Mythos_Ruler

Jan's right. With a console you have one set of hardware limits. That's it. With a PC you have to optimize for all kinds of hardware configurations.

Welcome aboard. Nice to see some enthusiasm around these parts. As an artist, I would wager there would be very little difference between console art and PC artwork. Consoles are becoming very powerful machines and I would see very little need to "optimize" the artwork for one platform over the other.

Hmmm, think about real life history... How many times did the Romans, Greeks, and Persians replant whole forests? If anything they continued to clear forests until their respective downfalls. The Carthaginians and Romans after them totally destroyed the ecosystem of the North African coastal plain. Attica in Greece used to be covered in pine trees, until they were all cut down for triremes. It got so bad that the Greeks had to import all their wood from Thrace. I couldn't see forests growing back automatically. Clear cutting should make them go away for good. However, I could see two possibilities: 1.) Forests that are left alone long enough generally start to grow. Trees on the outer rim are young and small and grow larger, small trees start to grow on the edges of those, repeat. The forests can start to encroach upon cleared land and open pastures if left to their own devices. But forests that are clear cut should remain dead forever, until the end of the game. 2.) Players can plant groves of trees or fruit orchards. These orchards can provide a source of both food and wood, making wood a renewable resource. I want to pass along a disclaimer that says neither option above has been implemented into 0 A.D. - they are just ideas that cropped into my head. We'll have "orchards" in the game, but not like what I just described. Discuss!

Sorry. Our mines will be exactly like AOK/AOM.

Another thing about creating illusions is that the 2nd Story is not actually 1:1 scale with the 1st floor of a structure. The height of the 2nd Story should actually be about 85% the height of the 1st story because of the foreshortening that occurs with an RTS camera view which looks downward at the structure at a 45 degree angle (take a look at the L shaped house in the render Wijit posted ). I'll make a bunch of mockups this weekend for you guys when I get a chance. Promised Wijit.

I forgot he doesn't have Iberian structures. However, if he d/led and installed the 0 A.D. Academic release, then he should have the Celt and Hellenes structures.

For best scale (windows/doors vs. wall height, etc.) I'd check out the Hellenes and Iberian structures. That's what we're going for.

People don't ask the right questions.

Number of downloads for starters. But for real success, we'd gauge it by the number and quality of applicants to join the team. Part 1 is essentially a demo for subsequent releases, a recruiting tool, a chance to make a splash, a public relations coup. We'll need huge interest and an expanded team to complete Part 2 as the game we want it to be.

I'd hate to say it, but Erik is correct. An indie/hobbyist effort like this takes 2-3x longer than a professional studio, if only because of the man-hours we have available.

Yeah, Diplo will be simple Ally/Neutral/Enemy. Its possible we could implement something a little more complex for Part 2. Ideas abound.

We have some tentative plans for the Diadochi. It all depends how successful the 1.0 release of 0 A.D. is.

lol... I just found this part funny. Anywho, Argalius and Erik enunciated why having children in the game would be a bad idea. Imagine a game where you regularly have to slaughter children - not really that fun, IMHO. Plus you have to figure out a use for them in the game. What purpose would they serve? Among other issues. I imagine the gameplay would have to be decidedly different than the direction we want.

Texture Haven is good.

How about simply, "The Haven"?

Justinian and Belisarius will probably be included for any "Eastern Rome" civ. "Western Rome" will be the Early Imperial age, as you have duly noted. Heroes for such a civ will most likely be Augustus, Trajan, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius.

Bug squashing is a time consuming process, made even more time consuming by the fact we're all on different time zones and different work, school, and life schedules. Right now the graphics engine is in a mature state. It doesn't have KEY features yet, like terrain conforming decals and 2 dimensional sprites that always face the camera, among other things, but we could conceivably release the game with how the graphics engine renders things at this point. I emphasize that we wouldn't WANT the graphics engine released at this stage, because we want to make the best engine we can, but if we HAD to, we could. A lot of what needs to be done is gameplay scripting and GUI scripting, as well as creating audio assets. Not to mention we'll need a fairly robust testing phase to iron out, first, programming bugs, and second, gameplay issues. So in short "months" is not possible.

Eek! You just had to choose one of my worst concepts! hehe. It's all good though, as it's one of the simplest too.

Well, units on walls will be pretty much a given, don't worry about that.

ZeZar is correct in just about everything in his post. Except that we'll have a boarding function, but you won't see units duking it out on-deck. You won't be commanding a boarding squad, etc. It'll be more like, the ships will lock up next to each other and the one with the most and best troops will take the other one over.

A persistent "treachery" rating per player account would be cool.

Would any of us really recognize Jason's voice even if it was unaltered?

All ships in 0 A.D. also double as transport ships.

Free flowing alliances are very fun in loooooong games... When I mean long games, I mean games that accrue over more than one session. There should also be an incentive to keep alliances once they are created (slow econ or something without alliances).

Wildfire Games has just released another showcase as part of our continuing series of Public Relation releases for the Holidays. Click below to see the Indian War Elephant showcase!