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ArcaneExodus

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Posts posted by ArcaneExodus

  1. On 7/17/2017 at 0:21 PM, stanislas69 said:

    @ArcaneExodus Network support has improved as the game now has a better way to go around firewalls. @fcxSanya or @elexis could probably be more specific.

    About formations work is being done to make them easier to fix.

    About the infinite resource stuff it's sounds more like a game mode to me. So not planned but could be done by motivated modders if you can find some :)

     

    Just add objects to the map editor. That's always cool, maybe a few mercenary huts; Who knows.

    • Like 1
  2. I was hoping A23 will offer an easier way to host matches, becomes this seems to be an issue. Not only that, but the ability to share custom made maps; And a competition to make a campaign (eventually)

    Was hoping for mines, trees, ranches, and caravan traders to garrison units and gather resources infinitely on certain maps; Say for 8 player modes, each player could start with 1 infinite tree, and 2 mines (metal and stone) Each could hold up to 24 units; Plus add a ranch to garrison 24 farmers of cavalry and a trade caravan to equal 20 traders that could garrison units to protect it. Could really reduce the amount of lag in big games if you took all the resources and units off the map garrisoning them in a few mines and trade caravans.

    Hoping that formations will work, but only for melee infantry; That's all the game needs... A campaign and the classical phalanx and testudo formations; I highly suggest making the formations not move, unless ordered to and gain maximum armor against piercing weapons so they take 1 damage like buildings, but only attack units right beside them. Also, allow them capture buildings while in formation. Give mauryans maiden archer/sword mode, celtic tribes throwing axe/melee champions.

    I thought the civilizations need some more balancing, and the best way to do that is offer new units, features, better formations, new buildings, upgrades, ect. If any civ seems weak, just start adding features to the game, and make it better!

  3. These tree appear in loose bunches, inside my iberian walls; Makes me consider deleting the wall to harvest 400 wood. They ruin games, it suddenly becomes all about trading wood via the market; Suddenly I have 10x more idle villagers because the trees are loosely bunched and I can't just put my guys on one storehouse. Constantly clicking the idle villager button to retask one guy, because its baobob season.

  4. Out of all the formations you only really need infantry down; I want to suggest that only melee infantry units can use formations.

    The shield wall should remain completely gaining the same armor class as buildings once formed (1 damage from piercing weapons), and should not automatically move to engage nearby units; Only attack enemies right beside it... Units should be able to capture a building while in formation.

    Formations should be limited to 50 melee units and form a hotkey automatically. That will limit the number for formations to 10 (maybe even down to 3-5) and only enable melee infantry to use Testudo and Phalanx with Roman and Hellenistic Factions. One thing that is important is that units need to be able to break formation at will; This is currently a problem... I believe by eliminating battle line, flank, wedge, ect; It would make the game a lot better... but since those factions will have an advantage you can implement;

    Other faction unique abilities; Such as Mauryan Maiden Guard melee -> archer formation; Garrison elephant archers
    Throwing axe formation for Celtic champion infantry. Maybe some stuff like that, or whatever the developers want for balance.

    So maybe wedge formation can stick around, form a battle line; But the units don't need to get stuck in a block or it could be bad. I hope to see some good old shield walls for the game theme!

  5. I've heard that it might be possible for anyone to host games on alpha 22, that solves one problem; But I hope the developers can ask the players to help create a conqueror's campaign. I highly recommend following a few historic epics; Particularly the conquests of...

    Cyrus and Alexander the Great.

    Starting with Persia and Macedonia, but perhaps remaining open to create a campaign for every faction, following the legend of one hero in particular; I'm not going to suggest any other heroes... I recommend the developers make a list of historic battles they want included in the campaign, under the heroes; With extra options for the map editor.

    Than they can rely on the players to create the campaign from scratch, afterwards; A battle map could look really cool. That battle map could be used for a territory campaign that includes every map and every faction, each battle could have a premade map for the area. Perhaps alternating different locations around each area in the territory.

    Than you could put campaign back on the task list, and just let the players do it for you; Possibility alternating the order to include only the very best in final product... By keeping an open mind to awesome scenarios some work on triggers for the map editor would help alot... But it's not even entirely necessary to make awesome 0 AD maps. So long as anyone can host and anyone can share a map; 0 AD could have one of the best campaigns ever.

    I expect that once decided any scenarios it will be difficult to change; But I also expect players to make Muuuuch better versions of each battle, and the developers to consider each battle as the history and requirements become more clear (or what they want in the game, following some version of a campaign).

