By PF2K on Jul 11, 2021 at 11:01 AM
  1. PF2K

    PF2K Lead Developer
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    Header_-_Blog_1.png
    We’ve been quiet since we announced the Indians two months ago. Just as we did with the Romans, we intend to release a series of blogs documenting the development of the Indians. But rather than weekly blogs, we will update you every few weeks or so. Hopefully by staggering them we can time them better with the release of the civilization.

    Choosing the Indians
    ===================
    Once we knew we wanted to make an 8th civ, we had to decide who it would be. Compared to the rest of the Age of Emperies series, the civs in AoEO are the most asymmetric, the most historically accurate, and have the most unique architecture.

    Choosing a civ is a combination of research (their history, units, and buildings), game design (can we come up with unique ideas that translate actual history into entertaining strategy), and considering existing gameplay (will the new features fit naturally into the game and not step onto the toes of any other civs).

    Every civilization in AoEO must walk the line between striking out in a unique direction while also feeling like they have always belonged in our world. Of the possible civilizations, the Indians give us the best opportunity to do this and improve Age of Empires Online.

    Development Changes
    ====================
    1. While we had several drafts of the Romans tech tree from the original Developers, we have nothing about the Indians other than a handful of 3D concepts. So we no longer can hide behind the decisions of other people. We are solely responsible for every Indian unit, building, and technology. (For instance, we inherited the Castellum, Auxilia Camp, Praetorium, and the entire concept of Officer Units from the original Developers.) Meanwhile, no civilization will ever be as universally desired as the Romans. So the stakes are higher.

    Leftover_Assets.png

    2. Meanwhile, the Indians bring additional design considerations – unlike the Romans (and, frankly, any other civ in the game), our Indians share the same religions, languages, and cultures with people in the modern day. So where there’s no actual Babylonians or worshipers of Jupiter or Ptah playing AoEO, there are plenty of Indians. To help us make a civilization that feels authentic not just to a western audience but also to an Indian audience, we sought out some help, such as Varadha, who is a longtime AoEO player (and PvE partner/good buddy of Andy), from India, and has a vast knowledge of their history (also his brother is a Sanskrit pandit, to boot). We’ve also reached out to several others, such as Cheater, who has been super generous trying to teach Andy enough Sanskrit to give him a basic understanding of it.

    3. While we were able to use leftover Roman artwork, we must create every single Indian image – concept art, unit portraits, icons, Advisors, Quest Givers, etc. So we have added two artists – Hans and Raider. Their stuff is amazing, and we cannot wait to show it off here.

    4. Since we built out an entire team for the Romans (we had more than 55 people towards the end), we are able to begin work on every area of the civ immediately rather than move deliberately from one area to another with the same people. For instance, we promoted Zawnius from Romans voice actor to Indians Audio Engineer to help write and edit vocals, which frees up Eamon to focus on 3D models. This will shave months off of development.

    5. Finally, we combined our entire team (gameplay design, 3D, 2D, vocals, music, quest design, videos, blogs, backend support) onto a single Indians Discord server. It’s really helpful having everyone in the same room. It's month three, and we are already up to 17 people.

    Initial Design
    =============
    After we decided that the Indians will be our 8th civ, we turned to the two largest design questions -- what the Indians are going to look like and what the Indians are going to play like.

    Again, in order to choose the Indians, we had to have some general ideas about both, but until we pinned them down completely, we'd be unable to build a single thing. PF2K and Andy had been brainstorming ideas for future civs since the team finalized the Roman tech tree, but it was not until the Romans were released that we finally hammered it out. It was much faster blueprinting the Indians from scratch than it was to cobble together the Roman tech tree using the various leftover pieces of GPG's development.

    Many civilizations in Age of Empires Online have a unique theme to their upgrades. For instance, the Persians have both Toggle Techs (upgrades that can be toggled on or off at an instant, allowing for on-the-fly adaptation for players), but also upgrades that offer bonuses that come with drawbacks. (such as the Blot Out the Sun upgrade, which increases the Maximum Range of Persian Archery Range Units, but decreases their Health.) Babylonians, on the other hand, have many upgrades that push their Unit roster towards a "cheap but spammable" style, such as Bowman Champion, which removes the Gold Cost of their Bowmen entirely.

    The Indians will have a "Choose-One" upgrade theme. These upgrades will allow players to adapt their civilization based on the specific situation they are in (matchups against other civilizations, different maps, etc.). We will reveal more details about these upgrades in a separate blog.

