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Good news, folks! https://gitea.wildfiregames.com/0ad/0ad/pulls/8318

This one is not new, but I saw it somewhere and thought @Seleucids might like that. Would you agree that it's not that easy to predict what anyone would consider funny? Do you ever actually laugh when watching funny images? Best I can really do nowadays is smile, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't appreciate good attempts at humor. Perhaps it's hard to come across something conceptually new and original as you get older. I thought I'd add a little more context for the non-technical people to better understand the joke, but it's a really big spoiler:

next cosplay idea: siege tower

German Women -> German Civilians. @real_tabasco_sauce

its committed Feel free to try it by getting the nightly build, or by building the game.

Ironically enough, trenches/ditches were definitely used by the ancients in pitched battles and during sieges.

Here's the translation: Hello, friends! I'm excited to share more updates about my mod, Worldrising. This time, I've made significant progress on the Japan map, which I'm developing with great care to bring an immersive and authentic experience. My goal is to create specific missions for this map, making gameplay even more strategic and engaging. Additionally, I'm exploring the possibility of implementing cutscenes to add depth and highlight important game moments. If anyone has experience or tips on creating cutscenes in mods, I'd be grateful! I've also created new structures, reworked units and buildings, and adjusted various parameters to balance gameplay. I've implemented technologies and upgrades tied to structures and units. For example, when advancing to the 2nd Era (Polished Stone Era), villagers are automatically updated and gain access to new constructions. Existing buildings, like houses, also evolve through technologies. I've created many new props and textures and refined some existing ones. Check out some images below and share your comments, suggestions, or tips! Challenges I'm still facing: Structure animation: Gatehouse animations appear lying down in-game, while they're upright in Blender. I've tried repositioning the wall, but the animation ended up inverted... It's a problem I haven't solved yet. Animal animation: They still have the same animation issue. Thanks for your support, and see you next time!

I had an idea that you might like: If you capture an enemy militar building, you can recruit units of that civilization as mercenary units paying with metal and you can recruit only mitilar units that your faction don´t have as mercenaries. For example, if you are using Spartans faction and you capture a iberian barrack from your enemy, you can recruit iberian swordmen from that barrack for maybe... 100 metal. . If you capture a enemy workshop from Romans, then you can recruit a balista as mercenary units for maybe... 300 metal.

Your mom when you run around in winter without your scarf: healing_glide_reproduce3.mp4 The devs know whats up and it will be fixed next alpha. No further comment

"Spear cav" spear cav shield.mp4

meme.mp4

You can check out the animations in Atlas as shown. Also the mane is funny moving and the horse goes bald for a while. aux-2025-08-19_16_02_31.mp4

Walling in 0ad is costly in both resources and the mental capacity required to make sure they are actually sealed. palisades and stone walls need to become easier to seal and place if they are to become more impactful on gameplay. I've had moments before where palisades were remarkably successful in protecting my base from large amounts of cav in p2, but its quite rare to see palisades actually accomplish what the player envisions when they are built.

Hello everybody, I am pleased to announce that I am starting work on a revival of The Undying Nephalim's mod, Hyrule Conquest. My version will include new maps, over 15 races, new features and technologies, and some other stuff. At the moment this is all I've got, but feel free to check it out. Though I know that there is another group out there, making their own version, I had tons of difficulty finding them, and felt that I should make my own version. At the moment it just has some cosmetic changes to the UI and the start of the Darknut civ. Probably have the darknuts done by the end of the week, but maybe will instead have my Hyrule Bot (an edited version of Petra) done instead. Hope you enjoy! Hyrule-Conquest.zip

