amanita

A little simpler conceptually to decay a "group_has_zigzagged_score" every game tick, but if recording last update time it could be updated only when needed to see if a group should pause due to excessive recent course changes. I think quite a small patch could do, something along these lines :

Im thinking about "health wavering" - Imagine the health of all units wavered randomly a bit. Each units health would always be getting a little better or worse by an amount randomly updated every few ~days. So when you retreat damaged troupes, a few would die as they go, some would recovering a bit on the way to a temple or barracks. Even without battles, after a time some units could be in poor health and need restored, just by bad luck with the random twists. Perhaps block the health going down if the unit is inactive as they can rest a bit, this would slightly soften the error of leaving units inactive. General wavering health would increase the benefit of temples and breaks and it could make the individual units seem a bit more complex. New units could arrive at 80% health to give them room to go either way.

The unit grouping object could keep a value which increases every frame the group turns but also decays every frame the group doesnt turn. This value of 'how much has the unit zig-zaged recently' could cause the group to pause an number of frames on each turn depending on how high it gets. The decay rate and pause factor could be set subtlety so that fast reaction and limited dancing is unaffected, but extended dancing causes just enough pause to frustrate the tactic.

Aren't the results of multiplayer games available to developers to tell if factions are really OP ?

Thanks Boudica - thats it already sorted then I should have noticed that.

I like the select wounded feature and wonder if select fit would be even better? It would be possible to advance with the least wounded units, leaving the wounded behind to go back and heal or work or fight from safer distance. I dont see wounded selecion used in multiplayer, maybe because weak units more easily get killed when they turn their backs to the battle. 'Fit select' could be configured by setting a negative wounded hotkey threshold, if the feature could recognise that, or just a checkbox so player chooses whether to select under or over the health threshold. I guess this could be so useful its potentially distruptive

It would be an economic/strategic matter same as deciding when to create units - too slow to change battle tactics which is where counterability can be ascribed. The counter is basically to take the fight to your enemy sooner rather than later, when they might have gained a chevron ( or a couple if veterans got away in previous battles ).

Wood resources could slowly regenerate back up to their 200 max. Workers could occasionally check when a tree resource is low and decide to switch to another nearby if it is much greater. This would allow players time to notice and send most of the squad to another forest. A forestry technology could increase the regen rate of the forests in strong civic influence. Same mechanism could be applied to the herbs and berries. Also some buildings could cost a little resource for upkeep. When stocks are empty some damage could be allocated to buildings in low influence zones.

It would be a small and incremental change, to make homes require females to schedule, just as barracks, fortresses loads of other stuff requires men to schedule. Depending on historical knowledge of the civilization, the scheduling of farms, civic structures, even markets could also be assigned to female - not for the idea/impression they often had the civic authority to commission projects, but because they have had significant inputs into many spheres of cultural life and perhaps technologies when they were the main practitioners, like weaving. These would be little tweaks to the game which add depth to its historical story.

I dont think many women have really been equipped with the required draw strength to be archers. Some female skirmishing/support units may be realistic. Women's timber collecting rate in the game seems overpowered but its good for gameplay. I tend to sprinkle women into all work and military squads for the 15% aura which seems a good mechanic. The gender balance of the structure creation options in the game really could disappoint some potential players and viewers. Its not like this is the games representation of dwarves or a notorious tribe. This is your mothers gender, of half the people on the planet being encapsulated. None of the structures are assigned to female domain and that doesn't represent female involvement in design and organization, even though this has been historically hidden behind layers of subjugation. Even if we cant say any one kind of structure is beyond the capabilites of men to create alone - having assigned a load which females cant create alone, to balance the scene a few of the most 'feminine' structures should be assigned to counterbalance the overall impression. When choosing these assignments we are basically making a black and white image out of a colorful scene, if you dont allow some dither you end up with a poor image, with completely blanked out features - and that has happened precisely with the zero options currently assigned to women. Its as bland and sad than it is poor representation. Homes and farmsteads seem like perfect candidates for most civilizations to require women to create. Particularly - at least for celtic cultures - civic centers should be placed in female domain due to matrilineal inheritance and favorable marriage/divorce rights - and again a bit 'dither' for a more interesting, overall more balanced image.

Women certainly not only could but did have essential involvement in building homes and civic structures throughout history. Its really chauvinistic to imagine they did not. Like the idea this just concerns the capabilities of "peasant women (no offence)" versus all available castes of men - the argument here so far has clearly been biased. An adhoc configured historical strategy game can certainly help reinforce such assumptions. The ratio of structures/projects falling within sole domain of men vs women is about 60% vs 0%. Even a miserly 10% nod to womens organizational input, would play better, be considerate of any girls gamers who happen to try 0AD, and give a few boy gamers pause for thought

Only as far as we are just talking about peasant men. Im not pushing pushing any radical or contentious position here: Women could build rubbish barracks without men to tell them the way they need barracks to be - Just as easily as men could build rubbish homes without women to tell them the way they need homes to be. But the game allows men to build good anything with no input from women. In this 'accurate portrayal' of history men didnt need women for anything - except maybe wives for horsemen or something. This little bubble will burst if 0AD becomes popular enough to get a few female players. Fix it ahead of time by just placing a few buildings to female involvement.

Amount of buildings women cant order/build in the game - about 60% Amount of buildings men cant order/build - 0% This configuration only exists in the game as an oversight. It wouldn't pass public review - its casual sexism basically.

Garrisoned military could quite slowly train up to rank 1, and also to one rank below the highest ranked unit they are garrisoned with - possibly with respect only to the same type of soldier. The speed of that garrison training could decrease according to the total population size. That could contribute a subtle counter balance on the pressure to just churn out units as fast as possible, which will always be a priority, but is not yet restrained by any counter effects like corruption or inefficiency.

Construction could be made to pass extra slowly when a required sex is not present, but that could cause chained constructions to unexpectedly stall sometimes. Id most like to see a modicum of balance between the sexs capabilities.

For some civilizations like eg. the Celts it would be fairer to require women to schedule some buildings, like for example civic centers. Women could attain powerful positions in some historic cultures. Boadicea could have scheduled projects as easily as male chieftains. Not saying the game should attain 21st Century equality, but womens construction capabilities are over restricted in case of britons/celts at least.