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golthos

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  1. Well I don't really agree with your first sentence but I do agree with most of what you stated. I beleive it wasnt the fact that they were cosmopolitan as much as (as you alluded to clearly) they completely depended on the individual nations to supply their own troops with weapons and armor (which saved the king from having to come up with the expense of supplying most of the troops) and because of political reasons there was no tactical training which would have allowed for a more integrated, flexible, combat structure and a more efficient top down chain of command. This lack of integrated tactical training meant the king left it up to the individulal nations to provide their own training as they saw fit (which sometimes meant none). This meant that the Persian King had to be extremely knowledgable about each individual nations troop types and overall tactics and combine and manipulate them as best as he could on the battle field. Although this method was easy on the treasury and kept the peace within the empire it required too much management for the commanders especially the king. Logistics was a nightmare for anybody who was less than brilliant. The King and his commanders realized this inherent weakness so they compensated by having a very large army, which at the time made the most sense because often larger numbers were enough to intimidate a smaller armed nation or force. Unfortunately this also exacerbated management. So when these levies fought the idea was if all else failed at least they could wear out their opponent due their sheer numbers. Carthage and later Imperial Rome are good examples of great tactical use with different kinds troops and levies. Especially in the roman case there was much tactical training with auxilliaries and mercenaries which allowed for good cohesion in battle. I just feel bad for the Persians because I feel if only they just had a more tight military a good tactician and strategist could mop the floor with any opponent using the variety of troop types the Persians had at their disposal including the Greek mercenaries.
  2. Brennus took his sword, threw it over the weights and exclaimed: "Vae victis!", "Woe to the conquered".
  3. How about having a campaign editor that has a feature to string scenario map objects together in a way that I can be able to continue with the same stuff as I had in the last scenario into the next map. For instance if I wanted to create a large city that is larger than the largest map can allow space for. I would like to continue designing the rest of that city on another map that would be accesable after a a new scenario started. All the units Ihad had in the previous scenario continue to exist in this scenario. The net effect would be that the campaign would seem to have units scrolling from map to map. is that possible? does that make sense?
  4. I think the Persians deserve to played by a good tactician. I think if they were good tactically in reality they would have ruled the ancient world
  5. are you reffering to me? I didn't cut and paste. Not neccessary for me to do so of course since this thread is about expectations and all the things i mentioned are everywhere i look on this site I look forward to them.
  6. I love big maps with all kinds of terrain and elevation possibilities The bigger the map the better I am also not too crazy about water battles only because so far they have sucked but I have a feeling i am going to love them in 0AD
  7. I am looking forward to: 1. more realism and historical accuracy in the units, buildings, and the map objects 2. more realistic and convincing tactics and battles 3. more realistic and convincing systems for building and commerce 4. a much more flexible editor than I have seen to date in RTS games 5. downloadable modules that add missed features and improvements 6. the ability to download new units and objects as they come out without having to wait for a full module upgrade
  8. Brothels are not only historically accurate but you can "disguise" them as temples too, such as the Temple of Venus/Astarte/Diana/Aphrodite/Isis (yes the temple of Isis was in Rome) You can have maidens out in front luring potential "worshippers" inside. In fact you can have a morale check for anybody that is in close proximity to see if they are tempted of entering the temple. This opens up scenario possibilities like that of having Circe capture soldiers or converting temple priestesses into Medusa. You can even have a scenario like that of Conan the Barbarian where a Roman soldier in Germania enters the warm hut of some alluring witch to gain insights of the location of a particular object or enemy. When the soldier enters the Hut shakes a little as if some "wind" was blowing. Smoke from the hearth flashes with small bursts of fire and smoke. A hags cackle escapes from the Hut Since I am already here i might as well add my ideas to the mix. SPOOKY CREEPY STUFF EYECANDY: Hangman Tree: In line with the Germania and Circe stuff scenes in Germania can include trees with dead people hanging from them as is in some very spooky gallows. Creepy music can be playing. (Historical note: the hangman tree is not just an idea from King Arthur it is also part of the mythology of Wotan/Odin and these hangman trees date way back into ancient history especially in the areas in the north of Greece, parts of southern Russia, and Georgia. Also the Minoans alluded to these trees in some of their ancient ceremonies by dancing while holding snakes in their hands around trees that had dolls hanging from their necks ) Around these trees you can have different kinds of shadows for day light and moonlight. The bodies can swing in the wind. The sounds of the wind can be mixed with ghostly voices and the sounds of owls and bats flapping. There can be howling wolves in the dark and lurking about. Fog: There also can be a thin mist that clings closely to the ground and shows the disturbances as units move through them. This mist can hide snakes, wolves, and deadly pools of dark water. These hidden traps can be seen only in the brief breaks in the fog. Instead of a thin mist you can have a thick fog that is layered where the thick white is on the bottom gradually thinning out as it gets higher. In this thicker fog there might be brief glimpses of ghosts as the wind blows. Crucifix: A more Romanized version of the Hangman tree can be a road or grove lined with crucified bodies in different stages of death. If this is too sensitive perhaps the crucifixes can be in the form of an "X" or on the trunks of trees instead of a "T". Instead of decomposing bodies there can be skeletons. As people pass by you can hear faint groans and the faint sounds of women crying in the air. On these crucifixes there can be Vultures and Crows perched about looking to attack passers by. All the elements mentioned above with hangman tree can also be used here. The crucifix scenario can be applied to desert climates too with hot sands and howling dust storms. Gaseous Vents: This is inspired by stories of heroes like Bellerophon and his battle with the Chimera. Imagine rugged rocky terrain on the slopes of a Dark forested mountain. From these slopes hot bubbling springs trickle out of dark cracks and form shallow pools of water at various places on the mountainside. Alongside these cracks dangerously close to the hot water, patches of precious gems and ore can be seen. Any thing touching the hot water is scalded. As time passes the ground rumbles and pebbles can be seen and heard falling. Horses lose their footing and Neigh in fear. From the cracks burst steaming geysers or hot poisonous gases. Anyone caught in these bursts is killed. At night and the early morning hours curls of steam rise from the ground making eerie, ghostly, veils in moonlight and in the pre-dawn light. Lurking in the trees is a lion stalking anyone who camps nearby or comes near the streams. BABIES AND CHILDREN EYECANDY: In towns and villages there should be children and babies (I know they were already mentioned but I would like to elaborate here) Women with infants There should be women dressed in their ethnic attire (Greek, Roman, Celt etc.) These women should be accompanied by slave women or servants and some can be carrying infants in their ethnic way such as in swaddling clothes, slung on their backs, or in baskets on their heads. They would be doing the daily chores appropriate to their time and culture. Such as bathing at a Roman or Greek style Spring, fetching water at a well or natural brook, gathering food in the field, shopping in markets etc. (bathing doesn't have to be full nudity it can be as simple as washing hair in a streams of water, wading in some creek, or pouring water on their child. Some of these women can say interesting things like "Don't worry about those barbarians Gaius, mother is here" Or they can scream in horror as their babies cry in fear saying "save my baby" while running for their lives when the invaders charge in. Many of the phrases can include the names of other famous leaders in history such as Ceasar, Alexander, and so on. Young Children In addition to infants you can have groups of young children playing and running and singing and apply the same kinds of scenarios as mentioned above for the infants. Young children can be playing "hide 'n' seek" in town or in the forest. When you see this you find children's heads and bodies suddenly popping in and out of hiding places. This could startle your horsemen and can be a good foil for any scouts hiding in the bushes. NATURAL SCENERY EYECANDY: Reflections in water. To be able to see the sky reflected on the surface of still and running water. At night you can have scenes of constellations and clouds moving past the moon reflected on dark pools of water. The constellations can be specific to a particular part of the world at that time. In the day the surface of running water would be semi-translucent so that you can see the fish and pebbles on the bottom and parts of the surface would be reflective showing the blue sky, moving clouds, and birds flying in the sky. At dusk you can see the sun set reflected. Rain effects: Another cool eye candy is to see rain splash on bodies of water. When rain hits the ground puddles of water should form and foot prints should fill with water. When troops and horses run through wet ground you should see the splashing of mud and water and their legs get stains of mud on them. Water effects: Well water, fountain water, and water in shallow streams should have a more transparent, sparkly or silvery look to it instead of bright blue colors that look so phony and weird. In fact it looks like blue ink. I would not bathe in or drink that. I would like to see water that shows that it has a current in a particular direction. It could just be an animation accompanied by sound. To make water deep it can be treated as a lower elevation and anything that “fell” into this water can be animated to drown in it. The same goes for creating units and objects moving down a river or a stream. This could just be an animation of the object disappearing of the land appearing in the water, and flowing down that current water and reappearing at the end of the current. If the river goes off the map say goodbye to the unit or object. Along this moving water you