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Aldandil

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  1. Well the reason I suggested the earth mound as a god power that Ptah could use is because early on he absorbed or was merged with the god Tatjenen, a god of the primordial mound of earth which arose from the waters of chaos at the Creation. This act of creation is repeated each autumn when the waters of the Nile go down, revealing first the higher spots of land which emerge from the water, before the fields and lower banks emerge. Stolen Moonlight is inspired by the story of Thoth gambling with the moon god Yah and winning five new days/nights out of him, to add to the calendar. And the flood does make more sense for Khnum than for Bast. But then I don't know what she can really do. She is a fertility goddess so, if none of the Egyptian gods already do it, she could temporarily make your herd animals breed MUCH faster. You could give such an ability to Hathor instead, if that fits better with when she's available in game compared to Bast. But I think Hathor can temporarily cause every unit who attacks your stuff to get drunk, reducing their accuracy and general ability to hit things (or reduce attack, if accuracy isn't a stat). But that's a god power, and can't be used for a technology. What's her current god power? Maybe that can work as a technology instead. Oh and by the way Oshron, did you see this thread? http://www.wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=14280 User Sasquatch apparently also plans to make a Pacific Northwest faction with myth units. Perhaps you two could join forces.
  2. I like that. I'd say that the Town version should be a smaller, less ornate palace instead of a sphinx. But the biggest palace (Per-ʿA`a) for City Phase can have a couple man-headed sphinxes on either side of its gate.Name options for monumental statue of the king: šsp (Shesep), sšmw (Seshmuw, Seshemuw), Xntj (Khenety, Khenty) Name options for Town Phase small palace: jst (Yeset, Yiset), ʿḥ (ʿAḥ), ḥwt ʿ3t (Ḥuwet-ʿA`at, Ḥewet-ʿA`at, Ḥuwet-ʿA`t, Ḥuwt-ʿA`at), stp s3 (Setep-Sa`) Word for sphinx: šspw (Shespuw, Shesepuw) Word for obelisk: txn (Tekhen) By the way, I found a few military words: mwnf (Mewenef, Muwnef, Muwenef) means "garrison, (palace) guard, protector (of poor)" ḥrj pDt (Ḥery-Pedjet) means troop commander jmj-r mSa (Yemyer Meshaʿ), Yimyer Meshaʿ means general Edit: Regarding mercenaries, whatever timeframe is used foreign mercs could help potentially with making Egypt balanced in areas they are super-duper weak in.
  3. Egyptians would be really awesome to add to 0AD. Sure OK, in the game's timeframe the Egyptians were in their "Late Period" and being conquered by various foreigners, but still these guys would be cool. I can see you've done a lot of research already, great! I strongly suggest focusing on a narrower time period than "Old Kingdom to New Kingdom!" The New Kingdom was the height of their millitary power, while the 25th dynasty wasn't terribly weak and was closer to the game's time period. A narrow time period would let artists give the faction a consistent look. Pyramids and obelisks would still be standing in Egypt in either period, and yeah the Pyramid eye candy somebody made is wonderful. Nitpick 1: Mahogany to me means dark brown. I agree Egyptians shouldn't look "white," but they should be light brown or tan, not dark brown. My undergrad archaeology textbook, The Human Past, is pretty clear that Ancient Egyptians were not very dark-skinned. When they depicted themselves in comparison to foreigners, they showed themselves lighter than Nubian "black" people and darker than Syrians, Bedouin, Hittites, and Libyans. A tan or reddish brown skin color is accurate. They should be darker than Arabs and Persians, but not as dark brown as Nubians.EDIT: Sorry, I had the wrong reference. That's from Graham Connah, The Human Past 2005 Nitpick 2: It should be specified that they shave off all their facial hair. Ranks: I would give the elite bronze bands on their heads and shield-rims instead of gold, which just seems excessive. To help differentiate them further, give the elites sandals and have the other ranks barefoot, and also have a different style and/or tint of kilt for each rank. My impression is that the Egyptian military philosophy was "field a crapload of guys without armor" or quantity > quality. I guess since armor was impractical in Egypt they had little option. EDIT: Perhaps give shirts to elite infantry archers.? I don't know if this is accurate. This website: http://www.cliohist.net/hiero/index.htm is a useful resource I go to for translations to and