Sundiata

Now, don't shoot me dead, but I don't think it looks half bad... What I really like is the terrain elevations, the cliffs, the fauna and biome in general, as well as the renderer. That having said, it's obviously a carefully choreographed cinematic trailer, not even close to gameplay... It also doesn't give me an AoE vibe. Top comment: "For me its like The Age of Stronghold Settlers 4". What I don't like is the oversaturated, cartoonish look. I'm also a little surprised that after Alexandermb and wackyserious' work, a lot of our units in 0AD are looking better than that closeup of the Mongolian cavalry... Age of Empires' latest releases and announcements renews popular interest in RTS games, which is good for us, and the new titles aren't exactly 0AD killers either, which is also good for us.

I was about to dust off my pitchfork, but they seem to have already changed it to something more sensible. The recommended list now continues further down the page with 72 more videos, in addition to the original 8 on top. Yesterday the space beneath the 8 recommended video's was paid garbage, but now it's back to the content I prefer (science and technology, history, architecture, game dev, CGI/Blender, some current affairs, the occasional crazy Russian ingeneer and some music). Maybe my angry feedback actually worked, lol. I actually wrote angry feedback, like a soccer-mom in the supermarket asking if she could speak with the manager A ton of people were upset and sending angry feedback... Entire message boards were being deleted/censored by google... Twas funny, like a little online riot.

Halloween was 2 weeks ago...

New Youtube homepage, going from an acceptable 24 recommended videos to only 8 recommended videos with supersized thumbnails, as if I'm visually impaired and easily intimidated by options. I don't know why it upsets me so much, but it really does. I feel like rioting or something... I know there's worse things in the world, like hunger, war, poverty and disease, but youtube's new layout... It's pretty bad too...

The only thing I could remark is that the recesses could be pushed in a little further to emphasise the geometry on those arches. Totally not necessary, feel free to ignore, just something I thought could further spice up the model a bit.

It can be done...

I've actually been doing quite some research into various aspects of Saharan history and pre-history... I found so much more than I was bargaining for... Using google maps, I finally managed to find the stone settlements of the Dhar Tichitt, Dhar Nema and Dhar Walata escarpment, in southern Mauritania, southern Sahara (I was never able to find them before). These are the oldest stone ruins in West Africa, the oldest agriculturalists as well as the earliest Iron workers in the region (9th century BC). They lasted from 2500 BC to 300 BC, when the encroaching Sahara made dense settlement patterns a lot more difficult. A more impoverished successor culture to Tichitt managed to hold on into the common era. These sites are among the most important archaeological sites in West Africa, because they're the original progenitors of millet cultivation and iron working in West Africa, and they're ancestral and partially ancestral to a large number of modern West Africans south of the Sahara. But barely anything is really known about them. I actually mapped one of the biggest towns I could find, because I've never seen a map of it myself. Of course I could only map the areas that weren't covered by sand and my contour lines are less than scientific (just to give an indication of elevation, not exact measurement). The central settlement area is about 1100 meters by 600 meters. Not too shabby for a Neolithic stone town. It was even walled... I don't know if this place even has a specific name (archaeologists refer to these sites with numbers)... There's literally hundreds of these kind of sites! There's clear evidence of social stratification and defensive works. There's also a clear hierarchy in the towns. The the biggest ones I could find, including the one pictured above, were surrounded by smaller satellite settlements, some still quite sizeable, with even smaller settlements and sometimes single hamlets spread out further along the escarpment. Then a break in habitation, and then the same pattern starts repeating a couple dozen km away. They're now being recognized as the earliest known polity in West Africa, sometimes referred to as the Tichitt polity. Their drystone architecture also must have formed the basis of the drystone architecture of the later berber dominated periods of the Southern Sahara. Here's a more modest, but well preserved settlement I came across, a satellite settlement to a larger town On the ground, the ruins look like this: In my google maps searches of the Sahara I found sites that I can't even identify... Can't find any information on them... The one pictured below was my coolest find. Southern Mauritania, middle of the Sahara, on the edge of a plateau with a seasonal river. Without information available I can only roughly date it by comparison. It looks like south-west Saharan berber architecture from the 11th to 18th century. Luckily I was able to identify other site I came across, like Assodé, an old Tuareg capital in the Aïr Mountains in northern Niger, also in the middle of the desert. Founded in the 11th century, destroyed in 1917 by a rival Tuareg group. Places like these illustrate that even the nomads of the Sahara had hometowns. What it looks like on the ground:

I've always liked these two pieces of art, depicting people from the Saharan humid period: Kiffian, 8000 BC - 6000 BC Tenerian, 5000 BC - 2500 BC

Yup! Check this out: Now check this out 1st century BC - 1st century AD In Northern Ghana, in Paga, we also have a sacred pond with crocodiles. There's a taboo on harming them, so they've lost all fear of people. They're also fed by the community, so they're friendly. Apparently so friendly that kids can swim in the pond with them... These aren't confined crocodiles or anything. Just free roaming chilled out reptiles. It's like a scaly doggo Great with kids I love that this guy wore a suit and tie to go and pet the crocs Popular with the tourists as well. These animals just don't care... Not one bit... I've actually gone swimming at Ada a couple of times, downstream of Lake Volta close to the coast. I was a little shocked to find out after swimming in that river so many times that there are totally crocodiles in there! lol I met a fisherman who "collected" them. He had a pool in his backyard with more than a dozen live crocs from the same place I was just swimming... My face went a little pale when I saw them... But it seems that the southern crocodiles don't really attack people either. I had a similar thing happen in the North. Chilling close to the water's edge by a large pond in a nature reserve (I should have known better). Later when I walked by the pond with a group of other visitors to the reserve, I realized that there were literally dozens of croc heads sticking out of the water just watching us, and even a few sunbathing on the sand, and they just skedaddled back into the water when we came closer. We were actually crossing a lot of streams I assume had crocs in there as well... I guess they're not the big bad killing machines National Geographic made me think they were. Then again, Nile Crocodiles, or even worse, those Australian salt water crocs are in a different league...

I know, right?

Check this out: In the Ennedi Plateau, Northern Chad, middle of the Sahara: there are "guelta's", or permanent waterholes, with a striking secret. Camels, in the Sahara, seems about right: More camels, nothing special here... Wait, whut? A Neolithic remnant of West African crocodiles, with dwarfism, say what? Middle of the Sahara... Crocodile... Imagine being lost in the Sahara, and after 100's of kilometers of wandering through the sandy desert, dying of thirst, you finally find water! And then a crocodile eats you

A small fading crater would be nice... Not necessary, but nice to have. Perhaps it could be a graphics option that can be disabled? Either way, I love the effects as they are already.

But that's the reward for you investment, isn't it? An investment that slows down your eco because they cost resources but don't produce any, and delays your troop build up because they take more time to train. The opponent has the option to harass the player early, preventing him building up a champion army in the first place, or train champions themselves, or simply outnumber his enemy with teched up citizen soldiers.

That's really wunderbar... Although on the second hit there is a slight delay between the ball hitting the ground and the particles popping up. I don't think the delay should be there. Otherwise lovely work!

I think the color of the second particle (white cloud) shouldn't contrast as much with the first particle (dirt). Make the "steam" a little dirtier, less foggy, more sandy/rocky, and I think we have a winner here.

