By PF2K on Sep 5, 2021 at 12:22 PM
  1. PF2K

    PF2K Lead Developer
    Staff Member Administrator

    Joined:
    Oct 24, 2017
    Messages:
    953
    Likes Received:
    3,272
    Trophy Points:
    93
    Header_-_Blog_2.png
    Since we are between seasonal events, we'd like to update you on the Indians. Our team is just large enough now to allow one group to work on the events without having to distract those working on our new civilization. In the last couple of months, our 3D and 2D teams have continued to work through their lists, though at an admittedly slower pace (travel, real life issues, and various other stuff have slowed us -- both Hans and Cain (previously known as Raider) have had drawing tablet problems, etc.).

    We are still way ahead, but our breakneck progress has slowed. We expect to get things moving again now that the summer is winding down.

    Whereas with the Romans we had a single dedicated team that essentially moved from one project to the next in a linear fashion, with the Indians we have a larger group that is trying to create everything at once. (Though we also have more things to create.) In that spirit, we we are revealing today a little bit of everything – some units, some buildings, some Advisors, and even some icons.

    Dock, Fishing Boat, and Merchant Transport
    =======================================
    Water_Stuff.png
    One elegant part of AoEO’s asymmetric civ design is that each civilization takes turns emphasizing different core buildings. This creates unique design within the fabric of the civs, as opposed to grafting a few differences onto a bunch of universal units and buildings, such as in AoE2. The unique elements of AoEO civs vary, so one may have special Houses and Watchposts while another may have special Storehouses, Farms, and Walls, or Barracks, or Temples, etc.

    But more than that, much of the game’s design artistry is in how those unique features reflect that civ’s history and accentuate some kind of fitting unique gameplay. So the tech tree, the gameplay mechanics, and the real life history all tie together, and Age of Empires Online does this better than any other game.

    Meanwhile, every core building seems to eventually have its day. So we cannot design any one civ in a vacuum. Not only must the special buildings of the Indians fit their history and motifs perfectly, but they cannot overlap with those of other civs – the Indians themselves must fit the game perfectly, too.

    While we are now up to 8 civs, there are still several core buildings that so far have not received much special attention – Docks, Markets, and, to a lesser degree, Guard Towers and Town Centers, to name a few. So doing something new with these buildings was obviously on our radar.

    But Docks are particularly difficult buildings to emphasize because their usefulness varies wildly based on the map. A civ with a particularly strong Dock would need to be relatively weaker on land. But if the map doesn’t have water, then the civ faces an unbridgeable disadvantage. Therefore, it is not surprising that no civ has yet featured a special Dock and that everyone basically has the same one (with minor differences in cost for the Romans and Babylonians). So it would need the perfect civ.

    FB_Lineup.png

    On the one hand, the Indian subcontinent has historically dominated oceanic trade (they would capitalize on the seasonal winds of the Arabian sea to trade with the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Aksumites by way of the Red Sea. But on the other hand, India is close to the size of Europe and similarly varied depending on the area, and our Indians are based on the northern Mauryan Empire of the Indus Valley along the Himalayas. Our Indians travelled more by river than by sea. Ultimately, there is perhaps room in the game for a unique Dock, but not here. Our Indians need to focus on other things.

    MT_Lineup.png

    But that does not mean the Indians should not have a beautiful Dock or strong Ships. And they have those things. Today, we are revealing the Dock, Fishing Boat, and Merchant Transport. They will all perform exactly as you would expect, and we are super happy with how they look. We will reveal their other ships later.

    Dock_Lineup.png

    Gear Hall, Residences, Advisors, and 2D Art
    ======================================
    Residences.png
    Gear_Hall.png
    Capital Cities all have the same roster of buildings. Therefore, once we arrived on the Indian architectural style, the 3D team was able to get to work without much direction. We will reveal everything soon enough, and today we have the Gear Hall and the three Residences.

    SRes_Lineup.png
    MRes_Lineup.png
    LRes_Lineup.png
    Gear_Hall_Lineup.png

    Along similar lines, we are also launching with a full set of Indian Advisors. Every civilization in the game has (at least) 10 Advisors: seven regular Advisors with Common, Uncommon, Rare, and Epic versions plus three Legendary Advisors.

