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I think it would be really nice for skirmish maps to allow fewer than the max number of players. You can currently unassign players, but that leaves a do-nothing player rather than an empty base. The BFME series allowed this on skirmish maps. BFME also made the starting bases visible on the map preview image and you could assign the starting point for each player if you didn't like the default starting positions. A player number was displayed on top of the starting position icon and directly clicking on those icons on the preview image cycled through the remaining player numbers. We can indirectly do this in 0 A.D. by rearranging the players, but it requires trial-and-error to see where everyone actually ends up.

There has been a lot of discussion of how the meta of 0 A.D is haphazard, with typically only one strategy dominating the game. These points have merits, but while buffing and nerfing a single type of unit may seem like the best/easiest option, it seems better to look at the units in the context of which faction they are in since there should be a large difference between the functionality of a Roman Triarius to that of a Mauryan counterpart. Thus, I would like to use a single civilisation, Sparta, as a general template for this approach. The focus will basically be on the units, but the changes should affect other parts of the game. As another note, I will be using generic names to make the article more user-friendly. Please understand that my intention is not to make completely formed document but instead a base by which others can provide feedback; my hope is that some of this would see presence in the base game, but regardless, this approach should lead to a better purposed approach to both design and balance. There are limitations to this since 0 A.D. does not depict development chronologically, but my hope is that this method is a reasonable balance between the dynamics of history and gameplay. Village Phase Units: Spartan Hoplite In considering how to make Sparta, having the most prominent unit type withheld until the late game seems an absurd choice. Rather, this unit should play a central role throughout the game for Sparta. Training: Although the player would start with one Spartan, training more would require the construction of the mess hall, a building that trains heroes and provides the basis of upgrades to the Spartan units. After this structure has been completed, Spartan hoplites would be able to be trained at the Civic Centre. Spartan hoplites have long training times, which can be quickened with later technologies, but in general, this unit would be difficult to mass. Besides boasting a large defense, one of the biggest advantages would be a decently ranged aura to buff friendly mêlée infantry units' attack and defense. By researching the technology "Tyrtaean Hymns," the slow Spartan movement could be increased to allow them to better match the speeds of faster units. On the other hand, "Squires" would allow this aura to affect helots, making them significantly better at fighting. Later upgrades could make Spartans cause a fear aura, make their train time much faster, or simply buff their stats. Simply speaking, the player could have a great deal a freedom in customizing their Spartans to the needs of their game. Spartan Women: Women in the current meta are weak and vulnerable units. The same should not be said for Spartan Female units. With a faster movement speed and higher hp pool, these units should be able to better hold out against raiding until help arrives. Aside from building defensive buildings, they should offer an inspirational aura that makes helot units perform much better when fighting in their territory. Nonetheless, this makes them only support units albeit valuable ones. The only disadvantage they, like the Spartan hoplite, would suffer from is a long training time. Women would be trained at the Civic Centre only. Helots: Making up the next part of the Spartan roster, Helots should play a central but unique role that reflects their class. Helots would be strictly armed workers, wearing only the lightest equipment. Like the aforementioned units, they would only be trained at the Civic Centre but at a faster rate. When fighting alone in friendly territory, they would be mediocre at best, but outside, they would be only cannon-fodder unless Spartans with the right upgrades were nearby. In the later phases, a technology could be researched to free specific ones for a certain cost, making the freed helots significantly better in combat and lacking the penalties in neutral and enemy territory. They would benefit, as already mentioned, from the presence of specific units. Skiritae: Yes this unit would be available at the village phase and would be the only unit trainable at the barracks during this phase. It would retain all the features it currently possesses. Its main value would be as a harrassing unit at this point, but it could also be used to deal with raiding units your opponent would field. It would benefit from Spartan auras, making sending a Spartan hoplite in conjunction with a raid an excellent choice for heavier damage. In later parts of the game, this unit could see action in raids but as other units become more efficient with this function and Skiritae benefit from fighting near Spartans, their role would become one of bolstering flanks of formations. Town Phase: Periokoi: Like the Spartan hoplite, this would be a frontline unit, but despite its lacking powerful auras and the large stats of Spartan hoplites, they would be a force to be reckoned with, almost on par with standard Athenian hoplites, and potentially better if a Spartan hoplite is with them. Their gather rates would be decent, not as good as helots but better than Skiritae, but the main advantage would be the ease by which they could be massed. These would be trained at the barracks. Boetian Allied Cavalry: These units would be expensive but potentially powerful even in small numbers. Unlike the Skiritae, which are both shock and frontline troops, Allied Cavalry would only be shock troops. This would require researching Boetian Alliance, however. These cavalry would be spear cavalry and trained at the barracks for the standard cost plus some metal. Altogether, I would see this as more of a force to field if an enemy uses a mainly ranged unit composition or as a means of harassing some workers. City Phase: Spartan Pikemen: In the final phase there would be the option to reform the Spartan military, modernizing it. The results would be that Spartan hoplites would be transformed into the following unit, making their training time significantly faster while still retaining powerful stats. The aura they formerly had would be gone though, and they would be expensive to maintain in production for very long. If timed correctly though, a Spartan player could beeline to this technology, hoping to quickly overwhelm their opponents. This could be just one of a few options for how Spartan hoplites could evolve. If the player wished to maintain quality over quantity, they could research a technology that favors the aristocrats. Yet another path could be a way of getting some of both things, allowing @#$% sons to be legitimized. Since each of these could favor specific unit compositions, it would allow the player to operate with that framework in mind, having build orders that could play to the different strengths. Olynthian Skirmisher Cavalry: As technologies could gradually make Boetian cavalry more purposes towards supporting Spartan phalanxes, this unit could arise as a potential trash unit as resources dwindle and raiding becomes a matter of resource efficiency. These units would be cheap due to them being levies of allies have an average training time. While they would be pretty squishy, their speed and affordability would be their selling point as resources grow scarce.