We often focus on the negative aspects of Alpha 27, but rarely highlight the positive improvements. I want to share some of the good movements in A27 that should not be overlooked—because if we don’t recognize them, we might lose them in future versions. Positive Features in A27 Easier Building Captures Capturing buildings is much smoother now. In earlier alphas, it was frustrating—sometimes even a full army couldn’t capture a garrisoned barracks. A27’s easier capturing is also an anti-ecobot improvement, since players now use Phase 2 rushes to capture the CC instead of just booming, which makes the game more dynamic. That said, it could be improved: if the enemy captures the CC, all your buildings are lost—even garrisoned ones. Losing houses also means losing many women, who then exit into the open and get killed easily. Player Placement Selection Being able to choose the starting positions is a nice option. However, removing “shuffle” was unnecessary—it should return as an optional host setting. Capturing with Clicks The current system (pressing C and then clicking) is annoying. If this is considered a positive change, it should at least be configurable in the settings, so players can capture with a single click like in earlier alphas. Improved Melee Balance Melee units are far better balanced now. In A26, they would die far too quickly. Roman House Women Spam Allowing Romans to train women from houses is a great feature. It gives them strong rush potential and makes Rome one of the best civs for early aggression. Weaker Buildings Buildings are not overly strong anymore. In A24–A25, heavily garrisoned forts could wipe out entire armies by themselves, which was frustrating. Save Game Feature Having the option to save games is a very useful addition. Suggestions for Improvement Spec Sync Errors Spectator sync errors often cause heavy lag, sometimes freezing the game entirely. Even saving and reloading doesn’t always fix it. Transfer Control to Spectators Add an option for the host to give control of a player’s civ to a spectator. This would help when someone disconnects or lags too much. Games like Battle for Wesnoth already have this feature. Han Buildings Variety Han buildings all look too similar. They need more distinct colors or styles to be easily recognizable. Champion Recruitment Champions should not be trained from barracks or stables. They deserve their own special building. Dedicated Hero Buildings All civs should have a specific building for heroes. Right now, it’s unfair that Gauls can recruit heroes from a cheap structure while Iberians need to construct a much more expensive fort. Spartan Champions in Phase 1 Early Spartan champions are almost never used—they aren’t effective. Sparta would be better off with a different kind of unique bonus. Remove Hero Flee Ability The “flee” mechanic for heroes encourages dancing and abuse. It would be better to remove it. Final Note I’ve already described several bugs in my last post, so I won’t repeat them here. But overall, I hope we don’t lose the good movements of A27 while improving the game further. also currently the bigger problem of a27 broken fanas and broken melee champ cavs.

There's the idea of having unit-specific techs, but I think they should wait for: https://gitea.wildfiregames.com/0ad/0ad/issues/7666

Pausing the game completely isn't really an option, unfortunately, because then the animations won't play, units won't move around, and so on. But what I'll do is add the possibility for map scripts to register callbacks, so that they at least can pause in the meantime, and wait with actions like triggering big attacks until the dialogue is closed.

one element that might be fun would be market routes at the exit of maps. Something that you cannot control, but a point for your merchant, or merchant ship to reach. It is only interesting if the gain in term of resource are important compare to what's available on the map. All the players could send merchant to it all the time, the trick would be to protect the trade route

Women and the Army in the Roman Empire The presence of women in Roman military contexts has been established beyond doubt by scholars in recent decades. Nevertheless, very little sustained attention has been paid to who these women were, how they fit into the fabric of settlements, and what their contributions were to these communities. This volume offers new insights into the associations, activities, and social roles of women in the context of the Roman army, emphasizing the tangible evidence for the lived realities of women and families at different social levels. The various chapters adopt dynamic perspectives and shed new light on archaeological and historical evidence to provide novel conclusions about women's lives in antiquity. Histories of the Roman army can no longer ignore the women who lived and worked in its midst and histories of Roman women must acknowledge their important military role. The first volume to provide a sustained and comprehensive treatment of women and the Roman army Employs archaeological and textual evidence and incorporates work by a range of scholars to provide a variety of perspectives Significantly advances discussion of women and the Roman army by examining social roles rather than simply the presence of women in military spaces

Besides the Fanatics, Spartiates are by far the most broken units in the game. Seriously, these units are insanely overpowered and hard to counter. Can anyone name a unit that can reliably stop Spartiates? I bet you can’t. They hit hard, have massive armor, can promote to Olympic status and even have technologies that make them stronger and faster. The only thing the developers could have done to stop the spamming of this unit was to add a population cost of 2. Unfortunately, they didn’t do that. There are players abusing this by spamming Spartiates in P1, and it’s ruining the game for everyone. I wouldn’t be surprised if some ecobot or clever Sparta player designed this unit to exploit the game by spamming them relentlessly for an unfair advantage. What do you guys think? Any ideas on how to properly nerf or counter these broken units? I believe adding a population cost of 2 to build them would be an effective way to balance this unit. Moreover all Athenian Marines should be nerfed for sure. We’ve already banned Fanatics from our games, and Spartiates definitely need to be banned as well. If the developers don’t nerf these units in the next alpha update and keep introducing unfair, broken units, we’ll have no choice but to keep banning them from our matches to maintain fair gameplay.

Sparta.mp4 @Deicide4ustill think they should be nerfed?

