Sundiata
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Posts posted by Sundiata
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9 hours ago, Palaiogos said:
I wonder what mods the Great Leader has for 0 AD?!
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1 hour ago, aeonios said:
Why are there random '3's in the late egyptian text?
It's supposed to be the phonetic symbol "ɜ", instead of "3", but I wasn't "able" to get the correct symbols of The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), at the time.
We'll be using @Djedptahiuefankh rendition with proper diacritics for alpha 24.
@wowgetoffyourcellphone & @stanislas69, indeed, unique models would be nice. Though, there should be some superficial similarity between Ptolemaic and Kushite architecture (like with Hellenic civs), and since they teamed up to capture elephants for war, the elephant stable is a good candidate for a shared building model. Proper flat-roofed "Egyptian" style houses as a shared variant for both civs would be cool too. Both differentiated by props and texture of course...
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1 hour ago, Loki1950 said:
Same pair of binoculars? Maybe he's short sighted
The man loves his binoculars...
"Kim looking for a stable internet connection"
10 minutes ago, sphyrth said:North Korea has RedStarOS as their official OS.
That's sooo interesting....
Quotea North Korean GNU/Linux operating system
The operating system comes pre-installed with a number of applications that monitor its users. If the user tries to disable security functions, the operating system may restart or destroy itself. In addition, a watermarking tool integrated into the system marks all media content with the hard drive's serial number. This makes it possible for the North Korean authorities to trace the spread of files. The system also has a hidden "anti-virus" software that is capable of removing censored files that are remotely stored by the North Korean secret service. There is a user group called "administrator" in the operating system. Users, however, can't gain full privileges to the system, even if they're administrators. Commands such as sudo and su are not available.[14]
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@Alexandermb Nice! Real nice...
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11 minutes ago, Lion.Kanzen said:
Capitalismo is coming.
Mogadishu wasn't exactly a good experience for "capitalism"... And Pyongyang ain't no Mogadishu...
Kim would be like:
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13 minutes ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:
Likely just because the game is free.
So you're telling me that 0AD is completely FREE? And Open-Source???
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5 hours ago, ffffffff said:
kim jong nub
Now, now, let's not upset a nuclear power...
3 hours ago, niektb said:I think he has a 4K resolution screen... Why else would he need binoculars?
Maybe the scroll wheel/keyboard not working, and sanctions preventing them from importing new ones. In fact, the thaw in relations might be due to Kim's urgent need for a new mouse with working scroll wheel to play more 0AD... He's even prepared to give up his nuclear program, if he can just order that new mouse through Amazon...
0AD, a game of ancient warfare, has become a platform for world peace!
Or maybe he just hasn't figured out yet how the zoom works?
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@Alexandermb, feel free to tell me when my critiques are becoming too much
I think the CC textures look better than the barrack and blacksmith texture. CC texture is just a little too dark, that's all...
Front side of the barracks is a little featureless.
The chimney on the blacksmith could be more prominent.
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6 minutes ago, Nescio said:
Heresy!
Maybe it's not...
So I just put on my tinfoil hat and realized, if messages during MP matches aren't saved in any way, and it's peer-to-peer and all, doesn't it mean that it could be used as some kind of low-key encrypted messaging system...?
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6 hours ago, wackyserious said:
The Great Leader wants a medieval Korean faction mod
Best not disappoint the Great Leader!
6 hours ago, wackyserious said:But at the moment we still have a lot to complete.
Of course, I just didn't want the North Korean leadership to feel left out... Kim, if you're reading this, a Korean civ is on the shortlist
By the way, this may well explain that weird Korean spam in the forums about casino's and gambling, that pops up every so often...
Isn't there a MP-profile called Kim Jong-un or Kim Jong-il?? Who knows, maybe he's actually...
... ...
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So, turns out 0AD is among the most popular online games played by North Korean Elites....
Like, fo' real...
https://www.recordedfuture.com/north-korea-internet-behavior/
... 
On a completely unrelated note, how about a Korean faction for Millennium AD?
