[R&F] Chandragupta Maurya/India First Look

[Guatenadian]

I always knew about how weird Gandhi looked, but I never realised he practically has a giraffe neck. Its the only thing I can focus on now.

 

[Meluhhan]

The new monument looks literally nothing like that.

Not even close! Well, I was watching the video on my cell phone, guess it is the result of that.

 

[Arianrhod]

I agree with you on Jadwiga's curves.

Coming from a straight guy, I'd have to say the best looking dude is probably either Hojo Tokimune or Cyrus. They seem handsome without being muscular caricatures.

For whatever my opinion's worth as a gay dude, I'd agree completely with what I assume to be your assessment: Hojo and Cyrus as the best men, and Jadwiga as the best woman.

In the ladies' case it seems like it's actually a pretty fair competition since most of them have some merit, but I'd put Jadwiga a touch above the others because she's cute without anything that jumps out at me to say otherwise. As for the guys, Hojo fills a relatively unique niche as the only male in the cast who is clean-shaven but not old (i.e. Trajan, Curtin), somewhat of a caricature (i.e. Alexander), or Jayavarman; this effectively makes him the only option if you want something that's even vaguely close to 'cute', although I guess you might be able to argue Alexander as well. If you're looking for sexy, on the other hand, Cyrus and our new friend Chandragupta are the clear victors by a country mile, because they actually look very well-modeled and were definitely intended to be seen as attractive. Of the two I'd place Cyrus higher because he his model invokes a more dominant and mysterious personality than does Chandragupta, and his clothes -- although less revealing -- also leave more to the imagination, which may in some ways be better still.

If only Trajan was 30-40 years younger, there'd be a place in the world for Trajan's Column jokes. Alas.

 

[ales_]

Thumbnails can be changed at any time. I’m pretty sure that’s what happened here.

I think it was already like this at the time of the upload. Besides, why would they change the thumbnail of a year old video?

 

[God of Kings]

I think it was already like this at the time of the upload. Besides, why would they change the thumbnail of a year old video?

Yes, retroactive thumbnail changes can be made on YouTube.

This is why it's always a good idea for us to archive thumbnails of videos in case they change retroactively.

 

[Cerilis]

Mhrm... you need to denounce for a war of territorial expansion?

 

[stealth_nsk]

Mhrm... you need to denounce for a war of territorial expansion?

Probably not.

 

[Cerilis]

Probably not.

Why is everyone saying so then? ^^"

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Why is everyone saying so then? ^^"

You need a denounce for every kind of war except Surprise War (that's why it's a surprise).

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Here are the solutions to the teaser hints.

https://m.facebook.com/civ/posts/10155850507075359

 

[stealth_nsk]

You need a denounce for every kind of war except Surprise War (that's why it's a surprise).

Oh, sorry

 

[pgm123]

I'm not 100% sure, but the possible players included when using the random option are probably defined in players.xml. You could get rid of everything Gandhi-related either with a mod or just deleting it from the file itself. I'll have to try and see, when I have the time.

I would appreciate it. I think there's an Only Old World Civs mod, though I'm not sure it works. If it works, then it's definitely possible to mod out specific leaders. It would be nice if it was possible to do it on the civ selection screen, but that might be asking too much.

 

[pgm123]

Cathy is ok design for me. A classy older woman drinking a wine glass. Seondeok's clothing is not that accurate according to Zaarin. I like the crown and that's pretty much it. Cleopatra is one of the worst designs for me. They tried so hard to make her look "Egyptian", when she probably looked more like this. No silly headdress. Just a Greek lady in Hellenistic dress.

View attachment 483946

I don't think Seondoek's clothing is terrible, from what I can find on that period. Zaarin is right that Korean clothing could be quite beautiful, but I think that's from a later era. Here's what I see from Three Kingdoms Korea:



The right is Silla (the left is Baekje).



This is a depiction of Seondeok.

So, it's definitely a style of dress they made up, but it doesn't seem that terrible. That said, the Seondeok in the drama has a lot of clothing that are pretty awesome. One of the plainer examples: http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net...eonDeok.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100221200054

Cleopatra is definitely based on modern (20th century) depictions.

 

[bbbt]

You need a denounce for every kind of war except Surprise War (that's why it's a surprise).

I had actually no idea, I thought it was just for formal war. So say for the holy war casus belli, they have to have converted one of my cities and we need to be on 'denounced' terms? Is this also true for protectorate war as well?

Honestly, I just thought they were just buggy.

Add that to the lacking in clear info on the UI list. That seems like tool text to add in the diplomatic screen (i.e. hovering over the casus belli or the like).