    Meanwhile, Max and Eamon had begun playing around with Indian buildings back in 2019, but they did not get serious until this March. Max is a professional architect and Eamon is Leonardo da Vinci, so after years of following the existing Roman concept art, they were eager to design the art style of an entire civilization on their own. Our Indians are based on the Mauryan empire, which ended around 150 CE.

    Almost all Mauryan era buildings were wooden and have been lost to time. Fortunately, the few remaining stone buildings have that classic Indian style. We quickly agreed on the vibrant brownish color palette (and Teak for their official civ wood) because of their authenticity and feel. Players will have no problems distinguishing the Indians from every other civ in the game. However, we had a much harder time agreeing on exactly the shape and features of the Indian roofs. Because of the camera location, roofs play a huge visual role in Age of Empires games.

    In AoEO, each civ has about two or three unique roof styles. We went through an awful lot of roofs before agreeing on a final set. Though the buildings we are showing today each share the most basic roof, soon enough we will show you the more ornate Indian buildings, such as the Town Center. They are absolutely gorgeous.

    Armory, Watch Post
    ===================

    Armory_Showcase.png
    Of the 18 or so buildings in every AoEO civ, about four are civ-specific and play an enhanced role in its identity and playstyle. The Indians will be no different. But to begin these blogs, we want to show you a few of the more basic buildings - the Watch Post and the Armory.

    Armory_Lineup.png

    The Indian versions will behave exactly like the standard ones. Early on, we had some ideas about giving the Indians a unique Armory, but we decided to focus on other areas.

    Watch_Post_Showcase.png

    And though we never considered a special Watch Post for the Indians (the Norse already have one - the Outpost, which also trains War Dogs - and the Roman Millarium, which is a modified cousin), we are giving the Indians a unique Scout. He will arrive in these blogs later.

    Watch_Post_Lineup.png

    Storehouse, Plantation
    =====================
    Storehouse_and_Plantation_Showcase.png

    But today we are revealing the Plantation, which is larger than a regular Farm and can be worked by multiple Villagers (we have penciled in two Villagers per Plantation for now, but this is subject to balancing). This more powerful, advanced version of a Farm is similar to how the Norse Longhouse, Norse Outpost, Babylonian Ox Cart, and Roman Castellum replace the common versions of those buildings in their respective civs.

    Plantation_Spotlight.png
    The Indus Valley supported tremendous agriculture, and our Indians will need a lot of food. So the Plantation is a perfect fit. It also neatly fits around a Town Center, which not only looks great but will give the Indians defensive advantages having all of those Villagers so close to safety.

    Storehouse_Lineup.png

    (You may recall that the Romans were at one time to have their own Plantation, though that version trickled gold and later morphed into the Babylonian Garden. But we borrowed the name as a fitting homage to further tie the Indians back to the game.)

    Farm_Lineup.png

    Like Farms, the Indian Plantations will have three different 3D models and grow two unique crops. (Choosing crops is one of our team's favorite moments in civ design.) It turns out that the Indus Valley was the ancient world's leading exporter of black pepper. They also grew a ton of beans, which haven’t yet made an entrance into AoEO. So beans and pepper plants it is.
    All current and future content will stay 100% free and accessible to everyone.

    ========
    Thank you so much for reading, and we will see you all next time!

    Project Celeste Development Team

    What do you think about this week's blog? What would you like to see next? Let us know in the comments below!

    ========
    The Romans are here! Watch the Overview Trailer.

    Project Celeste is completely free and always will be. However, we gladly accept donations for our overhead costs, which are larger than we have budgeted. If you want to support us, you can do so HERE.

    Read every Romans related blog HERE.

    Tell your friends! Join our Discord HERE.
    ========
     
    #1 PF2K, Jul 11, 2021 at 11:01 AM
    Last edited: Sep 5, 2021
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Comments

Discussion in 'Indians' started by PF2K, Jul 11, 2021.

    1. RekiemOne

      RekiemOne Champion

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      Tremendous infos, looking forward to this !
       
    2. Taffetatree01

      Taffetatree01 Spearman

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      Superb info, guys... hopefully the traders are also superb in this civ...
       
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    3. indianempire

      indianempire Woad Raider

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      yo guys wasup,
      loving the buildings and design can wait for more.
      keep up the good work guys.
      plus where the Indian server?
       
