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Zophim

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Posts posted by Zophim

  1. As I see it, the original vision of 0 AD was to create a gameplay setting in which the ancient civilizations of a certain timeframe could all fight it out. Even if historically some of them never crossed paths, the fun was in seeing what the result might be if you took two or more civs, as-is, and pitted them against one another. From the beginning, historical accuracy was paramount, except insofar as the mechanics of gameplay demanded.

    https://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/0AD_The_Vision

    “It is a moment in time that never was. It is the spring of the world, and the dawn of history. It is a glimpse into an era when the empires of the world are at their zenith. It is but a breath of an age when mighty rulers wield rods of iron and brazen swords; to demonstrate that they are indeed the greatest ancient civilisation!”

    Now, no one’s denying that women served in leadership capacities or even in specific elite unit roles every so often, but I take issue with any proposed altering of the nearly-universally-male composition of 0 AD’s fighting forces to give the impression that the duly constituted armies of the Greco-Roman cultures and of their enemies contained a significant obviously-female rank-and-file presence.

    I fail to see any compelling reason, gameplay-based or otherwise, why such an ahistorical change is necessary, and the development team would need to see some reliable sources before they consider taking such a drastic step.

    • Like 4
  2. On 2/27/2020 at 2:22 AM, Lion.Kanzen said:

    Any new discovery to add? You are the expert here.

    I do have some ideas for this faction:

    Civ Emblem: Menorah

    Hero Units: Judah Maccabee (led the revolt against Seleucid rule), Simon Thassi (a younger brother of Judah; established Hasmonean independence), Salome Alexandra (a wise and skillful ruler; last ruling queen of Judaea)

    Wonder: Second Temple of Jerusalem (before Herod the Great's refurbishing)

    Military: The majority of fighters in the initial revolt would have been irregular light infantry such as slingers.  Later on, as Maccabean forces grew in size, discipline, training, and equipment standardization, a typical soldier would have been armed and equipped along Hellenistic lines as a thureophoros type.  It's possible that phalanx spearmen were also present.  Cavalry, too, were used: light bow-and-javelin horsemen as well as heavier armoured Hellenistic spear cavalry.  Judah Maccabee is described as wearing a corslet, and wielding the captured sword of Apollonius, governor of Samaria.

    • Like 2
  3. On 12/10/2017 at 11:31 AM, Thorfinn the Shallow Minded said:

    I would personally suggest that the Lydians be represented as a separate civilisation.  They were for a long time a potent military and economic power.  Also, it would be anachronistic to have the Old Kingdom Egyptians present in the game since their time was long gone 2000 B.C.  The Hebrews also present a problem chronologically for the 2000-1446 B.C. section since they were not much of a political entity.

    Well, as things stand now, the timespan of Aristeia will no longer be divided up into several sections.  So for example, there will now just be The Egyptians, instead of Old Kingdom, New Kingdom, etc.  I haven't decided what to do about the Lydians, though.

    • Like 1
  4. On 4/24/2018 at 9:54 AM, Rolf Dew said:

    Hi! 

    First of all thanks for the amazing mod and the hard work put into it! 

    Will King David be a hero in this faction?

    Also will there be a seperate Israel faction for the remaining IsraelI tribes? 

     

    You're welcome! 

    The plan at the moment is for the Israelites to be represented by a single faction called the Hebrews; the timeframe will mainly cover the United Monarchy period, so yes, King David is a planned hero.  If a second Hebrew-related faction were depicted, it would cover the northern kingdom of Israel from the Divided era.

    • Like 2
  5. Hi all, I'm reporting in to say that, regretfully, I will be unable to do much further with the mod for at least three months or so, since I have taken on some full-time obligations in my life. Thanks to everyone for their continued support! Any and all able and willing contributors to the Aristeia mod are welcome.  Specifically, any sources/materials pertaining to Egyptian, Hebrew, Assyrian, or Mycenaean civilizations would be much appreciated. Thanks!

  6. Hello, everyone!  Aristeia Bronziron is compatible with Alpha 22: Venustas.  If you have not already done so, you will need to download the latest version of the game onto your machine in order to run the Aristeia mod on it.