from Ancient Egyptian. This website: http://www.rostau.org.uk/aegyptian-l/learning/hierointro.html explains the letter code used on cliohist for Egyptian, except cliohist apparently sometimes uses y for j. Some useful words I found, which differ in spelling from those you use: Soldier = wʿw (Waʿuw) Spear = ḥnjt (Ḥenyet) while M3wt (Ma`wt) is the shaft of a spear. So spear soldier should be Waʿuw-Ḥenyety Battle-Axe = jqḥw (Yeqeḥuw, Yiqeḥuw) so axe-soldier should be Waʿuw-Yeqeḥwy or Waʿuw-Yiqeḥwy Chariot = wrrjt (Wereryet, Wureryet), mrkbt (Merkebet, Merekbet) Chariot-soldier = snnj (Seneny) Priest = wt jnpw (Wet Yenpu, Wut Yenepu), fktj (Fekety), ḥm k3 (Ḥem Ka`), Xry ḥbt (Khery Ḥebet), sm (Sem), sm3 (Sema`) (I prefer Sema`) Trader/Merchant = šwtj (Shuty) Woman = st (Set) War Ship = ʿḥ3t (ʿAḥa`t) Seagoing Ship = kbnt (Kebenet) Ship = xmntjw (Khementeyuw), shrt (Sehert, Seheret), dpt (Depet) Boat = mk (Mek), mʿt (Maʿt), mrt (Meret, Mert), mXʿ (Mekhaʿ), sḥjt (Seḥyet), sktw (Sektuw, Seketuw) Barge = q3q3w (Qa`qa`uw), wsxt (Weskhet, Wesekht, Wusekhet) Tower = swnw (Sewenuw, Suwenuw) Khepesh is defined as battle-axe, but I know it has also been used for sickle-swords often enough. A woman also got to inherit one-third of the estate of their father upon his death. And Egypt even had laws permitting divorce "due to hatred" which sounds like no-fault divorce to me.I am pretty sure 0AD does not have conversion of most units, only the capture of women and buildings. In any case it doesn't fit with how Egyptians (and most ancient non-Abrahamic peoples) used their religion for their priests to convert other units. Ships: Egyptian ships over 100 feet long go back to the Early Dynastic, though as far as I know evidence for seafaring is not that old. Native acacia was unsuitable not for being hard to work, but for being fairly small trees and thus producing short planks. Egyptians as far as I know sewed their ship planks together and their ships had a forked mast that had two bases, one on each gunwhale, instead of one base in the middle of the ship. Unfortunately since Ba` refers to the animal, the ram, it does not make a ton of sense to use it also for the siege equipment. I'd try to find a word for "large wooden pole." xt (Khet) seems to me the best choice for a word that could mean "a huge wood pole [to hit doors down]."They may have had siege ladders, though. Generally I do not consider http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/timelines/topics/index.html#state to be a super-reliable website since the author doesn't often site sources, but it can be a good starting point suggesting things to research, as long as you avoid/ignore the timeline section/page. The siege warfare section does suggest a bit more siege capabilities in the New Kingdom and later, and there's even a line drawing of a siege ladder supposed to date from the 5th dynasty. An actual word for battering-ram is supposed to be in the Piankhi Stela if you can find an image or transliteration of it. STRUCTURE DESCRIPTIONS I'm going to give you my name suggestions using the stages from the Design Document VILLAGE Civic Centre: jwjt (Yuwyet, Yiwyet, Yuwyit) = quarter of town, public place House: ʿt (ʿAt) works fine. pr (Per) is household, generally including the fields as well as the actual house. Field: 3ḥt (`Aḥet) Corral: all I've got is hrmw (Heremuw) = poultry pen, jdr (Yeder, Yider) = herd, Xnm (Khenem) = herd, kmjt (Kemyet) = cattle herd Mill: šnwt (Shenuwet) = granary Outpost/Wooden Tower: Sewenuw Khety, Suwenuw Khety TOWN Dock: mnjwt (Menyuwet) = harbor Temple: ḥwt nTr (Ḥuwet-Netjer) seems like the best option, but ʿḥ (ʿAḥ) may also work. pr nsw (Per-Nesuw) is the whole temple precinct, including store-rooms, priests' homes, and outer wall. Barracks: I don't have an actual word, but Per-Meshaʿ (house of the army) is a compound I made up that might work. Or you could use Per-Nefuruw (house of recruits). Market: I'd prefer to make a phrase using jwjt to suggest an open-air market, giving Yuwyet Suwen or Yewyet Sewen. Wall: wmtt (Wemetet, Wumetet) Tower/Stone Tower: Sewenuw Yenery, Suwenuw Yinery Gate/Wall Tower: ʿrrwt (ʿAreruwet, ʿArerwet) CITY Fortress: jtḥ (Yeteḥ, Yiteḥ), mnnw (Menenuw), sfxj (Sefekhy). But according to the reshafim website stone, Asian-style fortresses of the New Kingdom were called Magadil. (Magadir to be consistent with the other names: some Egyptian dialects used L, some used R, none used both.) SPECIAL STRUCTURES pr ʿ3 (Per-ʿA`a) originally meant "the Palace" and my impression is that Civ centers are more like the main core of any generic city. In fact, from the Design Document it appears that every village starts out with one. I doubt the pharaoh had a palace in every village, so I think this could instead be a Special Structure. Egyptians should have one, definitely, since kingship was such a huge piece of their society. I'm not sure what function it would perform, aside from training hero units. I like your civ bonus ideas and most technology ideas. I'd make their farming well-above average, at least near their starting location, since Egypt was such phenomenally fertile farmland before the Aswan dam changed the Nile river. Their lumbering tech could be worse to balance.
