Nescio

48. This one? D408 So I have to add a few lines in simulation/data/components/Loot.js?

Great, I actually like it! However, could you make it a bit longer? It does seem quite condensed compared to other battering rams:

Apparently I did not correctly understand your earlier post, allow me to apologize for my ignorance To clarify, modifying loot is not allowed? If that's the case, I'll shelve my ideas on ranks improving silver loot gains for now.

48. Interestingly, it seems that neither: {"value": "Loot/food", "add": 1, "affects": "Infantry Champion"}, nor: {"value": "Loot/food", "add": 1, "affects": "Infantry" }, {"value": "Loot/food", "add": 1, "affects": "Champion" }, works; at least neither is showing up in the unit statistics: All other modifications in the same file (attack, health, etc.) do work. So I suppose loot behaves a bit differently? 45. Anyone able to explain why selling resources works but buying not, after I added silver? And in which file can I replace the bribary cost of 500 metal with 250 silver?

It seems we're indeed coming closer Completely true. However, they peaked around c.700 BC, when they controlled Egypt, therefore I listed them under Archaic period. Actually I don't know, I've never looked carefully at DE. However, adding new civilizations is relatively cheap. Keeping them simultaneously balanced and distinct from all other factions, not just now but in all future versions of the game, is a very demanding and time-consuming job. Things would be a lot easier if there were only three factions (e.g. Carthage, Rome, Syracusae), instead of the dozen we currently have, or the many more wished for and occassionally added in mods. (This also explains why AoM is a much better game than AoK.)

Well, I'm not objecting to the use of Antiquity for everything between neolithic prehistory and European Middle Ages. And I concede many historians use “Classical Antiquity” as a term covering the 8th C BC to somewhere around the 3rd C AD, which is then followed by “Late Antiquity”. However, classicists typically prefer to use the term “Classical Period” specifically for the 480--323 period, as do I. Imperial Rome is not a taboo, just a lot of more work. Besides, Imperial Rome postdates all of the existing factions (except the Britons). If any new factions were to be added (which I do not recommend right now), I think it would be better to: first cover c.200-1 by adding the Arsacid Empire (Parthians peaked in the 2nd C BC), Greater Armenia, Numidia, and Pontus; next complete c. 300--150 by adding Attalids/Pergamon, Epirus, and Bactria then include the Archaic period by adding Assyrians, Babylonians, Etruscans, Kushites, Lydians, and Urartu; moving on to some important but often underappreciated peoples of the Classical period by adding e.g. Illyrians, Scythians, and Thracians and possibly more Greek factions such as Boeotia/Thebes, Rhodes, and Syracusae (the archenemy of Carthage for centuries; Rome appeared only very late); only after all those it might be time for the later and markedly different ages of Imperial Rome. Furthermore, any cut-off point is always inherently arbitrary, regardless which date is chosen. And the end of the Roman Empire (whenever that might be) is certainly not anything better than the start (which is clearly defined). By the way, I also don't like the use of BCE/CE instead of BC/AD, primarily because it's one more letter to type, and secondarily because the supposedly more politically correct BCE/CE (which assumes everyone accepts this relative dating) is actually more offensive than the traditional BC/AD (which at least concedes it's a Christian dating).

48. Well, I understand how OR and AND work in “affects” and “requirements”, I've used that many times. However, I'm currently wondering if they can also be used inside “modifications” (the wiki is not clear enough for me on this point). So "Champion Infantry" will do want I want? Thanks! The file I created is rank_01.json, which is being used for promoted units: No, I don't think so, I was just asking because I'd like to understand how it works.

Great! Many thanks, I was not aware that existed A button would be nice, although it's not really important with that hotkey. I suppose there exists a list of hotkeys somewhere?

