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The Kingdom of Kush: Unit: Meroitic Cavalry Lancer 0 A.D.-Dedicated art by Sundiata (Malcolm Kwadwo Kwarte Quartey, yes, that's my given name) This is the first of a series of illustrations I'm working on, depicting Kushite units from the late Napatan, through to the Meroitic period. There are only a small handful of historical illustrations by contemporary artists on this subject, so I decided to illustrate them as historically accurate as possible, specifically so that 3d artists can get to work on them. Another artist-friend is working hard doing the same. Horses were a loved and prized commodity in ancient Kush, attested by the ritual burial of horses in some royal graves. Horses have an ancient presence in Kush, and were primarily used to draw 2-span chariots in the earlier periods. By the time of Meroe's rise to importance, mounted cavalry became important, and remained important until the late 19th century. There are ample examples of graffiti of mounted warriors (regrettably with little detail), which, together with our accumulated knowledge on dress, attire and weapons, allow us to reconstruct several variations of Meroitic cavalry. Cavalry lancers were the most important (basic) type of mounted unit in Kush, recruited from the upper (-middle) classes, or as a dedicated retinue assembled by an important royal, noble or chief. It is also the earliest cavalry unit available to Kush. Equipped with an animal hide round shield (ox- elephant- or rhino-leather) and a bronze tipped spear (upgradable to iron). Apart from the modest layered cotton strips around his torso, which provide some basic protection, this unit barely used armor. This, combined with strong, fast, quality horses, creates a lightening fast unit, with a strong attack, and mediocre defense. A perfect unit to supplement the relatively poor Nubian Spearman and Bowmen you get at the beginning of the game. As the unit gains experience, quilted cotton armor and a skull cap become available. This will be a comparatively strong basic cavalry unit, perfect for hit and run tactics. Meroitic Cavalry Lancer, performing maneuvers on the Butana Steppe, not long after the annual rains, by Malcolm Kwadwo Kwarte Quartey (a.k.a Sundiata) [Licenced under CC BY-SA 3.0]

Hello dear friends. After some time in game all trees are ended. It was good to add ability to plant new trees, for example, fruit trees for gardens. Then we could or left them for fruits, or to cut them off if we need wood, also we could use fruits for planting new trees. Best regards, Vladislav

As some of you already reported, the registration system in the lobby is temporarily suspended. We apologize for the inconvenience, and also for the lack of clarity of the error message (which reads "the client has insufficient permission to remove an account"). This is a temporary measure against an attack from a lobby user who joined games and proceeded to start DoS attacks against their fellow players (which is downright illegal). We did not stop the lobby, because that would have meant preventing you all from playing, which was the aim of the attacker. However, we needed to focus on gathering data to report the abuse to the qualified authorities. Meanwhile, the user kept creating accounts and banning them one after the other was a waste of time for us. As a reminder, you can always play online with your friends without using the lobby! In the main menu, choose Multiplayer > Host game while your friends choose Join game and specify your IP address. We are currently reporting the abuse and we will re-enable lobby registration as soon as we can! We look forward to seeing new players joining the lobby

...I don't know where to start. I heard about this game on the internet and I had mixed feelings about it thinking that is open source and the installer is below 1GB. I started to play and I felt my heart warming with love, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Dynamic range on archers, different types of armor, the graphic that is similar to AoM which I very like. I still cannot believe that this is real. Dear Devs and staff: THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF THE HEART FOR THE EFFORT THAT YOU PUT IN THIS GAME. The only regret that I have is that I am poor and because of that my donation will be very limited and small amounts.

Hi all, (if you dont want to read all, see my boltshooter configuration in green below) Synopsis : After quick discussions in the lobby between 2 games (not easy to expose all in 1 min). I take the time to justify maybe the best thing to do with bolt-shooters. Introduction : We all know that 0ad games nowadays start with a grow pop spam to converge later into a battle of champions with a human train of traders in the backyard .One can think that the only reason is that champions are OP for the price they cost .. It is almost false and it's certainly not the main reason. The mainly reason has nothing to do with those 4 ressources shown on the screen. It is BRAIN ressource. Indeed, in a game, one are limited by the number of actions one can operate on the game. The best the player is, the more he can operates good moves and decisions. Take even the TOP5 best players, during a battle, none of them will get bored manipulating a set of cavalry + skirmishers + spearman + swordman + archers + siege units (to destroy the nearest ennemy tower). Though, a good CPU will do it very well and over-come an army of champs for the same amount of ressources. If one extends this fact to its limit, one sees the chariot spam syndrom : A bunch of chariots can do everything even destroy a fortress. Its expensive, its not efficient .. okay.. but omg, its so EASY for an human brain .. the ennemy will start to have head aches thinking how he can counter this parad of chariots with a composite army. In other words, the chariot spammer wins because he had free his brain from lots of operations while the other one will even forget to build, grow or work ! Idea : to dismiss the champs-spam strategy (which kills the gameplay) one needs at least 1 unit which has some counter value. It means that for a given price, it is better to use the counter unit rather than any other unit . Exemples : spearman vs Champs Cavalery , skirmishers vs Spear Champs , cavalery vs Sword Champs. By now, NO units can counter Chariot Champs , their long range and fast escape make it very hard for any spear units to reach them (and even more all together !). Solution : By now, the bolt-shooter might be the only unit which will be able to kill a chariot in a 1v1 . But , unfortunately, a bolt shooter is : expensive , 2 pop using , firing every 5 secs only, weak, slow to move and to deploy ... in other words totaly USELESS as it will impossible for an human brain to use them correctly against any army : as soon deployed, the chariots fly away, and/or some cheap units came to hack them down in 3 secs. For that price all pragmatic players will buy 2 more champs! --> So the bolt-shooters should be powered up and become the new OP unit in 0ad21 ? Certainly not. Bolt-shooters should be designed for 1 purpose : + Weaken a bunch of immobil units on a long distance (basicaly a bunch of firing chariots) And NOT : - Destroy any units in an eyeblink (like Roman boltshooters did in an older version) - Crush down towers and buildings from out-ranged distances --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Therefore , here is my configuration proposition for bolt-shooters : > bigger range to balance the annoying deployment time (at least bigger range than the chariots) : 80-90meters (minimum range of 5 meters) > more pierce attack for a the same given reloading time to balance the cost and the 2 pop : 200-300 pierce / every 5 sec > no crush damage at all , it should not replace the catapults in destroying buildings : 0 crush > the arrow has to punish only a bunch of immobil units packed together : projectil speed has to be lowered and its path should not be straight ( but slightly more like the one of the catapult bullet) , this way, a moving unit will not be killed. > no splash damage and average accuracy : its has to be less accurate than an archer but more like a skirmisher > take less place : even if their shoot range turns better, the disposition of many boltshooters should not be too much spread due to lack of space. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With this configuration, normaly you can create a counter force against army of chariots without replacing an OP unit in 0ad20 by another one in 0ad21. The bolt-shooters will be used like a strong defence units (against arrow harasement) for an army of walking soldiers gone for expedition ; it will take back its role as told in history books : Like the deadly unit behind the troops killing the formations of archers on the first lines of the ennemy ! Good night

r19193 Bolt shooters inflict 75 Pierce and 5 Crush linear splash damage or less to all units in 8m range behind the target (D107) r19204 Increase bolt shooter health from 100 to 200 and Catapult health from 100 to 250 (D102)

