Hi.. guys. I've been following 0AD since last alpha. I am a rts fan and have played almost all rts out there. I’m not a developer but would still like to contribute in some way.
I would like to make some suggestions regarding ‘Game design changes’. (Inspired from posts on this thread and rest of the forums. And Delenda mod)
Resources-
Food- Train units. some techs, uprgades. Main resource.
Wood- Buildings and defenses, some units and techs. Aging up to phase 2.
Iron- Train Units. Blacksmith techs. aging up to phase 3.
Gold- advanced Techs(including phase 3 blacksmith techs). Aging up to phase 2 and 3.. Heroes and small amount for champions.
Stone- removed. has a lot of overlap with wood. and not much other use once gold is used for techs. easier with 4 resources.
Food is always gathered. males switched form wood to iron and reverse. depending on military composition. Gold elite late game resource. rare so essential for victory.
Experience- Hidden resource. Similar to glory or faith implementation. Can be gained only through combat(building auras and hero auras play a role). In special conditions can be bought in barracks for other resources(see upgrading below).
CC produces only economic units- Male citizen and female citizens. Batch production not possible until a tech in phase 2(which allows 5).
Female Citizen- cost 50 food. gathers- food-0.8, wood-0.6, gold(or silver)-0.3, iron-0.3
Male Citizen- cost 70 food. gathers- food-0.6, wood-0.6, gold-0.6, iron-0.6
Efficiency aura(10%) will be retained{another unique aspect of 0ad}. So effectively males gather wood faster than females because of aura. But pure females can be made in early game to collect both food and wood.- boomy strategy, while a more balanced male to female ratio would be a turtle strategy.
males can take up arms at barracks(or fortress). cost 20wood/20iron(swordsman - iron) per soldier. through a tech/button- which calls upto 10 nearby males citizens and converts(2sec delay- citizen garrisons in and then soldier comes out) them to citizen soldier{lvl1}(bow/spear/sword depending on what you selected).
Citizen soldiers dont show up in idle villager(optional?). but can be put to work(Y hotkey- send back to previous work, functions as is now). Gathering reduced- by 33% with each upgrade.
{lvl1} Citizen Soldier- food,wood,gold,iron- all 0.4. Carrying capacity reduced by 5.
{lvl2} Elite Soldier- food,wood,gold,iron- all 0.2. builds 50% slower. Carrying capacity reduced by 10.
{lvl3} Champion Soldier- Cant gather.. cant build
new feature- Economic overview- this is essential to plan your macro. Even more important if some of your fighters double as gatherers. Total number of gatherers can be shown in brackets next to each resource at the top. Hovering on it can give detail distribution.
Eg Female-1, Male- 10, Soldier- 6, Cav- 1 etc.
Barracks/Stables can be used to produce Citizen soldiers directly, as they are in current game. Cost a sum of the above- 70f + 20w or 70f + 20iron.
Batch production possible. fixed at 5. batches of 10 unlocked by a tech in 3rd phase.
Citizen cavalry can hunt for food. Gathering rate-5. Carrying capacity-+20 than other citizens.
Booming possible through fertility tech(enable to produce female citizen only- at double the train time of CC) in house. House gives 10 pop each.
House limit-> phase1- 4, phase 2- 8, phase 3- 20. Phase 2 has a tech which increases the pop cap to-15 per house. CC gives 20 pop.{eg. 3 cc and 16 upgraded House to reach 300 limit}
So phase 1 has 60 pop limit. Phase2- 140(+20per additional cc), Phase 3- Max.
Those factions which have larger houses- can be like-
House limit-> Phase1- 2, phase 2- 4, phase 3- 10. 20 pop per house. 30 after tech. Fertility tech enables female citizen production- but at faster rate- equal to CC train time.
Mauryan houses- give 11 pop each. 17 after tech.
Economic benefits-
Phase1- Basic food and wood gathering upgrades
Phase2- Advanced wood and food gathering upgrades. Basic iron gathering upgrades.
Phase3- Advanced iron gathering upgrades, farm upgrades. Gold gathering upgrades.
Soldier lvl up- based on combat xp. or assisted. Soldiers garrisoned in barracks can upgraded by a tech/button. lvl2 upgrade requires phase 2 and 10 iron(even for archers and spearman. indicates better armor) per soldier. lvl3 upgrade requires phase 3 and 10 gold per soldier. 30 sec(or more?) required to upgrade. barracks cant train soldiers meanwhile. in phase 3 soldiers directly upgraded to lvl3 from 1 for 10iron+10gold. Experience caps to lvl up can be raised above what they are now.
Stat scaling.(an example)
lvl1 + 15% (+1 armor)= lvl2
lvl2 + 15%(from base stat)(+1 armor)= lvl3.
All faction's have only ability to train lvl1 citizen soldiers directly. (except sparta- skritai commando-lvl2)
and additionally 2(TWO only) unique champion units are available to each faction. (exception- mauryan have 4)
these champion units have identical stats(and same cost) to champion units obtained through lvling up. and similarly dont gather resources. but they are different in that they can be trained directly(faster).
the unique champions also enjoy further benefit that they might have specific upgrades targeted for them that an enemy faction wouldn’t have. Eg Mauryan champion poison maiden. Will be superior to any archer unit lvld upto champion archer by an enemy faction which cant directly access them.(even though they will have same base stats), because mauryan archers will get lot of archery upgrades (+ poison arrow +fire arrow) while the other faction archers wont.
the unique champion units also can get upgraded, but through combat xp only. they get 10% boost(from champion stats) and become lvl 2 (max).
1 champion unit gets unlocked in phase 2(bonus because assisted lvl up to champion is available only in phase 3). another in phase 3.
Siege get unlocked in Phase 3.
Military upgrades-
Shouldnt give stat benefit more than 20% after maxing all upgrades. Armor upgrades- +1 per phase. Cost based on gameplay impact.
Upgrades for champions will affect both the unique champions and the ones gained through xp.
Thus all factions are able to fight each other. Even if they dont have direct access to a swordsman champion. and citizen soldiers are not made redundant in late game. Once you max out on pop, you dont have to delete units to make space for champions, but can upgrade them instead.
this mechanic would ofcourse require a build limit for Barracks and Fortress. eg- 4 and 2. but can be decided after testing. A forward barracks needs to built near your forward gold mine to arm your male citizens if needed.
Combat changes-
3 damage types- mele, ranged and siege.
ranged units 50 % base accuracy at maxm range. decreases against enemy with higher tier(lvl) or faster enemy(cav). Increases against enemy of lower tier.(lvl2 agianst lvl 1. or against villlager or animal)
base accuracy increases to 100% upto minimum distance (say 4 or 6). after which it decrease again to 50% due to getting meled.
armour scores for each type- mele, range and siege(only for buildings)- 0-15 where 0 takes 100% damage and 15 takes 0% damage.
(?) Units get affected by only mele or ranged damage. while siege damage only affects buildings(units immune). Siege weapons and ships can have additional mele or ranged component to their siege damage to affect units also.
eg Flaming arrows should give additional 5 siege damage and 2 ranged damage to archers. which is equivalent to 5 damage to buildings(0 siege armour, 14 ranged, 11 mele) and 2 additional ranged damage against units.
New- "To war" (Alt-Q) flag near idle citizen button on mini map. clicking on it and then on map- selects all military units in whole map and ‘attack moves’ to the point you selected. this inlcudes lvl1 and lvl2 citizen soldiers who might be gathering.
Auto banners- For better control and micro of important units. Beneath Hero banner and above control group banners is a space for 4 Banners. Which form by themselves. this include the Champion soldiers(one type in 1 banner). If somehow you have more than 4 types of Champion soldiers on map. then 4 with most numbers get their own banners.
Hard counters until game mechanics which allow soft counters can be developed (Trample, charge, special ability, formation bonus to defence, archer accuracy depending on speed of enemy, less accurate archers at close range- imp to balance chariots and cav/elephant archers)
CC area-
Soldiers earn xp 30% faster in own area. Nearby statues or edict pillar boost xp gain by further 50%(total 80).
only resource dropsites and farms(traditionally farmlands were always spread out farther from a fortified city) can be placed outside the area, but beware they get converted if enemy takes control of the neutral area. Walling becomes difficult- so a change can be done- that from the last wall pillar on the edge of controlled area, 5-10 further segments can be made in the neutral area.
I like the farmlands giving bonus to farms feature(should be +50% max, not more) as it is in delenda mod. But civic space penalty is too much, and kills turtling.
phase 2- CC can be built. used to advance economy in new area.
Phase 3- Fortress can be built in neutral area similar to cc. Used for military expansion.
Looting- to balance the defenders advantage obtained from xp boost and the citizen soldier gathering concept. The loot per kill of male and female citizen can be raised a bit. Not gained from any other unit(except if they are carrying resources). Raiding/hitting male or female citizens should give double(+100%) the normal xp(per hit). So attackers have more advantage in terms of experience gain. Hunting animals with cav shouldnt give any xp(or 25% only).
Optional-
Another interesting mechanic which could be placed-
For factions which have same unit type of citizen soldier, and unique champion. They can be linked. In a continuous string.
