feneur

Not that I think it would be relevant in this case, but as a more general idea. That image of the reenactors made me think it could be cool to have the 0 A.D. 0 on a shield. I don't know if it would fit any of the civilizations, but if nothing else as a bit of an easter egg/something to use in PR Pretty low priority of course, but just as something nice to have

I don't think that's a good idea to do it that way. We really don't want to encourage the other two ways too much, but putting them on the same tab would make it seem as if they are equally important. Also, as the information about SPI applies to both paying via credit card and PayPal it shouldn't "be on the same level", so I don't really think that much is gained by putting them on tabs. What I do think we certainly should change is put the information about where the money goes at the top, it feels a bit hidden/"forgotten" there at the bottom. What do you think @Jeru?

Well, we could restrict permissions, but sometimes someone might have something that's worth posting here, so it's less effort to just move things which don't belong here. Which is the case with this topic now that I think of it. I guess I'll move it to the general discussions forum.

Not setting up a framework to make it easier to usefully test the game will not make those patches automatically finished and put in the game. This is an opportunity for those who are not able to (or prepared to spend the time) to test or improve the code for the game to still be able to help out.

If it ends up being successful it's definitely likely to end up being the official QA team If you want to help out with testing, please read through and then begin by testing:

Hmm, not sure it's all that useful in practice though. On the forums where I've seen it it's mostly been a few old replies and people asking if there is anyone online. We might want to change the "IRC" bit in the header of the forums to "IRC Chat" or something though to make it easier for people who don't know what IRC is to find the chat we already do have

It is just for testing discussion. Balancing etc can go in the general discussion and ideas forum.

An archive forum makes sense once we have older posts to archive There is a suggestions post: I don't think guides belong in this forum, they are useful for everyone not just testers, but perhaps there can be a link to them in the intro topic.

It will be

Ok, that is hard for us who are here now to know And as lion said, we are not concerned about him using art from the game. It was just weird to hear that he said he had worked on 0 A.D. when no one of us had heard of him being part of the project

Sent the following email to him:

Do you want to help out with improving the game, but don't have the skills or time to help out with art or programming? Do you want to improve the game by playing it? Then this is your chance! We have come to the conclusion that we need to begin testing thew game more seriously to improve the balancing of the game. There are still some gameplay features left to be implemented, but the game is close enough to being finished that it's worth keeping it fun to play. Starting to test it more seriously at this point also means that we will have the system set up once we reach Beta and that we will be better prepared to bring the game through the Beta phase as quickly and as well as possible. To this end we have set up a Gameplay Testing forum, please check it out and if you have some time and are prepared to follow the simple procedure outlined please help out by playing some test matches. Before you do please read through the rules, it's not a good use of your time if the results can't be used We will be comparatively strict with the moderation in that forum, to make sure it's not flooded with comments that makes it hard to find the valuable information. If you want to discuss the gameplay balancing etc, please do so in the relevant forums.

Ah, I'll send him an email.

It's certainly something that would be nice to have, it's not to easy to implement though, so it might take a while before it happens.

I have for quite some time felt that 0 A.D. deserves a more passionate and active project leader than me. I still care for the project and its progress, but I don't have the same interest in it any more. That might be fine for a semi-regular contributor, but it's not ideal when you're the project leader. Now I've found the perfect replacement: Nicolas Auvray, also known as Itms on the forums and in the IRC channels. He has been a part of the project for several years now, and has proved to be a valuable contributor, a sensible and thoughtful leader, and a good friend. I asked him whether he wanted to take over the leadership, after careful consideration he said yes and we presented the possibility to the team who agreed it was a good choice to move forward with Nicolas as the leader. I have confidence he will revitalize the team and work to guide 0 A.D. through the Alpha process and into Beta and beyond. I will still be around to help out with administrative tasks, being a part of Wildfire Games is too great to miss out on completely. Please also welcome Imarok who just became a part of the team! He's been an active and skillful contributor for quite some time now, so it's nice to be able to encourage that by welcoming him into the team.