Hi @Fabius I see the suggestion. However, in my opinion, the romans' relatively simple unit roster is important. Civs should have different strengths and weaknesses, and part of that is having an incomplete roster. Depending on how unit balance evolves going forward, there may be a need for the romans to get a different ranged unit, but for now I don't think they need it. I worry that adding extra units creates kind of a situation like mace currently, where they are very good at a lot of different strategies. If the range is really crucial, using bolts is a good choice.

Dans un monde vidéoludique saturé de titres standardisés, produits en série et bourrés de microtransactions, il existe un jeu qui rappelle ce que jouer veut vraiment dire : 0 A.D.. Oui, ce RTS open source est bien plus qu’un simple divertissement. C’est une déclaration, un manifeste en acte : on peut créer un jeu exigeant, beau, riche, sans céder aux logiques commerciales. Et c’est précisément pour cela que je l’aime. Il est à la fois traditionnel et moderne. Je joue aux RTS depuis longtemps. Ce genre est le plus noble du jeu vidéo : il met l’intelligence au centre. Pas de script figé, pas de rails à suivre. Seulement un champ de bataille, des ressources limitées, et la liberté totale de construire sa victoire ou de creuser sa défaite. Un bon RTS, c’est un duel d’esprit, un ballet de décisions prises à la seconde, une tension où l’on doit tout équilibrer : économie, défense, expansion, attaque. C’est brut, c’est exigeant, c’est pur. Et j'aime particulièrement ce jeu car le socle de connaissance est limité et la micro-gestion pas trop exigeante. 0 A.D. incarne cette essence. Il ne cherche pas à séduire par du clinquant, mais par sa profondeur. Il fait renaître des civilisations entières, les dote de leurs spécificités, et les oppose dans des batailles qui respirent l’authenticité. Jouer Sparte ou Carthage n’est pas un simple skin différent : c’est une expérience stratégique unique. Là où d’autres jeux capitalisent sur l’instantanéité, 0 A.D. rappelle qu’un RTS doit se construire sur la diversité, la patience et l’équilibre. Mais ce qui le distingue radicalement, c’est sa communauté. Pas de grands studios derrière, pas de budgets marketing colossaux. Seulement des passionnés, bénévoles, qui bâtissent ce jeu pièce par pièce. Voilà la vraie révolution. Dans un secteur où tout semble dicté par le profit, 0 A.D. prouve qu’on peut faire autrement : coopérer, partager, créer ensemble. Ici, les joueurs ne sont pas réduits au rôle de consommateurs. Ils deviennent des contributeurs, des voix qui comptent. Et cette communauté, je la revendique. Elle est le cœur battant du projet. Quand un bug est corrigé, quand une mise à jour sort, ce n’est pas une opération commerciale, c’est une victoire collective. On sent que le jeu évolue parce que des gens, aux quatre coins du monde, y ont cru et y croient encore. Ce n’est pas une entreprise froide qui déroule sa feuille de route : c’est une aventure humaine. Alors oui, j’aime 0 A.D. Non seulement parce qu’il est un excellent RTS, mais parce qu’il est une preuve éclatante que le jeu vidéo peut être autre chose qu’un produit calibré pour vider des portefeuilles. 0 A.D. est libre, gratuit, ouvert. Il met en avant la passion, l’histoire, l’intelligence, et surtout l’humain. Et c’est exactement pour ça qu’il mérite qu’on y joue, qu’on le défende, et qu’on le fasse connaître. J'ai la gaule en écrivant ces mots.

You know it will be "Yes" eventually. Why not start early?

Optimal farm placement in Imperia Vetera. Farms yield about the same food as the most upgraded ones in AoE2. Persians get a bonus 100 food per farm.

Unit specific techs are an untapped treasure trove of gameplay value. I don't think we should get rid of the blacksmith techs of course, but I think unit specific techs could have more creativity in addition to rewarding focus on unit compositions.

I am the copyright holder of two PBR textures (Sandstone Rock, Dry Soil) for the Wildfire Games 0 A.D. I hereby release all original works for the game, and those I will upload in the future, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

I want to implement a system for unit speech/dialogue in cutscenes next, inspired by that mockup. Should I add a "next" button (to the bottom right probably) for the player to click through the dialogue themselves? Or always switch to the next line after a set amount of time, like a predefined cutscene? How do other games do it? It would of course be possible to provide both options and leave the choice up to campaign makers. Could that be worth it? Or would one option of those two be always be preferred anyway?