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    • Like 4
  6. You may have heard that "The shift key" que increases the speed at which units train. You can use shift commands in 0 AD to accomplish anything; A combination of starcraft II and age of empires come together in a feature based way... Probably the unspoken of awesome part of the game.

    By holding down the shift button you may cue multiple way points, assign your gatherer to build, move forward when finished, or gather something else after.

    Constant production is important, but constantly having no idle villagers is key. For example with Britons you may utilize a dog to hunt units back towards a drop site, with Mauryans you can form a line of houses with your worker elephant building them... I highly recommend saving shift cues for builders to immediately move back to gathering once done building, and occasionally ordering those 24 units on near dead mines to move to the front lines.

    That will save you from checking your idle villagers once you are in combat, but try not to form multiple ques for all your units. Shift queing your scout can even get him out of tricky spots without any attention.

    ---

    You may have heard ctrl + 1 will hotkey your units. A very important note is that its extremely difficult to capture garrisoned buildings; You need a large force. Instead of capturing a base use "The ctrl key" to order your units to attack a building rather than trying to capture it. (archers and skirmishers deal 1 damage vs buildings, so use other units)

    ---

    Finally you must know that instead of forming a bunch of farms, corrals produce food much faster... If you can hot key a group of corrals and constantly produce sheep, goats, or pigs by tapping z, than you could use 20 cavalry and 1 female instead of 50 females; Providing a nice garrison for your main base keeping your population low and full or warriors. Use way points to direct all the animals right in fronts of a drop site and try to balance ~1+1/3 cavalry per corral. Than you can avoid purchasing farming upgrades and farm much faster with horses boosted by female villager aura keeping producing constant and not overflowing animals can be much faster than farming, but it poses certain risks at different points in the game; While trying to obtain a stable flow of cavalry corral, it may distract you much more than a scout.

    If you can sustain a large cavalry force for hunting than corralling may be a good follow up strategy... but not if you run out of food just after building 10 corrals and 10 cavalry.

    By constantly using waypoints you can hotkey multiple barracks or other buildings to constantly que buttons by pressing ctrl 0-9 and train units with the bottom letter of your keyboard (Z, X, C, V, ect); Allowing you to focus on your army while maintaining constant production pretty easily.

    ---

    Use the halt command to have your units engage any nearby enemy, use it often if builders, gathers or units had bad orders. Halt with make them automatically engage the closest threat; For elephant generals you may decide to shift kill multiple soldiers; Because if you halt an elephant it will go siege the nearest building.

    Utilizing shift, ctrl, and halt you can effectively control an army; And see what units work best.

    ---

    By hot-keying, way pointing, and issuing multiple orders you can multitask at a high enough level to produce quickly; Saving a lot of otherwise required effort to stay competitive. I just ask that you don't go too crazy with commands and stick to a few main hotkey groups and tasks. Than you can... Use a group of cavalry to kill all your opponents villagers a few minutes into the game; Harass them, rush them, or counter act these multitasking combos meant to hold one players economy down.

    You couldn't do that in the old age of empire games, and the bases suck in star craft; 0 AD is a visual masterpiece. Use Q/E to rotate the camera of buildings before you contruct them. A bonus feature; I think is just too cool... Probably in some other game before, but hey; It's awesome.

    • Like 3
  7. Hey I've been trying to figure out a good BOOM build for antirush and late game economy.

    I've been struggling with some skirmisher cavalry rushes, I really want to take advantage of corral farming with cavalry.

    Maybe I could work in a skirmisher cavalry rush myself... but maybe there is some kind of fertility festival farming build that works much better;

    Therefore I wan to divide my build order in two distinct categories; Farming and corralling, than maybe I can determine the best economic/anti rush mix that will enable me to be able to hotkey a barracks or town center; And still produce units while I harass the enemy with my skirmish cavalry.

    My main problem is mid game, storing up too many resources and not knowing where to spend them... I almost always start off with 4 military and 1 female villager on a store house, upgrade wood mining, and start adding female villagers while I save up for my first few archers to mine more wood.

    I think upgrading wood first is not the best approach, so what's your build order?
    Is it better to start with corrals or fast farms, and how should I go about it?

    Those are my big two questions.

  8. I used to play some starcraft II and they have something called "deathball" well that's exactly what multiplayer is boiling down to; There are two factions that start with slingers off the town center Britons and Athens, by making a giant ball of slingers you can kill pretty much any other army.

