Community effort (phase 3)

[lch]

Foodstamp said:
Happy Birthday Agrajag

+1

[Valandil]

Agreed. Happy birthday.
Apologies for grumping (is that a word.)


Hey, just occured to me I'm going to have to upload stuff eventually -should I just use winRAR to compress, or is there a specific format I should use?
Getting back to work now.

[Foodstamp]

I used to rar, now I normally zip stuff because I have had some unix users complain in the past. The mod sizes are so small that compression size does not matter. For the purposes of me getting the .dm/graphics for combining with the other modders works, you can use either.

[Saulot]

(Happy belated birthday Agrajag)

Since it seems nobody will come up with a name, here's one:

Acatharti Dominion (loosely translates to: Realm of the Impure / Rule of the Impure)

Also, since nobody else seems to have spoken up about the backdrop, and Agrajag (or anyone else) hasn't actually put forth an actual alternative (and no, generic european-style fantasy human won't cut it) we seem to be still passively leaning towards the middle-eastern backdrop. If anyone wants to speak up about it, this is a good time.

(While I still have choices to make about some units, and ideas which could take a week or two to flesh out, I can't actually proceed with the spritework until we make a concrete (and final) decision about this)

@Foodstamp:
Since each of the files we would send are so small anyway, I don't think using no compression at all should be a problem.

[llamabeast]

It's more often Windows users than Linux users who can't open rar files. Most distros come with unrar by default, whereas many Windows users have never even heard of WinRAR.

[Agrajag]

Thanks everyone (for the birthday greetings, of course )

Regarding compression: how about .7z?
Personally I don't really care which compression is used, since I can open every kind that I'm aware of.

Regarding theme: It's more that I really dislike the middle-eastern theme than that I prefer any other specific theme. If you want another backdrop suggestion then how about:
1) Norse/Germanic tribes. Yes, I'm aware that there are already several Nordic nations in the unmodded game, but the somewhat tribal tones fit nicely with the warring tribes theme, the warlike tones fit as well
2) Variety. There could be some difference in theme between the different elements. Perhaps part of the reason these groups didn't get along so well is that they come from different regions.
3) Greek and/or Roman. Go for an RTW like feel, where several theoretically friendly factions are aggressively competing with each other.
4) Overrun Rome. Rome after being destroyed by barbaric tribes, some cultural remnants remain from the old Rome, but mostly barbaric/chaotic/disorganized/tribal/adjective rule.

[llamabeast]

.zip! It's the only one everyone knows how to open.

Personally I think Middle Eastern would be awesome, and I'd look forward to playing it. Overrun Rome sounds interesting too.

[Maraxus]

We could make one point of the compas for every element ...

Like:
-From the weather-racked mountains in the north comes the Iron tribe praising the pretender's earth-aspect.
-From the hot deserts in the south comes the normadic fire tribe.
-From the open, barren plains in the east comes the wind cult.
-From the costs of the west comes the water-tribe.

Yes, I allready said, I'm a hemispheroist. The directions can be shuffled, if you prefer a hot north or something.

I just "researched" pre-roman Spain ... gods, they were unlucky basicly some guys that do bronze but then just get one cultural hit after another: Celts, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks - everybody migrated over the Iberian peninsula, even before Rome sucked them in.

[Foodstamp]

The Iberian theme would be fine with me. I just finished reading "The Story of Spain", "Comrades" and "The Quest for El Cid" for my Spanish history class, and I read "The Basque History of the World. The first book really goes into depth about pre-Roman, the Basque book touches on it only a little, but redeems itself by being filled with Basque folklore.

I eventually planned to do an Iberian themed nation going by the name "Ebro" with the following influences:

Lusitania, Basque, Carthaginian, Greek, Roman, and Tarsis.

Either theme is fine with me, and I am pretty sure no one has really dove into doing Middle Eastern graphics too much, so it is not too late to set a new course.

Keep in mind we are under no deadline here, so we do not need to set time limits for the various phases of the mod.

[Saulot]

I'm fine with Iberian theme, and am glad everyone so far is pleased with it. Any objections?

@llamabeast: If you want I'd be willing to work on a middle-eastern nation. Perhaps a joint effort on both our parts, or I could get to it eventually on my own. Something Elamite, Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian, Parthian, for Early Era maybe? (or something more Persian for middle era)

I'd also be interested in perhaps something Kush/Nubian or Proto-Ethiopian for Early Era.

Or middle era, Kushan or Satavahana or something else Indian that's not monkey based. We could definitely have some fun with katars and patas.

Or to go back to late era, possibly Turkish Jannisary armies.

(as you can tell, I'd be interested in almost anything, though I don't actually have the time to explore anything more than a small fraction of what interests me)

@Foodstamp:
I understand that there is no real deadline, but IMHO setting goals and having at least a bit of pressure helps.