Mythos_Ruler

There are references for both. But there has been some difficulty replicating placing shields on the sides of the formation. The math doesn't check out (some dudes would need to be carrying 2 shields, for example).

Hmm, not very impressed with the "improved" water. Also, I see they added dynamic lighting and shadows finally, but no normal mapping? Distance fog? SSAO?

Do you have any references for Ba'al and Melqart? I rather like the Tanit symbol and it is a common symbol found on Carthaginian inscriptions, so we'd probably keep it unless we could find good aesthetically pleasing symbology for Ba'al or Melqart

That's up to them. They know their own requirements and direction and which engine best suits them. No hard feelings on our end.

This is very educational. Thanks for posting it.

A player color roof looks really bad, IMHO. Better to follow the current conventions in the game.

The menu was designed this way exactly to be able to add more buttons if we wanted to. I agree with the idea of making the map editor more prominent. It is a very very nice tool.

In single player, Ctrl-D. Then choose "Change Perspective." You can then switch back and forth between players and make their units do things.

Any phone or handheld device we would want to port the game to will probably have HD resolution. Some smartphones today already have 1080p.

Please no not yet. We'll let everyone know when we have things finalized or when we are to a point when spreading the word about it is a good thing.

We have a candidate for the paid programming work, someone on the team who is very very familiar with the code. Someone you all will like very much. However, there are still some issues to work out to make sure they can do it and we're not ready for an official announcement yet on who it is and the details of their work. We appreciate the passion. You don't ever have to apologize for that.

I think the tent needs to be bigger. Remember, the bireme is a smaller ship than the quinquereme.

All right. What about maintaining a drop menu, but putting a small button next to the menu to open the selection screen that has more information and options. We can even add cool things like randomizing factions within cultures or choosing custom randomization (shift-click to add to selection, then click Okay; the computer will choose a faction for you out of those chosen).

A mockup would be appreciated.

@ Fexor: This screen takes 3 clicks to choose your civ, while a drop menu needs 2 clicks. While this screen gives you easily compared information with a simple hover over the icons, and the drop menu doesn't. The one extra click is the "Okay" button.

I do believe scorching hot sand may have been used as well, poured over the wall upon enemy attackers.

This is based on the Age of Mythology Major God selection screen. That game was quite competitive and no one was begging for a drop menu.

Possible starting point for faction selection screen:

These two have fun.

If we are to include mercenaries and mercenary camps, it is important that we don't add too much for for the poor art team to add these units to the game. Sometimes I like to start designing an idea as outlandish as possible, then pare it down in subsequent design iterations. But since the game is in an advanced state, I think it would be better to start an idea small and simple, then expand it later when time becomes available. To that end, I think the list of mercenaries should be a lot smaller than you have here. I think it's okay to list as many mercenaries as you can think of, then pick and choose the more interesting or historically important from that list. First, I think we can decide on a list of biomes or cultures we would like to represent as mercenary camps/mercenaries, then go from there. I think these cultures would work, starting from the East and moving West, and I'll give some merc ideas with them: Hindu Kush/India Kushan CavalryIndian War ElephantEastern Eastern ArcherEastern Light CavalryIndian War ElephantSteppes Scythian Horse Archer (male and female variations)Scythian AxemanArabia Camel Raider (Cav Skirmisher)Arabian JavelineerLevant (this is represented as a mercenary dock or port) Phoenician TriremeJudean Sikarios (knifeman)Cilicia (this is represented as a mercenary dock or port) Cilician Pirate (skirmisher)Cilician Pirate Ship (Hemiolia)Anatolia Galatian SwordsmanArmenian CataphractEgyptian Nubian Archer (take this out of the Ptolemies roster)Mercenary ThureophorosBalkans Thracian PeltastThracian Black Cloak (swordsman)Illyrian SpearmanGreece Mercenary HopliteAetolian Euzenos (skirmisher)Thessalian LancerCretan ArcherMagna Grecia Tarentine CavalrySamnite SwordsmanMamertine SpearmanItalia ??North Africa Numidian CavalryMasaesylian SpearmanNorth African War ElephantCeltica Celtic Auxiliary SpearmanGallic Auxiliary CavalryIberia Celt-Iberian SwordsmanBalearic SlingerIberian Allied CavalryAnd then each civ could add 1-3 of their own specific mercs once they capture one of the above. For instance: Persians Kardakes HopliteKardakes TakabaraMacedonians War Elephant (this is how we give them the War Elephant without making it a "standard" unit for them)Greek Allied Hoplite

The idea of different/larger units needing more "garrison slots" is one that has been in the game design for a long time. It's just not something anyone has been interested in implementing. I am more than willing to make the Equine Transport tech do exactly this: Reduce garrison space for cavalry. Indeed, I made the tech to compete with the Athenian marine tech and it made some historical sense since the Persians were the first people to transport cavalry squadrons across the sea with their warships (see: The Battle of Marathon). But if we ever get the garrison slot feature implemented, then I will definitely change this tech to be more realistic. Until then, I think it can stay as something unique for the Persians.

I think we should keep it very simple. Keep in mind that every time you introduce a new feature, you are adding more management for the player to take care of.

Applied patch (after some finagling), got this error:

Cilician Pirates would be cool.