Sundiata
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Posts posted by Sundiata
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17 hours ago, wraitii said:
Well technically it's because I'm using a custom setup so I can't bundle the game - why am I using a custom setup? Because my SSD is too small.
2 hours ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:DM me and I'll buy you a bigger SSD.
Seriously though, if that's what it takes, I'll be more than glad to help fund a bigger SSD (BUT, I can only spare the cash from January going)
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On 11/4/2018 at 10:47 AM, stanislas69 said:
Im planning to buy the most recent mac 500€ can get so that might be a 2012 version.
Beware though, as I used to have a 2011 macbook pro that wasn't able to run alpha 21 anymore. Another guy with a mac (2011 or 2012, can't remember), had the same problem, asked on the forum, and was told his machine was just too old... (can't remember the specifics)
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8 hours ago, wackyserious said:
Would the Seleucid building set work as a placeholder?
I was also inclined to mention that, but then you'd have those overly Hellenistic influences, which by this time-frame would have evolved into Byzantine/Sassanid architecture. Then again, we're just talking about placeholders, so it doesn't really matter that much anyway, for now.
These questions and your delicious work on their units got me looking forward to a specific Umayyad structure set
I guess I'll start reading up more on early Islamic architecture
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@wackyserious, few examples:
SpoilerThe Great Umayyad Mosque of Damascus:
I don't think it look so pretty no more...
Ruins of the Umayyad palace at Anjar
Umayyad palace in Jabal al-Qal'a Amman, Jordan
Courtyard of the Great Mosque of Aleppo:
Qasr Al-Kharanah, Umayyad fortress in Jordan (Sassanid influence)
Interior of the Dome of Rock:
_02.thumb.jpg.f5793634e052abff699d3800ed363bbd.jpg)
So yeah, I also forgot to mention Sassanid (Persian) influence
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1 hour ago, wackyserious said:
@Sundiata What is the closest building set in the game that we could use as structure placeholders for the Umayyad faction?
Hmmm, Umayyad Caliphate was vast... Their capital was Damascus, though, and would have looked very Byzantine, actually (lots of arches, pillars and domes)... In very superficial and generalistic terms, the Persian building set might be more representative for the greater region/countryside, maybe just use those Byzantine walls and military structures (Byzantine architecture is still extant across the Levant).
Umayyads have a pretty dope mashup of styles... The Dome of the Rock for example features Corinthian pillars, many Byzantine features like the dome, and gorgeous Islamic calligraphy and geometric designs...
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@elexis, I think anyone with any sense is eternally grateful (and amazed) for all the work you, the development team are doing and have done! Really! Maybe it's not said enough, but some of the coding guys are quasi-anonimous on the forum. A lot of the important work goes almost unnoticed by the greater community, but I can guarantee that tens of thousands (hundreds of thousands?) of people are enjoying the sweet fruits of your labour, and are very thankful for it.
I think people (including myself) were getting worried because what we first thought were "simple" bug-fixes, with a quick re-release, are turning out to be quite a serious problem. It's the uncertainty about what was happening that was getting people nervous.
I'm sad that macOS turned out to be the problem. I use mac, but I'm completely useless with code, and don't think I can do much to help (I've never compiled anything), (maybe just testing release candidates, but I didn't even notice bugs in the last one). I really hope a competent mac developer answers the call. I have been trying to develop other skills to help in future development (not coding though), but if support for mac would be dropped, I'd be deeply saddened and probably unable to continue. The cross-platform part of 0AD is one of the big selling points (for mac and linux users at least).
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2 minutes ago, Victor Rossi said:
I remember you said about making her a little chubby, and it actually gives a feeling of power to her
Indeed, she a strong and independent Queen that don't need no King to rule...
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14 hours ago, Victor Rossi said:
I've done 2 quick thumbnail sketches to figure out the basic proportions and facial features.
Which one do you prefer?Wow, fantastic! Because the Kushite Queens of this era are always depicted as "big" women, I personally prefer the one on the left... Success!
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Classical Sudanese musicians paying homage to their ancient heritage. Many beautiful shots, and the music is quite enjoyable as well.
The first one begins with some funny historical dress/reenactment of Kushite royals passing their musical traditions to the modern generation, to the backdrop of the pyramids at Meroë (Begrawiya necropolis). It's not Hollywood level, but it's a commendable attempt nonetheless
(pretty sure pharaohs' crown was orientated to the front, not the side, but oh well). The song starts getting real funky around min 2:30 .