  4. I haven't played any RTS so no, I don't know how technologies work. Greek names can just be transliterated, like this: Chimera = Χιμαιρα = Chimaira Centaur = Κενταυρος = Kentauros Cyclops = Κυκλωψ = Kuklops = Kyklops Erymanthian Boar = Ὑς Ερυμανθιος = Hus Erumanthios = Hys Erymanthios Crommyan Sow = Ὑς Κρομμυων = Hus Krommuōn = Hys Krommyōn Dryad = Δρυας = Druas = Dryas Hades = Ἁδης = Hadēs Hamadryad = Ἁμαδρυαδες = Hamadruas = Hamadryas Harpy = Harpuia (theoi.com has a typo in the Greek spelling on this page) Cetus = Κητος = Kētos Nemean Lion = Λεον Νεμειος = Leon Nemeios Medusa should just be Gorgon or Gorgō (Γοργον, Γοργω) Stymphalian Bird: Ορνιθες Στυμφαλιδες = Ornithes Stumphalides = Ornithes Stymphalides is the plural. I don't know how to make the singular of this, but if you are thinking of the birds with the razor feathers that they can shoot like arrows, those are the Birds of Ares. One Bird of Ares = Ορνις Αρειος = Ornis Areios. Theoi.com has both the original Greek and a transliteration of each name, although their transliterations use both Y and U for upsilon, which is odd. I would always use one or the other letter, not both. So this is how I'd do the Egyptian gods' traits you asked about: Osiris' god power: Oasis makes a lot of sense. Ra's general traits: Vision of Ra is a good idea. Ra's technology: Something to do with the rule of the king/pharaoh would make the most sense. Set's general traits: -10% armor +10% attack, or general morale increase for all mortals, or specific stat increase for ranged mortal units. Bastet's god power: Great Flood seems OK, but would also make a lot of sense for Khnum if you can think of something else for Bastet. Sobek's god power: Golden Sea looks like a good idea. Sobek's technology: General speed increase for all your ships and naval myth units. Khnum's god power: Earth Mound/Silt Mound/Black Mound -- A steep hill of dark earth rises out of the ground at whatever spot you pick, and stays there for a while. You cannot do it on top of buildings, and any units on the spot will still be on top of it and unharmed by it. But you can dam up a river, block troops, give yourself the high ground, or just mess with topography and your opponent's troop movements. I think this makes the most sense for Khnum, but this can instead be Ptah's god power, and Khnum can get the Mineral Refinement god power. If Ptah gets to make hills out of nowhere, Tatjenen is a good name for it, since it means Risen Land and is also a name of Ptah. The best-case would be giving Khnum something to do with rivers, water, or fertility (like Great Flood), and give Tatjenen to Ptah. Isis' god power: My Hero seems reasonable. Ptah's god power: Mineral Refinement -- Your mines and quarries produce a larger amount of metal and stone. I guess God Powers are temporary events so this would have to be a large, temporary increase? Or switch this with the god power I listed under Khnum. Ptah's technology: Advanced Architecture: All your buildings built with this tech have some % more armor. Thoth's god power: Stolen Moonlight: Basically Thoth gives you an extra day/night to do stuff while your opponents are stopped in time. So for a short interval your opponents can't do X. I don't know if X should be building, training, resource gathering, attacking, or what. It shouldn't be unfun of course. Thoth's technology: Increase the pace of your technology research. Maat's focus: I have no idea for a focus. Maat is goddess of law and order, which combines cosmic order, social order, natural order, and political order. (Ma'at is a misspelling just so you know.) Khepri's focus: If your game is going to have resource regeneration, he could give a constant bonus to the regeneration rate of resources within territories you control (I imagine for balance it would have to be a small bonus). Otherwise, no idea. Khepri's technology: ? Hathor's technology: I don't know. She's associated with music, beer, parties, love, cows, and the sky. Sekhmet's or Isis' technology: Speed up the training of your healing units, or increase the amount they heal, or both.
