It might help if I post an example of how I like to construct citylists. Here's Mali and Greece:
Code:
MALI
<City>Djenne</City>
<City>Awkar</City>
<!-- Wagadou -->
<City>Koumbi Saleh</City>
<City>Walata</City>
<City>Awdughast</City> <!-- Tegdaoust -->
<!-- Manden/Mali -->
<City>Kangaba</City> <!-- Ka-ba -->
<City>Niani</City>
<City>Mema</City>
<City>Kaniaga</City> <!-- Kirane/Sosso -->
<City>Timbuktu</City>
<City>Tadmekka</City> <!-- Essouk -->
<!-- Songhay -->
<City>Kukiya</City>
<City>Gao</City>
<City>Surame</City> <!-- Say -->
<City>Takedda</City> <!-- Teguidda -->
<City>Agadez</City>
<!-- Sahara -->
<City>Chinguetti</City>
<City>Wadane</City>
<City>Arouane</City>
<City>Taghaza</City>
<City>Taoudenni</City>
<!-- Western Lands -->
<City>Takrur</City>
<City>Djolof</City> <!-- Wolof/Linguere -->
<City>Kansala</City> <!-- Kaabu -->
<!-- Minor Cities -->
<City>Kita</City>
<City>Toron</City>
<City>Krina</City> <!-- Kri/Kirina -->
<City>Do</City>
<City>Djedeba</City>
<City>Kouroussa</City>
<!-- Later Cities -->
<City>Segou</City>
<City>Mopti</City>
<City>Sikasso</City> <!-- Kenedougou -->
<City>Nioro</City> <!-- Kaarta -->
<City>Hamdallahi</City> <!-- Massina -->
<City>Bamako</City>
GREECE
<!-- Bronze Age -->
<City>Mykenai</City>
<City>Tyrinthe</City>
<City>Argos</City>
<City>Pylos</City>
<City>Athenai</City>
<City>Thebae</City>
<City>Orchomenos</City>
<!-- Iron Age -->
<City>Sparta</City>
<City>Korinth</City>
<City>Megara</City>
<City>Helike</City>
<City>Olympia</City>
<City>Delphi</City>
<City>Chalkis</City>
<City>Eretria</City>
<!-- Aegean -->
<City>Miletos</City>
<City>Ephesos</City>
<City>Phokaea</City>
<City>Smyrna</City>
<City>Mytilene</City>
<City>Samos</City>
<City>Halikarnassos</City>
<City>Rhodes</City>
<!-- Western Colonies -->
<City>Epirus</City>
<City>Syrakuse</City>
<City>Gela</City>
<City>Akragas</City>
<City>Rhegion</City>
<City>Tarentum</City>
<City>Kyme</City>
<City>Massalia</City>
<!-- Eastern Colonies -->
<City>Kyrene</City>
<City>Salamis</City>
<City>Abydos</City>
<City>Byzantium</City>
<City>Chalkedon</City>
<City>Sinope</City>
<City>Trapezus</City>
<!-- Macedonian Empire -->
<City>Aegae</City> <!-- Vergina -->
<City>Pella</City>
<City>Pergamon</City>
<City>Alexandria</City>
<City>Ptolemais</City>
<City>Seleukia</City>
<City>Antioch</City>
<City>Apamea</City>
<City>Laodikeia</City>
<!-- Later Cities -->
<City>Thessaloniki</City>
<City>Patras</City>
<City>Kalamata</City>
The comments to the right are alternative names for some cities, to help me keep my research organised and prevent double ups. As you can see I list cities in sections, based on the civilization's evolution. In the case of the Mande, there are several distinct kingdoms or empires to categorize cities by. For many other civs I organise by dynasties (e.g Egypt), eras or ages (e.g Hatti), and some I organize by geography - to represent probably order of expansion (e.g Polynesia). Others are a mix of these but the overall idea is that the main part of the city list is ordered chronologically.
However, within each section I'll often place important cities such as capitals at the front, even if they're known to be founded (or rose to city status) later. For example, Sparta is the first city in the Greek Iron Age section even though it rose to prominence later than the overall less important Eretria. Sparta still come behind all the important cities of the Bronze Age though. I find this a very useful way of giving prominence some weighting without messing up chronology too much.