- min. 3:20 Beautiful shot of a sufi shrine
- min. 3:37 Nile boats
- min. 4:00 An absolutely fantastic depiction of the mechanical workings of the saqiya (Sakia), an ancient waterwheel introduced during the Ptolemaic period, and paramount to farming on elevated banks.
- min. 7:15 More pyramids
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min. 7:56 Horsies What I love most about the video is the epic mass cavalry charge. I've never seen actual video of so many traditional Sudanese riders. They're wearing the Mahdist Jibba, a Sudanese cotton tunic with colored wool patches, dating to the Mahdist war of the late 19th century.
- min. 8:20 Statues of Napatan kings
- min. 8:47 The colossi of Tabo
- min 8:56 Statue of Taharqa
- min. 10:26 The house of boulders, a 20th century colonial thing
- min. 11:08 Back to Meroë
- min. 12:22 The faux cavalry charge continues
The second video begins with some stunning shots of Jebel Barkal and the ruins of the Napatan temple complex. Then the throne hall of Old Dongola (Christian Makurian period), and Islamic period conical sufi tombs, followed by the New Kingdom Egyptian Temple of Soleb (still in use during the Napatan period). The rest of the video features many beautiful shots of the Western Deffufa, the central temple of ancient Kerma (capital of the first Kingdom of Kush). Other sites featured include the Sanganeb lighthouse, built by the British, as well as the Port of Suakin, an ancient trading port on the Red Sea, situated on a small round island.
I'll just tag @OmriLahav, because you might like the music, and @elexis, because you might like the many stunning shots of the environment (map-ideas)
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@Genava55 & @Lion.Kanzen, this whole thread is problematic... The OP passes off Celtiberian Castro Culture sites as Lusitanian, for example, without any nuance whatsoever... I get the hibigeebies from this thread for a number of reasons...
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I'm pretty sure most people would drown. Have you ever swam with all your clothes on? We had to learn it during our swimming lessons, and man, I can tell you, swimming with clothes on is a good way to drown. Imagine trying to swim in armor, while panic-stricken...
The only thing that annoys me about units dying when a ship goes down, is if it goes down really close to the shore, where other units can just stand in the shallows without a problem... Seems a little unnecessary. But I assume it would be really difficult to code...
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I would really love me some Etruscans in 0AD... It's true that they peaked just before 500BC, but they lasted as an important power into the 3rd century BC, the last Etruscan cities being annexed by Rome around 100 BC. They were full on Iron Age, not Bronze Age, and belong in Vanilla, in my opinion.
The Chimera of Arezzo, one of the finest artefacts of the ancient world, Etruscan bronze (c. 400 BC):
I've been collecting some visual refs for the Etruscans for a while, so I thought I'd also share what I have so far (mainly architecture and some frescoes):
SpoilerThe Etruscan city of Vulci:
Etruscan city of Marzabotto
Etruscan gate to the city of Volterra, still standing today!
Acropolis of Vetulonia
Poggio Civitate (Murlo), seems perfect for the Etruscan Civic Center:
Earlier periods:
Etruscan temples,
temple of Veii
More temples:
Miscellaneous:
Etruscan Tombs:
Frescoes
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It would be complicated, but not a bad long term goal... Currently the Iberians are an amalgamation of the entire Iberian Peninsula. The Wonder and Temple are Tartessian... The rest of the architecture seems Celt-Iberian (Numantia). The units are a mix of Lusitanian, Iberian and Celt-Iberian... To date, nobody on the forum has been able to provide a full set of architecture- and unit-references for any one of those 4 distinct cultures (and there are other candidates as well, all minor players on the international stage). Separating them would make fleshing out each civ very difficult and make any semblance of historically accurate balancing nearly impossible from what I can tell.
Tartessian architecture could potentially be done (there's a few interesting archaeological sites). Units are impossible, I think. Lusitanian units lack diversity, architecture would be underwhelming, and they lack a navy. Celt-Iberians and Iberians are more doable, I think, but would also be the least distinct (Without those iconic Tartessian structures, and the addition of Celtic, Phoenician and Greek influences, they would be rendered a little generic looking, compared to the already existing civs). And then we haven't even mentioned siege, and language..