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14 hours ago, kditd said:
Especially, it takes very long until the first combat occurs. For five to ten minutes, players have to build up their bases instead of rush or harrass each other. This makes the first phase of the game seem more like a city builder than a strategy game. 0AD seems to make the player turtle in the beginning until they can steamroll the enemy. Most other RTS games reward early harrassment of the enemy a lot more.
So I tried to analyse the core game mechanics to understand why rushing and harrassing are so difficult in this game and it takes so long to go on the offense. Here are my findings.
- Soldiers are also workers: This means that when you use your Slingers and Hoplites to go on the attack, you lose resources. While your soldiers are marching to the enemy base (and back hopefully), his soldiers are chopping wood! So you are punished for attacking by losing resources. This is a flaw in the core game mechanics IMHO.
- Town bell: Workers can be garrisoned automatically. This makes it impossible to successfully harass enemy workers. It is true that he loses resources while he is garrisoned, but so do you - your attacking men aren't working, after all!
- The only good soldiers in this game are ones that aren't workers, because you don't lose resources when they are fighting. This is a large part of why cavalry is so powerful in this game. They are cheap and you don't lose income when they are away.
- Defense towers are too cheap and too effective. By the time your men reach the enemy base, his men there will not only outnumber you (because he kept producing units while your army was walking), but any defense towers he has are going to further stack the odds against you.
As a result, the game largely discourages early fighting.
I personally don't really agree with that. An unbalanced multiplayer game can last as little as 5 min, and even games with opponents with matching skill-levels rarely last more than 30 min (correct me if I'm wrong). The most fun MP games though, IMO can last anywhere from 30 min to an hour (even more), but much more than that becomes tedious if no-one has a clear upper hand.
0AD is a very beautiful game with a lot of details that easily go unnoticed, and the true depth and beauty of the game can never be appreciated in 10 min matches. If anything, a slightly bigger focus on city-building and economy would be ideal, so that 0AD won't be just another classic RTS, that's fun for a while, but becomes boring and repetitive after many plays. Overly streamlining, simplifying or speeding up the game would only be "beneficial" to obsessive MP-gaming, which is one of the things that actually killed classic-RTS in the first place (for most people at least). 0AD finally adds a little more depth, or at least the potential for adding more depth to a genre that has otherwise been considered to have become a relatively stale one.
I don't think most people want the game to be more like Company of Heroes, Command&Conquer, Sins of a Solar Empire and Starcraft. I think most people just want to build an epic "little" historical kingdom with an epic "little" historical army, and fight epic "little" (not necessarily historical) battles of survival and conquest. Not send 4 guys over to the enemy at min 3, kill some of his women and claim victory...
14 hours ago, kditd said:On top of that, the game also discourages expanding. In most RTS games, the player is forced to expand for resources pretty quickly. This means players have to take a risk, leave their starting area and expose themselves, thus inviting the opponent to harrass the expansion and creating "action". In 0AD, however, early expanding is a bad idea.
- Your starting location contains large amounts of resources, even metal, inviting you to camp in your base during the early game.
- The expansion building (agora) is very expensive.
- The build radius from your first agora is large enough for you to reach several tree lines by simply building storage houses which are very cheap.
This encourages players to stay in their starting location for a long time instead of motivating them to expand and thereby become vulnerable.
The result is a very static early game where both players turtle in their base and build walls out of houses instead of expanding and harrassing the enemy.
That seems really lame.
I would mostly agree with this, so would many others. I think the build radius from your first CC is ok as it is though, the main issue is that the precious resources are literally in front of the door. Because those cozy little square field are also built right next to the CC, there is very little risk involved in farming as well. If the fields were rectangular (larger), and farms were a pre-requisite for building them (maybe a penalty for farming in the town centre), you'd have to build them further out, and think more carefully about where to place them and how to defend them. A whole new level of strategy and tactics right there. Would also benefit raiding..
