oshron

cave objects would be pretty cool i always liked how in AOM there were some objects like that with which you could make underground areas even though they technically arent underground

i dont mean these in the sense of unique units and buildings that each civilization will have like war elephants or rotary mills. im more referring to entirely unique units and buildings which will only be accessible through the editor for scenario design and story purposes. if you remember, in AOM, there were plenty of units, buildings, and other objects like these which were specifically included for the campaign scenarios, among them the Folstag Flag Bearer, the Guardian, Arkantos, Prometheus, the Hades Gate, and the Temple of the Gods anyway, what are the developerss and modders' ideas for what kinds of objects like these would be included in the game, either for campaign purposes or included as generic units for scenario designers to use? here's an example: i know that many heroes have already been decided upon, such as the hellenes variously getting guys like leonidas, themistocles, and alexander. but what about some of their famous generals, like Perdiccas, Craterus, or Antipater? will specific units for them which are only available through the editor be included? or will you go the route of Empire Earth and make some generic hero units which can be renamed to simulate a given historical personage (for example, in Empire Earth's trojan war scenario, the greek kings Agamemnon, Menelaus, and Odysseus were represented by the units for Alexander, Gilgamesh, and Heirakles, respectively, instead of having their own special units)

id suggest holding off settler modes until the second pack; not only is it pretty much an unnecessary game mode to the overall goal of making the first part of the game, but it would also fit in really well with the nomadic civs that are potentially planned for the second pack

personally, id go with Gigantomachy

while the old main menu was much more fitting for an RTS, i think i like this one more because its not so dark

i was under the impression that a new feature was going to be eventually added so that, if you wanted to, you could turn off the ethnic names so that the units, etc, would instead have generic names during gameplay like in other RTS games

well didnt alot of civilizations in antiquity have something like this? dont you think it may be interesting if a new standard building is set up instead which is available to civs which historically had "academies" like that?

i kinda got lost in the discussion, so im just gonna say this pertaining to building limits: perhaps these could be fueled or influenced by the number of civic centers that the player has suppose that you start the game with one civic center, like usual. with just this, you can build 10 houses, 5 mills, 2 farmsteads, 1 barracks, and 1 temple. later on, you build a second civic center, which allows you to construct 10 more houses, 5 more mills, and so on. the numbers ive given here are just examples.

sounds like a good idea to me. a simple outpost surrounded by palisades protecting an ore deposit could very well be a good way to make a forward base first an outpost next to a quarry; then a mill to harvest those minerals; then palisades to protect the workers; then a house, a barracks, a fortress, and finally a small army to harass your enemies!

for specific scenarios, though, you could probably easily make a day-night cycle just for the purposes of that scenario, to get an idea of how much time passes or for a specific campaign (for example: the battle of thermopylae)

personally, i would recommend that only civic centers and fortresses contribute significantly to a player's territory or influence because of the importance of those particular buildings while buildings like farmsteads, docks, and barracks contribute a much smaller (but still considerable) amount than the civcenter and fortress. houses, mills, and such could give even less because of their unstated civic functions (mainly because theyre where the people live). lastly, walls, wall-towers, gates, and outposts (if outposts are included) shouldnt contribute at all to territorial gains. speaking of buildings and territories, i personally think that SOME buildings SHOULD be able to be built on unclaimed or enemy territory. this is more for realism than anything else. after all, in wars throughout history, the invaders have almost always built forward bases and fortifications on enemy territory. if you want, this could maybe be where some dropped buildings, basically outposts and palisades like in AOK, could be constructed, but NOT in territory actually controlled by the player (unless theres eventual overlap). buildings like these, of course, would be cheap, quick to build, and easy to destroy.

