Cassador_Chris

I have something to report: I've been playing the Death Canyon maps, and qBot stops attempting to attack when they have no way of walking around the walls. I didn't notice this right away, because I usually leave a gap open in my walls to take advantage of the AI. But I soon realized that if I completely wall off my base, they just stop acting aggressively, and will only move into action if I delete one of my walls (even if only for a few seconds before I build a new one). Once their attack has run its course, a new attack won't come until I make a new gap in the walls again.

Well, I suppose that solves that problem then.

So I just started playing alpha 9, and its great, but I just had a handful of thoughts regarding the Death Canyon maps. 1: Death Canyon is a lot of fun! I have a feeling this map is going to eventually be dominated by Persians---given their strengths---and perhaps Romans or Iberians. I also feel that resources are perhaps a little low. I just played against qBot on the map, threw up some walls and towers and just waited them out. They launched plenty of huge attacks, but they were all beaten back with almost zero casualties on my part. Eventually they ran low on resources and I marched on them. QBot didn't put up much more than lots of fortresses, but in a multi-player game, I could easily see two players bloodying each other to a standstill where neither side is actually strong enough to defeat the other. A lot of fun, to be sure, but what happens then? Clearly I think the map might be best suited for team games, where trade is available(also a great addition!).

^ Best one.

I'm not against the fire ship route. Fire ships are primarily defensive anyway, so they'd fit the Iberians in that sense. Just tossing more ideas into the hat, I suppose!

I just had an idea. This quote come from Carthage Must Be Destroyed by Richard Miles. The idea would be that the Iberians could purchase these flat-pack warships (presumably from Carthage) like one might call crates from their home city in AOEIII, and then assemble them on any shoreline quickly. It would certainly give the Iberians an unique navel advantage. Not only would they be able to launch these small craft from anywhere, but they could build up a whole fleet without the enemy being able to attack it or even know about it, and then launch it into action at a moment's notice to defend your coast against assault. EDIT: Another (unrelated) idea I had was to create random pirate/privateer strongholds on navel maps. Like a combination between the natives of AOEIII and the pirates of Sins of a Solar Empire, these strongholds could be brought over to your side in return for offering them a lump sum. They would then spawn ships for free that the player could directly control. These ships would focus on speed and on capturing or looting enemy ships. A player would only lose the free spawns of warships if another player offered a greater sum to the stronghold. On navel maps, it could be an option that Iberians might pursue. Alternatively, one could just give them access to training a pirating vessel, which would also work.

Do we have any historical records of what the Iberians did with regards to navel vessels? Also, I think its time that we all put our heads together and come up with a awesome Iberian amphibious assault strategy.

I'd just make a new building that uses the same model for scenarios and campaigns. I like the outpost as it stands, personally. For scenarios and stuff, when one wants to beautify the map or have the outposts periodically destroyed by an advancing enemy, etc, then just make a new building for that purpose, and reuse the standard model.

I don't know... I'd favor a system that blends the trade routes of AOEIII with the RoN approach to unique resources.

CarsontheSage, information and screenshots are all up on this website. Haven't you been to the 0AD Homepage? Just click on the link next to the red forum tab at the top of this page. Alternatively, information is also available in the game itself.

They're kind of out of the timeline set for 0 AD (500 BCE-1 BCE). And Part 2 should be set for 1 CE-500 CE. EDIT: Not that I think they'll ever be part of 0 AD. Its very mod-able, so I wouldn't be surprised if someone adds them eventually.

Great Scott! Its out! I'm going to test this one immediately.

I like it lots! Thanks!

Yeah, if you're going for a purely Carthaginian map, I guess you're left with North Africa. Maybe you could do a two-thirds land and one-third water map, and have almost all the resources concentrated on the coast, while having it get progressively barren inland. Perhaps some mountains dividing the fertile area with the barren one. What you'll end up with, hopefully, would be a very lateral map in which players would compete intensely with their rivals to the east and west for limited resources, while fish (and perhaps wooded islands) to the north and metal/stone to the south would provide strategic players with other options.

The more civs the better, I think. I mean, Age of Empires always had plenty of civs. I never felt even close to being overwhelmed.

Well, technically the Macedonians weren't Hellenes, although they were significantly influenced by Hellenic culture. That's not to say they didn't want to be considered Hellenes, though.

I think he simply means that they feel out of place with all the Mediterranean civs. After all, None of the civs present in the game (even India if added) had any real significant interaction with China, and especially during this time period. I agree that they'd feel out of place if China is the only east Asian civ to make it in. Now, if they had they're own crowd (impractical, coming to it from a design standpoint, but just for the sake of argument) like the Qin, Qi, Jin, Chu, Han, and Yan; suddenly the game would have a more inclusive feel. As it stands, the strong focus on the Mediterranean would just make China feel like it was tacked on to increase civilization count. EDIT: It just might be best to add the Han later with 0 AD part two. At least that way, they've got the steppe tribes as a mutual threat, tying them to the other civs. EDIT2: And they had fairly significant interactions with Imperial Rome and Parthia. EDIT3: Oh, and Argantonius, let me get back to you on that one. I've got some ideas, but they need a little further substantiation.

For the Carthagian one... One prospect might be to do a central Mediterranean map. You could have "Sicily", a large roughly triangular island in the center with plenty of resources, and then thin strips of land to the south and north on which most of the players are based. Players would then have to compete for the large central island. The intention would be to mimic the colonization conflict the Carthaginians had with the Greeks. Another thing you could possibly do (especially for larger games) is to start a few players on the central island to mix things up. These players would have the advantage of starting on the resource-laden island, but they'd suffer because they'd be the center of everyone's attention.

Whoah. Watch out everyone, a zombie! I'll make sure to double-tap this one this time... To answer your question, portutar, no, the Age of Antiquity mod hasn't been 'active' since '07. Though I personally would say that it was never active. It never got beyond the planning stages.

I like Ilia myself. Mother of Rome? Hells yeah. And if I got to voice twice, I'd -1 Imperium. Not that its bad, but it just feels like the obvious candidate that everyone expects. :\

I'm still vouching for the Kushites. I should get back to researching them...

No way did you make 88 units in nine minutes *and forty seconds! No way! I can't possibly conceive... ...maybe I just need to get a lot better?

Hate to ask for it in an Alpha that is adding so many things already, so might I hold out hope for a working wall function in Alpha 10? That or perhaps to get the healer function working.

I guess my personal preference would be for the islands to be slightly larger (thus more important) and for the opposite landmasses to be smaller and more concave. But looks like a fun map none-the-less. I could see someone dominating this map by booming a navy and tower-rushing the islands, so that it becomes impossible for the other player to make offensive action. EDIT: Oh, and Spahbod, might you consider making a tutorial on creating random maps in 0AD?

An amazing find! This has me off the wall. I would give an entire year if I could help them on an archaeological exploration of the site.