Ah, don't worry. I'm glad I could help, and better it was something easy to solve than something that was truly wrong with the game

Are you sure you are not running the installation file again rather than the application? Just to rule out the obvious Do you run it from a menu option or double-click a file? (If the latter, what is the name of the file?)

You should be able to select the particles by pressing down the Alt key and then selecting them

It is not yet released, so you have got to wait a little while longer. Alpha 21 has just been out two days, it will most likely take a littlewhile yet before he has had time to fix things

Ah, that explains it

Which version are you using? I just looked in Alpha 21, and it's there.

Wildfire Games, an international group of volunteer game developers, proudly announces the release of 0 A.D. Alpha 21 "Ulysses", the twenty-first alpha version of 0 A.D., a free, open-source game of ancient warfare. This alpha features new game modes, plenty of new maps, the official introduction of the final civilization: The Seleucid Empire and more! Easy Download and Install Download and installation instructions are available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. 0 A.D. is free of charge and always will be. Although you might find some people selling copies of 0 A.D., either over the internet or on physical media, you will always have the option to download 0 A.D. completely gratis, directly from the developers. Moreover, you can redistribute the game and modify it freely as long as you abide by the GPL. You can even use parts of the art and sound for your own projects as long as you abide by CC BY-SA. No "freemium" model, no in-game advertising, no catch. Top New Gameplay Features In This Release Herocide/Regicide: You start with a hero and are defeated when he or she dies. Wonder Victory: Now you can change the time from when the wonder is built to when you win. Either set it to 0 so you win as soon as the wonder is built or to anywhere between 1 and 120 minutes for a chance for the opponents to destroy it before the match is won. Last Man Standing: Only one player can win the game. Form temporary alliances to eliminate common competitors. But be careful: as the remaining players struggle for victory, allies are forced to turn against you. This mode can be played with every victory condition. New buildings and champions The Persian Hall and Hellenic Royal Stoa can train new Infantry Champions in town and city phase. The Briton Crannog acts as a civic center and dock, providing economic stability on both land and water. Romans and Persians benefit from the new Temple of Vesta and Gate of Ishtar, making buildings harder to capture. The Temple of Vesta, Thracian Black Cloak Champions and the Crannog Patrolling: When clicking the button or pressing the hotkey (P + Right Click), units move along the path you set for them and attack enemy units they encounter along the way, then return to the beginning and continue doing so until you give them another order. Tech Cost Modifiers and Team Bonuses: The costs of technologies can now be modified by Auras and Technologies, demonstrated by faster and cheaper research when a Library was built. Players get a bonus if they are on a team with a player of a certain civilization. For example allies of Iberians have 20% cheaper skirmishers, allies of Seleucids have 20% cheaper civic centers. Stackable Auras: Capturing further Wonders, Libraries or Theatrons increases the building bonus proportionally. Losing a wonder means losing the population bonus, capturing a wonder means further increasing the maximum population, making the Wonder a crucial part of the empire. New Balancing: The aim of the new balancing is to stop players from destroying buildings with infantry and cavalry, enforce the use of siege engines, reduce the spamming of champions by making them more expensive and slower to train. With the addition of town phase champions and the lessening of attack damage of defensive buildings, early attacks are more feasible. Capturing of buildings is only feasible if they are heavily damaged or left unguarded. More details are found in the Balancing section of the changelog. Upgrading System: Buildings and units can now be upgraded. For example the new Sentry Towers can be upgraded to Defense Towers. Sentry Towers New Maps Alpha 21 adds no less than eleven random map scripts and two skirmish maps. Nine of these random maps teleport players to actual geographical regions: Amazon, Mediterranean, Red Sea, Marmara, Pompeii , Bahrain, Howe