It used to be an unlocking tech, so that you were forced to choose cheaper techs or faster research before the full Forge tech tree could be enabled. Had that for a long time, but then decided it would be nicer for the player for it to be a choice they could make whenever it was convenient. The effects obviously have less impact the later you make the choice, but who knows what may come up. I agree that Special Buildings are a great place for such pairs.

The new Civilian unit is just one unit with two actors randomly assigned at creation, male and female. It makes no sense and it's impossible to apply different gather rates to different actors that are sharing one unit template. You need two templates for that.

The genders are purely cosmetic, there will be no difference in gameplay. Only difference is that you will no longer have 5 dudes and 50 gals while booming

I usually (if possible) use mountain ranges as walls, and just wall of the gaps. Same goes for plateaus and oceans. With a bunch of sentry towers behind the walls. I can shoot attackers to pieces while they try to break through. Then, by the time they do, I’ve moved all available soldiers to where they are.

Balance Suggestions (Civ by Civ & General) Athenians Long Wall Tech Currently: Available only in P3, researched at the Council (60s). In practice, this means it’s not available until ~min 14–15, which makes walls in neutral territory before min 16 unrealistic. Suggestion: Available in P2 (at Civic Center or Market). Cost: 400 stone → 150 stone. Research time: 60s → 25s. Gymnasium Cost Question: Why is it cheaper than Han’s Academy or the Syssition? Suggestion: If not a civ bonus, increase cost to 150 stone + 150 metal. Britons Dogs Currently: Stronger side. Suggestion: Hack damage: 7 → 6.5. Consider armor upgrade tech (P2 or P3). Carthaginians Colonization Tech Currently: Hardly used; 200 metal in P1/P2 is too costly, and in P3 houses are usually already built. Suggestion: Cost 200 wood + 200 metal → 200 wood + 150 stone, available in P2. Gauls Bonuses Current advantages: 15% reduced forge costs. Additional farm tech. Eco hero. Small houses. Faster structure build time (huge eco advantage). Wide spectrum of champions (very flexible). Suggestion: Nerf eco bonuses (similar to Ptolemies, who pay with slower build times). Reduce capture value of small houses. Fanatics Currently: Same attack as spear champs, but less armor. Faster than spear champs. Stronger than metal spear champs in most situations (except 1v1 vs other infantry champs). Suggestion: Similar treatment as Persian infantry champs - If kept cheap, nerf attack (not only armor). Keep cost as is, and keep them in P2 for strategic diversity. Han Skipped (already reworked in community mod). Kushites Clubmen Currently: 60 metal but very weak (especially armor). Suggestion: Option 1: Hack armor 19% → 27%. Option 2 (preferred): Speed 9.5 → 11. Temple Guard Champions Currently: Limited by stone cost of temples (hard to mass more than 1–2). Suggestion: Napatan temple guard build time 15s → 10s. Elephant Hero Bonus Currently: Awkward to use effectively. Ptolemies Currently: P3 techs are often already researched; civ plays slowly. Suggestion: Allow Library in P2. Romans Marian Reforms Currently: Very strong in 1v1, potentially stronger than will to fight. Suggestion: Nerf. Siege Population Cost Currently: Catapult = 3 pop Bolt shooter = 2 pop Onager = 6 pop Onagers are cheap but not massable, while bolts outperform them in large numbers. Suggestion: Onager population 6 → 4. Spartans Syssition Cost Currently: Awkward in P1 (similar to the Kushite pyramid in the past). Leaves 50 metal if eco tech (100 metal) is researched, blocking champion production. Suggestion: Cost 150 stone + 150 metal → 200 stone + 100 metal. Krypteia Tech Currently: Located in champion building; awkward for rush/all-in. Suggestion: Move tech to Syssition, reduce research time 50s → 40s. General Balance Capture System Currently: Large houses = 550, small houses = 500 (small houses are OP). Suggestion: Large = 550, Small = 350. Suggestion: Units which have more experience or higher rank, like mercenaries or Skiritai should have higher capture strength. Elephant stables and arsenals are considerably too easy to capture when garrisoned. Can it be that 1 ram or 1 elephant only count as a single unit for capture point regeneration? Fanatics & Immortals Capture value: 5 → 3.5 (since they are cheaper/faster). Conscription Cost: 500 food → 400 food. Availability: P2. Theatron Currently: More expensive than fort, longer build, easy to capture, rarely used. Suggestion: Cost = 200 wood + 400 stone, Build time = 300s. Spear & Pike Champions (except fanatics) Currently: Rarely used in high-level play (1400+). Example: Athenians prefer sword champs (earlier + dock training). Seleucids prefer sword champs over pikes. Suggestion: Clearer role differentiation. Strong cav counter (e.g. 4× vs cav instead of 2.5 x). Increase armor for pike and spear champions. Tower Techs Currently: Too expensive (600–750 resources each). Making more towers instead is considerably cheaper. Suggestion: Crenellation = 200 stone + 200 metal. Arrow shooters = 250 wood + 200 metal. Sturdy foundations = 350 stone. Archers Currently: Weak compared to other ranged. Suggestion: Slight buff (5-10%) to stats or Archery Training tech. Elephants Currently: Not viable or not often seen in Pro 1x1 or TG for Kush, Ptolemies, Seleucids (only used with Mauryas, since stables are available in P2). Suggestion: Kushites: Elephant Stables in P2. Cost: 200 wood + 200 stone → 250–275 wood + 100 stone. Battlefield Medicine Currently: Costs 1000 food + 250 metal; applies only to idle units (not walking). Unused. Suggestion: Cost 1000f → 250f. Or regeneration +1 instead of +0.5. Aura Buildings Iberian Monument: 100 stone + 100 metal, P2, +20% dmg, 120s build. Kushite Pyramid: 450 stone + 150 metal, P3, 300s build. Suggestion: Kushite Pyramid → 200s build, 200 stone + 100 metal. Civic Center Balanced in P1, weak in P3. Suggestion: Increase attack in P3. Or allow forge arrow techs to apply to buildings. Ships Currently: Ram ships one-shot fishing ships → water battles snowball. Suggestion: Give fishing ships more armor (not one-shot). Reduce ram attack frequency. Wonders Glorious Expansion Tech Research time: 120s → 60s (since wonder itself is slow to build). Barter Suggestion: Decrease efficiency by 10%. Add tech: +15% barter efficiency, cost = 500 metal, 50s research. Siege Techs Currently: Extremely expensive. +25% health = 600 metal. -20% production = 600 wood. +25% attack = 800 wood + 500 metal. -40% unpack time = 800 food. Suggestion: Reduce costs by 50%. These are just suggestions, and I’m curious to see what other experienced players think. Do you agree with some of these changes? Are there better alternatives? Looking forward to hearing perspectives from fellow 1400+ players.

