[WARLORDS MOD + SCENARIO] Legends of Ancient Arabia

Hey AmazonQueen!

Thanks for trying my mod! I'll be looking forward to hearing any comments or suggestions you have. Feel free to let me know what you think!

Hello.
I just downloaded the mod today, and it is very good. I am playing as the dark blue people that start near Emam. I only have 2 complaints:
1. Some units need to be reskinned, the white needs to be more beige-y(Is that a word?)
2. Some more civilopedia enteries, especially for the Arab civs and Leaders. I would like to know who I am.

I have one bug to report that may or may not be the games fault. Occasionally my mouse cursor will freeze up and stay there. I have to use keyboard shortcuts to save, exit, and reboot to get my mouse working again.
Great mod though!

Gordon Farrell said:

Hey AmazonQueen!

Thanks for trying my mod! I'll be looking forward to hearing any comments or suggestions you have. Feel free to let me know what you think!

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Didn't get time to play a full game but what I played look very impressive
I think I saw the game you mentioned working on in Amman Airport, almost bought it but I wasn't sure what language it would run in and my Arabic is lousy, enough for greetings and ordering a meal.

Looks interesting, downloading now.
I actually know the period quite well and may or may not get to working on a Medieval Islamic mod. Whats the game you are working, in more detail?

Hey, thanks for checking out my work, everyone! I've been tied up with end-of-semester stuff so I haven't been able to get back here to respond to your comments, but hopefully I can catch up a little now...

ohcrapitsnico - If you're asking about the game I worked on for BreakAway, it';s called "Arabian Lords" and it's a low-res city builder. You vie for controlling influence over an Arabian city by constructing important buildings, establishing trade relations, and driving off your opponents' thugs.

amazon queen - Does that sound like the game you saw in Jordan?

ajidica - I'm wondering why the white robes on the Arabian units bothers you? Also, I have to agree about the Civilopedia entries for the Arabian leaders... I definitely need to provide those in v2! I just got burned out doing all the entries for the techs, buildings, and units!

It it just something I noticed, I occasionaly get annoyed at things like that. Also, what is up with Imperial Horse Archers? Typically, 'civilized' horse archers were worse than their nomad counterparts. They shouldn't be that strong. It is a great mod though. Unfortunitly I have spent more time playing Total War.

I just discovered this while looking for historical mods, and really impressed with the work you put into this. This is exactly the kind of thing I enjoy, learning about a uncovered part of history. THX, I will let you know who I tried and how it went.

I found a map inside the mod CROSSROAD OF THE WORLD BTS its really beutiful
i hope you can use it for Ancient arabia v2 the only think you have to do is to replace ressources cause all hills rivers are perfect
Also Makeda is the ethiopian name of queen of sheba the yemenite name is Balkis pls change it for less confusion
still waiting

Great mod, but it takes forever to run turns. A BTS port would be AWESOME!

Well it looks like the call to port LoAA to BtS is growing louder! I'm going to try to find some time to start working on this in January. Thanks everyone for your encouragement!

sakhr: I'm really glad you've returned with more of your excellent notes and suggestions. I have some questions about earlier suggestions you made.

the poesy market did existed in mecca it was called Ôqath suq it show how the poesy was important in building the arabian culture

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I'm thinking the Oqath Suq should be a unique building, maybe even a wonder? Was there only the one in Mecca?

Hubell - pagan war god of preislamic arabia and master of mecca gods also you have : Al-ozza - Al-lattee ferlity and love godness considerd as the official godness of mecca, Statues of them inside and outside Caâba attired pilgrims from all arabia.

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By "Caaba" you mean the sacred enclosure in Mecca, destination of the Haj, yes? I usually see that transliterated into English as Ka'aba. I thought I would include the Ka'aba as a wonder, but would it be weird to have it built somewhere other than Mecca?

More importantly, I need to know if there is any potential for offending Muslims by including the Ka'aba in a game.

the sheikh place or sitt (sheikh majles) was the central place of the town, and where only important people nobles and poets are allowed to discuss wars and commerce or to listen best poesy,usually on open air

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You said before you don't like the emir tent -- is this the same structure as the sitt? I'm wondering why you don't like it -- does it need to be more magnificent?

Re: Queen of Sheba, I couldn't decide whether to use Bilqis/Balkis or Makeda! I didn't know Makeda was the Ethipopian name. I'll definitely switch these.

Gordon Farrell said:

I'm thinking the Oqath Suq should be a unique building, maybe even a wonder? Was there only the one in Mecca?

I thought I would include the Ka'aba as a wonder, but would it be weird to have it built somewhere other than Mecca?

More importantly, I need to know if there any potential for offending Muslims by including the Ka'aba in a game.

...the emir tent -- is this the same structure as the sitt? I'm wondering why you don't like it -- does it need to be more magnificent?

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Suq is, as far as I know, the equivalent of market or bazaar (which, I thought, was the Persian, or rather Centralasian, version), so it's not that special - you might make it a National Wonder.