12 hours ago, sphyrth said:Soldiers are Gatherers
I won't be getting much into the heart of the anti-Citizen Soldier arguments because I already got traumatized by that.lol! But seriously though, we just need some regular villagers for economy only. The civilian aspect of the game is lacking, and it would offer an awesome opportunity to showcase more of civilization's culture. Maybe even selectively ranking villagers: peasant ⟶ artisan ⟶ aristocrat, with different specialities... Citizen soldiers should remain, but they should be more supplemental than being the main economy unit. I think most people would agree with this (?)
11 hours ago, aeonios said:Personally I'd prefer to see resources be rate limited rather than boom-bust exhaustion. ie metal and stone could be infinite, but with limited gatherers per node. Well, except for the small nodes which could be exhaustible but without gatherer limits. That way if you need more stone/metal income the only way to get them is to expand. It'd also be nice to have a "tree farm" for gathering unlimited but slower/gatherer limited wood.
I think delenda est's incremental expansion mechanism is more in the right direction. That way you only need to build an expensive CC to capture enemy eco structures or to prevent your own from being captured (or maybe to create territory pressure). Maybe even make fortresses fully independent as a cheaper and more flexible forward base.
Yes to all of that...
It would be really nice to assign workers to worksites, rather than resources... e.g. build a lumber camp, assign workers to the lumber camp instead of the trees themselves. Now gather rates are tied specifically to the lumber camp, tree density within its radius, and the amount of workers assigned, instead of being determined by the distance each and every individual worker has to move between the resource and dropsite and how efficiently they move. This would remove the most annoying type of microing in my opinion, and allows players to focus on other more fun parts of the game including base building and military manoeuvres. There could be two options at the lumber camp: 1) clear forest, (large one-time income of wood leading to total deforestation within the lumber camp radius), 2) slow & steady trickle (forest management, forest regenerates at the same rate it's being gathered, bringing in a slow but constant trickle of wood). Also, keep it simple, by giving lumber camps a large radius.
Build a mine (only one slot per ore), assign workers to the mine, resource rate of the mine is limited by how many workers are assigned. Alluvial deposits can provide a modest one-time income of stone or metal, not too far the original CC, but definitely further than mines are now. Larger deposits mined from pit or shaft mines outside of the starting territory could provide a permanent trickle of metal, once again, with an income rate determined by how many workers are assigned to the mine (and not by how efficiently or not workers move around the obstruction box of the stone or metal deposit). This would be a great incentive to expand.
I'm not very technical, but this could mean that menial economy tasks could be represented by "simple" animation-loops tied to the work-site (especially for mines), and potentially help improve performance as paths don't need to be constantly calculated (?).
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2 minutes ago, Thorfinn the Shallow Minded said:
I just am calling to question the fact that 0 A.D. is practically copy and pasting mechanics from Age of Kings with that aspect specifically.
Like those tiny rectangular fields, farmed right in the centre of town, next to the Civic Centre? :p
I would personally love to see more differentiation from the classic RTS conventions, as long as it's sensible and history based
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@Thorfinn the Shallow Minded I think you're generally correct about the towers. It is mostly just a (fun) RTS convention...
I think there is some debate possible about the outposts though. They look just like modern hunting posts or observation posts, which are used all over the world. It's just a simple timber construction providing some elevation, and thus an improved line of sight. They can be put up in a day, and would be very useful in any drawn out conflict. They wouldn't leave any trace in the archaeological record on account of their light design, and might have been such a no-brainer/standard/considdered too insignificant to mention to appear richely in written history. Just speculation on my part though.
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On 5/4/2018 at 7:43 PM, XLightningStormL said:
3) The Aethiopians are more Greek (as a whole) influenced than Egyptian (The Greeks trading with the Aethiopians, having an "Aethiopian" king partake in defending Troy [debatable], etc). I believe you are referring to Herodotus' map? Even then the "placement" of the "Aethiopians" are vague, and is more situated "as south" of Meroe (the Capital of the Kushites) rather than above it, also Classical Greek literature doesn't exactly "refer" to the Kushites as Aethiopians, that's just educated guesses, and ASSumptions, in the realms of Ancient History, nothing is "fact" unless there is a physical object that proves otherwise, the rest is the best of what "it could be"
Okay... that's not exactly true... There is no debate about the fact that "Aithiopia" primarily refers to the areas directly to the south of Egypt in Antiquity. Only later does it become more widely used, as the true extent of Sub-Saharan Africa started becoming apparent. Aethiops means something like burnt face, and refers to black people in general. The vast majority of black people in the Mediterranean of antiquity, however, would have been from Kush or its periphery, by simple virtue of geography and recorded history. Areas further south of Sudan only become more widely known to the Greeks after Alexander, but even then, direct contact between the Eritrean coast and the Greeks of Ptolemaic Egypt was mostly limited to the city of Adulis...
