Khopesh

Still stuff that could be updated in a patch.

The video shouldn't be made until everything else is anyway, therefore no need to update the models and textures.

And that's why it should be an OFFICIAL patch.

Thanks, I was worried it was deleted when I couldn't find it.

I highly doubt they went to the trouble. Even so, I don't think 2D sprites would have trouble running on modern hardware. Yes, the built in MP service in the game hasn't been supported for a while. Most, if not all, old games are like this. You will need something like Gamespy to use as a lobby/host system. Steam could also be used if they patched it into the game - which I doubt would be hard to do. This is exactly what they have done with this "HD" version. They should have just released it as a patch, and then also released a fully patched version of the game on steam. What they have done is just release a fully patched version of the game on steam and neglected the people who still own, and still play the game even today. All done in the hopes that people will rebuy the game, when they don't need to, and SHOULDN'T need to. In the end it all comes down to greed - hoping to increase sales by making people rebuy the game just so they can get this (and possibly future) patches. I think it's just you, and people like you. No offense or anything. I'm just saying. I still have plenty of original copies of my games that work perfecfly fine. AoEII is one of them. I was playing it the other week, un-patched, and un-modded. And I had no problems what-so-ever. Yes, it wasn't in a high resolution or in widerscreen - but that didn't effect the game in anyway. Also, why was this moved out of the Off-topic forum?

The Wildfire splash-screen (logo) should come first. No matter what. Possibly followed by other company logos (such as the game engine). These should be included anyway, and the intro trailer should be done once most, if not all, in-game stuff has been done (models and animations for in-game assets). That's not to say you cannot make a storyboard or animatic (2D and 3D) in the mean time. As for hidden logos in the trailer. I think it would be better if they just had a splash-screen if they're important (such as the WFG logo, and the game engine, etc). Anything else, such as Windows/Linux logos should be reserved for the credits or as fine-print for promo stuff (to show which operating systems it is available on). The frozen-time fly-throughs are OK for saving time in development, but most viewers tend not to appreciate them. Regardless, It would be silly to make assets for this before a storyboard has been made and finalised. That way you know which assets to make and don't end up making something that won't be used. Also, if you plan to make high-poly cinematics for the capaigns, I would recommending using snippets of these in the games opening cinematic. It would save a lot of time and you'd be able to include various factions and historical events. But I would also open the cinematic with something like this (but done with high-poly assets): Oh, and maybe create some epic music that builds up to climax. That way the timing of the cinematic can be edited to fit the music - maybe do this after the storyboard, but before the 2D animatic.

You may, or may not, know that M$ are going to be re-releasing AoEII and The Conquerer's Expansion on Steam with HD graphics. Now, you might be thinking that this is amazing and what we have all been waiting for, I know that's what I was thinking. But then I saw a video explaining what is actually being done. It turns out this "HD remastering" will essentially only be a patch - or rather, only include features that can be added in a patch - but sold as a brand new game. What you will find is that they have inlcuded higher resolution options, higher resolution textures, and steam support. Not only are higher resolutions already available for free (via mods), but all these features could simply be add into the already existing AoEII with a patch. And done so for FREE. If you already have a copy of AoEII, please don't let yourselves be ripped off by this. Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favour of supporting the games industry - I never pirate or buy used games - But, people who buy these sorts of things are having a detrimental effect on the gaming industry. It's worse than buying yearly releases that offer very little amount of new things - in this case, it offers NOTHNG new. Don't support this type of behavious in the games industry.

Yeah, that makes more sense. It was late when I posted last night. As long as there is a Resource-only option.

The outlines around units/building would be great. Especially for those times where team colour could potentially blend into the background (like green team blending with grass terrain). The colours choosen in the original post are generally good, with the exception of stone - it's actually harder to spot now that the trees have been desaturated. A couple of suggestions: - Allow the player to toggle a full screen version of the map that could include more pixel icons (I would suggest having one for stone and metal, civ centers, wonders, and maybe discovered treasures/relics?). - In AoE2 you could toggle between 3 types of maps. Can't remember what these were exactly, but I would recommend: Resources only; Teams only; All.

AoE did a reasonable job of choosing distinguishable colours. Only thing that was a problem was the mini-map. One solution there might be to to include an option to toggle ful-screen mini-maps. That way people wouldn't have to squint and struggle to see specks of gold and grey in amongst all the green. Having the player set what team colours are would only really work for singleplayer. Multiplayer would be harder to make to fair to everyone. As for seeing other colours - that's not usually a problem for me. I think some types of colourblindness do see the wrong colour though. Things just get a little harder to distinguish when reds and greens are used close together. And browns tend to be greeny/redish. Also, if someone does struggle enough with colourblindness to the point it would effect their playing experience (especially online), they would just use a different way of describing who they are talking about (naming the civilization - I tend to do this anyway, even though colour isn't too bad for me). As I said, I don't really know of any solutions as far as RTS games go. Again, AoE2 had a good choice of team colours, it was mainly the mini-map that caused the problems, and having it not-so-mini would help a great deal.

Haha, I didn't even consider that.

I sometimes struggle with colour-blindness. It's usually not much of a problem in games because steps are usually taken to help prevent this. The most common problem in an RTS would be Player/Team colours. Sometimes colours can look too similar to be distinguishable from one another. Personally, I have a problem with reds, greens and browns. It can be hard for me to distunguish between these if they are near each other in terms of shade/pigmentation (usually mid-darker greens and reds, but virtuall any form of brown). I also stuggle with light green and yellow (lime green looks like yellow to me most of the time). Other people can also struggle with other colours, such as blues and yellows. When playing AoE games I often stuggle with the mini-map. It can be hard for me to find resources, or the Red/Green Teams may blend in to much with the green/brown colours of the mini-map. Anyway, I don't really know of any solutions that can be used other than trying to pick colours that avoid this problem. But it might be hard for people who don't have this problem. Some games (like puzzles) will use numbers as well as colours, to help identify differences, but I'm not sure how viable that will be in an RTS game (it would clutter the screen to have all units/buildings numbered). There may be other methods out there that people have tried, but unfortunately I don't know much about them. I'll point out any time I have trouble with this for 0AD, and I trust you guys will keep these things in mind while developing the game.

I am thinking of this in terms of animating, but if the hero in the basket-thing is to attack, would he not be standing up? Maybe he could be sat for idles, but during attacks he would need to be stood? I think the colours need to be bold. Especially if you are zoomed out while playing and they are in battle and hard to spot. But the one thing that's bothering me is the legs. Them seem too straight: they don't seem to get thinner/thicker. And they seem to be too far apart too. Elephant legs tend to come close together to help support their huge bulk. Just type "elephant" into google image search for more reference, but here are a few:

These models are amazing. Great work guys! This may just be because I am colour-blind (with reds and greens, which makes browns a pain in the neck!), but, as far as the colouring goes, I find it harder to see the stripes than the solid colours. This may be due to the fact that 2 shades of the colour are used for the stripes, which kind of throws me out a little (the red looks more browny). The blue isn't too bad, but if there are other shades of blue or purples used as team colours, this may cause some problems. I would recommend using the solid colours, but you could also try using a SINGLE shade of a colour instead of two. This might help people to identify the colour easier. A third option might be to just use the 2 shades of the colour and remove the white stripes. Hope this helps.

Thanks for understanding. I'll be around now and then. And yes, hopefully I can do some animating in the future. But nothing is certain.