    The Indian Advisors mark a huge moment in Project Celeste – until now, we have had the benefit of using the professional artwork from the original developers. Even the Roman advisors are all sourced from original work. But the Indians are completely brand new, so it is on us to make all of their Advisors. We do not expect to finalize exactly what they buff until we playtest, but Hans has already finished them all. Today we introduce you to two of the Legendary Advisors, both of whom will also appear in the game as Quest Givers, Chandragupta and Ashoka.

    Advisors.png

    They were each legendary Indian emperors. Chandragupta Maurya founded the Mauryan Empire and rose to power immediately after Alexander the Great retreated back towards Greece. His grandson Ashoka was India’s greatest emperor of that era (and perhaps of all time). Ashoka ruled the empire at its height stretching from the edge of Persia (not far from modern day Iran) eastward to modern Bangladesh and south through almost the entire Indian subcontinent. The third advisor is a merchant without a name yet. All in good time!

    Finally, there’s lots of other needed artwork (icons, portraits, milestones, etc.), and Cain and PF2K have been recently designing some of the Tech icons, which you can see here. Bonus points if anyone can correctly guess what they do. To get you started, one of them is called Varuna’s Haste and is one of the three Age 3 Choose One Techs (the others being Varuna’s Wisdom and Varuna’s Grip). Let us know your guesses!

    Techs.png

    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.
    Read every Indians related blog HERE.

    Tell your friends! Join our Discord HERE.
    ========
     
    Robcore, Wolfgang, BOSAIF and 19 others like this.
  2. Loading...


Comments

Discussion in 'Indians' started by PF2K, Sep 5, 2021.

    1. Romaniac01

      Romaniac01 Champion

      Joined:
      Nov 1, 2019
      Messages:
      96
      Likes Received:
      49
      Trophy Points:
      18
      My guess is that the Veruna tech gives either a choice between ranged and cavalry to tie into the type of elephants that are used in that map.

      Varuna's Haste might give a slight bonus to speed for either ranged or cav depending on choice.

      Varuna' Grip might give more dmg for either ranged or cav. The grip is the glove.

      Varuna's Wisdom might give units more resistance or health for either ranged or cav.

      The elephant icon on the bottom left probably is the champion upgrade for the strongest unit from the elephant building (name unknown).
       
      PF2K and Andy P XIII like this.
    2. RekiemOne

      RekiemOne Champion

      Joined:
      Jan 13, 2020
      Messages:
      92
      Likes Received:
      114
      Trophy Points:
      33
      Hypetrain stop 2
      Getting me hyped even more!!
       
    3. indianempire

      indianempire Woad Raider

      Joined:
      Apr 20, 2018
      Messages:
      30
      Likes Received:
      34
      Trophy Points:
      18
      bro, this is soo cool loving what you have done, cant wait for the vimana and troops, loving the use of varuna, is that a chariot wheel hmm(the one Abhimanyu used)no idea if were getting chariots?. the elephant tech is exciting ,so is the flower tech, which could be an economic type. cant wait for more.
       
      PF2K and Andy P XIII like this.
    4. Aaron

      Aaron Berserker

      Joined:
      Jul 28, 2019
      Messages:
      148
      Likes Received:
      109
      Trophy Points:
      43
      All hail the merchant guy!
       
      PF2K and Andy P XIII like this.
    5. frogs.poison

      frogs.poison Immortal

      Joined:
      May 19, 2020
      Messages:
      334
      Likes Received:
      181
      Trophy Points:
      43
      I assume that India will NOT have their own unique crafting material (I.E. Roman Marble, Celtic Charcoal, ect), so will Indian vanity/warehouses use the same material lineup as Norse/Babylon/Persia capital city structures do?
       
      PF2K and Andy P XIII like this.
    6. Andy P XIII

      Andy P XIII Moderator
      Moderator

      Joined:
      Nov 14, 2017
      Messages:
      562
      Likes Received:
      837
      Trophy Points:
      93
      Yes, I believe so.
       
    7. PF2K

      PF2K Lead Developer
      Staff Member Administrator

      Joined:
      Oct 24, 2017
      Messages:
      953
      Likes Received:
      3,272
      Trophy Points:
      93
      Correct.
       
