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ShadowOfHassen

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Posts posted by ShadowOfHassen

    Strategic Campaign

    in Gameplay Discussion

    Posted

    6 hours ago, Gurken Khan said:

    Maybe the soldiers could be put in a "recall pool", so you could draw out of that for the next scenario. (If I had already half-leveled units I'd prefer them over completely fresh meat.)

    That's something similar to what Battle For Wesnoth does, except in wesnoth you have to pay extra for them. It's a possibility, but it might make things tricky. Usually at the end of a game I have 50+ random low level meat shields, and an extra 50 soldiers would do a lot for setting up a civilization. This could be an issue as you'd have to build later campaigns with a much higher difficulty to challenge people with 100 soldiers left over, and the person with only 5 soldiers would be in a very bad position.

    • Like 1

    Strategic Campaign

    in Gameplay Discussion

    Posted

    @wowgetoffyourcellphone would the strat campaign allow you to keep soldiers after each battle? If so, would that be suitable to add to the narrative campaign? It would make the campaigns more Empire At War/ Battle for Middle earth than Age of Empires, but It's an idea I like. Of course, not all the soldiers would be able to be transferred it'd have to be something like Battle for Middle Earth with only the level2+ soldiers be kept?

    Also in order to simply the code bases then we could have the map be the progression of the narrative and what would give information of the battle in strat campaign be the overview land info be the prologue/ briefing for the narrative. We just only have the player in the narrative campaigns so the AI doesn't try to "Retake" one of the pervious campaigns.

     

    Strategic Campaign

    in Gameplay Discussion

    Posted

    Quote

    What you're talking about is:

    • A screenplay for the entire thing
    • New animations
    • Camera tracks
    • Scripted events
    • 20+ custom maps
    • New code for cut scenes and other things
    • Foley work for new sound effects
    • Voice acting work and sound editing - Huge
    • UI work
    • ---

     

    Essentially, you are taking what we've done for the game so far and then almost doubling it. 

     

    The Macedonian campaign took and is taking a lot of work. Good work has been done. Even then, it has almost none of the things I listed and what an official campaign will need. I'm not poo pooing anyone's ideas. But if it's the will of the Council to cast the Ring into the fires of Mt. Doom, then I'll see it done. I just think a Strat Campaign, while taking a lot of work in itself, would be easier to achieve.

    I like the strat idea, and it would be easier to make and I think it would be fun. And I'd love to see it in the game.

     

    However, I don't think narrative campaigns are that hard. I think between me and @Vantha we have the history/ screenplay/ dialogue covered.

    image.thumb.png.47900ef7e80b41f4bc3ef1d42cac7d41.png 

    It looks like there's cut scenes already as well. (That's already 2/9 issues)

    I don't know about sound effects/ animations, but I think we can reuse a lot of what's already done.

    It doesn't have to be right away, though. The engine developers can work on adding a few of the engine thinks while we finish the encyclopedia and nail down the civilization balances (We do not want to make a properly balanced campaign and then have it unbalanced by someone rebalancing the civilizations.)

     

    If WFG pulled back on making new civilizations(for a little bit) and polish the ones that are currently in 0 A.D. Then the first few campaigns. I think the game would be good enough to put on Steam. More civs and campaigns can be added later, and with the bigger audience we might have more help.

    Also, would it be easier to hire we hire voice actors for 0 A.D. than have volunteers?

     

    • Like 3

    Strategic Campaign

    in Gameplay Discussion

    Posted

    I like the idea of a strategic campaign, but while I don't have a full grasp on WFG's resources, but I think it is still a possibility to do narrative campaign. Yes, it'd take a lot of work, but you have a story and dialogue writer right here. Scenarios should also be pretty easy, all we need is some exited map builders. Things like sound effects and voice-overs would have to be added later, but we can just use closed captions at first and then hire/ use volunteers for the voices.

    And as for cutscenes, what happened if instead of cutscenes we wrote interludes somewhat like Wesnoth and then have scripted cutscenes in the beginning of the scenarios? That would simply animating to just the in game animations (which are already done).

    Plus a narrative tutorial campaign would help newbies with the learning curve.

     

     

    0 A.D's Built-in Encyclopedia

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    On 22/11/2023 at 6:15 AM, Vantha said:

    What about Xenophon? There are game files for him as a hero, but he is not implemented in the game. Should I write a text about him?

