oshron

id like to retract my early vote and recast it for Haxamanis

ive said it before, but ill say it again: i think that after the two planned major releases for 0ad (focusing on the "Roman" world from 500-1bc and 1-500ad, respectively), that there should be up to two more releases focusing on "non-Roman" civilizations such as the Indians, Chinese, Japanese, and Mayans, to give more geographic variety to the game; right now, all the planned civs are only from the area of the Roman Empire

as awesome a name as Herodotus is, i put my vote forward for Hagmatana; there's simply too many greco-roman names already, we should focus on the other civs as much as we can, especially since alpha8 will (presumably) include the persians ive made this suggestion before, but i think that, if we completely cycle through all the letters of the english alphabet for alpha names, then we should start again at A and work our way through it once more. we can save Herodotus for Alpha 34

nah, id keep islands single-player

if possible, wouldnt it be cool if the victory or defeat message was just that in the language of the civilization you're playing as? for example, when you win as the hellenes, you get a message that reads "Nike!" and for the romans, maybe it could be "Veni, vidi, vici!"

hey, all. minor update to one of the civs. while doing some research for a project completely unrelated to this one, i came upon the "root races" of theosophy. while i view the whole thing of theosophy as false, i DO find it pretty interesting, and they happened to include an alternative name for cro-magnons ("Tlavati") that ive decided to make the name of the cro-magnon civ in Godstorm, make it fit in a little better with the other civs in terms of aesthetics. the civ itself is still the same as before, though

an idea occurred to me last night: what if you and other players could give units to one another? it could work well as a pre-programmed aspect of the game for the campaign modes and scenario design and be useful in multiplayer games, so that if one player is going to lose soon or has to leave for RL purposes, they can just cede all of their units (and possibly buildings) to their ally, or even to one of their enemies if they want a different enemy to lose. it could also be useful in multiplayer situations in which one player has been having alot of trouble playing, so their better-off ally gives them some of their units as well as some resources through tribute so that they can rebuild their base closer to their ally for protection

trust me, longshank, itll be well worth the wait

but wouldnt it be more cost-productive to have a looping queue so that the cost is deducted from your resource stockpile when the farm is actually exhausted? because if you tell it to queue up in multiples of 5, wont that be deducted from your stockpiles immediately? with the looping queue, it would just take it out when the farm "dies" so that you dont have to worry about it as much. like i said, thats one thing that was quite useful in Empire Earth II

i again recommend a looping queue so that you dont have to keep clicking the button to make the farm be reseeded; that always annoyed me in AOK

sounds like a good idea to me, too, ribez. i remember that Empire Earth had a similar zoom function where you could toggle between three different zoom modes (with the F2 button, iirc): iirc, the first and default zoom mode lowered you to the ground about halfway, and then on the remaining half turned the camera so that it looked like you were on the ground. it let you feel like you were right in the midst of a battle i think the second zoom mode was called "epic zoom" which allowing you to zoom straight back or forward from a locked angle (ex: if you zoomed in with the default so that you were on the ground and then switched to epic zoom, it would allow you to zoom out from the point you were currently at); the last one was called "isometric zoom" iirc which was just a straight zoom from sky to ground without changing the angle. such zoom modes would also make it easier to showcase the graphics and features of 0ad

personally, i think that the original scope of just from 500bc to 500ad is enough, and teh focus on 12 "roman" civs and 12 "non-roman" civs is good enough incidentally, if other persians are included, i would personally recommend changing the names of all those persian civs so that they have more descriptive names. for example, the 500-1bc persians would be the Achaemenids while the 1-500ad persians are the Sassanids (i know Parthians have been tossed out there, too, but i just dont know any names that would encompass both of them; having a split in post-AD persians sounds like it would be a GREAT idea, though) yknow, it would probably be a good idea to whip up a general map to show what parts of the world are represented. this is just an RTS philosophy of mine, but IMO as many parts of the world as possible should be represented in history-themed RTSs also--though it may be a bit of a stretch, since their official rise was actually in the 700s--ive always had a soft spot for vikings and think they would make a good addition to the roster

well, i had personally been imagining it as just having civs based on groups and works of fiction presented in a fantasy crossover rpg that i imagine. no bull-looking orks in that! the general idea would be for the random-map mode to be set in the crossover itself while separate scenarios and whatnot could take place JUST in tolkien's legendarium (for example, a noldor campaign in which the war of wrath is final climactic scenario) thanks for correcting me on the thing with the dwarves

i have a question: will wonders be included in the final game, like in other AOE-style games?