This tips are for the actual balance (Alpha XIX). Keep in mind that later it will be outdated. Is not a Pro guide. Overview tip: - This is a strategy game and if you have a deep look, it's all about economics and numbers: The player with a better resource avaibility, should win in most cases in a long run. So strategies games are wars for resources control. General tips in the first minutes: -You want always a continous flow of new units to have a better economy (and in this game, also a better army cause male units are also soliders). Try at first to establish a good food and wood economy (females only need food and you will need wood for houses). -Try to use berries and animals before going to farms (unless there's no alternative). Farm is slower and need wood investiment. Cavalry are very fast when working on animals, and females are better on berries and farms than men. Use ranged units to hunt (saving domestic animals) -Try to never get housed. That means that you can train a unit because you have the resources but you can't cause you need more pylons houses. Some factions have more expensive houses, but with double population capacity, and some are cheaper with less capacity. Use the houses like a wall protecting your Civic Center (CC) or whatever you want. -Always build your farms around your civic center. I've seen players that build the granary away and then the farms. This makes you more vulnerable to raids. *First objective: Establish an CC flow: With the first 9 females and your cav hunting you can train women in batches without worry until berries and chickens have depleted. Men to wood building first a house later a storage center. Other females created goes to wood that you will need for more houses and... *Second objective: ...farm transition. Also it's very important to make barracks: Then you can double your productivity. As always, try to have a continous flow of women being created on CC, and now soldiers on barraks. Then it's up to you. You can make more barraks, go to second phase and research economical techs. Right now, the most used strategy it's to get to 3 phase quicker than your enemy, mass champions (they can't work but have very good stats) being trained in the barraks with the appropriate tech (not all civs have it) and maybe train an heroe (usually the heroes that enhace champs stats. Remember that all heroes give a conquest bonus when capturing or resisting a capture when garrisoned) Some armoury and special techs can make the differance. Some other tips Garrisoned CC and fortress can stop a lot of citizien soldiers (c-s) (and some champions). Women don't add arrows. If you see your base overwhelmed with c-s try to garrison soldiers. Also towers, specially when upgraded. I don't have the numbers, but establishing a trade route with a market or a dock (better with an ally) is very good for your economy. You can change the resources you get in the upper icon. Allies get an additional share. Protect them. Healing champions with temples are a good idea (inside healing is faster) Walling is useful, but difficult and more expensive than other games. Don't chase ranged units with slower units. Cavalry is fast (with corral tech), but isn't heavily armoured. Some other strategies Cavalry archer rush: Go to second phase and mass cavalry archers. If you stop the enemy to reach the 3 phase, you can easily win. Countered with towers. Only ptolomies, seleucids and persians. CC rush: Reach second phase. Sell food and some wood for metal and stone. build a CC near your enemy, specially near wood lines or in a place for controling metal. If you mange to finish it, then build towers. Try always to stop them to reach 3 phase. For the next level, search build orders, youtube videos and recording games from pro players. Keep in mind that the game is in alpha status, and it lacks features, it can be buggy and it's unbalanced.

The best strategy in single player is keep raiding using cavalry constantly and drawing their forces out and get slaughtered when they go to your territory. I always use 2 cavalry per enemy alternately raiding-heal. For multiple enemies it's best to have a map with treasures. Economy needs to be strengthened but not too much priority than military actions. The hardest AI can outboom you but militarywise they are dumb. For beginners it's best imo to set resources to low so management is easier. Slower speed can make micromanagement easier and the game is more fluid.

