Zophim

ATTENTION: Any further civ profile revisions that I make will be uploaded to a specific post in the "[Collection] Design Docs" topic in the Aristeia forum. I have recently begun work on the New Kingdom Egypt civ profile in earnest.

ATTENTION: Any further civ profile revisions that I make will be uploaded to a specific post in the "[Collection] Design Docs" topic in the Aristeia forum.

ATTENTION: Any further civ profile revisions that I make will be uploaded to a specific post in the "[Collection] Design Docs" topic in the Aristeia forum.

Yes, I'd like to at least have the Temple itself, as well as the altar and basin, surrounded by the Inner Court wall complex. If we included the outer Great Court wall as well, the footprint for the structure would be HUGE, and perhaps be impractical, given the purposes and limitations of this game.

Thanks; I uploaded a .doc file to my previous PDF post in this topic. I was not able to submit a .docx or .odt file (some kind of incompatibility or other, I'm guessing). @Lion.Kanzen: the Sea Peoples are definitely a part of my order of operations, and as far as the Canaanites go, I plan to represent them in some form or fashion as token units for the Phoenicians and/or Sea Peoples.

For now, I am putting basically complete PDF civ profiles here, as well as work-in-progress files, until I've figured out where to upload them to on GitHub. Aristeia will tentatively be divided into three 500-year spans, as follows (the listings, inclusions, and classifications are still very much a WIP): FATHERS OF NATIONS (2000-1500 BC) THE OLD KINGDOM EGYPTIANS THE NUBIANS THE AKKADIANS THE SUMERIANS THE HEBREWS THE MAGADHAN INDIANS THE SHANG CHINESE TUMULT OF NATIONS (1500-1000 BC) THE AMU HYKSOS THE THEBAN EGYPTIANS THE MINOAN CRETANS THE HEBREW ISRAELITES THE PHILISTINE SEA PEOPLES THE SIDONIAN CANAANITES THE ANATOLIAN HITTITES THE ZHOU CHINESE ZENITH OF NATIONS (1000-500 BC) MAJOR REGIONAL POWERS THE NEW KINGDOM EGYPTIANS New Kingdom Egypt Civilization Profile.pdf New Kingdom Egypt Civilization Profile.doc THE KUSHITE NUBIANS Kushite Nubian Civilization Profile.doc (work in progress) THE ANATOLIAN HITTITES Hittite Civilization Profile.doc (work in progress) THE NEW EMPIRE ASSYRIANS Neo-Assyrian Civilization Profile 0.4.pdf Neo-Assyrian Civilization Profile 0.4.doc THE CHALDEAN BABYLONIANS LEVANTINE STATES THE PHOENICIAN CANAANITES THE UNITED MONARCHY ISRAELITES United Monarchy Israel Civilization Profile 0.3.pdf United Monarchy Israel Civilization Profile 0.3.doc THE DIVIDED KINGDOM JUDAHITES THE DIVIDED KINGDOM EPHRAIMITES THE ARAM-DAMASCUS SYRIANS AEGEAN & MEDITERRANEAN CIVILIZATIONS THE PHILISTINE SEA PEOPLES THE TARTESSIAN IBERIANS THE TROJAN LYDIANS THE MYCENAEAN GREEKS THE TYRRHENIAN ETRUSCANS

Not just the copyright/plagiarism factor: As much as possible, we should base in-game entities on the historical record, and not directly on derivative works and games such as AOM. Our structures and units should resemble those of other games only insofar as the other games themselves have likewise based their research on history. All this is not to make judgments on the historicity of commercially available games, but simply to point out that we should engage in good research and authenticity practices, going to primary and secondary sources ourselves instead of taking shortcuts.