they WOULD be accurately depicted, just alongside civs based on a few other works of fantasy, for example, Hyruleans from The Legend of Zelda. the only civ i can see being a mix of tolkien and a few others would be dwarves since tolkien didnt go into as much detail with his dwarves as he did with men or elves

i think an amphibious marine unit wouldnt be too far fetched; didnt alexander the great use bell divers during the siege of tyre?

personally, i think a full-scale fantasy crossover mod would be better, featuring several tolkien cultures

thanks for your reply, SMST the "hus" is from the apparent transliteration of the original greek for "erymanthian boar". i mainly asked, in case you were wondering, because i wanted to rename erymanthian boar just "giant boar" so that it would encompass the calydonian boar (and possibly the crommyonian sow) as well

hathor's current godpower is "Blood" based on one of the plagues of egypt; it turns all of the water on the map into blood, halting naval economy (ie fishing) and also slows down ships, though enemy ships are slowed down more now that i think about it, maybe that power would go better for bastet, make an otherwise undesirable minor god more useful. hathor could probably have something else that benefits livestock then EDIT: im not sure which of these names would be best as a replacement for "Erymanthian Boar": either Hus Gigantes or Gigantes Hus. the latter seems more accurate, but the former has more of a ring to it. thoughts?

personally, i think the best thing to do would be to ultimately have 3 (or possibly 4) officially releases: the first pack, which focuses on the Roman world from 500-1bc; the second pack would focus on the Roman world from 1-500ad; and the third pack would be civilizations which did NOT encounter the romans from 500bc-500ad. the last pack could potentially be split into two packs, each focusing on "non-roman" cultures from 500-1bc and 1-500ad, respectively. it could possibly be arranged with civilizations like this: 500BC Roman Carthaginians Celts Hellenes Iberians Persians Pre-Imperial Romans 500AD Roman Arabs East Romans Huns Sassanids Saxons West Romans 500BC Non-Roman Gojoseon Han Chinese Maurya India ?? ?? ?? 500AD Non-Roman Mayans Yamato Japan ?? ?? ?? ?? these are just suggestions. i dont know too much about many of the "Roman" civilizations here, but personally think that including some civilizations from outside the original scope of the game would be good for variety and scenario design. i dont know about you guys, but i would LOVE to play a scenario with historically accurate romans sailing across the sea to fight historically accurate mayans

thanks for your quick reply ill try to remember to look into theoi.com sometime soon "Vision of Ra" was actually asmartgoat's idea, but it does sound like a good idea, and makes sense for a sun god. i decided to adapt that as a technology for him which grants additional line-of-sight to all the player's mortal units. as for your second suggestion on ra, i DID already decide to make his special Bonus "Priesthood," granting a free Heqa-hut (governor/priest) at the beginning of the game i decided to make Set's traits so that mortals get a 15% morale boost when they enter battle a flood power seems like it would be a bit overpowered for an early god like Bastet. your suggestion with Khnum is alot more fitting for him not only because he's the god of the nile, but also because he's from a later in-game phase than bastet. i think ill make it into a minor flood that just waterlogs a small area, yknow, bogs down units on land "Golden Sea" is another of asmartgoat's ideas. id like to thank him/her for the suggestions while the basic idea of Golden Sea sounds good, id like to give it a different name, perhaps something to do with crocodiles. for the technology, id decided before that Sobek would give "Crocodile Armor", which i think is a better improvement since the egyptians will need a more resistant navy in-game ill see what's most fitting for the Earth Mound idea; it sounds to me like it could be a good idea for a Mississippian (native american) godpower instead. no comments on the stuff for ptah (at least not yet) i decided a while ago to give Thoth the godpower "Darkness", based on the biblical plague of darkness, which obviously shrouds an area (i decided that it making the entire map go dark was overpowered) in darkness and makes it impossible for anything to see there for a while. it could be useful for covering an escape. the general idea of "Stolen Moonlight" DOES, however, sound like a good idea. i remember a long time ago i had something similar as an idea for a celtic godpower, "Still Sun," which makes your units and buildings be completed 100% faster (or more)

