Vantha

Yeah, that's essentially our plan. We already have a list of features to teach in each scenario (a couple of pages back in this thread) as well as an idea how to wrap a story around it. That means, at the moment, we're at step two: creating the scenarios - for which we first need maps.

RPGs maybe, where storytelling is the primary focus. But to me RTSs don't feel like movies, even in campaign mode.

I don't think its comparable to movies. But you're right, players will click away if Hasdrubal starts talking in Phoenician. i believe that's something we should provide as well. A small page called something like "historical background" that explains the campaign's historical context. And helps players embed the story told into their existing knowledge (Carthage, Rome, Punic Wars, Hannibal, ...) Well, I'd actually prefer this. It's more like paging through a history book. But I'll leave that decision up to you writing minds.

Do we really need dialogue to tell the story? Certainly a hot take, but I find cutscenes (especially with voiceovers) in RTS's very awkward. Why would Carthaginian generals talk in English? And with the moments of silence in between shouted lines, speeches sound very unnatural and feel everything else but "real". If anything, it takes away from the immersion for me. But I have a strong suspicion I may be the only one here who thinks this way

There is no separate Persia biome, right? Are you referring to the Persian textures of the desert biome? Because those are pretty much what I needed (even though Persia is even further away from Carthago Nova than the Aegean Sea / Anatolia)

I just tried to repaint the map using the new textures, but I can't seem to reproduce what I had earlier. The overall color scheme of the new Agean-Anatolian biome is a bit too grey and white for Southern Spain, I'd need something with a slight yellow-orange tint. I'm especially missing the 'medit_shrubs_golden' and 'medit_cliff_italia' textures. Attempting to correct it with the 'Ambient Color' doesn't look very natural. My best solution is to borrow some textures from the desert biome, but those were obviously colored from a different palette, which results in a small, but definitely noticable color disharmony. Any ideas/tips/advice?

I'm aware of the tool, but I'm afraid it alone won't cut it in many places. While great-looking, the new textures can't really be matched 1:1 to all the old ones.

Ah, darn it. I indeed used the old textures, which means I'll have to repaint everything. How annoying. But, I guess, good thing you told me now rather than later. Imagine if I only found out after completing the entire map. And, I gotta say, the new textures look a lot sharper and aesthetically pleasing. Very good work. Yeah, that's more or less what I used already. In fact, I also found the Aleppo Pines ugly and mostly used pine_maritime and pine_black (as well as their variants) instead.

I completed the topography and started painting the terrain and placing some vegetation. Here is the portion of the map I did so far:

This is a very important topic in my opinion. I fully support the team's decision. I believe it's right to resist the temptation of the potential development boost it could provide. It'll prove to be the right decision in the long run. @Itms worded it really well. Part of what I find makes 0ad so great is the fact that so many talented individuals from all around the world got together and invested so many selfless hours of work to create an awesome game for anyone to play completely for free. 0ad's value goes far beyond the software and gameplay experience. Imagine a future where projects whose development was assisted by generative AI (to any extent - be it just a few textures) are required to be explicitly labelled as such. Most AI-generated content online is already frowned upon. A small label like this could significantly (terrifyingly) devalue the reputation and history of the game. And that would be incredibly sad, and simply irresponsible towards this great legacy. Generative AI is a fascinating, and really capable technology, I'd be the last one to deny that. But I think it's a bit ... pointless. Creating something impressive is supposed to take effort. That's what makes it impressive in the first place, no? Regarding the encyclopedia, I therefore share @ShadowOfHassen's views; we shouldn't and won't use generative AI for texts or images at all.

It mostly requires pretty straightforward JavaScript code, I can take care of that. What I want to do too, though, is implement a way for the trigger scripts to query for some non-simulation-related information (to detect certain hotkey presses for instance) as well. This would allow us to polish the tutorial (especially the very first one) a whole lot better. But it requires modifying the engine code - which is a bit trickier. Will do.

Yeah. I'm still working on the map every now and then. My expectations might maybe be too perfectionistic, which is why it takes me so long. Of course, doing it all in one weekend was a bit too optimistic. And I won't try to estimate when I'll be done since that has gone wrong enough times in the past. But once the map is finished we can get right into writing and scripting.

Is there a ticket/issue for it yet?

Just to reiterate, I went with the Youhzhou Cavalry in the PR. Is everyone ok with this? By the way, during my research I actually came across an old post on this forum suggesting them as well: https://wildfiregames.com/forum/topic/14075-0-ad-rise-of-the-east-mod/?do=findComment&comment=287382