    The Aristeia mod is available from Github.

    Four civilizations are playable at the moment. They are the Egyptians, the Judahites, the Assyrians, and the Archaic Greeks. The Egyptians are the most complete faction, but they are still a work-in-progress. The other three factions are placeholder civs for gaming purposes, mainly using units and structures from the 0 AD scenario editor atlas.

    Here is a tentative design document for the final revision of the Egyptian civ.

    Egyptian_Design_Document.pdf

    Next, some concept art!

    Below is a revised Egyptian civilization emblem, the Eye of Horus. It was a sacred symbol throughout ancient Egyptian history, and represented health and protection. The background shield color yellow/gold represents an eternal or imperishable quality, often associated with the sun, and the eye's blue color represents creation or rebirth, often associated with the sky or water.

    egypt_emblem.thumb.jpg.03f24fedf57744b4cfcb382af7e2cc89.jpg

     

    Below is a representation of a (conventional) Middle Kingdom spearman, with variations of bulls' hide shield covers. The appearance of this unit and his equipment is based on the Cairo Museum's wooden soldier models from the tomb of Mesehti, an 11th dynasty official.

    egypt_infantry_spearman_b.thumb.jpg.b71180f7bc7946d0d6929056a0a56f15.jpg

    • Like 3
  7. C+B-Egypt-Fig4-RamsesAttacksHittiteDapur

     

    After a lengthy deliberation, for which we sincerely apologize to our loyal fans, we on the Aristeia mod design team have arrived at a clearer vision for making a way forward.  No more the divisions of time and space, no more the fractured kingdoms and petty city-states of the threefold separation previously envisioned. Rather, four powers of the ancient world, spanning over a thousand years of history, will be depicted in a mighty struggle for supremacy.

    The earth of Mesopotamia trembles beneath the mighty hosts of Assyria’s great kings. From Egypt, by land and sea, pours forth a multitude of the Pharaoh’s followers, devotees of his Majesty. The waters of the Aegean are blackened by the ships of Mycenae, bent on revenge and plunder. The Hebrew monarchs, beset by foes on all sides, fortify their fenced cities and arm their people as if for an agelong war. The battle of Nations draws nigh.

    Stay tuned for further developments!

     

     

     

     

    • Like 5
  8. How much is actually left to do to get Aristeia compatible for Alpha 22?  Once that is done, then as far as I'm concerned, if the rest of the Council has no objections, I see no reason not to Alpha-22-release Aristeia as is, with placeholder civs and everything. 

    I will say this: The more I study ancient history, the more I realize how much we don't actually know about things that far back in time, and a lot of what we read in the textbooks and reference works is often educated guesswork based on bits of material remains, manuscripts, classical writings, inscriptions, monuments, artwork, etc..  Part of my problem is that I was constantly in the process of trying to rework things based on a three-part model, and if I'm not careful my perfectionist streak starts to kick in. That's part of the reason I decided very recently stop being so "exact" about the whole thing, to do away with this whole Part I, II, and III business for Aristeia, and to just have a set of general civs, those civs consisting of Egyptians, Assyrians, Mycenaeans, and Hebrews (and add more civs only if those first four got completed).

    So what you'll end up getting for an Aristeia civ is a cross-section of that civilization's architecture and army across a thousand or more years, often because there simply isn't enough information from any one single period to put flesh and blood on the skeletal outline.

  9. On 4/5/2017 at 3:36 AM, Sundiata said:

    @Zophim Thank you for the research! That's so funny, because I've just typed that very same chapter of that Osprey book in a word document, in order to share it here by Thursday… Great minds think alike :P A lot more stuff is coming, soon… 

    You're welcome!  Thanks for finding the images of the horsemen relief carvings.

    On 4/5/2017 at 3:52 PM, balduin said:

    @Zophim thanks a lot. Your research is very valuable and helpful.

    The following to sentences are interesting:

    do you know which relief carvings David N. Edwards was referencing here?

    are those horse harnesses preserved? Are there more information about it?