      Andy P XIII and PhilipHvd like this.
    4. Slyrevick

      Slyrevick Hippikon

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      Great comics graphics, as usual :hearteyes:
       
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    5. Leow193

      Leow193 Woad Raider

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      Can we expect gods from the Indian Pantheon as advisors or "regular" humans ?
       
      indianempire likes this.
    6. indianempire

      indianempire Woad Raider

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      Andy will we get info on the farming mechanism for the Indians cause it looks cool.
       
      bbgambini, FeteFatale and Andy P XIII like this.
    7. Mikey242

      Mikey242 Spearman

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      I am so excited for this civ, thank you so much to everyone for taking on this task. I also appreciatie the update and an explanation of the throught process that has gone into your decisions so far.
       
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    8. Andy P XIII

      Andy P XIII Moderator
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      Certainly. Right now the Plantation acts just like a large farm. We were able to quickly figure out how to convince the game to allow multiple villagers to farm the same one at the same time, so that was a tremendous relief. What else would you like to know?
       
    9. RASPUTINPRIME

      RASPUTINPRIME Champion

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      A perfect additional civ and the first reveal looks absolutely epic!
       
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    10. Raider

      Raider Villager

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      It's awesome to be part of the 2d team!
       
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    11. Andy P XIII

      Andy P XIII Moderator
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      It’s awesome to have you!
       
    12. indianempire

      indianempire Woad Raider

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      Where the Indian discord chat?
       
    13. PF2K

      PF2K Lead Developer
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      It's for the development team only.
       
      FeteFatale and indianempire like this.
    14. frogs.poison

      frogs.poison Immortal

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      MANY QUESTIONS!

      1: How does the increased size of the plantation affect villager movement? Unlike in AoE2, in which villagers stay at a specific point on a farm, making the amount of time needed to deposit the food static, in AoEO, villagers move around the farm while farming, which adds a slight lvl of variance in terms of how much movement the villager needs to deposit the food - At times, the villager is right next to the deposit site. At other times, the villager is at the furthest possible distance from the deposit site. With increased area on the planation, does that mean that the max possible distance for villagers to move is increased?

      2: What's the health/cost/build time ratio of the plantation vs farm atm? A simple 2x ratio? (2x health, cost, build time). Increased ratio of health to build time/cost, so India gets "tankier" farms compared to other civs?

      3: How many plantations can be snugly fit around a resource deposit site? There's a certain number of farms you can fit around TCs, Storehouses, and bordering Docks so that the edge of the farm is in contact with the edge of the deposit building - I've found that it's 7 farms for the TC, 4 farms for the Storehouse, and 2 farms for the dock. Beyond that, you start to add distance for the villager to cross - At a full farms length of distance, it takes the villager roughly an extra .7 or so seconds to deposit food - Which, as stated, can really add up over the length of a game. So as I see it it's generally better to build new deposit buildings for faster resource dropoff then try to fit in extra farms around a single deposit building. Will plantations need to be manually rotated to ensure maximum coverage before placement?

      Also, I assume that India will have the full 3 farming techs for A2, A3, and A4. Will India have a unique storehouse tech?
       
    15. PF2K

      PF2K Lead Developer
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      Yes.

      Not decided on this yet. Subject to balancing, but I expect it to be costing twice or more, but most likely won't take twice as long to build. Check Longhouse vs House to get an idea.


      unknown.png
       
    16. Andy P XIII

      Andy P XIII Moderator
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      PF2K's images are obviously better, but here's what I had mocked up when we were arriving on what size to make these Plantations.

      First, here is what all the other civs have with 3x3 Farms:
      upload_2021-7-11_21-43-8.png

      Second, here's what the Indians will have with 4x4 Plantations:

      upload_2021-7-11_21-43-50.png

      Doing our due diligence, we looked at other sizes, but they were obviously inferior:

      upload_2021-7-11_21-44-33.png

      I mocked up a 6x6 with its own little building or something, but, again, it was a nonstarter.

      upload_2021-7-11_21-45-41.png
       
    17. frogs.poison

      frogs.poison Immortal

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      While I've been using the SH setup, I wasn't aware of the proper TC setup. Thanks Andy!
       
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    18. PF2K

      PF2K Lead Developer
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      Here is Andy's version:

      unknown.png
      Admittedly, this is a better way to put farms and I'll be using this layout from now on.
       
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    19. Vikbo

      Vikbo Villager

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      No meat in the storehouses huuh, so they will be vegetarians :D
       
      Slyrevick and Kire like this.
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