Seleucids

To maximise N, we need to maximise exposure of the game. Ads, appearance on Steam, GoG, Origin, Microsoft Store (these are disgusting places but are quick to get views). More involvement in alternatives.to, appear more on recommended lists etc. For example you can advertise as free alternative of AoE f1 is quite big imo, the media to the outside world does look attractive. We just need to make sure the description is pristine in every software store: Gnome Softare, KDE Discover, Flathub, Snap, ... f2 can be increased by making the download easier. I think in the main website, the https download llink could be made more obvious. You can even put the https download link in the first homepage with big attractive button around it. Maybe more modern design as well to make it look like a well maintained legit project. Also the download size is way too large, 1.32GB! Can we cut that down a bit? E.g. on Linux we separate the data from the base engine, can we do something similar in Windows? f3 is small and is something we can work on. I think the pregame page could be redesigned to guide new players better, e.g. by having large buttons for tutorials and guides in the middle to really emphasise where someone should click. The tutorial could use some improvement, for example not too much text. It really tests the patience of players. Use short sentences, 1 thing per page. We can even break up the tutorial into bits. The default settings could also be improved. The AI is set to medium by default. Petra is too aggressive. By default, it should be Easy + Defensive to ensure that the new player has time to explore before getting smashed. Experienced players know how to adjust settings so it's really not a problem for them. f4 is really dependent on how well f3 is received and whether the individual is into the RTS style. Not much we can do. But we can always say something like "there is so much more that you can explore!" f5 -- at the end of some hard campaign we can recommend them to join the lobby. Or, after they smash the very hard AI for the first time, we can do a popup message that says "Congrats! You have passed the trial, now you are ready to play with other humans!" f6 - we can add some social guidance on the lobby page. Some comforting messages like "try your best" "enjoy" "it's ok to loose" "don't give up" "have fun" , not the current harsh ones. Also it's important to explain to them not to try to join OP TGs on their first game as it won't be fun for anyone. q can be minimised by fixing some bugs and other problems. But that's really another story

Let's think how a player progresses from completely unaware to a regular user: (at each step, N is multiplied by a fraction fi , 0 < fi < 1) - Discovery phase: N people hear about 0ad or see its existence, e.g on YouTube, in a Linux app store, walking across the website, FOSS recommendation etc. - Out of these people, f1 of the are attracted and try to download the game. - f2 successfully downloads and runs the game for the first time, the remaining fails due to whatever technical errors or just their own stupidity. Some people are driven away by the large download size. - f3 make it through the tutorial or some easy AI mode without loosing interest. From my personal experience, this number is quite small as I found it quite difficult to beat the easiest AI and the tutorial was long and tiring. The tutorial could be improved by having larger texts and ability to skip steps - f4 out of these decides to play AI the next day and the days after - we now have a casual singleplayer - f5 are bold enough to click on multiplayer and register their first account to the lobby - f6 of these are not discouraged by their village getting vapourised by inf at min 14 and decides to become regular players There is a fraction q of regular players who quit the game for whatever reason. In the end, we have the current lobby users: n = N * f1 f2 f3 f4 f5 f6 (1 - q) so ideally we maximise the values of N and f, then minimise the value of q

The zip mods in this thread shared by the original author is deprecated with some errors, due to updates to the game. Some players are still interested in this and requested improvements to the terrain colourings. I fixed it: abstractGUI.zip This tiny zip of 5.3MB has all of the features in one go: cube trees, changes to berries and chicken, dark ground but with visible cliffs, golden projectiles...

There is a big need for these 2 maps in vanilla: Mainland balance is obviously superior to the imbalanced one so we can replace Mainland fixed pos is really important because we want to be able to put players at where they want to be. Ptol Iber on border, Pers Kush in the pocket. Also it allows better teamwork as some prefer pocket eco support, some prefer border skirmishes /rush. So I will make a patch diff soon, pls approve, thanks

Interesting idea! We can have a tech that allows Athenian farmers to produce 1 metal every 10 seconds. In addition, we can give Athenians a metal extractor building, which works identically to a field but produces metal instead of food when you assign workers onto it. This allows Athenians to consume metal even when they have run out of natural mines. These metal boosts enables the Athenian player to make large quantities of merc jav inf which takes advantage of Iphicrates bonus. Additionally, it allows them to counter champion cav with City Guards.

Done. If the screenshots and chatlogs provided by everyone in previous messages of this thread + my PM to you aren't enough enough, I don't know what is. The terms of use needs some refinement. Some are very abstract and some abusive behaviour are exempted.

This user, whom you refer to as "Geriatrix", is still behaving in similar ways under countless alt accounts. On average, he makes 1 smurf account every 5 days. Generally, a new alt account is born after he has an argument with somebody. I have an entire folder full of chatlogs and screenshots of his transgressions against the TOS and other players. He becomes hysterical at random times. However, clearly you cannot do anything about him, because: 1. He knows how to bypass mutes and bans. He has spam posted links to videos teaching ban bypass on multiple occasions, in the public lobby and hosted games. The 0ad moderation techniques are ineffective against him. 2. Moderators wants to silence any arguments and dissent instead of solving them, because that's less work and keeps the image of 0ad good. In the minds of moderators, he is only verbally toxic and posed no technical threat so he can be royally ignored. Fortunately, there are ways to deal with him: 1. It's very easy to identify his smurf accounts because he talks in a very particular way and plays certain cav strategies with Romans / Gauls. 2. Keep a blind eye to him, pretend you didn't know or care. He is calm 50%~80% of the time. 3. Always talk politely to him even if he insults you. If you can't deal with it anymore, ban.

Hi, I would like to comment on a few things 1. I appreciate @ffm2 for his rigorous and scientific approach to his investigations. His experiments are repeatable and the results are reproducible, which enables us to peer review the situation. This is much more convincing compared to certain people spamming empty accusations and claims in the lobby. 2. Simulation lag and pauses enable players to issue otherwise inhuman amounts of command in 1 turn. The record-breaking click rates were measured in 0ad's frame of reference, in which time runs much slower than real life, so for example @MarcusAureliu#s clicking 70 times in 1 turn is perfectly possible if the game is paused: And the game was indeed paused. Jarno had to drink water in the middle of the fight, which gave MarcAurel a chance to spam click. 3. The superior gaming mouse and the fast fingers of Sanafur and Stockfish combined with point 2 can explain their extreme sniping activity. Stockfish even revealed his technique so you can experiment and see if that's the case. 4. Points 2 and 3 are far more likely explanations than some legendary "snipe script". Till this day, no solid evidence of such a script has been shown. The myth is being weaponized by jealous losers to accuse players who won fights vs them. Please do not fall for their lies and trolling. 5. Atrik's approach of changing unit attack class is a good idea, however, the units forget about their command as soon as the initial target is killed. It also results in some suicidal behaviours. But having this option to attack ranged units as a hotkey is certainly convenient.