Cassador_Chris
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Posts
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Posts posted by Cassador_Chris
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I played
Age of Empires Gold Edition
Empire Earth
Rise of Nations
Empire Earth 2
Rome Total War with expansions
Medieval 2 TW
Rise and Fall Civilizations
Rome Universalis (a little)
Civilization IV (a little)
Ancient Wars Sparta
Starcraft 1 & 2
Age of Kings
AOM
AoE III
but love AoE , Rise and Fall CAW, Rise of Nations, Empire Earth and Rome Total War
This guy is my kind of guy. The only games on that list I haven't played are Rome Universalis and Ancient Wars. Have you ever tried the mod Europa Barbaroum for Rome Total War? If you're a fan, you shouldn't pass it up!
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Is there any particular feature/theme we should consider?
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I reported some flaws with the in-game message to the makers function, but I just wanted to confirm you guys knew:
The Boudicca and Kunobelinos descriptions are too long; you can't read them in full because the text continues off screen.
Also, the description for "Roman Conscription" is wrong, as it describes the Celtic "Druides" technology instead.
Those are my notes. Everything is looking fantastic, and I also have a few suggestions/questions for the next update.
What is planned for the next update?
The only thing I really missed from this update still was that the priestess' didn't seem to heal and the trade system wasn't working yet.
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Likely he meant Real-Time Tactical, which usually includes some form of turn-based play at the strategic level.
Though, I have been formulating for some time a RTT game design where the strategic layer is real-time as well.Not the place to really get into discussing it, but this is a interesting idea Mythos.
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BY AZURA BY AZURA ITS BEEN ANNOUNCED!
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has been announced by Bethesda on December 11th and will be released in exactly 11 months on 11/11/11.
You can check out the teaser at www.elderscrolls.com
The Elder Scrolls is a single-player role playing game that started with The Elder Scrolls: Arena (which was originally was supposed to be a fighting game) and just one among numerous D&D rip offs at the time. Since the original game, however, the Elder Scrolls has developed into an unique setting known for its expansive (and intensely debatable) lore. The games have also become something of a industry setter in their field, paving the way in graphics, AI, and mechanics.
The Elder Scrolls Series is as follows:
The Elder Scrolls: Arena
The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall
An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire
The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
and now...
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
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no, the easier it is for us to get what we want the more we will want it.
I don't know about this. There are plenty of times when I've acted contrary to this statement. Regardless, I don't think this is something we can generalize. And I don't know if this has any relevance to the problem either. The point is to create a more just and humane society. Not to discourage drug use.
Sure, there are drugs out there that are awful. Crystal Meth anyone? It quite literally destroys people. So sure, it would be great if Crystal Meth didn't exist, or if people had no interest in using it. But it does exist and people do use it. That is the reality.
When you criminalize something that retains a demand, however, you create a black market for that product. Now black markets work pretty much the same as regular markets do. Black markets, however, do not have access to a legal system with which to resolve disputes. They also operate out of the public eye. Violence, then, becomes the tool "businesses" use to correct grievances, solve disputes, compete with other businesses, etc. In addition to violence, the cost of shipping a black market product skyrockets. This means, in order to get the most bang for your buck, it is most feasible to carry high concentrations of your product. Which, in the case of illegal drugs, means accidentally overdosing on a product is very likely. Even further, the illegalization of drugs lets diseases like AIDS propagate further, since the black market has no regulations to keep them from selling you dirty infected needles.
Now you must ask yourself, which is more moral?
1. Letting people who want to inject Crystal Meth buy it from someone who isn't going to shoot them if they don't have the money for it, inject it in less lethal quantities, and using clean needles (I'm not saying that all will be well though. Inevitably someone might use violence to try to steal some from a store, or might commit a crime under the influence, or might just die from the drug's effects).
2. Letting people become victims to black-market violence (this doesn't just include users of course, but countless innocent victims as well as law enforcement). Making it more likely that people would overdose. Making it more likely that they would receive an HIV infection and spread it to their non-using partner or family members. And making it harder for people to seek treatment for their problem because they'll be criminalized for possession of it?