    I wouldn't, we can fill in the later texts later, for the moment let's focus on the texts that will be seen in game.

    • Like 2

    0 A.D's Built-in Encyclopedia

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    There are only two more articles that need written for Athens and the overview. I'll write the overview, but It'll be done in December, I'm focusing my November writing on NaNoWriMo.

    Also, seeing we're so close to finishing @Vantha and I have picked the civilization that we'll (and anyone else who wants to) will focus on next. We decided to take a break from the Hellenistic civilizations and do the Han dynasty. If anyone wants to help or has a particularly good source for information, let us know.

    Also, I know the devs are busy now, but when the leadership changes are settled could someone let me know when to start putting the articles into 0 A.D. I don't want to flood things when people are busy (and I might need some help getting things merged.)

    0 A.D's Built-in Encyclopedia

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Quote

    Have you played Age of Empires III? There is a very interesting encyclopedia there. The “vanilla” Age of Empires (I) also had a whole volume, albeit in a now unsupported reference format.

    Age of Empires III (the original) was the first RTS I played. I didn't know about the encyclopedia until later.

    1 hour ago, wowgetoffyourcellphone said:

    Also, in all texts, make sure to use the proper quotation mark “Epilektoi” instead of the programmers quotation "Epilektoi"

     

    ” = good

    " = not good

     

    Sucks, because it's not on the standard QWERTY keyboard.

    This problem, the bane of my existence in every single writing thing I try to do for an open source project. It stinks so much. I'll try to remember to have them proper.

    • Thanks 1

    0 A.D's Built-in Encyclopedia

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Just now, Hemachandra said:

    Then I will look through these books in search of information relevant to the game and perhaps I will dump pieces of the book somewhere and, if possible, correct the translation. I currently have virtually no information about units and few buildings match the game. Rather a description of culture, morals and religion.

    I'm not sure I explained myself clearly.

    While it's technically legal to quote a portion of a book, it's not quite right to use the book solely. I sum up copyright basically as don't use someone else's work unless A. You have permission or B. you add more to the finished product than the copyright.

    Not to mention the fact that the sources could be wrong, so it's always great to look at 2 or 3 and find the most relative information to the game. Then write a paragraph or two long article that presents the history and (if possible) orients the player to its usage in game.

     

    For example here's one of Vantha's articles. This one is for the Athenian Slinger:

    Quote

    Throughout Ancient Greece, soldiers had to provide their own equipment. In wartime, people of the lowest social class in Athens who couldn't afford a hoplite's expensive equipment served either as oarsmen in the Athenian navy or as light infantry troops on land. These units were called “Psiloi” (skirmishers) and were armed with different kinds of missile weapons, such as slings, bows, or javelins. It's said some would even just carry stones and throw them at the enemies. Their lack of body armor and shield left them vulnerable in close combat, but also gave them an edge over the heavier-equipped but slower hoplites in speed and maneuverability.

    However, for a long time, Athens hired mercenaries instead of recruiting capable ranged infantry units themselves; most Athenian “Psiloi” were just militia and therefore lacked training and experience. Compared to hoplites, they only had little effect on the outcome of most battles, as they weren't part of the main phalanx formation. Instead, they carried out skirmishes, tried to disrupt the enemy's formation, guarded the army camp, scouted the terrain, and pursued fleeing enemies.

    He directly used this source: https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Psiloi however there was no way Vantha isolated the wealth of knowledge his brain holds on Ancient Greece and that's not quoted.

    0 A.D's Built-in Encyclopedia

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    4 minutes ago, Hemachandra said:

    The fact is that my sources are not officially listed as free. If on the forum the publication of excerpts from a book can be deleted at the request of the copyright holder, then getting into the game itself this can become a headache. Of course, there is a law that allows the use of such borrowings as training, but for how long..?

    We don't use excerpts or just free books because that would make it impossible. Basically what I do is read several different sources(Sometimes on the internet, sometimes from books.) Then I do what my English teacher said "In my own words" Which is not copying but saying what they say differently.

    For example: Let's say I'm writing an article on Zebras. I read two animal encyclopedias and look Zebras up on Britannica. I can take the information I learned ) I.E. they're relatives to horses, they are striped etc.) then write my article using that information. No one owns copyright on ideas.

    We cite our sources however and have sometimes been quoting ancient writings, but you can quote a few lines of a book. It's not illegal anywhere I've seen.

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