Screen Space Ambient Occlusion. (Graphical Effect). Nothing you can do with your map generator.

Vox Populi - An Introduction This mod tries to address the main "weaknesses" of the current release: it aims to balance "op/up" units, it adjusts technologies and introduces some variety along the way As the name implies (Vox Populi = Voice of the People) , this mod is open to all suggestions of the 0 A.D. community and there is a high chance that if several "known" players agree on a suggestion, it could be added in here. Supported by a moderator and developer, the features of this mod - if found good - stand a great chance at entering the next release, perhaps even more so than some other balance mods. Anyway, I'm sure you all wouldn't like to read 349 paragraphs about why, what, where etc.. so I'll list the changes this mod brings (hopefully to 0 A.D. Alpha 23) NEW - Kushite civilization! (Differences from 22.1_KD) Replaced unfitting heroes with Nastasen and Arakamani Added Ptolemaic Trireme to be trainable - requires Nastasen hero Reduced Village Phase unit selection Righted the mix up of temples, now can separately build both Amun and Apedemak temples. - Amun temple is more expensive but offers unique technologies and a greater garrison number - at a cost. Mercenaries are promotable: made rank 2 and 3 actors for Clubmen -- placeholder, waiting for better others just keep actor but promote Vision Citizen-solider infantry base vision 50. (Maximum: 70) Citizen-Soldier cavalry base vision 55. (Maximum: 75) Champion infantry vision 75. Champion cavalry & Infantry heroes' vision 85. War elephants' vision & Cavalry heroes' vision 90. Elephant heroes' vision 95. All siege 90 vision except the Siege Tower's 100. Healers & Women base vision 25. (Maximum:45) Traders & Worker Elephants base vision 30. (Maximum: 50) Fishing ships base vision 10. (Maximum: 30) Merchant ships base vision 40. (Maximum: 50) Fire ships base vision 40. (Maximum: 50) Biremes and Triremes base vision 80. (Maximum: 90) Quinqueremes vision 100. Run speed adjusted to be reduced by same amount as Walk Speed. Players have long complained that such high vision is unrealistic and that it should be lowered. Attack Ranges & Movement Speed Archer units maximum attack range reduced by 4. Archer units gain +10 attack range per phase, slinger units +6. All units start with only 80% of original movement speed. Town Phase gives +10%, City Phase +14% Citizen Soldiers Cavalry rework Sword, spear and skirmisher cavalry have all been reworked. Based on tests so far: Sword Cavalry > Spear Cavalry > Skirmisher Cavalry > Sword Cavalry Ptolemaic camel units now inflict a 20% attack penalty on all cavalry (including allied) within a 40m range. Spear Cavalry 2s attack rate, attack reworked to suit the new values. Citizen-soldier archers' maximum movement speed increased to 10. NEW - Elite Seleucid Bronze Shield Pikemen now need 250XP to promote to Champion Silver Shield Pikemen Unit loot increases with rank. Elite units' stats improved slightly. Citizen-soldier cavalry capture rate decreased to 1, increase of only 10% hp per rank (instead of 20%). Logically, cavalry should have a lower capture rate than infantry. Champions All cavalry champions' capture attack reduced to 4. Archer champions' attack range decreased by 4. Skirmisher Chariot Champions now have 320HP and +2 pierce attack but require 2 population. Spear Cavalry Champions retain the 1.25x counter vs. other cavalry, likewise the 3 second attack rate. Gauls - Naked Fanatic pierce attack increased by 2. Heroes Carthaginians Hamilcar's 2nd aura: As you all probably have figured by now, Hamilcar is not a "useful" hero (giving only +15% speed compared to the attack bonuses of Marhabal & Hannibal) Thus, a new aura has been created (based on historical facts) which decreases enemy mercenary attack values by 20%. Persians Darius I's movement speed bonus aura increased from 10% to 15%. Romans Scipio's aura range increased from 10 meters to 30. Technologies NEW - Unique technologies for each civilization. (current