A good bit of reading for you would be a wikipedia article on the Prohibition Movement of the United States during the 1920s when Alcohol was outlawed. It was done with the best intentions: alchohol drives men to cheat, to violence against their wives, to drive recklessly, to depression, etc, etc. But what the Prohibition ultimately resulted in was the rise of organized crime. People still drank alcohol. People still beat their wives over it. But now we had gangs of violent criminals doing drive by shootings in residential neighborhoods and murdering cops.
Now let me make this clear: You're never going to completely irradicate violence from society. There will always be murders of passion (or insanity). There will (unless you adopt policies that eliminate poverty completely) be crimes of desperation. There will always be accidents. But why make it worse? Why create a market for violence when there needn't be a market for it at all?
There is a girl who just took up a sheriff position in Mexico that has been vacant for 1 1/2 years after the last Sheriff was murdered by a drug lords. She's 20. Younger than me. And pretty. Hasn't even finished her criminology degree. She wants to reach out to the villagers to help fight the war on drugs. They are less than forth coming about reporting drug activities because there is the real threat that they'll be murdered. There's a real threat she'll be murdered.
If drugs were legal, maybe I wouldn't read about her brutal and tragic death a year from now.
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On a lighter note, how about we call this party the Party of Reason? Or does that sound a little too pretentious? I dunno if it is practical enough or catchy enough either. I mean are you going to vote Democratic, Republican, or Reason? Wait. That does sound cool though. But it still sounds as pretentious as all get out.
I thought of maybe having a little fun by printing out some fliers and posting them around my local communities, just to see if anyone is actually interested. There is certainly a lot of people upset at both parties at the moment. Maybe there's a niche market waiting to be filled?
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The Political Party for the Protection of Individual Liberties and the Maintenance of a Healthy and Thriving Society.
So, guys, what about this name? It needs a shorter name, of course. And I don't think PPPILMHTS will work.
But I think this name covers the two important aspects of this party: Prizing individualism yet recognizing that individuals must pull together if a society is going to survive. -
I guessed I was confused by the "basic formations", thinking that more than one have been implemented.
As for the grayed out... I thought they were grayed out because I hadn't selected them yet!
Just some small stuff I miss:
The idle villager button. Not sure how this would work with 0 AD though, as the villagers are also very often soldiers. But something like it.
A "choose your civ" in the single player mode.
...there were a few other things but I can't remember them atm...
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Yeah, Clio would also be an oppurtunity to open up the ingame history section or something. But I hardly think that this is any priority right now.
True. Beta 3 Clio then?
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A question concerning the new Alpha 2:
It mentions on 0 AD's website that the new alpha has basic formations available, and I see the new controls for setting formations, but my soldiers only take up the default formation. I've tried all the other formations, but none of them work. Are some of them supposed to?
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Clio! History rocks!
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Go ahead and explain your "raising the retirement age" proposal, Mythos. Also, what is VAT exactly?
Related to raising the retirement age:
This is an extremely interesting video about aging as a disease and how we can fight it.
@Cassador:The two party system definitely needs to be broken. I know there have been several proposed solutions, though I haven't quite made up my mind. I suspect different things would need to be tried and tested. I do like the proportional representation idea though.
I also agree that the Senate's power would need to be decreased with the expansion of the House.
I basically like all of the ideas you put forward, especially those answering Ykkrosh's very important question concerning funds. I guess I didn't quite go into that on my first post.
Getting rid of subsidies, tax reform, cutting military expenditures, raising the retirement age, etc, are all excellent ways of increasing revenue.I'll also chip in and say that no money would be spent on the drug wars, and less money would have to be spent on prisons and law enforcement.
Now I don't know if it'll be enough for the more expensive projects outlined above (i.e. satellite-guided driver-less vehicles for everyone) but those things will have to be installed over an extended period of time anyway, so we'll be able to attribute the appropriate funds as they are needed.
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I vote for Clio as the next Alpha name to represent all of the history research that has gone into this game and to give a nod to the history buffs who helped out. If not for alpha 3 then for Beta 3. Clio needs to work her way in somehow.
