[[Design] Unit roles]

All civs should be able to win regarding unit roster. I think that aoe 3 made a good design (at least in the vanilla), some civs were harder to play but could strike hard with the right strategy. Today I played some games, and almost everybody playeed Britons. Currently rushing it's not viable and therefore turtling it's not needed.

When designing unit military roles, you should take into account economic side. Booming it's the only strategy cause there's no real choice: you can make more or less citizien soldiers or woman, but an average player would try to set up a ranged CS economy. Cause booming it's almost the only way (to get champions), phasing doesn't have really sense.

If the idea of phase I the choice to make a rush, some structural changes have to be made. For example, as Ancient empires mod, I think that spearman (militia) should be the only unit trainable in phase in civic center. Then you could build barracks and train spearman (rank 2), one ranged (rank 2) and cavalry javeliner.

Militia units shouldn't be able to rank, in contrast with barrack infantry that should start at rank 2 with better stats, but 50% penalty at work. Then you should have to make more decisions between training units on civic center or more military oriented units in barracks. Defending a rush should be more difficult without ranged spam.

Then cavalry javs could fit main rushing role (with low range attack, but not the OP way of the first online alphas). They should die if spearman gets close, but expect hit and run tactics. If player suppose an early rush, he/she should build towers that cav javeliners shouldn't be able to stand / capture. Civic center should grow the fire potential with every phase, starting lower.

With this post only wanted to say that unit should be viewed in the broader context, taking into account the economic side of the CS, the availabilty, their role as defenders..

Sorry for the randomess.

[Attacking with a group with females]

Select a group of citizien soldiers with females, order to attack a unit. They will move to the unit (ranged soldiers also) and they won't attack. This way you will lose a lot of precious time under enemy fire.

BTW, excluding civilian selection could be a nice addition (as age III)

[Worst RTS i've played in years.]

Maybe he could do it better.

Empire Earth, at least II, have a very weird counter scheme, and units die easily. Didn't like it at all, good concept, bad executed. I actually enjoy 0 ad better.

[New Release: 0 A.D. Alpha 19 Syllepsis]

I don't understand the usual request about going to Steam: as a player, I absolutely HATE the auto-update system for instance, because I can't choose when to do an update (which breaks all my savegames, possibly other critical things too because it's an alpha)

If autoupdate system comes some day to 0 a.d, it would be nice to be optional, but I think that's a needed feature for the Beta

[Some questions about A19 Sy.]

Maybe rams shouldnt be able to capture

[Main Menu backgrounds aren't drawn properly]

You're a not the only one. #3648 was trying to say that, I think.

[MinMod]

Thank you Actually I added white sparklings to silver ore and the existing sparklings to gold ore (size a bit increased). This should show the value of these ores, whereas iron and copper do not have sparklings. But it would be very easy to add sparkings to them, too.

Reminds me Minecraft

I think that ores should differentiate more in relation to stones and bigger sparks could be a fast solution. BTW I don't know if in reality ore veins are shiny.

About gameplay, maybe it would be simpler to have two kinds of ore, rich and standard (mining rate) and two kinds of size.

[MinMod]

Nice concept.

Included or not, it would be nice to include the models. Also colored sparkings could be a good addition to the different ores.

[New Release: 0 A.D. Alpha 19 Syllepsis]

Very good job! 2016 will be Beta year!

[Can't open rc]

Rc2 is the actual alpha? Cause inexplicably... it works. (at least I can launch it)

Sorry for the headache

[Isometric View Option]

Buildings shadows are inaccurate right? Would be nice as option.

[Some questions about A19 Sy.]

If I understood correctly, she's talking about new models (meshes).

They are done, but need animations. Jos3BV started some women animations, that you can see there. He said that would return and send them, and maybe he will make more. Enrique, the artist leader, said that want to work in the upcoming months. He was away for a long time.

You were asking about that?

Edit: rereading the post, maybe Lion is right. Units get improvement with experience, getting better armors and stuff. In current alpha (18) leveling up was disabled, but in the newer would be renabled, so you could see the "improvements".

[Improving the trading mechanic.]

My idea: one market allowed per civic center. 5 traders allowed per market.

So there should be a tweaking of profit gains, but IMHO trade should be a complement, not a substitute to the economy. This way trade isn't allowed with a single town (you need an ally or another population center), and there's no crowded commercial rute (and related lag)

[Can't open rc]

No mods installed. Also as I said I removed 0 a.d manually.

