Kimball

Yes, turn-based war games don't work out too well because war isn't turn-based, it's ruthless fighting to the death.

We do have some unit cheats laid out and a few of them finished. Not to worry, we'll surprise you.

Well, our water isn't static and we don't plan on having triggers lag when looped. We'll be sure to include an abundance of eye candy objects, but don't forget that this game was made by modders for modders, allowing anyone to create additional eye candy mods for the editor.

There are footprints, so making caravan footprints last longer would be a good idea.

Movement will work like in AoM, where no road bonuses, or roads at all for that matter, will exist. It is possible to create a mod that creates a similar effect though. Perhaps you'd like to endorse that when the game is released.

One thing we might want to think about is that since the building textures are universal within a faction, we could have civilization-themed 'scraps' that fly off of a structure when hit by a longer-ranged siege weapon, such as a catapult. Rams shouldn't have that effect because that would look cheesy.

Or even allowing an ally to temporarily control a unit if you send him to your ally's town center. That way the ally could make use of a platoon you send over if they're in need of extra manpower and have a strategy in mind.

Word.

Can't say I know you. Are you one of the newer AoMHers? Either way, welcome to WFG! If you have any questions about the game, feel free to ask.

Lookin' good so far.

None of these are done yet, but those will be included (at least the first three as far as I know). Read the phalanx article we posted around Christmas time for some more info.

Actually, that's where you're wrong. We'd love to have you as a voice guy. Record us some samples and fill out an application form.

Maybe you'd like to help development? Are you proficient in Photoshop, 3DS Max, Maya, Blender or the like? If not, are you good at creating sound effects or even think you have an interesting voice? Maybe you're a programmer, and know C++? And finally, if none of those apply to you, I'd encourage you to try a game like Age of Mythology or Age of Empires (2 or 3, whatever suits you) and try your hand at the editor. If you find yourself creating remarkable things, you could be helping out with the 0 A.D. campaign in the coming months/year!

Well, I wouldn't get too carried away with the feature requests. Armor upgrading implementation might be a tad difficult at this point, and remember that although it isn't polished, the game is in a somewhat solid state. Units will be upgraded by the amount of time that they're alive in three stages: Basic, Advanced and Elite. The units will be upgraded in all sorts of manners, including armor and all. I'd say this is just about as accurate as it gets. As the unit ages, he gains more experience, and is given better armor and weaponry combined with his skill, making him much more worth having.

We don't have endless stone. The idea that orchards provide both wood and food might be a bit complicated. Not that it can't be done, but it's somewhat a lot to think about. Also, how would we price them? Free seeds?

Both ideas are fantastic. And that's what I meant. I don't mean that by constantly hacking away at a forest, it should grow back at a rate that is fast enough to be efficient. If you leave a dead forest alone for quite some time (let's say 25-30 minutes game time?), you should start to see small plants grow in it's place. I think allowing the female villagers to plant domesticated plants would be a great idea. Maybe these trees aren't as plentiful as a fruit tree you'd find in the wild, or maybe you have to wait a while before they become useful.

Eh, late 2009 at the soonest. The beta testing period is going to be a long one. We want to squash every bug before claiming 1.0. That's the goal at least. We realize we'll miss a few, but we want to get most of them.

I do think we should consider a tree system of some kind. That always bugged me. And remember how awesome that Gaia godpower looked when the trees grew out of the ground?

Regenerating trees has to be the greatest idea that has ever been thought up for an RTS, but sadly, it's hardly ever done. I know what justifies it, but suppose you were to limit the number of surrounding trees so that they don't grow so fast that they fill the map by the end of the game. Like minesweeper, only with a forest. Unlimited mines might not be a good idea, but I agree that a resource like stone should be abundant.

In development sounds better tbh. But we really need a sort of large area of the site to clearly say that it isn't done and won't be for a while, maybe linking to a thread with details. Like where that 'Latest Articles' box is. Edit: I just another idea. What about a small banner that hovers above the page in the top right/left corner? It could be like the 'Key Features' banner and say something like 'Pre-Alpha Stage' or even with a hypothetical percentage of completion: even though that's really hard to gauge at this point, as we'd have to index pretty much everything, determine size and importance.. blah blah blah, it would better give the impression that we're not done. Whatever is going to catch people's eye so they notice immediately that it can't be downloaded yet.

Lol, yeah, but you know what I mean. We need to make it obvious for people.

We really need to put that information somewhere. Not under the title 'FAQ', but more along the lines of 'Looking for the beta? Click here!'. Hopefully that will soak up half of the new guys.

I mean that we haven't specifically featured a Roman unit like we have with the Spartans and others. No, we're actually far from finishing all the art. We're even far from fine tuning gameplay. The engine itself is in pre-alpha phases, meaning that the actual engine is going through bug testing, not the game. We've still got a lot of art, a lot of programming and a lot more bug testing to do before we can even think about a beta release, which we plan to be extended.

I don't even think we've showcased any Roman units yet.. sounds like a good idea though. The problem being that we're working on art for them at the moment, particularly waiting for modelers.