Originally Posted by
Phalangitis
Demokritos, I made this thread a sticky one, so it will always stay on the front page. If you want it to be more free send me a message to un-stick it.
Cheers
I don't mind this move at all, Phal. On the contrary. Makes it easier for people who want to keep track of where this project is going. Thank you.
Originally Posted by
Tenerife_Boy
Glad this is still alive.
Glad to see you taking an interest in this project, too.
I'd like some feedback regarding a couple of questions that have arisen for me when taking a closer look at the Hellenika files. Currently in Hellenika, some AOR units from given factions share the uniform colours with the regular units for the faction in question. I'd like this to be always the case - at least when it comes to hoplites. In this way, if Korinthos becomes able to recruit Amphipolitan hoplites, for example, the latter will not don Korinthian uniform colours, but their own theme - which would make the whole of the Korinthian army appear more varied and realistic, the more so the greater the number of different AOR units in it. Now, I've noticed that the AOR Lokroi Peltasts share uniform colours with the AOR Amphisaioi. My editing would have the former (as part of the Ozoles Lokroi) look different from the latter. But maybe this is wrong, historically. Should these two units continue to appear related through their uniform colours - or not?
The same question applies (so far) to the following pair of units:
AOR Akarnanes and AOR Amphilochioi;
AOR Arcades and AOR Elimean Cavalry.
Something similar holds for the following case. Messenia is one of the factions in game. Its soldiers are recruitable for other factions as AOR Messinioi. Now, changes to the entry of this unit in the GaW_unit_variants_colours table seem to have no effect. Changes to the entry of the unit named AOR Naxioi, however, show up on the AOR Messinioi. But Naxos is also a faction in game, so it gets represented in the AOR Naxioi, too. So these two factions should share colours in this way (edit: I know got a theme that looks good for Messinioi, less so for Naxioi)? If not, how do we split them apart?
Edit: Figured out how to split AOR_Messinioi and AOR_Naxioi apart. They no longer need to share colours, if there's a good reason not to.
Sorry for diving into details like this, but I like to have a good reason for giving a unit its colours. If no-one offers his or her opinion about this, I'll reckon my own judgement will do.
Edit: Finished new theme for Satrapa Daskyleion.
They now share of one of the colours with Satrapa Sardis (the warm yellow tone), to mark the common ground for them. Here's how that comes out on the campaign map...
Compare with Satrapa Sardis (green colour not shown)...
Edit 2: Finished the mercs. They number only five type of units and I left one of them, the Agrianian Axemen, untouched. Below is a couple of examples of the changes.
Misthophoroi Iones Hippeis...
And a small taste of Misthophoroi Krhtes Toxotai...
Edit 3: I have moved on to the AOR units in general. Not only those from the known factions in game, but all of them, i.e. including the "faction-less" ones. For example, the Abdiraneans (WIP)...
Edit 4 (as I prefer editing an old post over submitting a new one for minor news, unless someone else makes a contribution to the thread that becomes of later date): Work on the AOR units is coming alone fine. Have about a dozen left to do. Then I'll see what I can do for other types of units. I'll take a look on some of the elite units. But I suspect there's less room for change there as M@x has already done a really good job with the variety issue for them texture-wise. Cheap units should offer more leeway. I fully agree with TB on the stand that poor soldiers ought to afford less in the way of pigments to dye their garments and therefore should appear less colourful than the rest of the army. I'm already playing around with that idea on my own computer.
To show you what I mean, instead of the Argioi Prodromoi Hippeus looking like this, as they currently do in Hellenika, with full colours in the factional theme...
...you may have them appearing like this in the future.......i.e. in a subdued or "pigment-poor" variety of the factional theme. Likewise for other relatively cheap units.
But this is stretching the project quite a bit. Don't know how far I can take it, based on available freetime. I'd better have something ready for release by the end of next week or everything will have to postponed for several months, due to RL obligations. Argos and Korinthos should be covered in the above way within the time given, but I cannot promise anything more. But I hope to cover all playable factions in this manner. That's as far I currently want to go with this project.
Edit 5: In a project like this, you come across some difficult choices of themes, of course. Like the one for the Tegeans, who're recuitable as AOR units. An historical illustration suggests that they should appear in some sort of pinkish red tunics...
I found out about that when I had already made a different version that I was content with...As it happens, the latter colours make the former colours in different order. Although I find the Tegeans looking better in black and several other factions use some hue of red or other as primary colour, I guess I must offer what could be the more "historical" version in the final release of this mod. The other will be given as an optional for those who want and can edit the mod accordingly on their own, using the PFM with my instructions. The result is easily checked in custom battles.