LienRag

Is there an explanation somewhere on what the different map types are and the consequences of each ? I figured out recently that it's possible to play Skirmish maps as random maps as you mention, and that they get stretched in vaguely predictable ways when one changes their size, but I still have trouble with Scenario maps - I've never been able to play them correctly.

Indeed it does; thanks anyway. But I still get the error message sometimes... weird !

Can't be in standard game as 0ad is pretend-history, but yes in a specific game mode (or mod) it would indeed be very nice.

I haven't read the 14 pages here so my apologies if it has already been mentioned, but I played Scythians recently (don't remember which mod, I guess the Scythian one ? certainly not Delenda Est) and they have no dock ? Is that on purpose ?

From what Brett Devereaux writes, this doesn't happen historically (except in very rare occasions); that's a modern misconception. Anyway archers should in some situations be able to shoot over their melee comrades, probably not (or with the risk of friendly fire) on the first rank of enemy soldiers engaged in melee, but on the rear ranks. And of course also on the first rank while they charge and are not already engaged in melee. Also if we want to have ancient battles and not napoleonian ones with swords and arrows, we probably should take kiting into account : yes, missiles can shoot quite far, but without any discernible impact on armored troops. Only at close range (where an enemy charge can wreak havoc to them too) can they be actually effective. The more armored the enemy is, the closest the range of effectiveness. That would make for very interesting tactical decisions, and make melee troops the kings of battles, as it was historically (while still allowing missile-heavy tactics like the Persians used, but only if done well, and prone to awful failures if done badly, as the Persians learned at Marathon and Plateia, or against the 10 000).

Indeed, but we also would need better control of our troops. Putting your archers to the side to shoot at reinforcements and then having them friendly firing at your troops because the AI decided it wanted to shoot at the melee would be very frustrating.

I was never able to capture a dock, though.

Are the capturable buildings the same than before or has their list been changed ? I tried with "C" to capture a dock, but was told I couldn't.

BTW, how does one capture in a27 ?

I heartily agree with the last part, but note that using bows to shoot over one's own soldiers is AFAIK a historically attested practice. So not something we should forbid. And I mean, shooting over one's own melee soldiers was probably done to shoot on the soldiers engaging in melee with such melee soldiers...

???? I don't understand what you mean ?

Since 0ad is a historically-themed (if not historically realist) game, the way missile work as of now (being the main weapon) is really bad and harming the gameplay a lot. What are the solutions ? What is the role that we want for missiles and how to do it right ?

Especially since walls are heavily underused in the game now, as some already pointed. And that's a shame ! Walls are historical and should be fun to play. Maybe remove the fortresses and have a "dungeon" building instead (yes, dungeons are the wrong historical period, so use the historical one, but I don't know its name) that can't work as a defense without walls ? So the actual defensive structure will be much more varied, and tactically interesting ? And of course change the way soldiers fight on walls, so that they don't die immediately from enemy missile (except from missiles on siege towers, obviously), which is the reason nobody garrisons units on walls as of now.

To carry it, yes. To use it without getting killed in the process, less of a guarantee. And some people did care about that last part. Tribal societies are ones where everyone is a warrior. Antiquity societies, quite less so. Citizen-soldiers are a characteristic of some, but not everyone is a citizen. Levies are a characteristic of some others, not sure what percentage of male adults are potential levies though (a high number, not necessarily 100%). It would be nice to have all these in the game, but it's a bit hard to balance.

Having multiple markets of the same players on the same route should stay less efficient, lest it becomes exploitable. But the OP idea of having a route with multiple markets of different allies (max one market per ally) should be made a little bit more efficient (I don't think it would be hard to tweak the formula to make it so) as it's funnier, has nice strategic implications, and is immersive (that's how trader worked historically).