oshron

actually, it WOULD make sense: the elephant is stored away in the fort and the guy commanding it goes to the ramparts to defend. same reason a tank driver would still be trained to fight on foot if the need arises

i thought the Carthaginians already had some Iberian units? at the very least, i distinctly remember them having Balearic Slingers

those would probably be better-reserved for a culture which held those roles in particularly high regard. for example, archers would probably be more important to the Huns or other steppe tribes, thus warranting a separate building

i think Jesus would actually make a good addition to the editor, but only when it gets to Part 2; no matter how you slice it, Jesus lived and did what He did during the 1-500ad period if nothing else, he would make a good easter egg unit () for settings of Imperial Rome in the Israel/Palestine area

depending, Ptolemaic champion units could just be extremely specialized, or potentially even have non-combat roles (i'm just spitballin' here, i know little to nothing about Ptolemaic Egypt)

campaigns should probably be reserved for after the entire game (or almost the entire game) has been completed

there's one thing that i keep forgetting: is Part 2 planned to essentially be an expansion pack or a separate game, e.g., could civs from each one be present in the same random map/scenario as the other?

personally, i'd like to just see the Arctic map that is (or was) mentioned in the design documents

yeah as a non-historical just-for-fun part of the game, what does everyone think about a zombie apocalypse mode when it comes to random maps? in addition to defeating the other players (possibly) there could be some game modes which introduce gaia-controlled zombie units which will threaten players and actively seek out enemies. the zombies are very basic and don't use weapons, but are practically immune to projectiles (except for stones like those thrown by catapults, etc.) and are capable of crossing water by walking under it. they have a decent amount of health and have a special ability where another zombie is automatically spawned when they kill another unit with a 60% success rate. for gameplay purposes, there would be a number of randomly-placed "zombie factories" that would be where the zombies spawn, with one coming out automatically every five minutes or so in addition to there being a decent number of zombies on the map at the start of the game and any new ones that come up as they kill people again, just for fun it has nothing to do with the historicity of the game on a meta level, i think it could be pretty interesting; i don't think zombie apocalypse scenarios have ever been rendered in RTS style (it's mostly shooters) even though zombie-like elements HAVE been put into some RTS games (i think)

personally, i think that the best choice for an Arabic faction would be the Himyars, who lived in what is now Yemen and weren't subject to conquest by the major powers of the era; iirc, they lived during the timespan that would be covered in Part 2. they could also include some content based on Iram of the Pillars, the "Atlantis of the Sands" which supposedly existed during the same period the best choice, in that case, would be to have at least one Amerindian faction (such as the Mayans) and include some scenarios/random maps which are set in the native land of those natives in which an Old World faction like the Romans are very clearly out of place, going on the supposition of ancient colonists. there are already some map specs which go for hypothetical settings, such as Equatorial Africa, the Arctic Circle, and a Macedonian colony in the Himalayas and the Yamato dynasty i mean, if the Chinese would ever be included, it woud be a shame to leave out the Japanese even if they woud be from long before the famous Feudal Era

it's my understanding (and hope) that Part 2 will really be more like an expansion pack than a separate game entirely

i came up with another idea last night. it would kinda cut back on each civ's uniqueness, but i think it would allow for a (slightly) more accurate portrayal of what their respective religions were like. simply put, favor generation is redone such that all (or almost all) methods are available to each civilization, but only count for a certain percentage of their favor generation capabilities depending on how much that practice was undertaken by that civilization in history or how important it was, with respective unique methods as they've already been described being the most productive. this is very much incomplete, but here's what i have so far: expansion: basically the Atlanteans' favor generation method from AOM, you gain favor by building an empire in the name of your god; the actual buildings used would probably vary from civ to civ, but these would be fully-functional buildings that just have the double-purpose of pleasing the Major Gods of a given civilization fighting: basically the Norse's favor generation method from AOM, you gain favor by having your units fight the enemy (hunting counts as well) because combat pleases the gods for one reason or another garrison: you place units in a special building, which would be different for each civ, and they generate favor; this is based on the Greek favor generation method that was devised, using a theater in example which honors the gods mass: every unit you create generates favor, just at a very slow rate, so it would be beneficial to try and reach your population limit; it's based on the Christians' method that i devised, admittedly a bit of a cop-out meditation: you have a special unit that generates favor by being stationary/being commanded to enter a trance, allowing them to communicate with the gods and coax favor out of them monuments: basically the Egyptians' favor generation method from AOM, you build statues and the like to honor the gods, which would of course be unique to each civilization and probably add some of their own benefits offering: similar to the market functions, the player "sells" other resources for favor, and this would largely replace sacrificing for civs that didn't practice sacrifice (or didn't do it very often) prayer: basically the Greeks' favor generation method from AOM, you send people to the temple or another building (depending on civ) to pray around it, essentially gathering favor like they would any other resource sacrifice: you sacrifice people or animals using a special altar building to generate favor very quickly at the cost of your own unitsthere are probably some others that could/would apply, but those are what i have for now

The Aztecs fall well outside the time span of 0 A.D.; if I remember correctly, the earliest time they came to the Valley of Mexico and became culturally distinct was in the thirteenth century, more than seven hundred years after the latest point in time that 0 A.D. is projected to draw content from (simply put, Part 1 will feature civilizations which existed from 500-1 BC, and Part 2 will have ones from 1-500 AD). The best candidate for a Mesoamerican civilization to be included in 0 AD would be the Mayans, which were at their height or approaching it during the time frame of Part 2. For context, the collapse of the Maya civilization was around 900 AD. Lo que sigue es una traducción automática, que en realidad no hablar, leer o escribir en español. Los aztecas están muy por fuera del lapso de tiempo de 0 AD, si no recuerdo mal, la primera vez que llegó al Valle de México y se convirtió culturalmente distinta era en el siglo XIII, más de 700 años después de que el último punto en el tiempo que 0 AD se proyecta extraer el contenido de (en pocas palabras, Parte 1 contará con las civilizaciones que existieron 500-1 aC, y la Parte 2 tendrá los 1-500 dC). El mejor candidato para una civilización mesoamericana que se incluirá en 0 AD sería los mayas, que eran en su apogeo o acercarse a ella durante el plazo de la Parte 2. Para el contexto, el colapso de la civilización maya fue de alrededor de 900 AD. Me disculpo de antemano si algo de esto hizo poco o ningún sentido, recuerda que acabo de utilizar Google Translate para conseguir esto.

again, that's what's called an acceptable break from reality

she also turned a woman into Medusa because she was raped in her temple. it wasn't the poor woman's fault at all: Poseidon chased her into the temple where she pleaded for Athena's help, was ignored, and then Athena got mad when she was violated in the temple despite the fact that she had refused to shelter her in the first place. she COULD have stopped it, but didn't, and then punished the VICTIM. it's not nearly as bad as Hera or Zeus or some others, but that's still just plain mean, to say the least

A brilliant idea just occurred to me. I mentioned in my previous post (from eight months ago ) that almost all of the Greek gods were pricks. In fact, I read recently that there were three in particular who weren’t: Hestia, Hermes, and Hades (though even then, it’s more to the effect of them not getting as pissed off as easily as the others ). In fact, iirc, the individual Olympians were so petty that they could get angry at mortals for worshipping a different god instead of them! Anyway, here’s the main idea. The Greeks in Godstorm have a unique trait where, when they choose a particular Minor God to worship in order to advance to the next Phase, they (metaphorically) lose favor with the other two gods from that Phase (even if they didn’t get the option to worship one of them in the first place since it’s always a two-god option) and get a negative addition to the benefits given by the other two gods for not doing so (for instance, if you choose to worship Artemis to advance, then you get all the stuff Artemis will give you, but Hephaestus would take away some of your weapons and armor strength and Apollo would weaken your healers as a result). The trade-off, however, is that Greek myth units are slightly stronger to make up for it in addition to whatever benefits they may have gained during the course of a game already (for instance, taking a Relic that would improve them in some way). I think this accurately represents the pettiness of the Greek gods and makes the Greeks more unique. I got a second idea at the same time as well. Remember my mention of Hestia, Hermes, and Hades earlier? I’m thinking that I’ll completely revise the in-game Greek pantheon so that those three are the initial gods that you can pick after selecting your Major God, and they don’t take anything away from you (as something of an early-game courtesy) to represent their not being as vindictive as the rest, as well as reflecting their comparative importance or power to the other gods presented. This means that Hades would no longer be the “designated villain” of the Greek Major Gods. Who will take his place? Why, Hera, of course! Arguably the pissiest of all the Greek gods (well, except maybe for her husband ) but she definitely would be the typical villain as far as Zeus—the “designated hero” of the Greek gods—is concerned. She was merciless towards any of Zeus’ children that weren’t her own (and even some that were her own; Hephaestus still hasn’t recovered from her throwing him off Olympus the day he was born!) and is always ultimately the villain in vaguely accurate renditions of the tales of Hercules (Disney notwithstanding) In summation: The Greek gods being jerks is represented by aspects of the Greek civ being slightly worsened by choosing to worship a particular godGreek myth units are slightly stronger than comparable ones from other civs to make up for the aboveThe Town Phase Minor Gods are revised to Hades, Hermes, and Hestia and WILL NOT subtract from civ elementsHera is now the “evil” Greek Major God in the good-neutral-evil setupEDIT: a small amendment--Demeter and Hephaestus were also among the less vindictive Olympians

i think that could be considered an acceptable break from reality

....holy @#$%, that is brilliant!

for its time, i think AOK did a pretty good job differentiating them from other civs: the Huns don't build houses, and start with their maximum population because they're nomads. for Part2, this could go further with the Huns having "mobile" buildings--amounting to mobile dropsites like the Ox Carts from AOM and the ability to "deconstruct" buildings and "move" them. for gameplay purposes, the Huns and other nomads could be justified by saying that they're taking a break from their constant travel and have setup a primary camp in one part of the map from which they'll project their forces (i believe i used this example for nomad minifactions) another thing i suggested once is that the Huns could be made more unique by making so that the Huns--and only the Huns--can use their ranged cavalry while in motion

as i understand it, it's actually that everything is sorted into a playable faction while some are also part of a larger civilization; e.g., the Macedonians, Spartans, and Athenians are all separate factions from one another but all belong to the Hellenic civilization way back when, it was going to be that there would be just one Hellene faction and just one Celt faction, which could diverge in the City Phase into the Poleis/Macedonians and into the Britons/Gauls, respectively. that's since been dropped because it cut down on the uniqueness of each faction, so now we have a few aesthetically similar factions which have some key differences (for example, the Spartans can't build stone walls, iirc, while the Athenians and Macedonians can). the same principle would be used for the Germans: they'd all have similar architecture and citizen-soldiers, for the most part, with differences cropping up in the unique buildings and units that each faction within the Germanic civilization could build/train. for example, if one particular Germanic tribe was known for armored swordsmen, then that one and that one only would get an armored swordsman unit, while one which held archers as cowards for not getting up-close-and-personal with the enemy--and thus didn't use them very much historically--would lack an archer unit (keep in mind that these are just off-the-top-of-my-head fictional examples; i'm NOT suggesting that any Germanic tribe had these characteristics; i don't know @#$% about the Ancient Germans anyway )

that seems like they would be the perfect addition to minifaction lists, then: they have a notable but not major presence, interacted with numerous peoples, and--in the context of the game--have a unique technology that can be included as incentive for allying with them

as i've said many times before, i think that the Part 2 civs should be an even match in number for the Part 1 civs and should be "equivalents" in some way. for instance, teh Western/Imperial Romans would be the AD equivalent of the BC Republican Romans, the Byzantines to the Athenians (both for geographic area), while the Huns would be the AD equivalent to the Spartans for their (at least perceived) very militaristic lifestyle even if the Huns were actual conquerors with a much larger effect on history than the Spartans personally, i think the Anglo-Saxons would be a good addition as historical enemies of the Celts as well as being one of the better-known Germanic peoples, even though in this case they would likely end up using lots of Roman or Romanesque weapons that other Germanic factions wouldn't have access to well there'd definitely need to NOT be just "Germans" considering our current standards of unique civs. we had just "Hellenes" before, and now we have Athenians, Spartans, Macedonians, etc. so that the civs aren't as generic depending, i think they'd work best as one of those minifactions that have been discussed elsewhere. did the Belgians really impact history all that much or make much of a name for themselves during 0ad's timeframe?

which is all still in the range of 500 BC to 1 BC. Alexander wasn't born until 356 BC, to give you a bit more context; the civs presented in the game just have to have been at their peak during the course of the game (for further context, it's planned that hypothetical Western/Imperial Romans will be dated specifically to Trajan's reign, when the Roman Empire was at the hegiht of its power)

personally, i still think it should be Stonehenge that's the Brythonic Wonder i'd recommend making the horse larger so that it's more easily seen, but i otherwise agree with the idea that the hill is physically cut off; that's really the only problem i ever had with the horse as a wonder, since there was nothing to realistically stop units from walking on it

as mentioned before, a mirror tower (perhaps as a Wonder) would work best as an editor-only unit that you can place as eye candy rather than having an actual function, except maybe for a buff that increases the damage towers and other defensive structures do to ships and siege, in reference to Archimedes' supposed use of them