Nescio

Perhaps you could make the horns pointing outwards, rather than have them approaching a circle?

One important thing to keep in mind is that most of what we know of the Thracians is based on Greek sources from the late 5th C BC and most of what we know of the Dacians is based on Roman sources from the early 2nd C AD; a lot can change in 500 years and this could easily explain the "Greek vs Roman"-influence. E.g. Thrace had Roman-style swordsmen when it was a protectorate of Rome during the 1st C BC and AD, until it was reduced to a Roman province by Claudius, after which Thracians formed one of the largest ethnicities in the Roman armies. It is unknown how exactly Thracian(s) and Dacian(s) are related, but it is clear they formed a continuum. Yes, there were differences, but the most important one is that Thracians lived south of the Danube (and hence most of their archaeology is done by Bulgarians) and Dacians north of the Danube (and thus mostly Romanian archaeologists do the work on them). Thrace was closer to Greece, so yes, one would expect they were more influenced by them than were the Dacians. After the Celts invaded the Balkans, some of them settled beyond the Danube - a lot of Celtic warrior graves have been found in Dacian area - so Dacians had a stronger Celtic influence than had the Thracians. (I'm not too sure about the Germanic element and would be interested in more information on this.) Furthermore, the closer to the north-east, the higher the Scythian influence on both Dacians and Thracians, up to the point it can become virtually impossible to distinguish them.

Thrace is not really my cup of tea, so I'm not sure of how much help I can be. However, let's give it a try The Odrysian kingdom, which was a union of dozens of tribes and minor kingdoms, covers Thrace in 0 A.D.'s timeframe. Getting units is relatively easy; some Thracians are already in game as part of other civilizations. Creating appropiate structures would be more difficult; wood was a primary building material, so I doubt anything is still standing today. Anyway, about the unit rosters. Thracians - and Dacians - were famed and feared for their use of one-handed sickle-swords and two-handed scythe-swords (both called falx) and slightly curved sword-spears (the romphaia). A short, forward pointing sickle-dagger-sword (the sica), also used by Illyrians and Romans, was their favourite side-arm and "national weapon". (Giving separate names for similar weapons is a modern convention; sica-falx-romphaia probably formed a continuum.) However, Thracians often prefered using javelins, spears, and bow-and-arrows to close combat. Thracians frequently adopted Greek-style helmets (but not Illyrian helmets, interestingly) and armour, sometimes after the Greeks switched to other types. On the other hand, Thracians were also notably influenced by their Scythian neighbours. Here's a first proposal for a Thracian unit roster: Village phase: woman fishing boat two-handed falxman (no shield) javelin infantry (pelte shield; see Macedonian) javelin cavalry (pelte shield; see Macedonian) Town phase: healer trader merchant ship pentekonter battering ram rhomphaia infantry (already in game as mercenary for various factions) sword infantry (single-handed falx, pelte shield) spear infantry (pelte shield) archer infantry (no shield) sword cavalry (single-handed falx, pelte shield) spear cavalry (short spear, pelte shield) archer cavalry (no shield) City phase: trireme Greek-style hoplite infantry champion? (royal mercenary guard) Scythian-style spear cavalry champion? (royal/noble cavalry; cataphract, with scale armour? and small but heavy round shield with bronze rim) Heroes: Teres I (unified Thrace after the Persians were defeated in Greece) Sitalces (his son; allied with the Athenians, invaded Macedon; greatest extent) Cotys I (gradually conquered the Thracian Chersonesos from Athens) Ranks: basic: partially naked chest?, animal skin cap? advanced: fully clothed, leather helmet elite: leather armour, bronze helmet champion: bronze breastplate

https://code.wildfiregames.com/D1524 introduces templates for a domestic horse and camel that don't run away. https://code.wildfiregames.com/D1523 standardizes fauna templates. AoM's animal fattening was great, hopefully something like that could be included in 0 A.D. as well.

Oh, that. I have no idea how much time it takes to create them, but I do hope someone with sufficient time and skill is willing to create more animals. Biodiversity is not terribly important, however, it is nice to have; more variety makes the game more realistic and pleasing. As for the young animals specifically, one use could be that juveniles can be trained quickly at the corral but cost more food than they give; they can then be (automatically?) upgraded for free or promoted to fully grown animals which give a lot of food. Actually I might try it out in 0abc; maybe a experience trickle could work for that.

What's wrong with them? We already have fauna_elephant_asian_infant.xml and fauna_giraffe_infant.xml

No? Now I'm confused. template_unit_fauna_herd_domestic.xml and template_unit_fauna_hunt_skittish.xml are different.

Maybe, I'm not sure. Foals seem to be much thinner and have relatively long legs, a different tail, and a shorter body: While at it, could we also get kids, lambs, and piglets?

At least you gave the impression you know how Blender works; anything graphical is too difficult for me; I'm text based Ah, yes, I see there is. However, it's feral and huntable (<Entity parent="template_unit_fauna_hunt_skittish">), I want a domesticated one that isn't afraid of humans (<Entity parent="template_unit_fauna_herd_domestic">). [EDIT: that would be easy to fix; I could make a new template and submit a patch later] Foal would be nice too. And I'm also hoping for the tarpan and Przewalski's horse, as well as other equids.

Actually I'm only looking at the fauna templates currently in game: https://trac.wildfiregames.com/browser/ps/trunk/binaries/data/mods/public/simulation/templates/gaia I'm not an artist, so any other assets are hidden to me

Updated first post. It would be really nice if A24 could at least have all domesticated animals.

It would be nice if cattle could be added as well 0 A.D. already has a giraffe, however, there are several subspecies, each with a different skin pattern. Would it be possible to have all of them?