Being able to rotate the view and admire structures from all different sides and angles is certainly a visually pleasing feature. However, it can also be quite annoying and undesirable; the numbers of times I accidently rotated the map far exceeds the number of times I intentionally did this; the result is disorientation. Therefore I would really appreciate it if there were a quick and easy option to return to the default 0° angle rotation, e.g. a “re-orientate to the true North” button at one of the unused corners of the minimap. [EDIT: bb_ pointed out simply pressing “r” does the trick.] Something like that would also be nice to have.

Yes, I agree; something similar I've implemented in my 0abc mod: Village phase: outposts and palisades Town phase: sentry towers and turf walls City phase: stone towers and city walls Outposts can be upgraded individually into sentry towers, sentry towers to stone towers; walls can not be upgraded. Fortresses do not train anything, they are just defensive structures. And the AI actually builds more fortresses than I do, protecting its borders with them, as is historically accurate. Unfortunately the AI does not construct walls nor wonders (neither in “0 A.D. Empires Ascendant” nor in 0abc); if it were capable of handling those, it would certainly be a more formidable opponent. PS Let's be careful not to get involved into another off-topic discussion

45. So I've added silver, however, somehow there is now a problem with buying resources: The only clue I have is a single warning from the interesting log: WARNING: JavaScript warning: simulation/components/Barter.js line 45 reference to undefined property multiplier.buy[resource] which I fail to understand. I did not touch the Barter.js file, nor do I understand why line 45 (buy) is problematic but line 46 (sell) not. By the way, which file do I need to change the cost of bribing (espionage) from 500 metal into 250 silver? placeableFilter file? Which, where, and how? 48. What is the syntax for internal AND and OR operators in technology json file modifications? {"value": "Loot/silver", "add": 1, "affects": "Healer"} E.g. I want it to affect champion infantry instead of healer.

Alexandermb, thanks, I've now incorporated the updated files of your gastraphetes into my 0abc mod: wowgetoffyourcellphone, maybe it's because it conflicts with something in DE you're using?

Nice elephant stables, LordGood! What's the role of towers? They don't train units either, but they can shoot arrows and are garrisonable; likewise I think fortresses are still worth having even if they do not train anything at all. (Just because castles train units in AoK doesn't mean 0 A.D. has to slavishly copy that). However, it was not decided that all champions are to be removed from fortresses, at least not as far as I know.

Thank you all for your replies, I really do appreciate feedback! Yes, it is, and it actually does (mostly). It even makes better use of some new features (e.g. unit rank training researches) than I do myself If, however, I notice the AI is not capable of using something important, I typically revert it; for instance, there were more technologies at the wonder in an earlier version of this mod, however, the AI never builds wonders (nor does it under the default “0 A.D. Empires Ascendant”), not even when it has tens of thousands of resources, therefore I postponed those additional technologies. Note: I've not yet figured out whether or not the AI does build those new specialized buildings I introduced in the past few days. The AI can and does build Persian cavalry stables and Mauryan elephant stables, so I suppose it should be capable of handling them for other factions as well. If not, then I'll probably postpone those structures as well. No, although I briefly considered making it compatible with the svn version, I decided to use the latest stable release (A22) instead; I had to choose, making it compatible with both is impossible. When A23 is officially released as the next version, I'll update 0abc accordingly. That probably has to do with the specific map. Personally I only play random random maps; some of them are test maps which work neither under “0 A.D. Empires Ascendant” nor 0abc; a few are heavily scripted and work under “0 A.D. Empires Ascendant” but not under 0abc; most maps work under both “0 A.D. Empires Ascendant” and 0abc. The GUI change was made necessary because the current GUI does not support more than 24 structures (and some factions already exceeded that), so I had to redesign it. The minimap I detached from the central panel because I needed more space. However, I suppose I could spin off the GUI changes into a separate auxiliary mod. Recently I experienced a few myself, these are quite annoying. I don't understand why they happen, it's not a systematic error. If I build a row of five houses it typically works fine, but occassionally one is left in a state of 100%-but-nevertheless-unfinished-limbo. I *guess* it might have something to do with overlap with other structures or objects. If the Kushites are included in “0 A.D. Empires Ascendant”, I'll also include them into 0abc afterwards, but not beforehand; the same applies to any other faction(s). Despite containing thousands of files, 0abc is relatively small in size (a few MB), and I like it to keep that way, hence no new visual actors for new structures. Yes, that's correct; there are several types of spearmen, archers, slingers, swordsmen, etc. Also note that unit ranks and upgrades do not increase attack range. 0abc's ranged infantry maximum attack ranges are currently: throwing axeman (unused): 1*15m=15m javelinist: 2*15m=30m stone slinger (brit, celt, iber, pers): 3*15m=45m archers (longbow, composite bow, crossbow): 4*15m=60m lead bullet slinger (athen, cart, mace, ptol, spart): 5*15m=75m The rationale for this is that classical authors (e.g. Xenophon) repeatedly stress than slingers easily outranged and outshot archers, but also that non-Greek stone slingers had only about half as much range as Greek-style slingers (who used tiny lead bullets). Again, I'd like to emphasize that the 0abc-readme.pdf contains more detailed information.

