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Hello there Celeste players! We are finally back with another development blog. It's going to be one of the biggest ones yet so get ready to dive in.

Today we are revealing one of the many Elephant units of the Indian civilization, as well as their Fortress, their Silver and Golden Age Town Centers. We are also showing you the gear progression of the Spearman and Turanga units, which we already revealed in previous blogs. Finally, we will be showcasing the two main terrain sets that will be released alongside the Indian civilization: Indian Rocky and Indian Marsh.

Gatherer Elephant
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You might have already guessed or heard about this unit, but this is where we are finally putting an official confirmation of its existence: the Indian Gatherer Elephant is the Indians' special economic unit that is available via the Town Center starting in Age II. It gathers resources faster than Villagers and carries significantly more, but cannot construct or repair Buildings like regular Villagers can. It may also be subject to a Build Limit, but that will be determined later on during our playtesting sessions.

Being one of the Indian civilization's economic cornerstones (alongside the Plantation which was revealed in an earlier blog), the Gatherer Elephant allows Indians to get ahead in economy by the gathering efficiency it provides. While constructing Buildings is one of the most important aspects of Villagers, during the course of a long game, most Villagers spend nearly all their time gathering resources instead. This is where the Gatherer Elephant shines with its exceptional resource gathering ability, particularly for resources that include longer travelling distances for resource drop-off (such as trees).

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The Gatherer Elephant has one unique upgrade of its own - also available in the Town Center - which increases its Carry Capacity, Movement Speed and Health (essentially its own version of Loom and Wheelbarrow/Hand Cart, since it doesn't get affected by those upgrades), but also another upgrade shared by the other Elephant units of the Indians. This is a pattern that you can also see with the Babylonian Ox Cart with the Reinforced Cart, Cargo Expansion and Iron Wheels upgrades.

From a technical standpoint, it is also one of the most complex units of the civilization, having more animations than nearly any other unit. Walking, Idle, Melee Attack, Bored, Berry Gathering, Gold Mining, Stone Mining, Fishing, Farming and Hunting, to name a few. We are not finished with all of these animations yet, but here's a sneak peek at a few of the finished ones below:

PF2K's Personal Note: We need more animators to help with the Indians! Check the last part of the blog for additional details.
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This is how the Economy section of the Indian Tech Tree shows the Gatherer Elephant:

Age 3 and 4 Town Centers
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We previously revealed the Age 1 and 2 Town Centers for the Indians, and now we have the Age 3 and 4 versions ready to show.

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Now that you have seen all of the Indian Town Centers, let's have a look at all of them together, shall we?

Fortress
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We briefly mentioned the Indian Fortress in a previous blog, but we weren't quite ready to show you the building itself yet. However it is now ready for you to see. (after undergoing more re-iterations than any other building in the Indian civilization roster, in fact!)

In designing the Indian Fortress, we decided to go back to the game's roots and go for an asymmetrical approach to the building's design. You can see this in the Greek and Egyptian Fortresses, too. Where the Persian, Celtic, Babylonian and Norse have a nearly perfectly symmetrical design, the Egyptian and Greek Fortresses are asymmetrical, and you will see the same on the Indian Fortress.

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Visual asymmetry isn't the Indian Fortress's only special feature, though. It is also the only Fortress in the game that will train both a Palintonon and a Ram unit - in contrast to the Egyptian Fortress that trains no Siege units (but Elephants instead) and the Greek/Persian/Roman/Babylonian Fortresses that train only Palintonons. (The other Indian Elephant units will be trained from a building other than their Fortress, which we will reveal later)

When the Indian Ram unit is ready, we will show that to you too to finally wrap up this building!

Spearman and Turanga Gear Progression
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Similar to the Bowman and Ranger, we are now ready to show all the different visuals of the Spearman and Turanga units, which we revealed in an earlier blog. Eamon has once again done fantastic work on these units, and we think they look beautiful!

Indian Terrain Sets
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As with the Romans, the Indians will be launched with two brand-new terrain sets: Indian Marsh and Indian Rocky. These terrain sets have been carefully made using real-life references from various parts in India, and have trees/wildlife that are unique to them, such as Asian wild elephants, banana trees, and more.
Here are some landscapes from these two terrain sets, under different lighting settings:

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The pictures above are from the Indian Marsh terrain set, which is the primary terrain set of the Indians. The ones below are from the secondary set, Indian Rocky:

Help Wanted! We Need a 3D Animator!
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As we mentioned earlier in the blog, we are currently in need of additional help with the Indian civilization. Our previous 3D animators are no longer able to spend as much time on the game due to real-life responsibilities and as such, our progress on the animation side of things (and as a result, the progress for the entire civilization) has slowed down significantly.

If you or someone you know can spare a few hours a week (or something around that) who has previous experience with animating (preferably in Blender), please send me (PF2K) or Max v.R. or Eamon (Chaos) a message on Discord with a few examples of your previous work so we can bring you in on the team. Thanks in advance for your help!
(PF2K's Personal Note: This is how Eamon got in the team as well!)

Thanks for reading, and we look forward to revealing more of the Indians again shortly as we pick up the pace. Please let us know your thoughts and questions below!

All current and future content will stay 100% free and accessible to everyone.

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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!

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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.

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