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Relaunch of Aristeia


Zophim
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Hello, I am Zophim, the leader and chief researcher of Aristeia, a mod project of 0 AD that centers in the ancient Near East and Aegean region during the 1500 years prior to 500 BC (so roughly 2000-500 BC). The project has been rethought and redesigned, but will retain the standard features of the main game.

I wish to extend my sincerest thanks to all those, past and present, who contributed to the development of this mod.

The following features may be subject to change.

neareastmap.png

The new expanded name for the mod will be “Aristeia Bronziron” (in order to more accurately reflect the often simultaneous use of bronze and iron during the periods traditionally separated into the Bronze Age and Iron Age), and it will be divided into three parts. Each of these three parts will, in the spirit of the original game, cover timeframes of around 500 years each: 2000-1500 BC, 1500-1000 BC, and 1000-500 BC.

The periods will be released in reverse order (Part III, Part II, Part I) in order to maintain a sense of continuity with the main game, moving back through history, even as Millenium AD moves forward through history. Any design documents I publish will supersede any previous ones. More detailed civ information will be made available in brand new topics in the Council of Modders: Aristeia forum, using the following format example:

[Part III] Faction: The Late Period Egyptians. Inside these topics, users can post relevant links, suggestions, images, text, etc.

 

Four main civilizations/groupings/factions will be featured through all three periods in various forms, in an attempt to demonstrate the continuity and relationships among the nations and cultural groups of the time. The four basic groups are the Egyptians, the Hebrews, the Assyrians, and the Greeks.

Part I: Fathers of Nations will span from 2000 BC – 1445 BC (the approximate date of the Hebrew exodus from Egypt). During this period, the Egyptian, Sumerian, and Minoan civilizations begin their ascent, and the Hebrew patriarchs multiply to become a mighty people.

Featured Civs: Old Kingdom Egyptians, Hebrews, Sumerians, Minoans.

 

Part II: Rise of Nations will span from 1445 BC – 930 BC (the approximate date of the division of the Israelite kingdom into Ephraim and Judah). During this period, Egypt and Israel together end the domination of the Hyksos rulers, and usher in a golden age of prosperity for the entire region.

Featured Civs: New Kingdom Egyptians, United Monarchy Israelites, Syrians, Mycenaeans.

 

Part III: Peril of Nations will span from 930 BC – 539 BC (the date of Babylon’s fall to Cyrus the Great of Persia). During this period, the ancient Near East, with help from Greece, defends itself from the encroachments of the Assyrian Empire, which is itself absorbed by the Babylonians.

Featured Civs: Late Period Egyptians, Divided Kingdom Judahites, New Empire Assyrians, Archaic Greeks.

 

The official process pipeline is as follows: Civ Research → Design Documentation → 2D art/3D art/programming.

The main drawback of this mod’s timeframe is that there aren’t a great deal of readily accessible online illustrations of structures and units for some of these civs, even though I have many resources at home, both written and visual, that I could convert into working structure/unit concepts. Ideally, if I had mountains of free time, I would painstakingly give you guys personally-created concept art scans of every single unit and structure that is required in Aristeia (including basic/advanced/elite citizen soldier variations), because, through all my research, I have pretty definite mental images of what these guys should look like. I might do some of this in the future, but for now, I might have to use the main game’s units/buildings as a point of reference for the artists/programmers.

With that being said, my immediate goal for a future release is to get at least one placeholding faction up and running, even if we have to use entities from the main game’s scenario editor atlas. Therefore, until new, historically-accurate models and art are made available, I plan for now to make heavy use of placeholder units and structures from the main game as well as from the available units in the latest downloadable version of Aristeia. Some of the main game’s entities can actually be used as is (for example, the Nubian archer for Egypt, the Persian siege ram for Assyria, etc.).

We are focusing on Part III first (other parts will follow at a later stage).

AristeiaPartIIICivs.pdf

Edited by Zophim
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Ha, nice

so no Mycenaeans?

Fracturing a mod like this with such a small team doesn't sound like it would do it justice. Tbh the age of empires approach of all empires at their respective heights duking it out sounds like it would garner the most attention. From what I've seen in the main game people are hungry for straight up Egyptians. Splitting them by kingdom might make your audience wary. 

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11 hours ago, LordGood said:

so no Mycenaeans?

Fracturing a mod like this with such a small team doesn't sound like it would do it justice. Tbh the age of empires approach of all empires at their respective heights duking it out sounds like it would garner the most attention. From what I've seen in the main game people are hungry for straight up Egyptians. Splitting them by kingdom might make your audience wary. 

Well, I had planned to include the Mycenaeans with the other Greek spheres of influence.

