Leaderboard

When you connect to the multiplayer lobby, 0ad uses a secure, TLS-encrypted connection by default. However, up to now we also offered the ability for players to disable that encryption. This won't be possible from some time tomorrow (2026-03-06) on anymore, as we want to improve the security and privacy of our players. For the past two weeks, every player who disabled TLS-encryption in the past, and therefore connected to the multiplayer lobby with an unencrypted connection, received a notification to change their configuration to enable it. If you haven't followed these instructions or just haven't connected to the multiplayer lobby since then, here is what you have to do to continue to be able to connect to the multiplayer lobby: From the main screen of the game, navigate to "Settings" → "Options" → "Networking / Lobby" and enable "TLS encryption" there. As an alternative you can also locate your 0ad configuration file and change lobby.tls = "false" to lobby.tls = "true" there.

In any competitive game where there is a winner and a loser, the fundamental expectation is that the conditions are equal for everyone involved. That’s the very foundation of competition. When two players sit down to a game of chess, neither side is allowed to use any hidden advantages. The same principle applies to online matches. Once the sense of fairness is compromised, the match itself stops meaning much. The surprising part is that we even have to explain something this basic. What I’ve noticed is that the game’s easily moddable structure and the looseness of the rules are being exploited. And in all the years I’ve occasionally played this game, I have never seen anyone join a game and say: “Hey guys, just so you know, I’m using a mod that lets me do certain things faster.” Not once. I’m not saying these players are deliberately hiding it but they certainly don’t mention it unless someone asks. Yes, some of the usual suspects are known to people who spend time on the forum. But not everyone spends time on the forum. Being active on the forum is not one of the fundamental requirements of this game (some players don’t even speak English.) Many people simply log in to play the game through the multiplayer lobby and that’s completely normal. They shouldn’t be expected to browse forums just to find out whether certain players are using advantage providing mods. A player who simply joins the multiplayer lobby expecting a fair match has no way of knowing that a particular opponent is using a mod that provides an advantage. That player can easily walk into a game assuming equal conditions and end up losing under unfair circumstances without even realizing why. Some people also seem to reassure their own conscience by saying things like “it doesn’t actually provide an advantage.” But if you ever run into a match where they’re forced to play without their mod (usually because a host insists on a clean game) you can quickly see how much they struggle without it. I won’t even get into a debate about why these mods provide an advantage, because that’s exactly the kind of discussion they want. Something that drifts the topic into ambiguity. I guess they expect something like laboratory results, but even if you somehow show them that, their response will just be to question the validity of the lab. I can’t even justify explaining it since anyone with a bit of common sense can see the inequality for themselves. Creating mods is perfectly fine, no one is against that. But if a mod gives you an advantage, then you should be playing against others under the same conditions and you should honestly disclose your mods to every new player you encounter (although, I’m afraid these mods could spread like a plague, as new players may be tempted to use them to succeed quickly.) To be honest, I wasn’t even aware that things like this were happening in this game. Realizing that some players I thought were simply very skilled, were actually cheaters, was disappointing. I hope this issue will be addressed and that the community as a whole realizes how much these practices undermine the quality, integrity and spirit of the game.

Don't keep your hope up too much.

What's the advantage of Fields over Corrals? 1 cavalry units gathers Food about 7 times faster than fully upgraded 5-man Fields. Or about 3.5 times as fast if you consider the cost of the animal. If we scale that up: 20 cavalry units, 15 Corrals, Stockbreeding -> 2000 Food, 1000 Wood + 1500 Wood + 100 Food -> 2100 Food, 2500 Wood 70 civilians, 12 Farms, Iron Plow, Gather Training, Fertilizer -> 3500 Food + 1200 Wood + 900 Wood, 600 Metal -> 3500 Food, 2100 Wood, 600 Metal So the Corral setup costs less overall resources, the units are trained faster, you save 50 pop, the buildings take almost the same time to be build, Corrals take up less space, cavalry is harder to raid than civilians, and you can slowly garrison cattle into Corrals and get an even bigger advantage. Why should you use Fields instead?

Did some little comparison table (.ods / LibreOffice) for units. Not finished yet (a few units are missing, and in the Civ Column is incomplete). Some data points I found interesting: Naked Fanatics have, despite the big complain thread about them, not overly impressive combat stats The P2 Champion Infantry Swordsmen of Athenians and Carthaginians have insane stats cost-for-cost, and have the additional bonus to be fast Maidan Guard have really bad stats if you compare them to other fast infantry; they can only keep up thanks to the 20% damage bonus from Steel Working Elephant Archers are cost-for-cost about twice as tanky as other archers and still deal about the same damage 0AD_Unit_Calculations_028_01.ods 0AD_Unit_Calculations_028_02.ods

Yeah, if I have some time, I could update it or anyone with the script and a LLM. Just describe the stats in full detail. But to me this seem to be too obvious to put in that effort of typing the stats and debug it. First comes the berrys, then hunt/fish, then transition to fields. Corrals with slaughtering seems not to be the meta atm.. In earlier alphas I liked to have corrals, a temple nearby, wounded cav could work and heal by aura. But it was never a question of either farm + upgrades or corrals. Farms are a must. ... (well one exception was survival of the fittest were there were once no farms, but corrals)

corrals needs food before generating any meaningful amount :/

The bug tracker has patches marked as backports. However we can only make a release that's compatible with R28. That means no simulation changes. Only translations and bugfixes not touching the simulation

@TapotheiWhenever you have time, please play a similar match on the Saharan Oases map, still with unlimited population and deathmatch resources, and send me your feedback. I improved my bot and played against Petra VH, it still won against Petra in matches, but I suddenly realized I only tested on Saharan Oases. When I played on other maps, my bot always lost, and I haven't figured out why. Initially, I thought that map was a great balanced map for test matches, so I always tested on that map. Anyway, I can't upload the upgrades right now, but if you notice any differences in the previous bots on Saharan Oases, please let me know.

That was phrased poorly. What I meant is that they have roughly the same combat stats as regular infantry, despite being much faster. Cost Multiplier = Gather Rate How much do you value each resource. The smaller the number the higher you value it.

unit speed is extremely strong in this game.

It's not the standard type of latency lag there. Only some sluggishness during a long match with many, many units. It's gotten much better since A27.1.

I'm delighted to introduce the newest bot in my series of AI bots, the Protectorate bot. This bot represents a breakthrough in gameplay compared to the previous two, redefining alliance relationships. To play this bot, you need at least two players on the same team, both controlled by Protectorate. The player with the smaller ID will play the role of the "Empire," and the other players will be "vassals" (for example, if players 1, 2, and 3 are on the same team, player 1 will be the Empire, and players 2 and 3 will be the vassals). The Empire will prioritize military strength and trade, while the vassals will prioritize workers and pay 30% of their resources every 60 seconds to the Empire. This payment is waived if the vassal's resources are less than 20% of the Empire's resources and increases to 40% when the Empire launches an attack. The empire would also station troops in vassal states, with the number depending on the actual situation (this only happened when the empire's population exceeded 100). bot_Protectorate_1.zip