    You're welcome!  I'm thinking that the Musawwarat horsemen that Sundiata depicted are the ones that Dr. Edwards referenced in the Osprey book.  As far as the horse harnesses, I found a section from László Török's book The Image of the Ordered World in Ancient Nubian Art: The Construction of the Kushite Mind (800 BC - 300 AD) that mentions, on page 277: “Besides Amun of Kawa and the desert hunters and warriors, Apedemak and Arensnuphis, other male deities also appear with a bow and quiver in the early Meroitic period and continued to be represented with these attributes during the subsequent centuries, cf., e.g., Amun of Napata, Amun of Thebes, Apedemak, Arensnuphis, and Khnonsu on silver horse harness decorations from the royal burials...."  [emphasis mine] The silver harnesses in question are from the 1st and 2nd centuries AD.

    I also found the following plates with accompanying descriptions of harnesses from a work by Dows Dunham, The Royal Cemeteries of Kush: Royal Tombs at Meroë and Barkal.

    Spoiler

     

    TombArt1.thumb.jpg.85be75c07f0869ab532906b7d2120d59.jpgTombArt2.thumb.jpg.a7726767df0674f89dfef7cf034a0e24.jpgTombArt3.thumb.jpg.f9998a1014627dd438b027c96faf6b11.jpgTombArt4.thumb.jpg.48a5b77582d4d570fb3d94f74926eb29.jpg

     

     

     

     

     

     

    • Like 4
  10. @Sundiata, here’s what I have gathered from the Osprey book, Rome’s Enemies (5): The Desert Frontier by David Nicolle, published in 1991.

    - Spears and bows were the basic weapons. Many bronze weapons were still in use in Meroitic Kush, along with iron. Melee infantry would have used great oval oxhide shields, and fought with broad-headed spears, axes, and occasionally Greco-Roman-style short swords.

    - Archers used leather quivers containing stone-and-iron-tipped wood or cane arrows (sometimes poisoned)

    - Many warriors would have had tattoos and scarred faces.

    - It seems that the Meroitic Kushites used elephants in ceremonies, and perhaps also occasionally in warfare. The kind of elephants used would probably have been the now-extinct North African elephant (Loxodonta africana pharaoensis) and/or the desert variation of the African bush elephant (Loxodonta africana africana).

    - Fortifications were built on pre-existing Egyptian structures, or else consisted of huge 3-storied citadels made of whitewashed mud-brick.

    I'm not sure what kind of cavalry Meroe would have had, but the book The Nubian Past: An Archaeology of Sudan by David N. Edwards, published in 2004, states that relief carvings suggest the warlike use of horses, and that several Meroitic kings were buried with horse harness. Make of that what you will. :)

    • Like 2
  11. Post info, sources, suggestions, etc. here.  Be sure to credit your source if you post images or written info.  Below is a basic design document.

     

    Star_of_Shamash.png.541ebe035849b80c7ca893cb8189edcb.png

    FACTION: New Empire Assyrians
    TIMESPAN: 745-612 B.C.
    CIV EMBLEM: Star of Shamash
    [thanks to niektb for the emblem!]

