wowgetoffyourcellphone

Looks really good. Can't wait to see more!

try www.imgur.com

Just a quick texture improvement. Could keep the "thatch" texture for the Farmstead and Storehouse. Or randomize the texture variation so it mixes and matches.

Rooftiles would be another good way to differentiate them from the Britons.

A good reference for a possible Gallic market refresh.

To me, it makes sense that the spare javelins would be held inside the shield in some way. So yeah, I could make a variation that is vertical for those units whose shields necessitate it. It's not just this one unit that has such clipping.

Which is kind of ridiculous too. How granular do we have to get here anyway?

New shaman hat

Looks like Tundra

The whole whole (entire) bottom floor is made of stone if you look closely. They just didn't bother white washing the side no one sees. I'll get @Tom_Sawyer on it.

Alt-D Change perspective You're welcome

Right, based on my original ones (which are still in use in DE).

I think the basic countering system was present in all AOE games (with something similar occurring in most RTS games, IIRC). As an aside, AOE4 just doesn't interest me for a multitude of reasons. Number one being they could have remade AOE2 to awesome modern 3D standards, but made something that looks utterly unappealing. I just can't put my finger on it though. Everything looks like a soap opera with weird flat lighting and muted colors. It's the VHS version of a modern game. Surprised you don't have to use a pair of tracking buttons to get the video head calibrated.

Citizen Soldiers are a real double-edged sword for this game.

Or move Multiplayer to the left side (making that whole side about gameplay), then "Design Tools" and "Exit" can be new buttons on the right side, putting 3 total buttons on each side. Just spitballing. "Design Tools" for now would only have Scenario Editor has an option, but in the future additional tools can and probably will be developed and would go into that dropdown.

Indeed. Melee Infantry have one unit which has a hard bonus. Perhaps we can do that for Cavalry* and Ranged Infantry as well. One unit class of each can have a hard counter bonus. I realize that Spear Cav have a hard bonus, but it's against other cavalry. I meant that each group of classes (cavalry, melee inf, range inf) can have 1 class that hard counters units of the other group for a rps. Then you have the other classes around those who add more nuance.

Same set of models, but with different textures. It would be nice to have a completely different set of models for Scythians, Xiongnu, and eventually Huns, but for an initial release of a "nomads" alpha, I think we will have to go with the same models and iterate from there over time.

Don't understand this one. Were Slingers used to siege cities? lol Nah, they were for the open field and skirmishes. Also, good hunters and foragers, but that's given to cav units. Making slingers into mini-onagers never made sense! Same for War Elephants being meaty battering rams when they should have been the ultimate battlefield unit (but hard to mass) from the start. Hmm, if ranged units stand up too well to melee attack, then what is their weakness? To "lean into" differences of classes of units, then I think ranged units should pretty much get massacred by any melee units who manage to reach them. The key to ranged units is... their range. The longer the range, the less damage they cause, because it's the range that matters. Sure, as melee troops close in, the ranged defenders get more accurate, makes sense, but once the melee units get close enough for a sword, the ranged units should be burnt toast. Adios muchachos. We can have them switch to knives or short swords to defend themselves, but it should only buy moments only. Armor-wearing Javelineers should have greater cost and perhaps less range. They have to wield a thureos after all. Could definitely stand up to melee action better, but at a cost to force projection. I for one think all foot soldiers should have the same health (call it 100) and then we adjust armor and attack, et al. around that. About cheapness, I'm very pro-trash units as a concept. Han Crossbowmen for example. Cheap, massable, good for sending tons of projectiles the enemy's way, but ultimately outclassed by stronger troops when those come to play. I don't think that's in the cards though. Maybe minds will change?

Gotta remember the time period of the mod though. By the middle of the 13th century, the Norman conquest was already 200 years past. The English homeland was consolidating nicely by the 13th. Assuming the mod is a "snapshot" of the 13th century and not a "through the ages" mod.

@real_tabasco_sauce Ken Wood.

At the time we started making tech and unit portraits in earnest, AOE3 was the latest Age game available and the stye of icons seemed nice, so we went with that. Prior to that, our portraits were really ad hoc and AOE2-like. Todays, they are more painterly with a nice gradient background with some noise added and everything looks like a good consistent direction to me. Consistency is the important part, honestly. The phase up icons stand out for a reason, because they are the most important techs in the game and they are unique from the rest.

I feel like we are really missing opportunities to differentiate ranged units. You've hit on a few things here. Javelineers weren't used for mass clouds of raining projectiles onto enemy formations, such as how archers were used. Pitch battles, skirmishes, et al. are a lot different than a one-on-one mano-a-mano fight and different types of weapons and units are used differently in each case. We can't really depict that kind of nuance in the game, however we can twiddle with the stats to approximate these differences. I for one think that if the core game isn't going to go with hard counter bonuses (DE uses these), then the different ranged types really should lean in to their core differences. Archers are long ranged and used for massed volleys? Then make their range huge, less accurate, lower damage, but high rate of fire (2 seconds). Slingers and Javelineers are a lot more accurate, but shorter range than Archers. Slingers at 80% range of Archers, but 50% more accurate and a lower rate of fire (3s). Javelineers have the highest attack damage, shortest range, and most accuracy (due to the short range), but the longest repeat time/rate of fire (4s), to mimic their skirmishing role. The game already kind of does this, but it could lean into it more.