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5 hours ago, Genava55 said:
Permanent Centres of Pastoral Polities
How funny, I just came across this interesting place called Por Bajin, or Por-Bazhyn, an 8th century Uighur palace/monastery in southern Siberia: https://archive.archaeology.org/1011/etc/letter.html?fbclid=IwAR2h-oaOCPGDk_vtnwE67TDOlHyFFAENcG_RqJtMpAGZ-ip0CX2uMZ7VKVo
QuoteRussia's most mysterious archaeological site dominates a small island in the center of a remote lake high in the mountains of southern Siberia. Here, just 20 miles from the Mongolian border, the outer walls of the medieval ruins of Por-Bajin still rise 40 feet high, enclosing an area of about seven acres criss-crossed with the labyrinthine remains of more than 30 buildings.
Por-Bajin ("Clay House" in the Tuvan language) was long thought to be a fortress built by the Uighurs, a nomadic Turkic-speaking people who once ruled an empire that spanned Mongolia and southern Siberia, and whose modern descendants now live mainly in western China. Archaeologists conducted limited and inconclusive excavations at the site in the 1950s and 1960s, but Irina Arzhantseva of the Russian Academy of Sciences is now digging here for the Por-Bajin Cultural Foundation to find out just when the complex was built and why. The few artifacts unearthed at the site seem to date it to the mid-eighth century A.D. During this period, Por-Bajin was on the periphery of the Uighur Empire, which lasted from A.D. 742 to 848 and was held together by forces of warriors on horseback.
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States ruled by nomadic peoples often had symbiotic relationships with neighboring civilizations. In the Uighurs' case, China exerted a strong influence on their culture. The Uighurs even eventually adopted Manichaeism, a religion popular in China at the time that combined elements of Buddhism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism, the Persian religion based on the teachings of the prophet Zoroaster. The site is highly reminiscent of Chinese ritual architecture of the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618–907), so it's possible Por-Bajin might have had something to do with Manichaean rites.
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The walls were made of a sophisticated type of wattle-and-daub covered with a high-quality plaster painted with a red and black strip along the base.
Images:
Spoiler
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3 hours ago, stanislas69 said:
That's not really a reason is it ? Portraits are 2D art and not used in the 3D part of the viewport
Also I believe that's more of a 3D engine reason than a specific application.
Unless I missed something, Pyrogenesis is still a 3D engine, isn't it? 2D art with missing-texture-colors still look like missing textures.
3 hours ago, stanislas69 said:3 hours ago, Sundiata said:Fuchsia is also an effeminate color, not right for those otherwise oh so manly heroes (yes, even Boudicca and Amanirenas are both described as "masculine").
I get your point but I don't know if that's a good reason either.
Sure it is. The heroes in 0AD were among the most badass people to ever walk the earth. I'm pretty sure they weren't prancing around in fuchsia shawls. Well, maybe Alexander the Great was, but that's a different story.
3 hours ago, stanislas69 said:/me doesn't want to recolor every unit portrait
I'm not saying you have to do it, or that it needs to be done right now, or even over the next year. Even if it takes a few years, I'd just like it to be noted that it's the wrong color, and should at least be changed to Tyrian purple. Who knows, I might even give it a shot if I can actually find the portraits.
If the Thebans ever make it into the game, they'd actually offer a sublime excuse to have some bright fuchsia/pink colors. The Sacred Band of Thebes in particular would look fabulous with some fuchsia shawls. The real 300... Ironic that they were the ones to finally break the back of the Spartans. "It is said that the prancing Thebans were able to flank the Spartan army, and take them from the rear, overwhelming them with many powerful thrusts from their spears, their long shafts becoming drenched in the blood of their now submissive adversaries, begging and moaning for mercy..." (I'm sorry... I'm going to be quiet now...)
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5 hours ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:
Also, let's not pick apart every portrait for eye color and pupil shape, unless the sources specifically mention it.
I agree that criticisms of facial features, make-up, eyebrows or whatever are misplaced, and the portrait itself looks terrific. I wish I could one day achieve that level. I admire the artist dMAthena, and I hope that she(?) continues to make these lovely portraits for other heroes as well!
But,
5 hours ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:Purple was chosen for hero portraits to easily tell them apart from other classes of units. The ad hoc justification was that purple was seen as a royal or elite color due to its expense. Quibble about the historicity if you want to, but for gameplay purposes I think hero portraits should have some purple. The reasoning is sound.