  5. Those ships and buildings look very nice and I hope all of them become easter eggs in future releases. Makes me sad that the Last Alliance developers disbanded and aren't coming back. If you are serious about a LotR mod, then you should see if you can take over the Last Alliance name, and the concept art and preliminary work that was already done. I know some of that concept art was not great, but some was very nice. I know there was unit concept art at least for Noldor, and you may find some building and ship concept art as well. But if you do make a mod, please base it on the books, not the movies. It should look like your own interpretation, not just a remake of the movies. Anyway, the fact that even one person with some relevant skills is still interested in a Middle-Earth mod makes me glad.
  6. Hello Oshron! Long time no see! If you are looking for Greek names you could do worse than to open www.theoi.com and look at their Greek names for deities, monsters, and so forth. They have Chimera (Χιμαιρα), Centaur (Κενταυρος is single, Κενταυροι is plural), Cyclops (Κυκλωψ is single, Κυκλωπες is plural), Erymanthian Boar (Ὑς Ερυμανθιος), Crommyan Sow (Ὑς Κρομμυων), and other monsters in there, and the names of ALL the gods, and I do mean ALL of them, no matter how obscure. But be sure to use Internet Explorer, or the Greek font won't display correctly. Annoying, but that's how it's set up. Wait, I take that back, he changed it so it works in Firefox! Holy cow, theoi.com isn't abandoned anymore, the webmaster came back and even added some more pages this year. Sweet! :banana: *ahem* Anyway, everyone interested in Greek myth should check out this site because it is made of awesome. Also, I'd say the Shesmet should be renamed Shesmety. If Shesmet refers to the Sinai area, then Shesmety would mean thing of/from Sinai. Osiris' God Power could be as simple as suddenly giving you a giant mass of food, but raising the dead is more dramatic, especially if food production is something he already passively improves (which it should be). Set's general traits could be related either to slowing down food production of opponents (it would have to be keyed to those whose units are fighting yours, so it doesn't hit your allies) or it could involve improving the morale or something of your mortal units, since one of his functions was as a war deity. I don't know the details of how technologies work in Godstorm, but here are my ideas: Sobek: Something that improves fishing, navy, or both. Ptah: Upgrade to improves the quality of your metal and stone, so that you effectively get some % more from each mine, and/or improve the HP of every building built after you start worshipping him. Isis or Sekhmet: A technology that upgrades your healers, making them more effective and efficient. Thoth: He is one of those gods involved with technology, especially calendars and writing, so if there's anything in your game that is thematically tied to such things, he can upgrade that. If you can find one of each, give the writing-related upgrade to Thoth, give the calendar-related one to Isis, and save the healer upgrade for Sekhmet.
  7. I do find it nearly impossible to navigate with an unfamiliar skin.
  8. Pureon, your screenshots continue to be awesome.
  9. Adjustable water level would be an important part of seasonal effects, if the effects of seasons are ever added to the game later on. In the Mediterranean biome, rivers and lakes should shrink during summer and really reach full size only in winter. In Egypt, it could even be possible to create maps featuring irrigation canals or the riverbank itself, with the water flooding low land during the inundation (forget what part of the year it was) and retreating during the other seasons.
