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The title says it all. 0 A.D. doesn't run nearly as well as it should. My rig is capable of playing BF3 and Crysis 2 with an average of 45-50 FPS on the absolute maximum settings. I'm not implying that 0 A.D. is an ugly game (I was actually amazed by the detail, considering that it's open-source) but it's a bit of a turn-off to find out that you can't even run a game with more than two AI opponents without things getting ridiculously laggy. I love 0 A.D. and the amount of effort that has undoubtedly gone into it over the last few years, but optimization is pretty important if you're looking to raise funds for the game. Even though it's in alpha, at this stage the game should run a bit smoother if it's going to hold people's attention. Playing against a sole opponent consistently gets stale quickly. I know the reasons for the lag - pathfinding, AI issues, etc - and I know they aren't necessarily easy to fix, but I seriously think that these issues should be addressed by the next major update. To me, your ability to play a game rules over its potential, so please try to address these issues if you can. I'm loving this game so far, and I absolutely cannot wait for the finished release, but I really think that game performance should take priority for the moment. Anyways, that's all I have to say. You're doing amazing work so far, Wildfire. Consider me a fan.

Never seen a dangling pointer, double free, heap corruption, memory leak or platform specific compiler error? Lucky you! But this discussion isn't really productive, nobody is offering to write the AIs in a different language, and even if they could, without a solid design we would run into the same problems, and others that are more annoying to troubleshoot thanks to C++. If you think C++ is always "fast enough", take a look at our pathfinder. Bad algorithms give bad performance, it doesn't matter the language or the hardware involved Because of JS garbage collection and the fact it's slower than native code, we know we shouldn't be processing a lot of data in JS. That's possible to solve, and we can still get the benefits of a.) new AIs and mods not requiring rebuilding the engine (even if you made them modular, in C++ they become unportable binaries), b.) possible AI script hotloading, change a script and it could instantly reflect the change in-game, c.) lower learning curve to begin developing AIs, if you have a text editor and basic programming knowledge you're ready to go and unlike C++, you don't worry about the machine the code will run on. Based on contributions to 0 A.D. that I've seen over the years, people find JS (as a scripting language) more approachable and comfortable than C++, and that drives AI, random map, gameplay and UI development more than one guy who knows everything about C++.

Java is to JavaScript as Ham is to Hamster. We use JavaScript.

"0 A.D. is ready to do a big push, this has the potential to be one of the greatest games out there. I think they're now gonna be on the path. [...] If they reach their funding, and I truly hope they do, this is going to be a showcase game. Not just for Linux, this is gonna be a showcase game for open source games. I think that's why 0 A.D. is a little more important than your average bear, because it has so much potential. [...] If it's something this compelling, I think it's gonna make it." http://youtu.be/ebFJKPOziQk?t=55m

The lag is exactly why we are doing a fundraiser. It requires a lot of full-time attention, and with the fundraiser, we could employ a full time programmer to work on that. So I'd reverse the statement, and say that if you want a lag-free game, you should support the fundraiser.

Hi all, Sorry for barging in a bit late on this discussion, I did not see this until now. First a few words about where I'm coming from: I have been working as a localizer for 2 years now both professionally for proprietary software and as a hobby for Opoen Source, and I can't wait to get started translating this game into Scottish Gaelic If I may make an observation from past experience and hair-pulling: Whatever you do internally, I strongly recommend presenting translators with PO files. This is why: Access to translation memories and easy cooperation PO files allow you to use translation memories and put them up on sites like transifex (yes, Transifex allows you to download and reupload the files for offline editing, just like Launchpad). Plural handling Gettext implements proper plural handling. How do you intend to implement plural handling? Just to give you an example for why it's needed - if I would use Gaelic grammar on an English example, I would get: 0 fighter 1 fhighter 2 fhighter 3 - 10 fighters 11 fhighter 12 fhighter 13-19 fighters 40 ... fighteras opposed to English 0 fighters 1 fighter 2 ... fightersSpellcheckers Also, PO files can be used with tools that support hunspell, like Firefox or Virtaal. Personally, I will be translating into a minority language and will be grateful not to have to copy/paste everything into LibreOffice in order to gain access to a spellchecker. Easy reference to the English source text Seeing the source and translation string side by side greatly speeds up the process. There are only 2 people active in the Open Source community who are qualified to localize into my language. So, I will have to translate the complete game on my own and saving time will be essential. With some translation projects, I found it helpful that I could easily see which line in the source the string had come from. Also, as has already been mentioned, programmers can add comments that will be picked up by gettext. Instant testing of your translation in-game There is one problem with the text2po conversion approach: How does the average translator who does not run a Linux machine test their translations in-game? If you'd just use gettext, easy-peasy, save as MO and drop your translation into LC_MESSAGES and Bob's your uncle. Some notes concerning programming issues If you're worried about strings being spread out to much e.g. for a campaign, that would depend on the design of your campaign config files if they are spread out or not? Maybe you could chat to the devs at Wesnoth who have a very workable solution also for mods, using multiple gettext domains If you're using XML, check out Intltool. If you mean strings like "foo %s bar", they actually are the easiest way to adjust the word order in the target language, if a placeholder can't be avoided. If you absolutely have to have your own format, talk to the OpenTTD people. They have a working format that does plural, gender and case handling, and they have a web translator as well. Please let the user select their language in the GUI And one final request, please do implement a language option in the menu. Detect Locale is fine for language pre-selection only, trust me on this. Thanks for listening to my long ramble

I think this thread sums up why R2TW UI is so bad compared to Shogun 2: http://forums.totalw...on-of-Shogun-2. Notice how it's much easier to see if your units are firing arrows, fighting or doing something else in Shogun 2. In Rome 2 it's just a mess. Really hard to see what your units are doing from the UI.

I'm about as green as they come and just slowly but surely trying to learn the basics. Yesterday I launched a single player game and before I knew it I was attacked in a swarm by an AI contingent and everything I had was destroyed. So I started a sandbox game for just me to familiarize myself with building and moving. Have watched most of the videos but there is a lot to learn. So far, I'm totally impressed but would love to get pointed to other tools or support info, I'm a slow but steady wins the race kind of person and don't have a lot of time to invest but I plan to stick with it. At some point I would like to be able to put my toe in the water and try multi-player but I don't see that happening soon. My next step, probably later this week will be to build another city with one AI. Any other suggestions are welcome. Thanks for having me. W

The main point is, food and wood early - you don't need to produce stone or metal until you've progressed beyond the village phase. Produce a mass of cheap troops at first, that's what the enemy does in the beginning. It is possible to win by sitting back on defense and surviving the initial attack - but you have to produce troops like a maniac, and most of them will be wiped out in the first attack wave so you have to crank out more. You won't gain the upper hand until you can build towers to give you a defensive advantage. That's doing it the hard way.

If we did it, maybe up more toward the top ribbon where the resource treasury is, rather than in the game world? Less obstruction of the immersion.

And if you are playing the Mauryans use the worker elephant instead of the wheelbarrow. Enjoy the Choice