didn't want to risk adding until we'd established a firm foundation and were comfortable with the engine's capabilities and our tools.
Far back in the forgotten eras of 0 A.D.'s development, when it's design was still based on an AoK mod (where as you know the civs shared an extremely common base), we'd planned to release a game with almost double that number of civilisations. Splitting our efforts allows us to focus on a smaller number of civs at a time, and make them more detailed. Six is more than enough to do at once.
Of course, that's a long-term plan, and we'll have to see if we first kill ourselves trying to complete the first objective.
-
Thanks, Argalius. There's always one bug that slips through the net.
Should be fixed now. -
Job Title(s): Texture Artist.
Joined: 2nd November 2004.
Department: Art.
Job Responsibilities: Making coloured textures which will be wrapped around unit models.
Location: North Gosford, Australia.
Birth Year: 1989.
Home Town: North Gosford, Australia.
Interests/Hobbies: Webdesign, modding, modeling, participating in online communities, Science, Ancient History, Geography, Learning languages, RTS games,
movies, books.
Favourite Musician/Band: None; I like nearly everything.
Favourite Computer Games: AoM:TT - Because I'm good at modding it and I like to play it. AoK:TC - It's a classic. SWGB:CC - It's a Star Wars copy of a classic.
Bio: Well, it may not be thrilling but here goes ... I have been in school for 10 years now and I have 3 to go. I am 15 and my birthday is the 29th of May. About 2 years ago my dad died. I have attended a few special days at CSIRO (Commercial Science and Industrial Research Organisation - it does practicaly all major scientific research and development in Australia).
A few years ago, I found I enjoyed learning languages and have been told that I have some special talent in this. More recently I achieved second place in the Ambition Designs Artistic Screenshot Competition and just received my prize today (23/09/04).
Currently working on: Getting acquainted with the team, and beginning first batch of concepts.
Quote: "Death to the salad eaters!" - Shan Coster.
-
The Anglo-Saxon army was one of the most powerful in northern Germania in the latter period of 0 AD. It was with this army that Hengst and Horsa, the first Anglo-Saxons (they were actually Jutes, but Anglo-Saxon is used as a blanket term) in Britain would start their rebellion. Later the famous Alle would start the wars of conquest in Britain, only to be stopped by Ambrosius Aurelianus at Mons Badonicus in 500 AD, temporally anyway.
The rank and file of the Anglo-Saxon army during the period between 400 and 500 AD was the peasant levies called Fyrdmen. Commonly most Fyrdmen could not afford to wear either a helmet or chainmail, though few of the richer ones could afford a piece of chainmail to wear. It was this lack of armor that made the peasant levies easily distinguishable in the ranks. Fyrdmen generally carried a large wooden shield and a long spear; they also carried an axe for close combat. Because the Anglo-Saxons viewed bows and arrows as cowardly weapons ranged weapons were uncommon, though they did use them in most of their armies.
The noblemen of the Anglo-Saxon army were easily distinguishable among the Fyrdmen for their armor, better weaponry, and helmets. Nearly all nobles wore chainmail shirts underneath their warm clothing during winter and in the warm months wore the chainmail with nothing on top of it. Nobles could use a variety of weaponry in battle such as more elaborate axes and ornate swords. Most nobles used a shield of some type, either round or more commonly among the rich, kite shaped. For helmets noble men had a variety of choices, some had cheek guards like Celtic and Roman helmets and some had eye guards akin to the helmets of the later Norsemen. The elite among the noblemen and whole Anglo-Saxon army were the Housecarls or Companions, who were the king’s or Harald’s (leader of the army) household guard. They typically wore helmets with a mask attached that covered the whole face and head wielded a two-handed axe that they could spin around in shows of skill, lesser Housecarls used a smaller axe and kite shield.
The Anglo-Saxons did not use cavalry often for most of their existence, primarily because their infantry was more then adequate, this would lead to their crushing defeat by Ambrosius Aurelianus at Mons Badonicus. The small Anglo-Saxon cavalry that existed was more or less armed like the noble infantry with some notable exceptions. All cavalry men wore chainmail armor and wore helmets, the helmets used by cavalry men were more or less identical to those used by the noble infantry, though the mask-helmets were more widespread. Weapons carried consisted of a long lance as a primarily weapon and either an axe or sword for a secondary one. All cavalry men used the common round shield, use of the kite shield has never been confirmed, though rumors abound.
Tactics used by the Anglo-Saxons could either be simple or complex, depending on the leader or situation. The most common tactic was called the “warband” tactic. In this tactic the Anglo-Saxons would form up into armies, called Fryds and would march off to war, often using brute strength as a way to defeat the enemy. Some of the more advanced tactics (there is too many to list) were called the wedge and the shield wall. The wedge was a triangular formation with the strongest warriors at the tip and lesser ones on the flanks, using this tactic the Anglo-Saxons could break the enemy lines by driving the wedge through a weak spot. The shield wall tactic was a defensive one where the Anglo-Saxon lines would form up into a wall with each man standing next to his fellow warrior with shields over lapping and the spears held forward to impale any enemy, however the shield wall could be broken if just one gap appeared in the line long enough to be exploited. Before joining the battle the Anglo-Saxons would lift their weapons and shout “Ute Ute Ute” over and over again to scare the enemy, and many times it worked.
