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Sundiata

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Everything posted by Sundiata

  1. Sundiata
    @LordGood Oh my God, that's so historically accurate, I'm getting the chills... Amazing work!!! I'm so glad you're doing these models! By the way, Is that a blacksmith, to the right of the CC there, that you're teasing us with?? For those people that haven't gone through the thread, or aren't familiar with the information this model is based on: https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/karanog-wealthy-capital-of-a-lower-nubian-province/ (It is a late Meroitic site, but the palace/governors-residence/"castle" is identical to earlier Meroitic sites (except that it's smaller, and was better preserved before being flooded) I also found a large amount of archaeological information on the site of Karanog from an extensive excavation report from 1911, identifying it as a Blemmye town. Blemmye's were a vassal to Kush, supposedly even establishing a Blemmye dynasty. Even though it is a Meroitic site, littered with Meroitic inscriptions, artefacts and graves, the report makes little mention of the Meroitic overlords of Karanog. In 1911, the existence of a powerful black African state to the south, ruling lower Nubia was not an accepted notion (scientific racism was still in full sway). Even the mere existence of an independent and powerful Meroitic Kushite state itself was not accepted, on account of their skin-color. This is however being re-adressed by the current archaeological community, re-examining these sites over the past few decades. The images in the report do however provide some of the highest quality images of intact Meroitic sites in lower Nubia (now submerged by lake Nasser), including the impressive Meroitic fortifications at Qasr Ibrim, very close to Karanog. http://dlib.nyu.edu/awdl/sites/dl-pa.home.nyu.edu.awdl/files/karangtown00wool/karangtown00wool.pdf
  2. Sundiata
    I don't mean to beat a dead horse here, but there seems to be some confusion about the use of Nubian mercenaries by the Ptolemies... The short answer is yes, obviously they made use of them (they lived right next to each other for 300 years). I'd have to agree that Nubian archers are an archaic unit, probably not used (extensively) by Ptolemies, but Nubian axe-men seem to have been a thing (brandishing double headed axes). I will let the Ptolemies speak for themselves:
  3. Sundiata
    @Skhorn Another artists' impression of ancient Thebes: Though I'm not entirely sure about it's accuracy, with those titans (or cyclopses) and all... It's art, by jbrown67 for a computer game called Monstrous. But he seems to have gotten the layout, setting and style correct, so maybe it's useful...
  4. Sundiata
    The Horses of Kush Lisa A. Heidorn (PhD, Archaeology of NE Africa)
  5. Sundiata
    Hi @Lion.Kanzen, with all respect to Mega Mania's knowledge, the (extensive) use of horses in ancient Kush is well attested by now, through written history (Kushite, Greek, Egyptian, Neo-Assyrian), pictorial evidence (petroglyphs, reliefs, graffiti...), and physical evidence (horses with equipment found buried with a number of early Napatan Kings, as well as the later Kings from Ballana). On top of that, Lisa A. Heidorn wrote an extensive article on the subjects called "The Horses of Kush", which I believe you quoted yourself in a previous discussion on Nubians (a few years ago). They didn't only use horses, they bred and exported them on what seems to be a relatively large scale. Also, Ptolemies made use of Nubian mercenaries. They might have been used, predominantly as crowd-controll and guard duties for important temples, as they have been used for these purposes for thousands of years. So they may not have been used extensively on the battlefield by Ptolemies, but they were definitely around... Also, I assume that the info used to dismiss the presence of Nubians in Ptolemaic armies ignores completely the 300 years or so of Ptolemaic military campaigning back and forth in... (Northern) Nubia... Just to clarify things a little..
  6. Sundiata
    Oh, I see, I kind of agree to not having large vessels, as I don't think they ever navigated the open sea. In that case: - fishing boat: dugout canoe (no sail) - Merchant ship: modeled on the traditional falucca, with a long triangular sail, but with a steering mechanism modelled after the ancient examples on the petroglyphs. - light warship: Modeled on the typical Nile valley boat. Essentially an adapted version of the Ptolemaic merchant ship. For the dugout canoe, only the clothes of the fisherman, and perhaps his fishing net/equipment can be used as player color, as the boat is just a hollowed out, undecorated log. The merchant ship should just have a white sail. Small strips of cloth tied to the ropes, as well as some minimal geometric paint designs along the length of the boat could be used for player color, as well as the clothes of the trader seated in the vessel. Decorated rudders also seem to be popular (see below). The light warship could be fully decorated, following classical Egyptian designs. It should have a rectangular sail, that could potentially have the player color, or religious designs and motifs like an image of the ram-headed Amun, the Eye of Horus, or Apedemak, in the player color. There is enough room with this ship for choices regarding player color and designs. Here's another good (Egyptian) example of what a light Kushite warship (or trade ship, in fact), could have looked like: And some basic idea's for designs:
  7. Sundiata
    @balduin That documentary actually features nice Sudanese Nile versions of felluca's, which the narrator states have been used there for the past 3000 years. As well as some lovely Northern Sudanese Nubian village houses, remarkably similar to @Juli51's Concept drawing of a Nubian house... Another house variation? Or is that too much? And some clear images of traditional Sudanese Felluca's @wowgetoffyourcellphone Maybe the traditional triangular felluca sail can be used for the small to medium ships? Helps distinguish them..
