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Because the game is very fast paced, one of the advantages of 0ad, some automation features like this are good. But such features should not eliminate learning curves.

you are the one bugging here. All it does is use an existing system to tell units to attack higher preference units if they are attacking a low preference unit without orders. aoe2 does this, not sure about other games. It is perfectly intuitive, and it is exactly what would be expected of a preference system in UnitAI. You just made up "damage spreading" out of thin air. PRs go to the game for everyone, and they effect everyone equally. Making and distributing automation mods to be used against those that don't have them (incompatibility checks off) because you think the game design is bad is very different.

The very first (and obviously) reply after the linked comment was from Stan: My personal opinion about the autoqueue feature that was added to the main game is that it was a bad idea. The feature is justified on a grand-scale RTS such as Supreme Commander where the macro required is truly insane, but not in a classic style RTS game. From this, you can guess my opinion on all other similar modifications.

What then? "Autonomous retargeting and damage spreading"? Are you having a cognitive dissonance about it? Maybe it doesn't really work out well to develop a 0 click auto sniping after taking a strong stand against more manual features in some threads? Still don't think it's bad features beside that it's a bit complexifying unit behavior, just funny to see you bug out about it thoughts.

This seems like a fair solution which will allow some flexibility on the host side.

Yeah that is extremely unconvincing. If you wonder why players use it despite being insignificant that's a explanation. Doesn't aim to convince you to use it. Its because they want the juice without having to squeeze. That's it. No "adrenaline/timing/flow/buildup". This is a slander which you have said before. Stop repeating this lie that I have worked on autosniping. The pr is not related at all to autosniping at all and has been very successful from testing in the community mod.

Yeah that is extremely unconvincing. If you wonder why players use it despite being insignificant that's a explanation. Doesn't aim to convince you to use it. Also we can note that @real_tabasco_sauce made a sort of autosniping that he push for the main game, and @guerringuerrin also want to facilitate training. Both are respectable work and good feature ideas. As-well, the original thread about autoqueue (now in vanilla) also already mentioned finding a way to resize batch based on resources (there were another thread talking about it but can't find it again because of request search limitations). Now, theses threads just aim to fuel a myth around 'progui' that a handful of players want to entertain, that need to use lies about nondisclosure, false claim about it's working etc to make it even stand...

@Sesshoumaruin order to get your points you'll need to upload the commands.txt file from the replay's folder. You can check on the replay's section of the game, identify it and navigate to the file's path shown in the bottom section of the screen to get the replay folder

Just to clarify the topic of automatic transmissions in case I'm misunderstanding due to a language barrier: In most races, the transmission is semi-automatic/sequential. This means that the driver does actively shift gears, even though the system is electronically assisted. In most of the cases, no driver would choose a fully automatic gearbox, because deciding when to shift and when to downshift is key to optimizing the car’s performance (for overtaking, entering/exiting corners, etc.). And this is why going to non-gaming-related analogies can be so confusing and creates dead-end discussions. BUT if wanna keep playing with the analogy... I would compare the semi-automatic transmission to my customTrainer mod. In this case, the system automatically finds an idle barracks and assigns the units there, instead of stacking them in a barracks that’s already busy—something that forces you to constantly search for the darn idle one. We could even consider this a bug in the game, and this system comes to fix it while still respecting the “non-automation principle” (okay, I’m getting philosophical here). Now, fully automating production can result in a competitive advantage between two players of similar skill, if one of them has to spend less attention maintaining their population high while the other has to carry out repetitive production tasks. It’s also something hard to quantify—it’s more of a qualitative difference, since you can’t measure, for instance, how distracted someone might get in the heat of the moment, forgeting to check it's military production. And this is fairly obvious. The trade-off is that you lose control over batch sizes at any given time, and that can affect your economy at certain points. But you can toggle autotrain on and off. So a player could activate it during moments when they’re focused on battle and know they have enough resources for autotrain not to hurt their economy. Meanwhile, the player without autotrain is forced to constantly pay attention to their production. Atrik usually argues from the perspective of gameplay preference, which I think is totally valid. Others (like me) argue from a fair play and competitive balance standpoint (please, serious arguments—none of that “I have better hardware” or “I woke up more noob than yesterday” stuff), and I think that’s also valid. In fact, this is a discussion present in many RTS games. But the problem is that if we don’t start establishing some shared criteria for this discussion, and everyone argues from completely subjective positions, there’s no way to reach any kind of conclusion. About quickstart, a simple example: in AoE2 it’s banned. In StarCraft 2 it’s standard—your 4 Drones/Probes/SCVs automatically go straight to the minerals as soon as the game starts. And we can apply this same example to vanilla AoE2 and 0 A.D. The built-in auto-queue feature in vanilla 0 A.D. is actually banned in AoE2 and StarCraft 2—it’s only allowed in non-competitive matches. Conclusion: the scope and limitations of what’s allowed in the different ways the game can be played ultimately depend on community consensus and by having ways to enforce that consensus. Right now we keep at zone 0 here

