Kimball

New video:

I definitely played that game a TON when I was younger and I had totally forgotten about it! I guess I've always had a thing for RTS games...

I think one key solution would be to make sure units don't break formation when they encounter a group of enemies. This would inevitably make everything more strategic (and make you choose your formations more wisely). Since they all tend to scatter when a battle begins, everyone dies quicker. That's not how these battles were fought, and there's a good reason for that.

God dαmn this man is talented. Where did we find this guy?

All of these look great! Fantastic work, Enrique.

Voting goes on for the next 9 days. If we can get a few screenshots and a news post out, that should get our subscribers' attention. The only two unreleased titles with more ModDB subscribers than us is Overgrowth (3,297) and Tiberian Sun Reborn (1,392), to our 1,319, although there were 5-10 titles that had around a thousand. If we can reach our massive audience effectively (and utilize our new friends at Sourceforge), we'll have a decent shot at taking home a trophy this year. This would also be an opportune time for an Alpha release (but only if we're ready, obviously - this is no reason to rush a release).

Google gave me this: http://project-terra.com/

Btw, we're top 100. Time to vote again. This is the link to open the 0 A.D. vote box specifically: http://www.indiedb.com/events/2012-indie-of-the-year-awards/top100#vote10298

You bring up a good point about maps becoming obsolete if we change the system. Remember that I know nothing about programming when I ask: how difficult would it be to develop a conversion tool that would hypothetically change old trigger script into the new version? I realize it depends on the changes, but if something like that is possible, this problem could be avoided relatively easily.

Being able to make units easily distinguishable visually is a lot easier said than done. And I really don't think the Art Dept. is up for redoing every single unit texture in the game. That being said, I don't think the units (from a stats standpoint) need more variety than they already have. Should we have to train children first and allow them to grow up before they can become soldiers? Do we have to remember to feed our army every day too? We don't want the player to have to worry about things that are too "micro.'

If the issue is the campaigns that would theoretically result and not the triggers themselves, why was this feature cut in the first place? That seems incredibly irrational. If there's a different reason though, I'll get off my soap box.

I loved not having territories in AoK/AoM. It gave you a lot of freedom to experiment with forward rushing strategies and made escaping a large ambush relatively easy. That being said, I think we should keep territories as the default mode of gameplay for 0 A.D. They work really well with our vision and they do have their own advantages (such as applying pressure to an enemy and being more selective about where you decide to expand to). Having a "Classic" mode, as Michael suggested, would alleviate everyone's concerns and allow 0 A.D. to remain its own unique game. I think this is a "must have" so that our AoE friends feel at home too.

For those that don't know exactly what we're talking about, a trigger is essentially a script event that controls actions in a scenario. They're based on "Conditions" and "Effects" (i.e. if/then) that are defined in the scenario editor (Atlas, in our case). When a condition or set of conditions is met, an effect is fired. A condition can be anything, such as: Distance to Point Unit is Alive Player at Popcap Unit Selected Unit in LOS Always (fires immediately - triggers can fire other triggers) If the condition(s) are met, the effect results. Effects are generally more complex, and there are many more of them, such as: Army Move/Deploy/Teleport/Kill/Flash/Train/Garrison/Formation/Mine/Farm etc. etc. Advance Campaign (advances to next scenario in a campaign track) Cinematic Mode (black bars, GUI shuts off) Camera track (for cinematics) Counter add unit/stop/pause/subtract etc. Flash UI category/tech/train etc. Set Animation/Music/Lighting Send Chat Reveal Map You Win/Lose As you can see, this opens up a wide variety of possibilities for scenario designers - it is the building blocks of interactive campaigns (and it's the same tool that Ensemble Studios used to create their "official" campaigns). Furthermore, triggers are not limited to one condition and one effect (at least, this is how they functioned in the AoE/AoM franchise). The implications are limitless. The advantage is that a player doesn't need to know a scripting language to script events in a scenario/campaign to write them, since everything is interface-based. It doesn't take a lot of thought to realize that it's a vast undertaking, but it also doesn't take a lot to see how much value triggers can provide for us and our community. The AoK community lasted over a decade because players were obsessed with creating new worlds and stories for others to experience. I'm not saying that ours will die without it, but having at least a rudimentary form of map event scripting (even if we don't have interface-based triggers) will inspire our community beyond any one person's imagination. It will also enable us to develop a compelling campaign to associate with the current game (don't worry about staffing - that's by far the easiest part when it comes to scenario design). So yes, it would be really difficult. Yes, it might add several months to the development track (I'm not a programmer, so I can't be sure of the real estimates here). But the benefits outweigh the costs in this case. That's why I think we should reconsider striking triggers from part 1. If we decide triggers are too much, we should at least consider some sort of script language for map events so the more tech savvy among us can make their maps come to life. The interface itself can come later if that's a hang up. TL;DR: triggers are interface-based map event scripting

Although I agree that this is a less important reason, I think you'd be surprised at how quickly we'd be able to find incredibly talented scenario designers with a powerful enough map editor. Even basic functionality would attract all sorts of talent, and I don't think a campaign-less historical RTS is really reaching 0 A.D.'s full potential. This isn't Counter Strike - people are here for the experience. And if the game is released with an inadequate trigger system, Open Source may come save the day with a dedicated fan to help take the system to new heights. Eventually, part 2 may require an overhaul rewrite, but it's important to have that first iteration to attract the kinds of fans that will make this game great. AOM/AOK survived long past their expiration dates because of their design communities, and that's largely due to the fact that they put a lot of work into making sure the map editor was ground breaking, fully featured, and fun to use. Although we're not a AAA-title producing company, I don't think we should limit our aspirations. As Pedro said, people will be playing the game the whole time this is being worked on, so it's not like the community loses anything from the game taking longer to complete.

Hi sokkur, you bring up some interesting points. There is a decent amount of visual variation, but you won't notice much of it from the standard game zoom level. Helmets, unit textures, shields, and weaponry all vary for most units. As far as statistical variation, that's a little bit more difficult. The only way to explain this difficulty is to explain actors and simulation templates. An actor represents a visual entity - a collection of models, textures, and animations. A simulation template is what makes an actor come to life, assigning obstruction values (so you can't walk through a building), attack stats, armor stats, walking/running speed, what buildings a unit is allowed to train, etc. All of the variation exists in the actors. Since simulation files are tied to actors, varying both would require a complete reworking of the engine's interpretation of units. There is currently nothing in the sim files that allows for statistical variation. All things considered, would this have a significant impact on gameplay? Would it perhaps irritate players, knowing that if they train two identical units, one might be weaker than the other?

The game uses COLLADA for all 3D assets, but if you need to submit the model in another format (.3ds, .blend, etc.), I'm sure someone else can handle importing it for you.

I don't mean to get too off track here (it seems like we're going in the direction of religion implementation), but I was sifting through the features cut from part 1 and something caught my eye. We should seriously reconsider the implementation of triggers in Atlas. They're the backbone of scenario design and open up a world of possibilities for designers.

So I was talking to leper (Georg) on IRC earlier today and the topic of programming in ROTE came up. I mentioned that one feature we really wanted to try was implement a functioning fire ship. After explaining the idea to him, he suggested that I post it on the forums to see if the community would be interested in this sort of feature. He was optimistic about its difficulty, suggesting that something simple like this could be included as soon as A13. The basic idea is that you can train these things relatively cheaply, and when you release them, they'll set fire to anything they come in contact with. At first, we'd have them be manned, and after you click a button, the sailor sets the ship in motion, sets it on fire and then jumps off. Fire ships will gradually catch on fire, causing more damage to units within range depending on how long they've been on fire (i.e. how big the fire is). Any object within one tile of the fire ship will catch fire Units with which the ship comes into contact with will stay on fire for a variable amount of time depending on how long it has been since the fire ship was ignited. Therefore, the distance from which you launch a fire ship will cause a significant impact on the effectiveness of the attack. Not only will the attack cause more damage to units within range the farther it is away initially, but the enemy will be able to anticipate the attack and make efforts to prevent it - there are advantages and disadvantages to the distance from which a fire ship is launched. After a while, the fire ship will sink into a smoldering pile of ashes. Friendly-fire and damage to the player's own units is possible, and something that they'll need to be aware of and take into account when launching a fire ship. Here's a mockup of what it might look like for the player: What are your thoughts on this?

Stellar performance, sir.

The page is pretty outdated. If you want to do custom CSS stuff, contact this guy (Intense). You can do some pretty cool stuff, like this.

That's a wallpaper if I've ever seen one! Slap some logos on this thing and put it on the main site.

Starting a project like this takes a decent amount of coordination and planning. First, you'll need to start putting together a design document for your new faction. If you study the existing design documents for each faction, you'll begin to develop an understanding for what types of units you'll need to create. The programming for a new faction is relatively simple (mainly XML, but you can use the Actor Editor tool to avoid it). If this sounds like it's over your head, it should be relatively easy for you to find someone who is capable of handling this and has a bit of free time to help you on your endeavor. The art will be the most challenging part of your project - especially finding a talented 3D artist to model the faction's architecture. Your understanding of GIMP may help you to create unit textures. I'd recommend skimming through the entirety of that document to get a good feel for what goes in to the art in this game. Overall, if you're driven to make it happen, you can make your dream a reality. Best of luck with your idea, and if you have any questions, we're here to help!

Not gonna argue with that. I don't mind a little decorum here and there.

The announcement topic was pinned at one point, but I think there's enough awareness about the project without having to do that again. Lordgood continues to impress, but I'm sure he's got his hands full with "official" assets (and I'm told we haven't heard from him recently).

I hate to get people excited about things without cause, but I thought some of you might enjoy these recent developments.