While the Anglo-Saxon’s greatest battles lie outside of the timeline of 0 AD, there was some in this period. The first of these is the rebellion of Hengst and Horsa from the Romano-British overking Vortigern in 449 AD. The Jutes under Hengst and Horsa were not content to be mercenaries under Vortigern and rebelled, asking for help form their Anglo-Saxon cousins back in Germania. For this point until 500 AD the Anglo-Saxons and their allies won victory after victory and it looked like nothing could stop them, especially after Alle’s arrival. The pivotal point came in 500 AD at the battle of Mons Badonicus, near modern Bath. At AMons Badonicus Ambrosius Aurelianus (possibly the real Arthur) used cavalry, which was the Anglo-Saxon army’s greatest weakness to break them and force a peace for the next fifty years.
The Anglo-Saxon Army was a good example of a Germanic army from this period. They showed that some parts of the old traditions of earlier days still survived alongside the influence of the Romans and Greeks (however little it may be).
-
The battle of Chaeronea was the greatest victory of Macedonian king Philip II and was also the beginning of the long period of Macedonian hegemony over Greece. At Chaeronea Philip used combined arms to win the battle and thus set the example for his son Alexander.
Philip had turned Macedon into a power in his time on the throne, but he wanted to unify Greece under his control, for a great war of revenge against the Achaemenid (Persian) Empire to the east, and for that unification he needed a good excuse to get involved in Greek affairs. His chance came in the early 350s as the city of Thebes and the city of Phocis began to have disagreements over the treasures housed in the temples at the Oracle of Delphi. In an attempt to gain control the Thebans managed to get the Oracle to proclaim a “Sacred War” against the Phocians, who in response seized the temple treasures. The Phocians remarkably held out against the Thebans and fought back against them. Using this as his excuse Philip marched south into Greece and beat the Phocians decisively, conquering them in 346 B.C. Philip then took the place of Phocis at Delphi. In 339 B.C. word got out that the city of Amphissa had planned on conquering Delphi itself during the war, the central Greek cities in shock asked Philip to punish the Amphissans for this attempted act, which Philip was more then glad to do. However the Thebans were suspicious of Philip’s intentions, for when he was younger Philip had been a goodwill hostage of Thebes, so they knew how his mind worked. The Thebans would be proved correct when Philip suddenly occupied the “gates” of Thermopylae, surprising everyone in the process. In Athens Philip’s sudden move propelled the War Party to dominance in the Assembly and as a result the Athenians concluded an alliance with Thebes, who was at the time one of Athens’ worst enemies. But when the Athenians tried to get Sparta into their alliance they were met with failure, the Spartans refused to get involved in this. During this time Philip marched out from Thermopylae towards Boeotia and Thebes. As winter came both the Macedonians and the Greeks halted progress until spring, though the Greeks did become agaited by Philip’s occisonal raiding parties, because winter was supposed to be resting period. In the spring of 338 B.C. the Greeks attempted to block Philip from entering Boeotia at Amphissa and in some rocky passes, but they were defeated. The Greeks under the over all command of the Athenian general Chares now put the main body of the army on the plains near the city of Chaeronea, which is were Philip found them when his army arrived.
The army of King Philip II was revolutionary. King Philip marched towards the Greeks at Chaeronea with an army comprised of 24,000 of his new phalangite hoplite pike men in the center, 3,000 elite Hypaspistai on the right flank, and 2,000 cavalry on the left flank. Philip, in an interesting move made himself the front line commander of the Hypaspistai and his son Prince Alexander the cavalry commander.
The Greeks opposite to Philip had an army that was usual for the Greeks of this time period. The Greek Army of Chares was made up of a total of 30,000 regular hoplites from the cities of Athens, Eboea, Corinth, and Megara on the left flank with Leucas and Corcyra in the center. The Thebans with their elite Sacred Band of 300 men were on the left flank of the army. The Greeks had also hired 5,000 mercenary psiloi for ranged support.
The battle of Chaeronea began with Philip marching in a unique way. Philip began marching towards the Greeks with his army marching in an oblique formation so that the Hypaspistai and the right wing would crash into the Greek lines first, which is what happened. At first the Hypaspistai and the Greek hoplites were evenly matched and both looked like they would win. Then in a surprise move Philip ordered his men to retreat to the high ground on the opposite end of the battlefield. The Greeks, led by the Athenian hoplites and urged on by their commander, Stratocles followed after the fleeing Macedonians, certain of victory. Now Philip’s plan becomes obvious as the Athenian hoplites charged forward, effectively splitting the army in two as one half chases Philip while the other stays put. Prince Alexander then ordered his cavalry wing to charge directly into the now exposed flank of the Thebans, with great success. Philip then noticed that his son had charged and took this as a sign to turn around and confront the Greeks, which he does. The disordered Greek lines do not hold for long against both Philip’s Hypaspistai and the Macedonian phalangites who turned their attention to the Greeks centerline troops, who had gotten pulled with the Athenians in their charge. Meanwhile Alexander and his cavalry had destroyed or routed all of the Theban troops expect the Sacred Band. Alexander knew the Sacred Band was tough and waited until one of Philip’s phalangite regiments engaged them frontally. Alexander then ordered his cavalry to hit them from the sides and rear. The blood bath was great as all but 46 out of 300 were killed by the Macedonians. During this time it is said that Alexander’s horse was killed from underneath him and he was thought dead until he found Philip after the battle (the validity of this is doubted, but included nevertheless). Philip did not order a pursuit of the Greeks, wanting some to survive to tell of the battle, he was content with the fact that he had captured the Athenian orator and leader of the War Party, Demosthenes. Philip’s victory and Macedonian hegemony were now secure.
