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0 A.D. has very limited biodiversity. This is quite understandable, given the amount of work necessary for adding an animal (creating mesh, textures, animations, icon, sounds). There are already large lists of wanted animals (here and here). However, not all species live in all parts of the world, obviously. It could be helpful for future map makers to list the species native to a specific part of the world, or at least the largest and most important animals (from a human i.e. cultural, historical, and socio-economical point of view). Since 0 A.D. has the Mauryas and several maps but few animals from there, I've decided to start with the Indian subcontinent (i.e. South Asia). Animals already present in the 0 A.D. svn version are stricken through. For the rest, I've added links to Wikipedia [WP], for basic information, and Wikimedia Commons [WMC], for free images. Jungle Book characters are within square brackets. Feliformia: tiger (Panthera tigris) [Shere Khan] lion (Panthera leo) leopard (Panthera pardus) WP WMC [Bagheera] cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) WP WMC striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) WP WMC Canines: wolf (Canis lupus) [Akela, Raksha, Rama] golden jackal (Canis aureus) WP WMC [Tabaqui] dhole (Cuon alpinus) WP WMC red fox (Vulpes vulpes) Bengal fox (Vulpes bengalensis) WP WMC Bovinae: gaur (Bos gaurus) WP WMC gayal (Bos frontalis) or mithun; the domestic gaur WP WMC Indo-Chinese banteng (Bos javanicus birmanicus) WP WMC Indian aurochs (Bos primigenius namadicus) – unclear when it went extinct in India – WP WMC zebu (Bos primigenius indicus) wild water buffalo (Bubalus arnee) WP WMC domestic water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis): river buffalo and swamp buffalo WP WMC nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus) WP WMC four-horned antelope (Tetracerus quadricornis) WP WMC Cervinae (deer): sambar (Rusa unicolor) WP WMC chital (Axis axis) or spotted deer WP WMC barasingha (Rucervus duvaucelii) or swamp deer WP WMC Indian hog deer (Hyelaphus porcinus) WP WMC Indian muntjac (Muntiacus muntjak) WP WMC Other mammals: Indian elephant (Elephas maximus indicus) [Hathi] Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) WP WMC onager (Equus hemionus) or Asiatic wild ass WP WMC wild boar (Sus scrofa) Asian black bear (Ursus thibetanus) or moon bear WP WMC sloth bear (Melursus ursinus) WP WMC [Baloo] Indian hare (Lepus nigricollis) WP WMC South Asian river dolphin (Platanista gangetica) WP WMC Birds: Indian peafowl (Pavo cristatus) Indian spot-billed duck (Anas poecilorhyncha) WP WMC chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) red junglefowl (Gallus gallus) WP WMC grey junglefowl (Gallus sonneratii) WP WMC green junglefowl (Gallus varius) WP WMC Crocodilians: mugger crocodile (Crocodylus palustris) WP WMC saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) WP WMC gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) WP WMC

