Mythos_Ruler

Yeah, like that. A primary and secondary counter for each unit.

Well, "walking" on walls is not going to be in Part 1. HOWEVER, in Part 1 there will be slots on which you can place your soldiers so they can stand on walls and in towers. So, lets say there are 6 slots on a length of wall, then you can garrison 6 archers atop the wall. Most towers will have 2 or 4 slots so that you can garrison 2-4 archers up in a tower. We won't have fighting atop walls and battlements (like in RTW), but that's something we could work on for Part 2.

That's pretty cool.

Yes, that is a good idea.

This should have been a poll. Oh well.

What version of OpenGL and other drivers do you have? I am just taking a stab in the dark.

Another good one to look at is 'Titan Quest.'

Adding to what Ari said, of course we wouldn't mind if some brilliant Open Sourcer comes out of the woodwork and submits a fully functional Physics patch for the game. But other than that we aren't going to use Official Team time to code a physics engine.

Open Source developers (people who download the source of the game and code with it) who are not actually part of the Wildfire Games development team will submit patches to us. We'll evaluate them, then add the patches to the game if they are stable and helpful. We even have a task manager system called "Trac" that twe've opened to the public with over a hundred "tickets" (tasks) that Open Sourcers can immediately begin working on if they so wish. We fully intend to release a completed, full-featured game. Going Open Source is a step that could help us achieve the goal of delivering an enjoyable video game into the hands of our long-suffering fan base.

Early adopters get all the headaches.

Yep.

Yup. Overlapping:

Basically.

welcome!

What's your MSN/Windows Live messenger account? We can talk.

It's an adjective, not a verb (or noun). I'd rather call them Germans or Germanians.

Yeah, like the Sears Tower, I think it opened as the largest indoor mall in the world, but was quickly eclipsed. And Alex is absolutely right - both DC and Chicago will require some loose change for tolls. You can pay in cash for the first toll then use the change for subsequent tolls.

Newark is in New Jersey, right across from New York City. So what I would do is visit New York City for a while - see Ground Zero, Battery Park, Liberty Island (Statue of Liberty), New York Stock Exchange (which is situated like a temple squeezed into a canyon - you'll see what I mean), Mid-Town Manhattan (Times Square, Empire State Building, Central Park, Central Park Zoo). Make use of taxi cabs and a lot of walking. New York City is actually now one of our safest big cities. Don't get a rental car until you get back out of the city - take a cab from Newark into NYC, then get a rental car after you're done in NYC. A rental car for this trip will be hella expensive. Just a warning. And there's no way to make this trip unless you want to take buses cross-country (which will take a crapload more planning) or by hitch hiking (which I wouldn't recommend, but I am a @#$%). Lucky for you, the exchange rates between the Euro and USD are very favorable to you. Before heading to Grand Forks, North Dakota (really? wtf? why North Dakota? Family?), I would see a little of the East. To save time you're gonna have to skip New England. Head Southwest and hit up Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. You can see the Liberty Bell and run up the steps in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art like in Rocky! Next head West a bit and try the Pocono Mountains (I visited there on vacation as a child - beautiful). Stop in Gettysburg and walk on the grounds of the largest battle ever in the Western hemisphere (to my knowledge 150,000 combatants). Nice scenery and history. Head Southeast from there and you hit Washington DC. You can see The White House, The U.S. Capitol, and Lincoln Memorial where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I have a Dream" speech, maybe even the JFK and Vietnam Memorials. Make sure to see the Smithsonian Institute and its associated museums on the National Mall! So, well, since you only have a grand total of two weeks in the country, you need to start heading West. Sorry, no Charleston, Florida, or Myrtle Beach. Alright, the road West out of Washington DC/Northern Virginia will be a half-day slog. Because there is no straight-shot interstate highway across West Virginia you'll have to change highways a few times. Just stick to your maps and watch for signs. while you're here it would be good to go ahead and pick up a Rand McNally road atlas of the country. It'll be an invaluable resource for you and I think some editions mark the rest-stops and some hotels. About every 50 miles or so on our major interstate highways we have "rest stops" or "rest areas." They usually look something like this: with a huge car park (parking lot) in front of them with spaces for cars and semi-trucks. There will be signs informing you of an upcoming rest stop at least a mile in advance. Rest stops have toilet facilities, pay phones, vending machines for snacks, and maps (most have a HUGE wall map of that state with an 'X' "You are here" on it). You will not find rest stops in or around cities, you'll find them between cities. Some cities, like Chicago, have what are called "Oases" (singular: Oasis), which are basically a rest-stop, but commercialized. It is perfectly legal to sleep in your car at a rest stop, in fact you are encouraged to do so as we don't want sleepy drivers on the roads. Google Maps might indicate where rest stops are located, I'm not sure. Google Earth might as well. If you want to sleep in your car, a rest stop is the best bet, so plan accordingly. There are also 10s of thousands of budget hotels and motels throughout the country. Driving West out of Washington DC/Northern Virginia you'll make use of rest-stops frequently. Depending on how much time you have left (a week or more?) you can go a slightly southerly route and visit Nashville Tennessee (there are a lot of sights to see, including a full scale replica of the PARTHENON). A more northerly route will put you into Southern Ohio. Here you can stop and spend a day at KING'S ISLAND amusement park a little North of Cincinnati. This is a great fun place, with roller coasters and other rides. I've visited there many times in my youth, but it is expensive. At any rate, you'll need to keep heading Northwest. Go into Indiana. You can stop in downtown Indianapolis and visit the Indianapolis Zoo, walk around downtown and check out the Circle Center Mall. From here you can head straight to Chicago or you can head North to Fort Wayne and hang out with me for a day and I'll let you spend the night at my family's house. You'll have to sleep on the floor. If you're over 21 I can take you out to our clubs and bars, or if not over 21 you can see our Fort Wayne Zoo, which is one of the best in the U.S. PM me if you are interested. So, you're now in Chicago. I'd definitely stop either at the Chicago Field Museum (dinosaur skeletons, etc.) or the Museum of Science and Industry. You can see the Sears Tower in Chicago too. It's the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere. Like in New York City, traffic here in Chicago will be INSANE. haha. But if you're like me, you'll look at traffic like a fun challenge. Just follow the signs and you'll be fine. Interstate-90 takes you straight into downtown and then right back out again in the direction towards your final destination, so that's cool. So, now you're heading out of Chicago in a Northwest direction. Now you've entered the not very exciting leg of the journey. The big towns/cities you'll hit in the way are (in order) Rockford (say hi to my son for me), then Madison (a nice college town, but not much else there), then Minneapolis/St. Paul. While in Minneapolis, make sure to check out the MALL OF AMERICA - the largest indoor mall in the world (I think). I've never been there, but I hear it's huge. That's pretty much the only "tourist" spot I can think of between Chicago and Grand Forks, ND. Truckin' up Interstate-94 you'll hit Fargo (made famous by the movie of the same name). Turn North on Interstate-29 and you'll hit Grand Forks and your final destination. The drive on these highways should be pretty flat and boring. Make good use of rest-stops on this leg of the journey. A fun little game to play when driving cross-country is to call out when you see a license plate from a different state. The passenger can write them down on a pad of paper and when you either get to 48 (48 contiguous states, Alaska and Hawaii are bonus and count as double) or when you get bored of the game you can count them up and see who spotted the most. This is fun to play for an hour or so, maybe once or twice during your trip. Don't worry about "getting shot" or "robbed." These events happen less frequently than the media would have you believe. Americans, especially fellow travelers, are generally pretty friendly. Just don't take it personally if someone is rude. Americans in the heartland get tickled pink when a tourist takes the time to visit our little slice of heaven (heh). I think this trip you'll have seen about 1/4 of the U.S. You'll need 3 or 4 more trips to see the rest of it. What I would do when renting a car is find a rental place near the airport that also has a branch in Grand Forks. That way you can rent the car in Newark and "drop it off" at the branch in Grand Forks. This is tricky because you haven't said where from you are leaving the country? You could leave from Chicago/O'Hare airport. If that's the case, then you are more likely to find a rental car place that has branches at both Newark airport and at Chicago/O'Hare. I spent an hour typing this out for you. Hope it helps!!! PS: Things to pick up when you are here and some extra tidbits... - Rand McNally Road Atlas. You can find these at just about EVERY gas (petrol) station. This will be handy whenever your Google Maps fail you. - Stop at a Wal-Mart and buy most of your food there instead of eating out at restaurants all the time. This will save you a lot of money. Wal-Marts are everywhere and Google should help you locate one. If you buy a Rand McNally Road Atlas at Wal-Mart it'll have the locations of all Wal-Marts in the U.S. in it too. lol. Wal-Marts are HUGE and have a very large selection of food to choose from, including fresh fruits and vegetables, but of course also prepackaged crap that'll make you fat. Thing is - it's up to you what food you buy. - Pick up a First-Aid kit at Wal-Mart or the Gas Station. I'm not saying you're going to get shot or anything, but if you fall and scrape your leg or something minor like that why waste time at a clinic when you can patch yourself up easy peasy? It doesn't hurt to be prepared. It'll give you piece of mind. - other stuff I'll put here if I can think of anything.

Hmm... The U.S. is pretty darn big. Where are you starting? What regions do you want to visit?

Ehhh, the individual name thing is kind of a third tier feature that would prolly be implemented last, if at all.

You are correct. I modified the quote.

The Scenario Design dept, when they get up and running, will make a small tutorial for release when the game comes out.

Prolly slow. But of course ramming will be faster.

Personally, I think focusing on 4 or 5 cultures would be best (Greeks, Norse, Egyptians, Meso-Americans, Hindus). Maybe throw the Far East in as a 6th culture in an "expansion." 14 or 15 seems excessive and impossible to balance (because essentially it would be 14 cultures x 3 major gods = 42 "factions").

I really encourage evryone to check out our ModDB profile here: http://www.moddb.com/games/0-ad That's where me and PPE have been releasing most of our screenshots and game renders and news. It's just 10x easier to do that over there than here.