In the time following Chaeronea much happened. Because he so admired the Sacred Band Philip went out of his way to commission a statue of a lion at the place were they fell, the statue also doubled as a reminder to Philip of his stunning victory .With the victory at Chaeronea Philip had gotten the decisive victory he had always wanted over the Greeks, he also got a victory that proved the superiority of the Macedonian phalanx over the Greek hoplite. In the months following Chaeronea Philip called for a conference of all of the city-states, except Sparta at Corinth and there Philip oversaw the signing of the document that founded the League of Corinth, the only objective of it was to avenge Greek honor against the Persians, which was Philip’s greatest dream. The League also made Philip its Hegemon or general-in-chief of the armed forces of the League. To insure stability Philip allowed the League members their autonomy, but took away the freedom to make social or political change, he also made it a punishable offense to try to do away with either him or his successors. Philip now had his decisive victory, Chaeronea, and his Pan-Hellenic League; he was ready to move against Persia. However Philip was assassinated in 337 B.C. before this could happen, leaving his dream in the hands of his 16 year old son, Alexander. In conclusion the importance of Chaeronea to the future campaigns of Alexander the Great can not be underestimated, it is no overestimation to say that if Chaeronea had not been won, Alexander probably would not have accomplished what he did in history.
-
The Battle of Cynoscephalae is often seen as the classic battle between the best of the pre-Marian legions, the three line manipular legion, and the Macedonian phalanx of Philip II and Alexander the Great. After Cynoscephalae the mantle of Imperial power could be said to have passed out of the hands of the Diadochi (successors of Alexander) into the hands of Rome.
Rome and Macedon were not on good terms during this period. During the Second Punic War, Philip V the King of Macedon, made an alliance with Carthage, mainly because he wanted to annex the Roman protectorate of Illyria. After a separate peace between Rome and Macedon was concluded in 205 B.C. both powers went their own ways, but they would soon meet again. In 202 B.C. while Rome was finishing her war with Carthage Philip V and Antiochus III, King of the Seleucids, made a deal to divide the outer possessions of Egypt, which was weak at the time. In 201 Philip crossed the Hellespont and set out to conquer a few cities on his way to meet to Antiochus, he was defeated by a coalition however and the Aetolian League of Greek cities led by Athens, Pergamum, and Rhodes sent a plea of help to Rome. The Romans were divided at best, since the people were tired of war, but one of the new Consuls, P. Sulpicius Galba, wanted a war. Eventually Galba got his war through deft political maneuvering and at first the Romans sent envoys telling Philip to stop or face the consequences. Philip ignored the warnings and invaded Athenian territory and Thrace. Galba landed in Greece in late 200 and his campaigns were lackluster and ineffective, barely noticeably to Philip. In 199 Galba was replaced by P. Villius Tappula, but he could not make war in winter, in early 198 Tappula was replaced by T. Quictius Flamininus, who would prove to be just the kind of leader Rome needed. Flamininus’ first job was to try to negotiate with Philip, to try to get him to leave Greece peacefully, Philip refused and Flamininus launched an attack on Philip’s position on the Aous River and then Thessaly. In November Flamininus tried once again to negotiate with Philip, once again the talks broke down and war resumed, this time however the pendulum swung in Rome’s favor. As 198 ended Flamininus had managed to bring the Achaean League of cities into Rome’s camp and as a result the Senate named Flamininus commander-in-chief of all Roman-Allied forces. In the spring of 197 Flamininus led his army into Thessaly and after attacking various cities was able to draw out Philip into battle, the two forces met at a place called Cynoscephalae, which is Greek for “Dog’s Head Ridge”.
The Roman-Allied Army of Flamininus was a large collaborative effort on the part of Rome and her allies. Flamininus had brought with him two full Roman legions and 10,000 Italian allies, 4,000 phalangites (Hoplites armed in the Macedonian fashion) and 2,000 psiloi from the Aetolian League, and 2,600 Roman-Allied cavalry. Flamininus also brought along twenty elephants, a gift from King Masinissa of Numidia and a number of superb bowmen from Crete.
The Army of King Philip V of Macedon was typical for this time period. Philip brought to Cynoscephalae 16,000 phalangites, 1,500 mercenary soldiers, 4,000 psiloi, 2,000 Thracian light infantry, 2,000 Illyrians, and 2,000 cavalry.