Hoplite citizen soldier, get converted into the unique champion hoplite available to the faction at lvl 3. And now they scale on their champion stats(+ have ability to gain another champion lvl2). So these factions have ability to train both lvl 1 and lvl3 of that unit.
For mauryan which have female champions. Could have an option to use female citizens. 5(or 10 depending on the batch production size unlocked in barracks) at that time. Upgrade them to maiden warriors at a cost of "X-50food". Where X is the cost to produce directly. It should take same amount of train time, done only at the building which can produce that champion, and idles the building. (Female round up? :P)
Mercenary camps- neutral locations on map. Another locations of conflict other than gold mine. Could need an outpost built on them and garrisoned with one soldier. Doesn’t give any territory bonus. Can supplement unit compositions of factions (could be historically accurate or not). Important since they give an additional military production building. (while total limit of barracks and other similar gymnasiums etc could be put to be 4). Also mercenary cost no food(more metal, and little gold), less pop(?or more), and train faster.
Optional- Neutral mercenaries present guarding the camp(and nearby gold mine) need to be defeated to be able to build outpost there. Prevent cheesy mercenary rush in phase 1. Possibly give a creeping like feel smilar to Warcraft.
Age up requirements- I am not sure. Needs to be tested to see how the above changes pan out. But for starters- it can be reduced to 3 buildings instead of 5.
While I’ve been very specific about some details. My intention was to just paint a picture- as what I imagine best way to make the game interesting while keeping its unique citizen soldier concept. It is a collection of different ideas and gamleplay mechanics. Those which appeal to developers can be adopted, even if not the whole picture. The above changes intend to make the macro more transparent, and combat less chaotic. So as to retain citizen soldier concept without compromising on game experience.
Economy growth is controlled by disabling batch production from CC(till phase 2). Citizen soldiers still gather but at reduced rates, so don’t drastically affect your economy if you chose to make them defend or attack. Can give option in game settings to include or exclude Citizen soldiers from Idle villagers hotkey and game button. They could have their own separate idle hotkey.
Many more design changes can be made later after testing, to ensure that rush, boom, and turtle are all viable and counter each other(this is necessary to develop strategic depth, fun game experience and better competitive experience). I feel finalizing a game design is of the utmost priority, so that needless work is not put programming features and developing art for stuff which gets removed later. Conversely, such created work prove to be hindrance later to game development/improvement. Eg Right now damages can be reduced by re-texturing stone to gold. And adding shine.
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Hero units- seperate suggestion
trainable from CC starting from phase 1.
weaker initially. gains stats with age ups. becomes more expensive to recruit in successive age(if killed). eg need more metal in phase 2. need additional 50 gold in phase 3.
Role- the choice of Hero unit (out of 3). can work as mini factions. or bonuses.
Cav hero can be useful to factions that dont get any cav scout at game start.
Any hero abilities can be made to be locked initially. eg hoplite hero can make hoplites cheaper in phase 1. get a bonus aura of defence or speed in phase 2. And get a special ability in phase 3.
heroes can be used either to aid in rush or defence. or for their economic bonuses.
Train time- 1-5 sec. shouldn't hamper eco by idling the CC. but a cooldown of 1 min. to prevent hero spam.
Example of mini factions- like in my previous post about mauryans
Chandragupta- enables training chanakya(good administrator{arthshastra}, can have bonus similar to xerxes, gathering bonus and building rate bonus under his vision and scales with age- 10%, 20%, 30%. Loses this bonus if chandragupta dies) in phase 1, enables chariot archers in phase 2 and gives 20% attack bonus to chariots. Possible 1 special ability/research by chanakya in phase 3.
chand ashoka- gives a bonus aura to damage and xp gain to all units(10%, 20%, 30%). Some special ability unlocks in phase 2. Enable Elephant archer(revamped-see my previous post) in phase 3. (if don’t want to repeat ashoka then use Bindusara- known only for conquest)
devanapriya ashoka- enable building ashok stambha(gathering bonus 10%, 15%, 20% and xp boost 25%, 50%, 50%. Build limit-?10). in phase 1. Enables cheaper temple, priests and 25% less costing researches in phase 2(also special techs which enable unit conversion and unit conversion upgrades). Enable Elephant archer in phase 3.
Both Ashoka could have same model(Chanda ashok can have minor changes to look more fierce). Though one wont have a bonus damage aura.
This is an example of how heroes can be used to create mini factions/ variations in game. Which could be historically accurate to make the mini factions similar to what was present during that heroes rule. Also it gives an rpg feel, which is always a plus if balanced properly. You can experience the founding of Mauryan dynasty starting with young Chandragupta in phase 1 and see as his guide chanakya helps him build an empire(phase 4?- I love delenda mod @wowgetoffyourcellphone)
Any comments or criticism would be appreciated.
