Wijitmaker

This was some of the back story of the 0 A.D. RPS (Rock Paper Scissors) Dynamics: Not sure if it is helpful at this point...

Yeah, we didn't have stables as part of the design document because... the designers at the time didn't want to blatantly rip-off age-of-empires games. We were trying to simplify the flow of the game and focus more on unit-to-unit interactions instead of building buildings. Less city building feel - more tactical. The codes for the buildings were just shortened to keep file paths and references shorter. Less typing, less bytes... etc. Nothing magical

Dnas made a lot of the helmets. For those that have access to this archived forum - see here: https://wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?/forum/177-dnas/ Looking good guys

Great maps, just need to get some shots with some improved graphic settings and they would be spectacular

Now you guys are rollin' Keep this line of thought going and I think you'll bring some more innovation and life back to the RTS genre Aside from being a good game design, it also would help distinguish it from be an AoE clone

I like that suggestion. Choice = strategy Your choices at the phase could bend you either toward a strength in military (perhaps sub divided in aggresion or defense) or economic (perhaps subdivided to favor certain resource types) It would also make it more interesting if the phases weren't globally applied to your entire civ on the map, but instead utilized territories and were localized to each town center. My view of phases are that they are gates players go through to unlock more capability: new structures, new technologies, new units. They also help measure the pace of the game. I belive AOK notified all players when they reached different ages. If you weren't in the castle age when your opponent reached it before you, it served as a good kick in the pants to say... you better age up, and fast! Just some random thoughts

Sounds like a great idea to me!

Thats really cool - I'd love to see them convert more of the 0 A.D. civs. It looks like a lot of his art is done in a 2D Editor. It would make his life a lot easier if someone painted the ground white, turned the 0 A.D. camera to isometric for him and gave him some screenshots. Or, better yet, showed him how to do it.

Nice work

Well, we only really had 3... Myself, Erik, and Michael. I can only speak for myself and the transition to Erik... but, I took the helm because I wanted to play a Roman era RTS in a similar vein of AOK with some C&C and RON twists to it. Then I went out and recruited people with a similar vision to help me do just that. Shortly after I got married, I recognized that 0 A.D. wasn't helping my relationship with my bride. So, I recruited Erik to take the administrative role (from gamedev.net? I forget...). He's done a fabulous job since and has stuck with the project longer than I have now. I'm afraid not. I still have an interest in 0 A.D. succeeding because I gave 6 years of my life to it. But, as a family man now - I don't have time to game anymore. I'm always available to consult though.

I hear you guys. I think the challenge is volunteer turnover. This game has been in development for so long that is continually evolving due to the people working on it. When I was running it for 6 years, I did my best to maintain a cohesive vision for the game. I took a lot of heat for "locking in" some design decisions and would tell people to hold off on criticism until it could be played as a whole. We got 60% there, but I couldn't finish before I handed off the reigns to Erik. Again due to this being a volunteer effort, people come and people go and that shapes how the game is made. Michael saw 0 A.D. in a very different way than I did, and things started to change (what was once locked was open again for debate) - but I don't think he made it all the way to the end of his vision either. The dangerous end result in this path is a hodge-podge of halfway implemented features that don't quite make sense as a whole. Ken Wood (lead designer back in the early 2000's) once stated: The fate of 0 A.D. is in the hands, of those who have vision and perseverance. This is why it is going to be super difficult to make a game that is cohesive over a period of 15 years, everyone has a different idea of how it should be done. It is both good and bad. The flip side is... If you don't like it, you can get involved and do something about it to change it.

Just out of curiosity... I was wondering if anyone has ever read this? http://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/War_Story

Over a decade ago, the plan was to have ambient sound play a large role in the sound scape for the game - more so than the music. The frequency of music played was a setting in the user configs. Music would be queued on command (attack/under attack) or randomly (frequency settings). The ambiance sounds played were going to be associated with what terrain types were displayed on the screen. http://wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=308 http://wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=309 We wanted to get away from endless looping of music and have the dynamically change.

Just watched the youtube video. Most impressive - you have put a lot of time into this. I love the medieval building set. I think I was most impressed by your icons which look beautiful. Though I don't understand the pony stuff, well done - bravo

Awesome work, great improvements

Ha, yes - it does! Christoph - I honestly can't believe some of the stuff that you programmed at such a young age. That was very impressive. If I recall, you did work on the run/stamina as well as auras. I'm not sure if either of those features have been fully reimplemented to the degree of their prior maturity since the rewrite.

Cool. Fun factoid from the past - this is the last video I can remember that was made using the cinematic camera: I think it is the has the highest number of views of any 0 A.D. video because it was on slashdot. http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/07/15/170217/0-ad-goes-open-source It would be cool to get a nifty video using this for the next alpha release. *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge*

Awesome! I don't think I have seen anybody make use of a cinematic camera in 0 A.D. in nearly 10 years. Way to go! Just out of curiosity - were you able to salvage any of the old code?

That is a nice collection of units. It looks like quite a bit of work that you put into the mod! Thank you for the offer What software did you use to make them? What kind of animations did you make for the Civ mod? What file formats could you share (3D, textures)?

Yep, that is Brendan. He is a fantastic artist. I enjoyed working with him. Here is his blog: http://keo-art.blogspot.com/ For the last 6 years Brendan has been working at: http://www.venan.com/ He may still be connected to the PM system here on the forums. You could try: http://wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?showuser=579 Otherwise I'm connected with him via LinkedIn and I could make an introduction for you.

Sorry, off topic - that is interesting news to me. I bet it has probably has been that way for years Just out of curiosity does anyone remember why the departure was made from XML? I'm assuming there was a logical reason why...

Nice Reminds me of one of the first screenshots made of 0 A.D. back in 2001. Before the game was even fully 3D.

I don't think that artwork is a gigantic concern, it is always changing and evolving. It could always be used in the scenario editor, and could be changed on civ selection in game. I think the depth of strategy it would return to the game would be worth the trade off. With fewer factions, this enables greater diversity. The more factions you have, they all start to blend together in similarities - with only subtle differences. Balancing a dozen plus factions is also challenging. Red Alert had 2 factions. Star-craft had 3. The original 6 civs were chosen because they had some distinct historical differences that gave players a unique experience when they played. Mythos changed that after I left. He really liked the Greeks and was influenced by his own desires to recreate his dream game "Age of the Aegean". So, when he took over the game design of 0 A.D. some of the original vision was lost. When I say balance, what I mean is that you don't want the outcome of the game decided by a players faction selection before the game even begins. Every faction should give players an opportunity to win if played with a strategy that compliments the faction. I'm not saying that what 0 A.D. is doing today is necessarily bad. I'm just saying that it is different than what was intended and (in my opinion) removes elements of strategy and makes the game harder to balance. (An extreme version of what I'm suggesting is that you start the game without a civ selection - just a generic civilization. Everyone starts the same. The civ is then selected in play after you have had a chance to observe the behaviors of your opponent and the map.)

Yep, you got the idea Now we just have to convince everyone else to put it back the way it was before

Glad you got it to work Skeleton files seem to be a point of confusion for many people. I'm not sure if we already have a recent and up to date resource to point people to. If not, I think it would be worth capturing what was learned and sharing it with others that could be used in the future. It would also be good to capture and document your art flow from Maya as a legitimate method of making models and animations for 0 A.D. I know documenting is a pain, but it is a tremendous resource to those that don't know where to begin.