boy, am i glad i decided to stop by again today! good to see you again, too, aldandil thanks for your suggestions, but the general problem im having with those names you listed is that they arent written with more standard letters. it would be a LOT easier if the names were simplified. i may well be able to figure all this out myself, but further input from you would be much appreciated. thanks for the shesmety suggestion, though i honestly cant remember at the moment if i decided to really keep it or not; (comparatively) recently, i decided to revamp the civ pages for Godstorm that ive been writing up and cant remember if i decided to transfer the shesmety over to the new format i DID eventually decide on a godpower for osiris: Oasis--iirc (its been a while since i wrote it), it simply creates an "artificial" oasis (its basically a building for the purposes of gameplay) for a short time, which provides additional resources and relief to whoever controls it (basically, whoever would have the most units near it). thanks for your suggestion with set; maybe his special trait could be a minor morale boost (8-10% or so) for mortal units whenever they enter battle for reference--even though im not sure if youve played any RTS games before--im basically envisioning the technologies in Godstorm as working like techs in Age of Mythology, though this will likely change later on to conform with what is eventually decided on for 0ad, as will most other things about the Godstorm idea sobek was always going to be navy-oriented, so i thank you for your suggestion for him. those are some good suggestions for ptah and isis/sekhmet. i especially like your idea for thoth; i always forget that those science- and art-oriented gods can work well as technology-based gods in-game also, i dont know if youve kept up with some of the other posts earlier in this thread since your last post, but i decided to toss out old ideas i had of having the inca as one of the final civilizations and instead replaced them with iberians, a la 0ad itself. i was even able to get a definitive list of gods for them, which i had been unable to accomplish with the inca

personally, i liked a thing they had in Empire Earth II that would work well for this. it was basically an looping queue where you could tell a building to continuously produce a group of units as long as you had the resources for it. perhaps farms could be given a reseed option right into the building (farm) itself in such a way that, if youre quick, you can tell the exhausted farm to replace itself with a new one. this is where the looping queue comes in: the farm would have the option to replace itself, and you could then click on the looping queue button (perhaps an infinity symbol) so that every time from then on that that particular farm is exhausted, it automatically replaces itself with a new foundation which, admittedly, must still be constructed by the farmers again in order to be used i would also think that a looping queue would be one of the things that would be great for 0ad in particular since one of the biggest focuses in teh game is macromanagement; if you dont have to keep clicking on the button to replace the farms or train new units, thats time that you can spend elsewhere collecting resources or making a forward base or attacking your enemy

thanks for giving me an idea for a hebrew wonder, mythosruler!

i think a "teleport" function would actually be a really good idea. it could work well for scenario design. suppose you make a large, relatively simplified map for an RPG-like setting. you move your heroes to, say, a roman fortress and select the fort to move everyone inside it. they are then instantaneously teleported to another part of the map, cut off from the rest, which simulates the inside of that building. it could also work for large-scale maps, such as one simulating the entire world. one thing that always annoyed me in other games where such maps were made was that there was no way to really FEEL like your on a planet since there are legitimate borders to the game's world. it was more like you were playing on a MAP of the world than an ACTUAL world. basically, a teleport function would be good for specific units in a game and/or for any unit indiscriminately. in this way, you could simulate a round earth so that when your army gets to one side of the map, they instantly teleport to the opposite side (if this would make sense for the in-game story, of course) instead of literally having to march across the ENTIRE map to get from alaska to siberia