The Ka'aba is more of a World Wonder. Since there are already multiple muslim buildings in the standard game (or religious buildings/Wonders in general), I don't quite see how that would be offending. Islam only forbids the portraying of living beings - which, notably in Persian and Turkish art, seems to have been abandoned in practice. (Also, there is plenty use of cartoons - or caricatures - in the modern Muslim world.)

Finally, a tent is not really a structure or building - which is by nature more permanent (although an emir tent would be something more grand, I suppose).

Hi mr Farrell,
first, we cant compare ancient south arabia to the northern part its much more older and was much more civilized
so all begun south, archeology shows how writing bronze and collosal buildings begun south as the dam of marib shows ( it wasnt the only one but the biggest)
in ancient Yemen it was no question of tents, bricks for houses and buildings, and stones for temples and castles but it was the case of other minor kingdoms caravan towns and bedouins settlements
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-I posted before about the Emir tent because it didnt appear theres a problem in xml or somthing i didnt say i dont like it
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Sheikh majles look like this


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-Ancient poetry gatherings existed in ancient times developed late in markets but the one in mecca was called Ukadh it can be unique building for Hejaz
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-Yes when i say Caaba i mean Ka'aba and there is no offense in putting it as wonder its a game after all
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-also there is the temple that still exist in marib it can be a wonder
(Temple of Ilmaqah the sun god ) (Ilmaqah was the dominant god in marib) also called Arsh Bilqis
as other temples built by the Mukarribs (priest kings)
-the moon was really important in ancient arabia as you know the arab calander is moon one.
-A thech (moon observasion) can replace Astrology for example
the 'Ethnic artstyle' middle east cities look perfect for a future mod
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-paragraph about okadh souk : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Souk
-ancinet kings list : http://starnarcosis.net/obsidian/arabia.html
- history link :http://nabataea.net/nab6.html
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I wish you a happy new year

Thanks again for your notes, sakhr!

Hmm... the idea of making south Arabia a unique tech tree is slowly growing on me...

What I'm thinking of doing is creating (as you suggested) a map for just Arabia, no Persians or Europeans. That would make the port to BtS a lot easier. But I could also have the Yemeni tribes get their own technologies. I am familiar with the differences between them and the Bedouin-originating northern tribes...

You could make contact or Trade Routes with Europe and Persia as World Wonders.

For example: "Contact with Persia" tech would allow the building of "Persian Trade Route" which provides 3 Silk. Or something like that...

jefmart1 said:

You could make contact or Trade Routes with Europe and Persia as World Wonders.

For example: "Contact with Persia" tech would allow the building of "Persian Trade Route" which provides 3 Silk. Or something like that...

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You can already build trade routes in city: Balcan trade route , persia trade route ..but it take at least 20 tours to build and also you can train a trader to do trade missions, you know there is a economic victory condition for the scenario

Gordon Farrell said:

Thanks again for your notes, sakhr!

Hmm... the idea of making south Arabia a unique tech tree is slowly growing on me...

What I'm thinking of doing is creating (as you suggested) a map for just Arabia, no Persians or Europeans. That would make the port to BtS a lot easier. But I could also have the Yemeni tribes get their own technologies. I am familiar with the differences between them and the Bedouin-originating northern tribes...

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It will be better i think
Well digging and cave dewelling techs for the north , the yemen part is fertile as you know so dam construction techa can be availeble only there.
and for oman you can concentrate on sailing cause you know they traded with india very early also oman always remember us Sinbad the sailer and the city of Ubar (the city of pillar) as we call it where the camel have been breeded for the first time

I have see the sheikh majlis in a syrian tv serie treating mecca in jahilya times 500-600 AD qureish masters tested insence and maked bizness in a central sitt open air and elevated from the ground to have an eye on the town

sakhr said:

You can already build trade routes in city: Balcan trade route , persia trade route ..but it take at least 20 tours to build and also you can train a trader to do trade missions, you know there is a economic victory condition for the scenario

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I know, but I prefer to conquer!

The difference in what I was proposing was that they would provide resources that are not available in a shrunken world. That would make them valuable and something worth building or taking.

Finished my first game and won a merchant victory with Empress Zenobia on warlord level (thought I was on prince). I really liked this mod and thought the map was great. I really like the tech tree and how it stops at a certain point, more mods need to have a natural limit to how far the techs advance.

I had about 30 turns left and was about 200 pts score wise behind Constantine who from nowhere suddenly scored alot of points last 100 turns or so (picked up some vassals).

The mod ran fine for me, the later turns went to about a 15-20 sec. wait, not that bad, imo. Great job on this terrific mod, you did a Super job!

Thanks a million for your warm words, dreadknought! I'm really glad you enjoyed it, and I'm reeeeally pleased you had such reasonable turn resolution times. I'd be curious to know what your system specs are... I'm guessing you have a high end video card?


jefmart1:
"For example: "Contact with Persia" tech would allow the building of "Persian Trade Route" which provides 3 Silk. Or something like that..."

Something along this line could be done as National Wonders, actually...


sakhr:
sheikh majlis would be a good addition... thanks! And I'll be sure to look into the Emir's tent... I think maybe that's your starting "palace"? (I haven't actually loaded the game up in awhile!)