The Kushites were a Nile Valley civilization, concentrated in what is now Northern Sudan; some individuals might have travelled deep into East Africa. However, bonobos, chimpanzees, and gorillas are confined to the Congo basin and some areas to the West of it; Central Africa is a completely different part of the world. Nonetheless, more fauna is welcome :)

Although I agree having more biodiversity available is nice, I wonder what these gorillas would be used for. None of the civilizations present in our game ever ventured into Central Africa where the great apes live.

Rise of Nations, a game that has infinite resources, income limits, increasing unit and structure costs, wonders that can only be constructed once, horse archers that shoot while moving, towns that upgrade individually to cities and metropoleis when a sufficient number of different structures is within their inner radius, and a maximum population limit that starts at 50 (?) and can be increased to 250 (?) in steps of 25 by researching technologies, if I recall correctly.

Yes, there were great similarities, often indistinguishable, but that's hardly surprising. Central Eurasia formed a single continuum, there were no real borders; the region was perfectly suited for (semi-)nomadic lifestyle; culture, ethnicity, and language were rather fluid, constantly merged, and were therefore surprisingly homogenous for such an enormous area; steppe peoples rapidly emerged suddenly, replaced each other, and disappeared for centuries. Hunting was a very important part of their lifestyle and deer were one of the largest and most widespread game. The longer and more complex the antlers, the older the animal, and the more prestigious the kill. Divine stags and hinds also appear in many mythologies. It remained an important symbol up until modern times. Here's a beautiful example from 18th C AD Qing China, combining the Persian taste for lapis lazuli with a Central Eurasian golden deer (the Chinese touch is the flower in its mouth): Another very significant and frequently recurring symbol is the griffin, typical amongst Iranian peoples. Now we've seen lots of pure gold, let's finish with an example of Scythian (gilded) wood carving (5th C BC):

Actually the lost-wax technique was already known and used in various areas of the Near East in the fourth millennium B.C., i.e. thousands of years before the Scythians existed.

Not any animal, only Scythian animals A few examples (and please zoom in to enjoy the rich details - Scythians were far more advanced when it comes to metallurgy and jewellery than Greeks or Romans): Various animals: A fish: A stag: Mythic animals: An eagle: A panther: Horseheads: Griffins: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Dress_ornament_MET_DT5051.jpg Boar: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/72/Золото_Скифов.jpg Two horses: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/92/23._Scene_of_fight_of_two_horses_Altay_(11-1_B.C.)_Kazakhstan.JPG Men: A combat scene:

No inscriptions - that would imply writing - but engravings. Most likely deer, animals, and hunting scenes or possibly horses and warriors; those are common Scythian motives. (And yes, I fully agree Scythian jewellery is beautiful.)

Yet another example of Greek influence (or bias?) on our modern culture: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180521-the-100-stories-that-shaped-the-world The Odyssey is ranked #1, the Iliad #10. Other classical Greek entries are #29, #31, #49, #51, #70. Interestingly only one Latin work made it into the top 100: Ovid's Metamorphoses, #80. (Personally I greatly dislike polls and other popularity contests.)

Seriously? More like 300,000 years ago, when homo sapiens branched off. Or are you one of those who believe the universe was created in 4004 B.C.?

Interesting. A xiphos is a true sword, double-edged, symmetrical, useful for stabbing. A kopis or machaira (Xenophon uses both words as equivalents) is a sabre or sword-knife, single-edged, curved or straight, useful for cutting. Now I don't know what to make of a xipho-machaira, it seems a bit of an oxymoron to me. Stand-alone expansion and official mods can be published at mod.io (that's what it is for, right?), but should not be installed by default. Including content that's not used is not a good idea. There is nothing wrong with that, I hope? You know I'd welcome the inclusion of the Han, but I don't see what the logo of Wildfire Games has to do with it. Or with the name of the next release.

The sentence you quoted was an explanation, not a justification. I don't see what's subjective about merely pointing out the fact that we have book-shelves full of Greek and Latin texts. Etruscan? Thousands of inscriptions of less than three words, but only one text, which was preserved because it was recycled as mummy wrapping. Iberian? Not even enough to determine how it relates to other languages. Celtic? Mostly names, many of which were preserved in Roman sources. Illyrian? Macedonian? Thracian? Enough to determine they were Indo-European, but that's about it. Etc. Because so much more has survived in Greek and Latin means it's perfectly understandable that those are "over-represented". That doesn't imply that's good or bad. No, I'm not. The best name should be chosen. Language shouldn't matter, nor should previous choices. Much more must have been going on outside rather than inside the Greco-Roman world. The problem is we know so tantalizing little because of a scarcity of sources. Nor were Greeks and Romans overall superior; in some ways, yes, they were more advanced, in many others they were not. No, anachronisms we have already, they are unavoidable. The civilizations currently included have had or could have had interactions with at least some of the others included, so all factions are part of a single network. I'm in favour of including Chinese because they're arguably part of the Eurasian continuum. I'm opposed to including American (or Australian) civilizations because they did not and could not have interacted with the civilizations already in game. But I suppose this discussion is actually off-topic. To return to my point, let's not discount or favour candidates because of the language. Nor should previous results matter.

Always feel free to take individual sentences out of context. Nor do I. Let's hope that can be corrected into Mauryas in A24. 300 is a fantasy film based upon a comic book series that does not claim in any way to be historically accurate. Or did you mean a different movie? A pre-Columbian mod (perhaps c. 1500 B.C. to c. 1500 A.D.) would be nice, but I object against including it by default. That another game violates realism doesn't mean we have to follow.

Nothing personal, just that there were no trans-Atlantic exchanges in Antiquity In contrast, there is evidence the Han interacted with Parthians and Romans.