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I've decided that I'm only going to vote for someone who represents my interests, and in the upcoming midterm elections, I see no one who represents my interests.
So, I've been coming up with a new political party that would take action on issues that I care about. (and you're free to care about them too!)
Here it is: The Political Party for the Protection of Individual Liberties and the Maintenance of a Healthy and Thriving Society. (Needs a new name
)Platform:
End the Drug Wars: Legalize recreational drugs and hand the market over to legitimate private businesses. Like Alcohol and Tobacco, rec drugs will be subject to light regulation and light taxation (reducing current taxes on Alcohol and Tobacco as well) for safety's sake. Over-regulation or over-taxation will simply result in a black market again. This policy is designed to destroy the power base of violent gangs and drug cartels, as well as stabilize Mexico and reduce crime.
Legalize Prostitution: With a similar objective, the legalization of prostitution would not only reduce crime, but also serve to stem the flow of AIDS and other sexual diseases (by having prostitutes subject to tests for sexually transmitted diseases biweekly). Furthermore, legalizing prostitution will give its female (and male) practitioners greater safety from violence and abuse.
The Right to Death: The legalization (with regulation) of euthanasia would give people the right to die if they so choose without having to resort to painful and terrible methods of suicide. Patients with painful diseases or serious depression would have access to a peaceful and humane death should they prefer not to be propped on life support systems for years or numbed by the effects of anti-depressant drugs.
End the Road Wars: My party realizes the tremendous death toll that car accidents bring to every part of the country and resolves to solve the problem by promoting mass transit, making it both cheaper, convenient, and available. In the long term investments will be made in satellite guided driver-less vehicles that would greatly enhance both the safety and pleasure of travel, while preserving both the freedom and privacy that are highly cherished American values.
Space Exploration: Fund and promote serious projects oriented towards the exploration of space, the extraction of precious resources, and the colonization of planets and moons. Self-sustainable colonies and the acquisition of important resources rare on earth is fundamental to the expansion and survival of the human species. Space exploration will drive the development of radical new technologies from which humankind can benefit, as well as increase our understanding of the universe as a whole.
One Nation Among Equals: A new diplomatic strategy based upon the idea of equality and fraternity among nations, this policy strives for a multi-polar world in which transparency of governance is the norm. The number of U.S. bases worldwide would be diminished, and expensive Pentagon projects will be cut. The strategy of maintaining U.S. influence and dominance will be pulled back. Isolation of troublesome nations often only serves to radicalize these governments further, and the new policy adopts a non-hostile approach to work openly with these nations through diplomacy to improve human rights and economic prosperity.
Accurate Representation: Will increase the size of the House of Representatives so that proportions of Representative-to-represented population will be near or equal to that of the original thirteen states. This will allow elected candidates to much more effectively represent their population, spend much less on campaign funds, and help combat the influence of lobbyists.
Campaign Reform: The idea behind campaign reform is to provide all candidates with an equal platform of funds. This will encourage poor and middle-class citizens to run for office, and severely or altogether limit the time spent on fund-raising to promote a "working congress". Other reforms will help combat the "career politician" in favor of a system where people can serve their country for brief periods without the risk of interrupting their career.
Gun Rights: Nuff said.
Education Reform: Much more money must be funneled into the education field. The trend of public Universities to a competitive, private business model must be reversed. Elementary, Middle, and High Schools will undergo funding reform as well as an extension of the school year to a year round program (perhaps with a three-day weekend). Raising teacher to a well paid and respected profession will encourage effective educators into the field.
Other.... ?
Also...more money into the sciences in general. Especially studies into the extension of life and the 'elimination' of traditional bodily deterioration, which are now becoming possible.
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Hey now. You guys are missing the all-important Chalcolithic, or Copper Stone Age. Shame on you.
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Tour Egypt also has a wonderful cache of articles about Egypt. I have been especially enlightened by the ones dealing with the Egyptian military.
Here is an article on the distinct Egyptian war chariot:
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/chariots.htm
Here is the 1st part of a article on the Evolution of Warfare in Egyptian history:
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/war.htm
And here is an article dealing with Egyptian weapons.
