Dizaka

Big problem with automation. Either: (1) Automate things IG to simplify it (e.g., sniping feature rather than a plugin, basic eco management, initial start "moves", etc) (2) Detect and ban cheats

@RangerK I think SaidRdz is much better than me, sniper, rauls or chrgster. Once he gets going on Maury he is unstoppable with those sword. VERY few, if any, players can contain that army. Because it is slash you can't even contain him with mass siege towers. You'll notice in both games he was singled out in early phases otherwise you don't really stand a chance. Check Rauls attacking him in 2nd game and in first Geriatrix. In the first game it was a matter of keeping Rauls/SaidRdz contained with just 2 players for some time. In the second game it was a matter of keeping SaidRdz / spartan contained. Geriatrix did a great job setting that up and placing a CC defensively so that eco of pocket wasn't impacted. In the second game Rauls did a great job attacking SaidRdz allowing the han cav to pop in the south at an important fork in the road. It was just a matter of time before they'd push through, though. Goal was always for other side to push through first and to buy time on whatever side SaidRdz is. Palalaigos is awesome.

The issue with ballista tower wall hubs is the concentration of arrows. I believe in one of the alphas arrows from wall hubs were removed as players started placing wall hub towers and deleting walls for the purpose of free arrows. (Note: I love the idea of ballista towers)

OH. Meaning that if a wall is "owned" by Player A then Player A units behind the wall would received dampened damage from Player B, who is attacking Player A units through Player A walls. That's an extremely interesting mechanic! @real_tabasco_sauce @BreakfastBurrito_007 @wowgetoffyourcellphone

Agree and disagree at the same time. If defenders should be damaging their own walls I think walls should have more HP. I understand the simulation aspect of it towards realism but there's also KISS, to keep the simulation simple. With ranged units hitting own buildings it may be impossible to shoot with archers from behind a CC and archers/ranged units may need more dmg upgrades. Currently, we are at the stage of "it takes 10-20 arrows to kill a unit" not "1-2 arrows" which would be more realistic.

Yes, lol. No idea why I wrote that and corrected. TY.

I don't know whether that is true (never itnended to compete with commercial platforms). However, the game competes extremely well with commercial platforms thanks to volunteers like @Stan`, @vladislavbelov, @wowgetoffyourcellphone and others who have been contributing to this project for any length of time.

I actually have a different viewpoint. I think walls are under-rated, especially for multiplayer games. What I have figured out, especially with palisades, that if are an archer civ going vs Sparta (or some other sword-heavy civ or cav-heavy civ) you use walls not in a blocking-way. Instead, the purpose of walls is to make it possible to reach your army (so that you're engaged) but making a retreat difficult (so that the enemy is forced to commit on mistakes). The goal of palisades (and walls) seems to be more about making targets hard to reach without making them impossible to reach (e.g., iberian wall circle around CC). With archers, xbows, archer cav (maybe skrim, but not really. You want range as defender.), and elephant archers walls work the best. Even more so with persians and mauryans who have a range bonus. Walls allow you to wait for the attack and then do a counter attack. Best walls seem to be 5-8 unit segments with houses inbetween. Units can travel through these (the holes) but it breaks formations, makes your units hard to reach, and makes it extremely difficult for the enemy to retreat. TLDR: For me, walls are about creating obstacles that slow down the advance and the retreat so that I can get as many arrows as possible into enemy units. I've learned there's no reason to block troop movements. If you block troop movements players attack other positions that aren't as fortified. I use walls to basically "set a trap." Again, I use walls a lot. Especially if rushed in the 8-12 minute timeframe. By the time the enemy gets to my base, especially if I believe they are competent, I will have a defensive perimiter established. More then likely it will be disconnected and irregular walls to let the enemy through but increase travel distance and force 1by1 lines of units rather than allowing for large formations from the enemy. Double check your shortcuts and clicks. Walls need to be attackable by units, imo.

@Stan`it's been said repeatedly but I'll be repetitive - THANK YOU. THANK YOU for contributions you've made to 0AD and Wildfire Games.

To an extent. However, having too much of a micro creates a huge barrier of entry for new players to be competitive. Do we want to discourage or encourage new players? I think if something can be automated for an unfair advantage it should be considered for a feature included in the game - especially if it can be "silent" and not take away from the experience. Clicking like a madman, imho, takes away from the experience.

Sort of agreed here. A bad "all in" (and even a rush) can have massive consequences in the end game. It's actually hard to rush and eco boost at the same time (especially with wrong civ selection for the phase you attack in). Many times it is easier to ignore a rush and counter near base as long as you don't go all women. I've found the best way, when selecting civs, to address this is to pick civs that have advantages in the phase you want to attack in. Early p1/p2? Pick Maury because of worker elephants ability to access hunt for your cav. Hans, if you get lucky with hunt RNG, can be deadly with sword cav. If you are going vs Rome/Iber you likely won if you have a lot of hunt. Know that Romans/Iberians have no counter to melee cav in P1 (no spearmen). Rome/Mace/Hans can really wipe them out in p1 with mass cav. Any civs (e.g., Mace/Seleucids) with pikemen (and only skrimishers - no access to archers/slingers) are vulnerable to skrimisher cav who can outmaneuver them Any civs (e.g., Mace/Seleucids/Gauls/Romans/) without archers/slingers are vulnerable to Ptol Camels in P1 Mid/Late p2? Civs with no archers/slingers/melee spear cav are vulnerable to Kush Camels. Very vulnerable. Pick Gauls as the sword cav have an innate damage bonus. P2 sword cav can dominate nicely. Pick Maury/Pers/Hans as you get extra pop so that means its an innate damage bonus with mass cav. Late p2/early p3? Pick Maury, p2 ele stables make it possible to trample through players if support is a good player immediately upon hitting p3 Pick Kush/Athens/Cartha/Maury if you want instant p3 champs like with maury p2 ele stables (Athens can build champ building in p2 and count towards p3. Same with Kush and Carth temples.) Pick Mace/Sele for Skrim/Pikeman combo Pick Mace for amazing siege dmg (siege hero, will to fight, siege damage, omfg) Pick Ptol if you want to do quick phasing and get a siege tower up in 11 min (possible/doable, almost instantly kills a player) Late p3? Pick Carth/Persia/Gauls/Maury/Han/Romans/Sele if you are in the long cav game. Don't pick a ram civ. Go with a ranged siege civ. Rams in late game are hard. Maury/Iberian sword bonus in late phase is amazing. Iberian champ sword are great. Kush R3 instant priests are great too. Only valuable priest is a R3 priest. Anything else sucks. Agreed. Interestingly, I've seen few players take advantage of the environment. Very FEW players, for example, will build on the side of mountains using mountains to create choke points and funnel enemy armies. Some players do it. Some good players fall for it. Some good players actually wont' fall for it and walk around it. This is a big one that bothers me. Which is why I hate the *micro* in the game (alt+attack for ranged units). It is tiring and shouldn't exist IMO.

Yes, thank you!

@Mentula THANK YOU!

@Mentula This is awesome. Just a question (without looking through your code which would probably provide me with an answer to this question and if so sorry for time-wasting) how do you obtain the stat data? Do you do a headless replay and collect the stats? Do you just do a replay and use the stats collected? Curious and it would help me if you'd share this information, if possible.

Is it possible to do headless replays? If so, what terminology/language should I look for in the codebase?