oshron

for some expansions, i would personally recommend the addition to two more phaes: Empire (representing a time when the civ gets to the size and influence of the roman empire/republic) and Legend (representing a point of civilization where it becomes so powerful and influential that it is remembered for all time, again like rome)

it could possibly be programmed into the game that new resources will appear on certain locations in specific random map scripts, representing (possibly unseen) weather eroding the soil and whatnot away from the surface and exposing something like an ore deposit, even though this would be a bit unrealistic since a big pile of rocks or raw metals suddenly pop up out of the ground

an idea just occurred to me about how ships could work. to get this idea across, i need to give you an example first: in Empire Earth 2, some siege weapons such as field guns had to automatically pack and unpack themselves in order to move, kind of like how trebuchets did in AOK. however, they did all this automatically in EE2: a field gun moves into position, unpacks itself, and then begins firing, and stays that way until its commanded to move again, at which point it automatically packs itself up again i was thinking just a few minutes ago that maybe this is how ships could work in terms of attacking: when they are commanded to attack, they move into position and, depending on how they attack, they have more or less delay time as they "unpack". an example here is with a trireme in which the ship stops and then a bunch of archers climb out of the ship's hold and start firing arrows. these archers would be the rowing crew that makes the ship move, not only justifying why they are already on the ship but why the ship cant move while it attacks (unless, of course, there's some special civilization bonus for that). though they would be unseen, units that are legitimately garrisoned onto the ship will give bonuses to how much damage the rowers do. this would also potentially solve the problem of how units on ships would be represented. it may take away from realism a bit, but i think its a much better method than just having the arrows or boulders magically come from the ship's hull as it attacks. depending on what the ship actually is for each civilization, it could potentially have more or less delay time. suppose, for instance, that a particular civ's Heavy Warship unit is a catapult ship and, as part of its graphic design, it already has a catapult mounted on its deck that is being manned by two guys, so they can immediately fire a boulder but, understandably, have some recharge time before they can attack again

would there be such distinction in-game, though? i know that 0ad is being designed for historical accuracy, but, honestly, for the sake of programming, wouldnt it be easier to make one collective "Phalanx" technology (but maybe called something different for each civ?) rather than programming a different one for each civ? in this case, teh hellenes could perhaps have inherent bonuses for that and there could maybe be graphical differences for the ones that had more developed phalanxes. as an example, a hypothetical celtic phalanx would just be them walking in formation while the hellenes would have a more accurate lineup for their phalanx

but didnt other civs also form phalanx or phalanx-like formations?

