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I think one way to make units gather slower as the game progresses is to allow the player to upgrade their troops from basic to advanced to elite. As they get better at fighting, they get worse at gathering, so you have to spend more on gathering upgrades. You also know that, hey, if I upgrade my troops to elite my economy is going to take a hit, so I have to plan this right.

I think responsiveness/feedback to the player is not a "small detail". It's extremely helpful and should happen with the least delay possible (while the more calculation intense actual order may be executes with some delay without causing problems because the player knows the order is given).

It finally came to me what game I played that used a system like that - it was Lords of Magic. Of course, movement was turn-based in that game - only the combat interface was real-time - so upkeep was assessed by the turn.Normal troops also had a small upkeep in that game, after you paid quite a bit to train them; mercenaries just took a little gold to hire, but it was more than the regular upkeep and you had to keep paying it every turn. You couldn't afford them for long. The only good use for them was emergency defense for your cities - send them out to wear down an approaching attack force and die. In that game, you didn't have to wait for units to be trained (but it took time to train the buildings to produce better troops - weird concept). Maybe that could be the advantage of mercenaries in 0ad - instant troops for emergency defense. In LoM, when you couldn't pay the upkeep troops just deserted. A lot simpler to implement than the other ideas that have been floated, I'd think.

Hello everyone! Sorry I have not been in contact recently. But I have taken a few jabs at Blender and I think I have a pretty decent understanding of it now. In addition I was able to rig the Oryx model. Hopefully by this weekend I should have a few of the animations set up.

well in some games (i'm thinking of AOM specifically) it's possible to program map scripts and randomly include units and buildings which belong to the Gaia player and are neutral/aggressive to all players indiscrimniately. for example, the inclusion of Settlements in AOM that you can build new Town Centers over, the random bands of Skraelings on the Vinlandsaga map, and Bandit Migdols (Egyptian Fortresses) on some maps which are specifically spawned near gold mines, adding a little challenge to early expansion.for teh purposes of gameplay, regular player units (like hoplites) could be treated like aggressive animals when controlled by the "gaia" player, meaning that they'll ignore your units for a while but will attack if you hang around for too long. i know the animla comparison could have racist connotations, but i think that's just the easiest way to handle this. basically, a gaia-controlled hoplite represents a native of a given region who sees one of your gatherers and thinks "Hmm...I don't like the looks of that guy" but leaves the guy alone for a while, but eventually gets uncomfortable and thinks "that guy has overstayed his welcome. time to kill 'im!" and attacks. as for actually "converting" a minifaction, i'd say a new interface would be needed, perhaps a second diplomacy window applying only to minifactions that you've built an Outpost next to, allowing you to give and receive tributes with the tribe and, after you tribute them a collective amount of resources (let's say 1000 altogether from all three resources, in any combination) which then allows you to train their mercenary units at your Barracks, Fortress, Embassy, etc.. going on the idea of basing the first minifactions on units already included, those mercenary units could be specifically banned for training by their "home" civs because doing it otherwise would be superfluous.

I think you could add a small marker, showing where you clicked, when you issue a move order to a unit. It would be a small detail but I think that it would make the game feel a bit more responsive. Great game btw, love it. Keep up the good work!