Sundiata

Sorry guys, I've had no time at all these past 2 weeks... Hopefully I'll have a little more time soon I really want to finish this, badly...

Sounds like a bug... Are you sure there are no units blocking the build site? If you can reproduce the error, perhaps attaching a replay could help more tech savvy members of the community to look at it.

@nani 3/4 of those backgrounds were making use of @LordGood's fabulous paintings, check them out at: https://www.deviantart.com/lordgood/gallery/

Why can't you build a dock? In nomad mode, it's advised to set starting recourses to 500 so that you can build a CC right away. If not, you can build a dock and collect starting resources using the dock as a dropsite. The only other way I could think of is perhaps looking for treasure, or if you play with the Mauryas, you can use the worker elephant as a mobile dropsite.

Yes-ish, but not that type... This type: This is the correct type that saw widespread use in Sudan (and other countries of the East and West African Sahel regions) until the 19th century. The written sources from antiquity are limited to the passage that's quoted with your link, so the evidence is a bit thin, which is why I didn't make a big deal about excluding Kushite cataphracts with quilted cotton armor from the roster. Either way, I'm quite convinced that they used them because of the popularity of that armor in Sudan in later times, and the spread and widespread use of this armour among pre-Islamic peoples of the East and West African Sahel/Savannah. It seems obvious to me that this is in fact the armour referred to by Agatharchides (this example is Sudanese): "he distributed to them and their horses garments of felt, which those of that country (Kush) call kasas, that conceal the whole body except for the eyes." It wouldn't be the only type of cloth armour (or weapon) from Antiquity that survived intact into the 19th century. Those wrapped linen/cotton corselets for example were used in Sudan as late as the Mahdist revolution! Kushite examples of possible quilted cotton armour: Compare to the riders of Bagirmi (Sultanate of Bagirmi extended into Western Sudan...) Although quilted cotton is capable of stopping arrows, which is why it was so important for African cavalry armies facing archery heavy opponents, you are essentially correct. In the above images of the riders of Bagirmi, the riders are actually wearing an Iron cuirass underneath it: Not exactly.. See above There are 2 depictions of full body scale armour, both of them belonging to Kushite kings. Definitely seems limited to royalty. The scale armour corselet is much more frequently depicted, usually on gods. Probably wasn't widespread among the common folk either which is why both types are only represented among Champions and Heroes in our roster. Detail from the Pylon of the pyramid chapel of King Tarekeniwal. Open image and zoom in to see the details (we have this armour in-game already for one of the heroes) Although the sources themselves are excellent (I've gone through them before), the interpretation is a little lackluster. The artists reused some of the assets from other cultures. Our assets are custom made, and in my humble opinion, far better... For example they used Celtic chariots from the British Isles for the Kushites (or that was perhaps another TW mod)... We have a proper Nile Valley chariot The use of those bronze Aspides is entirely conjectural.. Use of zebra print although I have yet to see a single depiction of a zebra or it's print in any primary source relating to Kush. Use of the Thureos shield is entirely speculative. Sleeveless quilted cotton armour is something I've never seen in Africa. Their units don't look Sudanese. They look like Romans with a darkened skin or something. To be fair, their depiction of the Kushite army was probably the most accurate one in the gaming industry, untill we came along And the Kushites in the newer, official Desert Kingdoms culture pack have way more blatant historical inaccuracies... So credit is due. Ancient Empires actually did a very decent job. We just did it better...

How come some other people don't have issues joining those games though? Is it possible that some firewalls automatically reject connections from certain countries? I often have the same issue (not as much as before though).

I don't think there's a direct connection to the tumuli of Eurasia and the Horn of Africa. Egypt is one of the world's oldest civilizations and I think their burial practices followed an independent evolution, which had begun in pre-Dynastic times. The spread of Neolithic and Bronze Age tumulus building cultures would have been a lot easier across Eurasia than it would through an already well established culture in the Northern/Middle Nile Valley. The spread of this practice to Nubian populations to the south might be explained through a migration of, or contact with Neolithic or early Bronze Age Asiatics through Southern Arabia/Horn of Africa, as opposed through a northern route via Egypt (there are longstanding similarities/relations between South Arabian peoples and Horn of Africa peoples, and a number of these Afro Asiatic speaking people, like the Medjay, interacted heavily with Kushites and other Nilo Saharan speaking peoples, so there was ample opportunity for cultural exchanges in these formative periods.