Herodotus is not the only one who referred to Kush specifically as Aethiopia, even naming Meroë specifically as the "capital of the other Aethiopians"...
Strabo narrates the Kushite-Roman war (in his Geography, Book XVII, 54), and specifically refers to the areas south of Egypt as Aethiopia, including "Aethiopian cities" like Pselchis (Dakka) and Nabata (Napata).
How about the words of Emperor Augustus himself? He too, leaves no ambiguity about what he meant with "Ethiopia":
- "On my order and under my auspices two armies were led, at almost the same time, into Ethiopia and into Arabia which is called the "Happy," and very large forces of the enemy of both races were cut to pieces in battle and many towns were captured. Ethiopia was penetrated as far as the town of Nabata, which is next to Meroë" - Emperor Agustus - from the "Res Gestae Divi Augusti" (The Deeds of the Divine Augustus), the funerary inscription of the first Roman Emperor, giving a first-person record of his life and accomplishments, including the invasion of Kush.
Even the Bible refers to "Candace, Queen of the Ethiopians" in the New Testament story of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch (Acts 8:26-40). Kandake was the Meroitic title for the queens of Kush, including the ruling queens of the 1st century AD...
Notwithstanding that the Ancient Hebrew term "Cush", from the Old Testament is invariably translated as "Ethiopia" in the Greek version, for example: "King Tirhakah of Cush" became "King Tirhakah of Ethiopia". Obviously referring to the Kushite King Taharqa...
The specific facial features of most Africans portrayed in Mediterranean art (including Greek and Roman), usually referred as "Ethiopians/aethiopians", clearly show people of Nilo-Saharan ancestry, as you would find among the Kushites, not people with Afro-Semitic Habesha features, as you would find among the Afro-Asiatic speakers of D'mt or Axum.
Axum only becomes dominant in the horn of Africa from the 4th century AD, and they definitely had some Byzantine influence, but you shouldn't conflate the more narrow meaning of Aethiopia in Classical Antiquity, referring to the area directly south of Egypt, with the broader meaning of Aethiopia from late Antiquity and the early medieval period onwards, referring to black Africa as a whole. Only later still, does it become more specifically associated with the modern day country of Ethiopia, which in itself was primarily known as Abyssinia until 1935-ish.
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@Alexandermb, nice... My final suggestions would be something along the lines of this crude mock up:
Centred dome and reduced its height and increased its diameter. Added some Byzantine pillars and paving for the front door.
Don't forget some props, of course
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@Djedptahiuefankh, once again, thank you! Very helpful stuff!
8 hours ago, Djedptahiuefankh said:Mmmm, I should read this...
QuoteBoth the lexical and the morphological correspondences have left no doubt that the Meroitic language shares an origin with the Nilo-Saharan Group of North Eastern Sudanic. It is also possible to determine with precision its place within this group. In the case of phonetics, it was shown that Meroitic shares with Nubian a particular innovation that sets it apart from the NES languages. Proto-NES *l in initial position becomes /n/. In the lexical domain, it has again a close relation with Nubian since it shares nearly all lexical series that were studied, while Nara shared only half, Taman less than half, and Nyima about two-thirds of the correspondences. Some lexical innovations (for “water” and “slave”) are only present in Meroitic and Nubian. The language of the Meroites is, therefore, placed together with Nubian in a separate branch on the basis of this unity, as is illustrated in the language tree (Figure 6.1).
