wowgetoffyourcellphone

I have a gift for you Zeta. These are the powerful Thebans, who break Sparta and spar with Athens. Patriots who stand against Philip of Macedon and Alexander the Great.

This your dream map, Lion?

Steppe is largely just grass, like this: And this: But can give visual interest with large flower ground cover too! Can have unique models for stone and metal mines like this: Bluffs near rivers. Trees cluster around water.

Could be possible to give these structure some kind of global aura to simulate a bonus. But do you have any ideas? Right now, I just have Mercenary Camps for the gaia capturables. Also, keep in mind Steppes should be relatively deserted. Not many signs of habitation.

I was wonder if anyone had any ideas of how to make Steppe biome maps intersting? Trying to make Scythia map. I look at Steppe photographs and it look like there is just grass and small hills and that's it. So, I think terrain blending may be the key to making it look interesting. Also, perhaps only having 1 part of the map be "steppe" and the other part of the map being mountainous or hilly or must have a river or gully (like the Syria map). Flowering plants also seem to be a lot present. We will need more models for flowering plants in the game to make the map interesting. Also, large groups of flowers for nice ground cover. It would also be funn to have tumbleweed, aka Russian Thistle tumbling around. Above you see a map example, where the right side, 60% is the steppes rolling hills and flat grasslands, but to make it more interesting the West 40% has a shallow river and mountains. I am think of putting most of the wood on the West with the mountains. Farmland would go near the river. Trees on the East(right) mostly follow shallow gullies and streams or around watering holes. Patches of shrubs and bushes with a couple of dead trees can be the rest of the wood on the Steppe section of map. I think the key for gameplay of Steppe maps will be a feature that is not yet implemented: herding. On steppe maps, the Corral will become one of the most useful buildings for player. These 2 things are made for each other. On Steppe maps, we can design parameters for resource (something the team should do anyway for all biome, but I am focus on Steppe npw), major resource be herding animals: Goats, Sheep, Cattle, Horses, Camels. And then of course hunting resource: Saiga Antelope (aka Saiga tatarica), European Bison, Corsac Fox, Wild Asses, and others. Wolves should be a major nuisance. And there could be major caches of treasures, treasure troves. So, scouting is very very important on Steppes map, mainly to grab herd animals, steal herd animals, and finding treasures. On team match, trading absolutely necessary. Something like this for resource distribution: 20,000 Wood each player (this is low, I think for a map). Over half of wood is in low-yield shrubs and bushes. Other half in trees. Only 5,000 wood found in or near player start position. 5,000 Berries or fruit trees each player (2-3,000 in or near starting positions). This is high. 8,000 Food huntables each player, 1000 inside start area (for instance, 10 deer x 100 food each), 2000 just outside start area, rest scattere around map, usually near water. 8,000 food herdables each player. Distributed in herds around the map. 1 herd inside start areas. Must go in search of the rest. Metal and Stone are pretty much distribute even across map. 5000 metal and 5000 stone in player start position. 5000 metal and 5000 stone just outside territory (easy to find), then the rest scattered around map evenly. 2 Mercenary Camps per player, one just outside start position, and 1 much farther away, maybe near a water source like a rocky stream or watering hole. Farmlands only near water source like stream or river, away from start position of players. Farming should be difficult.. Falcons and Vultures would be nice. "Hawk" currently in the game is huge, the size of a Golden Eagle. Should be rename to Golden Eagle. A closeup of potential start area. You see most of wood is shrubs and bushes. They are low-yield at only 50 wood per bush. You see the herd of herdables inside start base. You see herds of 10+ huntables nearby. You see a lot of berry bushes, but they are not all clump together in one berry orgy. Stone and metal are spread out, not tucked next to the Civic Center. There are wolves at the periphery. Wolves should be a constant danger to solitary units wandering nearby.

Those look Parthian.

I would like @stanislas69 or someone else to model some mountain models. The game could really use them.

Yes those are very much late-Rome/Eastern Rome. Suitable for Part 2.

I adjust center area of Gallic Fields to have 3 farmlands, and then remove the other farmlands on the map. Renamed map to Autumn Fields (3). I also add capturable Wonder in the middle, so that if capture you don't have to build your own Wonder to unlock Empire Phase.

Oh, I do not worry about random maps.

What do you have in your mind?

This should be mercenary camp for game. Is already in the game.

I think my Seleucid Cataphract in Delenda Est is accurate to history. However, cataphracts in Part 2 Empires Besiege will need more models (either whole new model or extra prop models) for all that armor.

Good comments Sandnerd. Another thing I don't like is how AI deletes all its building so quick after I capture its Civilication Centre. It's not very human-like. It's something I wish the AI did less of, or maybe had a cool time before it did it. Can this be tweak? Mimo is doing a great job with the AI. It is very challenging, even if I have some critique (like, the AI goes absolute NUTS when you try to capture one of its buildings, it will send EVERYTHING in a berzerker move yto stop you; I could see an exploit being used here against AI, using a few units to initiate a capture on one side of the AI base, then attacking the other side of the AI base with the bulk of army after the AI sends all his units to go stop the building from being capture on other side, gg).

I know how a heightmap works. I have used my own heightmaps a lot. I just thought you used one. You used one right? For the coast outlines (maybe not)? I've used other trick before too like importing decals with map texture on them. I've also hand draw real-world coastlines. They are a pain. Hardest part is to get scale right (like, it cam be easy to make Spain too big or something), and then there are the coast details.

Most of new unit texture are 256^2. Some of the newer animal texture are even bigger (though for some this is overmuch kill).

Hi guys. I give Gallic Fields and Alpine Valleys a "autumn" skin. Would be cool to be able to "bundle" multuple maps together into one file and they could be randomly chosen on launch (like different variations of the same skirmish map). But that's a idea for another day. In meantime, enjoy screenshots:

A positive change would be to just make capturing the secondary attack instead of primay. And then focus the capturing to only Civic Centers (and maybe houses and Temples; I make this happen in Delenda Est mod).

Can be use for hero or Elite unit or champions...

Maybe post the heightmap? I'd like to try my hand at this map. It is mostly due to perspective.

It may be more important to show the dummies, anvils, shields, spears, etc., than to give the men some shade. I mean for gameplay (need to make it clear what this building is quickly). But LordGood is proficient artist. He can decide.

The new oaks look pretty good in the game. I tweak some texture and put them on a autumnal version of Gallic Firld. In general some of older trees still look better because of angle of branch geometry is all at 45 degrees (Carob trees are best example). This is ideal for game like 0 A.D. with it have RTS camera angle. Many of the new tree have branch planes at all angles so viewer get edge on views and stretched look at texture. Also, some texture need reworked, for instance the Aleppo Pines, to fit the new geometry. Look like the etxture was not meant to go with this geometry (I know you worked with what you had tho). I would say the oaks are the success story and the others still need help. I might see what I can do in Blender.

I like this direction LordGood. though the banners make me think of a Market. How about remove banners so can see sword, spears, anvils, shields etc. prop inside? In general I think the Seleucid texture needs to be more realistic, like all of the others. This texture sheet stands out as cartoony to me.

I recommend these 2 items because they use some of the same stable features already in the game (sheep corral trickle use garrison aura and visible prop point, two stable feature, for example). Take a look at them. They are not that difficult to add compare to somethink like battalions or ship ramming or things like these. That's what I mean.