badosu

I think a flanking mechanic like this could work: - Set a distance threshold, slightly higher than melee range (e.g. 3-4 tiles) - Find an enemy melee unit inside that threshold - Define quadrants where that unit is in 45 degree of the first quadrant - For each other quadrant that has at least another enemy melee unit inside it nerf -1 armor This could be doable on an experiment mod, I would expect performance to be incredibly poor. Another issue is defining the start quadrant, I'm not sure it's well defined (nerfs are the same regardless the initial unit). Nevertheless could be a good attempt.

Counter to heavy infantry is making flanking work as it's supposed to, e.g. a frontal cav charge won't break a compact infantry formation but cav is mobile enough to surround it (anvil and hammer tactic). If enemy does not have cav to counter, they can't avoid formation to be surrounded. Also skirmishers for kiting/hit-and-run. That's why cav should be a counter to infantry, but not in a simple manner. Also trampling mechanic (for spear cav) could break and induce more flanking nerfs to formation. I'm not sure how to make it work, the simplest manner would be to nerf armor if a unit is surrounded, but that's too simplistic since one needs to take into account the area (otherwise it will be hardly effective). Another way would be to, when units on formation they receive a buff. When they have formation broken they lose the buff, when they are flanked in an area (e.g. more than one quadrant in a x-tile distance has enemy units) they receive a severe nerf. What would be nice about this is that the way we take the engagements would matter much more than currently, and would also reward strategy instead of spamming/micro. When considering counter, think not only on the stats and simple engagements but the role these units perform. Instead of a game where one spam a simple OP unit and a few counters to the opponents counters, prioritizing a well thought army composition and tactics should be rewarded. It's extremely ambitious and I'm not saying you need to do that at the moment, but an ideal to pursue perhaps. If we were to be really picky about it, an additional morale mechanic would come into play, but that's nearly impossible to do in a fairly competitive manner. With regard to training (historically), spearmen were definitely the most easy to recruit. Both archers and slingers required extensive training, especially slingers. A slinger without training does not make any sense, they would never catch a target on the battlefied, these are specialized skirmish units. To counter the extensive training required for archers/slingers, javelineers and melee receive better buffs with experience but are terrible at start (also rewards better tactics, can also be changed with techs e.g. start at lvl, champs, etc). Keep in mind that training with regard to melee was more about discipline/keeping formation/holding the line than actual combat prowess. With this idea in mind, experience buff could be not only increasing stats (e.g. armour/health) but decreasing the threshold of a unit to be flanked. There is nothing that experience helps you with being hit with a javelin if you think about it, but it definitely helps with making the whole formation fight better against another melee formation/holding a cav charge.

Yeah, I agree Lowlands may get a pass, but I've seen horror stories with the wood gen/obstacle. Anyway, happy to see some work on this :-)

Ah, custom map flags, we need you!!! :-) By the way Edwarf. One should be able to remove the undesirable turtly maps: Lowlands, Passes and Isthmus and backport it to a23. Was one of the ideas I had in mind, make balanced unknown maps, but the code isn't too friendly for that. I think if we remove those undesirable maps unknown finally might be a good map for TG (maybe the best).

Well, that's a good idea but perhaps in the scope of a map/civ pool mod I suggested some time ago. Still it would help to have a text-based one in autociv

In much anticipation

This is sweet! I think I mentioned on some other thread, adding counter mechanic for ranged units could finally make the meta a bit more realistic (and melee-driven). E.g. send javelineers in front, skirmish as they are supposed to, retreat while the counter recharges. Send in the heavy infantry, skirmish the flanks with the recharges. Could even make slingers more interesting, as a unit that has no recharge delay but very inaccurate/lower damage against melee units (except my beloved balearic slinger champs :-P). Archers could be meta without needing a buff, friendly fire would be awesome to restrict abuse (one can only dream )

As far as I know that's true for the Hastati (romans) but I'm not sure there are references to other civilizations. Still would definitely be cool for swordsmen to throw pilla.

Nice to see DE getting some long-deserved love. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_pig

I don't like the attrition model much, mainly due to 2 reasons: 1. Armies were able to station at enemy territory by foraging/plundering the countryside (e.g. Hannibal in Italy), having a static debuff regardless of players actions does not seem sensible to me. 2. Gameplay wise, it's already impossible to win a game at early game, realistically setting the minimum gameplay time to 12 minutes if the opponent does not resign. 0ad is also very turtle-prone and we are already adding another layer of defense buff. Let's not punish raids/aggressive players more than needed With a buff instead of debuff we are also able to introduce this mechanic at an opportune time, like for example a tech or enabling it in later phases, not interfering with the early game. I agree with @Radiotraining that it should be a rewarding strategical nuance although we know how food supply was critical in historical times.

Well, a simple way to do it perhaps would be to have ox wagons that act similar to traders, they must reach a farmstead to replenish food (perhaps take food from the player), with a large hp buff aura of 5-10%. As soon as the wagon leaves the farmstead it begins to lose food storage, when the food storage is empty the aura is nullified and it gets back to get more. These wagons should be fragile and be able to make from the cc/farmstead without any cost, but only 1 can be done. Mechanics: obviously it would help defensive positions considerable and this makes sense since you are close to the supply lines, also introduces an incentive for players to flank/cut supply lines, would also help aggressive stances but not as much. This makes a lot of sense both historic and gameplay-wise. I don't think it would be too hard to do except for the food countdown presentation (could reuse the capture points/trader loot UI). Talking about capture, would be super cool to be able to capture the wagon but would be difficult with the 1 only limitation.

Or to have a servile revolt

Knights and Merchants had a food supply mechanic, unfortunately the game was not polished enough to see it in action in an interesting manner (*nostalgia intensifies*). For 0ad it definitely would be a big challenge, I reckon it should be feasible though complex both for presentation and mechanics (and how they'd fit on 0ad). Hp decay certainly would be the easiest way to piggyback. I'd love to see something like this.

cc @wowgetoffyourcellphone

Nice work @Grapjas! I'd like to see some good players playing this map. Could even add it to balanced-maps if you're interested, though would be more interesting to convert it to a random map instead of skirmish

130 mb/s is just silly, whoever is doing this ffs

Omg, where's shrug? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Yeah, it's a common feature in some RTSs, e.g.: C&C: Red Alert 3 SC2: LotV One can easily work around by just making a very steep elevation with some texture care, however it's inconsistent and does not look good.

That seems intentional as to not let any possibility of using docks/ships there? As @wowgetoffyourcellphone mentioned we need proper cliffs on 0ad.

ISO8601 k tx bye

Noice :-)

Any player that does not watch the video above will be banned.

By the way, some of the feedback will be addressed, I like Aceros proposal, need some graphic work for a better rate indicator though.

As a small nitpick, there was at least a period in history where chariots were the strongest and most relied upon unit in the army, the bronze age.

North vs South though makes things more interesting, I'd like to see a game played like that