The battle of Cynoscephalae began in a dense fog. When Philip and his forces had reached Cynoscephalae the heavy fog made it hard to see and as such Philip sent out some light infantry forces to the top of the ridge. Flamininus had also sent out some troops to reconnoiter the area and the velites (Roman light infantry) and cavalry soon encountered the Macedonians, soon after the velites and cavalry found themselves being pushed back, in response they sent word to Flamininus for reinforcements. Flamininus sent some reinforcement cavalry and infantry but these too were soon pushed back by the Macedonian cavalry. Finally the Romans began to retreat from the ridge in an orderly fashion and they returned to the main army, which had positioned itself on the slope of the ridge. By now the fog had cleared and both forces could see each other well. Flamininus now realized that the Macedonian lines had a hole in them where the left wing should be and he ordered the right wing to stay put and told the left to advance on the Macedonians. Philip now realized the danger he was in and he ordered his currently deployed phalangites to simply level their pikes and attack the Romans. They hit the Roman right wing which now began to buckle and move back. Flamininus knowing he had to act fast ordered the right wing to hold its ground and then he personally lead the left wing, with his elephants leading the way against the Macedonians, whose left wing had finally reached the summit, but was not yet in formation. The immediate results were spectacular as the Macedonians crumbled and fell backwards in disarray from the force of the Flamininus’ sudden charge. At this point as the very balance of the battle hung with no one seizing the moment a lone Roman tribune, noticing the dire situation the right wing was in detached twenty maniples to hit the Macedonians in the rear. Because of the tactical restraints of the phalanx they were not able to turn to face the new threat and the formation broke. With the breaking of his right wing Philip’s army dissolved and retreated, Flamininus now followed after the retreating Macedonians but ultimately allowed Philip to retreat. In the aftermath the total number of Macedonian dead numbered 7-8,000 and total numbered captured is 4-5,000 the total Roman-Allied dead is 1,000 with the core two legions taking 700 casualties altogether, whether these numbers can be trusted is unknown but what can be known is that the Macedonians took much heavier casualties then the Romans.
Following the battle of Cynoscephalae the superiority of the Roman legion system over the Macedonian Phalanx was never doubted again. With the defeat at Cynoscephalae Philip V could no longer wage war and called for peace talks with Flamininus. In the ensuing peace talks the Aetolians wanted some of the captured cities and Philip deposed. Flamininus would hear none of it and simply declared that Philip evacuate all of the Greek cities and pay an indemnity of 200 talents. Soon after the peace conference Flamininus after receiving word from the Senate declared all Greek cities in Greece and Asia Minor free from the Macedonians. Philip also had to pay a tribute of 1,000 talents in addition to the original 200 talents. Rome was hailed as liberator by the Greeks and on the field of military matters the Roman legion had proved it’s superiority over the Phalanx once and for all.
-
The battle of Asculum was the second battle fought between Pyrrhos (Pyrrhus) of Epirus and the Romans, this time under the command of Consuls P. Decius Mus and P. Sulpicius Saverrio. While Pyrrhos technically won the battle of Asculum he suffered such heavy losses that he could not press on, thus giving rise to the famous term “Pyrrhic Victory”
In this period Roman power was just beginning to rise. By the time of the battle of Asculum the power of the Roman Republic was just beginning to expand out of the confines of Latinum in Central Italy. This made the Romans a threat to all those who surrounded them, including the Greek states of Magna Grecia in what is now Naples and Sicily. After the diplomatic talks between the Romans and the Greeks began to break down the Greeks of Tarentum sent a delegation to the nearby Kingdom of Epirus, hoping to receive aid. Pyrrhos jumped at the opportunity for more chances to prove himself equal to his famous relation, Alexander the Great and to thus take his place as a champion of Greece. In 280 BC one of Pyrrhos’ generals, Milo landed near Tarentum with 3,000 men to scout out the area in advance. Pyrrhos’ main army landed a little while later with 20,000 foot soldiers, 3,000 cavalry, 2,000 archers, 500 slingers, and 20 elephants. The Tarentines and Oscans (That is the Samnites, Bruttians, and Apulians) joined the Epeirote army with 350,000 foot soldiers and 20,000 cavalry. With this force Pyrrhos marched north and engaged the Romans at Heraclea, where his elephants won the day by routing the Roman cavalry and infantry. Pyrrhos then sent a generous surrender document to Rome, which was rejected outright. Pyrrhos then moved to march on Rome but had to retreat back to Tarentum due to the coming of winter. In the spring of 279 the Romans raised a fresh army and put it under the command of Rome’s new consuls P. Decius Mus and P. Sulpicius Saverrio. Pyrrhos quickly marched out of Tarentum to meet the Romans who he remarked were like “The Lernean Hydra that grows two heads for each one cut off” the two forces met at the town of Asculum in Apulia.
Pyrrhos had learned a lesson about the flexibility of the Roman legions at Heraclea and changed his battle plan to adapt to that. The Epeirote-Allied army probably had 70,000 infantry, 8,000 cavalry, and 19 elephants (these numbers have been disputed though, it was probably something less, but it is unknown) .This time around Pyrrhos formed up his infantry lines so that for every heavy phalanx in the line there was a formation of Greek or Oscan infantry next to it, this Pyrrhos hoped would help mobility. Pyrrhos also positioned his Epeirote and Allied cavalry on each flank, to protect the phalanxes, which had a glaring weakness to cavalry. In reserve Pyrrhos held his elite Royal Guard cavalry and elephants.
The Romans had also learned a lesson from Heraclea and adapted their forces as well. The Romans knew that they were at a disadvantage in brute strength but were determined to win at any cost. The Roman army had formed up with four legions, along with 20,000 armed citizens and Latin allied cavalry. The Romans also brought with them a weapon whose existence is debated to this day because it was mentioned by later historians. In the winter season between Heraclea and Asculum the Romans had made out of oxcarts an anti-elephant wagon. These wagons were covered with tridents, spikes, scythes, and grapples that could be set on fire and swung at an elephant's face or trunk; they were manned by archers and slingers.