I installed the rc on my older pc, and worked (laggy as expected, cause its old with low hardware), but in my Windows 7 it doesn't. Reinstalled A18 and it runs as normal

Bruno, I will send you the two files. Not sure if I have done right with the DebugView thing

[Can't open rc]

I tried with automatic (with the setup) and manual uninstalling. 360 free GB.

And yes, I tryed to reboot and redownload the setup, but didn't work.

Tomorrow I will try to reinstall A18 as empirical evidence...

[Can't open rc]

Windows 7. Any additional info that I should provide?. I didn't get any error installing the game

[Can't open rc]

I tried to install and play both release candidates (1 & 2 ) from here, and I really can't open the game. It doesn't even launch a error console, it just doesn't appear. If I open the Task Manager, I can see the pyrogenesis.exe process (not in applications tab), but I can't finish them.

I know that there isn't clues to think what is happening, but I could run 0 a.d always prior this alpha

EDIT: I can't even taskkill the process.

[Unit roster and bonus sumary (resource)]

The objective of this thread is summarize the unit roster of units, cause I didn't found any place where you can see it. With game getting near beta, gameplay design discussion is getting more relevant cause almost all features are getting done. So, my little way to contribute is doing this.

Unit Roster

Athenians

CC
Spearman
Slinger
Skirmisher cavalry

Barracks
Spearman
Skirmisher (mercenary)
Archer
Slinger
Cavalry swordman
Skirmisher cavalry

Dock
Birreme
Trirreme

Fortress
Stone thrower
Bolt shooter

Gymnasieum

Champion Archer

Champion Spearman

Spartans

CC
Spearman
Skirmisher
Skirmisher cavalry

Barracks
Spearman
Skirmisher

Swordman (elite rank)
Cavalry swordman
Skirmisher cavalry

Dock
Birreme
Trirreme

Fortress
Ram

Carthaginians

CC
Spearman
Archer
Skirmisher cavalry

Barracks
Spearman
Archer
Skirmisher cavalry

Iberian embassy

Sliner (mercenary)

Skirmisher (mercenary)

Swordman cavalry (mercenary)

Gaul embassy

Swordman cavalry (mercenary)

Swordman (mercenary)

Italiote embassy

Swordman (mercenary)

Spearman cavalry (mercenary)

Dock
Birreme
Trirreme

Quinquirreme

Fortress

Elephant champion
Stone thrower
Bolt shooter

Temple

Spearman cavalry champion

Spearman champion

Seleucids

CC
Spearman/skirmisher (militia)

Skirmisher
Cavalry skirmisher (militia)

Barracks
Pikeman
Skirmisher
Cavalry skirmisher
Cavalry archer

Military colony
Swordman (mercenary)
Archer
Cavalry spearman (in elite rank become spearman cavalry champion)

Dock
Birreme

Trirreme

Quinquirreme

Siege
Siege tower
Stone thrower

Fortress
Champion Elephant
Champion Pikeman and Champion Archer Chariot
or
Champion Swordman and Cavalry Spearman

Ptolomies

CC
Pikeman
Archer (mercenary)
Camel archer

Barracks
Pikeman

Slinger
Archer (mercenary)
Camel archer

Military colony
Spearman/Skirmisher (mercenary, secondary ranged javelin attack)
Swordman (mercenary)
Cavalry spearman (mercenary)
Cavalry skirmisher (mercenary)

Dock
Birreme

Trirreme

Quinquirreme
Juggernaut (champion warship)

Fortress
Siege tower
Stone thrower
Repeating bolt thrower
Champion cavalry spearman
Champion elephant

Britons

CC
Spearman
Slinger
Skirmisher cavalry

Barracks
Spearman
Skirmisher
Slinger
Cavalry swordman
Skirmisher cavalry

Dock
Birreme (extra garrison capacity)

Fortress
Javelin chariot champion
Swordman champiom

Ram

Kennel

Dog

Gauls

CC
Spearman
Skirmisher
Skirmisher cavalry

Barracks
Spearman
Skirmisher
Slinger
Cavalry swordman
Skirmisher cavalry

Dock
Birreme (extra garrison capacity)

Fortress
Cavalry spearman champion
Swordman champiom

Ram

Iberians

CC
Swordman
Skirmisher
Skirmisher cavalry

Barracks
Spearman

Swordman
Skirmisher
Slinger
Skirmisher cavalry

Spearman cavalry

Dock
Birreme (extra garrison capacity)
Fire ship

Fortress
Cavalry skirmisher champion
Swordman champiom

Ram

Macedonians

CC
Pikeman
Skirmisher
Skirmisher cavalry

Barracks
Pikeman
Skirmisher
Archer
Slinger
Spearman cavalry
Skirmisher cavalry

Dock
Birreme
Trirreme

Siege workshop
Stone thrower
Bolt shooter

Ram

Siege tower

Fortress

Pikeman champion (upgradable)

Spearman cavalry champion

Mauryans

CC
Spearman
Archer
Skirmisher cavalry

Worker elephant

Barracks
Spearman
Archer
Swordman cavalry
Skirmisher cavalry

Dock
Birreme
Trirreme

Fortress

Elephant champion

Swordman champion (unique bonus against buildings)

Maiden guard (should be one hybrid unit with sword and bow)

Chariot archer champion

Persians

CC
Spearman
Archer
Skirmisher cavalry

Barracks
Spearman
Archer
Skirmisher

Stables

Swordman cavalry

Skirmisher cavalry

Spearman cavalry

Archer chariot

Dock
Birreme
Trirreme

Persian palace

Spearman champion (secondary ranged bow attack)

Fortress

Spearman cavalry champion

Ram

Romans

CC
Swordman
Skirmisher
Spearman cavalry

Barracks
Swordman (can get into 4th rank)
Skirmisher

Spearman (veteran rank)
Spearman cavalry

Skirmisher cavalry

Dock
Birreme
Trirreme

Quinquierreme

Entrecnhed army camp

All roman units

Fortress

Swordman champion

Swordman cavalry (secondary close combat spear attack)

Ram

Stone thrower

Bolt shooter

If somebody notices some error, just give me. Would be nice, along the heroe summary, to copy that into wiki. Next day I will do a bonus summary.

[Tech/Structure Tree Visualisation]

I would be nice to have the "live" version embedded on the main web

[Heroes redesign concept]

The choices are based on the current DD, so the thing that I have done is fitting the old bonus (that you can check in the summary) into my new categories. I have made some changes, trying to avoid overlapping. Also I tryed that all "barbarian" (don't like the word) civs get a rebel heroe

BTW, conqueror was a class that I didn't think about it. The 10th class.

[Heroes redesign concept]

It's explained in first post. Champion heroes get bonus on stats and Generals give bonus to nearby units.

Edit: I rewrote the Champion heroe entry to avoid confusion.

[Heroes redesign concept]

Udapted all heroes with the auras.

This is my sketch, inspired by the current DD, with some tweaks. Classify all heroes with a historical view into one category isn't really easy, cause a lot of them were generals, but also tacticians, leaders, kings, and warriors. With this concept, only a few civs overlap their heroes.

Sketch:

Themistocles: Naval commander
Pericles: Governor
Iphicrates: General

Caractacus: Rebel
Cunobelin: Savior
Boudicca: General

Hannibal Barca: Tactician
Hamilcar Barca: General
Maharbal: Leader

Britomartos: Rebel
Brennos: Leader
Vercengetorix: General

Viriato: Rebel
Karos: Rebel
Indibil: Rebel

Philip: General
Alexander: Conqueror
Demetrius: Tactician

Chandragupta Champion
AShoka: King
Acharya: Savior

Cyrus: Tactician
Darius: King
Xerxes: Governor

Ptolemy I: Savior
Ptolemy IV: Naval commander
Cleopatra: Leader

Quintus Fabius: General
Marcus Claudius: Leader
Scipio: Conqueror

Seleucus I: Conqueror
Antiochus III: Tactician
Antiochus IV: General

Leonidas I: General
Brasidas: Tactician
Agis III: Champion

* means not sure

Some ideas about special civs features:

- A civ with an emphasis on heroes that allow a secondary class.

- Iberians could train two heroes instead of one. With the fact that all iberian heroes have the same Rebel class, this would encorauge a gameplay based on ambushes

[Running, charging, stamina and stances (with a bit of formations)]

I think that the Starcraft II concept is the best for 0 ad in a KISS sense.

No running, no marching. Only charging. When a unit is near to another, they should automatically charge (it should be able to turn off the autocast and to manually select targets) when a unit is near to a enemy in x space.

So units would charge continuously in the mosh pit until stamina is drained. (just small cooldowns for the ability)

BTW, for immersion sake, I think that units in fight mode should use run animations.

There are some design decisions here: if stamina is used, we should think about an ability system, instead of hardecoring the features (camoflauge, charging, healing) make them working in a more dynamic and comprehensive way for modding (thinking about warcraft 3/starcraft 2 ability system).

But I know, that it's easy to write, and the important is getting the things done, so that it's only a humble opinion.

[[Civ] Gauls]

Feels aoeish

[Heroes redesign concept]

Finally, I finished the summary of the current design document. Could be useful to devs, as well. Next step that I may do is trying to blend the DD with my suggestion.