  10. I have a suggestion for horse cavalry and chariot units: I would like to see the coat colors and patterns of the horses randomized somewhat, like the shield figures are now. Obviously not a high priority, but it would remove the unrealistic appearance of having identical horses when many of the same unit are together in an army.
  11. Oh, I totally forgot about them! They are native to Arabia and also used to live in Egypt. They're not exactly the most generic-looking antelope, though. If there is only one antelope species a gazelle or hartebeest would work better. Probably gazelle, since those also lived in Arabia and nearby Asian regions also have their own gazelle species.
  12. Of course. I just want to help make sure the animals and plants in the game are all correct for the region. Regarding deer, another option for the Mediterranean area is the fallow deer. I don't know if they existed in North Africa already, but I think they were in southeast Europe and southwest Asia by 500 B.C.
  13. Oh, so it's all about secrecy and tyrannical control over "your" forumites, and an irrational hatred of IPB, is that it? Just kidding, that all makes sense.
  14. Take a look at this website for info on extinct species and subspecies, some of which belong to the area being depicted. http://www.petermaas.nl/extinct/lists/mammals.htm Besides the red gazelle and the three species of gazelle from the Arabian peninsula, the main extinct North African antelope is the bubal hartebeest. Other than that, the Syrian wild a ss, Syrian elephant, North African elephant, Atlas bear, Barbary lion, Caspian tiger, Eurasian lion, and tarpan are important to remember. Dorcas gazelle should be OK at least for northeast Africa. Also consider the addax or ibex. (Ibex, together with their relatives the tahr, have the advantage of existing in some form on all shores of the Mediterranean plus the Caucasus, so they can provide for multiple regions.)
  15. Aw give us a break, this is a hard letter! Especially if the team prefers a non-Greek name. And if you think we have poor ideas now, just wait until F comes around.
  16. Daedalus isn't a Latin name at all. It's Greek and dates back to the Bronze Age Mykenaian form of Greek, though what it referred to (god or hero or what) back then is unknown. The translation and etymology is also unknown -- it could even have originated in the Minoan language. Daidalos is the guy who was a great artificier/inventor, though, so it's still fitting. But they want to give non-Greek names a chance and I agree with that. I was looking for Celtic-related names and found this map on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Map_Gall...ribes_Towns.png Here is a tribe name: Dumnonii (sw England) And some place names (don't know if they're contemporary): Druentia River Duranius River Dubis River Durocortorum (city/town?) Also, is Devon (in Wales?) a fairly old place name? Maybe it's old enough to use.
  17. Those look awesome, keep up the good work! Is the second temple on the acropolis to Athene Nike, and the one on the hill to the right the Hephaistion?
  18. Rise of the East depends no less on the completion of 0 A.D., yet your team clearly has the ball rolling. I don't understand how that can be the main reason TLA still isn't moving. It looks more like the team has moved on and the momentum isn't there anymore. Which is understandable, I know, but a different reason.
  19. Why don't you take a look at this thread? http://www.wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=13215 Some folks were talking about a Bronze Age mod and considering Mycenaeans as a faction. You could try to join them and get the ball moving on development.
  20. This is a great idea. I really hope you're able to get enough contributors to add India and Japan at some point, too. What is the reason you decided to have a separate forum instead of using a Game Modification sub-forum over here?
  21. I wonder if linguists know enough about the Luwian or Hittite languages that they could be used for the Troy faction. Though considering one of the historical Bronze Age Trojan kings was actually named Alaksandu (Alexandros/Alexander), maybe they spoke Greek.
  22. Just brainstorming. I still like Daho, Dercetius, and Deitanni the best.
  23. Yeah, Donar is, as you said, the mainland equivalent of Thor and therefore unrelated to any of the 6 factions. There are some Irish gods, I think, with names starting with D: Dagda, Diancecht, Danu. I know absolutely nothing about them, though.
  24. Hey oshron, in case you are still using that tusked whale sea monster, I have found an Egyptian word that could stand for the Sinai area: Shezmet/Shesmet (I can't remember if the other words I gave you used z or s).
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