Vantha

Hey @AIEND Thank you for the feedback I'm all for mentioning the Chinese name in the texts, just like I did with the Greek names for Athens and Sparta. The problem for me is that I don't speak Chinese. And many times how something actually was called often mismatches with the SpecificName which is often only a literal word by word translation into Chinese. But if people think it's worth it I can include them nevertheless. The mangonel is a good example: in game it is called "Toushi Che" which seems like a direct translation of the word 'mangonel' or 'trebuchet' into Chinese. I doubt that was the word used in the Han dynasty. The mangonel in the game is actually also not only a "礮Pao" (as you said), but a "旋風砲Xuan Feng Pao" or only "旋風 Xuan Feng" translating to "whirlwind (catapult)". I've been told before that my descriptions are too detailed and complicated sometimes. If we actually can actually put images or even animations above the article, these precise descriptions aren't as much needed as they were back when I wrote the text. In regards to the text about religion, thanks pointing out some inaccuracies. I never was happy with that text and wanted to rewrite anyway. Finding good sources on this topic was quite a challenge. If you're fine with it, I will rewrite it based on your description (of course not without crediting). You can also write it entirely yourself or just leave out the passages addressing me and use it like that.

What I'm picturing is the articles of the encyclopedia referencing each other. No external links. If that is really not possible, linking to related encyclopedia articles at the bottom and of the page seems good enough as well.

I was principally talking about the in-game unit overview referring to articles in the encyclopedia, less about articles referring to other articles. I personally would like inline links though.

Here's how I would do it: We still go through all units and buildings one by one writing texts about them. And if there isn't enough unique information about one and no text written already that it could be linked to, we write such text. This way we can ensure every unit or building can refer to an article in the end. And I'd say if the best fitting title for a text differs from the unit or building in whose file it is stored, we add the new better fitting title as a comment. And I can do that for the texts already written too, it should not be too much work. I think deciding what article each unit refers to, is best done after at least finishing the whole civilisation because many might be related to more than just one article. And we also have to wait and see whether anyone can be found to turn @wowgetoffyourcellphone's great-looking mockups of the extra encyclopedia into reality. I have some texts which implement what I suggested almost ready. I'll finish them in the next few days, then you'll also have an example for what I mean.

I agree with you. One way it could be done, would be to give them the Gaul fanatic stats. I don't really myself how much players actually use the the Gaul fanatics. However, the high damage, low armor (and a higher speed), seem just right for Ekdromoi.

Hi everyone, I have got a suggestion: Let's redefine the encyclopedia's goal, not writing an article about every unit, building, etc., but instead writing enough articles so every unit, building, etc. can be linked to at least one article. For example: There is not much to say specifically about Han sword cavalry, however, there is much interesting information about the swords they used, about Han cavalry in general, and maybe about the breeding of the cavalry's mounts. So, instead of writing a text about these exact cavalry swordsmen, I could write about the topics I just mentioned in the example which are way more interesting. And yes, I know that I've to some degree already been doing this. But if the encyclopedia ends up outside of only the unit or building overview in-game, then each article will need a title. And for example, the text for the stable describes that civ's cavalry in general. And I find it misleading and simply wrong to title this text 'stables' since the text is not actually mentioning stables themselves. I know this might seem irrelevant, but it's really not for me. That would give me more freedom, I could eloborate further and entirely leave out what would have been plain and boring texts anyway. And it would only affect only about 10% of units or buildings, and nothing needs to be redone to to fit this new goal. And we can of course still store the texts in the unit's or building's game file that will eventually link to the exact text in the encyclopedia. Do you get what I mean? What do you think?

Although I am not an expert on SEO, that sounds like a valid concern. Just because there are other games with similar names succeeding doesn't mean it causes no damage. Though, rebranding would not be worth it. And "Empires Ascendant" aren't meaningless words too.

May 2024 be a good year for 0ad and its community!

What software did you use for upscaling?

War Over the Heavenly Horses https://github.com/TheShadowOfHassen/0-ad-history-encyclopedia-mod/pull/95

Yes, I did, that's usually the first thing I do. I just realised the champion archers are chariots, a text about chariots will fit for them. Also, for one of the basic cavalry units I thought I could write about the War Over The Heavenly Horses. It's the story of how they got powerful horses for their cavalry units. Do you think that's too unrelated to the unit (e.g. cavalry spearman) itself?

Quick question: what historical unit is the 'Wu Wei Yin Cao Cao Guard'? Is it the 'tiger and leopard cavalry' by Cao Cao? And what about the other champion units? The spearmen are obviously the palace guards. But the champion archer cavalry and the champion crossbowman? Are they anything more specific than just a professional elite unit? Btw, as I already said, the mock-ups look phenomenal, I think the beige and white colour scheme fits very well.

You mean (for example) Pericles would go all-in on turtling, build walls and avoid fights (on land)?

That looks very cool! I like it a lot! Is it be possible to have some units do their animation (like a GIF) there? That would help paint a clearer picture for the reader, for example how a certain catapult works. And let me know if you need any help with testing or designing! I have a bit of experience in UI design myself.

Another interesting text: Han cavalry and infantry swordsman https://github.com/TheShadowOfHassen/0-ad-history-encyclopedia-mod/pull/93 Question just out of curiosity: Why is the infantry swordsman (who I believe is currently not in the game) called infantry_swordsman_special? What's the special part?

3 new articles: Han pikeman: https://github.com/TheShadowOfHassen/0-ad-history-encyclopedia-mod/pull/92 Han catapult: https://github.com/TheShadowOfHassen/0-ad-history-encyclopedia-mod/pull/90 Han spearman: https://github.com/TheShadowOfHassen/0-ad-history-encyclopedia-mod/pull/91

Then it would at least accurately resemble the original. Edit: (Because the real Tesserakonteres was so big that maneuverung was almost impossible and it therefore was completely useless in battle)

I would prefer the Tesseraconteres being a ship rather than a tech. But of course, there isn't even a unique 3d model for it. (A big new Tesseraconteres model, maybe as a catamaran, would be so cool, though)

Han Archer https://github.com/TheShadowOfHassen/0-ad-history-encyclopedia-mod/pull/87

Han crossbowman https://github.com/TheShadowOfHassen/0-ad-history-encyclopedia-mod/pull/86

Han Trader (even though we already created a mixin for traders, Zhang Qian's story fits very well and it's worth writing an extra text about him) https://github.com/TheShadowOfHassen/0-ad-history-encyclopedia-mod/pull/84/files

Han market https://github.com/TheShadowOfHassen/0-ad-history-encyclopedia-mod/pull/83

The units trained from the army camp are rank 2/advanced which means they have better fighting stats but are slower in resource collection. They don't stack because, even though they are the same unit, because of the different rank, they have a different set of stats. I got confused by this in the past too.

I completely rewrote the Han Healer text, since it was not focused on what the encyclopedia should be and didn't fit. I commited directly into the old Han Healer branch and pull request. https://github.com/TheShadowOfHassen/0-ad-history-encyclopedia-mod/pull/81/ As you can see, I wrote about Zhang Zhongjin, because for the Greek healer I wrote about Hippocrates, and Zhang Zhongjin seemed the most logical parallel to me, even though didn't live in the time frame of the Han Empire that the civilisation in 0ad represents. And I will write the soldiers, siege engines, and maybe the market next.

Han temple https://github.com/TheShadowOfHassen/0-ad-history-encyclopedia-mod/pull/82/files