    I want to suggest a weapon triangle to make archers good against slingers, slingers good against skirmishers and skirmishers good against slingers.

    Also you could add in axemen; Than form a second weapon triangle with axes, swords, and spears. Celtic tribes sure seem like they could use some axemen... But since spearmen were originally supposed to be anti cavalry; It might be a backwards weapon triangle, compared to the usual axes<spears<swords it might be swords<spears<axes.

    Faction wise I wanted to suggest Marcus Aurelius replace Marcus Claudius Marcellus as the main Roman hero; If you remember the movie gladiator; Marcus Aurelius was the good emperor. Also that an Israel faction include Moses, Solomon, and David; Make David boost the attack power of slingers. That way you can make the most anti-roman Jewish deathball ever.

    Map editor wise we need infinite mines... That allow you to garrison 24-48 troops underground in a cave or something, and really big trees that allow 24-48 units to farm them with either 10,000 or infinite resources. Maybe add a rope around the middle, give it a Shinto (Japanese) sort of look with a really wide trunk.

    Finally combination buildings; Such as a ranch could allow garrison cavalry farmers. Automatically harvesting from up to 20 corrals with up to 24 cavalry. By allowing the option to garrison farming points you can severely reduce the lag on multiplayer maps and create another style where players fight over key points, rather than sort of moving across the map; Please keep the moving across the map as the standard style, but allow for some warcraft 3 styled lag reduction map editor options. Other combination buildings might include great markets allowing for a caravan equal to 20 traders. Maybe even a huge castle by combining your fortress, civil center, and 2 barracks.

    Thanks for reading, I hope any of these ideas might make it into the game.

  9. To reduce late game lag, I want to recommend a few changes to AI and suggest a different variety of displayed hotkeys, including a strategic interface for controls.

    One of the main problems I perceive is that units automatically form up once selected, and don't automatically engage enemy troops. This allows you to take advantage of the computer and cut off their army while they are on the way. I think that units should only move into formation if you order them to and they should automatically engage enemy units at will while in formation; This will encourage players to move their offensive armies into formation, and requires little background processing compared to some other AI functions that have yet to be implemented.

    Next up I wanted to cover formations; Remove all the useless ones, there really only needs to be one formation (box/line) and any units that have special formations like shield wall or phalanx. Maybe cavalry can get their own charge formation. Archers aren't shooting in volleys so anything like scatter of wedge is useless, its hit or miss; Line always works best. Everything else is for show, maybe put them on there for players to have fun, but not for computers to cause lag.

    Finally the economy in this game... I realize your trying to copy some cool styles and like it, but focusing the resources around 8-16 focused areas and making battlefields inbetween might stop these computers from spreading out endlessly. Naval AI should only apply to game maps where you need to cross water to attack. Stop making weird cliffs, because its causing pathing errors, try to make the edges more clearly defined. I hate it when they walk around the edge of the wall. The big problem though is trying to move across your own buildings. If we could move right through nonwall allied buildings I think it will save the game from a lot of late game lag. Just make a necessary gap between nonfarm/nonwall buildings.

    • Like 3
  10. For a campaign I suggest you go total war style to make the game more playable. Build a preset map where players have to expand an empire; Optimize with 2 different modes of battle.

    #1 Build a base.
    #2 Ready to go army and reinforcement squads.

    Of course you want to make the campaign different than Rome; Total War. For example you could establish trade routes to boost your economy, and strengthen alliances. Add 3 new factions than divide all different tech trees into groups of 3 default allies. Unlock different tech, and heroes to be used in campaign. Gain up to 300 new troops from each build a base challenge. Use smaller maps, and more squad generic AI to avoid lag during the ready to go army and reinforcements mode. Perhaps introduce a caravan scenario where players compete with limited resources and buildings, and a siege challenge later on. Let players customize your empire a bit. Introduce some campaign only tech; Collect animals, technology, troops, different heroes, all kinds of economic bonuses, relics, and capture the wonders of the ancient world. Release content step by step however you want campaign wise...

    Do something completely different when it comes to managing territories, forming alliances, interesting events or scenarios. Personally I think the AI is really hurting on the auto formation, lack of hotkeys (displayed ones at least) the game could use a better interface something antiquity, and more visual appealing. I think you should eliminate all the useless formations, and only make the squad form up if you press a hot key... But I'm not sure what the most optimal AI settings are to reduce lag late game. Some kind of attack move instead of having to halt troops in combat would be nice.

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    • Like 3
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