DonSkallon

Alright, yeah it was my understanding 0.A.D. was themed around the period 500 BC - 500 AC. I didn't know the period from 0 - 500 AC would be the theme of the next 0.A.D.-game. I personally thinks the option to connect walls to fortresses and defensetowers would allow for better city/fortification-shaping. Shape of a city/fortification is very important to strategy. Now it's easy for units to become trapped between a wall and a fortress. If walls could be connected to fortresses this wouldn't happen anymore. Same goes for guard towers. Also I forgot to mention, and maybe it's already an option but I don't know: Is it possible to rotate buildings before ordering them built? If not this would be very handy as well.

Nice. I'm not getting the Aristeia Mod to work though. Followed instructions though they're a bit vague. It sais to drag the aristeia map into the 0ad mod map, but there are like 3 maps named either mod or mods in the 0ad directory. Also the last instruction is vage. Does it mean I should rename the Pyrogenesis file in my 0ad/binairies/system-map Pyrogenesis.exe-mod=Aristeia? I've tried it, but it doesn't work. In the Mod selection menu Aristeia does not show up. Nothing shows up, untill I hit "Start Mods" and then only 0.A.D. Empires Ascendant shows up, but that isn't it right? Nice. I'm not getting the Aristeia Mod to work though. Followed instructions though they're a bit vague. It sais to drag the aristeia map into the 0ad mod map, but there are like 3 maps named either mod or mods in the 0ad directory. Also the last instruction is vage. Does it mean I should rename the Pyrogenesis file in my 0ad/binairies/system-map Pyrogenesis.exe-mod=Aristeia? I've tried it, but it doesn't work. In the Mod selection menu Aristeia does not show up. Nothing shows up, untill I hit "Start Mods" and then only 0.A.D. Empires Ascendant shows up, but that isn't it right?

Ooh Sweeet. Got to download the Aristeia mod. Looking for good link now. I somehow find the new development of this game hard to follow.

-Fort-Wall-Defensetower: Allow defensive structures like guardtowers & fortresses to be included in walls. Make defense towers a possible starting point from which to build a wall. Or an end point. In a similair way allow walls to start or end at 1 of the 4 corner-towers of a fortress. -Greek Fire: Give Hellenistic cultures the option to develop flaming projectiles, perhaps in the last age. Shooting flaming arrows & flaming catapult-rocks at the enemy might be a strategic & hystoric addition. -Artillery ships: Give the Hellenistic cultures & the Romans warships equiped with Ballistas(Giant crossbows) and/or Catapults. Perhaps also give the Hellenistic cultures ramming (war)ships. -Entering & taking enemy ships: Allow men garrisoned on a ship to enter and steal an enemy ship & it's load. If a ship has men onboard, add an option to enter enemy ships using a skull&crossbone symbol-button. Stealing an enemy merchant ship gives you the ship + it's cargo.Stolen enemy fishing boats may contain fish. If an enemy ship you're entering is also full of enemy soldiers, there will be a fight on deck untill one emerges victorious. -Naval Defenses: Allow defensive walls to be built in shallow waters. This way you can finally fortify an island without giving the enemy a docking place to instantly drop 10 rams, 50 horsemen, 20 archers and 30 elite spearmen on your island settlement: First ships would have to breach your walls. This would also allow for lifting hooks to be installed on walls built in shallow waters. Hellenistic cultures used these to pull invading ships that came up close out of the water, then drop them again, smashing them on the rocks at the base of the wall & sinking them. Would add both hystoric & strategic value to the game -More Civilisations: Some cultures are missing that really belong in both the timeframe and the geographic area that 0.A.D. is themed on. -Phoenicians (With special naval units & abilities and better prices when trading on the market) -Israelites (With elite sling-units, faster healing priests, extra food from goat & sheep herding) -Huns (With mobile yurt houses & buidlings, excessive population capacity, powerfull cavalery: No stone walls or buildings) -Goths(Or are the Iberians supposed to be the Visigoths?)

Oh wow. So much I don't know about this game yet Good to know.

Here I suggest some improvements I think would add to the realism & atmosphere of the game. -Language spoken by your people. I noticed there really are only 2 vocal responses of units to your commands. "Bastbolleban!!"(sounding like that anyway) if you order them to attack enemy units or buildings and "Crafto" if you order them to do manual labor. "Crafto" seems Latin or Greek for "work". It would be realistic and compelling if each Civilisation's people spoke it's own language: -Macedonians, Athenians, Spartans & Seleucids would speek ancient Greek dialects. -Achaemenid Persians would speak ancient Persian -Gauls & Brittons would speak Celtic dialects. -Romans would speak Latin -Carthaginians would speak a Phoenician dialect, possibly mixed with Berber words. -Mauryans would speak an ancient Indian language. And so on... Also it would be cool if your units could say more than just "work" and "attack". Maybe draw inspiration from AoE: "Lumber" when you order them to cut trees, "Mine" when you order them to mine ore or stone, "attack" when you order them to attack enemy units & "destroy" when you order them to attack enemy buildings. -Ability to build paved roads and squares. Building roads could be usefull strategicly, allowing troops to move faster. It would be nice if you could make compressed earth or woodchip paths in the first age. In the second age these roads could be auto-upgraded into stone roads, at the cost of stone, allowing for troops to move even faster. Using the roadbuilding tool, which could be similair to the wall-building tool, you should be able to make paved squares as well. If this roadbuilding tool is allowed to build in shallow coastal waters as well, it could be used to build extensive docks around your initial dock-building. In age I dirt/woodchip paths would turn into wooden piers as they are built over shallow waters. As the dirt paths upgrade to paved stone roads in age II, the wooden piers would upgrade to stone piers as well. -Ambush ability. Allow all footsoldiers to hide in forrested areas. 6 soldiers every square meters of forrest or so. If the enemy has a favorite route through a certain forrest on their way to attack your city, you could send an army of footsoldiers into that forrest and order them to hide in it and lay in ambush for the next wave of enemies to pass through. Now men will chop trees for wood if you right-click on a tree, so men could perhaps hide behind the tree/bush if you left-clicked on that tree/bush. -More variety in the music. Adding more soundtracks in the audio-loop of each Civilisation's music playlist would defenitely improve the atmosphere of the game. Perhaps each of the Hellenistic civilisations could have a few extra songs added, unique only to their culture(Seleucid, Macedonian, Athenian, Spartan) Brittons and Gauls could each have a few songs, unique only to their respective cultures added too. Also I noticed the war-drums soundtrack played when you are at war is one and the same track for each civilisation. Perhaps this war-themesong could also be unique for each civilisation too.

Ran into some more bugs today. Not sure if it's a bug, but today I played the map "Sicily against Corsica" and though the mini map is round, the actual map was rectangulair and fit inside the normally circulair area of the map. Another bug that stuck around from the previous 0AD version Qoercus is that when I select a soldier and click on the "garisson"button and then change my mind and rightclick the garisson option away the garisson- cursor sometimes remains. Even when I try to select other soldiers, the symbol stays and I can't select new Soldier sometimes. Other than that, there's only the same old "game goes very slow when ordering around 70+ soldiers"-problem. All else works like a charm.

Ahh okay I did not know that. Thanks. shall try it right now. And about the AI problem: Yeah eventually I conquered the Atheneans and saw they placed their dock in a bay close to the edge of the map. I think their ships got trapped there. And about the Ghost construction issue: They were enemy forts being built outside of their territory. I thought you could only build forts on your own territory?

-Construction bug: Sometimes when ordering a group of men to build a wall, they will gather round a piece of the wall and they will seem busy building, but the wall isn't getting built. Sometimes selecting the men and ordering them again will fix it. -Ghost construction workers of the enemy. I was playing as Spartans against Atheneans(Computer; Petra bot) on the Cylcid Archipelago. At one point I had colonised an island just south of the island where the Atheneans had their base. I saw that enemy forts were being constructed on the north-east side of my newly colonised island, but no enemy men where there at all. I kept destroying the forts before they were built(the scaffolding), but they just kept being rebuilt, appearantly by nobody. -Graphic water bug: Horizontal bands appear in the water surface in most games. -A.I. bug/problem: Sometimes in levels where you are divided by water from the enemy(Petra bot), the enemy sometimes never bothers to cross the water with boats to colonise other land or attack you. Sometimes they never even build a dock. Is this a bug? Or an alternative, defensive strategy of Petra bot? It's kind of boring. If you're going to solve this I would like to suggest adding an option for varying degrees of A.I./difficulty. If this bug does NOT occur Petra bot is often incredibly difficult to beat or even survive. It's AMAZING how fast PetraBot can build large armies, gather loads of resources, upgrade their arms and age up. Too fast to be realistic. Though a nice "Hard" setting for the hardcore RTS gamer, it would make the game alot more fun to play if it had at least 1 other difficulty setting/A.I. level: One in which Petra bot is a bit slower in developping and where it is a bit easier to at least fend them off and keep up with them.

True. Walls, pallisade or stone, generally aren't worth the costs. Either lower the costs of building walls or improve their effectiveness in defending your settlement. Also siege weapons are lacking. Besides the battering ram, where are the Mangonels/Catapults, Trebuchets, Ballistas & Siege towers? We need more siege weapons. Big Warships should also be equiped with onboard Ballistas, Mangonels & Trebuchets so they can attack stone walls and other stone structures effectively. It would make sense if only these siege weapons could damage stone structures. Infantery & Cavalery should be able to damage wooden structures, but not stone structures. Also it would make sense for Infantery & Cavalery to throw firebombs/launch flaming arrows at wooden structures (Instead of hacking at them or shooting arrows at them) This addition would make stone walls & stone defense towers more difficult to bring down and make building walls more worth the costs while adding more strategy to the game at the same time.

First I want to report a possible problem with the Spartan Civilisation in 0ad: No matter how far you age up, stone walls do not become available. Spartans can only build pallisade walls. Or was this intended? Historically, Spartans used to build great walls and structures of stone so... Second I want to suggest a new civilisation to be added to 0ad: Israëlites. I know, it has been suggested before, and rightfully so. Seems entirely appropriate given the geographical area and timeframe of 0ad. How can they NOT be in the game? They fought the Romans and the Greeks who both conquered their land and they were liberated by the Persians from Babylonian slavery. It would only seem sensible to put Israelites in the game. Perhaps also Babylonians(allthough they may be a bit too early for 0ad) Phoenicians may also be appropriate in this game. Furthermore: Enable soldiers to take spoils of war. Destroy all enemy units around an enemy building and the building is yours. Example: Conquer an enemy storage-building and the building and all the resources stored there are yours. Allow melee soldiers to quickly finish off the 4 men driving enemy siege weagons; Then allow 4 of your men to man the empty siege weagon and use it yourself. At last: Allow soldiers to set fire to buildings and farmlands. Shooting arrows and hacking away at farms is rather silly. Also shooting and hacking away at walls and guard towers seem silly. Stone walls should only be possible to bring down using catapults, trebuchets and ballistas/scorpions. Wooden pallisade walls could be burned down. Same goes for guardtowers: Wooden outposts may be burned, stone guardtowers ought to be brought down using catapults or trebuchets. Would make the game alot more strategic.

I defenitely agree on the idea of the battering ram to require soldiers to be driven. Like 4 soldiers. Would make it ALOT easier for Melee soldiers to take down these battering rams. Right now they seem nearly invincible. You say you don't know what should happen to the ram after that. Well I do: Spoils of war. You get to keep it. This concept would make them game alot more strategic and realistic too. Let's say you kill a bunch of enemy stone miners and you could then send your soldiers to loot the nearby enemy warehouse/storage building: BAM! 250 Stone resources all yours; Just have to carry it back to your cc or your nearest wearhouse. I also agree there should be more, what you call, PVE in the game. It could hinder beligerent enemies from attacking early on in the game and sending legion after legion at you. I like a slow start up, where I can build up my defences, farms, storage-houses at ease and build up a huge army before starting war. I don't like petty warfare. I like biiiig warfare Another way of taking warfare a little bit more to the background is to improve the trading system and it's importance. I think the trading system is a little vague in 0ad and could be bigger and clearer. More like it was in AoE3. In AoE you had the Homefront with which you could allways trade. Also you had native indian factions with which to trade. In 0ad I'm not quite sure with whom to trade; The enemy is the only other party present? I find the trading system very confusing. If the trading system becomes clearer and is given more importance than that might also help balance out 0ad's tendency to tend too much towards warfare and leave too little time for strategic, economic and cultural/artistic creativity.

Hey folks. I'm new here so please be gente I had some ideas for structures to be built ingame by soldiers to make gameplay more strategic and interresting. I'll just sum them up and briefly explain them. Moats: Give soldiers the ability to dig defensive moats around stone and wooden defense/city walls. In wet, grassy soils groundwater would fill up these moats. When dug in more arid soil moats should draw water from ingame bodies of water. These moats could slow down attacking infanterists and completely hinder cavalery and siege weapons from crossing. You could force the enemy to nozzle down their attackforce into a killzone surrounded by outposts and guardtowers, which leads me to the next idea; Drawbridge Gates: Gates can have a large wooden door hinged at the bottomside, so the doors can pivot forward and be lowered to span across a Defensive Moat. Opened it serves as a bridge, closed it hinders attackers by presenting it with both a Moat and a closed gate. Canals: Give soldiers the ability to dig Canals, similair to moats but deeper and wider so ships can cross them. They would take longer to build and cost more resources than moats, but they could also hinder Infantery from crossing and allow you to add a naval fleet to the defence of your cities. Could also allow access to sea for Fishing when your civilisation center is far from water. Would also allow more complex docks to be built. Could allow for nice Star-Fortress islands to be built. Gatehouse: A Gatehouse to become available in later ages would make besieging more challenging. A gatehouse could have a series of 3 gates. You can select a Gatehouse, select the "lock gate" option and all 3 gates would lock at once. It would have 4 defense towers built into it and be bigger than a regulair gate, but a bit smaller than a fortress. Like a mini-fortress and a gate in 1. Example: A nice upgrade to this Gatehouse could be to upgrade it's doors from wood to solid metal, which would off course cost alot of metal. Integrating structures into Stone City Walls: It would be nice if stone Guard Towers could be built into city walls, replacing the short towers common in the current stone walls. It would also be nice if you could incorporate Fortresses into stone walls. Fortresses have a tower on each corner; You could use those as attatchment points from which to allow soldiers to build stone walls. Wooden Poles: Allow soldiers to beat wooden poles into the ground. Perhaps soldiers could "build" them like walls; in rows. It would only cost a little bit of wood. If significant parts of land are covered with poles, this would hinder Cavalery and Siegenweapons passing through that land. Infantery could pass these poles but would be significantly slowed down. This was a method frequently used to hinder Cavalery in old times. Would allow for a cheap way to hinder enemy attacks, when you dont have enough resources to build enough stone walls and defense towers yet. I have plenty more ideas but I'll save those for later.