Proto-NES, although defined on the basis of linguistic principles, seems to have been based on a homogeneous cultural entity. The common vocabulary includes numerous terms that refer to this, such as “shield,” “to build/weave,” “lance,” “house/hut,” and “door.” It is also possible to reconstruct the creator god *Aberdi. All this indicates that the speakers of this proto-language formed a unified community, sharing a continuous geographic space. The proto-lexicon even gives an indication of the original economic system. One finds numerous terms in common for livestock, such as “sheep,” “goat,” “milk,” and, in fewer cases, “cow” and “bull.” The agricultural vocabulary is, however, rather limited. Although there is a common term for “millet,” the original sense seems to be simply “cereal” or “grain,” and there is no common term for “field,” “to irrigate,” “to hoe,” et cetera. It seems, therefore, quite likely that the people of the original community were livestock farmers rather than anything else. It is also not insignificant that the Meroitic and proto-Nubian etymology of the word “slave” goes back to the laborer of the land.
Incredibly interesting...
8 hours ago, Djedptahiuefankh said:I'm having trouble figuring out what language you used for the ethnonyms in your unit translations? Are they (ie: Noba etc...) from the Egyptian, Meroitic, or Greek?
I mixed in a little Meroitic: our timeframe is 500 BC - 1 BC, so late Napatan and early to mid Meroitic. This is the Meroitic:
- Bulahau: Blemmye/Beja
- Noba, from the Meroitic Nob. They are distantly related to the modern day Nuba people, and ancestral to modern Nubians. Frenemies of Kush. Established the Kingdom of Nobatia (Greek Νοβαδἰα), northern Nubia, during/after the collapse of Meroë
- Abore is the Meroitic term for elephant, as opposed to the Egyptian Abu.
- Amnirense qore li kdwe li (Amanirenas, qore and kandake)
- Qore ‘Irk.‘Imn (King Arakamani)
I sourced almost the entire list from the Fontes Historiae Nubiorum Volume IV: https://digitalt.uib.no/handle/1956.2/3083#preview , which contains word lists from the "textual sources for the history of the Middle Nile Region between the eighth century BC and the sixth century AD". It's mostly late Egyptian, Napatan and a little Meroitic. Maybe you've noticed that many unit names are composite terms I put together. If you can come up with better/more accurate or appropriate terms, feel free to suggest some. I had difficulties for terms like spearman, pikeman, swordsman. I simply called the pikemen si3wrd (mutilators), for example. Merchant ship became D3y sbt (river-boat of exange), which is a little crude perhaps. Swordsman became knw hps (khopesh soldier), even though they carry a straight short-sword and not a khopesh...
For the battle cry I was thinking something along the lines of
- rh.n=k ‘Imn p3 ntr (i)wd n
"For you (are about to) know (what it means that) Amûn is the god who has sent us!"
Or something simpler/shorter, like:
- H3k : capture, plunder
- H3t : advance
- Sm3, sm3n : slaughter, massacre, blood bath, kill, slay
- Knkn : fight
- Hd, ph : attack
- Hdb : kill
- 3’bt : suppression
- ‘h3 : battle, war, attack
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1 hour ago, Djedptahiuefankh said:
Hi! I know some Egyptian and can type the diacritics (and also the unicode hieroglyphs, although this forum thinks they're emojis and won't let me add them) I've done my best to vocalize them so they're kind of pronounceable (if you're going to record them?) Here they are... I can do more later, if you guys want me to:
Wow... Thank you sooooo much! That's incredibly useful, and can replace my written attempts for alpha 24... It will also help with recordings a lot! I would love to see the diacritics for the unit list as well. I was planning on doing this in the following months, but because I don't speak ancient Egyptian (and am not too familiar with diacritics), it's a bit of a pain...
We'd especially need words/phrases and their phonetics for the following list for recordings. Anything from Late Egyptian to the Napatan Dialect is ok. Unless you're one of those 5 people in the world that understands some Meroitic, then that would be pretty cool too
English What is it? My lord? I will walk I will go out against I will build I will work land I will gather together I will herd I will fish I will attack! I will repair I will hunt I will heal I will march! I will retreat! Battle cry I will garrison
Unless the list has been updated?