Thanks, it worked, that was surprisingly easy! I never looked at the actor files before, always assuming editing visual actors is too difficult for me, however, I now learned everything is neatly subdivided; my compliments to whoever designed this! Great, I appreciate it I already tried that earlier, resulting into the structures becoming uncreatable due to errors; so ResourceDropsite.Js it is. 47. I've also moved all simulation/templates/structures/{civ}_* files to simulation/templates/structures/{civ}/* which works perfectly fine. However, Atlas fails to detect them. Which file do I have to tweak for this?

Many thanks, feneur! Now, where were we, Sundiata? We agreed that we agreed, however, we disagree on how to formulate things acceptably, right? Immediately preceding, yes; we already established including the start of the Archaic period, without pinpointing it to any year, would be appropiate for “0 A.D. Empires Ascendant”. However, I can't accept “immediately succeeding”; we actually know relatively more (although still tantalizingly little) about the 5th C A.D., when Antiquity is supposed to end and the Middle Ages are supposed to start, than we do about both the 3rd C (pre-Dominate, clearly within Antiquity) and the 8th C (pre-Carolingian, clearly within Middle Ages). Personally I'm happy with keeping 27 B.C. as the cut-off point, because life under the pax romana (with civil wars only once a generation ) is markedly different from anything preceding.

8. Something I still want is the ability to allow units to occupy more than one garrison slot (e.g. infantry one, cavalry two, elephant six). Any suggestions on how to re-implement it then into a mod? (My C++ and js skills are rather limited, so I'd appreciate any help.) 27. How to add diff proposals to phabricator by using a git clone (instead of using svn)? And how to load an existing diff into a local git repository? 38. Many thanks for creating that Greek/Macedonian gastraphetes soldier! Three more unit actors I'd like to have: Indian/Mauryan battering ram Arab/Bedouin camel spearman Libyan/Egyptian chariot 43. Something else I'd want is the diplomacy-and-espionage panel displaying in which phase each player is, as well as including a n×n panel which shows what the diplomatic stance between each pair of players is. 44. Is it possible to change farmstead as a dropsite for food.fruit and food.grain (but not food.meat) and the corral as a dropsite for food.meat (but not food.grain and food.meat)? 45. Furthermore, I'd like to implement a special resource, silver (call it cash, coins, currency, gold, or whatever you like), which can not be gathered directly, but can be acquired by: selling resources traders (gain is 100% silver, no other resources) catafalque, palace, and wonder trickle rates looting centres, libraries, palaces, temples, and wonders and killing heroes And it's the only resource which can be used for: buying resources diplomacy (paying other players to become your ally) espionage (bribing units or structures to temporarily share their vision) and perhaps also for directly promoting individual units to a higher rank (as a quick and expensive alternative to the default and free option of acquiring experience from fighting) Silver is not required for any researches, structures, or units (I don't intend to penalize (AI) players unnecessarily) Ordinary resources can no longer be directly bartered for each other (trade uses silver exclusively); furthermore, buying and selling resources is always possible (even without a market; I'd like to remove that AoE requirement). Also, I'd like to remove the barter and trade panels, as well as the resources from the top panel, and replace all that with a new permanent panel in the top left corner: \begin{tabular}{lcrcc} PopulationIcon & & total/maximum & & \\ SilverIcon & (number of active traders) & SilverAmount & & \\ %#0 FoodIcon & (number of active food gatherers) & FoodAmount & Buy100Food & Sell100Food \\ %#1 WoodIcon & (number of active wood gatherers) & WoodAmount & Buy100Wood & Sell100Wood \\ %#2 MetalIcon & (number of active metal gatherers) & MetalAmount & Buy100Metal & Sell100Metal \\ %#3 StoneIcon & (number of active stone gatherers) & StoneAmount & Buy100Stone & Sell100Stone \\ %#4 \end{tabular} Now, where to start? 46. Finally I want fruit trees to stay after they are depleted, instead of disappearing when they reach 0 food, because they can slowly recover food when their amount is somewhere in between maximum and minimum (exclusive). Right-click to harvest food.fruit, control plus right-click to cut and destroy the tree and collect wood.

Yes, ideally 0.A.D. ought to include the Archaic period (however, improving the game as it is right now is far more important than adding any civilizations). Again, I fully agree with you in general on this. You and I are just nitpicking on minor details. “Classicists are a nasty breed of people. They are always convinced they are right, they tend to raise problems on minor phrases although no-one else understands why, and they continue arguing for their points long after everyone else is tired of discussing and willing to accept anything.” I forgot from whom this paraphrased quote is, but I certainly agree it's applicable to me Perhaps someone could spin this off-topic discussion (starting with your post which feneur quoted earlier) off into a separate “0 A.D. timeframe” thread?

First of all, I don't disagree with you, Sundiata. Nevertheless I can't resist the temptation to problematize things, therefore let's continue this interesting off-topic discussion I'm assuming you simply mean Antiquity (the era of Classical civilizations, c. 1000 B.C. to 500 A.D.), not Classical Antiquity (the period of Athens and other Greek city states, clearly defined as 480 to 323 B.C.). [EDIT: although historians (those who study everything up to now) often use “Classical” and “Antiquity” as more or less equivalents, classicists (those who study Antiquity) reserve “Classical period” typically for the 480-323 BC timeframe (not necessarily restricted to Greece) and “Antiquity” for c. 800 BC-500 AD, which I do as well.] This simplistic view is blatantly wrong in all respects. Yes, yes, and yes. However: The same can be argued for many other periods inside those “major ages”, e.g. we know very little of the 3rd C AD (transition from Principate to Dominate) or the 7th C AD (transition from Migration period to Carolingian period), but far more from the 4th, 5th, and 6th C AD. And the only reason why the Middle Ages are typically dated 476-1453 is because the transitions are impossible to pinpoint. Late Antiquity is in many respects (literature, legislation, Christianity) markedly different than Classical, Hellenistic, and Principate Antiquity. It could be argued that the Middle Ages start as early as Caracalla (who made everyone living in the Roman empire a Roman citizen) or Constantine (who established and organized Christian Catholic Church), or as late as Hereclius (who finally replaced Latin with Greek as the official language of the Roman Empire). The Roman Empire in the Western Mediterranean continued well after its “fall” in 476 until it was effectively destroyed by Justinian's Italian Wars a century later, and the Roman Empire in the Eastern Mediterranean “fell” in 1453 but was actually continued by the Ottomans. Even apparently unproblematic concepts as Bronze Age or Iron Age are not as clear as they might seem. Iron objects (from meteoric iron) were produced and traded for centuries during the Bronze Age, and bronze continued to be the material of prefence for centuries during the Iron Age; the only difference between them is the technique to produce iron from iron ore (which has a significant higher melting point than other metals). And as you've pointed out yourself, Bronze Age and Iron Age start at different periods in different regions, sometimes separated by thousands of years. And where the Bronze Age ends and the Iron Age starts in the Near East is also non-obvious and a matter of scholarly debate. Part of the problem is that there is a gap in historical records (the so-called Dark Ages), the extent of which is unknown (people ceased writing) and can only be guessed, estimates of which range from a few decades to several centuries. Yes, societies collapsed everywhere, however, not all of them; destruction appears random, e.g. for neighbouring cities: destroyed, destroyed, survived undamaged, destroyed, continued significantly reduced, etc. And opinions on dates are shifting; a century ago the Homeric epics (the traditional start of Antiquity) was dated closer to 900, nowadays the consensus is closer to 700. Anyway, I fully agree with you that it would make more sense to let 0 A.D. begin around the 8th C B.C., because then there are many things reappearing and fundamentally changing everywhere about simultaneously: Assyrians reconquer Syria and Mesopotamia and establish the Neo-Assyrian empire Chaldeans shake off Assyrian control and later establish the Neo-Babylonian empire Urartu (proto-Armenia, directly north of Assyria) asserts itself Greek city states appear (Argos, Corinth, Megara, Athens, Thebes) literature reappears (Homeric epics) Olympic games and other pan-Hellenic activities start Greeks and Phoenicians create colonies everywhere in the Mediterranean Carthage, Rome, and Syracusae are founded Etruscans emerge in Italy Lydian kingdom emerges in Asia invention of coinage (a world's first) Kushites emerge Kushite kingdom with capital at Napata emerges in Nubia and expands into Egypt (instead of the other way around) [EDIT: To clarify, with “emerge” I do not mean they appear out of nowhere; those peoples lived in their regions for centuries before they “emerge” as dominant powers; I simply use “emerge” here as a shorthand for: “they suddenly are organized in strong states and start influencing everything around them, instead of being dominated by their neighbours.”]