    UNITS
    Note: With these placeholders, citizen soldiers should retain the same appearance regardless of promotion.
    The exact corresponding scenario editor actor files are listed beside the unit names below, followed by the structure(s) from which they can be trained.
    CITIZEN CAVALRY
    Syrian Horseman – pers_cavalry_spearman_e (Civ Centre, Stables)
    CITIZEN INFANTRY
    Chaldaean Archer – pers_infantry_archer_e (Civ Centre, Barracks)
    Hittite Spearman – cart_infantry_spearman_e (Civ Centre, Barracks)
    Hebrew Slinger – iber_infantry_slinger_e (Barracks)
    Elamite Skirmisher – pers_infantry_javelinist_b (Barracks) - cannot progress beyond basic rank
    CHAMPIONS
    Assyrian Officer – pers_champion_infantry (Fortress) – gives LOS citizen infantry + 2 attack – build limit 5 – auras do not overlap
    Infantry Guardsman – pers_kardakes_hoplite (Royal Apartments)
    Infantry Guard Officer – pers_arstibara (Royal Palace) - gives LOS guardsmen + 1 attack – build limit 1
    Royal Bodyguard Cavalryman – pers_champion_cavalry (Royal Apartments)
    Scythian Horse Archer - pers_champion_cavalry_archer (Stables) – town phase
    Assyrian Chariot – pers_cavalry_archer_e (Stables) – city phase
    SIEGE
    Siege Ram – pers_mechanical_siege_ram (Siege Workshop)
    Siege Tower – mace_mechanical_siege_tower (Siege Workshop)
    HEROES
    Tiglath-pileser III hero – assyrian_hero_sargon_ii (Royal Palace)
    Sennacherib hero – assyrian_hero_sargon_ii (Royal Palace)
    Ashurbanipal hero – assyrian_hero_tiglath_pilaser_iii (Royal Palace)
    SUPPORT
    Conscript Laborer – athen_support_slave (Warehouse - only building this unit can be trained from) – can harvest domestic animals, wood, food (berries and farming), metal, and stone; cannot hunt; cannot build; cannot fight; fairly easy for enemy to capture; 1 Conscript Laborer should be included in the starting units group
    Assyrian Woman – pers_support_female_citizen (Civ Centre, House)
    Assyrian Merchant – pers_support_trader (Market)
    Priest of Shamash – ptol_support_healer_b (Temple)
    NAVAL
    Fishing Boat – assyrian_ship_fishing (Dock)
    Merchant Ship – cart_ship_merchant (Dock)
    War Ship – cart_ship_bireme (Dock)
     

    STRUCTURES
    The exact corresponding scenario editor actor files are listed beside the structure names below,
    followed by their trainable units.
    VILLAGE
    Barracks – assyrian_barracks (Chaldaean Archer, Hittite Spearman, Hebrew Slinger, Elamite Skirmisher)
    Corral – pers_corral (Sheep)
    Dock – pers_dock (Fishing Boat, Merchant Ship, War Ship)
    Farmstead – assyrian_farmstead
    Farm Field - assyrian_field
    House – assyrian_house (Assyrian Woman)
    Outpost - pers_outpost
    Storehouse - pers_storehouse
    TOWN
    Civ Centre – pers_civil_centre (Syrian Horseman, Chaldaean Archer, Hittite Spearman, Assyrian
    Woman)
    Blacksmith - pers_blacksmith
    Defense Tower - pers_defense_tower
    Market – pers_market (Assyrian Merchant)
    Stables – assyrian_stables (Syrian Horseman, Scythian Horse Archer (starting in town phase), Assyrian Chariot (starting in city phase))
    Temple – pers_temple (Priest of Shamash)
    City Wall – pers_wall... etc.
    Warehouse – other/pers_warehouse (Conscript Laborer – only building this unit can be trained from) –
    the warehouse functions as a forward operating dropsite; it can be built in neutral territory, but slowly decays over time
    CITY
    Fortress – pers_fortress (Assyrian Officer)
    Royal Palace – pers_apadana (Heroes, Infantry Guard Officer)
    Royal Apartments – other/pers_apartment_block (Infantry Guardsman, Royal Bodyguard Cavalryman)
    Siege Workshop – other/pers_inn (Siege Ram, Siege Tower)
    Great Temple of Shamash at Hatra wonder – pers_tacara

    • Like 1
  12. Post info, sources, suggestions, etc. here.  Be sure to credit your source if you post images or written info.  Below is a basic design document.

     

    emblem_judahites.png.2e3a8bdd5fc6f68ec3cbe3a718c9ec68.png

    FACTION: Divided Kingdom Judahites
    TIMESPAN: 930-586 B.C.
    CIV EMBLEM: Lion of Judah
    [thanks to niektb for the emblem!]