goal is 1/civilization - incomplete, feel free to suggest) 2 new technologies at the Civic Centre, affecting both movement speed and health respectively. Artillery Instructors: Siege weapons cost 20% less wood This technology now costs: 500 food, 250 stone, 250 metal instead of the original 500 metal. Unlock Spies: All support units may now be bribed, not only traders. Mounts: Unlock village phase cavalry, researchable for 100F 100W 50M at the Corral. Mounts icon changed, now uses a portrait imported from Delenda Est. 2nd redundant tech replaced with an autoresearched one - at the cost of a warning message when using the Structure Tree Domestic animals base train time doubled, added new technology "Husbandry" for -15% train time and moved Stockbreeding to the Town Phase with maintained -25%. Blacksmith features new Specialization technologies Hero armor tech split up into mounted and infantry ones, now supersedes infantry and cavalry armor upgrades respectively. Stoa technology added as fitting the Royal Stoa's functions - Price Control: +15% market barter values. Wall Tower technologies added, first may shoot arrows then bolts. Carthage Colonisation technology (500W 500M) now affects Civic Structures (Civil Centre, Temples, Houses) by reducing their cost instead of -25% build time. Structures NEW - Stables Stables now available for all civs like for the persians currently. Unlock champion units technology moved to fortress as a consequence. All civilizations have received a new animal trainable from the Corral, this new addition is the Chicken, for all civilisations. Ships The Ptolemaic Juggernaut now costs only 5 population instead of the original 8. Siege Siege Towers' maximum arrow limit increased to 15. Some changes by @Grugnas were incorporated. Support Healers now cost 200 food. Trade Trade income was re-balanced based on suggestions by @Nescio Incorporated several features of the Pro Balance Mod (by @user1) https://wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?/topic/22798-pro-balance-modconcept-please-test/ GUI Changes Panels now showing Vox Populi mod name with version. Lobby title says "Multiplayer Lobby (Using Vox Populi) - to avoid players forgetting they are using the mod and joining a vanilla game. Download Here!!! vox_populi_22.1.3.zip lightweight edition (for balance and testing purposes) vox_populi_22.1.2_lightweight.zip Installation Instructions: Extract this zip file into the mods folder. The correct folder depends on your operating system. Windows replace USERNAME with your windows login name. Vista or newer C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\My Games\0ad\mods\ XP / 2000 C:\Documents and Settings\USERNAME\My Documents\My Games\0ad\mods\ OS X ~/Library/Application\ Support/0ad/mods/ Note: "~" is a shorthand for the current user directory. Linux ~/.local/share/0ad/mods/ Note: "~" is a shorthand for the current user directory. -------------------- Changelog 22.0.1 - base version 22.0.2 - Rabbits fixed, infantry archer champion speed increased to 13 to stay constant with citizen-soldier infantry archers. 22.0.3 - Trade nerf fix, vision rework based on suggestions by @elexis and @Grugnas 22.0.4 - Rabbits removed, cavalry rework, attack range and movement speed rework +++ 22.0.5 - Trade fix (based on suggestions by @Nescio), Skirmisher Champion Chariots rebalanced. 22.0.6 - 2 new CC techs, 2nd cavalry tech fix, new icons, new corral tech, increased training time for domestic animals, ++ 22.0.7 - Specialization technologies, hero armor technology rework, new stoa technology 22.0.8 - Wall Turret rework, new technologies first to unlock arrows then bolts. 22.0.9 - Unit loot increases with rank, cavalry only +10% hp/rank, some minor adjustments to elite bonus and spear champion cavalry. 22.1- Kushites added, seleucid pikemen can promote to champions 22.1.1 - Kushite hero rework, error fixes, reduced Village Phase unit selection 22.1.2 - Kushites: Temple rework and differentiation, mercenary fix 22.1.3 - Unique civ-specific technologies, hero abilities, stables added