Yes, that's correct, no, that's probably not as intended. Unfortunately the stoa and its unit templates are a rather inconsistent mess; disabling all of them now and possibly reintroducing them systematically at a later stage might not be a bad idea.

Feel free to design Persian elephant stables, chariot stables, camel stables, and military shipyard Anyway, I agree creating siege workshops for all other factions is more important. That they currently don't have any doesn't mean they won't or shouldn't have any; those might be added eventually, therefore omitting a Mauryan siege workshop is a bad idea. In your own words: Anyway, I'd like to emphasize I really appreciate your work.

Although I do know next to nothing about India, I am aware that the Mauryan empire emerged as an indirect result of Alexander's Indian campaigns, during and after which many Greeks settled in and around the Indus Valley. Those Greek city states in India survived for centuries, conducting trade and diplomacy with their non-Greek neighbours, and supplying them with Greek culture, products, and mercenaries; undoubtedly siege weapons were available as well (the Macedonians had skilled engineers, and most types of siege weapons are well attested as being used by Alexander's army). Other interesting Greek influences are coinage and sculpture (the mouth and ears typical of Classical Greek sculpture were assimilated into Buddhist sculpture, which later spread from India to Tibet, China, India, and Japan), as well as legend (Alexander was incorporated in mythologies throughout Southern Asia, from Persia/Iran to Java/Indonesia). Anyway, although other siege weapons would certainly be nice, at the very least I'd like to see an Indian battering ram (in my 0abc mod I'm currently using the Celtic visual actor for the Mauryans as well, which is far from perfect).

Again, many thanks for your decent work and quick replies, I really appreciate it! I'll include the unit in my mod (0abc), assuming you don't object. Maybe someone else could also upload the gastraphetes into the default 0 A.D. distribution. Anyway, if you're not yet tired of helping me, I've posted three more unit requests in my modification questions and answers topic: https://wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?/topic/21083-how-to-start-modifying/&page=6

Sorry, which one is which?

Many thanks for your quick and excellent work! I probably should have specified it earlier (hopefully you're not annoyed by me asking now), but would giving the unit a Boeotion helmet instead of the current one be possible?