Mythos_Ruler

Keep in mind that this isn't a hard limit. We only chose 3 heroes per faction as a way to limit the work needed to finish the game.

I find that I have less time to create new scenarios for each release. This release I am focusing on helping get the Persians out the door and then after them comes the venerable Romans. Like I say in the description above, we're looking for someone who can match the style and quality of the existing custom maps. If you want to study a few, then these maps would be good examples: Acropolis IIBelgian BogCycladic ArchipelagoDeath CanyonGallic FieldsSiwa OasisOasis IISerengeti Not only will your work add to the growing list of playable custom maps for thousands of players, but they will serve as examples to random map scripters as they design their random map scripts to mimic our high quality maps. The above 4 map examples are actually not in the Design Document, but they represent common design elements for RTS maps. You will have wide latitude here. The following actually are in the Design Document: See the Design Document here ----> Clicky <---- for a comprehensive list of what we'd like to see. Many of these maps will not end up being in the first release in random map form, so it would be nice to have a wide variety of custom maps available to players based upon this list.

By default biremes shoot 2 arrows and triremes shoot 3 arrows. They will shoot 1 more arrow for every unit you garrison aboard. Garrison 10 units aboard and the ship fires 10 additional arrows every few seconds at random targets within range.

The first two I'm pretty sure were made up from 1 or 2 obscure passages.

Thanks Pureon! I enjoyed it very much!

Check out the angle which the bot constructs buildings. Jubot has it correct.

Try props/special/eyecandy/billboard for an intermittent solution.

I actually find that the Metal cost of the Carth mercs gives me flexibility when it comes to paying for my soldiers. Have a lot of food and wood? Train North African units. Have lots of Metal? Train mercs.

Hmmm, well the reasoning would be to garner contributions, not to amuse the peanut gallery. But we'll see.

Would you guys find it useful/interesting for us to start moving the art development out in the open the way programming is? My purpose for doing that would be to see if people would start contributing to the artwork in an Open-Source way. Many of the major decisions would still be done by official team members.

Do yourselves a favor and take a listen to this one:

Yeah huh!

An interesting note, is that when the Vandals sacked Rome and took the Jewish Temple treasure, the Byzantine general Belisarius took it back from them in a campaign and Emperor Justinian restored the treasure back to Jerusalem, to rest inside a church (irony).

If we make a Part 2, then we'll include 6 more factions from AD1 to roughly AD500. These factions will have interacted with Rome in this time period. It is possible we'll include other factions in subsequent patches. As far as having multiple "Roman" factions: Rome changed considerably between 150 B.C. and A.D. 500. They're pretty much the only faction that stays intact through the whole era both parts of the game could potentially encompass, so it would be good to depict the Romans at various points. Republican Rome in Part 1; and possibly Imperial Rome (era of the "5 Good Emperors") and Eastern Rome/Early Byzantines in a hypothetical Part 2.

I don't have any experience with Maya. Perhaps post a collada file exported from Maya and I'll see if it works in the game. We definitely need some animations.

The SVN has a 'Persians Sandbox' scenario under the Demo sort. You can mess with everything there. Camel Skirmishers were taken out in favor of Median Cavalry Skirmishers, which were much more important. I'll likely give the Elite Median Spearman a quilted corselet instead of mail.

EASTERN ROMANS CIVILISATION PROFILE (symbol of the Eastern Empire) In the spirit of my Greek and Macedonian threads, I'd like to start talking about the Eastern Romans/Early Byzantines faction that'll likely go into 0 A.D. Part 2 if we get that far. I'm not going to include any Byzantine units or anything in Part 1, even as Easter Eggs, but it might be interesting to discuss this faction when we're not focused on helping get art done for Part 1. What I think we should aim for is to represent the Eastern Roman Empire, between AD350 and AD550. This is essentially the early Byzantine age for the region. We have a decent idea of how the Eastern Roman army evolved during this time period, so we can represent it with reasonable accuracy when compared to other factions. I don't have much to say right now as far as structure of the faction and how they should play, but here are a few things I would like to see and mention: Shield Pattern Inspirations: The Notitia Dignitatum was a manuscript written in the 4th/5th centuries. It includes quite a few shield design patterns that will help us make plenty of shield variations for our Eastern Roman units. Fundibulatores <Staff Slingers>: "The sling-staff is a staff 4 feet long, attached... to which is a sling (fund) made of leather, and operated with either hand, it discharges stones almost like an onager." -- Vegetius III.14. These men served in the 4th line of the late Roman battle line. Sling staffs were used well into the Medieval period. Mattiobarbulus or Martiobarbulus <little Mars barb>: Soldiers of the era threw what are otherwise known as Plumbata instead if the venerable pila of the old legions. Plumbatae are much like large wooden and steel darts with a lead ball weight in the middle. If anyone remembers Jarts from the 1980s, think of them but with a lead weight in the middle. Because of this lead weight, soldiers were able to sling these darts over long distances before the enemy were able to close for melee. "If soldiers throw them at the right moment, it seems almost as if the shield-bearing infantry are imitating the role of archers, for they wound the enemy and his horses before they can get not merely to close quarters, but even within range of javelins." -- Vegetius I.17. Plumbatae were carried inside the shield of melee infantry in holsters, or in a bucket-style leather quiver at the hip. (example of a Plumbata being thrown) Heavy Cavalry Along with Sarmatians and Parthians, should have pretty darn good cavalry, including: Klibanarii (or Klibanophoroi)/Kataphraktoi: Armoured horsemen, they also carry standards. How can we distinguish between the two, Clibanarii and Cataphracts? Is one (Klibanarius) more heavily armoured than another (Kataphraktos)? And possibly Hunnish Horse Archers and German Federated Cavalry. Speaking of "federated" troops... Foedorati <Federates>: Barbarians who have been resettled within the borders of the empire on the promise that they provide light troops. Just use these to fill in the unit roster or do we represent this arrangement in some unique way? Limitanei <border units>/Comitatenses <field units>: The Eastern Empire had a two-tier approach to the army (or a three-tier approach if you count Imperial guards units stationed in the capital of Constantinople). They had the troops guarding the frontiers (Limitanei) and the more heavily armed field armies (Comitatenses) to respond to any threat that made it past the border guards. The field units were held to high standards and took precedence over Limitanei in pay and provisions. Perhaps "Limitanei" would simply be represented in the "Basic" rank of units and the "Comitatenses" would be represented by the Advance/Elite ranks. But could there be another way of representing this two-tier approach? Scholae Palatinae <Palace School>: These were the bodyguards of the emperor and fought mostly on horseback. They replaced the old equites singulares Augusti, the cavalry arm of the Praetorian Guard. These guys should definitely be Champion units. Perhaps these are the cavalry that can carry the flowing "draco" standards. Tágma tōn Varángōn <The Varangian Guard>: These are Norsemen hired by the Byzantine emperors as their personal bodyguard. The Varangians were renown for their prowess in battle and their undying loyalty to their master. Unfortunately they were not created as a unit until the late AD 900s, making them too far out of our time period. We can use them as the Champion Infantry unit if we can't find something better. Otherwise I would like to include them as an Easter Egg unit. (shield emblem represents the Norse god Odin) NAVYThe navy should be unique from the Western Imperial Romans, so we should include unique ships, even if they are slightly out of our time period. I nominate: Dromons (akin to a Greek bireme or trireme), Fire Ships (that explode), Greek Fire Ships that shoot fire. The Eastern Roman navy will look a lot like the ships available in Age of Kings. BUILDINGSByzantine walls had an interesting "stripe" design inlay: Another Example: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Constantinoplewalls1.jpg "Temples" can be Byzantine Churches. I know these are "later" designs, but I think we could make something that is distinctly "Byzantine." Other images to look at for reference and inspiration:

Hey SMST, send me the files for the Rhodian Slinger, Celt slinger, iberian cav, thrueophoros, and thorakites. I'll put my own touches on them and commit them to the SVN.

12 days out of 100 is 12%. Anyway, did you start sniffling and coughing when moving to a new school? When you are around new people you come into contact with a wider variety of pathogens you are not used to. Also, different environments have a different allergy profile (mold, mildew, etc.). It's also possible that you are developing allergies. It is common to develop different allergies in different phases of life. It sucks, but that's life. An over the counter (OTC) antihistamine might work for you, but I would first visit your GP and get a checkup. See if it's allergies or diet or what. It's also possible that lately you've just had bad luck with illnesses. 2010 wasn't a good year for me as far as illness goes. I've had good years and bad years. Remember, vaccines are meant to inoculate you against mostly deadly diseases. Measles, small pox, mumps, polio, etc. have killed tens of millions of people in the past. But vaccines aren't foolproof (what is?). Sometimes they don't work and sometimes they give the person a light touch of the illness. In the cases where they don't work, it is important that others have had the vaccine too, so that the people whose vaccines didn't take are not exposed to the disease. This is called herd immunity.

I think we'll be a somewhat liberal with the Eastern Romans/Early Byzantines. I can't see not having Belisarius as one of their heroes, even though he comes after A.D. 500, and Greek Fire ships, even though they are out of our time range too.

The heyday of Israel was before the age of empires, when small kingdoms ruled the Earth. I'm pretty sure the entire kingdom of Israel at its prime had fewer inhabitants than just the city of Rome did at its prime, so it is difficult to justify the Jews as an entire faction, especially when the extent of their direct political influence was so limited. We include the Iberians and Celts because these peoples had millions of inhabitants spread over hundreds of thousands of square kilometers. Sure, the Jews have an outsized impact on Western culture, but it's not until much much later that this is felt. That's really all I'll say on that, other than I would love to include a few easter eggs for them: The Temple and maybe 2 units. If someone wanted to make a Jerusalem scenario or revolt scenario they could probably use Persian and Carthaginian buildings pretty easily! I think both Persian and Carthaginian textures would work quite well if someone wanted to make some mods. Regarding "Christians" yeah, I think an Early Byzantine/Eastern Roman faction would cover them nicely. The soldiers will have the common 'Christian' symbology for the times emblazoned upon them. Their "temples" will likely be Byzantine churches or monasteries. Their heroes will likely include the first Christian emperor, Constantine (who converted on his deathbed) and other Christian/Greek imperial figures. I actually look forward to working on them. I'm thinking Greek Fire ships and cataphracts galore. I'm thinking the Byz slingers would be pole slingers.

LOL, nice. EDIT: I recommend www.imgur.com for all your image hosting needs. EDIT2: And I simply must take issue with your inefficient lack of Farmstead placement! ;D

What would the Egyptian "Palace" do that the Persian "Palace" doesn't? Any ideas? Here are a few ideas: Egyptian heroes and priests can build Obelisks. These act like scout towers/outposts that give vision to the map, but have no garrisoning or attack. Cost something like 50 Stone and go up fast. Instead of a generic "palace" they have 3 special buildings, 1 for each city phase. Building each of these increases territory radius effects for all buildings by 5% for the first one, 10% for the next, and 15% for the last one. First one is in the visage of a monumental pharaoh statue, the second one looks like a large Sphinx, the third looks like an ornate palatial structure. Each one is progressively more expensive.

Testing would be a bear, since I for one don't have either type of phone. lol