You have to use a IPV4 address. I don't think we support IPV6

Evaluation criteria: Does the civ have a strong infantry champion? Can this civ's champions be trained from the barracks? Only training champs from fortresses is a serious disadvantage. Does this civ have an economic advantage or disadvantage? Does this civ have a powerful hero? The minimum criterion here is a hero that gives +5 attack to champion units, like Philip of Macedon, or better. Other special considerations Exceptional civs Spartans. The combination of skiritai commandos backed up by pike champs is the best infantry in the game. They can also attack with just the skiritai commandos, which can deal economic damage and even capture CCs by themselves. Their weaknesses are poor siege, and no archers, so it's possible that a Mauryan or Seleucid opponent could build up enough chariots to kill them from a distance. The Spartan can usually take them down before that happens, however. Britons. They build structures faster, and some structures give extra population, which reduces the need for houses. On top of that, they have solid sword champs that can be trained from the barracks, and the best hero (Boudicca). Briton champs also have a fast walking speed, especially with Boudicca. Britons also have slingers that cost stone instead of wood, which helps them out on low-wood maps. Briton chariots deal the most raw damage of any champ, but are weak to arrows and pikes (like any cavalry). Decent civs Macedonians. They have the second-best pike champs, which can be trained from the barracks. The pike champs cost only 50 metal (but 100 wood), which is an advantage on maps with enough wood. They have a strong hero. An equal number of Mace champs will beat Briton champs, and in fact will beat any infantry except for Spartans. However, Macedonians are economically slower than Britons. Also, their champs walk slowly, and are weak against buildings. Iberians. They have sword champs that can be trained from the barracks, and benefit from powerful starting walls. Iberians are a good civ for noobs in team games, because the starting walls mean they will not die early on (if they defend with half a brain). Also, Iberians can make cavalry skirmisher champs, which are very good at killing buildings since they deal crush damage. (Beware - Iberian cavalry skirmisher champs are worthless against enemy champs. Don't make that mistake). However, Iberians suffer from having no good heroes. Mauryans. They have sword champs that can be trained from the barracks. Their elephants make them good on low-wood or low-metal maps, and can also provide a food bonus via gathering berries. Mauryan citizen-soldier archers help protect them against rushes. Mauryans have no good heroes. Mauryan Yoddha champs are siege only - worthless against other champs - so usually don't make them. Also, elephants are useless. There's no real point to making maiden guard archers because the chariots are better. Gauls. They have a late game economy boost with heroes Britomartus or Brennus. They also have sword champs that can be trained from the barracks, and faster-building (but weaker) buildings, like the Britons. Compared to the Britons, what they lack is a hero that boosts champs enough. Romans. They have decent champs that can be trained from the barracks, and a good hero who blesses civ-soldiers as well as champs with +5 attack. (I wonder if that hero could be exploited, perhaps by sending in Roman Swordsmen or Pikemen with the champs... they might be able to mimic Sparta, only weaker. Worth a try.). Okay civs Persians. They have archer civ-soldiers and a decent pike champ. However, they cannot train this champ from the barracks, which slows them down. In fact, they can only train it from a single building, or from their hero. Their hero gives no bonus to their champs. Athenians. They have decent champs, and in team games their champ archers can be a big help. However, they have no good heroes, and they cannot train champs from the barracks. Carthaginians. They train champs from their temples, and have no good heroes. Their champs are decent, however, and they do have archer civ-soldiers. Challenging civs Seleucids. They have a good selection of champions, including the best cavalry in the game, and can make military colonies. However, the fact that their champions can only be trained from the Fortress makes them relatively slow to build up. Also, they lack a good hero. In a team game, they can be good if they are given enough time to build up. Ptolemies. They can rush with camel archers, which can be hard to defend against especially if they do it very early (at the 2-4 minute mark). Ptolemies also have good building defenses and military colonies. If the game gets to champions, however, Ptolemies can only train cavalry champions, which are hard countered by enemy pike champs. In addition to that huge weakness, Ptolemies can only train champions from the fortress. In a team game, if they are given time to build up, they can be useful for harassing trade with their cavalry.

Welcome to the forums i33SoDA No regrets necessary, we do this for free because we love it. Don't feel obliged to donate anything

Hello, everyone! I've just discovered this amazing game a couple of days before. I want to thank and congratulate you for all the work done here. Also, I want to thank all enthusiasts and people of the community who are not developers but contribute with testing, suggestion and support. Now, I would like to share with you some of my impressions: First of all, I'd say this is the most beautiful libre and driven community game I ever saw. It drove me years back in time when I used to play Age of Mythology. However I didn't felt some comfortable with some mechanics like "soldier citizen" gathering resources, capturing buildings and more. I don't say they are bad, I'm just not used to it. So I wanted to share this impressions and I found in the forum some posts of @DarcReaver from around 2015 saying that the gameplay was broken because of the lack of design and it summarizes some of the feelings I had in my firsts games. I just didn't feel like the game mechanics were cohesive (it's just my impressions, I'm not criticizing your work). Then I saw this topic about game design and it made me feel relieved because you are willing to do a good design and to argument to each other the pros and cons of including features as battalions and so. So, I personally believe in community driven projects and I think you have in your hands something with invaluable potential. I hope we'll enjoy one of the best RTS ever made in few years. I would like to ask if Pyrogenesis engine might be used to make other games in the future. My favorite RTS is Supreme Commander and would like to dream with a future clone of it. Finally, I have some suggestions (little ones and huge) so I guess I'll public other topics. Really, thank you all. This is one of my dreams when I was a little boy.

Well, actual bolt shooters were not meant for buildings. They were meant to decimate large numbers of infantry (and sometimes charging cavalry). A damage bonus against units could do the trick, but that would require lowering champion's armor, if a line of pikes and a pack of charged bolt shooters can't stop a small bunch of happy buffed guys advancing mindlessly, then it will stay pretty useless.

It was also beautiful to mass helepoleis in the original Age of Empires. All those candy cane bolts flying through the air! That reminds me, our bolt projectile looks a bit.. lackluster, don't you think?

If we want tree regeneration, self-seeding would be the way to go I think.