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/weapons.htm
There are also many, many other related articles that you can usually find links to at the bottom of the page. Topics include Enemies of Egypt, Egyptian military architecture, close combat edged weapons of the Egyptians, Egyptian ranged weapons... the list goes on and on.
Have fun!
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Yeah, the problem of online play is an important one. What will the other player be doing during the time they are not controlling the character? I think this will ultimately depend upon the kind of game that is being designed. One idea would be to use one-way communication between players. Whoever is in control of the character is muted, while the other player gets free airways to say whatever they want: taunt the player, try to convince them to hand over control, try to strengthen the facade of cooperation, or mislead them about what their true objective is.
Another way would be to let the player not in control modify the road-ahead to best suit their skill set while making it extremely difficult (though possible) for the controlling player. They could even possibly make the route to their own objective easier for the controlling player, in a very real sense manipulating the other player towards their own objective.
Still another way could occur in a multi-player game concerning more than two players and where the number of controllable characters equals the number of players. Players then could shift control of different characters to one another during game play, depending on what skills/etc they currently need to complete their objective. Though some sort of identification on which player is currently controlling who would be needed to have any strategy come out of this sort of set up. Otherwise it would be near impossible for players to get a hint about their opponents' objectives.
I do agree that there should be sub-objectives and side-quests, both shared and individual. Though they should be handled with some care, I think, because with them figuring out the other player's objective may become immensely more difficult. And we don't want the player to give up the 'mind games' because its just easier to 'brute force' their way through the level by being stubborn and not cooperating at all with the other player.
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Okay, here's a basic layout for a new game type I like to call CoopComp, as it blends two traditional multiplayer types: competitive play and cooperative play.
The idea is simple enough:
Two players.
Two main objectives.
One character.
Okay, into the particulars...
Each player is given an objective which is kept secret from the other player. These objectives are not mutually compatible. Only one objective can be reached at the expense of the other.
However, both players only have one character to control between them. Direct control of this character is shifted to the other player only when two circumstances occur:
1. The controlling player offers control of the character to the non-controlling player.
2. The non-controlling player accepts the offer to control the character.
Now, why would anyone hand control over the character to their opponent? Well, there could be an array of incentives for this. In my own personal idea, each player, when controlling the character, grants that character certain powers and/or advantages as well as certain weaknesses and/or disadvantages. In order to overcome the challenges in reaching each player's respective objective, players will be often confronted with situations where the other player's skill set will be much more useful. Let me demonstrate:
My idea for a game is based off a story that has been milling around in my brain for years. Basically all you need to know is that the world this story takes place in is inhabited by both souls (humans, animals, plants) and spirits (strange otherworldly beings), and that spirits can 'possess' people. Players would have control over the main character and a spirit whom resides within her. The MC will have people skills, the know-how on using technology like driving cars or using a computer, etc. When the spirit player is in control, however, the MC will have unique powers which they can take advantage of, at the expense of losing many of the human MC's advantages.
In an example on how this would work, the MC and her friends would get caught by security while trespassing. As they are undergoing arrest, the controlling player, depending on their objective, might realize how far off it would put them, or perhaps getting arrested would result in a game over. So, they promptly give control of the MC to their opponent, who promptly murders the security guards and can continue trespassing (or they may do something different, depending on their objective.).
An issue with CoopComp.
1) Balance is important. The world should be more open rather than linear. But a world could be too open by allowing for too great a divergence of objectives. Likewise, objectives shouldn't be too divergent (a lot of running back and forth), but they also shouldn't be too close either (then players quickly realize that the only important part of the game is the endgame.).
There are many different creative ways of increasing complexity to such a game style (such as objectives that change during gameplay). I like to think them over, but this post is already a little too long, and I'd like to hear what the community thinks about the idea.
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^ I think the Dorian invasion theory has been, or is in the process of being, discredited by modern archaeologists. Though I'm not entirely sure about this.