Great effort @guerringuerrin, I look forward to your implementation on gitea! Your hashing is useful for debugging mod issues and OOS aside from its intended anti-cheat effect The only bottom line is don't create an anti-cheat that autobans Linux or windows users. PUBG and Apex legends are the bad role models here

Quit rated match with spec Name : Tom_0AD

Car analogies for a competitive RTS game? That's bold.

The debate around the use of mods is a broad and somewhat controversial topic that I’ve observed since I first became part of this community. I’ve noticed that, whether in favor of or against the use of mods, many argue that it’s impossible to prevent them. Even if all players in a match (not just the host) could see which mods are active, they claim there’s no point in adding such a feature because it’s very easy to rename a mod to disguise it as something else and hide what’s actually being used. One could even inject a mod inside another mod and achieve the same result. Below, I’m sharing a sort of "white paper" outlining what I believe is a possible alternative to this issue. While it may not be free of weaknesses, it could make it significantly harder for players to deceive others. Mod Integrity Verification in 0 A.D. Objective Prevent the use of hidden or modified mods that provide unfair advantages in multiplayer games, through automatic integrity checks without compromising player privacy. Context Currently, players can install mods in two ways: As folders, which are easily editable. As .zip or .pyromod files, which are harder to modify without leaving traces. There is currently no native mechanism that allows the host to verify whether a player is using a modified mod. Proposal Implement local mod integrity verification using cryptographic checksums (e.g., SHA256), and report this data to the host. How it works On the client (player) side: When launching the game or connecting to a match: The client calculates a hash (e.g., SHA256) for each enabled mod. It generates a list with: mod name, hash, and enabled status. This list is automatically sent to the host. On the host side: The host receives the list of enabled mods and their hashes. It compares them against a predefined whitelist (for a tournament, server, or community). If mismatches are found, the host may block the connection or issue a warning. Security and privacy No file content is transmitted. There is no remote access to the player's file system. Only mod names and hashes are shared. Forging these values would require tampering with the engine or core scripts. Advantages Makes it harder to use undetectable modified mods. Promotes transparency and fair play in multiplayer sessions. Scalable for tournaments, ranked matches. Suggested implementation Add SHA256 hash computation during mod loading. Extend the multiplayer connection protocol to include mod hash information. Allow hosts or servers to define and enforce a list of accepted mod hashes. Technical considerations This system is not intended as a foolproof solution against all forms of malicious modification. While verifying and reporting mod hashes locally significantly raises the difficulty of using altered mods without detection, a technically skilled user could still modify the game engine to falsify the reported hash values. It’s also worth noting that 0 A.D. is widely used on Linux, where many users compile the game from source due to delayed updates in official repositories. In such cases, the compiled binaries may vary between users even if the source code is the same. However, this does not affect the validity of mod verification, as hash comparisons are made on the downloaded .zip or .pyromod files—whose hashes remain stable as long as their content is unmodified. Despite these limitations, the proposed system represents a meaningful step toward improving transparency and reducing the prevalence of undetected mod-based advantages, without requiring invasive anti-cheat mechanisms.

As depressing as to make weekly threads about quickstart and trainer without bringing anything new to the debate. Using the description "unfair advantage" and "cheat" based on false facts that "it's undisclosed" and "make players much stronger". I don't need to go over the list of players that switched it on and off and for whom it didn't make any difference at all, the first post of this thread already start by lying about this, and lies about it are vital to give reasons to even talk about this; just as much as the "undisclosed" lie. At lot of feature makes it impossible to argue that it's attempting to be stealthy but here we are. I didn't make this thread. My point stands though. Yeah that is extremely unconvincing.