    8. Kulcsos12

      Kulcsos12 Hippikon

      Joined:
      Nov 15, 2017
      Messages:
      181
      Likes Received:
      214
      Trophy Points:
      43
      I'm really excited how you will solve the Elephant issue. Chariots was the backbone of the Egyptian Army not the elephants. So, AoEO is a little bit inaccurate with this. While Indians used the elephants as one of the five main class in thier army. I know you will make a great job and don't copy-paste the Egyptian Elephants with smaller ears. Can't wait to see your solution!
       
      Andy P XIII likes this.
    9. Andy P XIII

      Andy P XIII Moderator
      Moderator

      Joined:
      Nov 14, 2017
      Messages:
      562
      Likes Received:
      837
      Trophy Points:
      93
      We will start showing the elephants soon. There’s going to be a bunch of them.
       
      bbgambini likes this.
    10. arkaram

      arkaram Long Swordsman

      Joined:
      Jan 7, 2021
      Messages:
      21
      Likes Received:
      21
      Trophy Points:
      3
      Amazing job!
       
      Andy P XIII likes this.
    11. t31os

      t31os Berserker

      Joined:
      Nov 15, 2017
      Messages:
      112
      Likes Received:
      59
      Trophy Points:
      28
      That artwork is spot on, props to everyone making the models and art (everyone else to, just wanna big up the art guys).

      Not a civ i'm overly excited for, but the design is looking top notch so far, great work everyone. :)
       
      Andy P XIII likes this.
    12. Andy P XIII

      Andy P XIII Moderator
      Moderator

      Joined:
      Nov 14, 2017
      Messages:
      562
      Likes Received:
      837
      Trophy Points:
      93
      honestly, that’s the best compliment we can receive. We know any non-Roman civ will miss the mark for many people (there are no majority favorites left). So all we can do is identify our best one, go boldly in that direction, and work hard. Hopefully our design and quality will win some more fans over.
       
    13. Max the Dragon

      Max the Dragon Woad Raider

      Joined:
      Sep 11, 2018
      Messages:
      28
      Likes Received:
      14
      Trophy Points:
      3
    14. Comecudemod

      Comecudemod Woad Raider

      Joined:
      Jul 19, 2021
      Messages:
      30
      Likes Received:
      14
      Trophy Points:
      8
      This is the golden icons of upgrade that we like. Much better than a new AoE that makes it generic.
      This brown wood is becoming my fav for buildings (next to Celts one). :)
       
      Andy P XIII likes this.
    15. goorz

      goorz Long Swordsman

      Joined:
      Aug 10, 2020
      Messages:
      19
      Likes Received:
      17
      Trophy Points:
      3
      stil can't believe that this game stay free , top designs.
      great work.
       
      Andy P XIII likes this.
    16. Aryzel

      Aryzel Immortal

      Joined:
      Feb 14, 2018
      Messages:
      212
      Likes Received:
      249
      Trophy Points:
      43
      I didn't think any civs after Romans would really draw me in and want to add them to my preferred civs (currently Romans and Norse with a little Celts thrown in), but damn Indians look awesome, getting excited to play them
       
      Andy P XIII likes this.
    17. i3ackero

      i3ackero Long Swordsman

      Joined:
      Jun 3, 2019
      Messages:
      15
      Likes Received:
      13
      Trophy Points:
      3
      I'm Indians will be my favourite civ, and that's bad, becouse I lost my motivation to play this game until their release (sorry) ;< But for sure I'm going to rush them and I'm not a fan of focusing on multiple factions/characters in games.

      I love the aesthetics, orient vibe and ele focus which surely will be a blast in PvE.
       
      Andy P XIII likes this.
    18. Natsata

      Natsata Spearman

      Joined:
      Nov 25, 2017
      Messages:
      12
      Likes Received:
      17
      Trophy Points:
      3
      Looking very interesting! Got hyped and chilled from other projects to drew this! Hope the Hype gets to all! indian advisor 1.jpg (PS: i was just chilling, it is not part of the official art)
       
    19. PF2K

      PF2K Lead Developer
      Staff Member Administrator

      Joined:
      Oct 24, 2017
      Messages:
      953
      Likes Received:
      3,272
      Trophy Points:
      93
      Looking great! I'll contact you later for this :)

      What's your Discord name?
       
      Natsata likes this.
  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
    Dismiss Notice