They might be leaning towards a "Dorian" migration, or towards that Mycenean society collapsed because of famine and natural disasters. Anyway, I'd have to spend time looking stuff up, but I'm going to bed right now.
Anyway, its a moot point, I think. I tend to agree with Mythos here, though I'd like to add the Estruscans (it is suspected they had connections to Anatolia) to the list of people whom I suspect fled from the Aegean during this period of turmoil.
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Hey now, if we're getting Indians because there are Indian environments and Indian textures, after seeing the screen shot of the giraffe on the savanna biome, I'm going to vouch for the Kushites here. And I'm going to do some research on them to gather enough material for a viable civ. And/or the Axumites for hypothetical part 2 of 0 AD's saga.
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In any case, contemporary Levantine and Anatolian designs evidently exist and it should be possible to track them down as well.
Yeah, heh, but as great as the internet is, we may not be able to find them online. We might need to email an expert or contact a few museums to get a picture or description of what such ships would look like.
So are we Phoenicians Go? I've been looking over things and I'd say there is enough information out there to build a playable civilization out of them. Only kink is in the time frame. Phoenicians would only work for the very late bronze-early iron age. Anything before that and they are probably best described as Canaanites.
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Egyptian texts do discuss ships with cabins, decks, and masts, which strongly implies wooden ships instead of reed boats, and they had several words for different types of ship. But whether they were of Phoenician or Egyptian make I don't know.
No need to go to Egyptian texts. Archaeologists quite a while ago unearthed an actual ship. This is from the old kingdom, though.
http://www.kingtutshop.com/free-pictures/egypti10.jpg
Anyway, Egyptian ships!
http://www.modelshipmaster.com/products/an...20merchantS.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_yL1gRCqUvQI/SSL0...cient+Egypt.JPG
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_yL1gRCqUvQI/SSLs...litary+ship.JPG
http://www.arabian-archaeology.com/images/es-077.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_yL1gRCqUvQI/SSLv...cient+Egypt.JPG
http://www.artsales.com/ARTistory/Ancient_...n_galleons.html
http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/timeli...oingvessels.htm
Phoenician Ships!
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2723/402524...7fa29ed6c_z.jpg
http://www.ahrtp.com/EarlyShipsOnLine/page...tamianShip1.htm
http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:Z-f63Rn...an-ship.jpg&t=1
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g316/pat...enicianShip.jpg
http://smontagu.org/images/asterix-2a.png
EDIT:
OH! And this amazing resource for Mycenaen ships.
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Wasn't this secret already unlocked by a French guy who proposed the pyramids were built using an internal ramp?
Journalists and their sensationalizing of everything....
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The Egyptians were known to have a powerful navy. Or, at least they trashed the Sea Peoples (refugees of Mycenae civilization?) in a sea battle off the coast of Egypt. Mind, the Egyptians kind of cheated; they caught the Sea Peoples snoozing in their boats and managed to use their fleet to trap the Sea Peoples against the shoreline so that the Egyptian firepower would be augmented by archers on the beach.
Furthermore, it has been suggested that this tribe of Sea Peoples (the Peleset), devastated by their defeat, settled down nearby and became the people known as the Philistines to Hebrew writers.
Also relevant to this discussion, I suppose, is that archaeological evidence strongly points to the Hebrews as being descendant of the Canaanites (along with the Phoenicians?).
As far as Phoenicians go, do we have anything about their navy? What did their ships look like? I think this discussion will ultimately come down to which civilizations we know the most about. If we don't have enough on the Phoenicians, we had best start looking elsewhere.
Hint: Somebody better start posting artist renderings of Phoenician buildings, ships, and soldiers if this civ is gonna have a chance.
add hebrews
in General Discussion
Posted
I think a Second Temple model would be pretty cool. Though the Ancient Jews stylistically would be too close to the Carthaginians to justify having their own civilization in 0AD. Likewise, though, they'd be an easy civilization to add as a mod, as the modder would just have to grab Carthaginian and some Greek/Roman buildings and perhaps retexture some of those to bring a more coherent and unique design to the civilization and...bravo! An Ancient Israel/Judah build set.