These are for the original 0AD civilisations in Alpha 23. I concluded the following from my personal experience playing 0AD. If you disagree then please comment below. 1. Athenians Strengths: Hero characters offer great technological gains Slingers and hoplites are decent in mass formation Navy can be excellent Weaknesses: Has access to neither rams nor elephants - this makes siege very difficult. The Athenians must rely on catapults and bolt shooters for crush damage. 2. Britons Strengths: Economic bonus Quick development in early phase - allows early rushes that hinder enemy’s development Decent melee troops - can easily destroy enemy siege weapons Buildings cost less and every structure can offer a small population capacity increase Can train unique war dogs that are effective at harassing the enemy Weaknesses: No archers Buildings are not very durable Only siege weapon is rams, and not very durable / damaging rams Unimpressive navy Too reliant on wood 3. Gauls Vastly similar to Britons with 3 key differences: 1. No war dogs 2. Gauls have access to a tavern which trains naked fanatics - they are very brutal 3. No Island settlement 4. Carthaginians Strengths: Extremely broad range of troops and siege weapons - allows for many different styles of play and strategies. Almost unstoppable in the late game. One of the best civilisations at naval warfare - the Cothon (unique to Carthaginians) can produce and heal quinqueremes (heavy warships). Embassy allows access to other factions’ units -great diversity. Has the strongest wall tower (Mijdil) at 12000 health points. Weaknesses: Slow development in initial phases. Lack of bonuses Swordsman can only be trained from embassy. 5. Iberians Strengths: Talented at defence: the Iberians are given free walls surrounding the civic centre; buildings are much more durable compared to other factions. This helps with surviving early attacks. Decent infantry - swordsman, spearman, slingers. Weaknesses: Only siege weapon is rams Inadequate navy 6. Kushites Strengths: Has access to every type of infantry unit, with their unique Nuba Clubman and champion archers. Also decent cavalry and elephants (especially the elephant hero) Siege towers filled with archers can be deadly Pyramids offer 10% faster boost for workers and soldiers - can be a huge advantage if deployed appropriately Weaknesses: No catapults or bolt shooter. Slow-developing economy to begin with 7. Macedonians Strengths: Access to siege workshop - this allows siege weapons to be produced extremely quickly from every corner of your territory, which can be deadly to your opponent. Has access to every single type of siege weapon Weakness: Economy develops very slowly, so may be quite vulnerable in early phases No swordsman - they only way of defending against enemy ram attack is use your own rams 8. Mauryans Strengths: Has access to worker elephants - if played well, the Mauryans can develop their economy extremely quickly. Excellent range of infantry The hero Chandragupta Maurya is an extremely durable elephant hero that can easily take down enemy structures without being killed. Population bonus of 10% Weakness: No catapults or bolt shooters Extreme reliance on food 9. Persians: Strengths: Has access to every type of cavalry Has access to both elephants and rams - this can be hard to defend against Can train hero, elephant and rams from separate buildings - this saves a lot of time Population bonus of 10% Weaknesses: No bolt shooter or catapults Huge demand for resources Very complex structure tree which is difficult to master for beginners 10. Ptolemies: Strengths: Farming bonus These buildings are for free: houses, farmsteads, storehouses. This can save up quite a bit of wood in the early phase, which can be invested in training soldiers instead. Ptolemies have one of the best navy in the game; Juggernaut is the single heaviest ship in the game; lighthouse can reveal all shorelines so you can know what the enemies are up to in real time Also decent infantry, cavalry and champions Weaknesses: In the village phase the only soldier available is pikemen. They walk very slowly and deal little damage. Extreme reliance on metal. The Ptolemies can be severely hindered on a map with little mineral Camel archers are only effective in large numbers Many important units can only be trained from a military colony. 11. Romans Strengths: Has access to entrenched army camp and siege walls, which can be built in neutral and enemy territory. This allows you to shower the enemy with an endless rain of rams and cavalry units Access to catapults and rams Strong navy Weaknesses: No significant weakness 12. Seleucids Strengths: Strong navy Elephants + catapults can be a deadly combination Player given a choice between reformed army and traditional army Weaknesses: Slightly slower economic development Relies on military colony for swordsman, archers and close quarter cavalry. 13. Spartans: Strengths: Women can build defence towers and sentries - saves some male workforce Allows for fast initial development Extremely strong infantry: Skiritai Commandos and hoplites from the Stoa are unstoppable Weakness: Population penalty of -10% Limited cavalry options. Personal opinions: Gauls and Iberians are the best civilisations for beginners, because they have a simple structure tree (easy to learn and master) and also are strong enough to survive any early attacks. Mauryans, Persians, Spartans, Ptolemies, Macedonians are good options for more advanced players. They require some practice to get used to but if played with the appropriate strategies they can be unstoppable. Seleucids and Romans are well-rounded civilisations with no dramatic weaknesses, so they are good for practising skills or strategies. I also make 0AD videos on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMfNFa4F-ml8KUDKn2sYspQ/playlists