First of all, allow me to say that you are a talented 2D artist, sir. Your civ emblems show a high level of skill. I would love for my design doc output to be greater, but I am currently involved with academics for most of this month; by May, however, I should be freed up a great deal to concentrate more fully on Aristeia. As I stated in the Hittite topic, my plan is to (1) more or less finish the Assyrian civ doc, (2) revisit the Israelite civ doc and make some changes, (3) work on the Egyptians and Nubians, and (4) bring the basic civ docs for the Phoenicians and Sea Peoples up to speed. An idea to throw out there: would it not be better to have two separate documents for each civ? One for the written document itself, and another for the artist's illustration references? The two documents could cross-reference one another. What I've been doing so far is combining the two, which I think makes for a rather cumbersome, unwieldy, messy file. Just an offhand question: Is anyone besides myself currently involved with or interested in working on Aristeia design docs? Not that I necessarily wish to have a reduced role in the project, but a civ researcher/designer is one of the first links in the chain, and, as Romulus said, it would be good to get enough people working on each aspect of development that at any given time, at least one person would be perhaps semi-available to work on a task. It would be nice if I knew of any volunteers to establish contact with so that we could coordinate our efforts, and delegate design doc responsibilities. For the record, my main specialty is biblical Near Eastern civs (basically Israel and its neighbors): Israel, Israelite successor states (Ephraim and Judah), New Kingdom Egypt, Kush (aka Nubia), Sea Peoples (incl. Philistines), Phoenicians, Aramaic Syrian states, Assyrians, Babylonians, and perhaps Hittites. As far as European (such as Etruscan), Indian, and Proto-Greek civs I am more than willing to encourage anyone more familiar with them than I am to lend a hand. About the Egyptians: I had already begun work on my own Egyptian doc, which I posted in the New Kingdom Egypt topic. Lion.Kanzen, the Google Docs link to the Egyptian civ is basically the one created by Tyrannosaurus, who was last active on the forums over a year ago. I personally think that his design doc needs an overhaul. I can incorporate many of his concepts and ideas, but his timespan is a bit broad, and the unit names need revising, among other issues. Another point: Atenmeses52, one of the Aristeia co-founders, laid out a tentative list of proposed civs last December; I would like to revise the list, if I may; I have my own thoughts on the merits of including each civ. It would probably be a good idea to first get a more solid grasp on the civs Aristeia is actually going to include, and then proceed on to designing these civs, and then put 2D and 3D artists to work tranforming these concepts into a playable virtual reality.

My comments are in bold.

Intriguing stuff, Rodmar; God could certainly have used a cataclysmic event of nature to level the two cities.

Yes, he is! What's my first order of business? Whatever happened to Atenmeses, by the way?

Sure!

The design doc is still a work in progress, but I think it is coming along nicely.

Any of my fellow modders can contact me directly through WFG PM's or through my email address, which is listed on my profile page. But to address this question, I am at the moment, as far as I know, the primary researcher for Aristeia (and basically an Aristeia co-leader as well).

Here is a good read from the University of Helsinki website: Assyrian Chariotry and Cavalry.pdf

Very interesting read from the Cornell University website. Reconsidering_Goliath.pdf

Good archaeological discoveries about a fortress from the period of Saul and David: http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2012/05/19/news-to-note-05192012 http://www.diggingsonline.com/pages/rese/arts/other/2012/qeiyafa01.htm http://www.diggingsonline.com/pages/rese/arts/other/2013/qeiyafa01.htm http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-artifacts/artifacts-and-the-bible/breaking-news%E2%80%94evidence-of-cultic-activity-in-judah-discovered-at-khirbet-qeiyafa/

Here's a basic units list, as well as an idea for a wonder.

Sure, I'd appreciate that.

I will try to get a preliminary list posted soon. My basic plan for now is to: (1) more or less finish the Assyrian civ doc, (2) revisit the Israelite civ doc and make some changes, (3) work on the Egyptians and Nubians, (4) bring the basic civ docs for the Phoenicians and Sea Peoples up to speed. But I definitely plan to address the Hittite units list shortly.

Next update for the Assyrians! The main additions are Akkadian unit and structure names, as well as some accompanying illustrations (good thing the Assyrians were skilled at crafting these incredibly detailed reliefs; it's making my job a lot easier). Neo-Assyrians-0.3.pdf

Oh, okay; you can update me as Leader, then (or Co-Leader, or Manager, or whatever my title would be now). I will definitely be on the lookout for any additional volunteers.

I'm willing to be a leader (or co-leader), at least temporarily. I should probably let you know, however, that I have little programming skill. Also, I have Blender and GIMP access, but have almost zero experience with either of them yet; I was already seriously planning to learn how to use those programs this year, though (kind of like a New Year's resolution ).

Thanks for posting those videos, Mega Mania! I watched both of them, and they're quite eye-opening, especially the one about the scale armour.

Disappointed to hear that, sir; life happens (not that it's always necessarily a bad thing ). I still plan to contribute research and documentation for this mod at present, so that material will be available if/when you or anyone else deem the time is right to take up this project again at some point.