I know two games with tree regeneration: Settlers: a dedicated forester replants tree saplings which grow big after some time (perhaps 3-5 minutes) Stronghold Crusader: trees naturally spawn other trees in their vicinity, if the tree density is below a certain threshold (otherwise trees disappear) As proposed by @Lion.Kanzen I think the best implementation for 0 A.D. or a 0 A.D. mod, respectively, would be a farm-like field of saplings. An initial seeding requires some workers "building" the "forest structure". However, it requires some additional time until the trees are grown and can be harvested.

As for me, I would divide food to several parts: -fruits, -meat, etc. Each food can be received from different source. Current food indicator will display general amount of all food, when you press on it, there would appear popup menu with displayed every type of food with it's amount. Just for more interest in game. Because current game is really good, but it's a little boring. I cannot play it often.

Hi elexis, I did a picture to expose the problem because otherwise people dont catch what im trying to expose. -> Same pop both sides ( 16 pop ) and almost same cost -> Guess who gonna win in this battle 1° The Bolt-shooters will barely target the first chariot in their 80m range (stop button seems not working) and the targeted chariot can easily escape 2° The 8 champions will try to defend the silly boltshooters and will be shoot down 1 by 1 in the 76m range of chariots. 3° The 4 champs survivors will go behind the boltshooters to find protection 4° But the chariots will come capture the boltshooters (thx to the min range of Bolts) 5° In the best/worst case, the chariots just move away, speed to the ennemy camp, and kill all workers 6° The slow boltshooters (no more protected and deployed) come back to defend but are destroyed or captured while moving .. __________________________________________________ Conclusion : with only an equivalent of 37,5 pierce damage (x 4) there is no way it can face an army of 16 chariots (18 pierce x 16) . The 80m doesnt offer AT ALL the cover required to balance with 1° the slow (and annoying) deployment time , 2° the messy and large deployment position and 3° the slow walk to the strategic points. Beside this, the chariot player will use far less brain ressources to manage all this. _________________________________________________ SOLUTION : Now let's have a look here : Bolt shooters will have 100m range and an equivalent of 50 (at least) pierce per second. The accuracy will be less good but deadly if it hits something within a 10-15m circle. This configuration will typically punish a bunch-of-immobil-arrow-spammer. The 8 champs can do their defending job while being under the protective and EFFECTIVE umbrella of boltshooters. This way, the army can join a strategic point on the map without being harrassed all the time. ____________________________________________________________________________ COUNTER : Will this create a situation where Bolt-shooters will be the new OP unit of 0AD21 ? -> No , thanks to diversification of army, the ennemy can replace (for the same cost) 6 chariots for 9 sword champs and will try to hack-down the bolt-shooters The weak armour, the min range, a relatively slow and elliptical projectil path (should be like catapults) of bolt-shooters will make the very weak against sword units. As long as ennemy units move, the bolt-shooters will not be able to hit them. _______________________ A really think that Bolt-shooters should be used like a "moving-castle" so an army using them like an umbrella can hold a strategic position for some times. The fact that Bolt-shooters are nothing else than an huge bow make sense that it out-range anything else. The crush-damage should be totaly removed to prevent them to replace the catapults. + viewing 10 deployed bolt-shooters creating a random rain of big arrows on an ennemy army packed together (formation ?) should be very fun

I didn't find a ticket for the corresponding match setup settings, but we have one for map-specific/Atlas configuration: http://trac.wildfiregames.com/ticket/1404. It's not completely implemented yet, but it's already possible to set starting/disabled technologies (including phases) in the map files, see example here: http://trac.wildfiregames.com/changeset/16444#file2 , so you at least can make a map (or a variation of existing one) to playtest this idea.

Oh I dunno. If someone's having fun city-building and spraying citizen soldiers, siege weapons and champions are going to ruin his fun. feudal age fights were fun because of the massive fights that would win little ground, and the counters were very bare bones i think it would be just as, if not more fun in 0ad. Village phase defenses are rare and unnecessary considering how quickly you'd want to push through it.

I have to disagree with the persian , their hero is good and you can spam champs from him , ask elexis how do i play with the persian , when i take the persian i always win (depends on team work too) so it's a matter on how do you control them. PD: persians are not the worst ,they are now better with the new eles and champs building on svn.