What I'm saying is that there is a scientific consensus that they're natural formations. It's basically a scam by a Bosnian businessman, Semir Osmanagić, to develop the area as a tourist attraction... But yes, tumuli themselves seem to be associated with the Neolithic expansion, which is also why you find them across such a large range.

Really? They're blue. Blue all over them... Could not be any other player than blue... Unless, maybe red? Nah, pretty sure it's blue! But yes, it does really seem to be a matter of personal taste Cool idea...

Nope, pyramids evolved from Mastabas. Basically mastaba → stepped pyramid → bent pyramid → true pyramid Egyptians had been making use of rectangular grave structures since at least the pre-Dynastic Naqada culture. The populations of South Egypt and Sudan were using tumuli since the Neolithic. Usually quite small, but Kerma period Kushite royal tumuli could reach in excess of 90 meters diameter, with many individual "apartments". Lower Nubian nobles (Egyptian-Kushites) and Egyptian nobles started using small pyramids during the New Kingdom, after the Egyptian pharaohs had abandoned the practice. Then with the establishment of the Kushite 25th Dynasty, the Napatan rulers started building royal pyramids again, an evolution from the earlier New Kingdom nobles' pyramids. They just switched from tumulus to pyramid. But most of the common folk continued to be buried in small tumuli, with the exception of Lower Nubian nobles who continued to build small New Kingdom style pyramids. After the collapse of Meroitic Kush, the post-Meroitic royals of El Hobagi actually switched back to tumuli as well... The Blemmye and their Eastern Desert ancestors like the Medjay, as well as Western Desert peoples (including the Nuba, I believe) were using tumuli throughout all of these periods. The "Bosnian Pyramids" are considered pseudo-archaeology..

It's a Kurgan... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurgan Kurgans are tombs/tumuli. (South Asian) Stupas are not (contain relics instead).

I like that, and I guess, to a degree it's already being done (Vanilla - DE). I'm sure such an option is doable and wanted. I'm not holding my breath for the next alpha though

Honestly I think the colours are supposed to look a little washed out/faded/natural/subtle/organic... Especially for basic troops. Champions and Heroes could have more saturated colours but the common foot folk are supposed to go to battle, not a royal banquet. The toned down saturation makes it more historical looking, while the highly saturated ones make it look more cartoony. I think the highly saturated player colour all over the place works well for games like Empires Apart, which is much more stylized and orientated towards fantasy-history, but it doesn't work so well for a game like 0AD that achieves a relatively high degree of visual "realism" for a game of this specific type. Overly saturated player colour all over the place can easily become an eyesore on maps with increasing levels of naturalism. I understand that there is always a trade off between playability and aesthetics, but I think this is too much.

Having an expandable more detailed version of the mini-map would be cool huh...

Some units are a bit harder, yes, but I still really think any more player colour than that is going to look really kitschy... Most of them are perfectly distinguishable. Player colour is most difficult to discern on those Nuba mercs, but this couldn't possibly cause an issue unless 2 players or more are playing with Kushites and all of those players decide to recruit Nuba mercs (and then decide to attack the enemy Nuba mercs with their own Nuba mercs), which hardly ever happens... The added benefit of slapping more player colour on them is marginal, compared to how unrealistic/kitschy units will start looking. In addition to that, you have some sense of spacial awareness, right? When you send your troops somewhere, you remember sending them to that place, right? Or do you have to search for your units every time because you forgot where you left them? Or do you swivel the camera around all the time, loosing track of which side of the battlefield your army is set up on?