The first day’s fighting was a bloody stalemate. At dawn that day Pyrrhos advanced his entire infantry line against the Romans, who had chosen a hilly and wood covered area as the battlefield. According to the historian Dionysios (Dionysius) the heavy phalanxes of Pyrrhos easily beat and turned the Roman left but the Romans quickly moved to smash the fragile Epeirote-Allied center with their infantry. The Dauni cavalrymen, an ally of Rome, then sped into Pyrrhos’ camp, but the Royal Guard cavalry beat them off. Pyrrhos then tried using his elephants against the Romans who had breached his center, at first the elephants were successful, but the Romans used the terrain to their advantage. In one last move Pyrrhos threw some Allied infantry at the Romans, but the Roman cavalry caught them on route. This continued until dusk, when both sides withdrew from the battle for the night.
The second day was to Pyrrhos’ advantage. At dawn the Romans discovered that in the early light Pyrrhos had moved his men to occupy the hills and woods, this would force them to fight Pyrrhos on an open plain, exactly what he wanted them to do. Consul Mus and Consul Saverrio quickly moved their army to engage the phalanxes before Pyrrhos had time to get his elephants to the front. Surprisingly the phalanxes and Allied infantry held against the Roman line and the elephants moved up to the front. Now the Romans unveiled the 300 anti-elephant wagons and used them to great initial effect, but the psiloi (Greek skirmishers) and javelin men on the elephants drove off the wagons. Now free of any obstructions the elephants smashed into the Romans lines, seizing the moment Pyrrhos himself led his Royal Guard into battle, with this the Roman army broke and ran completing the victory, but the cost was huge.
In the aftermath of Asculum both armies moved off. While the Epeirote-Allied army had won the battle the loss of men and even worse good and able officers was so great that Pyrrhos was to have said “If we defeat the Romans in one more such battle, we shall be completely ruined” it is from this saying that we get the term Pyrrhic victory. Pyrrhos backed off from the Romans after this and stayed in Tarentum until he left to help the Sryacusans against Carthage in 278. In Rome the Senate decided to keep up the pressure against Tarentum, even after Pyrrhos’ return in 276. The Romans finally defeated Pyrrhos in a decisive battle at Beneventum in 275, which forced Pyrrhos to retreat from Italy, leaving the peninsula to the Romans to dominate.
-
Constantine the Great was one of the greatest emperors of Rome in its history, and he can certainly be called the greatest emperor of the later period without much trouble. Constantine ended the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire and many reforms that helped keep the Empire afloat.
Constantine’s date of birth is in heavy dispute, his life had a heavy impact. Constantine was born on February 27th, 271 (or 272 or 273 it is in dispute) in the city of Nassius in the province of Moesia Superior (modern Nish, Serbia). Constantine’s father was an important military official named Constantius (later Chorlus) and his mother was a woman of lowly birth named Helena, who may have been Constantius’ concubine, rather than his lawful wife. In 293 Diocletian organized the First Tetrarchy with Constantius being named Caesar, or junior emperor of the west. Maximian, the senior emperor told Constantius to marry his daughter in order to cement his position, this he did. Constantine was then sent to Diocletian’s (who had become senior emperor of the East) court to ensure his father’s continued good behavior. In 305 Diocletian stepped down as Augustus in the East and Maximian in the West did the same thing. As a result of this Constantius was named Augustus of the West and Galerius, the new eastern Augustus reluctantly allowed Constantine to go to his father’s side fighting the Picts in Britain. Constantine was suspicious of Galerius and traveled carefully, he arrived in Britain safe and sound and Constantius named him his heir. In 306 Constantius took ill after fighting the Picts at Ebucarum (modern York) and died on July 25th, immediately afterwards the soldiers proclaimed Constantine Augustus of the West, in accordance with Chorlus’ will. Constantine returned to the continent soon after and set his capital at Augusta Treverorum (modern Trier, Germany).
Constantine now began to consolidate and expand his power. Later that year Maxentius, son of Maximian seized power in Rome and was proclaimed Emperor, although he did not take the title of Augustus until later .In 307 Constantine took his father’s example and married a daughter of Maximian to better relations with Rome. In 308 Maximian and Diocletian called for a conference in Carnuntum to solve the pressing problems within the Empire. At this meeting Constantine was told to step down as Augustus and become a Caesar, he refused and left. In 310 as Constantine was fighting against the Franks in Germania Maximian in one last bold attempt to gain power (he tried unsuccessfully to usurp power from Maxentius) staged a revolt. Constantine immediately turned around and fought his father-in-law. Maximian retreated to Massilia in disorder and Constantine pursued him there. Maximian was able to get to Massilia first but was unable to mount an effective defense, when the city fell to Constantine he pardoned Maximian who attempted to have his daughter kill Constantine, who found it out and executed him (Another version holds that Maximian took his own life after being found out). With the death of Maximian relations between Constantine and Maxentius became incredibly strained. In 312 Constantine marched on Italy against Maxentius, who was supremely confident in that he would have the victory. After dealing with meager resistance in Augusta Taurinorum (modern Turin) and Verona, Constantine now marched to Rome unopposed. The night before crossing the Pons Milvius (Milvian Bridge) Constantine told his son’s tutor Lactatanius he had a dream were a mysterious sign appeared on the sun and under it was the words “IN HOC SIGNO VINCES” (In this sign wilt thou conquer). To Constantine this was a revelation; the sign on the sun was the monogram of the one the Christians called Christ, to whom he had been sympathetic, like his father. The next morning Constantine ordered all of his troops to paint the monogram on their shields, he also made a new Imperial standard called the Labarum. The Battle of Milvian Bridge later in the day was a truly great victory, for despite its size Maxentius’ army was unable to win. In the ensuing retreat Maxentius and thousands of his soldiers drowned in the river Tiber as the makeshift wooden bridges collapsed under the weight of the army trying to retreat across it. When Constantine marched in triumph into Rome he told his men that he victory was due solely to the “God of the Christians” and that was henceforth be an “Emperor of the Christians” saying that he would commit himself to that faith from then on. Constantine then placed the Labarum in the ceremonial position reserved for the personal standard of the Emperor and declared that all persecution of the Christians was over. In 313 Constantine met in Mediolanium (modern Milan) with Licinius (who had become the new Eastern Augustus following the death of Galerius in 311). At this meeting Constantine wed his half sister to Licinius to get him to agree to issue an edict of tolerance. This edict, called the Edict of Milan decreed that all religions are to be tolerated within the Roman Empire and no longer could anyone be persecuted for their religion.