@wowgetoffyourcellphone Something like this:
- Archery Range: Pr Pdt (house of the bow)
- Cavalry Stable: Ih Ssmt (horse stable)
- Elephant Stable: Ih Abu (elephants stable) or probably more appropriate Meroitic: Ih Abore
- Siege Workshop: Pr iwn n ms (house of the movable tower)
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20 minutes ago, Lion.Kanzen said:
Sundiata you know what Arachnophobia is?
13 minutes ago, Loki1950 said:Fear of spiders of course all in Greek
4 minutes ago, Lion.Kanzen said:I have some phobias... but not all spiders. this is some cute but....
Uhu, I know what fear of spiders is
, but like you, I don't fear all of them. I especially dislike the huge fury ones that can kill you But I like jumping spiders a lot! They're supercute!
They have legit mating dances!
Spoiler
Luckily we have a lot of lizards (agama's and gecko's) over here which deal with spiders rather efficiently
The lizards in turn attract a lot of snakes, which is less than ideal 
The snakes worry me more than the spiders, lol
=WARNING= Graphic contents =WARNING=
SpoilerThis guy was in my kitchen (either completely harmless, or totally lethal, I'm not really sure, didn't take chances). This thing can coil up and launch itself through the air, almost as if it's flying... Pretty amazing... Until it pulls that crap while you're peacefully trying to prepare your breakfast... Almost hit me in the head, no joke...
This guy struck at someone clearing a fallen tree in my garden. Incredibly, the man's machete was faster than the snake... That's a Gaboon Viper, by the way the way, and has the "highest venom yield of any snake"... Very unpleasant fellow with an unpredictable temperament... If you get too close, it strikes, but because it's nearly invisible under leaf-cover, you'll never know that you got too close until it's too late...
We also have huge cobras, including spitting cobras that will blind you... And pythons large enough to eat goats (and supposedly people too)
You should come to Ghana, it's nice
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Nice!
21 minutes ago, Alexandermb said:and add more detail on both sides having windows
Indeed:
I'm cool with the direction you're taking
I don't know about the others?
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@Alexandermb, or, indeed, when reducing the height of the colonnade and keeping the side-door(s):
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@Alexandermb Nice... Seen as the CC is a generic government centre, you have some artistic liberty and don't need to follow the exact facade, as long as it's convincingly Byzantinian. I'd suggest a more symmetrical approach:
Moved the centre piece up a tad, making room for a central arched Byzantine dorrway. Brick corners on both sides. equal number of pillars on each side, removed the side doorway.
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1 hour ago, aeonios said:
I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. I literally painted greek acropolis into a giant field of grass and could not produce any lag. :| I think grass might actually count as a solid model but I'm not really sure.
Huh... Interesting... I could have sworn grasses caused lag. Guess not, never mind me
In that case, a lot of maps need to make much more use of grasses (that screenshot is pretty)
, maybe some new types as well (shorter and longer grasses).
Rise of the East updated to Alpha 21
in Announcements
Posted
true... I was mostly commenting on those Han period reliefs of "carriage chariots" with axemen.
Unit diversity is greatly appreciated by most players (especially since we're all used to those immense Total War unit rosters). During the Han period chariots were steadily being replaced by mounted cavalry, and chariots became mostly used as command posts. But that does show that chariots were in fact still in use.
Truth is that 500 BC to 1 BC is the timeframe that chariots were being replaced by mounted cav in every civilization that used them. That goes for every civ in the game as well. Even British chariot use has been greatly exaggerated in pop culture...
But the 500 BC to 1AD timeframe without any chariots would be plain wrong.
I think each civ should have an as complete unit roster as possible, strictly within the confines of historicity of course. Even if it only adds fun to SP matches (because indeed, chariots are a little useless in pro-MP matches). The point is to allow people to compose a (historical) army the way they see fit... Otherwise it all gets reduced to a single stale and boring format. Always the same army setup in every match is just blah... More units, more possibilities.
I think too many historically accurate units have been culled/purged/ignored/sidelined because of questionable reasons. I would like to see a reversal of the trend (anno 2018, people expect options).