Mythos_Ruler

I think it would make you want to use them quickly. Cannon fodder (as they were used in real life).

My original idea for mercenaries was that they would not cost a bunch of up-front money, but would rather cost X amount of resources every 10-30 seconds.

Excellent video. I enjoyed it a lot. He got a few things wrong, but that's okay. He'll learn.

Minus the smoke stack, plus some other props, it would actually be a good basis for the Gaul market. Slowly, but surely, differentiating the looks of the Gauls and Britons.

Looks pretty cool. A little too much like the market though, do you think? I think the shields should all be player color too.

Committed. We have a folder for the particle files and one for the actual actors, because you can use different particles together in one actor and also a particle in multiple actors.

We can't make decisions like this from one source. And we don't even know if any real Bantu people would actually be upset.

I like the left one. Maybe mirror it left to right so the "bigger" part is on the right side like all the other blacksmiths.

Even "African Americans" is viewed with some derision in some circles of that community. Can't please everybody. Regardless, perhaps we should find out what "Bantus" call themselves nd just use that.

It's perfectly okay to discuss these things.

About the Swastika, there have been dozens of German-language YouTube gameplay videos since that discussion and as far as I know any actual real "controversy" involved was nil.My opinion on these things, Bantu, Swastika, whatever, is that ownership of these words and symbols should be "taken back" from the corrupted interpretations. in the case of "Bantu," we have the actual name of a people (or linguistic grouping of peoples) whose name was corrupted by some racists in South Africa. But this is localized and it's not all clear that it's an issue elsewhere in Africa or the world. A group of racists may use the word "Jew" as a pejorative, but I don't see anyone suggest we don't use the word in a game.

Just because it's a slur in South Africa doesn't mean it's a slur everywhere else in Africa. Nor does it mean "Bantu" is not the correct etymological word to use.

Kind of a funny video. Sounds like someone's son telling him what to do. lol He's playing it on a 51 inch 1080p plasma TV, which is kind of awesome to imagine. The commentary is super laid back and funny.

I'm really not too nitpicky here. There are still like 6 or 7 more of these to go. I asked Pureon to try his hand at the Persian and Carthaginian blacksmiths, since he was the one who modeled those sets. I do think there needs to be these things in the final products: Smoke prop point Garrisoned prop point* Projectile prop point* Ambient Occlusion Maps *--Every building should have these. We do not yet know if they'll ever be needed or not. It is much better to just include them instead of later having to add them in. Plus, modding.

I'm talking about real-time in a match, not in Atlas.

That's fantastic. The texture on the chimney looks a bit stretched (is it?). But unlike Ludo I think it looks fine. I particularly like the hanging chainmail.

Pretty much the best way to do it would be to set the terrain pathfinding in stone when the map is generated and not have it "update" based on the terrain height changes. This is what happens with Age of Mythology. Sometimes the flattened terrain would create little cliffs around some of the edges that would normally cause passability issues, but this should be ignored by the pathfinder.

I like the idea of minifactions, if only to act as wildcards in scenarios and campaigns and such. If someone wanted a challenge they could even be playable. Though I don't think we'd make any effort to include them until at least after the Seleucids are done, I'd see no harm in actually creating and researching their civ profiles. For a particular "African" minifaction like the Bantus, like you said, we could probably only be 20% accurate with the references and resources we have available, so I think it's okay to incorporate texture ideas (like for shields and such) from other nearby peoples.

You have a good way of conveying "mass" in your models, Micket. Good work.

Great work. I think the texture could be a little more interesting though. Not so dark and monotone. See the cool color variation here? http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pdIX3U5jggc/Tlfci1ki5oI/AAAAAAAAAqk/diBu2jC1HRI/s1600/NileCrocodile.jpg

That's better than nothing! Also, being artists, we need to actually do some art (instead of always cribbing textures from photos), so we can draw in the feathers we need if necessary.

Aurochs are very cool. Such strong shoulders. Very powerful indeed.

Nice! Maybe male and female versions?