Nescio

That's quite a long post! I also wrote something a year ago ( https://wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?/topic/22486-task-crowd-sourced-thracians-faction/page/2/&tab=comments#comment-355684 ), it might be still useful. Perhaps you could put it in a spoiler?

No worries, I'm not very familiar with github and all its features either; all those “user-friendly” extras tend to complicate things for me. Command-line `git` is much easier and faster. Anyway, I've pushed my changes, also correcting other things. Feel free to revoke my priviliges now. PS Did you also happen to have started a Scythians mod?

Thanks, I've accepted the invite. However, when I tried pushing changes it failed: remote: Permission to 0ADMods/thracians.git denied to Nescio0. fatal: unable to access 'https://github.com/0ADMods/thracians/': The requested URL returned error: 403 So apparently I don't have write permission. [EDIT] I guess an owner could probably change access under https://github.com/0ADMods/thracians/settings or somewhere similar. [EDIT] It seems I've “read” access to Illyrians and Thracians repositories, but “write” access to thirteen others: It ought to be the other way around.

Unfortunately I don't know how to move files via a pull request. However, if you (temporarily) give me commit access, I could push the changes from a local repository.

@feneur or @Stan`, this thread shouldn't be sticky—none of the other civ topics here is.

The Terra Magna civs use four-letter abbreviations as well (chin, xion, zapo). I'd recommend switching to illy and thra (instead of illyr and thrac) for consistency sooner rather than later, because it'll be more work when more files are added. Plus ships (use mace as placeholder), siege ram (perhaps celt as placeholder), and most importantly, a complete structure set. Also, I made a few pull requests with minor corrections (female citizen etc.)

`mod.json` file is missing (intentional?), also for Illyrians mod. A licence file should be added too. Out of curiosity, why do you use five-letter civ abbreviations (illyr, thrac)? Most 0 A.D. civs have four letters (e.g. brit, celt, gaul, etc.).

(Hopefully this is the correct place to post.) Some types of fruit bushes can be very hard to see in game. They're identifiable if you know what to look for when maximally zoomed in (the five in the screenshot below), but not really when you play typically maximally zoomed out. Perhaps something for you, @LordGood?

Actually I doubt slingers would have had helmets or body armour. Perhaps you could differentiate the ranks by the clothes? Dyes were very expensive, so perhaps basic a simple tunic, advanced one with one or two thin coloured stripes, elite with multiple. Also, perhaps they should have sleeveless tunics but with cloaks and a cloth to hold stones, as suggested by this image taken from Duncan Head (1982) Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars 359 BC to 146 BC. (He doesn't quote sources so it's unclear what is fact and what fiction.

Does it happen with every mod? Did you select multiple mods at once? My guess is that the “crazy” behaviour is caused by a mod that overrides some of the default settings. If I were you, I would try out a few mods one by one (select and enable a mod, save configuration, start mods, see if it works, then deselect it and repeat for a different mod), starting with a simple one, e.g. `no-blood-and-gore-mod`.

You're overlooking the fact that if you control only a small area with few trees, you'll benefit much less from regeneration than your opponents who have access to far more forests.

On the other hand, many fish species are endangered and some have gone extinct due to overfishing, so infinite fish isn't entirely realistic either. I suppose the proper way would be to have a regeneration rate sufficiently high so that fish won't get depleted by one or two fishing boats, but will disappear when more are fishing the same school.

Personally I think fish and fruit ought to regenerative, but not wood. Spawning saplings (and young animals) is an interesting idea, but implementing it in a natural way is not straightforward.

What is “lod”? And isn't there a separate repository to store old art?