It's just like 0AD's development process

I personally don't have any issues telling my units apart... I prefer the subtle, aesthetic and historical approach to the dogmatic pLaYeR CoLoUr GoEs HeRe approach. Do what works best/looks best on a civ by civ basis. Following the exact same design principles for such a sizeable collection of culturally very divers peoples is a bad idea in my opinion. If you have any problem seeing your units in battle, select them and see... Anyway, in the thick of battle things tend to get a little messy. Really messy, actually. I call it part of the immersion There are 13 civs and maximum 8 players per game. When things get a little more balanced (remove those weird, uncalled for buffs for the Ptolemies and Celts), then statistically speaking coming across the same civ more than twice in a game is very unlikely. If you can't even tell the civ's apart, you need to invest in some glasses, because they all look very unique... Yeah, that's a little bit over top Especially the green ones look a little "offensive", in terms of colour theory or something. Then zoom in once in a while... The artists put a lot of effort in the details. They're there to be appreciated ... AoE is old news... We can deliver something nicer/more unique/better/more accurate/more immersive than a 20 year old game, right? We don't have the same nostalgic appeal to make antiquated gameplay and graphics look like fun... If AoE II was released for the first time today, nobody would bat an eye. It would pass into complete oblivion. It's not a good idea to use them as a benchmark anymore. AoE is more of a spiritual ancestor... But it's been 20 years... Technology/computers/processors have evolved since then.

I think these look really great! Why not?

Even from the grave, Angus McBride never ceases to amaze me. Here, an illustration depicting Meroitic period iron working in the Kingdom of Kush. If there are any old timers that have access to this very rare publication, "Look and Learn Incorporating Ranger Magazine, The Story of Africa: The Negro Pharaohs, Apr 27 1968, by Mary Cathcart Borer", you'd be a hero for sharing it, because there might be more where this came from... 1968! Angus McBride was definitely ahead of his time! Meroitic Iron smith hammering away at an elongated spearhead a short sword, while a second smith is tempering another weapon. To the left a Meroitic royal or nobleman is inspecting a newly made short sword. In the background, the furnaces for Iron smelting can be made out, as well as some steeply sloped pyramids further in the distance.

Well, they were neighbours and at it's maximum extent, I believe at least parts of Sogdiana was incorporated in the Median Empire. Apparently even their language is related (according to Strabo). That having said, I'm certain that Sogdians were heavily influenced by the Scythians (Scythians lived/ruled in Sogdiana among other places), but the Scythians also influenced the Medes and even ruled them for a while... More or less the same cultural sphere as Bactria, which also had strong Scythian, Median and Achaemenid Iranian influence. In general terms Bactria was home to larger urbanised populations and Sogdiana was home to more nomadic peoples, but many of the specific peoples living in these regions seemed to live in both Bactria and Sogdiana. They practiced Zoroastrian religion, again, Iranian similarities, and they also had direct contact with China... (to clarify, Sogdiana is a geographic term, not necessarily an ethnic or cultural one, so it can refer to a number different people inhabiting the region) Sogdians and Bactrians:

Ooooh, very excellent!

I think it's a great initiative! I chose "somewhat satisfied" because there is always room for improvement Keep it up!

The Germanic tribes of the Migration Period belong in "part 2", yes, but the Cimbrian War, in which the Romans (and Gauls) suffered some very serious losses before defeating them, dates to the 2nd century BC. A Celt-Iberian coalition even fought them (successfully). Perhaps a semi-nomadic approach with packable structures/ox carts would be interesting?

Ah, yes, I was waiting for someone to remind me (now I know you really want it ) I'll be a little busy the coming days, but it will get done

Considering the scant sources, I don't see any reason to deviate from the few sources that we actually do have. So i'd say go for it! I know you're already familiar with Phillip II of Macedon's Iron cuirass: I wanted to share another Iron cuirass that I haven't seen on this forum yet. The Iron cuirass from the tomb on Prodrimo (Crete), 290 -270 BC (believed to be armour for a cavalry man) Original: Reconstructed: A little more info: https://hetairoi.de/en/grave-of-prodromi The silver plated iron helmet from that tomb is amazing as well (reconstructed): Original: