Artaxerxes Update-gathering ideas

[Prometeus]

Persepolis pictures? What part of the city are you interested in ? Do you need AoE style buildings ? Just send a PM ( I've the "Send an e-mail option" turned on ). I've a big archaeology encyclopedia... and a more bigger scanner.

[Stefan Härtel]

My new Persian style is pretty stuck. If I don't get a new great inspiration I fear I'll have to stick with those from "Darius"

quote: 1) Personally I like the idea of civ-specific event files. It does take more time to develop and you really need to playtest both sides thoroughly to ensure that everything works. The effort can be reduced by limiting the number of "new" versus "shared" events. In SoG, only 60% of the Events in each of the seven files were truly unique.

Sure, I will have only a few historical events for the Hellenes, as well as with the Persians. Most of the stuff will be the same. I have a fun idea about the Athenian-Persian relations after the Royal Peace: If the Athenians discover specific techs, like "Fleet expansion project", they'll be pulled into war with the Persians, same with the conquest of specific cities. If they do the same when the human player is Persian, it is the player's responsibility to keep an eye on the definitions of the peace

quote: 2) Dual tech trees is also a good idea. I recommend you include two rules.txt files, and change the desirability of the human-controlled techs. For example if the Greeks are the human player and the Persian AI is "civilized", the rules.txt file should set all Greek techs to AI Desirability of zero and the modifier to -2 (if the Persians are "aggressive", set the modifier to +2). Thus even if the Persians steal a Greek tech, there won't be any incentive to research further along the Greek path. Be sure to give each side a no,no tech which obsoletes all or most units of the other (to prevent Greek Immortals and Persian phalanxes).

I doubt that two rules.txt files will be necessary. There won't be too many techs to discover, and with balanced work on the civ's characters, I believe it will all work well.

quote: 3) People.gif: This really needs to differentiate between the various civs. As it is, everyone looks Egyptian. Feel free to borrow any of the ones I used for EotBA.

I will certainly use some of your people.gif guys, but if I may make a suggestion: The women in ancient Persia had the same rights as the men, and no special dress code. I can send over a couple of examples, especially for their hair styles if you want. I just always notice that they have the islamic fundamentalist veil. That is too Arabic and came to Persia only after the Arab conquest. I'll also replace Elvis with Magian priests and those Einstein guys with... well, I'm not sure yet.

quote: 4) Cities.gif: Most are OK, but there's a huge style difference between that used for the Greeks and all the others. Maybe it's just me, but I find style differences to be very disconcerting. One of the reasons (IMHO) that Nemo and Alex get such rave reviews is that the artwork in their scenarios is totally consistent. So I'd give serious consideration to replacing those Greek cities.

I have done a beautiful new Greek style based on the pics in a book a friend gave me on my birthday. I thought about leaving the same style to Athenians and Thebans, but perhaps make a unique style for Spartans and Ionians (one civ). You know, Sparta was actualy a tiny city. Before the Hellenistic age, only a few public buildings existed in Sparta itself, and there were only perhaps 5,000-10,000 real citizens (for comparrison: Athens had 20-25,000). Ionia and Syrakosai on the other hand were rich. So there will be the dirty little look for Sparta (with assurance that it won't grow too large) and the huge, rich look for the others.
As for the Persians: See above.
I'll make a new style for the Carthaginians that is for universal use.

quote: 5) Terrain Specials: I think there's quite a few you could add which are more appropriate for this era and location. For example, Olives and Copper were hugely important. As for the forest pheasant....my views are well known!

That is one of the most important points, and one of the reasons why there will soon be a Darius 2.3 version
I'll have to do a bit more research on ancient Iranian geography. I won't stick with natural ressources like figs, walnuts, roses, fruits and so, I also hope to include some agricultural ones like goats and so on. I will include a new terrain style (one? at least). Yes, this is hard hand work, I agree.


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[Kull]

A few thoughts:

1) Personally I like the idea of civ-specific event files. It does take more time to develop and you really need to playtest both sides thoroughly to ensure that everything works. The effort can be reduced by limiting the number of "new" versus "shared" events. In SoG, only 60% of the Events in each of the seven files were truly unique.

2) Dual tech trees is also a good idea. I recommend you include two rules.txt files, and change the desirability of the human-controlled techs. For example if the Greeks are the human player and the Persian AI is "civilized", the rules.txt file should set all Greek techs to AI Desirability of zero and the modifier to -2 (if the Persians are "aggressive", set the modifier to +2). Thus even if the Persians steal a Greek tech, there won't be any incentive to research further along the Greek path. Be sure to give each side a no,no tech which obsoletes all or most units of the other (to prevent Greek Immortals and Persian phalanxes).

3) People.gif: This really needs to differentiate between the various civs. As it is, everyone looks Egyptian. Feel free to borrow any of the ones I used for EotBA.

4) Cities.gif: Most are OK, but there's a huge style difference between that used for the Greeks and all the others. Maybe it's just me, but I find style differences to be very disconcerting. One of the reasons (IMHO) that Nemo and Alex get such rave reviews is that the artwork in their scenarios is totally consistent. So I'd give serious consideration to replacing those Greek cities.

5) Terrain Specials: I think there's quite a few you could add which are more appropriate for this era and location. For example, Olives and Copper were hugely important. As for the forest pheasant....my views are well known!