can also have rocky rapids that can damage boats and many, small, water falls. The coastal shores where land masses meet oceans should have waves that move towards the beaches complete with sound effects. These sound effects should be conditional as in when you move closer you hear the sound of the waves and when you move away they fade out. Fire and smoke effects: It would be nice to see fire that produces smoke. Each plume of smoke can have different effects. Fires caused by burning oil can be black in color ad fires by dry burning wood can be white or gray. The size of the smoke will vary by the size of the fire. I would like to see many variations of smoke from the wispy smoke of a small flame to the thick dark billowing smoke of great fires. When smoke is large is should block the light of the sun switching the source of light from the sun to the fire. Fires should also be treated as a different light source especially in dark conditions. Fires should also have different colors from an almost bright white-yellow of small flames to dark orange-red of large forest fires. Smoke and fire should change direction as wind blows. It should also move when burning objects move such as wagons and boats. When trees burn, as in a forest fire, part of the effect should be that the ground immediately surrounding the tree should smolder and burn with small fires. Mines: It would be cool to see ore and stone mines look more like real ore mines and stone quarries. There should be different styles of mines and quarries too. Mines and Quarries shouldn’t always look so obvious. Ores might look like streaks of gold or silver on the ground or on the hillside. You can also have pebbles or flecks of gold gleaming from the bottom of shallow streams. This gold can be seen collected with an animation of a unit using sheep’s skin (A la Jason and the Golden Fleece legend.) Ore mines should be dug into making depressions into the ground or in a hillside. Units digging can look like they disappear into a mine making the impression that it is deep. The longer they dig the longer it takes them to “come out.” Each time an individual unit is sent back to retrieve ore it takes a fraction of time longer to come out of the mine unless you add more units to the mine which divides the existing time by that many units added. This would be an interesting strategy affecting element in game play. The fact that it takes longer and longer to retrieve materials from mines creates incentives to assign more units to a task and if that is not possible it develops the need to find new mines and temporarily abandon old ones even though ore material still is left. Stone quarries should be larger areas outside cut out from hillsides of various sizes. It should have ladders on different levels with stones being cut out in block like shapes giving the quarry a step like appearance. Cracks and piles of stone rubble would be falling everywhere as people pounded this quarry. When a quarry is started an indentation is formed and as more stone is taken out it grows wider until it runs out or until the entire hill is gone. There could be different kinds of stone to quarry for the different kinds of stone structures needed to be built. Temples and government buildings may require marble stone while fortifications require granite to be quarried. Mining tools should be seen too. There should be baskets of material lying around. You would see carts being loaded and/or donkeys with baskets being loaded on to their backs (a good reason to use donkeys and mules in the game), ladders sticking out of the ground showing people going up and down them, and wooden, cantilever cranes with rope lifting people and baskets out of holes. You could have different ladder styles too to represent the different civilization styles. You could have ladders that look the ladders of today, or the ladder can look like a log with steps or notches cut into it, or like a log with pegs protruding out the sides. MILITARY EYECANDY: Boats: I couldn’t stand the boats in any of the Ensemble Studios games. They were tiny and moved so phony. Ancient ships usually had oarsmen and a sail like the Trireme and Corvus. It would be nice to see the oars on these boats moving and maybe see the oarsmen rowing them too. You can command the ships to raise sail so that they could move faster in the wind. Oars on warships should be retractable so that you can pull up towards other ships and ram their oars off. To make boats be stationary there should be an anchor animation. If rivers were given a set direction of current, when boats travel on them going down river should be faster than up river. When boats cross rivers they should move diagonally to simulate drift from currents. Attacking Buildings: It annoys me to no end to see soldiers with swords attacking buildings as if they were people. I think an animation should be made showing soldiers attacking buildings in different ways. A soldier with a sword or spear can come up to a building and set it on fire or they can throw torches on to buildings from as far as their normal attack range. If fire is not an option non-missile troops can come up to a building and use rope to tug at buildings until they are pulled down. When it comes to showing an attack against fortifications units can appear they are undermining them to knock them down. Archers and the like can use flaming arrows to burn down house and flammable structures. Archers should not be able to shoot down stone walls even with fire, that’s what ballista and battering rams are for.
  9. Well I chose Romans because I am Puerto Rican Since we speak Spanish which is a Romance language and because Spain consisted of people conquered by Rome.