  8. Sundiata
    Aah, yes, I see... Anyway, probably still a useful model for the Kushites, if only as a reference? On another note, balduin had mentioned in an earlier post, that papyrus doesn't grow everywhere along the banks of the Nile in Sudan, so papyrus fishing boats wouldn't have been ubiquitous. Seen as we know dugout canoes were also used by the people of Kush, and they are still used by some of the people in South Sudan today, we can use those as the reference for the Kushite fishing boat. This would also help distinguish them from Ptolemies or Egyptians, giving them a little more of an African touch.
  9. Sundiata
    The Boats of Kush In this post, I will aim to clarify the still somewhat open question of boats in ancient Kush. We know that they had them, and that they used them for transport, fishing, trade and warfare. The only thing that was actually missing is are period depictions of Meroitic boats. But, as luck would have it, I have finally found an example of a Meroitic period boat, carved in a relief on the inside of one of Meroe's pyramid chapels. This image proves my earlier assumptions that Meroitic riverine culture was essentially very similar to that of ancient Egypt, probably due to the fact that this particular type of Nile valley boat was actually developed as early as the Mesolithic period in central Sudan. "Hieroglyphs showing a boat felluka(?) inside the pyramid in Nubian pharaohs and kings necropolis in Meroe Nubia Sudan" In the following spoiler, you can see a collection of Neolithic petroglyphs of Nile valley boats of various sizes, from the Neolithic/pre-Kerma period in Sudan. A very clear illustration of thousands of years of Nile valley boat culture remaining remarkably unchanged. I will now repost a number of higher res versions of images from the tomb of Huy (tt40), King's son of Kush, or Viceroy, to the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II.These Viceroys of Kush were Nubian Royalty, recruited by the New Kingdom Pharaohs, as their local representatives in Kush. They would become the ancestors of the Napatan, and later Meroitic Kings. The images are interesting because they show a large array of vessels, belonging to Huy, coming from Kush, bearing tribute to the pharaoh. For all intents and purposes, these boats can be seen as Kushite, and once again illustrate the continuing tradition of these particular types of Nile valley boats. These are the references that should be used for Kushite boats. @stanislas69, Maybe we could see some more of that lovely looking boat of yours?
  10. Sundiata
    This youtube channel is about some 3d reconstructions of Sarmizegetusa https://www.youtube.com/user/m1ha1r0/videos?shelf_id=0&view=0&sort=dd More 3d stuff about sarmizegetusa http://www.romaniadevis.ro/dacia/zona-geto-daca/reconstituiri-3d/item/marele-templu-rotund-de-la-sarmizegetusa-regia And Murus Dacius http://www.romaniadevis.ro/dacia/zona-geto-daca/reconstituiri-3d/item/murus-dacicus-zid-dacic Remember that neither Dacians nor Thracians were highly urbanised societies. The mass of people lived in smaller country-side villages and towns, probably more resembling rural Celtic society, than Greece or Rome. The capital cities of Seuthopolis and Sarmizegetusa probably reflect the height of Mediterranean influence in their culture.
  11. Sundiata
    For the emblem, look no further than the reliefs of the Ram-headed Amun, the Kushite state-god. In those days, Amun reigned supreme...
  12. Sundiata
    @wowgetoffyourcellphone wow, they look so cool!!! Awesome!
  13. Sundiata
    Nice initiative! For the Kushites, it's easy, Meroe or Napata, your choice.. Napata was the old religious capital, Meroe was the new secular and economic capital. For the Gauls, check out Bibracte. Remember that the current building set for the Gauls doesn't represent the pinnacle of Celtic architecture, but rather countryside models. Plenty of people have already commented on this, and I might make a large visual reference post in future to illustrate this point. For now, take a look at Bibracte, the capital of the Aedui: For the Thebans… Thebes...
  14. Sundiata
    Hmmm, I was thinking something more akin to Lion's original version, though these ones are cool too.
  15. Sundiata
    @wowgetoffyourcellphone Awesome!!