With the passing of the edict of tolerance Constantine now concentrated on matters within. In the immediate aftermath of the Mediolanium meeting Constantine began to look to matters within the Christian Church. Constantine found out from his bishops that a movement called the Donatist Schism had gained power in the North African churches. Worried for the unity of the church Constantine convened a Synod (mass meeting of bishops) in Areles in Gaul to resolve the matter. The bishops decided to condemn the Donatist movement and ordered them to return to the church, the Donatists refused and Constantine brutally enforced the decision, but the Donatist movement was never fully extinguished. Constantine then began a building spree in Rome constructing both secular and ecclesial buildings. He had ordered an arch to be constructed to celebrate his triumphal entry into Rome after defeating Maxentius; this arch was completed just in time for the tenth anniversary of his acclamation (this arch, known as the Arch of Constantine is famous to this day). Constantine then completed the basilica in the Forum Romanum that Maxentius had left unfinished and built new baths on Quirinal Hill. Then of course Constantine constructed many churches, some of them are: The Basilica of St. John Lateran (were the famous Lateran Council got its name), the Basilica of St. Peter, and the Basilica of St. Sebastian on the Appian Way.
Now problems began to arise with Licinius. Despite the mutual good will displayed at Mediolanium, and even after Constantine wed his sister to him, relations with Licinius was respectfully cool at best. Trouble began arising after Constantine appointed his brother-in-law Bassianus as Caesar for Italy and the Danubian provinces. Licinius was deeply suspicious of this move and thought that Constantine was trying to gain even more power. Licinius was able to convince Bassianus to revolt against Constantine, which he did. Constantine put down the rebellion easily enough, and then he discovered Licinius’ involvement. Constantine declared war on Licinius and marched into Pannonia (modern Hungry). The two emperors clashed at Cibalae with Constantine emerging victorious from the battle. Licinius then tried to undermine Constantine by naming Aurelius Valerius Valens as the new Augustus of the West, this attempt failed and shortly thereafter Constantine and Licinius clashed again, this time at Campus Ardiensis in Thrace. This time around however there was no clear victor as both forces pulled back after a bloody stalemate. On March 1st, 317 Constantine and Licinius signed a treaty at Serdica (modern Sofia, Bulgaria), in the treaty Licinius handed over the territories of the Danube and all of the Balkans, save Thrace. Constantine in return appointed three new Caesars, his sons Crispus and Constantine as well as Licinius’ son, who bore his father’s name. It seemed that at last peace would come about in the Roman world, but it was not to be.
Another war erupted in 324, this time over religious as well as secular reasons. Starting in 320 Licinius began persecution of Christians within his territory anew, effectively repealing the Edict of Milan. In 322 Licinius also, out of suspicion of Constantine named himself and his two sons consuls for the East. In 323 Constantine named yet another Caesar, this time his third son, Constantius. Later that year Constantine, while fighting the Goths wandered into Thrace, taking this as a personal insult Licinius declared war in the spring of 324, and like before Constantine made the first move by marching on Hadrianoplis (Adrianople). In the ensuing battle Constantine once again was victorious over Licinius who fled over the Bosporus Straight, and blocked it with a garrison and a large fleet in the strategic city of Byzantion. Constantine had a fleet of his own and he drove off the fleet of Licinius. Constantine then crossed the Bosporus with his huge army and defeated Licinius in the battle of Chrysopolis. In this battle Licinius was captured by Constantine, who was begged to spare him by Constantia (Licinius’ wife and Constantine’s half sister). Constantine kept his word at first, then went back and executed Licinius and his son, in this way did Constantine become sole ruler of the Roman Empire.
With the defeat of Licinius Constantine brought in bolder reforms. Shortly after the execution of Licinius and Constantine’s ascension to the status of ruler of all of the Empire he began to introduce much bolder reforms in the area of religion in the fact that he completely banned pagan sacrifices and closed down all of the temples, using the money confiscated to begin a church building program. Gladiatorial combat was also outlawed and immorality everywhere was cracked down on. Constantine also completely overhauled the military into a better defensive force, concentrating largely on cavalry. Constantine also disbanded the Praetorian Guard, breaking its power for all time; he replaced it with a mounted guard called the Scholae Palatina. Constantine also passed a law stating that sons must follow into their father’s profession and he leveled a heavy tax every four years.
Constantine also began the building of a new capital during this time. About two months after the defeat of Licinius (November 8th, 324) Constantine had confided to those closest to him that the Empire needed a better capital, and a predominately Christian one at that. With this in mind Constantine traveled to the city of Byzantion and founded a new city on top of it, he called this new city Constantinopolis (The City of Constantine). Constantine wanted his city to rival the splendor of Rome, but with Christian churches dominating the city instead of pagan temples. Constantine of course realized that Rome was still important and made sure that the Senate of Constantinopolis was subservient to Rome’s Senate. He also made sure that Constantinopolis had plenty of grain to feed its people by diverting some of the Egyptian grain to Constantinopolis. Constantine oversaw the building of three great churches in Constantinopolis: the Hagia Sophia (Holy Wisdom), the Hagia Eirene (Holy Peace), and the Church of the Holy Apostles (actually whether he founded this church or not is debated). The city was officially dedicated on May 11th, 330.
In 325 Constantine began getting involved in the church. During this period arguments over the nature of God erupted all over the Empire. In an attempt to solve the problem Alexander, bishop of Alexandria called some of the local church officials together and they condemned the teachings of the priest Arius, whose ideas started the problem. To Constantine division within the church was intolerable and for this reason he called the first Ecumenical Council in history, the Council of Nicaea. On May 20, 325 the council officially opened and Constantine himself gave the opening speech. In the council the bishops (318 in total) formed the Nicene Creed as Christianity’s first definite statement of faith and the council also completely condemned Arius and his teachings for all time.
In 326 Constantine faced family troubles. Somewhere in 326 Constantine was alerted to the fact that his wife, Fausta was leveling charges against Crispus. Constantine was later told that Fausta was accusing her stepson of committing adultery with her. Constantine was now faced with a tough choice, he had passed a new law just the month before that if a man committed adultery with a married woman the penalty was death, but Constantine did not wish to kill his son, but also could he not afford to lose face in front of the whole Empire. So Constantine reluctantly ordered Crispus’ execution at what is now Pola, Istria. Some time later Helena came to Constantine and told him that Fausta had lied; Crispus was innocent of all charges. Constantine in a rage ordered Fausta’s execution, but Fausta had received advanced word about this and as a result she took her own life at Augusta Treverorum.
Shortly after the events surrounding the deaths of Crispus and Fausta, Helena left for the Holy Land. While on this famous pilgrimage Helena impressed everyone she met with her piety, humility, and charity. When she returned Helena recommend to Constantine that he should build churches in several places important in the life of Jesus. Constantine followed his mother’s advice and oversaw the building of the Church of the Nativity, the Church of Eleona, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
During all of this Constantine did not neglect his frontiers. In the autumn of 328 Constantine and his son Prince Constantine led their forces against the Alemanni tribe on the Rhine River. Starting in 332 and ending in 336 Constantine embarked on a campaign against the Goths; eventually he managed to drive them completely out of Dacia, bringing back Roman influence to the land that been Trajan’s greatest conquest. During this time Constantine raised his fourth son Constans and two nephews Flavius Dalmatius and Hannibalianus to the rank of Caesar. Constantine now began planning on the conquest of Sassanid Persia and in preparation put Hannibalianus on the throne of Armenia as Shahandshah, a title usually held by the Persian Emperor. But it all came to naught for on Easter day (April 3rd, 337) while in Helenopolis (which he had named for his mother) Constantine suddenly fell ill, feeling that he was going to die he asked to be baptized, this was done by Eusebius, an Arian who was Constantine’s spiritual advisor and bishop of Nicomedia while Constantine was on his death bed. Constantine the Great died on Pentecost (May 22nd, 337 AD).
Constantine the Great is remembered to this day by many historians as the man who helped delay the fall of the Western Roman Empire and founded the Eastern Roman Empire, which go on to last further thousand years. Constantine is remembered by Christians everywhere as the man who ended the horrible persecutions and made Christianity an important factor in the Empire. However you want to remember him Constantine I truly deserved the title “the Great”.
-
(Thumb)
-
(Thumb)
-
(thumb)
-
(Thumb)
-
Concept sketches for all 3 ranks of Iberian Swordsman. Drawn by Kellian, and advised by Phoenix_TheRealDeal.
-
Here's another way of looking at it ...
Characterisation – Ralph MumsfordRalph Mumsford is a black man and not particularly intelligent. He wore a pair of old bib overalls on his first day at school, earning him the nickname of “Bibs”.
We learn that he has never killed a man in his life - only a few rabbits as a boy for supper. Bibs does not and never has suffered from guilt or any philosophical dilemmas.
He is six feet tall and exploits his size to tower over the principal in a situation where Ralph wants to kill him.
He is mainly directly characterised by a third person narrator. However, Bibs is also indirectly characterised; the way he flips out just because all school employees and students call him Bibs is quite remarkable and makes him look rather absurd.
BfME & Context-Sensitive Interfaces
in Tutorials, references and art help
Posted
I didn't want to clutter up Jason's excellent report, so I've split this to a new topic. My intention here is to describe the theory of noun-verb interfaces, and see why we should and shouldn't consider using them in 0 A.D.
Secondly, I haven't regrettably played BfME yet (though I have studied all the Inside the Battle movies, and any screenshots/previews/reviews I can get my hands on, rather like a deluded fan boy
), so if I've made errors of interpretation, please let me know.
1. "The Legacy"
As time has gone on, RTSes have become progressively more complex. There was a time when a simple Windows-like point-'n-click interface was adequate. Clicked a unit? He's selected. Clicked empty ground? He'll move there. Clicked an enemy? He'll attack him. No extra buttons, no clutter, no awkwardness. Just one click. Intuitive to anyone. The Marketeers rejoiced.