During spectating I saw that some healers where healing while gliding. I don't know if they actually healed or had the animation running while they where walking or so. I can not reproduce this. I tried: Healing while different units walk away. The healer stops. 50 skirm + 10 healers vs 50 skirm + 10 healers: All stoned the healing process when units walk out of range. The walking begins. Capturing a building in a group This is what I saw: healing_glide.mp4 This is my attempt: healing_glide_mine.mp4

This is really nice work, @Vantha. Thanks!

Even the mighty brit/infantry_slinger_e misses elite slinger.mp4

Yeah, Its unfortunate that archers need the archery tradition tech to feel at all worthwhile, which leaves carth archers in a terrible spot. At some point I think we need to do more to differentiate ranged units (more than just range+damage).

Hello @ProPlayer thank you for compiling this list of balancing suggestions! I agree with a lot of them. I think I'll go ahead and make the PR for the han changes. They are currently 3 pop, like catapults. Also, ranked up units do have higher capture attack. On clubmen, a lot of their utility is invalidated by the current capture balance, so I'd hesitate to give them so much speed. How do people feel about replacing the building damage increase per age with this? I could go either way.

Photopea has been the first "photoshop" app I've paid for in years. The developer is one guy, I think, and he actually added a feature based on my direct request (a checkbox to save transparency to alpha channel when exporting PNG; a huuuuuge help when creating textures for 0 a.d.). So yeah, he got my loyalty with that one. It has about 95% of the features as Adobe Photoshop at 10% of the price. And you can still use it for free without paying for it. Paying for it simply removes the side banner ads.

It should be difficult to capture, easy to destroy. It's counterintuitive on the realism scale, but in a gameplay world it makes most sense: the greater reward should be harder to attain.

Please no, one thread arguing in circles about one random unit is bad enough, we don't need another one....

Adding a metal cost would be lame. A small adjustment to armor values or hp or speed or a combination would be all that’s needed if anything at all.

For correctness's sake, Temple of Apademak is the Kushites normal Temple. You can check the specific and generic names of the Temple in Alpha 23. Never mind, It's the same name in the latest alpha. I'm just trying to be smartass here and failing.

@Dunedan @user1

Else invert G