As depressing as to make weekly threads about quickstart and trainer without bringing anything new to the debate. Using the description "unfair advantage" and "cheat" based on false facts that "it's undisclosed" and "make players much stronger". I don't need to go over the list of players that switched it on and off and for whom it didn't make any difference at all, the first post of this thread already start by lying about this, and lies about it are vital to give reasons to even talk about this; just as much as the "undisclosed" lie. At lot of feature makes it impossible to argue that it's attempting to be stealthy but here we are. Concerning using analogy with cars, automatic transmission cars are just mechanically superior, so yes, they ultimately are slightly faster. On a very simple circuit race, the gain of a tenths of seconds every turns still won't make worse drivers beat better ones but equally skilled drivers might increase their relative win chances. On complex races, like Dakar rally, the advantage is simply not worth even thinking about, because the car and driver performance have much more factors to consider. I'm no expert in car racing but afaik most race embrace automatic transmission. Automatic transmission only get such name because of it's ancestor where the mechanical solution wasn't figure out yet, and required for driver to have a stick to shift between gears. Now unlike the automatic transmission system, autotrain isn't ultimately faster then vanilla autoqueue or clicking a batch every time. Sometimes smaller batch are better. Maximizing batch does actually sometimes lead to more building idle times. Still those features have tremendous upsides : For quickstart, it's much better to get you into a state of flow/ get adrenaline buildup. This, because now the game get it's intensity increase over time rather then having a apm/adrenaline spike in the 5sec then a plateau til min 3. I don't feel that there are any "skill" in making repetitive meaningless actions like re-batching all the time. It takes away brain time to come up with original strategies, and overall put you in a stance of repeating some procedures.

I find this autostart argument pretty sad, and I have heard it from several players. Are you really that hell-bent on making the fastest possible start just for such a small gain? I think players should accept that it is impossible to achieve the "perfect" start, and instead put in effort to learn a fast start that works for them. The point is not that autostart gets you such a massive gain, it doesn't, its that the principle behind it is depressing.

Oh, so that's how I could have added oars while keeping the sail & sail animation?

This is an assumption that one player makes about 7 others. And when they find out they lost because someone was cheating, the answer is "chill out its just a game". Awesome argument guys. Usually all 7 other players are unaware that this advantage exists, and even the minority of players who know that such mods exist do not grasp the magnitude of advantage that automation scripts provide. The discussion about the game being "non-competitive" is very convenient when cheaters use it to downplay the negative gameplay consequences that results from cheating. Funny enough the "competitive" nature of 0ad has been used to justify the same automation scripts by players who claim that their mouse can't click fast enough to compete with players who have "better" hardware. No player can click faster than even the cheapest mice allow, and some players even prefer not to have a mouse. Even more funny is that an auto-clicker which people have claimed to be in-use in 0ad would be considered an automation script and therefore cheating. The hypocrisy is mind boggling. I also totally reject the car analogy because in this case the automatic car is simply faster.

Obviously, this makes you a better player because it masks your flaws. Being better or worse than another player requires several evaluation points, and one of them is the ability to manage everything that happens on screen, especially in an RTS game. If you use a script that does these things for you, it's obviously an advantage and shouldn't even be discussed. Your analogy exemplifies exactly what I said. A manual car may not be faster than an automatic, but there's a chance of shifting into the wrong gear and breaking gears in a manual car, which isn't possible in an automatic. That's exactly what you do when you use scripts to mask your mistakes.

While working on a PR to incorporate hotkeys for building placement, building selection, and unit selection, I created this mod that—on top of building placement and selection—adds hotkeys to select several unit classes not covered by AutoCiv: all infantry, cavalry, champions, mercenaries, healers, heroes, and even dogs! It can be used alongside AutoCiv, although I haven’t tested it with its latest versions. There are still some features left to add, but I’d really appreciate help from anyone willing to test it and help catch any bugs I might have missed. I’d also love to publish it on mod.io, so any help with that would be greatly appreciated! To install it, just unzip BuildingHotkeys.zip and copypaste the BuildingHotkeys folder into your mod's folder Here's a demonstration video: BuildingsHotkeys mod.mp4

I like the car analogy. The first analogy I came up with was shoes; when you play soccer (or any other sport during which you run around a lot) with your friends, neighbours or acquaintances, there are no rules for which shoes you use. And the shoes are how you interact with the ball and the game, so they're like a GUI. If you want to, you can play in high heels and make it extra hard on yourself. Or you play normally, with general sports shoes. Or you are very competitive and you get yourself special soccer shoes. Only when you start playing your sport professionally, youll begin to encounter rules regarding your footwear. And autostart is like cheating in a race by starting 0.5s too early; in a professional setting, youll get punished for that, but when you're just running around with your friends nobody cares.

https://mod.io/g/0ad/m/select-all This was ported recently, if you want hotkeys, as an alternative to autociv (that is also available from mod downloader).

@Itms It might not be related to this specific RC3, but I just experienced a crash after a 30-minute game with this RC3. There were lots of serialization errors before the first window crash. I was able to click "Continue" and the game kept running. However, it crashed again when I tried to save and clicked the save button. Uploading here. I can report on gitea if neccesary Crash_rc3_250714.zip

For rigged meshes prop points should be added to the armature unlike normal meshes.

Replay2025-07-13_0001.zip