No, the map is created without any call to rmgen. I don't reject or despise rmgen at all, but my approach is different. It's something about the control you have on the map creation: rmgen tries to give you as much control as possible (even when it's about putting some random noise in the map). I'm trying to work on more fuzzy algorithms, less control on details, because I think they're very efficient to give realistic results and much more variety. I don't know very well rmgen, but do you think you can produce easily with it something like the map in the screenshot above ? If you tried a little the tour I published, maybe you marked the large variety of maps it produces (even if some are far from usable, but this will change soon). I think I could rather easily scavenge the existing random map scripts to produce very quickly new ones of more or less the same quality, and I will do that if my efforts are fruitless. But I want to follow my own path too. The problem is not new to me: multiplayers requirements are extremely difficult to match with realism and aesthetic. They just want their resources equally distributed and as little obstructions as possible, in other words, maps as plain as a chessboard, because they play some kind of chess game. Realism is only an eyecandy to them, never a challenge, but... Yeah, but you can imagine maps where finding a path to the enemy is not trivial because you must wander in a large part of very rough terrain where you can be ambushed from high cliffs and can't built anything. It's something like Hannibal crossing the Alps. In the same spirit, resources are not always equally distributed and easy to get in reality. I'm personally more interested in this kind of challenge (I would play chess otherwise ).

We have a ticket for it: #1306 . I tried to glance at the related code the previous time it was brought up, but didn't find how to fix this quickly enough and didn't return to it afterwards. Player assignments are managed in gui scripts (in gamesetup.js in particular), while entities initialization is performed in MapReader.cpp (see CXMLReader::ReadEntities). Map loading is obviously ha ppening after the gamesetup, but I'm not sure whether the MapReader has access to the player assignments (it has some 'LoadPlayerSettings' which goes into simulation2, which may or may not have the relevant data). This is more complicated. Our previews are arbitrary images rather than minimap-like schemas. I guess we may implement an additional optional 'schema' (or 'placements') element for maps consisting of an image and metadata (player locations on the image), which preferrable should be autogenerated by Atlas. This schema then will be displayed in the gamesetup somewhere besides the regular preview.

Very true. There are some ideas I had in mind for how the economy and defences could more uniquely function for Sparta, but I have not had the time to put that on paper.

Focussing on the historical uniqueness of each civ is the perfect way of diversifying the factions. Every faction has their own character/culture/history, and using this in terms of architecture, units and technologies offers so much potential for gameplay and aesthetics.

Having barrack as prerequisite to train cavalry give more room to player who likes to play defensively with no need of cavalry. Also the vision range and attack max range of most units has been reduced drastically to feel the game more adventurous while scouting for the first time. Vanilla vision range 80 at any phase: Monkey Wrench vision range 40 at phase 1 ( every phase give +10 vision range). infantry phase 1:

Oooh, cheers very much for posting my video here! I was going to say hello to all the 0AD community again now that I'm getting back into it with Alpha22, but I suppose this is as good as anything! I look forward to doing a whole load of games for you guys here & getting them on youtube. Soon enough I'll also be setting up my twitch stream for when I get back into the multiplayer. So keep an eye out! Well done to all the devs for their work on the new alpha, the more I check it out and play games, the better it gets! It's awesome, really. ^^

???? Secret Service Armored Olibrius ? Symmetric Strange Analytic Oyster ?

But their are lots of other Robert E Howard titles available to plunder after all he did commit suicide in the 1930's Conan was just his most popular character due to reprints in the 60-70's still have all twelve books with Frank Frazzeti covers. Enjoy the Choice

Actually I am unfamiliar with DE; from what I've seen and read on the forums I believe it adds new factions, units, graphics, etc. 0abc is a modification of the standard alpha 22 distribution, developed indepently of any other mod. If it implements things similar to other mods, it's because apparently each of us perceives certain features in the default distribution as in need of improvement. As for your errors, I can not reproduce them, unfortunately; I guess it has to do with your local distribution. Make sure you're using alpha 22, disable any other mods, load 0abc, and don't forget to click “Save Configuration” and “Start Mods”. And yes, all soldiers require food, wood, *and* metal. If 0abc is loaded, this ought to be displayed correctly in the tech trees etc.

