Prodigal Son

I've come across some ideas while testing the game and this thread inspired me to come up with some suggestions: I believe the Seleucids should get another spearcavalry (could be Thessalian/Macedonian Settlers/Xystophoroi, Galatians or Median/Persian Lancers) with the Companions being made into a champion like the Macedonian one. Antiochus III's Companions (and I guess Seleucid ones in general) where quite devastating. Even in defeats like Raphia and Magnesia they routed their opposing enemy flank (at Magnesia actually being a Roman legion, not cavalry or light troops). If there's an issue with Cataphracts being a Champion spearcavalry as well, the Cataphracts could be made into a tech upgrade of the Companions with increased armor and reduced speed (Though both units coexisted even after the introduction of Cataphracts).If the above brings an issue of too many champions for them (see bellow as well) the Scythed Chariots can become normal units, they were quite outdated and ineffective anyway. Models could be the persian ones with armored riders or just one of them working as skirites and other one-rank citizen soldiers. A simular downgrading could work for the Maurayan Chariots as well. Edit: How about all chariots as one rank non champion units that can't gather? Makes the most sense to me.The Seleucids could get the Maurayan bonus of many champion units, since it fits them well with so many different units and subjects and the Maurayans could get something else. Or both could share it (or see bellow).I'm not too fond of Ptolemaics having only native phalanx, since its use was limited compared to Greek/Macedonian one. Seleucids as well could have the Silver Shield Pikemen as a champion and a regular phalanx as spear infantry. Same with Macedonians and a pezaitaros/bronze shield phalanx and an Agema one. Having 2 x pike units for those factions could be an overkill from a gameplay perspective though.Now to the major idea: Champion units in general could be somewhat redesigned. Like some of them requiring reform techs (that would replace another champion when applicable): Spartan Pikemen (Cleomenian Reforms) - Add them or replace Spartan Hoplites with themSeleucid Cataphract Reforms - Add them or replace Companion Cavalry with themSeleucid/Ptolemaic Thorakites/Infantry Romanisation ReformsMacedonian Late Pikemen (Perseus Reforms) with heavier armor. This could also be a paired tech with a cavalry tech or contain a cavalry debuff to reflect the increasing focus on phalanx and the decline of cavalry in late Antigonid Macedonia.Macedonian Royal PeltastsPersian War Elephants, Horse Archers and Kardakes/Mercenery Hoplites (as core game units)Carthaginian Sacred Band Cavalry (as core game unit)Athenian Iphicratian Hoplites/PeltastsMauryan Elephant Archer turned into champion (as any elephant unit should imo)Cretan Archers/Rhodian Slingers could also be champion mercenaries replaced by some generic levy versions as citizens.There's more I can't think of now I guess. Even Marian Reforms could work this way if you deside to implement them. It would work sweetly with having more famous/fancy champion units without breaking the game balance since the reform/research techs could be priced accordingly. Edit: It could work like, each civ has 2 champion units by default (or more for factions having some civ bonus on this). Those would be the most commonly used or better gameplay serving ones, mixing best with the rest of each civs unit line up. Then with reform techs new ones would replace some of the default champion units (or even some citizen-soldiers in some cases for a bigger cost). Other techs would unlock extra champion units for some civs instead of replacing old ones, when it fits historical accuracy or gameplay. This should generally cost more than reform techs as it would broaden the available unit rooster. The number of extra units granted this way and the cost of the reform/unlock techs could besides following historical accuracy depend on late game faction strength. So say the Gauls prove weaker in late game, they could have cheaper reform/unlock techs or more extra champions than other factions.

Greetings people:) I'm Nikos, from Greece. I've been frequently checking this game for a long while now, since I love ancient history and strategy games. Haven't played much since the lag is quite annoying (I'm not whinning, I've read what causes it) and when I tried multiplayer a year or so ago it proved hard to find other players. But overall I'm quite impressed and I want to thank you all for the hard work and say this has great potential. I made a forum account some years ago but somehow forgot my password and didn't bother to get it back until now, but I've been lurking around and checking progress frequently. I have no real programmer or graphic skills to really help on development but I'll try sharing some thoughts around the forums from now on. Besides that I'm little by little making an ancient themed RTS on the Warcraft 3 world editor. While I like strategy game design and how it turns out, WC3 is fantasy themed and lacking modeling/skinning skills reduces my enthousiasm (and I turn out to focus mostly on my other hobbies, like writting punk rock music). The gameplay and faction design is mostly done, it was actually playable with 4 factions and AI until I broke many things to alter the core gameplay. Is anyone here familiar with WC3 modding and willing to help or make it as a team? I'd mostly need minor model/skin edits, but anything from triggering/terraining better than mine to just advice or playtesting is welcome. I'm also using 0 A.D. icons on it (I hope it's ok since it's freeware) to give more of an ancient era feel and plan to advertise 0 A.D. within the map and on the hosting forums. Lastly, any hope on changing the Celtic Cross (or anyway extremely simular) game logo, since nowadays it's a fascist symbol? I know it's not intended to promote fascism and it fits with the game but I'd prefer something else.

Perhaps you could have both Parthians and Sassanids in the game for part II without much extra work and making sense (like the Greek and Celtic factions): - Simular buildings and many common units, since they mostly had the same territory. - They briefly fought against each other during the part II timeframe - Sassinids should have a some heavy infantry power plus more elephant and mostly catafract focus - Parthians should have only weak infantry, good catafracts, (maybe) no elephants and more of a horse archer focus. Parthian timeframe is almost equally split between the two game parts so they could also fit for part I. They could also be considered for having some of the nomad faction mechanics since they started as nomads before occupying a revolted seleucid satrapy.

Nice to see both things will be included. On capturing it could be partly random on if the losing ship sinks or gets captured, or maybe depending on the type of attack used against it.

What i'd love to see about sea combat, nomatter what way you end up doing with the crews, would be capturable ships. It was a frequent and important sea battle event and most games don't include it. Even if no mobile crews exist, it could work with some special ability and a "ressistance left" bar like the stamina/xp bars. Or the same way buildings are captured when you impement it, the same mechanic could work i guess? Another note on ships, will the trade ship just gather treasures in the final version or also trade between docks? The gather thing alone is kinda pointless imo.

I talked about the AOE influences because it's pretty much the most simular out of the 4-5 strategy game editors i've used. As of layout, looks, current functions etc. No clue on code. Glad to see you plan to include this feature, way to go:) And the more functions and ease to use it the better, it can keep this game to life for very long.

The object editor can actually do that as well:) A new "town hall" that creates new villagers/soldiers, who can build new structures which have have new units and techs. Or some new and some existing ones, works whatever way you adjust it. Only thing it can't do is adding the new "faction" at the selection menu, so i guess that's where an extra function would be useful. For those new units/building etc, you can adjust the existing models/icons or use the import system that saves imported models and icons within the map. I'd be really pleased with an object editor even without the import option if that's hard.

This is my first post although I've been following progress for years and have played most of the alpha's. I must say I love the awesome work you people have put here and how it moves on:) I'd like to suggest something on the way the editor works and it's possibilities. I have no clue on programming so not sure if those things are really hard, or if they are doable as additions to the existing editor. Have you seen the Warcraft 3 world editor? It works quite differently in many aspects than the 0AD one (and the age of empires one which i guess is the main influence on 0AD). There's many interesting extra possibilities on it that you can check, but what mostly want to focus on is the object editor part. It allows for customizing the stats, abilities and models of units, buildings and doodads (as well as creating completely new ones) within the editor with much ease, and saves any changes in the map file. It's a very usefull and interesting feature for mapmaking, and one of the main reasons for WC3's lasting power as a game all those years. Would such a feature be possible in 0AD?