Sound, Ngorongoro and Rouen. The Mediterranean Rouen Red Sea Howe Sound On the random map Caledonian Meadows, wide grasslands, deep forests and seas lie between opposing teams which are yet connected by paths. The map demonstrates realistic terrain generation, distributing resources by height. Caledonian Meadows The Skirmish map Dueling Cliffs uses the new height limit, that was introduced in Alpha 19: Dueling Cliffs New Models The Seleucid faction was completed by adding the models for the Colonnade, Barracks, Wonder, Market, Corral, Blacksmith, Dock, Library, Military Colony and City Walls. Seleucid buildings (from the top left): Walls, Wonder, Market, Military Colony, Blacksmith, Corral, Library, and the Dock New Fields and Oak trees beautify the landscape. The Gaul Fortress, Tavern and the Ptolemaic Military Colony received new models as well. New fields, the Gaul Fortress, taverns on the left and right, and Sentry Towers, Defense Towers, and the new oak trees in the background. User Interface The new Objectives dialog reveals the chosen matchsettings in running games: Objectives Dialog New Tooltips lift some secrets, like the loot that attackers are rewarded with when killing enemy units or destroying their buildings, the garrisoning- and arrow limit of buildings, healing statistics and assigned hotkeys: Loot Tooltips Resources of allies are now visible in the tooltip of the top panel and in the summary screen after having researched cartography: Allied Resource Tooltips Finally a Multiplayer Pause Screen indicates who took a break: Pause Screen An in-game chat history dialog and acoustical chat notifications ease communication: Chat History More Multiplayer Lobby Match Details help to coordinate upcoming matches: Multiplayer Lobby Match Details Under the hood The Javascript engine was updated to Spider Monkey 38. Windows binaries can now use more than 2GB of RAM, which should fix crashing on Windows. The game now supports hosting on arbitrary UDP ports, which can be useful if your ISP blocks the default port. And many more smaller additions and bug fixes, if you want to read a more detailed list see the full Alpha 21 Changelog. Getting Support Please see the "Get Support" page on our website to find ways to get help from the active and friendly 0 A.D. community. We are well aware there is some room for improvement in 0 A.D. Some known issues are: Lag, visual glitches or textures not loaded, missing animations and more. When you provide feedback, we would ask you to focus on some of the other points that could be improved. Thanks. Please Contribute! We are seeking volunteer contributors in programming, art, sound, documentation and more. Programmers are especially welcome and can get started immediately. Interested? Log onto #0ad-dev on QuakeNet on IRC and meet the developers. Also, you are invited to register on our forums and start participating! Why "Ulysses"? We name our releases according to development status ("Alpha" or "Beta"), successive release number (1, 2, 3, ...) and a word relating to the ancient world, in alphabetical order ("Argonaut" for A, "Bellerophon" for B, ...). "Ulysses" is the Latinized name for the Greek mythological figure Odysseus. This name is relevant for the release because we added the Herocide game mode, and Odysseus is one of the most well known heroes of all time. For the next alpha, we welcome fan suggestions for words relating to the ancient world beginning with the letter V. Keep it original and related to the time frame portrayed in 0 A.D. (appx. 500 BC - 1 BC)!

Ok, well then he indeed seems to be lying, sadly.

The trouble with coming up with specific strategies is that the game is still changing, so it might only be relevant for one Alpha and then things change for the next one and maybe the guide isn't updated. There has been some attempts in the past: I haven't checked if they are still relevant in their entirety as there's quite a lot to read, but if nothing else there should be some good tips. Apart from that a really good way is to join a game with other players, but as an observer, that way you can see how other players play and learn from them. There are also a lot of Youtube videos of other people playing you could learn from. The best way is of course to play the game a lot, but I'm sure you know that already =)

Yeah, it can certainly be done. I'm just saying that in my opinion it doesn't add enough to warrant adding another "building", and that we might want to be careful about adding more buildings in general since there is quite a few without that much difference already.