  10. something i have noticed in all the screen shots is that everything seems so stiff- maybe if the animators can blurr objects that move such as javelins and arrows and the swinging arms of the warriors- maybe even blur the legs of horses and legs of wariors as they run this might create a fast motion look and feel even in a screenshot
  11. I am sorry if this post is extremely long. Still pending more edits. It is my fault because I screwed up earlier and had to put all my posts together into one long read. As a result I probably won’t be making to many posts on account of most of my thoughts and opinions are already here. Future posts should be less cumbersome. Anyway read on and enjoy. I hope you guys can give me good feedback on what I have written here and I hope its mostly positive. TOPICS I. UNIT TASKS II. ARTILLERY CREWS III. AMMUNITION IV. CAPTURING UNITS V. POLITICS VI. ROADS VII. LIVESTOCK VIII. HORSES IX. SCOUTS AND SPIES X. TERRAIN XI. ECONOMICS XII. I. UNITS TASKS: I can't stand it when a unit is assigned a task and when the task is completed it just stands there idle and waiting to get killed. I would like to assign a secondary task that the unit can default to when the primary task assigned is completed or fails to complete. II. ARTILLERY CREW: I always found it annoying looking at artillery in AoE and AoK be created and move about as if they were robots on the field Here are two ways to possibly resolve this: 1. I think at the very least when creating artillery units that its animation includes a visible crew that operates and defends it. Because of this, each artillery piece with crew counts as that many people from the population. When attacked whenever the amount of damage points a normal soldier could take is received by the artillery piece a crew member "dies" and the artillery unit is inoperable because their is not enough crew to operate it. If the numbers of “crew units” remaining are still enough to keep it operable then you should reduce the rate of fire the artillery piece can make and the speed by which the unit moves across terrain will also be reduced. This "crew unit" can be replaced by giving a command to one of your soldiers in the same way you might command a unit to enter a battering ram. 2. When creating artillery units that they are treated as movable building units just as if they were a mobile house. They can only be moved and operated by assigning a minimum number of soldiers to operate it by using a follow or defend command. When these men are attacked treat the same as above in regards to damage, rate of fire, and movement. In addition, if assigned more than a necessary crew the extra units can automatically replace the missing crew. These additional units don’t necessarily have to follow the artillery unit. Any soldier can be assigned a secondary task if his primary task is completed or not possible. (as suggested above in my suggestion to assigning units tasks) III. AMMUNITION FOR ARCHERS, JAVELIN MEN, AND ARTILLERY UNITS: Archers, Javelin men, and Artillery units should be allowed to run out of ammunition Here are a few ideas on how that ammunition can be replenished on the battlefield: 1. Javelins and arrows that don’t hit any targets can be reused if they are picked up off the ground. Something that could make this effect more interesting is that units might prefer to pick up their own used arrow or javelin if encountered otherwise they would use any that are found. Exceptions to reuse might be: A. Roman pila on account of their tips were designed to bend or fall off after use, B. arrows that get stuck in any shields, C. arrows that hit hard surfaces such as stone or trees, D. anything that hits water 2. Use of the enemy's arrows, javelins, or artillery ammunition. In the case of artillery rounds reuse of their ammunition can be represented by the capture of opponent’s artillery and as long as the ammunition is compatible with yours you can use it. For instance smaller catapult ammunition could probably be reused in a larger catapult. Ammunition might represented by a pile of stones or a box of stones next to the artillery piece that moves with the artillery piece and artillery crew. 3. All ammunition for units that are in a fortification might automatically be in greater quantity due to the fact that such a building represents a storage for such ammunition. So that units in the field can enter a fortification to replenish their ammunition. 4. A field army could replenish ammunition by accessing a stockpile from a building designated to be a stockpile such as a fortification or town center or to any of the structures that produce archer’s javelin men and artillery units. The way these buildings would be designated is by creating a link between this building and a raw material refinery such as a mill, mason, or smithy or this building can be linked directly to a mine (as in the case of collecting stone balls for catapults). Through this link you can designate a certain amount of material to go to this stockpile and you can assign the rate at which this material is sent. A unit or wagon then can be given a command to collect ammunition from this stockpile and bring it to a rally point thereby forming a supply train and route. At this rally point troops would come to resupply their ammo. Or this unit can go to each individual unit to resupply them in a similar fashion that AoE priests healed troops. The cost of resupply should be half or less what it takes to create a unit. Of course if the stockpile building is nearby any unit should be able to go there to resupply itself. 5. Another way field artillery might be able to resupply itself is through access or establishment of a nearby stone quarry. Soldiers can be sent to mine these quarries and bring the contents directly to the artillery or to a rally point. 6. When stockpiles run out ammunition these can be replenished by removing stone or any needed material from any building. This process naturally weakens any of the buildings being used this way until they are destroyed. All the consequences of such structure weakening and losses are to be normally applied. The way this can be done is that building or fortification made of the appropriate materials is linked to a designated stockpile and then watch people take it apart. For instance if it takes 100 wood to build a house then lets say half of that wood is available to use for arrow stock pile before the structure is destroyed and depleted this house is linked to the stockpile and 50 wood is transferred there. Then lets half the cost of what it takes to create an archer would the cost to resupply one single archer with a full quiver of arrows. This assumes that archers require both wood and money to make. These methods would make it easier for whoever has more supplies to fight off someone with limited supplies. These allow for interesting logistics and ambushes of field army supplies These suggestions along with some others I mention here help create realistic and exciting sieges IV. CAPTURING UNITS: I always found the ability of priests in AoE to be able to convert your units and turn them against you kind of cheesy. But you can fix this if instead of turning units against you that you instead use this ability to capture and imprison or enslave units. This ability can be applied when a pair or more "teamed" units attack an individual enemy unit. They can be given a command to capture and the unit will become subdued unless it manages to get away. Commanders when in the field can have the ability to "influence" a surrender of a besieged structure or community. This causes the besieged enemy units to leave their post and become a prisoner of any designated capture team. Those most "influenced" by the surrender will be any peasants or villagers and then lower ranking soldiers and so on up the ranks. Another factor for surrendering is if the besieged is suffering rapid loss of units and supplies. A trigger can be created that if there are a certain percentage of losses due to artillery or due loss of stockpiles that susceptibility to surrender begins to occur in random amounts. The captured unit is then brought off to: A. a designated way point at which point their has to be a guard B. the soldiers bring the prisoner to a prison or a coral C. bring them to a wagon to be carted off to designated prison or dungeon at a specified time or by specific quantity of prisoners Enslaved prisoners can act as additional laborers to work farms and mines. These slaves work slower, produce less, and can die after a period of time. These prisoners will always try to escape. The good thing about the enslavement strategy is that it allows you to expand your work force without adding to your population. The bad thing about it is that it’s only a short term strategy and because these units can perish it allows your opponent to continue to generate new units. Capturing can allow for additional diplomacy such as ransoming as well as create scenarios such as prison breaks. When the prisoner are in their assigned prison they can be very idle but then start to act up when one of their own kind is nearby this helps when it comes to prison breaks. Prisoners might behave more aggressively to escape and might more difficult to put down. You might even be able to win a game just by capturing prisoners because of population limitations because the prisoners will still count as a member of your population Some civilizations might be immune to capture like Carthage maybe. They might fight to the death. Players might also designate certain civilizations as to never be captured. You should be able to kill off any of your units that are captured or surrendered to your enemy in order to prevent population lockout. V. POLITICS: I always found the "Ally, Neutral, Enemy" modes in other games frustratingly over simplified First off it seems to create inflexible modes between the Players and AI and between Players and Players. It seems more like an all or nothing situation. I think instead a player should be allowed more flexible options that can allow trade between players but still have certain areas or resources on each others terrain off limits. If another player tries to destroy a particular structure or intrudes in a certain area it does not have to cause an all out war. You should be able to select a given amount of tiles and designate this area as off limits or a shared area. The units can be given different modes such as only defend without having all your forces automatically kill every unit that belongs to the violating player. This way trade and certain exchanges don't have to stop. Perhaps you can have diplomacy rules like War, Hostile Ally, Trade Partner, and Full Ally This allows for more strategic alliances. Since you have actual unique ethnic character names you can end up with a scenario in which peace hinges on whether an ally gives up an officer or hero to be imprisoned or executed by you for performing raids on your territory. VI. ROADS: I feel that the roads were very cosmetic in AoE and Aok. There was no advantage of having roads in those games aside from making the ground blend better with the buildings In reality paved roads (and many unpaved ones too that went through difficult terrain) were a construction that set Romans apart from the rest of their world The advantages of roads are: 1. it makes it easier and faster in getting from one point to another. Troops in large numbers, wagons, and horses move quicker over roads. Of course that advantage is true for the enemy as well. 2. They make a good reference point, meaning that you were no longer lost in a wilderness once you were on a road. 3. Paved roads are less susceptible to weather like dirt roads that would become muddy and disappear completely in short time 4. You can use the ability to build roads to be a requirement to advance between phases such as a Roman camp to a town or city Dirt roads shouldn't be totally cosmetic either. A dirt road just like paved roads should be constructed. The cool thing about constructing dirt roads is that they take no resources to build. It only means your changing one kind of terrain into another resulting in a clearing. This kind of terrain clearing might affect farm animals in the sense that there is now less grazing land which perhaps over time affects how long the livestock live. The ability to make dirt roads (and only the ability to make dirt roads) can also be used to create a special clearing for battlefields so that horses and chariots have a terrain advantage as the Persians often did when they battled with Greek forces Because of the disadvantages due to weather and time there would be an incentive to build paved roads over dirt roads. And because over time (time effects would be like over growth with vegetation) and weather (like sand storms in desert climates)dirt roads can disappear it requires that soldiers periodically have to maintain them in the same way farmers need to maintain crops. Perhaps a roman soldier in the game should be able to build roads using stone resources collected for paved roads and when it comes to making dirt roads only time is lost Of course now that space can no longer be used for other things like grazing, buildings, and farms. This leads to the player to consider carefully about when and where to build roads VII. LIVESTOCK: I always found it odd in other games that the only way to gain more livestock was by finding them in the "wild.” Farmers who have livestock should be able to grow more over time. Of course the livestock should be factored into the population limit. If there are too many livestock then a player has to: 1. Kill off some for food, 2. Trade some to an ally, 3. Allow some wolf or lion to come kill their livestock. A helpful feature would be to automatically kill off livestock at a specific rate or when the livestock population gets in the way of creating more units the necessary amount of livestock are slaughtered. A way to automatically kill off livestock is if you build a slaughterhouse or designate some such structure to function as one. Some ways to grow livestock are: 1. To find or steal a ram, bull, Billy (which could be an uncommon unit) 2. When you build a coral. Slaughtering livestock is not the only way to maintain them. As I suggested earlier if you have grazing terrain each terrain tile should only be able to support a certain amount of livestock. When that livestock such as sheep or cows deplete all the terrain resources they will die over time. This limits the number of livestock one can have on their land. This kind of depletion also creates incentive to use other peoples grazing land causing conflicts to occur. Perhaps there can be an agreement between parties to allow each others livestock to graze on their land. Perhaps it results in a strategy not maintain your own livestock but to instead just steal other players livestock just like the Celts Germans, and Huns did. Regarding stealing livestock maybe any unit can steal livestock not just farmers but maybe the more advanced civilizations require farmers or peasants to manage them such as Rome or Carthage. VIII. HORSES: A portion of the price to create Horse warriors should be requiring Horses as a livestock resource in the same way you need a certain amount of money to train these warriors. The livestock suggestions above should be a guideline to be applied when it comes to the management of horses. Horses like other livestock are not only found in the wild but also be stolen from the fields and stables of other peoples. Just like other Livestock horses will require Stallions to grow more to supply the cavalry. People who can farm might be able to provide food supplies for the horses more readily than civilizations that depend on the horses grazing. The cavalry garrison can include a stable to stockpile horses. Civilizations like the Celts, Germans, and Huns might be skilled at horse stealing. This might allow them to steal from a Roman or Greek stable or coral. Perhaps certain civilizations can also be able to kill and knock off only the riders from their horses and later steal them. If warriors are allowed to live when they lose their horse in battle will have to return to their Cavalry garrison to get a new horse. THE ECONOMICS OF BUILDINGS: Each civ already has different structures and so each will have diff abilities when it comes to morale for the civ and economics for the civ Buildings of certain types should be able to generate a certain amount of revenue such as temples markets and arenas There should be trade system in the game between cities and civilizations this can be accomplished by designing building units that are dependent on each other and having it could go something like this: 1. You have a raw resource such as wood you then would construct a lumber yard- 2. This structure could then be linked to a city center or to a market to store the goods 3. A market would be able to load pack animals, wagons, boats, and traders with a certain amount of a 4. Material based on their load bearing capacity- 5. Then these traders and pack animals can go to different markets and trade for money 6. And then the trader returns to unload the money and pick up a new load the player should be able to assign the type and amount of items to supply the market and the player should be able to choose which markets to supply in his own territory - the player should then be able to establish a trade route using way points - these units can attacked and maybe even robbed I think gates should allow allies through them but they must come through at a price I think wonders should promote tourism to a city and be part of a network economy of different villages and towns to the city - Tourism can come in the form of the availability of more mercenaries to recruit and more villagers that are generated from the AI These will be neutral people from the countryside that later can be recruited They don’t have to be countrymen - the cool thing is they can each carry money to contribute to temples and city gates and to markets which they trade between cities especially since they are neutral characters SCOUTS AND SPIES: Units that are functioning as scouts should always have a limited capability to gather information. A scout should only be able to get information from the periphery of an enemy's position without getting caught. This is because scouts she can be easily recognizable when seen. At most scouts should only be able to hide behind objects. When standing still behind large enough and qualified objects (qualified can be indicated by the object flashing a certain color when a scout comes close enough to an object) the scout is invisible to the "enemy." The scout should only be able to see when it’s behind some kind of bush, wooden fence, or high ground. A scout should be easily spotted when near a tower due to the fact the tower is high ground and can see over many objects and in that case lose any invisibility the scout would normally have. Just about any military unit should be able to become a scout by simply giving it a command similar to the way it can be commanded to guard or patrol. Spies on other hand are different. They should not look like soldiers. They might appear as merchants or villagers. Of course the advantage of a spy over a scout is that a spy can walk about the "enemy" unnoticed. The disadvantage is that they are easy to kill (because slow, no armor, and limited weapon like a knife) and very expensive. Here are a few suggestions on how to recruit spies: 1. If a civilization has a Market, a tavern, or another some such public gathering place it is from here that a spy can be recruited. 2. A captured prisoner that is of low rank may be converted into a spy after which this spy is now subject to population cap limits (an enemy may wonder if the prisoner is dead or may have turned coat if all of a sudden his population has gone down) 3. A "foreigner unit" that comes to your town or city as a merchant or to pay homage to a temple can be recruited. I don't think that what these units see should automatically be known to the player until the scout or spy returns to an assigned rally point or sends a dove with messages. Sending the dove would be the quickest way to send information Prior to such action, all things seen by these units are invisible to the player with the exception of the raw terrain so that the unit can be manipulated to travel and hide. Of course the unit can be killed or captured prior to completing such actions. The dove can be killed with arrow fire prior to leaving the view screen. The spy/scout units will be able to defend themselves but it would be like fighting the invisible. You just can't see what he is fighting unless the message has been delivered. These actions of going to a rally point or to send out a dove can be automatically triggered by reaching a set of listed goals given to the unit. These goal triggers would be set through a menu that is similar to victory conditions in other games. 1. When a particular type/s of unit or building is seen 2. When attacked 3. After reaching a way point 4. After killing/destroying a certain unit/building 5. After reaching high ground (such as being on a higher elevation) 6. upon reaching a barrier (such as walls, water, and cliffs) A few ways to spot spies: 1. He is seen killing someone or destroying a building 2. You see doves being let loose (this also applies to scouts) 3. You can't recruit a "foreigner unit" to become a spy Time Terrain and weather how about having flexible time in the game such as when civs are building things time speeds up a bit to represent the time it takes to build and time speeds up when there are battles occurring and instead of just regular weather like rain and snow how about earthquakes and volcanoes and iced rivers Weather could be used to deteriorate buildings over time meaning a civ would have constantly repair or rebuild using resources Hot desert climates might have powerful sand storms from time to time the natives might have an advantage while invaders will have a disadvantage as far as coping with it -- perhaps non-native units move slower or cant use archers or artillery during the storm or these units might miss more often The same things can be considered for rain and snow and for different terrains Chariots and horses should be at a huge disadvantage in rocky and mountainous terrain and horses can get spooked by thunder and lightning but natives might be immune to these things As far as volcanoes are concerned there could be an unknown or a known volcano like Mt. Vesuvius and people would settle near them because of the valuable resources they provide such a rich ores and gems temples and shrines would be best built near them too because of the rich mineral baths and gaseous vents such as existed in the oracle of Delphi but if an earthquake every now then might damage or destroy weak buildings something that is tolerable and easy to repair and replace and maybe on a special scenario or trigger it can erupt icy rivers would be great too if u have heavy objects like elephants or horses crossing there might be spots that might break this can change the course of a battle and reverse or even the odds Terrain: Having terrain that can replenish itself over time such as grass animals fish and small trees These areas would regrow as long as nothing builds on them and as long as that part of the land is not completely used up so for as long as there is enough of something left it will grow back. Of course this wouldn’t apply to things like ores and stones how about allowing engineer build booby traps for their fortifications like ditches pit traps and spike traps fires should be easier to set during the dry seasons in certain kinds of terrain this can pose a danger to any side as well as an advantage for instance if there is dry grass fields then any flaming arrows can set off a runaway fire in the tiles that contain these grasses and injuring anyone or thing in it at the same time it cane make clearing an area much easier and quick and take away any advantage of concealment by any opponent in that area as well burn down structures that would harbor enemies Crossing Water: Units that enter and cross water will be at a disadvantage to attack even if they are on horseback for these reasons: Movement is slower Moving water prevents aiming Units moving through water without a boat or raft should usually be allowed only in cases of shallow, slow, or still bodies of water. Moats maybe crossed by soldiers that can float across with inflated bladders like Assyrian soldiers used to do when they want to cross a moat which was too deep even for horses Many of my suggestions when applied in variation can easily and fairly represent the differences of population sizes and resources available to the various Civilizations 0A.D.
  12. Hi I am new to this stuff but i am a big ancient history buff and i liked playing RTS games such as Aoe AoK and so on. I am also an avid RPG fan both the digital kind and the pen and pencil kind. As much as i liked them I have always found those Ensemble Studio games very limitting in some way. I always felt the people at ES could have made more of their games potential I see that with this game their seems some hope I really like what I see what is being done for 0AD at this site. I like many of the features being put into this game such as experience for units and day and night and better terrain. Years ago I played another RTS similar to Aoe (cant remember the name and it wasn't one of those Sims games either) but its wasnt nearly as good in the graphics (the graphics sucked and you couldnt do awesome battles like in any of the ES games because you couldnt produce armies with units as flexible as those games) or in the overall game play but it had some really great features that i found very appealling. I think if any of these features were incorporated into 0 AD it would be great and it would outshine the ES games greatly. And all of the stuf i describe below all happened in real time. 1. In this game you started out with a villager and a basic structure just as in AoE except that you would have a village name and a small designated area of land instead of a free for all terrain to claim as yours otherwiseyou progressed in a similar fashion as AoE The villagers were used as a resource just like wood and stuff. Each villager could later be "trained" to become warriors of certain types as certain kinds of structures were built. Each warrior could later be trained to become a leader and one of the leaders wil become a king Each fort or castle was then founded by some leader and only leaders can recruit warriors Each time your king was killed the next ranking leader will then become king The game was over when one player was unable to produce any kings because there were no more villagers or no more resources for villagers to produce anything A clincher in recruiting the villagers was that if you tried to recruit too many of them to become soldiers the villagers of that village would rebel against you and you had to kill a few of them to stop the rebellion. But the villagers were not only used to produce warriors they were also used to produce specialised craftsmen such as smiths masons alchemists and spies(spies were cool because they would appear as a villager or warrior from the other player but to you the unit would appear as it should with your colors). Each was produced and trained through building certain kinds structures. 2. Another thing this game had was that there was weather and time Because it used some sort of clock making buildings and collecting resources matter more. It was a way of measuring your efficiency. 3. Each building took a different amount of time to build but here is the clincher there was also weather and each building had a weakness of some kind to certain natural disasters such as earthquakes and lightning that would come as time passed So it became important to build and train units as fast and efficiently as possible. to prevent damage to builidngs it was neccesary for villagers to periodically maintain them or fix them thereby using up more resources over time. Also if enough time pased without maintanence certain structures would just crumble away. 4. Another thing this game did was when you wanted to create a new town or village it was treated as a colony of the original village and in order to do so you needed a certain minimum amount of villagers in order to claim an area of land to start that new village other wise all structures and villagers would part of the original village or town. Each area had to cleared in order to colonise. The moment it was founded it would be given a name. Later if the village was phyiscally close enough it could merge with another village. 5. Commerce was also a big thing in this game when you built markets you could have traders,camels and mules that you could send off to other markets in other villlages and even other countires (other players territories that were not at war with you) to exchange for materials for money and this could all be automated and you could use way points to develope trade routes. Each market gets its goods from the village buy placing links to different structures that manufacture or store materials like precious stone, wood, precious metals( gold, silver) and food. The money produced from this trade could be used to purchase mercenaries from taverns after they were built. Also this money could be used to trade back for resources you didnt have from other countries or towns by using the trade from the markets. The playing structure was something like this you find a resource you build a mine or refinery you would link this structure to a town center, storage faciltiy, or manufacturing structure in a particular city, town, village then you wold link this structure to a particular market or markets and designate how much material would go to each market The market loads each "vehicle" or trader that then goes on a designated trade route to another market. Each trader or "vehicle" has a load limit. These trade routes are subject to ambush and robbery by men or beast. All these things give good reasons to start a war and good reasons to have good diplomacy. It allows for more dynamic strategy Additionally I would like to see things like Volcanoes that erupt after a time and this area could be the most resource rich for instance creating an incentive to stay nearby and good places to locate temples because of the gods inside them I would also like to see a game in which the buildings such as Wonders also served to produce income because it would attract vilagers or money somehow form outside the kingdom and also keep the morale up preventing rebellions and such. well these are my thoughts i know they lengthy but I believe they are good ideas
  13. Hello I was told to intro myself so here I am My name is hector and I love ancient history and ancient mytholgy as well as RTS games and RPG games
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