Athenian Olives

[Thorfinn the Shallow Minded]

This topic is near and dear to my heart since it defined Athenian identity.  Namely, I refer to olives and how they could be represented.  If this has already been implemented in some form since I last played, my apologies.

Olive technology or bonus: Simply by having a technology or bonus that makes Athenian farmers produce metal alongside food would be one easy step in representing their use.  It does, however, perhaps leave some to be desired in giving interesting choices.  

Trade technology: Olives were important primarily for facilitating trade, and having perhaps two technologies that represent that would be nice since it could also introduce a way of depicting black and red figure ware as the technology names, a nice nod to their prolific pottery.  

Unique farm: much like Age of Empires 3, there could be a farm that produces only metal.  Since this would probably require a new farm asset, it is perhaps the least most desirable option.

I am well aware that the farm related bonuses would feel redundant when Athens already has a mining bonus.  One way of solving that would be to make the mining bonus only unique to Themistocles.  Although the mine does seem to have been known prior to his day, he was the one who harnessed it for the production of triremes.
 

[Seleucids]

Interesting idea! 

We can have a tech that allows Athenian farmers to produce 1 metal every 10 seconds.

In addition, we can give Athenians a metal extractor building, which works identically to a field but produces metal instead of food when you assign workers onto it. This allows Athenians to consume metal even when they have run out of natural mines. 

These metal boosts enables the Athenian player to make large quantities of merc jav inf which takes advantage of Iphicrates bonus. Additionally, it allows them to counter champion cav with City Guards.

[Gurken Khan]

Another idea I had was making olive ~fields that can cling to mountains; on maps like Hellas it can be difficult to place regular fields. In addition we could make them work a bit different as you suggested.

[Lion.Kanzen]

We had already discussed having a phase 3 building that would be like a plantation.

Different civilizations have different production buildings.

[real_tabasco_sauce]

Might be cool to do an olive plantation building to replace the metal mining civ bonus. Although could exist in addition to the existing one.

If and when a model is made, I could come up with a pretty good way to integrate it into the civ.

Edited 2 hours ago by real_tabasco_sauce

[Stan`]

8 minutes ago, real_tabasco_sauce said:

Might be cool to do an olive plantation building to replace the metal mining civ bonus.

If and when a model is made, I could come up with a pretty good way to integrate it into the civ.

We do have an old orchard actor we could use.

[nifa]

I don't get it, what's the connection between olives and metal? If someone would provide references I could see what I can do about a model

[Lion.Kanzen]

1 hour ago, nifa said:

I don't get it, what's the connection between olives and metal? If someone would provide references I could see what I can do about a model

 

[Lion.Kanzen]

 

 

[Lion.Kanzen]

19 minutes ago, Lion.Kanzen said:

I don't get it, what's the connection between olives and metal?

You have to think about coins and wealth and the trade generated from industry.

[Lion.Kanzen]

Olives and olive oil were not only an important component of the ancient Mediterranean diet but also one of the most successful industries in antiquity. Cultivation of the olive spread with Phoenician and Greek colonization from Asia Minor to Iberia and North Africa and fine olive oil became a great trading commodity right through to the Roman period and beyond. The olive also came to have a wider cultural significance, most famously as a branch of peace and as the victor's crown in the ancient Olympic Games.

Long-lived and drought-resistant, the tree was a handily low-maintenance form of farming. Olive growers usually planted their trees in amongst fruit trees and reared animals so as to have some income in case of an olive crop failure, and it was an easy way to keep groves grass and weed free. The residue from pressing oil from olives could also be used as feed, especially for pigs.

The earliest known presses in Greece come from Olynthos. Several examples have been excavated which used circular millstones to crush the olives. One of the best-preserved olive presses comes from Hellenistic Argilos in northern Greece. As the machine evolved, a winch was added to bring down the beam with greater force.

Uses

Not only were olives and olive oil an important part of the Mediterranean diet and cooking process (and still are, of course) but the oil produced from pressed olives was also used for many other purposes. Greeks and Romans used it to clean their bodies after exercise – smearing it on so that it collected dirt and sweat and then scraping it off using a metal instrument called a strigil. Olive oil was used as a fuel in terracotta (and more rarely metal) lamps, as an ingredient of perfumes, in religious rituals, for massages, as a multi-purpose lubricant, and even prescribed as a medicine.

The Athenians considered the olive tree a gift from their patron goddess Athena, and this very tree grew on the acropolis of the city. They had an entire sacred grove of olive trees (moriae) too, from which oil was pressed and placed into uniquely decorated amphora vases to be given as prizes in the annual Panathenaic festival.

 

Olive branches came to signify peace. Herodotus tells us that in the early 5th century BC Aristagoras of Miletus carried one when he went to negotiate help from Cleomenes during the Ionian Revolt against Persia so that he would not be turned away from the Spartan king. Olive branches were also carried by pilgrims who visited the sacred oracle of Apollo at Delphi. 

https://www.worldhistory.org/article/947/the-olive-in-the-ancient-mediterranean/

 

Edited 1 hour ago by Lion.Kanzen