As time has gone on, units have needed to do more, and players have come to expect it. They've gotta be able to garrison, repair, heal, patrol, escort, cast fireballs, deploy into more powerful forms, and so on.
This has made point 'n click insufficient, since more than one command could be linked to a context. When the player commands a unit to perform an action on a ship, does he want him to board it? Repair it? Scuttle it? When the player right-clicks an enemy building, does he want to attack it or capture it?
Typically to fulfil these extra commands, these are added as extra buttons in the bottom bar of the interface. The player drags the mouse over to the button (eg Garrison), clicks it, and drags it back to wherever he wanted to perform the action, and apply that command to the target. I call this a "verb-noun" interface.
This is slow, inefficient, and counter-intuitive, since typically the player was probably hovering his mouse around the target in the first place.
The extra commands are also taking up space on the screen, even when not in use, when the player's focus really should be on the game world itself.
This process can be sped up by using hotkeys, of course (press key to change command, click target), but that creates a barrier to new players that have to memorise hundreds of key-presses in order to have a chance.
(Aside: BfME seems to use precisely this method to control the special abilities of its units, which looking at their movies seems to be just as awkward as ever -- though they did move those buttons closer to the centre of the screen where the player is likely to need them, cutting the travel time in half. Also, by drastically playing down the economic aspects of an RTS, the player has more time to micro these individuals heroes and their abilities.
Given the choice, I would have these units use their combat abilities automatically, perhaps linked to power bars if too powerful, a la AoM, so the player can focus more of his attention on the macro coordination of troops, instead of fiddling with the interface in the heat of battle.)
Anyway, the alternative is a context-sensitive interface.
2. "What the Sam Hill is a context-sensitive interface?"
It's basically the opposite of the above, a "noun-verb" interface. The player clicks the target, and when more than one option is available, these pop up in the area around it. He then only has to move the mouse a very short distance, pick from the available choices, and the command is fulfiled.
To show just how sad I am here's an example from The Sims 2: The player clicks a Sim's fridge. Depending on the Cooking skill of the active Sim, there are options like "Cook Cheese Toastie", "Cook Pork Chops", "Cook Lobster Thermidor". There are also generic commands like "Restock Fridge" and "Juggle Bottles".
The implementation can differ drastically from game-to-game, but the general idea is rather like the context menu you get when you right-click in Windows. The computer works out the situation, and depending on the context you have options for Properties, Cut, Paste, Select All, etc. If a command isn't suitable to this context, it doesn't appear.
This has various advantages:
* The player only sees what we needs to see:
Commands only appear when he needs them, and when they'll work on this target. No clutter.
* Easy-to-use:
It's still a mouse-driven, intuitive interface.
* Rapid reaction:
Travel time is far less.
3. "This doesn't look like Nirvana to me."
Of course, this method has disadvantages too:
* It works best on immobile objects:
The ring of context-sensitive commands needs to stay in orbit around the target. If the target moves around, the commands would move with him, making it difficult to click on them. Thus, this is an interface only really viable for large, non-moving objects like buildings.
* It works best when there's only a few commands available:
The more commands pop up, the more room they take up on the screen (generally an orb of buttons shouldn't take up more room than the target itself), the more overwhelming the choices, and the longer it takes for the player to find his desired option.
It works well in BfME, but they also removed a heck of a lot of options that the player normally has. There are only a handful of unit types. There are few techs to research. Building doesn't require units or placement of a footprint. AFAIK a number of commands like rally points and garrisoning and town bells, have been removed.
Another option, when there are too many of them to take in, is to package groups of commands under certain categories (rather like the tab system already in place).
So to use The Sims 2 fridge example above, there might be options "Make Dinner ..." and "Make Dessert ...". Pick the dessert option, and the ring is repopulated with sweet and tasty choices like "Gelatin" and "Baked Alaska".
But again, tabbing commands makes it require one more click in order to get to them, slowing down interaction rate.
* Sometimes, you *need* to pick the verb first:
A good example is standard construction of buildings. In BfME, they simplified this by putting plots on the ground that were a fixed distance from each other, and these were the only places where the player could build. The player clicks the plot, chooses a building, a peon appears out of nowhere nearby, and it starts constructing.
We, however, don't have that liberty. Players could build anywhere that there's a flat surface. They can be of varying size. And the command to build is given to a unit (which as explained above, could move around).
Take the Mobile Construction Vehicle from the C&C games. This slow-moving unit had to be moved to a particular spot, come to a halt, then you click on it to see if you have a deploy option (which would cause the MCV to turn into a Construction Yard building). If you didn't, then something must be in the way of where its footprint would be, and you'd have to move it around blindly until you found a decent spot.
That's pretty much how free placement of buildings would have to work in a context-sensitive interface.
4. "In conclusion."
Context-sensitive interfaces are still something I'm hoping to look into. There's definitely potential there for increased ease of use, assuming they can function optimally with the wide variety of commands that are required. (Perhaps a hybrid interface, with "passive" commands (those that don't require a target, like Town Bell) on the bar, and "active" commands (those that do require a target like Garrison or Repair) handled by a context menu.
Currently the game GUI isn't capable of supporting such features; it's a 2D interface applied over a 3D world, with no means of attaching a control that retains a position relative to that world, so this concept isn't something that requires any consideration at the moment.
However, in time we will need to start implementing controls with an awareness of their environment (such as hitpoint bars attached underneath units), and I hope that functionality will provide opportunity to experiment with this intriguing approach to user input.