Mythos_Ruler

See, larger buildings can have more triangles because they take up more screen space. So, a castle that takes up as much room as 3 or 4 2000-triangle barracks could easily have 5000 triangles. The 2000 triangle limit is just a guideline. For contrast, a cavalry unit can easily be 1000 triangles (depending upon the props attached).

Another strike against this is that there were rarely, if any, bridges in ancient times that did this. Sure, small boats could pass underneath, but ships? Nah.

Indeed it is! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_open-source_video_games I suppose the game's name is beneficial in this way, probably being at the beginning of any such list.

Most of our buildings are under 2000 tris.

Setting teams will be much easier in Alpha 6, so rejoice. But for now, just add the "team" line in the map's XML as Erik has shown you and all the secrets of the rock n' roll Universe will be revealed.

Thats fine.

These are all the bugs we have found and are still active. http://trac.wildfiregames.com/report/1?sort=ticket&asc=0

Personally I'd use F1 for menu (it's usually used for 'help' in other contexts), while using ESC to escape out of a selection or window.

The helmet looks like an Imperial Gallic 'G' with Centurion transverse crest.

I believe it is *possible* to make bigger maps than our "giant" by customizing a random map script.

Requires a rebuild.

"True" flamethrowers weren't invented until the AD 7th century, by the Byzantines (the Eastern Roman Empire, essentially, who spoke Greek). "Greek Fire" it was called and used against the Arabs and Turks. I think the penalty was death if you were caught giving away the secret formula for the stuff. We only have vague ideas of how it was produced. Although slightly out of the timeframe of our game (by about 150 years), we could conceivably give Greek Fire to a hypothetical "Eastern Roman" faction in Part II. Perhaps as a Special Technology. The Theban "Fire Raiser" from the Peloponnesian War was essentially a giant flaming cauldron at the end of a 20 foot-long bellows. They wheeled the Fire Raiser up to the enemy walls and gates, pushing the cauldron-end against the battlements, then forced air into the flaming cauldron through the bellows, causing what I would describe as a great "eruption" of flames and pitch and combustibles. lol, It was almost as dangerous to the Thebans as it was to the Athenian defenders.

Yes, this was my original idea for the Greek Helepolis.

You just gave me some ideas for a Zombie faction.

Salve, citizen! Can you explain in detail what you mean here? Yup, this is an annoyance I have found as well. Yep, our Sound team is hot on the case. Unit movement is not intended to be dependent upon terrain textures (for the most part), but rather terrain pitch (slope). Right now, I believe units can traverse a terrain pitch up to 12 in 12 (or 45 degrees). Someone correct me if I am wrong. We could edit this downward and set it at 35 degrees so people aren't as confused. Lions were known to exist in Europe into the Classical Age. Yep, animations are what we are lacking in. We are working on it though.

Smaller engines, like the Oxybeles and Gastraphetes could be built in an armory or somewhere like that back home, then carted or hauled along with the army as part of the supply chain. The Romans were famous for doing this, but not unknown to Greeks. These engines could also be built at the site of the siege because most armies brought siege engineers and mathematicians with them. While larger engines, like large stone throwers and siege towers, were definitely built on-site when needed. Building a siege tower like constructing a building would be 'ok' to me.

The Greeks invented the catapult (Oxybeles or "bolt shooter", Lithobolos, literally "stone thrower") and the crossbow (Gastraphetes or "belly bow"). The Roman scorpio (a bolt shooter) and ballista (a stone thrower) were developments on these Greek models. They also used siege towers, the most famous of which was Demetrius' Helepolis, designed and built by Greek architects. During the Siege of Delium the Boeotians (Thebans) built a kind of wheeled "flame thrower" called a fire raiser to burn out the Athenian defenders.

Not sure why we would remove the WASD (QE) functionality, when other RTSs are adding that functionality. Heck, even the 5 year old game Rome:Total War had WASD camera movement. In the end I don't see why we couldn't have a couple of custom hotkey presets and the ability to remap the keys if so desired.

That's been what I see as well. I have a quad core, 4 GB DDR3 RAM, Radeon HD 4650, etc. The "graphical effects" in our game are minimal, really. Any graphics card and processor less than 4 years old should run the game rather well on the graphics side. We just have a lot of optimizing to do with the AI and Pathfinding.

Added WASD/QE camera movement information to the Atlas guide.

That would not make any difference. Likely it is the AI and pathfinding that is slowing him down. If he played in what I call "sandbox" mode, e.g. with no AI players, then I am sure his performance would increase substantially. If he's playing against AI players, then there aren't just his 100 units on the map, but each AI player will probably have near that many as well. The big problem with performance is pathfinding at this juncture. So, try playing it without an AI opponent and see how many units you can make without experiencing slowdowns.

We could make siege engines convertible like we plan on making Female Citizens and Herd Animals. This I would support. If the enemy has soldiers within vision range of their siege engines, then you have to destroy them. If the enemy has no soldiers within vision range of their siege engines, then mobbing them with your own soldiers converts them to your side. I would do this for Bolt Shooters and Catapults, while not for Siege Towers and Rams (we have to assume there are always units inside to operate them).

Welcome aboard, Kenny! You sound very experienced and knowledgeable, which means great things. I'm glad you like our progress so far. I think you will like it here. Have you tried Alpha 5? If so, do you have any particular criticisms (keeping in mind it is unfinished)?

I once had the idea that siege engines get built in-field, like buildings do, rather than from the Fortress. Building canoes would need "carrying" animations though. Not sure it's worth it. As Feneur has eluded to, my mantra is "authenticity, not accuracy." What that means is we can fudge some things for a coherent gameplay experience, as long as the overall feel is still authentic.

Egypt at this time was either a satrapy of Persia, or a Hellenistic (Greek) kingdom split from Alexander's empire. To add the Successor states of Alexander's empire might be a project I pursue after the game is released.