Interesting 3D model showing how a mixed type of rampart was built (mixture between Altkönig Preist walls and Murus Gallicus rampart)

Players interested in competitive multiplayer are a tiny minority. 0 A.D. has been downloaded over a million times from SourceForge alone (source) – and I guess most people nowadays got it directly from play0ad.com, a Linux distribution package, or even the svn version or a git mirror – so the vast majority does not go beyond single-player. I'm not saying bugs should be ignored, but there will practically always be other ways to exploit a game and gain an advantage. And if someone makes a modification to make playing easier, then I don't see why that is a problem; isn't that the whole point of open source?

Fixable with a client/server architecture (a lot of work to implement and somewhat more bandwidth use) or streaming (some work to implement, huge bandwidth use, need for advanced graphic hardware and power to run it for each player on the server side, probably lower graphic quality due to some lossy compression, and some lag). For now, just play with full vision to make it equal for all players. I assume that you mean many wall sections built from a turret. Easily fixable by requiring a minimum angle between them. I assume that you mean for example the "lethal deathboat" with 17 catapults. Could probably be fixed with some effort. I assume that you mean infinite food from corrals or fields combined with bartering in the market. This gives infinite resources, limited by the time the market needs for the barter rate to regenerate between barters. Seems like a feature. If it can somehow be done instantly it is a bug and probably fixable. Another issue on the list is unit dancing to avoid projectiles. That should be fixed with a more realistic unit motion model involving acceleration and direction change. This requires quite a lot of work and should probably have the highest priority among the major fixes. For now, someone could implement a user-interface mod that spreads out attacks in time. For example, if a user selects 20 archers with attack rate of 1 Hz and clicks to attack a nearby enemy unit, his user interface could send an attack command for each of them with 50 ms between them. That should make it harder to avoid projectiles. Seems like a feature that lets the player focus more on higher level strategic issues and makes the game less of a clicking contest. Of course, those who want a clicking contest should play against each other and not the rest of the players.

Someone wanting to cheat has access to various bugs in vanilla to make it possible without an additional mod. You can literally enable full vision in multiplayer, build stacked walls, stacked units, and at one point, get infinite resources using the barter system IIRC. Which are arguably much more game breaking "cheats". Seems arbitrary to draw the line at a feature that's irrelevant for any "pro" player. Hotkeys and control groups mean this feature is rather useless for most of them from what I can tell. Some dude back in early 2019 was writing a mod / AI to handle economic micro management for him. With no concept of anti cheat, central authority, or trust mechanisms, such things are rather easy. I mean anyone could release a "cheats_mod.zip" right after A24 is released that is invisible in the compatibility detection sense. (I will do it for money $$$. That's a joke....unless?...). "cheats_mod" user playing against another user with the mod is no problem. But the other way is a problem. For a start, fix the flaw in mod compatibility detection. Having a security feature mods can literally mod out is rather useless. A somewhat easy way is to integrate checksums into the check which will also add an additional layer of security. mod.json declares checksum, modloader verifies it and pass through a function which gives a final hash which is whats compared between people to ensure their game is the same. Thats a scuffed solution but even that is better that whats already done.

Yes, the mod essentially mods every entity in the game and many of the actors. Furthermore, it adds tons of textures and models to load.

its not arbitrary if it looks good; and thats sorta my thing

Millenium AD mod: 1. Anglo-Saxons: Quite similar to Britons and Gauls Strengths: Very proficient at farming, so could boost the initial population quickly Cavalry can be trained from cavalry stables, which are quite cheap. This allows a continuous supply of cavalry troops. All buildings offer a population capacity increase Village phase buildings cost wood only. This saves up stone and metal for later use. Weaknesses: Only siege weapon is ram. Buildings are not particularly durable. Weak navy. 2. Byzantines: Quite similar to Romans Strengths: Full range of infantry The Byzantine galley can train more ships armed with catapults form itself. This could be useful when your ships are far from your dock. Weakness: Compared to Romans, they lack a bolt shooter and Quinquereme (heavy warship) Compared to Roman rams, the Byzantine rams offer less damage. 3. Carolingians Strengths: Can supply units very quickly Decent combination of infantry, cavalry, rams and Trebuchet All buildings offer a population capacity increase Weaknesses: Longhouse (Barracks) only become available in Town Phase, but if only costs wood so can save you some stone. Weak navy. 4. Norse Strengths: Initial development could be very fast if played well All buildings offer population bonus Can train women and Axeman directly from houses. Can train heroes, champion and rams directly from Jarl's Hold (civic centre), which has more health than typical civic centres. Strong women (triple the health of Celtic women and offers a 10.0 hack attack) Their medium warship not only has the most health (4000 points) but can also train other ships. Incredibly strong infantry Houses can serve as storehouses and can be garrisoned. Weaknesses: Each Norse player can only have a maximum of 10 houses - this makes housing your population difficult. No defence towers - weak defence. Barracks only available in Town Phase No fortresses or Wonder - this places much stress on the civic centre to train units and siege and upgrades. Only siege weapon is ram. 5. Umayyads Their buildings look almost identical to those of the Seleucids Strengths: Rapid initial development Decent combination of infantry and cavalry. Can build civic centre and military colony and military camp - allows for rapid expansion and continuous supply of units. Weakness: No siege / crush weapons at all. This cripples the Umayyads as they can only capture enemy buildings, which is especially difficult if they are garrisoned. The only unit similar to a ram is Arab tribesman, which is similar to Kushites' Nuba Clubman. Weak navy. Their best ship is Byzantine Galley at only 800 hit points. Personal views: The Norse is quite similar to Xiongnu and Scythians, and can be quite a threat if played well. Byzantines are a slightly weaker version of Romans, but with archers. Umayyads are incompetent when facing another faction in 1v1 due to the lack of rams. However, if they could capture the catapult or bolt shooter of another faction then they would be stronger. Also, in a team game, Umayyad units combined with Macedonian siege weapons could assemble a formidable invasion force.

No, you're mistaken, they're actually slightly over 4 m tall in Blender: For comparison, the default cube with position 0,0,0 and scale 1,1,1 has dimensions 2×2×2.

Terra Magna Mod: 1. Han Chinese Strengths: Has the most manoeuvrable catapults in the game - the Chinese catapults do not need to be packed or unpacked, and their small size allows them to sneak through gaps between buildings. Furthermore, they do not have a minimum range. Wide range of infantry and cavalry, especially their unique crossbowman and crossbow cavalry. Their unique Government centre can train ministers (units with high capture attack and can boost workers) and research technologies. Chinese archers cost 40 wood and 50 food each - 10 wood cheaper than other civilisations. This saves you some wood and provides you with cheaper male workforce. Palace guard archers and palace guard swordsmen can convert their identities for minimal costs, which allows for more versatile strategies. Population bonus of 10%. Weaknesses: No rams or elephants - this makes siege difficult. However, their catapults can take on the role of rams, possibly more effectively than the Athenians. Does not have the best navy. Initial developments may be slow. 2. Zapotecs strengths: Full range of infantry. Initial development is quick Zapotec Battle Priest can offer a significant boost to your melee infantry. weaknesses: No cavalry Only siege weapon is rams Weak navy. 3. Xiongnu strengths: Can build anywhere, ignoring territories. All buildings can be moved. All Xiongnu women are archers, but weaker than their male counterparts. Initial development could be extremely fast. Buildings can serve more than one purpose, for example, their yurt can serve as both a house and a resource dropsite. Their farmstead is also a market. Weaknesses: Buildings are not durable and easy to capture. No defence tower, sentry, fortress, temple, wonder available to build - hard to defend their own territory. Xiongnu rams have half the health of other rams and a much lower crush damage. Devoid of navy and dock. Cannot farm - only food source is hunting animals, which is unsustainable.