What exactly is desired? This could be labelled as a “gameplay change” and such patches tend to be rather hard to get committed. Before domestic animals are overhauled, we probably want to have fattening ( https://code.wildfiregames.com/D1718 ) available first. Realistically, chicken, dogs, and pigs are efficient sources of meat, sheep and cattle much less so. Nowadays we raise cattle primarily for their meat; historically, beef was a rarity; cattle had many functions, but the most important reason for keeping them was their muscle power for ploughing. If animals were garrisonable (UnitAI?) then I suppose they could have a garrisoned resource trickle aura. Personally I think animals shouldn't be trainable; free food isn't realistic.

Aren't there such helmets already? E.g. `art/actors/props/units/heads/thracian_mercenary.xml`? By the way, is there any particular reason why so many (most?) helmet files are located under heads/ rather than helmets/?

So if I understand correctly, you're saying that armour should be separate from clothes? Similar to helmet and head right now? It sounds sensible, but wouldn't that mean that most unit textures have to be redone? Furthermore, wouldn't it then also make sense to separate skin from clothes?

Separate greaves sounds great! Wearing only one (on the left shin, because that's what isn't covered by the shield) may have actually been far more common than greaves on both legs. Having two is typically for show-offs.

In this case I'd recommend ignoring the design document. Egyptian tunics are perfectly fine for priests, but I highly doubt any Hellenistic ruler would ever wear one on the battlefield; they all tended to model themselves after Alexander, and a short tunic was considered “manly” and Greek; besides, long robes are rather impractical when riding a horse or running away on foot. (Polybius book V, the most important source on Ptolemy IV and the battle of Raphia, doesn't say anything about clothing or armour.)

Something else, in Age of Kings trees had to be cut down before wood could be gathered, whereas in 0 A.D. a tree with 1/400 wood is still standing as if nothing has happened. And in Knights and Merchants, a woodcutter cuts down the tree, brings the trunk to his lodge, where he removes the bark and branches, and then a serf brings it to a carpenter's to convert it into timber. I'm not saying 0 A.D. should do the same, but it's worth discussing whether we want to preserve current practice, or want to have something more realistic eventually. That said, creating cut-down versions (and animations?) of every tree actor is probably a lot of work.

It seems we both have something to look forward to then (I art, you a mod). Certainly not; that's the whole idea of modifying, isn't it? I appreciate any help I can get, but don't expect anything to be presented on a silver plate.

Basically, please don't hesitate to add Scythian textures with armour, just don't use them for the Athenian champion. On second thought, perhaps we should create some (untrainable) Scythian mercenary templates, e.g.: Scythian mercenary archer b: trousers and long sleeves, no armour Scythian mercenary archer a: trousers and long sleeves, linothrax Scythian mercenary archer e: trousers and long sleeves, scale armour Athenian infantry archer champion: fancy clothes, no armour.

If a Scythian is displayed with a hoplite, it's a generic mercenary, who could have been employed by any Greek state on the battlefield. And yes, those could indeed have armour (e.g. Greek linothrax, Scythian scales, etc.) In contrast, when an Athenian classical text refers to the Σκύθαι (Scythians), Σπευσίνιοι (those of Speusinos), or τοξόται (archers), they typically mean the permanent public police of Athens, not ordinary mercenaries.

Yes, long sleeves and trousers are fine, but those head-dresses are not (should be a simple cap). The _a versions of these units are great, so ideally the _b should have a simpler version of that. Or add trousers to the current _b texture.

First of all, I certainly welcome having Scythian (scale) armour textures available, both for (cataphract) cavalry and infantry archers. However, I'd advise against using armour for the Athenian “Scythian archer”s, because of their specific history. Originally they may have been a mercenary bodyguard of the late 6th C Athenian tyrants (Peisistratos and his sons Hipparchos and Hippias), but during the 5th C they were a body of state slaves who apparently acted as the police force in Athens (because they weren't citizens, they could not be sued, and because they were public property, their owners could not be sued either); they're present in several of Aristophanes' comedies. It is doubtful they ever fought on the battlefield, though. So colourful caps, capes, tunics, trousers and a gorytos (bow-case), yes please, but shields or body-armour, no thanks.