personally, i think there should be an option to visually turn off territories in the minimap and/or in the overworld. this could potentially be useful if someone just wants to take a screenshot or if they just feel overwhelmed by the borders so that they can turn it off for a while, all while still playing a territory map

i think it would be better if a more neutral color, like beige, was used for gaia units aside from trees and mineral resources, but with pixel art similarly implemented. as i mentioned before, moving objects such as animals could be rendered on the minimap as small dots (so that they dont occupy as much space) while static objects (player units given to neutral gaia, like a temple) are larger but non-moving objects but if anything should be rendered with a straight-up white color, it should be available settlements and, if theyre included, relics

you could probably do some easy pixel art with less than 10 square pixels each. i could even whip up some examples if you want me to. but if this is the case, you could very well use "pixel art" for alot of things, or even smaller versions for different ones. for example, units could perhaps be rendered as just four pixels in a square, whereas static resources and buildings would be twelve in a square. having settlements as actual "houses" would be best in my opinion, in part because of pre-existing recognition from AOM

my thought was actually that, visually, you would have a sapper/siege engineer unit, but in the programmer he would be considered a ram. as an example, for some designs of an egyptian civ that ive been working on, i gave them a team of sappers who are armed with shovels and other digging equipment, but instead of just being some guys moving as a group, they are also protected by a moveable barrier carried by about half a dozen other guys who mostly protect them from arrows and other projectiles (except things like boulders) while they break down the walls

PLEASE dont tell me that settlements arent going to be included in the final game; i loved that concept in AOM because, even IF the town centers were very far away from each other to encourage expansion, there was still some control over the population limit which would prompt players to attack occupied settlements if they desperately needed more population. incidentally, i think that, for scenario design, it would be good if there were "sites of power"; basically, buildings that would fill the territorial functions of civic centers but without the overlapping radius limitations, and would otherwise serve different purposes. as mentioned earlier in this thread, a "site of power" could be something like an inn where some economic functions and units are trained (much like a civic center) or it could be some ruins like an ancient fortress or temple, or perhaps even just a hill. again, this wouldnt come into regular gameplay, but it could look really good if youre designing a fiction scenario. i could probably come up with an entire list of "sites of power" for ya if you wanted me to ...is that red territory giving us the finger? XD hey, here's an idea: maybe there could be some special button on the game interface taht would allow you to task all selected units to repair all buildings that are damaged? that would certainly take away from some of the emicromanagement factors i think that the two options should definitely be added at some point, but only one should be chosen for now. maybe the development team and former staff could just do a show of hands to decide which one they want for the final version and work on adding the other as a new feature in the second release

because the environment around there is called "the sudan"; it CAN be a bit confusing. personally, i would suggest calling them the Mandé instead, as that leaves no room for confusion

windows. in any case, i figured it out and now have a shortcut to it on the desktop of a shared computer. i was able to load it up just fine, but after a crash i can no longer get it to load up; ill try to get a screencap of the error message tomorrow (the comp in question is in my parents' bedroom and my dad always heads in early)

alpha 6, the one up for download on the mainpage; i honestly dont know what the SVN version is

im having a LOT of trouble testing out the alpha for myself. namely, i cant figure out where the game's files are located and therefore cant create a shortcut to the run program, so i have to uninstall and reinstall it regularly just to get the darn thing to load up any help on this?

i REALLY like this one. it kinda reminds me of an archaic map, which would work really well for a history-themed game. i imagine in the final game that the borders would be more angular, but the same basic concept could be applied

