Ara: History Untold

[Sherlock]

I'm still waiting for 'Ancient Civilizations' in the classical era.

So is this what we're getting instead of a new Civ game? That would not be good.

 

[6uho Koe]

Apparently someone on reddit found this photo.

I guess they didn't want to use Gorgo for Greece.

 

[aguaacrobata2]

Here there is a new video from JumboPixel with some pre-alpha gameplay footage.

 

[KayAU]

And here's the brief interview he was talking about:

I am curious to see what they come up with. At the moment what we have is zoomed in screenshots and vague design goals, but looking at the games these developers have been involved with, there are some impressive titles, including things like Civ 5, Ashes of the Singularity, X-Com and Pirates! Gold. That doesn't mean I'll like this one, but I am curious enough that I am considering signing up for the Alpha.

 

[aguaacrobata2]

And here's the brief interview he was talking about:

Thanks! I was not able to find it earlier. Will check it out shortly.

I am not really hyped about this one, but really curious. And really happy to see another option in the genre.

Just pre-alpha but already find really annoying that concentric road layout in what appears to be the cities.

 

[KayAU]

@aguaacrobata2
No problem. Yeah, I agree the concentric road layout does look a bit unnatural in its current incarnation, but I'm willing to overlook that for now. One of the most interesting parts of that video for me is around 2:12, when they show a flyby of a map without any buildings or units. I said earlier that they appeared to have regions, but I think that was wrong. The scale seem to be that of tiles, although they are unevenly shaped, and don't seem to be bordering the same number of neighboring "tiles". Looking at the screenshots with buildings, it appears each tile may contain several buildings and wonders, as well as having houses and roads drawn in. It occured to me when watching closer, that the whole thing reminds me a little bit of the "City View" in Civs 1-3. It seems cities will grow to occupy multiple tiles, which leads me to believe the space in each tile is not unlimited. I am *very* curious about the rules governing city development.

Another small thing I have been thinking about, is the one screenshot where they show a six digit population count, and where you have "units" each with a two or three digit number associated with them. This makes me think that they are going for a somewhat less abstract representation of things. It's possible that what would be "a spearman" in Civ, will actually be "300 guys with spears" in Ara.

 

[bingbongler]

Seems promising.

 

[Vandlys]

Eventually one of these Civ clones will finally take the best name possible: HistoriCities

Why do you consider that the best name possibile? It's absolutely horrendous in my opinion

 

[KayAU]

PotatoMcWhiskey just posted a brief analysis of the trailer and screenshots:

 

[Civinator]

Here are some screenshots to see at steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2021880/Ara_History_Untold/

 

[zwei833]

Sure, but those are just old screenshots that already posted on their official website.

 

[Sherlock]

I really don't care for the look of this game. Don't think that will change but we'll see.

 

[The_J]

The developers of Aria - History Untold (another hot Civilization contender) have made today two announcements:

• The developer diaries, which have so far only been available for the participants of the insider program, are now freely available
• A new technical alpha-phase will start in January, and they are looking for more participants.

You can read the whole blog post here, which also contains the links to the developer diaries.

 

[bene_legionary]

It's certainly more interesting now I've read the developer diaries. They talk about board games in the role of designing (I still don't like this name) Ara, but they didn't mention Tigris & Euphrates

 

[9gkj548hkm20vk79dj689bnj4]

I'm not liking the graphics: sort of cold and Sim City 4-ish.

But I'm always eager to give Civilization competitors a look.

 

[bene_legionary]

Yup, the GUI is not for me. Way too clean looking, transparent, etc., I prefer Civ 6's GUI aesthetic. I hope the GUI itself is better than Civ 6's.

 

[Sherlock]

Those screenshots look like a thirty year old version of 'Risk'.

 

[Zegangani]

After reading some of the Dev Diaries, I think this might be good actually. Looks promising. And tbh, because the Devs were very reserved about actual, detailed, informations about the Game, I think the Screenshots that we saw so far don't show the actual/final Product. Because, 1) the Lighting seems really bland (and I didn't see any Cloud Shadows), and not how you usually see it in other strategy Games. The right Light makes the Map and things on it much more appealing, so I expect we will so some improvenents there (like more saturated Colors, which Lighting alone can achieve). 2) The UI looks too generic for how the Game marketed itself so far. But FWIW, I have seen many Games use quickly-thrown-out UI or UI from its previous iteration in its early Dev Days (like Civ6 using Civ V's IIRC, even shortly before release). So, I also expect improvement there as well, bc even cheap Mobile Games have better UI nowadays.

 

[The_J]

The devs have announced that the technical alpha 2 will start soon https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2022/12...y-with-ara-history-untolds-technical-alpha-2/ . You have to sign up for the insider program though.

 

[fjordan]

@The_J You consistently call it Aria, with an I in it, in the thread title and announcement but the name is Ara.

Looks like an interesting game. Not a fan of the graphics but I am sure I will get over that if the gameplay is good.