Interesting how a single stat can completely throw off the balance:

Maybe I misunderstood, but there's a decent amount of variety in Hellenistic towers, including both square and round towers as part of the same fortifications (like the round towers of the gates of Perge vs the square towers on the rest of the wall). They both seem capable of housing artillery (bolt throwers at least): Sorry to sound contrarian, but Archimedes-tech-level Greeks were smashed by Romans, Parthians and Scythians. Of course we don't have Parthians and Scythians yet, but one day, one day, when we develop those civs we'll finally be able to check those pesky Greeks Either way, I think it's perfectly fine, even preferable, for the Greco-Roman civs to stand out in terms of artillery/siege and anti-siege. Those were some of their specialities and it makes those civs unique in that regard. Giving non-Greco-Roman civs Archimedes level tech would make those factions feel less than genuine. Just give everyone battering rams and be done with it. When and where there is evidence for more complicated siege equipment, then yes, let's do it, if not, then nah... Not really, no. The argument for siege equipment among the Mauryans and Kushites is based on their written histories which mention them in both cases. The freestanding towers are just a standard RTS convention but as i indicated, I don't think this should be extended to artillery towers. Let them be unique.

I was talking about a dedicated male/female villager/worker/laborer unit. But there's different opinions out there, so I don't really want you to waste time on it unless there's some agreement on the matter, especially because it has been a contentious question in the past. Personally I think we can have citizen soldiers as they are, as well as a dedicated economic unit, the villager. They're not mutually exclusive.

I think the slingers sounds great. I just think there's a little too much echo in the impact noise, as if they're slinging in a large hall. I think the spearmen sounds sound great as well. I just think there's a little too much bass in there, as if they're fighting indoors, or the recording sounds slightly muffled or something. There's a very unpleasant sharp whooshing sound produced by the swordsmen (5:13 ish) and it appears again at 18:04 where you clearly hear it screaming through the other sounds. It sounds too shrill. As you said, the impact noises need to be done. I'd love to hear what the game sounds like when the changes complete. It definitely sounds promising, but I'm not a sound technician and someone with some sound expertise might have something to say about harmonizing the sounds so that they work/sound well together.

I'm sure @wackyserious could help in this department. It's just a thought though. Would be cool to have because it provides a good visual indicator for the role of those units. Makes sense. So champion cav is still useful against citizen spears (especially lower ranked ones)? I think spawning and/or capturing slaves is not a good mechanic. Seems too un-immersive and will result in super weird micro (separating newly spawned or captured slaves in the middle of a battle doesn't sound like fun). If we could eventually develop mini-civs we could have map-creeps as well as a conquerable location from where we could "acquire" or buy slaves. Slaves should be really cheap, but also super weak and should work very inefficiently.

Is it possible to reduce that bonus to 3x or 2x vs champion cavalry? Armored horses should be able to hold their own against a weak/average spear unit, I think.

What's the rational against a simply villager unit as the main economic unit? I don't completely agree with giving dedicated male and female workers/villagers different stats. In some civs men did a lot of the hard work, but in other civs women worked just as hard or even harder. In most societies agriculture is a family operation, involving men, women and children. So were many other small scale economic activities (and most economic activities were small scale) as well as things like building homes. I'd caution against gender specific stats in this regard, because the stats would probably differ quite a lot across different culture groups. Some of the reasoning behind different stats might apply to Greco-Roman civs, but probably won't apply at all to others. In my opinion, plebs are plebs, and I think gender differentiation only becomes really relevant for higher social classes, politically or militarily. I think it would also be interesting to differentiate laborers/workers/villagers (whatever you want to call it) by using a more slender body type, perhaps even a teeny weeny little bit shorter than soldiers/warriors, and use different walk animations, with a slightly hunched over look, face looking down, instead of straight or up, like the higher ups on the social ladder, who brim with confidence. The lower classes laborers/workers/villagers should have a humble look. Less meat, fish and diary, and a hard life of back breaking menial labour makes them look a little more scrawny than the average "citizen" who would have looked a little more "plump"/less hunched over. ( @Alexandermb, don't know what your thoughts on this are).

And raiding... Cav was used for raiding... Quick in and out... Burning down the countryside... (Burning enemy fields should be a thing).

@BreakfastBurrito_007, Check out the Xiongnu in the Terra Magna mod. They're pretty cool... Also check out the following threads: