Sundiata
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Posts
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Posts posted by Sundiata
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56 minutes ago, feneur said:
Makes me wish we had a "wow" reaction rather than "just" a like or thanks
(It's possible to add new reactions, but you need to have a fitting image, and finding one that fits the current ones and is legal to use is probably more work than it would be worth as the current ones are useful enough.)
I've always wanted a heart shaped red "love" button, and a blue thumbs up "like" button, to add some necessary nuance (being able to properly react to LordGood's posts)
CC0:
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22 minutes ago, LordGood said:
yo @Sundiata we need low thorny acacia bushes from the looks of things, u game?
Absolutely! If you're patient enough with me, I'll get all the acacia stuff (and hopefully other things as well) ready before the next alpha...
The Baobabs and papyrus look marvelous, by the way!
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13 minutes ago, stanislas69 said:
I think the color is too bright https://store.speedtree.com/store/acacia_savanna/
Let's pretend we're coming out of the rainy season
(the grasses have already dried up, but there's still enough water deep in the ground to keep the trees green)
But yeah, I could still play around with colors and brightness a bit..
I was actually thinking of making dry season variants, with fewer leaves and a more brownish color.
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1 hour ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:
@Sundiata, when can we get your awesome new "African" huts and stuff? With Lordgood's baobabs, I'm really looking forward to punching up the savanna maps!
Ah yes, soon! I keep obsessing about the acacia, lol... Modeling trees is hard... I'll be sending more huts and stuff very soon!
At least I just finished the first new Acacia variant, I think... I read something about keeping it under 800 tris, so I kept it at 784
... The other variants will be simpler/smaller and have less tris. This is just the mother acacia.
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32 minutes ago, coworotel said:
Thou shalt not take screenshots without ALT+G lol
Never Again!
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11 hours ago, coworotel said:
for example, ALT+G to hide the UI
I can't believe I didn't know this... lol... Thank you!
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Just now, Nescio said:
Democracy is unworkable for anything larger than a town.
It saddens me to agree with you... There are just some places that are better at keeping the appearance up. But now even those masks are slowly falling of...
I really do believe in democratic principles and all the positives it has brought. It just has a rally dark side that many people choose to ignore, or are unaware of. Once human nature is understood, it becomes easily manipulatable by unscrupulous individuals and organisations. Corruption seeps into the cracks... It's a darkness, like a monster, and when it's grown, it will eat everyone, regardless of their "allegiance"!
Trying to control what can't be controlled, society is buckling under the weight of it's own decadence. I feel like we've been here before...
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7 hours ago, Trinketos said:
Welcome to the First world!
Silly me, thinking that running back to the 3rd world would save me from this nonsense, only to find out that this will affect the whole world, as big internet companies tend to comply to the strictest versions of these laws, regardless of what country they're based in, out of fear of being blocked in a large segment of the international market (such as th EU). It puts the little fish (like us) in an impossible position...
This is a fight that's much bigger than "just" the internet. The worldwide democratic deficit is growing at an alarming rate and these new and fraudulent "copyright" as well as those new "privacy" directives are feeding directly into that. The only privacy that's going to be protected is the privacy of oligarchs and political gangsters as they continue to rape and pillage this world as if there's no tomorrow.
Resist!
A Luta Continua!
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@LordGood, @stanislas69, I have one more silly question. So you double the faces and invert the normals right? But I see that you leave a tiny gap between the 2 faces. Is this actually necessary? Do the faces interfere with each other even if their normals are facing opposite directions?
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39 minutes ago, itrelles said:
if game depends on contributors, contributors are the real owners of the game
Welcome to the future!
39 minutes ago, itrelles said: and if some of them are diatisfied u shuld listen to them
Yes, but the deliberate and unnecessary vagueness and doublespeak of a small handful of individuals, obviously stemming from personal issues spilling into public discussions is really not something that should be entertained in my opinion. Some developers left. Some are still here. Development in some departments is going to be slow for a while. That's how it is. It's not the end of the world (aka, 0AD). It's not the first time it's happened. And it's not going to discourage the dozens of other developers in other departments from continuing their work. We're here because we think it's fun to work on one of the greatest RTS games ever. If someone doesn't enjoy it anymore, that's a pity. But some people seem to want to stop other people from enjoying the development of the game, souring the forums for nothing. Whether they do it consciously or not is a different discussion.
I'd just like people to be a little more mature, and put their personal feelings aside to work for the greatness of 0AD. It's not a personal project. It belongs to all of us. Even if some people contribute so much, and some so little, and some only play the game, we are all part of this community. An online family. And there are always bound to be disagreements and even fights in the family. But at the end of the day, we are all one blood. Classic RTS blooded to be precise. Also, just because someone shouts louder than the others, doesn't make them more right, or their desires trump the desires of the many. There is compromise in everything, especially if so many people are involved, changes are bound to be slow, but indeed inevitable. It's just important not to force it, and not let the few hijack the show.
39 minutes ago, itrelles said:sry
I humbly forgive you. May you live long and prosper, my child.
39 minutes ago, itrelles said:i thought u just loved my mayo picture and wanted to talk =O
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA, yes, I thought it was an intriguing picture. Tell me more about mayonnaise. I never eat it. Am I missing out?
Good luck with your tendon man! I ripped the tendons in one of my feet playing paintball a few years ago (also broke it a bit). I thought I f'd up my foot for life. It took months to walk normally again, but now I don't feel a thing anymore.
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5 minutes ago, camel said:
Very beautiful to read, but in general terms everything needs money, even for servers. So why not use for merchandising purposes? Mb u can afford more expenses if u get from cups, clothes, poster extra money. Its not only about love, u can keep loving a free open source company and make those things.
Sure, but the main developers aren't business men to my knowledge, and these things take time, effort and investment, that you're not even sure you'll get a return on. As I said in the previous comment, the project is Open Source, CC0 license, which means you can do with it pretty much what you like. If you want to spend time, money and effort into creating merchandize, I'm sure it will be positively received, and if you decide to donate the proceeds back to Wildfire Games, that would be amazing! but someone needs to do it, and the most capable contributors are already being pulled left and right by everyone who thinks they should be doing what they want them to do, without actually offering to pay them a salary, since everyone is complaining about money, except for the people who are actually making this game....
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10 minutes ago, nani said:
Not to be an @#$% but that like rate is usual for these type of gameplay commentary videos.
Well, I've seen worse, and it's still amazing exposure. Most of those people didn't seem to know the game.
This is the type of thing we need to be supporting. Free advertising that reaches the masses
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@itrelles, also to clarify, I don't really mean to attack you personally. Just that there has been a negative trend in some of the discussions recently initiated by a mysterious split in the programming team and by some dissatisfied players/contributors. They're a minority but some seem to be passive aggressively trying to disrupt development/forum discussions because of personal issues. Your latest comments seemed to be inadvertently feeding in to this, which is why I felt the need to respond.
11 minutes ago, itrelles said:if im allowed
Open Source. You do with it what you want. If you want to promote 0AD, who is stopping you?
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56 minutes ago, stanislas69 said:
Well he has 200 000 subscribers so that helps ^^
That's some good exposure... And look at dem likes... 987 likes vs 20 dislikes... A 98% approval rating based on the gameplay of a novice player. Not shabby. Not shabby at all...
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41 minutes ago, itrelles said:
big developpers are dying, change is comming, new ones will emerge
Change is indeed coming, and 0AD is ideally positioned to take full advantage of this, as it's the best free to play, open source, cross platform RTS project out there. But indeed, people need to know about it to be able to contribute to it.
41 minutes ago, itrelles said:ok, i think i can make a huge latin campaign to get more spanish players to 0AD
That would be really valuable, for example...
41 minutes ago, itrelles said:not negativity, maybe u are feeling suceptible
No, I'm just cringing at all the misplaced criticisms directed at people that have been moving mountains... Some of them are like real life superheroes!
41 minutes ago, itrelles said:is 0AD in a down moment?
It's impossible to not to come to that conclusion if these latest discussions are all you read. Luckily, it's just a skewed narrative... I don't understand why some insist on pushing it. If someone doesn't like the way 0AD has evolved over the years and wants to go back to playing alpha 16 or whatever because the good old laggy days of missing features was so great, then why not just go back and play those alphas. The only real thing I can deduce from all these discussions is that you're upset that things aren't going fast enough. Which is immature in my opinion. You can't force development by "whining" about things that can't be fixed right now and "pressuring" people who are already overworked, and need help, not more criticism. These discussions aren't constructive at the moment, unless you yourself can do something about it. I don't think you're inspiring positive change or progress like this.
I'd say it's even getting toxic. I know we all have different dispositions, and different tastes in humor. I know you don't mean any harm. But other people can draw the wrong conclusions, even get offended and loose heart if they think a lot of people feel like that about the game. Which isn't true of course. The game is growing in popularity and 9 out of 10 comments are super positive. People generally love the game! But negative comments always weigh heavier, even if they weren't "intended" to be negative.
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Honestly, a lot of you talk about 0AD like it's a commercial project (somebody had the nerve to suggest adds in the game and forum). Like we have anxious investors that need to be appeased by rushing development to release an unfinished bug-ridden game full of broken features and broken promises. A lot of us are here because we are tired and disillusioned by the dishonest and predatory money grab schemes the big developers are currently specializing in.
Even high quality indie games can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and AAA can cost tens of millions, even more. And 0AD is routinely compared to the best!! RTS games are incredibly complex to make, especially if they're fully 3D, which is one of the reasons you don't see so many of them being made. With all the doubt and sometimes even negativity from a handful of "fans" these days, I have to ask, which recent Historical RTS are you all playing that's so much greater than 0AD that you're all "threatening" to jump ship? Empires Apart??? lol!
0AD has never been greater! Or as popular... Just because there are snags in the development today (as there have always been, by the way), doesn't mean anything about the future of this gargantuan project. It's just part of the development cycle. There's always ups and downs. But I honestly don't get it. It's like you prefer fairytales, and sweet lullabies of all the things money will do for this game, forgetting how much money has been thrown at far lesser games...
The volunteering aspect of development is both it's greatest strength, as well as one of its weaknesses. Patience is a requirement. In everything. Money can't buy love. Money can't make a game like 0AD. Only the love, dedication, passion and tenacity of its developers can. So please stop antagonizing the developers and let them work! Give them words of encouragement, not these belligerent and uncalled for reproaches because things aren't going as fast as you'd like them to go. You are causing harm by seeding unnecessary doubt, and it's unpleasant for developers to keep hearing their unpaid work isn't good enough for you. If anything, see what you yourself can add to the development. Just throwing money at things is a lazy and unwholesome way of doing things.
The one thing I do agree with is that some of the social media accounts, especially the facebook page, as well as the main 0AD website should be updated with regular screenshots, either of development or just fan made, and some small update lists of interesting commits, to show of the development of the game, because currently there are way too many 6+ year old promo shots floating around the net, and doubting Tom's who think the project is dead while so many people are actually working on it day and night.
Isn't this something for you @asterix? Collecting all the pretty screenshot and other media produced and shared on the forums, and making a small selection of the best pieces, to post anywhere from 1-5 images per week on facebook, with a 1 liner (What is it? who made it? Can we expect to see it in vanilla or is it for a mod?). And then secondarily, look at the weekly commits and see if there's anything you think people might find interesting. Either a short list of the most interesting commits, or a small written piece (just a paragraph or so) of a more intricate commit, just once a week or so? It would do wonders to let people know how much is actually being done (outside of the pathfinder or AI department).
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20.000 views in less than a day for a first time player. Not bad. Lot's of positive reactions and nice comments. I'd say the French approve
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27 minutes ago, Angen said:
Actually I think this would be weird for elephant to be able to build and if unit cannot actually build structures, it should not have ability to place one. (just my opinion)
Mauryan elephants can build, which is super weird if you ask me. They can't initiate a construction, but they can build it.
I think like free ptolemaic houses and starting walls for the Iberians, it's one of those civ specific things that doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
Having the elephant boost construction speed when other units are already building seems really cool and even intuitive, but the elephant building by itself is weird.
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For me, "free" stuff like houses is really immersion breaking. I know time is a resource, I just don't understand the desire to keep this feature in a game like 0AD... The increased build time is equally confusing as to what makes this desirable or sensible or immersive? It's mud brick architecture, why would it cost more time to build? If anything, the logical thing for Egyptian houses is for them to be built in a shorter time. Think about it for more than a minute. How could vernacular architecture possibly take more time to build than say, a Roman house?
Why don't we go for a compromise, and give a nominal cost, at least. The next cheapest houses are 75 wood. So why not let the Ptolemaic houses cost just 50 wood? Still a big advantage, but not immersion breaking. And reduce the increased build time dramatically please. Same for dropsites.
Civ specific traits should be based on the actual civilization, and what made them unique or special. Not what another mythology inspire fantasy game did. There is so much to work with, as has been pointed out many times before.
For Ptolemaic Egypt specifically, off the top of my head:
- Super densely populated (houses can have extra pop)
- Grain basket of the Mediterranean (increased income from farming)
- Incredibly rich (trade and/or mining bonuses)
- Mercenaries from everywhere! (they can hire everything from Kushites to Thracians, there was even a notable population of Scythians in Alexandria)
- Monumental temple construction, Egypt, land of the ancient gods (religious fervor, priestly bonuses)
- One of the most powerful navies in Antiquity (naval bonuses)
- Countless engineering marvels (improved siege, other techs related to construction)
etc
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4 hours ago, Angen said:
Does not have to be case if they were based on the same reference
They're not based on references at all, that's the problem! That's not what Ancient Egyptian houses looked like, and as a historical game we should be careful not to perpetuate unnecessary stereotypes. I made a post about Egyptian housing before, I'll just share the artist references here again. Keep in mind that most of these are Dynastic Egyptian, not that different from later periods, but multistoried apartment blocks became more common in the Ptolemaic period.
Spoiler
11 hours ago, WhiteTreePaladin said:I think the original reasoning for the free buildings was that the Ptolemies would have had many ancient structures already built from old Egypt.
I'd go even further than what Genava said and say that this applies to every single civ in game. None of them appeared out of nowhere. All of them were built on the enduring legacy and heritage of those that came before them. The world wasn't empty in 500BC. It was already rather populated, and a significant number of our civs were already pretty developed before the 500BC date as well. .
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Another important point is that the specific names are the same for everyone, regardless of what language they speak. It's a unifying element, as someone from Kazakhstan can use the same name for a specific unit or structure as someone from Argentina.
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The original languages are fantastic element of 0AD, when and where they can be, and actually are accurate.
I think this a good example of something that needs to be civ-specific. Some civs just don't have a rich corpus of written history in the original language to ever get it right, and so it doesn't matter to use generic names only in those cases. But that doesn't mean that the educational aspects of having accurate original terminologies where possible should be underestimated.
I haven't read this much Latin and Greek since high school, because of the historical research involved in development and since the Kushites I've even learnt a little something about Ancient Egyptian and Meroitic. Of course I don't speak any of those languages, but becoming more familiar with them through 0AD is a real addition of value in my opinion. Also don't underestimate the subconscious internalisation of these terms when actually playing, especially for kids.
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9 minutes ago, av93 said:
In AoM it's exactly like that, some buildings are not free, but the ones that are need a longer building time.
Even the houses themselves are clearly inspired by AoM...
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1 hour ago, Nescio said:
Yes, people come and go, which is perfectly fine. But if more people leave than join in the long run, then the project's doomed.
OMG, you're so dramatic!
I think the most important thing is to:
And whatever you think you can do towards improving the development of 0AD yourself, whatever your skill,
The more work we do individually (and share it of course), the more other people will feel inspired to do more work themselves, regardless of the department. 0AD has been under development for so long. Even if we need to wait a year for a new AI developer to come along, I'll still be here! And my personal skills will have improved as well... Because one department has ground to a standstill, doesn't mean that every other department does too, nor does it mean that it's a permanent issue. There are so many things that took years to fix...
I'm not too worried about the future of the game. Even though I recognize that there is a crisis of sorts, there's always a crisis of sorts... It's the way of the world.
The thing is...
0AD has never been more popular, more stable, more fun and more beautiful than it is today! It has blossomed into one of the greatest games in it's genre, and something tells me we're just getting started
2012?
2018!
The trajectory suggests greatness. Have faith my brother!
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Dancing
in Gameplay Discussion
Posted · Edited by Sundiata
I'd just like to add that this discussion is good illustration of why it's difficult to move forward on gameplay decisions.
Dancing is an exploit, plain and simple. But there are some experienced players who have a vested interest in maintaining this exploit because it allows them to win vs noobs and/or people who refuse to stoop to dancing an individual unit to win a battle. Such cases should be clearly identified and tackled. Dancing on the frontline of a battle is just dumb, and if it allows the dancer to win the battle, it's hella frustrating to everyone that can't be bothered to go into first person Billy Eliot mode to win.
This is basically the inverted of something I've suggested several times myself (I suggested ranged units randomly selecting 1 out of the 10 nearest units, spreading fire across the group being attacked, not just the nearest individual):
The only caveat I can see with nani's suggestion is how would you focus fire on a specific unit, like an elephant storming towards your CC? I don't think you'd have that problem if you follow my original suggestion, which is the most natural, organic, logical and intuitive solution (don't know if it's feasible from a programming side though)
I repeat my suggestion:
When a group of ranged units attacks another group, the ranged units each individually and randomly select 1 out the 10 nearest enemy units in range to fire on. This would cause groups of ranged units to fire across a front, not an individual. Dancing would be rendered ineffective and ranged combat would start looking a lot more natural. Perhaps "focus fire" could be a tech to research, to help sniping heroes?
Secondly, directional defence should be a thing. So that units carrying a shield would become less vulnerable when attacked from the front, and far more vulnerable when flanked or attacked from the back. Currently a unit's attack has a direction, no? How come the defence stats can't be applied differently to a direction (front, back, left, right)?
Also, the poll is misleading, as option 2 and option 3 are basically the same option and option 1, 2, 3 are more similar to each other, while people are allowed to vote on more than one option at a time... Skewed results.