a bit more help with the egyptians would certainly be nice. lemme take a look at what we're still missing.... a God Power for the "good" Major God, Osiris; a God Power is a special, one-time-use ability unique to a particular in-game god that can have a variety of effects and ideally is associated with that god in some way (for example, Set, god of the desert, has the "Drought" God Power) but its not absolutely necessary that a god has a God Power specifically related to them. generally, the GPs of Major Gods are weaker than those of later Phases (all Major Gods are chosen at the very beginning of the game or are otherwise pre-selected without any player input) general Traits for the "neutral" Major God, Ra; a Trait is an inherent ability granted by a Major God simply for worshipping them. unlike God Powers, Traits MUST be associated with the Major God (Osiris, for example, has traits which automatically benefit the Egyptian heroes, the Pharaoh and Heqa-hut [governor]) general Traits for the "evil" Major God, Set God Powers for Bastet, Sobek, Khnum, Isis, Ptah, and Thoth a Focus for Ma'at and Khepri; a Focus is simply a statement of what aspects of the civilization that a particular Minor God benefits, which is generally related to an aspect of that Minor God (Bastet, for instace, has a focus based on agriculture because of the natural abilities of cats as pest-control) Technologies for Ra (Major God), Sobek, Hathor, Khepri, Isis, Ptah, Sekhmet, and Thoth (Minor Gods); for the mythology mod, my intent is that, depending on what gods you choose to worship throughout the game, you will receive different "mythical technologies" which serve as the unique technologies of this game. unique technologies from 0ad itself would be swapped over to different gods depending on what a particular god is associated with (as an example, i decided to give Poseidon the tech "Delian League" based on a possible split in the Greek Poleis that mythosruler made a thread about) effects for Horus' technology, "Eye of Horus" general traits (ie, strengths, weaknesses, and effective units) for the mythological units Akh (Mummy), Henkhiseswy (a type of wind spirit), Mastyt (lionness-warrior), Nau-Duaty (serpent of the underworld), Sa-Apep (spawn of a demonic snake), Shesmet (tusked whale), Tjatja (falcon-warrior), and Watet (winged snake); a myth unit is, as its name suggests, a mythical or legendary creature that a civilization acquires by worshipping a particular god. ideally, a myth unit should be associated with that god in a relatively obvious way (for example, the Tjatja falcon-warrior is made available by worshipping Horus), though its not required that they are just about everything is required for the Henkhiseswy unit (little information about it exists, as far as i can tell) population and garrison costs and a limit for Mastyt, Sa-Apep, Shesmet, Tjatja, and Watet; depending on the size of a myth unit or how powerful it is, it will cost more population slots; for example, the horse-sized Greek Centaur takes only two while the giant scarab Kheperer-aa takes five; a garrison limit is similar to but separate from the population cost--the garrison cost is derived solely from the size of the unit (for example, the Celtic Leprechaun costs only one garrison slot even though he takes up many more population slots; finally, a limit is the number of a myth unit that can be made to resolve the situation of spamming giants and whatnot like in AOM: with extremely powerful myth units like the Greek Colossus, you can only have one, while with the noticeably weaker Remejt-Iteru mud-man, you can have up to 12 at a time (not including their spawn that are created when they die) a Special Ability for the Nau-Duaty underworld serpent, Shesmet, Tjatja, and Watet; nearly all myth units have some sort of Special Ability that makes them unique or more useful; the Mastyt lionness-warrior, for instance, can breathe fire, while the Khaty jackal-man can leap through the air, and the Akh mummy can turn people into its followers thats about all thats left for the egyptians, other than some history on their buildings

i understand that, but for the sake of programming, i think infantry spearmen in general should all already have the data to form phalanxes programmed into them, but they just need that "Othismis" technology to be researched in order to activate that ability. again, giving celts the ability to form phalanxes would be for an entirely fictional scenario and have no standing whatsoever on the game's actual historicity; they wouldnt be able to do it in scenarios based on historical events or in random maps

i still think one of the more important ones should be "Phalanx"; a civ should be required to research "Phalanx", ie, develop the strategy, before being able to use it, and only the civs which used them historically should be able to research it. all infantry spearmen (and maybe swordsmen as well?) should be able to form phalanxes, but only if they have the technology researched. this could actually provide for an interesting development in a scenario with a fictional setting and plot (as opposed to a historical one) in which, say, the celts team up with the greeks (the celts being the player) and their soldiers are taught how to use phalanxes by the greeks in teh scenario by an in-game function granting them the phalanx technology after they ally with teh greeks, just like how "foreign" technologies in AOM could be given to a civilization (as an example, in one of the scenarios in the AOM campaign, the player automatically has a special bonus for their myth units that is only available to greeks under normal conditions, even though all players in that scenario are egyptian) as a technology, "Phalanx" could also perhaps improve the armor of units that "Phalanx"

then why not both? dont you think it would also be awesome to play against someone in a pre-made ancient rome where youre chased out of the city and then come back with an army to lay siege and take rome for yourself?

