oshron

this sounds like it would be alot of fun, but i would recommend putting it lower on the list of priorities; we need to FINISH the darn game first

well the mississippians are easier to get away with because there's no "Mississippian" tribe today. ideally, id like to get it to be that the mississippians only take content from tribes that were in their general area, but theyre more of a generic amerindian faction rather than a specific tribe. plus, this allows me to include some of america's more iconic native myths, like the wendigo and thunderbird the myth units are where i kind of break th rules; just about everything else for that faction will presumably be from the peoples who lived in that area. since little is known about the Mississippians, i figured it wouldnt be too much of a stretch to include mortal units and buildings based on the modern tribes from the general area. wikipedia lists these tribes as being in the southeastern US region:"Native American descendants of the mound-builders include Alabama, Apalachee, Caddo, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, Guale, Hitchiti, Houma, and Seminole peoples, many of whom still reside in the South." what i was planning was to either just make their language english (and make the cro-magnons have proto-indo-european, which would be a bit more correct), or to mix some of their languages together. for this example, ill just borrow a couple units from AOE3's native tribes:Lakota Dog Soldier - the language used here would be native lakota, or sioux Seminole Sharktooth Bowman - the seminole language of course, ill need to look into the warfare of those tribes to get ideas and then i can decide what language would be used for their names. for their universal language, though, the one that they speak, the illinois language would probably be best if thats around where cahokia was, since that was kinda the defining feature of the mississippians thanks very much for that! i think i have most or all of the egyptians down, but this is good for updating them and filling in any holes that i had before

well i use freelang for most of my foreign languages (thats also where i got most of the nahuatl for the aztecs), and "wampum" is what it said was the quechua word for "boat". but if you have any ideas, id be happy to hear them. ive done a bit more work on other civilizations, too: the Mesoindian civilization i had before has been changed into the Mississippians, which was a real historical culture from what is now the eastern USA. they also work well because their culture pretty much died out before the europeans arrived. like the other non-eurasian civilizations, though, they'll be lacking in cavalry and consequently have runner-type units. for heroes, im planning to make the Mississippians have a "medeoulin" unit (which is something like a shaman iirc) and some kind of warrior who can summon a guardian animal spirit to his aid. i also got a pretty cool civilization bonus for them: because the Mississippians didnt have any form of stone architecture, they don't need to use stone for anything and their buildings only cost wood, so any units that other civilizations would need to task on stone mines can instead be used for lumbering their favor generation method is dancing. this was kind of inspired by the dancing that the different native american civilizations in Age of Empires could do (in that, the Aztecs, Sioux, and Iroquois) and can perform up to five different dances: the War Dance boosts allied morale, the Shalako Dance increases building resistance, the Hoop Dance occasionally summons free myth units, the Ghost Dance increases favor output, and the Rain Dance increases economic output and even heals damaged buildings at a very slow rate. all of these dances grant favor at a rate of 0.1 units of it for each dancer (which can only be infantry citizen-soldiers; no replacing them with female citizens like with other civs--the tradeoff for these effects is that it preoccupies your soldiers), and the maximum number of dancers is six. dances can only be performed around a firepit, of which there can only be one per civic center (or territory) and they cant be captured, not even by other Mississippians, and no other buildings can exist in a small area around them (kind of in reference to how you see, in fiction, that there's a bunch of tents or longhouses around a firepit when natives are dancing) their mythology ive already worked out, but im cheating with it; once again, i cant help but give them gods and monsters from many different cultures, though ive used tribes from the Mississippians' region more than any other where i could help it. their major gods are Ahone (chief god of the Algonquians), Gitche Manitou (iirc, the Algonquian name for the Sioux entity named Wakan Tanka, "the Great Mystery" that is sometimes called the Great Spirit), and Muut (the owl spirit of death) their minor gods are: Azeban (racoon trickster spirit) Kokopelli (trickster spirit of music) Wohpe (goddess of peace, who grants the Chepi myth unit, a spirit who can empower units and buildings similar to the egyptian pharaoh's function) Heyokha (spirit of thunder and lightning, who grants the myth units Unktehi, a generic horned serpent found in many different native american myths, and the iconic Thunderbird) Tonenili (god of rain, who grants the ‘Ant’jjhnii, or skin-walker, a Navajo "witch" that can change shapes between human and wolf/coyote) Sisiutl (god of warrior invincibility, actually a pacific northwest god, who grants the myth units Sésquac, aka bigfoot, and Altamaha-ha, a crocodile-snouted sturgeon) Gaoh (spirit of the winds, who grants the Bakaak, an evil flying spirit from the great lakes region) Raven (the famous trickster spirit, who grants the Jersey Devil myth unit) Kumugwe (god of teh undersea, i think this is another PNW god) Glooscap (Abenaki creator god who grants the Piasa, an enormous dragon from many cultures) Katipenimitak (the Caribou Master, who grants the Raven Mocker, a spirit that appears to be an old man but can suddenly turn into a giant, fiery bird to suicide attack and instantly kill another unit, and the Gaaseyendietha, a dragon that lives underwater because its fire is so hot it would burn up the world if it stays out for too long, it emerges only to attack. while its out of the water, it rapidly loses health, but is incredibly powerful) Tsul Kalu (the Great Lord of teh Game, who grants the myth unit Wendigo, a cannibalistic spirit that can not only drain health from enemies in reference to cannibalism but occasionally turns a unit it kills into another Wendigo that is aggressive to all players) ive also got a few myth unit ideas for the cro-magnons (btw, i think ill be changing their language to proto-indo-european so that i can make english the language of the mississippians, but ill see how this turns out): the Shunka Warakin, a north american cryptid that some think may be a relict dire wolf; the Despot, which is a proposed common name for tyrannosaurs; and the Peon, which is a proposed common name for smaller carnivorous dinosaurs like compsognathus (so the initial one is just a single Peon while the upgraded version becomes a Peon Pack; also, the Despot's improved version would be, of course, Despot Rex). ill need to go over some other information i have before going on with the cro-magnons

i just thought maybe it would really help to simplify the random map interface, so theres just the twenty civilizations instead of sixty options. alternatively, the choice could come up immediately when you start the game, giving you a leeway of ten seconds to start functions in any way, shape, or form before forcing you to choose a major god. in terms of the faction divisions in 0ad, i love that because it simplifies the minor god system for godstorm: its already in the game and functions exactly the same as it did in AOM. for scenarios, there would have to be a function in the editor that allows you to select a major god (as opposed to a civilization) so that you automatically start out in "Village Phase-II". i think that this could really work quite well now: you start the game in "Village Phase-I" and, after ten seconds, are forced to advance to "Village Phase-II", which are programmed seperately but are named exactly the same thing so that it appears seemless in the game itself french seems to be the language im leaning towards for the crusader's language, anyway, so i guess ill make it that instead, mixing in germanic where appropriate EDIT: to my joy, there were three incan gods that i can use for the inca major gods that have a fair amount of information for them: Inti, god of the sun and parton of the incan empire; Viracocha, the creator god (who is also the father of Inti); and Supay, god of death and the lord of demons. im still working out the rest of their pantheon, but heres what i have so far in terms of the civ itself: theyre a sovereign civilization that uses the Sapa Inca as their only hero. he's not a good fighter, so i was thinking of maybe making it so that all of the incan mortals are good against myth units one of their cultural bonuses is that they can climb cliffs and mountains, even really steep ones, but are very slow when they do so units so far include the Cuncha chucuna (infantry swordsman; actually uses an axe), Chaska chiqui (infantry spearman), Huaraca (infantry slinger), Antisuyo (cavalry archer, actually on foot), Estolica (cavalry javelinst, actually on foot), Warmi (female citizen), Qhariwan Llama (merhant with a llama), Pikaq (entirely fictional ballista in the same feel as the aztec siege unit), Wampum (merchant ship), Wampum Mahanakuy (light warship), and Challwa hap’iq (fishing ship) ive only got two super units so far: Wikch’uy Ayllos (bola-thrower) and Suhuc chiqui (Cusco spearman available only to Inti)

hey, just thought id chime in a couple of ideas for cheats. these are named after the alpha modes that are released thus far: ARGONAUT : (must be in caps to work) reveals all of the water on the map BELLEROPHON : (must be in caps to work) creates a special Bellerophon hero unit to fight for you, similar to how he was in AOM

hey, all. been a while, hasnt it? ive narrowed possibilities for civ #20 down to five options: the Inca, the Zulu, the Maasai, the Vietnamese, or the Khmer. im currently leaning towards the inca because south america is the only continent that isnt represented yet (i count australia as being part of the polynesian region) i also worked out what the units for the christians can be based on units from Age of Kings by cross-referencing the Teutons, Franks, and Britons based on the european beligerants of the First Crusade (the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdoms of France and England). i havent gotten names for the christian units yet, but here's the basic ideas: Crossbowman (Infantry Archer) Skirmisher (Infantry Javelinist) Cavalry Archer Longswordsman (Infantry Swordsman) Pikeman (Infantry Swordsman) Knight (Cavalry Spearman) Scout Cavalry (Cavalry Swordsman) Fire Ship (Light Warship) Galley (Medium Warship) Petard (possibly a superunit; this is a powerful suicide-bombing unit, so im not sure if this one warrants inclusion) Mangonel (Onager) Capped Ram (Ram) Scorpion (Ballista) Trebuchet (possibly a superunit; this unit was available to all three base civilizations in AOK but only fits as an onager-type unit, but i want to keep the mangonel) im debating what the language should be, but im currently leaning towards either strictly middle english (the common language of england during the time of the first crusade) or a mix of middle english, the language of france at the time (or just straight up french), and germanic languages (from the HRE) EDIT: i was also thinking of a simplification possibility: instead of selecting a major god before the game starts, you simply select a civilization (ie, Egyptians) and as soon as the game starts, your task is to gather 100 food. immediately after gathering 100 food, you are forced with the option of choosing one of the three major gods (say, Osiris) and begin advancing into it, which takes only thirty seconds, during which time a statue of that god is erected in your civic center, and then the game announces that, say, "PLAYER X has chosen to worship OSIRIS!"

got it, i was just giving out some ideas of my own

here's my thoughts. ill be referring to these neutral players as tribes for my examples. In pre-game interface where you determine what the world of the game will look like (using random maps as an example here), there should be an optional setting for “Native Peoples” (or something similar) that highlights a separate menu where these options appear: Number of Tribes: (ranges from 1 to 12, or whatever the max number of players is; or there could be a “Match” option where the number of tribes equals the number of players, a “Random” option where there’s any number ranging from 0 to the maximum) Civilization: (determines what civ the tribes on the map belong to. This could either be pre-determined depending on the map, or be decided in a drop-down menu interface, in which the player chooses from any of the civs that the player can use, or a generic “World” civ that creates generic barbarians depending on the dominant percentage of terrain on the map*, or a “Random” option in which every tribe is a different civ [with some overlap] whereas selecting a specific civ makes all tribes of that civ) Units: (1-5 units that must be decided as belonging to the tribes as a whole; these would likely be editor-only units of generic types that become available to a civ at random, so that one tribe would have a different unit than another. I’ll list some ideas later. They would likely be chosen by a drop-down menu and, ideally, a unit would become unselectable once it is chosen for one slot. The basic idea I have here is that these units accompany the regular soldiers of each tribe and make up mercenaries you receive if you ally with them.) Temperament: (how aggressive a tribe is, divided into a few different options, such as “To All”, “To Civ”, and “To Others”; this would be applied to all tribes at the same time. “To All” would be how aggressive it is to all players indiscriminately, “To Civ” would be to players of the same civilization, and “To Others” would be to players of all civs but their own. Temperament options would be divided into these: 1. Sworn Enemy (they hate players in question and will never ally to them) 2. Hateful (they hate the player, but can be allied if you give them enough money or intimidate them thoroughly) 3. Neutral (they don’t care about the players in question and can be swayed in either direction) 4. Friendly (they like the player, and can be allied easily, but will fight back if attacked) 5. Best Friends (they pretty much love the players in question and will never end any alliances made, even letting the player kill them) *civs by terrain: for example, on a predominantly snowy map, the natives could be Vikings, while on a map featuring unique terrain for an entirely fictional map, they could become goblins or something; a North American map would give generic Amerindians Tribal unique units could be generic versions of existing unique units or something that really is entirely unique, for example, a Frankish throwing-axeman or Native American “prowler” or Middle Eastern camel rider or a Zulu spearman. The possibilities are endless, but looking for units as unique as possible would be best. As I mentioned before, these unique units would become mercenary units that you acquire by paying an allied tribe however much metal/gold/whatever and acquiring that unit at your civic center. Regular tribal units would be exactly the same as the citizen-soldiers of the player civs, but, of course, redesigned for their tribes and with new or simply generic names (like just “Tribal Spearman,” etc.). since these are primitive peoples, they should only have infantry and cavalry, no ships or siege, unless those are unique units (like, say, Greek Catapult). However, im thinking that instead of having them as citizen-soldiers, theyre just regular soldiers and have no economic functions and there are specific villager units for the tribes, which make up slaves that you could capture while the soldiers must be killed. These would ideally come in man, woman, and child forms. The tribes would probably have only one or two buildings that would be unique to them, and could only be constructed by their unique villager units. These would probably be towers, houses/huts/tents, light walls like palisades (but no gates or walltowers), and a civic center-type building that could be built anywhere rather than over a settlement. This would help emphasize a nomadic lifestyle, so they could perhaps appear in your starting territory on provincial maps. An idea stemming from this is that the tribes don’t start off with any buildings but are instead villagers and soldiers plopped down in the wilderness (at least double your initial LOS so that they don’t immediately attack you) and then immediately try to find a place to build their civic center, after which you can attack or befriend them through tribute, trade, or even by forcing them to join you at the point of a sword. Depending on what you do, you could then get mercenaries or demand tribute; perhaps when you ally them, you can click on their civic center and some options come up like “Give Tribute”, “Trade”, “Take Tribute”, “End Alliance”, or “Hire Mercenary”. Giving and trading would boost how much they like you, taking and ending the alliance would make them like you less, but hiring mercenaries doesn’t help how much they like or hate you. I feel there’s something else I wanted to say, but I cant quite think of what it is