  16. Sundiata
    Just an Idea: What if, seen as the Dacians were essentially a specific type of Thracians, who eventually founded their own Dacian Kingdom, Dacian references could be fair game. This way we can represent "archaic" Thracians and the younger, reinvigorated Dacians, in a Daco-Thracian faction. First Thracian capital at Seuthopolis, and the second Dacian capital at Sarmizegetusa. Seen as they were culturally closely related, politically and geographically overlapping, and featured the same "Greco-Barbarian" architectural mix, it is possible to depict them as a single Daco-Thracian faction, referencing both, making research easier. Sarmizegetusa:
  17. Sundiata
    Some quick image references for Seuthopolis, the Thracian capital under the Odrysian Kingdom. Although heavily influenced by Greece, it still had a recognizably Thracian culture and heritage. The ordinary people lived outside of the walls of this administrative center, full of official buildings.
  18. Sundiata
    Another variation I think would look nice is stone with a golden rim, or gold with a stone rim.
  19. Sundiata
    IMO, Siege equipement should always go down with the ship, but infantry and cavalry units should un-garrison, only if they're very close to the shore (un-deep water). Otherwise they should all just perish the same.
  20. Sundiata
    Interesting… anyway, I wasn't saying that the team is so unprofessional they need to outsource coding, but rather, we need to pay some people (and they may very well be part of the team already, which would probably be better anyway), so that they can spend all of their time on this project, instead of just their spare time.
  21. Sundiata
    So there is no way to add grass, to cover bad/lacking soil textures, without performance issues? I've also always thought that a significant amount of grass (and other ground cover/shrubs) would solve those poor ground textures… By the way, look at those beautiful rolling hills in AOE III! Why are maps with a flat surface still made in 0AD? Even the flattest maps shouldn't be entirely flat, it kills immersiveness. I also think that stand alone cliffs tend to look horrible in game, especially those cliffs with an inaccessible top, that rise from a 100% flat surrounding, with horrendously stretched textures, and you can't even build a wall against it without serious headaches, essentially making them a useless annoyance on the map. There is a MUCH higher degree of realism already achievable in Atlas than many of the current maps hint at (with the exception of Rouen and that Alpine one) Whatever happened to @Leroy30, who was busy creating the most beautiful map yet, a few years ago..? I believe any other direction than this would be selling 0AD short of it's true potential… I know, performance issues….… But maybe it's high time for another kickstarter to pay some professional coders to fix lag and pathfinding once and for all, even if it means rewriting Pyrogenesis...
  22. Sundiata
    Stables, cash crops, and... Kushites… I know, I know, you said think realistic, but one can only dream…
  23. Sundiata
    Well, I think the current version of the game, when finished would be the "arcade" version I was referring too. Nothing needs to be trimmed of the current game, in fact, a number of elements still need to be added. But it would essentially be the finished version of what it is now, designed to the wishes of the online gaming community, tailor-made for competitive online gameplay, as we see in the recent surge of youtube video's being posted. The playing style is similar to AOEII, and follows the tradition of classic RTS games. It would something like 0 A.D. Classic The second much more expansive version I was talking about, would go a lot further and deeper in every level of gameplay and visuals. Much more realistic, naturalistic, immersive and time-consuming. Something incorporating elements from classic rts games like the Age of Empires series and Rise of Nations, but at the same time breaking free from the dogma of classic RTS, and incorporating city building elements from games like the Anno Series, or the Pharaoh and Caesar series from sierra entertainment, as well contemporary examples like Banished, and finally include an actual economy management element to the game, with a large amount of goods that can produced and traded and need to be transported and stockpiled, instead of metal, stone, wood and food… Managing an actual population… Much larger and realistic maps, Infinite diversity in building types and variations, environment, wildlife, units and animations… Animations for everything! Even playing kids in the streets of your bustling little town, and laborers working away in your industries as porters shuffle resources and finished products back and forth and housewives visit the markets for grocery shopping. More realistic dimensions too. Some people will complain the units look like ants next too the trees and buildings, but they can play the "arcade" version, 0 A.D. Classic. It would bloat the game to several GB's in size, but I wouldn't mind… I also just realized this is the forum for Delenda Est, and might not be the most appropriate place to discuss these ideas.. My apologies for that.
  24. Sundiata
    For a long time, I've also been thinking that 0AD needs to be split in to two versions: - A classic and streamlined arcade-version, perfect for online multiplayer and people who like a simple, fast-paced game. - A much more expansive, time-consuming simulator, with endless options and a strong focus on realism, actual economy management and city building. (similar to the direction DE is taking, but even further) I believe this is the only way to satisfy most people, as they represent two very popular, but irreconcilable visions for 0AD. Trying to achieve both visions in the same game leads to mediocrity. But splitting them in two versions creates options for the optimization of both playing styles, and could make 0AD the best RTS ever made
  25. Sundiata
    Ah, I see…
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