As far as splitting things up: same as the vanilla game and Millenium AD are doing (500-year divisions, when you could make the argument that we should combine the Republican and Imperial Romans into simply The Romans).  It's partly _because_ I want to do this long and complex 1500-year period justice that I've broken it up into 3 parts.  And I think there are enough empire/kingdom heights in 1000-500 BC to satisfy the requirements of a good duke-out. You've got Ashurbanipal of Assyria, Necho II of Egypt, Gyges of Lydia, and Jehoshaphat of Judah. :D

1 hour ago, Aghilas said:

@LordGood he replace only the name "Mycenaeans" with "Archaic Greeks", it's right @Zophim?

What I did was try to group the Mycenaeans, Archaic Greeks, and Lydians under a broad category.

1 hour ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

No, look at time period. Archaic Greeks are not Mycenaeans.

Strictly speaking, you are correct.  I should use a different term.

All: In order to eliminate some misunderstanding, I'm going to rename the Part III Greeks a more generic term: "Aegean Greeks," since I seem to have misapplied the term "Archaic" in a general sense to cover both the Mycenaean and Archaic periods of Part III.

How about we move the Mycenaeans back to Part II, leaving the Archaic Greeks and Lydian kingdom in Part III?  As it is, the Mycenaean period is sort of straddling the Part II/Part III divide anyway (and it's unclear just when the Trojan War(s) occurred, it could have been anywhere from 1100-800 BC, depending on how long the Greek "Dark Age" lasted and how widespread it was; my personal conclusion is that what we know as Archaic Greece picked up not too long after the Mycenaean period.)

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19 hours ago, balduin said:

Is there any reason to not include Hittites (in your map Hatti) in Part II: Rise of Nations?

For thematic and continuity reasons, we are focusing on a series of four dominant civilizations (Egypt, Israel, Assyria/Babylon, Greece) within their respective geographic regions (the Nile, the Levant, Mesopotamia, the Aegean), but Hittites will most likely be represented in some form in Part II as individual units within a parent Mesopotamian civ.'

The idea at this point is a succession of civs like this, represented in sequence for Parts I, II, and III:

EGYPT: Old/Middle Kingdom -> New Kingdom -> Late Period

ISRAEL: Pre-monarchy Hebrews -> United Monarchy -> Judahite Kingdom

MESOPOTAMIA: Sumer/Akkad -> Kassite Babylon/Syria? -> Neo-Assyrian Empire

GREECE: Minoans -> Mycenaeans -> Archaic Greeks

19 hours ago, balduin said:

Why is Neo-Babylon not included in Part III: Perils of Nations? I know it existed only for a short time, but was extremely powerful.

See above. Neo-Babylon was basically a successor of Assyria (although co-existing in a subordinate position prior to the sack of Nineveh in 612 BC and defeat of Assyria's last major resistance in 609 BC), and inherited pretty much their whole former empire.  One of the titles of Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon was "king of Assyria", indicating some form of imperial continuity.  Since both the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian empires took place in the 1000-500 BC timeframe,  I chose the Assyrians to represent the Mesopotamian region, since they seem to have had the greater impact and influence, as well as much greater longevity.  The Neo-Babylonian and Achaemenid Persian empires at least partly used the Assyrian models of administration and governance.

All that being said, I'm not ruling out a future Neo-Babylon civ for Part III, but that would have to wait until the main four civs are up and running.

Edited by Zophim
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Hi all, I'm reporting in to say that, regretfully, I will be unable to do much further with the mod for at least three months or so, since I have taken on some full-time obligations in my life. Thanks to everyone for their continued support! Any and all able and willing contributors to the Aristeia mod are welcome.  Specifically, any sources/materials pertaining to Egyptian, Hebrew, Assyrian, or Mycenaean civilizations would be much appreciated. Thanks!

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I would personally suggest that the Lydians be represented as a separate civilisation.  They were for a long time a potent military and economic power.  Also, it would be anachronistic to have the Old Kingdom Egyptians present in the game since their time was long gone 2000 B.C.  The Hebrews also present a problem chronologically for the 2000-1446 B.C. section since they were not much of a political entity.

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12 hours ago, Thorfinn the Shallow Minded said:

I would personally suggest that the Lydians be represented as a separate civilisation.  They were for a long time a potent military and economic power.  Also, it would be anachronistic to have the Old Kingdom Egyptians present in the game since their time was long gone 2000 B.C.  The Hebrews also present a problem chronologically for the 2000-1446 B.C. section since they were not much of a political entity.

Military but Judeans can be represented with their neighbors Canaanites and Phoenician.

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On 12/10/2017 at 11:31 AM, Thorfinn the Shallow Minded said:

I would personally suggest that the Lydians be represented as a separate civilisation.  They were for a long time a potent military and economic power.  Also, it would be anachronistic to have the Old Kingdom Egyptians present in the game since their time was long gone 2000 B.C.  The Hebrews also present a problem chronologically for the 2000-1446 B.C. section since they were not much of a political entity.

Well, as things stand now, the timespan of Aristeia will no longer be divided up into several sections.  So for example, there will now just be The Egyptians, instead of Old Kingdom, New Kingdom, etc.  I haven't decided what to do about the Lydians, though.

Edited by Zophim
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