LordGood

Oh! I actually have an example from MA i got a lot to complain about up there but the autumns are gorgeous

Staaaan, are you really going to make me look for and upload examples on my phone?

Well that texture is taking about a year to load, Stan, but from what I see your problem is with the uniformity of the straw. Thatchers nail them in in fistfuls called yalms(?) and its a grass so it's likely to be full of kinks and imperfections, particularly as it sits, gets attacked by birds and weather, ect.

Should probably do a side by side. I like it

Pfff I hand painted most of the Seleucid struct, believe me I've fought that fight hard haha lets try desaturated ... 15%

All these cities that take years and years to build are all new at the same time lol these dumb textures are starting to grow on me. I like how it makes the stone and wicker stand out.

I think I'm going to tuck this texture away for the time being anyhow.

Well we can't look at it by example, thatch changes color with age, and that settlement looks relatively young. I don't think having access to thatch is an issue for most of the Britons, the only crops they had access to on the isles were cereals before the Roman invasion (?) I remember that from the farm beautification stuff

The highlands might have trouble getting thatch, I suspect they may have used turf for roofing, though I forget where I had seen this. The lack of value contrast is what concerns me most, though there are no daubed houses or anything of that nature in the screenshot, which would help in that regard. But Ofc there is more than 1 Celt pack, don't know if I want to follow though with the others.

I've been messing with the Celt pack to see if I could work in darker thatch for the Brits wetter, cooler climate. Oh boy i changes the hue of the thatch to match the desaturated almost brownish-red of older thatch, but the Gaul stone was already desaturated red, so I hue pushed that towards its complement, a greenish yellow, and lightened it to offset the heavier thatch values. Then I darkened the wood to keep its value relationship with the thatch. It's a big pain in the butt, and I still don't know how I feel about it. It's a huge change for sure

Like so

I should specify; they have a towered variant, but I forgot that Briton walls, like Gaul walls, have no garrison able wall turrets. so I saved and deactivated the variation, and hacked off the roof for the current one. I can't take pictures now since a bad thunderstorm rolled through and I'm not risking my hard drive again lol i should probably invest in a surge protector

Inactive variant does

Things don't mix well if they're not made with each other in mind. A single texture file makes it easier to match different textures to the same palette, also makes it easier to import into the game. The Greek files are a pain, I say jump on any excuse to make them easier to work with.

I've kept all the Gauls old models I've been working on recently, as dormant variations. You can reactivate them in DE if you choose by setting the variation ratio to a non 0 integer in the actor editor. I plan on doing the same with the Briton fortress once a good majority are happy with a new one.

@Tomcelmare I thought eggbird already made a mauryan palace?

That's one

Let's see if my phone can push these through

Walls wrap around the fortress buildings and are of consistent thickness now, looks better but you'll have to take my word for it because I'm offline again

Brochs of gurness, and clickimin(?) in Shetland were my two most used examples

Is it the variation in outer wall thickness? That and the wicker shooting galleries are the only modifications to the tight broch cities I found examples for. I couldn't find anything to justify palisades on top, perhaps more wicker shielding, sure but there's no room for battlements, so all that would do is obstruct existing shooting galleries. The outer walls did follow the dwelling ones too in the examples I found. I'd like to fix it, but I need a little more feedback. Also, I do want to put those Gaulish wall mods in at some point, Stan i found very little in terms of pre-dark age British, Pictish, Irish Celt, or Scottish masonry fortifications of such height as the rest. I'm aware of the Gaulish fortifications Julius Caesar encountered on his campaign. All I could find were small broch walls, but that could be because of where I'm looking.

Yeah, I know nobody asked for this but I cant help myself- probably one of the most challenging fortresses I've done tbh. Making use of the space inside was difficult given the shape. The old broch seemed a little too... perfect.. and didn't have a door... and instead of doing things the easy way and fixing it, i made a whole new one, like i do Celts texture pack is fun to play with at any rate gate coming later, also, why do the Brits even have stone walls? We can't do earthworks without biome tags, or else stuff will look horrendous

Watch tower might get muddied with the function of outposts

I'm partial to sentry tower. Might just be due to my exposure to aoe/aom having guard towers as higher tier. guard tower seems to have a bit more weight behind it.

I saw the new alpha had a defense tower upgrade on the wee towers. It makes me wonder if we could do a full progression like AOE had, but selectively. And perhaps make defense towers non-buildable, only an upgrade? I gotta say I miss the good ol ballista towers of the original AOE, selective upgrading sounds like it gives just enough control to make defense towers both powerful and balanced. Also selective upgrading from wood towers means we can recycle the defense tower icon. I'm all for renaming the wood tower, in any case. Sentry<guard<defense<ballista?