Suggestions for v0.8

[Avicenna]

Could poison be added? Read a bit about poisons recently. Poison could make the troop morale lower, and any unit hit would eventually die from poison. The Scythians especially (and Indians, but they're not in EB) were famous for having their feared arrows: they caused maximum pain, gruesome deaths, were painted in a snake-like design and had barbed arrowheads. They also had remarkable accuracy and had a range of over 1600 feet with their composite bows. This should easily outrange any normal foot archers.

The Greeks also used poison, with many mentions of it in Herakles' Twelve Labours, the Iliad, the Odyssey and other myths. In fact, almost all the peoples at the time used poisons, apart from the Romans (at least as far as we know). The Nubians with their poison javelins, poison arrows of the Kenyans, snake poison of the Libyans, to name just a few. Also, the barbarians (so probably the Gauls, Germanians, Britons and Iberians, but no mention of them directly) including the Getae, Dacians, Skythians, Turks (peoples from Asia Minor at least) all used poisons. Even the Indians used poisonous arrows, which were just as gruesome and feared as the Skythian poison arrows. The author even says that Alexander's armies feared the Indian poisons more than the elephants, as a small cut was almost a guaranteed death unless a Hindu medic that was used to poisons was present. The Skythians even managed to defeat an Alexandrian army with their arrows, firing 20 per minute with deadly accuracy.

[orwell]

very interesting, but, could it be added? If your character has just a single hit point, then you couldn't subtract from that unless it registers decimals, and even then, do scripts work on the battlefield?

[MaximianusBR]

the poison can counter the phisician, doctor, chirugeon bonus...but it have to be expensive to give balance to the game...

[Avicenna]

Death if hit at all, but not instant death. The poisons that caused swift death were reserved for hunting. The gruesome, excruciatingly painful poisons were left for war, to demoralise the enemy. 3000 Harmatelians ran out of their settlement in an attempt to defeat Alexander with their poison arrows, but the Hindu physicians of Alexander knew how to cure the infection caused. They immediately surrendered. This shows that the poison was incredibly scary, and would have caused most armies to run, otherwise they wouldn't face Alexander.

[edyzmedieval]

including the Getae, Dacians

It's the same thing. Getai used by Greeks, Dacians by Romans.
Anyhow, it's an interesting proposition. But how could it be included? I kinda don't see how, if it's possible.

[khelvan]

We have already considered, and rejected, the use of poison. There is not enough evidence to suggest that it was used on a consistent, large-scale basis by anyone.

[edyzmedieval]

We have already considered, and rejected, the use of poison. There is not enough evidence to suggest that it was used on a consistent, large-scale basis by anyone.

May I ask what have you not considered?

Long live EB.

[paullus]

Are you making any map/AI traits changes in light of nikolai's research?

[Avicenna]

Well there's accounts by Herodotus, Frontinius, Pliny, Pausanias, Plutarch, Quintus of Smyrna, Strabo, Ovid, Silius Italicus, Homer (indirectly: describes wounds caused by arrows with snake venom accurately, also giving symptoms), Virgil and others that you probably wouldn't have heard of. Poison is always mentioned in the Iliad, sometimes in the Odyssey, and in myths. Cerberus has poisonous drool, Odysseus, Achilles, Hercules, Paris and Philoctetes used poison weapons, and the Greeks had accurate descriptions of the poisonous plants, where to find them and the symptoms if you had been poisoned. Assassination by poisoning was common as well, with offers to Romans to poison Pyrrhus and Ariminius. The Greeks poisoned the water supply of the Kirrhans with hellebore. Military tacticians always advise armies to camp in healthy areas, obviously having had a history of receiving or giving water that was contaminated. The ancients were very much used to using poison in warfare. Do you think it was a coicidence that when the Spartans were losing in the Peloponnesian War, with their offer of ceasefire was rejected, that Athens suddenly broke out with a plage from its port? The first thing that Athens did was to accuse Sparta for this plague. The Indians also had whole guides on how to poison the enemy and how to counter these poisons, so if the Greeks didn't know about poisons they surely would after having travelled to India and been on the receiving end.

Do you still want more evidence?

edit: add Livy to that list.

[orwell]

For the sake of arguement, if it were agreed that it would be added, how would it be? Countering ancillaries who heal after the battle is the only possible way I see it. Everything I've seen on scripting says it can't touch the battle elements of the game, only the units, unless you were to create a specific unit that does no actual damage, but adds a value to the number of dead enemy after the battle. Even then, isn't the minimum damage permitted by the system 1 hit point? Theoritically, to represent poisoning a city I suppose you could, through dynamic requirements, spawn a spy that has the plague inside a city, unless the number of additional characters like spy and diplomat can be extended? Could any actual modder comment on even the possiblity of the idea, regardless of it probably not going into EB, if just for balancing sake if nothing else.

[khelvan]

Do you still want more evidence?

I will repeat what I said.

We have already considered, and rejected, the use of poison. There is not enough evidence to suggest that it was used on a consistent, large-scale basis by anyone.

You will notice I did not say there was no evidence of poison use. What I said is that there is not enough evidence to suggest that it was used on a consistent, large-scale basis by anyone. And I'm not talking about poisoning a water supply.