THIS is what i was talking about months ago in the suggestion thread when i said there should be multiplayer maps based on cities!

here's some suggestions of mine: --horticulture: improves the rate at which food is gathered from nature (ie, forage patches, fruit trees) --pastoralism: improves the rate at which livestock fatten --slash-and-burn cultivation: greatly improves the rate at which food is gathered from nature and allows citizens to chop down trees faster --money: reduces the amount of resources you have to pay in the market interface --divination: improves the line of sight of buildings or units (the designers can decide which) --irrigation: improves the rate at which food is gathered from fields OR lets you build fields faster OR lets you replant/restore farms faster --wheeled plow: improves the rate at which food is gathered from fields --oil lamp: improves the line of sight of buildings --phalanx: enables the use of phalanx formations by melee infantry soldiers

in empire earth, you could garrison soldiers inside a siege tower and then deposit them on the other side of a wall; that was a special thing programmed specifically for siege towers

i dont see anything too complex about a SW mod, aside from the aforementioned flying units. i myself have thought that the 0ad engine could very easily have rifle units by simply giving the archer unit class animations that feature guns instead of arrows, and so on

i hope so, too, or at least that there's an official patch made to allow for gigantic maps. i really liked one map in particular on AOM that recreated pretty much the entire world and was GIGANTIC. it even had a decent amount of accuracy to it. just imagine the detail that a 0ad map that size could pull off for an entire map of the ancient world!

say, what are some of the technologies that the developers have planned for the game? reading the design document, i only see mention of technology TYPES (aside from unique techs) and not the technologies themselves. i would like to know not only so that i can use them myself in making designs for my mythology mod, but also so that i can give some input. for instance, will there be different options for agricultural technologies, like "Irrigation" for some civs and "Slash-and-Burn Cultivation" for others to add to authenticity, even if each one does virtually the same thing?

yup, that sounds about right. it could also potentially give the player incentive to go athens and build long walls from one town to another to defend their trade route

if you want, the player could be able to trade with themselves to indefinitely generate metal or other resources (since gold as a distinct resource doesnt exist in 0ad) like you could in AOM, thus allowing you to buy other resources indefinitely

sorry for the double post, but does anyone know the ancient greek word for "boar"? im going over the greek myth units again and giving them pictures on the civ page for the greeks, and ive gotten to the erymanthian boar. a thought occurred that artemis' myth unit could just be a generic legendary boar (with details given for both the calydonian and erymanthian boars), and perhaps it could be upgraded into something similar to the crommyonian sow from the theseus legend

im pissed right now because a troll baited me into getting myself banned from another board. im trying to cool down, so id like to open up discussion here again ive been working on the norse again, and a link to their page is in the post above this one. i also started the page for the japanese: http://rts-database.wikispaces.com/Japanese if there's anything that you all think is missing or have any input whatsoever, id be glad to hear it

couldnt you possibly make it so that the celts simply cant build houses and their other buildings support population instead? but maybe you could save that for an expansion pack

the advantage of wooden walls would be that you can build them much, MUCH faster than stone ones

alternatively, the ground could just flatten automatically like in AOM and Empire Earth without any sort of animation

might i suggest letting the player access the history articles by clicking on the unit/building's icon? thats how it was in AOM and i loved being able to quickly reference a unit's abilities and history, whereas in empire earth, you more or less had to guess (they dont tell you in-game that war elephants have splash damage; i didnt even notice it until just recently)

perhaps there could be some special aspect added to buildings: "stone" or "wood", referring to how vulnerable they would be to certain attacks. alternatively, some units could be specifically designated as being powerful against certain buildings, the ones that use mostly wood, because those units use fire (in whatever case that would be)

there could perhaps be different animations to make infantry attacking walls look more plausible. perhaps they take up shovels and try to undermine it? walls and other buildings, i think, should have extremely high inherent armor against citizen-soldiers, though. as an example, in age of mythology, armor was calculated in percentages and units and buildings with 99% armor in a certain category (in AOM, attacks were classified as "hack", "ranged", and "crush") COULD be hurt by units with those types of attacks, but they did barely any damage. for instance, human units in that game usually had 99% crush armor, meaning that they couldnt really be killed by siege, while siege had 99% ranged armor, so you couldnt pick them off with archers