oshron

i was reading a book earlier (Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove--it's set during the American Civil War) and it was mentioned by a soldier character that he had difficulty moving through a particularly thick patch of foliage, particularly because of thornbushes. it hit me that maybe this could be a gameplay element in 0ad: iirc, at least some units will be able to navigate forests (which generally speaking is unusual for RTS games, at least the ones i've played), but what if there were some tree units (meaning the actual trees that appear on the map) which randomly have thicker foliage around them that even units that can cross forests can't move through. this could have design purposes as well as being a randomly-generated hindrance in skirmish maps: suppose, for a campaign, that you aren't supposed to be in a particular area of the map yet but have units which can pass through forests, since in this case forests would be the main method of blocking passage to this area. instead of allowing the player to break sequence, there could be a wall of thornbushes within the forest that your units can't cross no matter what

not sure what teh timespan for Rise of the East is, but heroes could be derived from Romance of the Three Kingdoms

sappers would be another good option for "less-privileged" civs when it comes to siege weapons

well actually that would be a good thing since they don't have to take the time to unpack their siege weapons which could be spent by the enemy sending cavalry to knock them down

i think lance was asking if there was a siege weapon in 0ad functionally similar to the trebuchet from AOK, in that it has to be packed up to move and then unpacked to attack, during which time it is a stationary unit

i think there was some discussion a while back that Wonders would give one of three effects, all of which affect territorial influence and can be toggled on and off. iirc, the ideas were Imperialism (improves the player's), Hegemony (hurts that of enemy players), and Alliance (improves that of allied players). there would probably be a default condition to each Wonder depending on their history or projected playstyle so that computer players use them most effectively.

making them invisible and detectable only by certain units and buildings would be much, MUCH easier, though

personally, i've thought that some recreations of ancient cities with little room to expand (in exchange prompting the player to capture buildings to use and "unusual" resources such as piles of wood or crates of food) would be an interesting game mode. basically you don't have room to build so you have to capture individual buildings to create your base.

i remember these guys from Empire Earth

perhaps that's the point?

i agree. an alternative/addition would be a combination of what was used in AOE and Empire Earth: in addition to a horn signal for an attack, a voice yells "We are under attack!" or some variation. unlike other instances of conceivable voice acting for the game, this is one that i'd recommend is done in English: e.g., as opposed to the Roman warning being in Latin, it's spoken in English with an Italian accent (perhaps even a Roman Italian accent, if such exists?)

i think the best option for morale boosting units would be heroes: not only would their very presence inspire those around them to fighting harder ("Look! We ride with Caesar himself! We can't possibly lose now!") but conceivably they could have special abilities along the lines of ones presented in Empire Earth and Age of Mythology. namely, depending on what they did historically (or if they are historically documented as having done so, or if there are legends about it) heroes could have battlecries which either lower enemy morale or boost allied morale in an area of effect. other powers/special attacks could be included as well (to take a page out of AOM's book, an archer hero known for his skills with a bow could have an "accurate shot" special attack where, every once in a while, he fires an arrow with 100% accuracy and for greater damage), but that's kinda deserving of its own thread, and realistically i can only see battlecries or similar things being useful for morale (for example, instead of a battlecry, a hero could blow a horn that they have, which otherwise has the exact same effect)

the Scipio represented as a Republican Roman hero unit

again, either Han or three different Chinese: Wu, Shu, and Wei (or maybe even a divergent Chinese faction turning into those three?) there's also plenty of potential for in game references and a campaign based on Romance of the Three Kingdoms, with hero units including the likes of Lu Bu

sounds to me like the Suebi would be a good choice for a generic group of Germanics, then, diverging into whatever the most famous/influential of them there were historically

that's what's called an acceptable break from reality. it would be way too much work to include all two thousand ways the Ancient Egyptians honored their gods. i WILL have to look into more specific means by which the Egyptians worshipped their gods, but for now their primary placeholder will be building monuments

it may be cruel (by modern standards) but it's a fact. and besides, an actual brutal human sacrifice wouldn't be shown: the units are just sent to the altar and disappear, giving you favor in exchange

the Iberians weren't a superpower, either, and yet they're in the game.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himyarite_Kingdom

an idea concerning campaigns occurred to me just earlier today. basically, there are six campaigns to begin with, one for each of the "original" civs from the earlier stages of the project. similar to Age of Kings, each of these campaigns would largely follow one historical figure (with others being present as supporting characters). even consider a Total War-style campaign, i think this could still work pretty well, just being less linear. anyway, the civs would be based on a representative of the original six civs from before the Hellenes and Celts were split into more distinct factions and the likes of the Mauryans, etc., were added. there'd be a Hellenic campaign (possibly following Alexander the Great, the Macedonians in this case being the Greek representative for the campaigns), a Celtic campaign (i think the Gauls would fit the bill best here), a Persian campaign (maybe following Xerxes in the lead-up to Thermopylae?), a Roman campaign (Caesar would be the first choice, but it might be interesting to follow Scipio instead), a Carthaginian campaign (Hannibal, of course), and an Iberian campaign. alternatively, one of these could cover a Learning Campaign and the other five are more complete single-player campaigns.

call me when they add more civilizations

that's called rushing, and is a viable tactic

pretty much, like just automatically healing, like, 1% of their total health every three seconds or so while idle. especially since, iirc, heroes are irreplaceable in-game, so you want to be able to save them more easily. depending on their reputation, some heroes could have greater healing factor than others (for instance, if one iconically took four or five arrows to the chest and kept going without missing a beat, then they get a significantly better healing factor)

but of course! this would also help with any and all language barriers. people watch foreign shows in their original audio with subtitles all the time, and i don't think the individual units are going to be speaking any modern language as acknowledgement sounds, anyway the key word being "placeholder". just temporary. as long as the voices are distinct, it would certainly be better than alot of other cheapo voice acting attempts ( ). furthermore, you may well be able to find people willing to do voices for free. there's plenty of examples like this on the internet. off the top of my head, Smash King, a machinima series using Super Smash Bros. Brawl to tell a rather unconventional story, is chock full of not-for-pay voice actors. you could also consider looking into voice actors for various Abridged Series out there, such as Yu-Gi-Oh! and Dragonball Z Abridged, two of the more famous ones. other options would be Rooster Teeth (of Red vs. Blue, Achievement Hunter and, more recently, RWBY fame) or Channel Awesome/That Guy With The Glasses (which includes such internet celebrities as Doug Walker, aka The Nostalgia Critic), though i wouldn't put as much stock into those two not because i think they're bad or anything but because they're legitimate companies and may be less willing to contribute their talents in exchange for nothing, especially considering that they already have their own enormous undertakings in progress.

back when settlements (a la AOM) were planned, i remember suggesting once that the actual settlements are represented by wells, which you build your settlements around (these wells having been built years before the game takes place by the last people to live in the area). wells as a captureable location would work pretty well, though