plus, giving the celts some dogs helps to make them unique

i say save any touchscreen functions for when nintendo decides to adopt 0ad and make a DS version of it

i know this is a historical rts, but cant the darn LEARNING CAMPAIGN just be used to educate the player about the game WITHOUT being historical? itll be alot easier to get the lessons across when you dont have to find something historical to fit it into

ehh, i think id prefer han chinese, mauryan indians, yamato japanese, or mayans to vikings

yes, empire earth is also an RTS, one of the more famous. in fact, i think it was actually the first one in three dimensions and was made by some of the same people as AOE and AOK. its similar in function to an AOE game but covers all of human history, from cavemen to mecha. there were two sequels, but the first one is definitely the best.

what kind of setting is that in, anyway? is that sand or snow that theyre on?

so youd like a spore-like interface where you could make your own buildings from scratch?

awesome. are those persians?

maybe. i think my idea is pretty nice too (well of course i do, its MY idea ) and should perhaps be considered. as i said, it works best with civs that are seperated by greater stretches of land and in different environments

somehow i dont think itll really match up to 0ad

maybe i'd just misunderstood it, i dunno

really? cool. maybe the information on animals in teh design document is just outdated then

well the idea is that, instead of using the exact same model, its the same basic skeleton of a unit (the same basic polygon) with a different external model, like with the current units in 0ad

a third official pack. a total of 18 civs: 6 from 500-1bc, 6 from 1-500ad, and a further 6 exclusively from outside the "roman" world from anywhere in either period

i know there's already plans set in place for animals in the game, but i thought id just throw this out there. this is the setup that im planning out for godstorm. basically, instead of having a set bestiary of specific animals, nature in each game is set to a civilization (either a neutral GAIA civ or one of the playable civs) and changes depending on that. so, for example, instead of having individual lion and tiger units, there'd be one "great cat" unit that changes depending on what civilization is applied to it. for the neutral gaia civ, it would be a lion, while for, say, an indian faction would make it into a tiger and an amerindian faction would make it a jaguar. it works better with a more diverse selection of civs (the ones of 0ad are all from the same general area, but subspecies could be applied, like barbary and european lions instead of a generic african lion). there could also be wild equivalents to domestic animals, so there's wild horses that can be hunted for food as well as horses that can be herded back to your town. other such ones include boars/pigs, rams/sheep, feral/domestic camels, chickens/junglefowl, and so on

also why i suggest that there be a third pack with "non-roman" civilizations

DPFAR: i think i have an idea for the major god bonus of Yahweh for the semites. it entails kosher foods and is basically that it makes it so that only the people of yahweh among the semites cant hunt and eat certain animals (the ones that arent kosher), but in exchange, they get small amounts of favor while gathering other food (which is supposed to be like ritual slaughter of those animals, so that they cant hunt as many animals as the other civilizations but get compensation for it what do you think?