Ara: History Untold

[The_J]

Boy, I really misread that. Thanks, next time I'll pay more attention (and will now rename the thread here too).

 

[The_J]

The developers of Ara: History Untold have posted 2 in their dev blog, talking about city layouts. They describe the difficulties of having procedurally generated city layouts, which also need to look appealing. Initially they cities appeared like pizzas, with repetetive sectors. They seem to have fixed this problem by definiting some basic layouts, from which the game further builds on. For all the information please read the dev blog here.

 

[KayAU]

The old "spoke and wheel" layout was indeed a bit odd looking, so I'm looking forward to how this turns out. The second technical alpha is right around the corner, so I won't have to wait long.

 

[The_J]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1623115667590242304

It seems the 2nd technical alpha has started, and people will be getting emails if they're in or not.

 

[Caesar of Bread]

What nations are possibly in:
For sure -
1. America - George Washington
2. Greeks - Sappho
3. Egypt - Nefertiti
4. England - Elizabeth I
Very likely (from symbols and city names)
4. Zulu (you can see the names of Zulu towns)
5. Russia
6. Germany
7. Siam
Likely from symbols
8. Japan
9. (Achaemenid) Persia

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

I've seen the symbol on the left before, but I can't recall whether it's supposed to represent China or Japan. In the middle of course we have Argentina, and Korea in the top-right corner, but who's that to the left of Korea?

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

Here we have what appears to be the modern state of Ghana in the top-left corner, but what is the other nation? Green and white + city of Zaria suggests Nigeria, but the star and crescent is an Islamic symbol, and Nigeria is split pretty evenly between Christians and Muslims. Also can't find any information on a city named 'Abdou Salam' and I can't make out what the city in the center is.

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

View attachment 661242
Here we have what appears to be the modern state of Ghana in the top-left corner, but what is the other nation? Green and white + city of Zaria suggests Nigeria, but the star and crescent is an Islamic symbol, and Nigeria is split pretty evenly between Christians and Muslims. Also can't find any information on a city named 'Abdou Salam' and I can't make out what the city in the center is.

I suppose it could be the Hausa?

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

View attachment 661241
I've seen the symbol on the left before, but I can't recall whether it's supposed to represent China or Japan. In the middle of course we have Argentina, and Korea in the top-right corner, but who's that to the left of Korea?

And that's a Chinese symbol on the left. So I've answered two of my three questions myself...

 

[Caesar of Bread]

I suppose it could be the Hausa?

Abdou Salam is the name of a city in Mali.
also why is there a funny goose?

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

The funny goose is also in the first screenshot I shared, both in the top-left UI (which represents the player?) and towards the bottom-right of the screen in what appear to be notifications

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

It seems that player icons are different from civilization icons.

Mendoza is an Argentinian city, yet the player's jersey is pink and white, and the icon is not the same as the one we saw. Is it even Argentinian?

Here Kashan is an Iranian city, and the player symbol is Persian. Seems consistent.

This is obviously Greece, and the colours match it as well.

This icon suggests Germany, but we can't see the city name, so we can't say for sure

This screenshot is very interesting, and flummoxing as well. The player has a horned icon, and I don't know what it's supposed to represent. There are at least three other factions as well: white-red to the far west, yellow-black to the north, and red-white to the east.

Consider first the player. His colour is green-black, and the capital is Empangeni, a relatively modern city in South Africa which doesn't seem to have roots in Zulu history (as I had previously thought). Together with the jersey colour, this could suggest a South African faction? But the other city is Mamprusi, the name of an ethnic group in Ghana. This is definitely not Ghana, because the colours and icon are different. And why is an ethnic group's name being used for a city? Let us assume this is some weird sort of Pan-African civ. But what of the other faction we saw in an earlier screenshot that had a Ghanaian city? How are Empangeni and Mamprusi more closely related to one another than with Cape Coast?

Also see the capital city of the yellow-black player, Ashanti. Now Ashanti is neither a city nor an ethnic group but the name of an empire. So why is it the name of a city here? If the yellow-black faction is Ashanti, why not use their actual capital Kumasi? And what of the yellow-black icon we saw earlier?

These screenshots raise so many questions. I can't figure out what nations are being represented here, and whether factions have civ-specific colours and icons...

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

There are at least three other factions as well: white-red to the far west, yellow-black to the north, and red-white to the east.

So not red-white, but rather red-blue, and its icon seems to be either a bear or a bison or a buffalo.

And here the icon of the yellow-black faction seems to be the funny goose seen earlier, and not the heraldic eagle seen with the same colours in another screenshot.

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

View attachment 661241
I've seen the symbol on the left before, but I can't recall whether it's supposed to represent China or Japan. In the middle of course we have Argentina, and Korea in the top-right corner, but who's that to the left of Korea?

Just realised it could be Assyria to the left of Korea

 

[Caesar of Bread]

Just realised it could be Assyria to the left of Korea

From my speculations:
Argentina is supposed to replace Brazil
Assyria is supposed to replace Sumer
Ghana/Mali is supposed to replace Kongo

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

Looks like we have Ethiopia as well

Here's something that's been bugging me. The icon in the top-left corner is significantly different from the icon in the city label. The icon in the city label is the same as the icon in the unit label at the bottom-left of the screen. And the icon at the bottom-right is completely different from the other two. Yet in previous screenshots the icon was the same across all three. So why is it different here?

 

[The_J]

The developers of Ara: History Untold have published a new blog post about the update on their roads, to make them more lively and organic looking. You can find the screenshots here.

 

[Caesar of Bread]

Holey guacamole. Look at the sign in the bottom right.

ITALY!

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

Holey guacamole. Look at the sign in the bottom right.

ITALY!

And another horned icon in the top-right, this time orange-black. Looks like they have different icons for nations and different icons for players. Not sure why that would be the case, unless they have a Humankind-like system where you can change nations midgame.

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

And another horned icon in the top-right, this time orange-black. Looks like they have different icons for nations and different icons for players. Not sure why that would be the case, unless they have a Humankind-like system where you can change nations midgame.

And yet you can see the Italian icon in the top-right here. Weird.