It's the wrong color... Fluorescent purple/purple-pink-red/fuchsia or magenta, whatever you want to call it, is not appropriate. I mean, color theory and color psychology are a thing, and that color should throw up all kind of warning signs... It clashes badly with natural colors... I don't think man-made fuschia dyes even existed before 1859. If you insist on using purple, at least use the correct type of purple. As mentioned before, Tyrian purple is more appropriate, at least in a Greco-Roman/oriental context (not in a Celtic one, but I'll let it slide).
The second reason it's the wrong color is because 0AD is a 3D game with assets largely made in Blender. In Blender, as well as Unity, that color is used to highlight missing texture slots, because it's so offensively loud. It stands out like a sore thumb. It literally looks like a missing texture.
Fuchsia is also an effeminate color, not right for those otherwise oh so manly heroes (yes, even Boudicca and Amanirenas are both described as "masculine").
In short, if you insist on using purple, at least use Tyrian purple, a color that actually existed at the time, instead of fluorescent looking colors. This doesn't just apply to Boudicca of course, but to all the hero portraits in-game.
SpoilerMissing-texture-slot-color really looks like it's missing a texture:
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33 minutes ago, stanislas69 said:
@wowgetoffyourcellphone said purple was a royal color
Ah, wasn't he referring to Tyrian purple, mentioned by Genava, which was most popularly associated with Roman magistrates, some clergy and emperors? Tyrian purple isn't as bright either. It's darker. Isn't it more of an Eastern thing?
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20 minutes ago, stanislas69 said:
Should be purple though
For consistency
That's a pretty odd choice. I've never seen such a color in the context of Antiquity. Consistency with what exactly? Victor Rossi's Roman hero portrait didn't have that in your face purple either and i think it looks fantastic.
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@dMAthena, if you don't mind, I also have a final suggestion. Instead of the bright purple, on her shoulder, you could put some Celtic looking fabric. Perhaps you were already planning to do that, in which case, feel free to ignore me
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49 minutes ago, Victor Rossi said:
Just one last thing. I'm pretty ignorant on the differences in sub-saharan ethnicities, so I'm doing some research on it.
I know it is pretty hard to reconstruct such thing as the average Kushite, but it would be useful to know what to avoid in terms of skin tone and facial features.
What I've found so far is that the Nuba people closely resemble the ancient Kushites.
And here are the references I've gathered for the face:Those refs are quite decent. Some more South/Southern Sudanese for inspiration:
Spoiler
Nastasen and Harsiotef were late Napatan rulers, so they offer a nice excuse to go for a lighter skin-tone, similar to modern Nubians/Northern Sudanese:
Spoiler
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@Victor Rossi, if you do Amanirenas, don't be scared to make her a little chubby
Strabo also says she was blinded in one eye, which is often interpreted/represented as a badass battle scar across that eye. He also says that she was "manly", although that may refer to her taking charge in the war, rather than a literal physical description.
I wonder if she can be made a little chubby in-game (especially around the hips).
Since all the heroes were sitting monarchs, you should try to use either a single or a double uraeus (rearing cobra crown), in combination with or without a golden skullcap.
refs:
SpoilerLordgood's masterpiece:
Others artist interpretations of Amanirenas:
Aminitore, from Civ VI
Queen Amanitore and Queen Amanishakheto (Amanirenas' successors)
Nastasen and Arakamani:
SpoilerNastasen:
Arakamani:
Other Meroitic Kings for inspiration:
Tarekeniwal
left to right: Apedemak, Natakamani, Amanitore, a prince
Amanakareqerem
Arnekhamani
Meroitic god or king:
25th Dynasty (Napatan):
beingledtohisburialwearingKushitecapandureaus(royalcobra)ElKurru.jpg.38dc5fb7cc730e7f97d58a550ac93a8e.jpg)
Taharqa:
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_02.jpg.174eae082d9262895b80ab952750ba2d.jpg)
Civilization Proposal: Arabs/ Rashidun Caliphate/ Umayyads
in 1,000 A.D.
Posted
@Lion.Kanzen, nice... I was thinking that the Shahada, the testimony of faith, would be supremely appropriate for the Umayyads, who featured it frequently on the earliest Islamic coins. Something like:
لَا إِلٰهَ إِلَّا ٱلله مُحَمَّدٌ رَسُولُ ٱلله
lā ʾilāha ʾillā llāh muḥammadun rasūlu llāh
"There is no god but God. Muhammad is the messenger of God."
Umayyad coins featuring the Shahada: