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Wildfire Games proudly announces the release of a third pre-alpha version of 0 A.D., a free, open-source game of ancient warfare. Like previous releases, it's not a playable release yet, but slowly yet surely we're getting there, so as one longtime developer remarked, "it's feeling more like a proper game than I can ever remember," if only because now you can play 0 A.D. over a network with your friends! This release includes multiplayer support, improved GUI, improved pathfinding and more. Easy Download and Install Download and installation instructions are available for Windows, OS X and Linux. Play With Your Friends This is the first version of 0 A.D. in a long time that has multiplayer capabilities. We tested them this Saturday (July 10th, 2010) in an international multiplayer game with five participants from the US, the UK, Sweden and Israel, and it worked pretty much without a hitch. You're invited to recreate the same experience with our special map designed for multiplayer, "techdemo-mp". All you need is an IP address and maybe to know your way around a router or a firewall. If you run into any crashes or major bugs, you're invited to report them in the multiplayer thread at the 0 A.D. development forum so we can fix the game in later versions. New Features To recap, some of the changes since the last pre-alpha include: Added multiplayer support. GUI: Redesigned session GUI; Redesigned game setup GUI; Changed GUI fonts; Improved text rendering performance; Added fullscreen toggle; Added resizable windows; Added session GUI when playtesting inside the scenario editor; Added on-screen warning/error display. Pathfinding: Added terrain passability constraints; Added terrain movement costs; Added floating units. Bug fixes: Fixed animation speeds; Fixed projectile synchronisation; Fixed rendering bugs; Fixed gameplay bugs; Fixed CPU detection; Fixed GUI text input bugs. Added ambient sounds. Added hotloading of actor XML files. Improved shadow rendering. Various other changes and bug fixes and optimizations - see the SVN log. An overview of the gameplay feature status is on our wiki. There is still a lot of work to be done, though: Check out our planned feature list for the alpha version if you're interested. If you want to be part of this effort too, you're welcome to get involved! Long Time, No Siege Wildfire Games will continue releasing new versions of 0 A.D. periodically. Watch our news feed to keep updated, or follow us by e-mail, RSS, Facebook or Twitter. And you're always welcome to join the 0 A.D. community on our forums.

To be fair, it's probably in very early development.

Gaming website Kotaku has revealed that an Ensemble Studios incarnate named Robot Entertainment is working on a strategy game codenamed Spartan, that is similar to Age of Empires. Kotaku says that the game may share a lot with the AoE core gameplay, with maybe some RPG elements and a visual change in direction. Personally I gather these changes to gameplay and graphics are meant to make RTS more accessible to casual gamers. It would agree with the reason Ensemble Studios was dissolved in the first place and with recent trends in the game industry. Do you agree? What do you predict Spartan will be like?

Hi Alex! Welcome to the forums. I'm glad you are so excited about 0 A.D. and that you share our passion. You are welcome to stay and hang out with other fans.

Thanks!

I have no idea how they would have called a phalanx or a phalangite but a spearman is Ish Romakh.

I translated everything into Hebrew as it is spoken today so you could have some vowels. As a rule, Semitic languages are written with consonants only, so only the consonants survive from Punic and Phoenician inscriptions and so what vowels were between them are anyone's (educated) guess. The variation isn't very large anyway. Hebrew remained frozen for about two millenia, so I would like to think if someone spoke these words very slowly and in a thick Sephardic or Arabic accent to an ancient Carthaginian, the latter would understand them without much of a problem. "swordsman": Ish Kherev "archer": Qashat "slinger": Qalla' "israelite": Ben Yisrael "hebrew": 'Ivri "jew": Yehudi (These three words essentially refer to the same people but were used in different periods in history and different parts of the scriptures). "chariot": Merkavah "woman": Ishah "merchant": Sokher "healer": Rofeh "pillar of fire": 'Amud Esh "siege tower": Migdal Matzor (Literal translation into modern Hebrew, I have no idea what the ancient word would have been) "merchant ship": Sfinat Sokher "barge": Dovrah (Literal translation into modern Hebrew, I have no idea what the ancient word would have been) "warship": Sfinat Qrav "fishing ship": Sfinat Dayig "fisher" or "fisherman": Dayag "elephant": Pil "iron chariot": Merkavat Barzel

I speak Hebrew and have done all the Punic language work for 0 A.D. If you just have a few dozen terms you want translated I can help out

"Semites" is primarily a linguistic group. Probably existed as one people before the split into Aramaic, Hebrew, Canaanite, Arabic, some languages spoken in Ethiopia etc. but like the Indo-Europeans, it is so ancient I doubt that is in recorded history anywhere.

Not true, btw... Wikipedia is not commercial either and they make extra-super-sure they are not infringing on anyone's copyright. When it uses copyrighted material (like a screenshot from proprietary software) it has to be very small and follow all sorts of fair use guidelines, and it is very blatantly advertised so that other people don't think it is free content like most stuff on Wikipedia is. 0 A.D. is very similar in that respect. We use code & art that was explicitly released to anyone who wants to use it, or develop our own and release it to the public, especially, say, in the game's sound & music which is all done from scratch.

I have never played AOM but it seems the mechanics of the game have a lot of variation depending on the faction you're playing (e.g. different ways of earning favor from the gods). In 0 A.D. (as well as AoE I & II) I don't think the differences are anywhere near as significant - Gameplay is essentially the same no matter what you're playing, you just get different bonuses and whatever. So narrating from more than one point of view is just a nice option to consider IMHO and not a must, as it is in AoM.

There are pros and cons to everything. Some people might appreciate the impartiality and the originality in this kind of storytelling. It would also help decrease a Eurocentric bias that exists in a lot of portrayals of antiquity (think "300"). Anyway it is not set in stone either way.

Two small news items from today: First, 0 A.D. has been nominated in an OS indie game contest called "The Digital Man" organized by WorldKi, a software company that provides a cross-platform marketplace for indie games. We're not sure 0 A.D. actually qualifies (criteria include "must be complete and playable", which 0 A.D. is not) but we appreciate the nomination and the attention anyway. Thanks! Next, lead ingots carried by a Roman ship sunk in 50 BC will be used to study the decay of neutrinos. They are special because they have nearly no radioactive lead anymore, and that is important to build shieldings meant to prevent contamination of neutrino experiments. So the ingots "will now be stripped of their historically interesting manufacturers' names, cleaned of any incrustations and then melted to provide a shield" for a neutrino test, (though I'll bet the ingots were well documented before melting). (via kottke.org)

Sorry, good idea, I wasn't following this thread very closely

Hi jomas, welcome to the forums, you're invited to stay and participate in more discussions. This is very far into the future and by no means definite, but I think one tutorial is enough, no need to learn the same concepts over and over. Beyond that, I think it is reasonable to expect some representation of all 6 factions in the campaigns in the game, if only to introduce them all to the players so they can recognize the different units and buildings, as well as for some historical and educational perspective and *ahem* fun. (Just an idea off the top of my head: There might be a campaign on the Greek-Persian wars where the player might play for the Greeks in one scenario and then play for Persia in the next, offering a look into both sides of the story. That would save work on separate campaigns for Greece and Persia).

Welcome, Georg! Thank you very much for your compliments. We appreciate them coming from fans like you. We could definitely use some extra help, especially with programming. You are welcome to have a look at the open tickets on our trac system, especially those designated "simple". Our programmers will be in touch with you shortly.

DesuraNET, the folks behind ModDB and Desura have now opened IndieDB, a special website just for showcasing indie games, like 0 A.D. The old 0 A.D. ModDB profile is still intact and will continue to be updated automatically. But it's nice to have a website just for indies so as not to compete for attention with mods, and it's great to have easier access to a niche audience of indie developers and gamers. Thanks, guys.

Thank you very much for your compliments. Kind words from fans like you really mean a lot to us. You are welcome to join our community and participate in more discussions. We have a few other fans like you who like to talk about their ideas for 0 A.D. scenarios, campaigns, mods, expansion packs etc. and I think you might enjoy exchanging ideas with them.

Hi Mapkos! Thanks for your suggestion. Definitely something worth looking into in the future. How did you find out about 0 A.D.?

Hi Rémi! Thanks for your post and welcome to the forums. Don't worry about your English, it is fine, and we accept fans from everywhere. Bienvenue! Matt is in charge of the sound for 0 A.D. and you are invited to talk to him directly about whatever interests you. Matt has a team of sound people and a list of sounds he wishes to record. AFAIK we want to make all the sounds and music brand new for 0 A.D. but I am sure Matt can evaluate your link specifically. Thanks. I believe voice actors will only be required later in the development of the game, but you are always invited to keep track of the game (via RSS, Twitter, Facebook etc) and participate in these forums.

Ejyafallajokull!

See extensive documentation on our Trac, and especially the tasks labeled "simple" to get your hands dirty. Ask lots of questions. Even if they might seem silly. Our programmers love to help contributors out.

Hi Athos. Absolutely, you can submit whatever you like.

Thanks for the compliments and we'd appreciate anything you can do to lend a hand. (Worth much more to us than money at this point).

In the footsteps* of the previous news post, 0 A.D. fan qubodup, whose YouTube profile says is called Iwan and is from Germany, has uploaded the following awesome video: <object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value=" name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>(Hat tip: SMST) * Footsteps! As in pathfinding! Get it? Ba-da-bing!