> I'll probably try disabling the hardware detection completely, but at least to me this doesn't sound like a real solution You can write a bugreport linking to this topic at https://trac.wildfiregames.com/, but as long as you're the only one affected and noone cares about the performance database, killing bugged useless code sounds perfectly fine to me.

Pyrogenesis survived startup now! I've deleted all three "numa_"-lines (313-315) and 0 A. D. is starting now (first couple of times it crashed while loading fonts and textures, but then it worked). It also created a nice system_info.txt - where I noticed that HWdedect seems to have a problem with DDR4 RAM - i've got only 1 8GB module but it lists four (see appendix). For testing purposes I've skipped RunHardwareDetection() completely then (by adding a return statement as suggested) and 0 A. D. is behaving completely same. What means that those three lines are causing that error. Now I'm very interested in what this numa_-thing should actually do (starting with the question what numa should mean). Any idea? Unfortunately 0 A. D. still crashes if I try to start a game. It shows the map select menu but as soon as I hit play everything freezes after a second with a half-loaded map loading screen and windows displays it's obligatory "this program has stopped working" message. Sadly no crashlog file gets generated and the mainlog shows 0 errors (last entries are loading messages of simulation scripts). Thats pobably what you meant with Where can I change that (I guess its some kind of textfile)? Thanks, Luke system_info.txt

See your existing topic: for Lion's answer

I'd also favor a general vision range reduction and increase with age 1 and 2 (plus a technology in age 1 to increase the vision range). Hannibal was not decided yet. @mimo had similar plans right? So perhaps we can get Grugnas to create said patch(es) for Alpha 23 and start agreeing on vision ranges based on screenshots and reviewable patches (that don't have any other balance changes)?

I do not think any civ should be exempted, especially not the celtic ones who can develop very fast. Stables could be a nice feature but as of the moment only Persians have stables and I'm going to work with what I have (corrals).

Sorry for spamming the idea, but I really think stables are an elemental part of any historical RTS, and should be as well for 0AD. The most logical solution to prevent too early cav-rushes. Horses are not trained with infantry. They have completely unique requirements, which makes them much more difficult to train than infantry, and need special infrastructure. Stables are historical and necessary in my opinion. I've always thought training horses from CC''s and barracks looks horribly awkward. EDIT: maybe Gauls and Iberians don't need stables for simple cav units, because they kept horses in the field for longer periods.

Similar bone structure. The autodetection is cool and a pain at the same time.

@feneur can be nice move the topic to correct forum, thank you.

I think this is a must. If a skirmish player is unassigned, then the skirmish objects should go to null and disappear from the map altogether. Their abandoned/open starting position on the map would just be a nice expansion point the other players might race to claim.

after checking a lot of angles and following the bow direction, i found that this is the most suitable animation for the arrow fire at 90 degrees the bow, start clipping all the path to the pose with the horse, or the arrow, clipping the head.

@feneur we can call them to split topic "free Fantasy mod" with public domain

Sorry for hijacking your thread Gocker. Lol Maybe feneur can split.

I can't say I fully understand why, but it appears to be a conflict/problem with the file "art/skeletons/Trebuchet.xml" added to Delenda Est in commit id d34479ebc748 "Lots of Kushite stuff." This commit/file also causes errors when trying to load `fauna_shark`. In addition, the `fauna_walrus` and `fauna_elephant_asian_infant` also give errors in DE and not in vanilla, but these appear to be issues with their templates.

One nice thing about Conan the Barbarian is that much of it is in the public domain now. Names like "Conan the Barbarian" are trademarked though.

was fixed in https://code.wildfiregames.com/D858

Reminds me of the Ambush or Archipelago map where you often see circles around the CC. By using some random patterns instead of only a single circle or square, that shape could be blended in a bit. The flattening approach doesn't seem so bad after all. An alternative would be very strong smoothing. Notice that besides a single player being cut off, theres also the possibility that two parts of the map are disconnected. Perhaps connectivity could be ensured by creating paths between players, as seen on Caledonian Meadows. Those paths really add a lot of value to the visual appearance as well usually (for example on Danubius). Also I'd recommend a createBumps() call after all mapgen is processed to disrupt any repetitive patterns in the terrain.

Corral Will have around 4 horses, with different idle animations, one of the 4 will be small

I forgot I snuck this into a commit a while back. Don't know what purpose it could serve, but I thought it'd be a nice urban eyecandy misc. building.