Mythos_Ruler

A great blog entry gives a vivid idea of what ancient Rome (or any large ancient city) would have been like. http://flavias.blogspot.com/2009/06/10-surprise.html

An attack around the 6-7 minute mark usually shouldn't be a killer blow, unless the defending player is a total noob. Buildings are too strong for that and it should be easy enough for the defender to scrounge up an adequate defense with his worker-soldiers. I could see someone getting caught off guard though and feel like they should just resign (prematurely, I may add).

Check out the date. Old stuff for an old Christmas screenshot back in the day.

A decent 0 A.D. player should be able to send an attack party around that time, yeah... or in my case, be able to defend against an attack party around that time.

APM is kinda ridiculous too and easily gamed. I've seen it in "pro" matches. Just clicking things constantly. Clicking the ground. Clicking your units around rapidly for no apparent reason. Clickclickclickclick. I call it twitch gaming.

Another great idea. I like this multi-functionality of the Alt key. Double-Click a unit selects all the units of that type, regardless of rank. Alt-double-click to select just units of that rank.

You're doing a good job. Your AI has surprised me a time or two.

I think the AI could build its new CCs a little farther away than it does now for maximum advantage when grabbing new territory.

Another thing I would like to see improved is the general layout of the AI's town. If you play a specific map multiple times you will notice that the AI builds its base in exactly the same pattern every time. It leaves its Civ Centre completely exposed and puts houses out front. So, along with Pureon's suggested improvements, I suggest trying to fix the way the AI lays out its base to look something more like this:

That's very true. It would also be nice to have a hotkey editor in the game options menu.

Yep. Usually the problem is router issues. Personally, I just unhook my router and patch in directly through the modem, because I'm too lazy to learn the (easy) port forwarding method.

Alt-Right click works too! I was just responding to the declaration that 'A' must be used. Alt-right click makes sense too, because it is an alternate move command. I assume Mac keyboards have the Alt key or something comparable?Also, I think Alt-right click on an enemy unit would toggle attack types, e.g. Persian Immortals switching between Spear and Bow.

Very true. Although in my AOK days I would sometimes host "diplo" games where everyone started as neutral and picked up allies throughout the game. This mode was fun, but there always seemed to be that one guy who got butthurt when he was ganged up on. Like you said... This happened often. Someone would always end up upset. However, with players such as myself who played this type of game often (not exclusively or even a majority of games, just often), it would be expected that teams would not always end up even or that someone would get ganged up on in every match. Those of us who understood this ahead of time just accepted it as part of the game. Hmm, what if Cartography came automatically when phasing up to Town Level? I like the idea of a little bit of mystery and isolation at the beginning. Then of course in "Post-City" matches all of the techs and benefits would already be in affect.

I'm simply not going to support using WASD keys for anything but the camera. Z would work just fine for Attack Move.

It's not against the will of the player, because they know ahead of time if they accept the bribe that there will be a ceasefire imposed. Understood. But there are things in real life that would help cement a ceasefire that aren't present in the game. Marrying off your daughter. Trade embargoes. Religious considerations (breaking oaths). All kinds of things. I could see a Ceasefire being put into place, but then there can be a negative consequence to a backstab. Something that the player has to weigh when making the decisions. As you propose, there is no incentive to maintaining the peace. Once you accept the bribe, there is absolutely no reason why you wouldn't backstab whenever possible. Part of enforcing a "ceasefire" would be to close the borders or to add attrition. This is similar to the "no rush" option that's been planned for a long time.

There would be no incentive not to back stab. So, of course you take the bribe. Why wouldn't you? You'd take the money and attack anyway. lol Know what I mean? Would need come up with some kind of incentive to honor the deal and only back stab when the benefits of backstabbing outweigh the incentive to keep the cease fire.

I could see the bribe thing working well. Bribe the AI and there would be a cease fire for X minutes (maybe depending on how big the bribe is).There would be a 1 out of 5 chance they would not accept the bribe, depending upon the sitiuation (the AI plans to attack soon or has you on the ropes), and 1 in 5 chance they'll take the bribe and renege on the cease fire. For multiplayer, a player could offer a bribe to an enemy player and that player could accept or reject. If accepted, then there is a ceasefire for X minutes.

Right, and can come in handy when your home base is getting slaughtered and you've run to your ally's base for sanctuary.

Any plans on making this the "default" AI to come with Alpha 8?

In this instance, the "fee" doesn't evaporate into thin air, it's paid to the ally whose dropsite you are using. <br style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250); "> "Cartography" would definitely be a universal technology that all factions have.

Today when playtesting, I noticed that I can assist my ally in constructing his buildings. This is a great idea that brings new levels of cooperation between allies. At the end of the day, I'd like to make such an ability "unlockable" through a technology. But for now, it exists as default for proof of concept. One bug I noticed is that when I help my ally build a Mill dropsite, my guys start to gather nearby resources. This is a problem because they cannot drop their resources at the allied Mill. I propose multiple levels here: -- Research the "Cooperation Level 1" technology. This allows you to assist your ally in building their structures. This unlocks the "Cooperation Level 2" technology. (These technologies will be named something better later.) Helping construct an ally dropsite does not send your units off to gather... until you... -- Research "Cooperation Level 2" allows you to use allied dropsites. Each time you drop resources at an ally's dropsite the ally gets a percentage as a "fee." Unlocks "Cooperation Level 3." -- Researching "Cooperation Level 3" allows you to build your own structures (except Civic Centres) inside your ally's territory. Your buildings will add to your ally's border expansion, not your own, until time that your building becomes detached from your ally's territory. I think things like this can really add a new dimension to diplomacy and team play. I don't think these abilities should come as default. I think you should have to pay for them. Also, we'll have to prototype these ideas obviously. There may be some complications or unintended negative affects on gameplay. For now, 1 and 2 sound relatively benign. Level 3 is what I'd worry about.

WASD is the standard set of keys for camera movement in PC gaming. However, ZXC are free, so they can be used for high-value commands. I'm thinking R for Run/charge.

WASDQE are used for camera.

The ranks increase armour and attack and health, while decreasing speed and gathering rate. But yeah, not that big of a difference (seriously) as far as gameplay goes.

I'm in the process of increasing walking speeds. Some have already been committed if you have the SVN version.