 

[Absolution]

He is brilliantly designed.
Details are very well done and he is great to stumble upon in a game.
They made him just like the iconic depiction of him, so much that even before reading the title of the video on YouTube, I saw the thumbnail in my recommended videos and said to myself "Hey here's Chandragupta!".

However, does anybody know were did this iconic depiction came from? I failed to find any real Mauryan art in which he is dressed anyway like it.
In Mauryan art he seems to be wearing some kind of a cap and a full body robe:

Spoiler Photo :

Beyond the design - I have a mixed view regarding his inclusion.

Indian civilisations have been awfully represented in the history of the franchise, and adding someone who brings another aspect of them is super interesting and enriching. Seeing Patna as the capital was very pleasing to me. He is one of those leaders who really deserve an appearance in the game.

On the other hand, I am once again disappointed by their approach for the history of the Indian subcontinent as a single civilisation. While Ghandi can be part of the "Indian", national era, concept of that culture, which can be traced back beyond the British Raj and as far as the early Delhi-based Islamic realms, Mauryans should not be. Good and interesting alternative leaders for that civilisation can be Akbar or Sher Shah Suri, for example, or a wild pick of Manmohad Singh. Chandragupta should lead the Magadhan civilisation which has its own culture, region, and different phases of history. Their citylist and abilities should be totally separated.

 

[BenZL43]

I am once again disappointed by their approach for the history of the Indian subcontinent as a single civilisation.

This is why there are mods. Let's just secretly hope the likes of Sukritact or JFD will cover Magadha one day.

To see things from developer side, if you only have budget to create, design and animate X number of Civilization, which would the world chooses? For us CivFanatics, I think we are familiar with the Mahajanapadas - I think we can even find someone here that can chant all 16 states easily.

For the rest of the world? No. It would be less appealing to play, which means less appealing to buy. Despite our seeming large communitt, we are only a minority compared to the rest. This too, explain why seeing more European civilization is more likely.

Unless, you add history of the Mahajanapadas into US & Europe school-level history curriculum, I don't think it's likely.

 

[pgm123]

Indian civilisations have been awfully represented in the history of the franchise, and adding someone who brings another aspect of them is super interesting and enriching. Seeing Patna as the capital was very pleasing to me. He is one of those leaders who really deserve an appearance in the game.

On the other hand, I am once again disappointed by their approach for the history of the Indian subcontinent as a single civilisation. While Ghandi can be part of the "Indian", national era, concept of that culture, which can be traced back beyond the British Raj and as far as the early Delhi-based Islamic realms, Mauryans should not be. Good and interesting alternative leaders for that civilisation can be Akbar or Sher Shah Suri, for example, or a wild pick of Manmohad Singh. Chandragupta should lead the Magadhan civilisation which has its own culture, region, and different phases of history. Their citylist and abilities should be totally separated.

Is it that different from anyone leading the Greek civilization, though?

 

[SammyKhalifa]

This is why there are mods. Let's just secretly hope the likes of Sukritact or JFD will cover Magadha one day.

To see things from developer side, if you only have budget to create, design and animate X number of Civilization, which would the world chooses? For us CivFanatics, I think we are familiar with the Mahajanapadas - I think we can even find someone here that can chant all 16 states easily.

For the rest of the world? No. It would be less appealing to play, which means less appealing to buy. Despite our seeming large communitt, we are only a minority compared to the rest. This too, explain why seeing more European civilization is more likely.

Unless, you add history of the Mahajanapadas into US & Europe school-level history curriculum, I don't think it's likely.

While W Europe is (over?) represented in the game and some of that is due to Eurocentrism or whatever, some of it is also because Europe is broken up into many current political entities while the likes of China or India are more or less united depending on who you talk to. "India" is way more familiar.

 

[Zaarin]

I don't think Seondoek's clothing is terrible, from what I can find on that period. Zaarin is right that Korean clothing could be quite beautiful, but I think that's from a later era. Here's what I see from Three Kingdoms Korea:



The right is Silla (the left is Baekje).



This is a depiction of Seondeok.

So, it's definitely a style of dress they made up, but it doesn't seem that terrible. That said, the Seondeok in the drama has a lot of clothing that are pretty awesome. One of the plainer examples: http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net...eonDeok.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100221200054

Cleopatra is definitely based on modern (20th century) depictions.

But even in those depictions the clothing is much drapier. Seondeok's close-fitting gown looks very Ming Chinese to me.

 

[Ondolindë]

With the discussion about leader clothing, it would not surprise me if a mod would allow for the changing of leader clothes and backdrops. I would probably consider it almost sacrilegious, but it would be fun to watch, at least once.