@ Plot: My offerings have been made to all and sundry. So here is some more specific feedback based on the 50-60 turns I played.
Praises:
Gameplay:
- The barbs are great. I always love enhanced barb action. You also seem to have manipulated their behaviour quite well. They pestered but never raided cities. Of course I exploited this nicely.
- The Sahara is well conceived and delivered IMO. It does seem to function like a sea and you can play good tricks with the barbs as they come ashore onto land your ordinary military can operate in.
- Those camel ships of the desert are a nice dynamic, I look forward to getting into some more serious camel warfare. Their late coming means that the barbs remain like nomadic raiders which cannot be dispatched until a later time. That brings a good sense of realism and colour.
- And the worker obligation is a good one, Ive always been a fan of colonies and now the resource race beckons to my glee.
- It's also nice to have fairly cheap techs with a feeling that you're getting somewhere.
- I havent quite discerned the other civs gameplay dynamics, more concerned with my own survival, but I like the fact I have to watch out for a number of possible wins. Always good that.
Units: - Arabian Pikeman very nice. Love the pyjamas. The little barbs look cool too and the Ansar Rider is well placed with Kanem-Bornu. I also like the ships which appeared on my coasts belonging to the Ayyubids.
LeaderHeads: Bejans, Kanem-Bornu, Ghana, Falasha look awesome.
Static Graphics:
- Goody and barb huts are most apt and very well done, props to the maker of these. Nice contrast between the African and Islamic city graphics, yet they work well together in the game. The Christian style in the east was looking good too.
- Also, I'm not quite sure why you asked me to find some artwork for the icons. You've done really well as is. The tech tree is filled with some very authentic pieces and they bring out the cultural landscape admirably. OK there are some gaps (which I can still happily help with) but its a good series of paintings that work well together. That word again, highly evocative.
Music: This was great. There was one piece early which got a bit pseudo-tribal, a la Philippe Glass and it wasnt so good but thats a matter of taste and didn't last long. The call to prayer was beautifully sung also. Im not a Muslim but its always a moving sound and fitted in nicely. Now 2nd or 3rd tune is one with a female vocal, sounds almost Celtic or from the LOTR soundtrack. This is a sublime piece of music. Id like to know who made it. There was some music with some pretty good beats later in the game also. I like your taste in music Plot.
Little OT: Upon hearing what you had done with the music, I actually conceived of a whole soundtrack for the Mughals scen with a quick flick through my records, many of which I havent heard in years. Some Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Zakir Hussein, some mellow north Indian classical flute, some opium den jazz
![Pimp [pimp] [pimp]](/images/smilies/pimp.gif)
. Its a real pity my technical buddy seems to have taken a break from CFC or at least tending to his PM box. This is also why I haven't been able to put out a patch yet. Anyway, music is definitely overlooked in scenarios.
Suggestions / Criticisms:
There are not many, especially given I didn't have an epic session.
- I might be missing something, or it may have just been a gameplay decision but Ghana and Mali are placed the wrong way round geographically speaking. I'm not just saying this based on modern geography btw.
- Yuroba: Where
were these guys?
- As my 'in-character account' suggests, I felt more could have been made of the religious tapestry of the era and locale. Sure you've got it across the wider picture but there could perhaps have been more of a sense of the original beliefs in W.Africa and perhaps even more of a suggestion of Christianity in North Africa (an email I sent about St Christopher and theose dogheads mentions all this). But you may have included this in the 'pedia and later tech tree and I simply haven't seen it yet. In which case, just tell me to shut up. Just a mention on that though.
- Ethiopia was taken in the first 5 or 6 turns of my game. I mean they collapsed or were consumed. This seemed a bit weird from the West African position. I wondered what the point was in having them there in the first place. Again, playing on the other side of the map may put that in perspective.
- The Arabian VPL Tent is a good idea. But IMO the graphic is a bit weak for such an important part of your game. Too grainy.
- Steel: OK you've got iron in but what about steel? The Arabians were getting up to some pretty sophisticated steelcasting techniques in your time period and I reckon this could be a good replacement for iron in an upgrade. You know, just to make it a little different. Search for Damascus, Steel and Forging for the middle ages and you'll come up with the goods on this.
I'm sure there's plenty more to feedback but that's it for now.