Great work on this patch. The performance fixes are especially appreciated, and it’s nice to see older hardware getting smoother gameplay again. The Windows 7 support and the crash fixes for GPU Skinning and Vulkan will help a lot of players too. Thanks to everyone who put time into this release. Looking forward to Alpha 28.

AZTECS ANNOUNCED  

I am 78 years old and started playing 0.ad I can play empire earth 2 ok and Civ 4 but I have real trouble with hotkeys in this game, that I don't have in the other 2 I look at the hotkey chart and I am lost because Ctrl can do 20 different things . It is odvious that you have to click or select something first then apply the hot key but I just wish this first function was put in the hotkey chart . I don't understand some games where you're attacked and your military units just sit there This is not realistic to real life at all . If a printed manual was more complete the game would be more fun for someone my age . Regards Bob Forrest 

Not sure 0ad is having too much of a snowballing problem. The only case where it does feel like being the case this alpha is with fast, strong, cheap, melee units like champ spear cav and fanatics, because they have no counters and counter everything themselves.

The current release (A27) already made some strides towards this, by increasing the melee damage. Units need further diversification with pikemen having more HP but lower damage, spearmen having average HP and average damage, while swordsmen have slightly above average HP and good hack damage. Or we introduce counters to shift the current meta away from mass ranged units with melee meat shields. Needed to be done a long time ago. CS can already build and repair, in addition to fighting. Why do they contribute to the economy more than civilians? Where's the logic here? Some upgrades to specific unit lines can't hurt. For example, in StarCraft, there is a huge difference between an un-upgraded Zergling and a Zergling with both Metabolic Boost and Adrenal Glands upgrades.