You'll also notice I have a 'Minor Cities' section. This is useful to add more entries to the list and might contain very ancient cities but ones that were never that important. For example, Nina is a very ancient Sumerian city but there's no value in placing it and other such minor cities chronologically or important cities like Akkad and Eshnunna may never get founded in a game.
Some civs have a section called 'Other Cities' or similar. Mali's 'Western Lands' section is such an example. This is for cities that were important but were on the periphery of an empire, perhaps never a formal part of an empire but still culturally or politically associated. Other examples are Singapura in the Indonesian list and several Tuareg cities in the Berber list.
Finally, there is sometimes a 'Later Cities' section which is basically for cities that are significant in the modern day but were not for most of the civilization's history. Some other examples are Khartoum, Nairobi, and Kuala Lumpur.
Sounds a bit complicated and I certainly tailor the system for different civs but overall I'm pretty happy with the results. Note though that due to the rest of the mod keeping me busy I haven't been able to overhaul many citylists in this way yet. Citylists that I consider 'done' are: Germany, Greece, Phoenicia, Berbers, Egypt, Nubia, Mali, Swahili, Sumer, Amurru, Assyria, Hatti, Kushan, Indonesia, Polynesia, and the Aztec. Everything else still needs work, ranging from a few tweaks to a complete overhaul. What I would love to do is tie advanced starts and choice of leader into where a civ 'starts' on it's city list. I'm not sure it's possible though and it's certainly not a trivial task.
If have once thought about this for the Revolution DCM.
But the issue with the Israeli citylist is that the modern civilization is not one you would put in the game. Israel around 1000-900 BC was a power, at least one of the top seven of the whole world. Modern Israel isn't even close to it.
A modern art defenition is reasonable, but the citylist doesn't have to include modern cities.
It is based on the assumption that in your specific game, the Ancient Hebrew civilization wouldn't be "defeated" in first place, so they would keep with their old culture and their major cities untill the modern era.
We could add a 'Later Cities' section to the list and add some of the important modern cities to it. Most games they wouldn't get founded but if we wanted to shift them up the list a bit more, we could do so by shifting some cities to a 'Minor Cities' section, placed after the 'Later Cities' section.
For example, Arabia doesn't have the modern cities of Saudi Arabia. They have the most important cities of the Caliphates. Of course many cities are still important nowadays, but the reason they are included is their importance in the Caliphates' culture.
Another possible example is Persia. Teheran, Shiraz and Isfahan are out of the citylist, which includes the greatest Achaemenid and Sassanid cities.
Both the Arabian and Persian citylists are unchanged from BTS and are in serious need of an overhaul. Some poorly considered inclusions in both lists. I've started working on both but haven't had time to finish them yet. China and India are other lists needing a serious overhaul.
Most of the civilizations in the game were never more than regionally important. I mean, when was Hungary or Poland or Mali for that matter the Khmer in the top seven? Not for long- part of the point of the mod is to provide diversity.
Mali was pretty much the world's leading commercial and educational hub for a time. Angkor was also the largest city in the world for a while too. They'd both fit in a top 5 for their era.
Also, what else would we use for modern Israelite armies, if not the Israeli military of today? It makes more sense than giving them some kind of shared artwork that all the other "Middle Eastern" civs use, in keeping with the idea of unique art.
I use Israeli looking modern units when I can find them.
I would vote for a jet fighter replacement, with double movement, or a marine replacement. The jet replacement would not be as powerful as a land based uu, but would make Israel unique, and would be historically accurate, since the idf is among the best air-forces in the world today, in part because of their pilot's ability to fly up to twice as many missions per day as NATO pilots.
I'm not planning to change the Hebrew UU. If I ever added a second UU to each civ (not a high priority) a modern Israeli unit would be ideal though.
Should a neither old nor new capital city like Madrid be removed from Spain's city list, in your opinion?
Puny little villages that played no role in history, became important cities through industrialization and the demographics of the 19th century.
Why can't Tel Aviv just be listed at the the bottom of the city list, and the very latest Jewish settlements at the very bottom?
I think my system described above handles such considerations fairly well.
Because it's not exactly the same civilization.
Do you think Teheran should be included in the Persian citylist?
And should the Khmer citylist include modern Cambodian cities?
I think there is easily enough continuity between the ancient and modern incarnations of Israel to consider them the same civilization. Same with Persia/Iran and Angkor/Cambodia. Their important modern cities should be in their citylists, just near the bottom.