    UNITS
    Note: With these placeholders, citizen soldiers should retain the same appearance regardless of promotion.
    The exact corresponding scenario editor actor files are listed beside the unit names below, followed by the structures from which they can be trained.
    CITIZEN CAVALRY
    Judahite Horseman – cart_cavalry_javelinist_b (Civ Centre, Stables) – cannot progress beyond basic rank
    CITIZEN INFANTRY
    Benjamite Archer – pers_infantry_archer_b (Civ Centre, Barracks) – trained at advanced rank
    Benjamite Slinger – iber_infantry_slinger_a (Barracks) – trained at advanced rank
    Judahite Spearman – cart_infantry_spearman_b (Civ Centre, Barracks) – does not become champion unit at elite rank (ignore previous design doc)
    Ephraimite Swordsman – iber_infantry_swordsman_b (Barracks)
    Levite Guard – sele_infantry_spearman_b (Civ Centre) – 1 Levite Guard should be included in the starting units group
    CHAMPIONS
    Judahite Officer – iber_champion_infantry (Fortress) – gives LOS citizen infantry +10 attack – build limit 5 – auras do not overlap
    Chariot – pers_cavalry_archer_b (Stables)
    Mighty Man of Judah – cart_champion_infantry (Fortress)
    SIEGE
    Battering Ram – gaul_mechanical_siege_ram (Fortress)
    HEROES
    Jehoshaphat hero – pers_hero_xerxes (Palace)
    Hezekiah hero – pers_hero_xerxes (Palace)
    Josiah hero – pers_hero_darius (Palace)
    SUPPORT
    Judahite Woman – pers_support_female_citizen (Civ Centre, House)
    Judahite Merchant – iber_support_trader (Market)
    Priest of YHWH – _pers_support_healer_b (Temple)
    High Priest – brit_support_healer_e (Temple) – powerful healer - build limit 1
    NAVAL
    Fishing Boat – egyptian_ship_fishing (Dock)
    Merchant Ship – cart_ship_merchant (Dock)
    War Ship – cart_ship_bireme (Dock)

    STRUCTURES
    The exact corresponding scenario editor actor files are listed beside the structure names below, followed by their trainable units.
    VILLAGE
    Barracks – cart_barracks (Benjamite Archer, Benjamite Slinger, Judahite Spearman, Ephraimite Swordsman)
    Corral – cart_corral (Sheep)
    Dock – cart_dock (Fishing Boat, Merchant Ship, War Ship)
    Farmstead – cart_farmstead
    Farm Field - cart_field
    House – cart_house (Judahite Woman)
    Storehouse - cart_storehouse
    TOWN
    Civ Centre – cart_civil_centre (Judahite Horseman, Levite Guard, Benjamite Archer, Judahite Spearman, Egyptian Woman) – 1 Levite Guard should be included in the starting units group
    Threshingfloor – egyptian_sb_threshingfloor – enables more farming techs
    Blacksmith - cart_blacksmith
    Defense Tower - cart_defense_tower
    Market – cart_market (Judahite Merchant)
    Stables – egyptian_stables (Judahite Horseman, Chariot)
    City Wall – cart_wall... etc.
    CITY
    Fortress – cart_fortress (Judahite Officer, Mighty Man of Judah, Battering Ram)
    Palace – cart_embassy (Heroes)
    Temple of Solomon – cart_temple (Priest of YHWH, High Priest)
    House of the Forest of Lebanon - cart_wonder

    • Like 3
    • Haha 1
  13. @wowgetoffyourcellphone  I believe war chariots were from an earlier, Mycenaean timeframe though.  And anyway, the current units roster represents the later archaic period, partly for compatibility with the vanilla game placeholders I'm using at the moment.  But I'm not necessarily ruling out depicting some of the older items you mentioned (except for the no-skirt part, for gameplay purposes they will need to at least have a loincloth of some sort).

  14. On 1/18/2017 at 8:57 PM, Sundiata said:

    @Zophim Thank you!  

    I think 25th Dynasty would be an awesome choice for Aristeia. I looked through your forum, and it looked really interesting. It's a very interesting timeframe to depict. Before the rise of Rome… Before Alexander… If you need some help with research or something, let me know. I will go through the forum again and see what I could contribute.

     

    Thanks; if I do decide to for sure include the 25th Dynasty for Aristeia, then I will definitely let you know.  I may also be able to assist with research for the Meroitic Kushites.  But again, with all of the responsibilities I have at the moment, no promises! :)

    • Like 2
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