maybe you could justify an embassy-type building by simply repurposing the carthaginian barracks? maybe it could be designed to resemble an embassy and be named appropriately, perhaps with some additional unique technologies to replace some techs, especially for unit upgrades (if techs are intended like AOK or AOM) since theyre mercenaries here's an example. im just gonna go off of what little i know about the carthaginians in the game as just toss out these ideas: so you build the carthaginian barracks/embassy and you are presented with the options to train/hire the new mercenaries. they could perhaps have very fast train-times (a celtic swordsman will be trained for the carthaginians much faster than an equivalent roman swordsman, for instance) and perhaps cost mostly metal instead of food, but perhaps at higher rates than others. perhaps they combined average cost of other units of that type plus an extra 50% of that (so if, say, a greek archer costs 50 food and 50 wood, a carthaginian archer would cost 100 metal based on that plus another fifty for its specific mercenary status, so a carthaginian mercenary archer would cost 150 metal all in all. the trade-off is that the carthaginian mercenary units are much more powerful and gain experience faster it could also be that, unique to the carthaginians, their units have only one upgraded rank, "Professional," which completely bypasses the intermediary stage of other civs so that their units become "Elites" much faster the barracks/embassy could also, in place of some technologies that other civs would get, have some completely unique technologies which serve similar functions but are redecorated to be more themed around diplomatic activities. for example, if theres a "Conscription" technology for the hellenes or romans that lets their citizen-soldiers train faster, the carthaginians would instead have "Diplomacy" which would also trains their units faster but at a slightly slower or faster rate or for more or less resources. an in-universe justification for this could be taht, through diplomacy, the mercs are more willing to join the carthaginians whereas the conscripts are dragged from their homes by the MPs and forcibly trained, which may be met with opposition by the conscripts themselves in that they dont fight as well when forced. or something like that; as i said, im just tossing out ideas also, i noticed in the video that was posted that trees dont seem to fall when chopped for lumber; is that gonna be changed in later releases? because that was one thing i never really liked in Empire Earth

aah, but those purposes arent overshadowed. the civic center trains your basic units for the beginning of the game as well as being the focal point of your town; the barracks trains all the rest of your units but without the civic/economic functions; and the fortress trains your siege and heroes

personally, i think "classic" gameplay should be more like AOM; after that game, i never really liked how you could just build town centers, etc, wherever you wanted. for that matter, i think that "classic" mode should be the default and "provincial/territories" mode should be the option that has to be enabled instead oh, and while im here, will single-player random map options be saved between load-ups? because, playing vanilla AOM again, thats one thing i really hate having to do every time i want to load up a new random map perhaps these buildings could be programmed to be functionally similar to settlements so that, if you wanted, you could just place that building instead of a settlement? for the territories themselves, i get that, at the moment, its more or less planned that theyll be geometric shapes lined up to natural barriers like water and cliffs, but i think that an editor option should be to move the borders of a territory any which way, except in a relatively small radius around the settlement/inn/fortress/other "site of power". this would be good for scenario design in case someone wanted to make a particular region like in actual history, like one territory which encompasses the entire city of rome and other territories for the provinces around it. perhaps there could also be an editor-only option to create neutral territory or no-man's land where a different "site of power" is set down instead of a settlement. for example, an ancient ruin thats supposedly cursed so people are afraid to build anything near it but are willing to travel into the general area to fight. this could also work well for a "king of the hill" type game in which the players have to capture big building at the center of the map and hold it for a while, which could be on no man's land to prevent people from building fortifications around it and increase the gameplay challenge

ive done a little more work. the thing ive worked on most recently is getting correct names for the greek units. i decided to go back a little while ago and renamed all of them, giving them their original greek names instead of the english equivalents (ex: Kéntauroi instead of Centaur, Harpūia instead of Harpy). im not entirely sure its all correct, and now that i think about it im not sure if the major and minor gods have the correct names, either. i think ill go over them and try to figure that out. but here's a little index of myth unit names which have been changed: Hades --> Hadēs (this respelling DOES make alot of sense; the way its normally spelled, "Hades" looks like it should be pronounced "hayds" Hamadryad --> Hamadryád Harpy --> Harpūia Centaur --> Kéntauroi Cetus --> Kētos Chimera --> Khimaros Cyclops --> Kuklōpes Nemean Lion --> Léōn tēs Neméas; im not sure if this one is correct, though; Medusa --> Médousa Stymphalian Bird --> Stymphalídes órnis one new name that im looking for is simply the greek word for "boar" (or maybe "giant boar" or "monster boar") to use for the erymanthian boar as a catch-all for the three greek mythical boars: the erymanthian one, the caledonian one, and the crommyonian sow