Phoenix-TheRealDeal

BECAUSE of the existence of TLA.... where he would 'fit'... I would consider it an infringement upon Adam's and his boyz rights, a social feau pas at least.

not currently planned for but has been put on the 'back burner'... has been addressed in detail.

imo unreasonable use gandalg in 0ad

Well yeah, on deck ranged hominid units could attack in any direction they want to.

A warship can ram another ship. That's the only kind of attack a ship can do. Ranged units aboard can shoot/throw their missiles. The number depends on how many are boarded... there is also some difference in range amongst unit types. Any siege engine is also a unit. Like other units, and depending upon what is 'authorized' in the type ship's complement, siege engine(s) may be boarded or disembarked to fight on the land as units are not integral to the ship. Hacker units are just that, hackers having no range capability. In certain circumstances hacker would be able to board ship-to-ship (though ranged could, too). You, Caesar, are the player. If you have built ships it is entirely up to you as to what mix of units to place aboard... consistent with what MAY be placed aboard a ship... and your own stategy (the same must be said of the AI or any other player, too). Rams are mounted to the bows, eh?

Carthaginians = some 'homeboy' type units + levys + mercenaries. Yes, shown in some way. Punic era. Rome = Camillian era.

Because it is a game requiring some semblance of balance in order to promote replayability, you need to think of it this way: as Romans have strong units to also make them cheaper would make the civ overpowering and the game unbalanced... pretty soon Romans are 'banned', or everybody wants to play Romans and th other civs get no play, or people who don't want to just give up on playing the game... noone of which are good results. The short answer is that the historical demographic isn't, or cannot, be adhered to without turning the game into a historical simulation... not our goal. BTW, during most of the epoch pre-0ad, Carthage was far the largest city in the Med region. That having been said, one of the civs does have somewhat cheaper units that are also somehat weaker generally, prompting the player to push for more pop to compensate for the inherent weakness... that's in the design, anyway. Oh, it isn't Romans or Carthaginians. For some unknown reason people ALWAYS want to have a higher pop cap than comes along with the game. Because the way the game mechanics are being designed as being muchly data driven instead of hard-coded to the engine, it is likely that you'll be able to mod pop cap increase. HOWEVER, there are several 'risks' in doing so. If you have a high end comp with high end gamer's video card it probaly wouldn't happen for a while that the thing gets overburdrend an slows the game down to a crawl (lag) relevant to what we find will be an optimal pop cap through testing (we'll doubtless go with as high as we van optimize for based on minimum playability specs). Another thing is that if you mod and someone you want to play someone who isn't modded the same then you are relegated to playing Singleplayer, nor can your buddy play your mod unless he installs it... that then puts him in the same boat as you are. Note, I am not talking about scenarios here. Those are some considerations, anyway.

I'd like to return to Argalius' question about whether weather would have an effect upon gameplay, or not... as I think that it is a bit of a confusing issue. As originally spec'd, yes, some, IF Seasons are 'turned on' in game setup. If Seasons are not turned on during game set-up, then there is not weather effect because there will be NO weather during the course of a game session. How seasons would 'present' themselves is tied to climatological biome (as a theme)... one might say loosely but not really inaccurately, climatology zones... such as Alpine, Temperate, Mediterranean, Steppe, Semi-Arid, Desert, Savannah, Tropic and Arctic... yeah, that's all 9 of them spec'd for the game and its maps. If on a Desert map (of which there are spec'd to be several 'types' more-or-less representing places in the real world, like 'Cradle of Civilisation' or 'Nile Delta' frex) one could expect to see very little in the way of weather, perhaps occasional short and sort of 'violent' squalls or 'sandstorms'. On an Arctic map one could expect a lot of weather, heavy weather blowing snow, especially during Winter, probably during Autumn and during Spring, too... with relatively mild Summers... the idea being to simulate, sort of, the weather patterns that typically occur throughout a year in time. As mentioned briefly before (and presuming that the four seasons amount to 4 equal time periods on the game clock making up that 'year' in time) on a Temperate map it could rain at any time of the year and likely snow just about anywhere during winter. Whether rains or snows may oin some cases depend on elevation or distance from the sea, as it certainly would on a Mediterranean map. So, depending upon the map (its climatoloical characteristics we call biomic), seasons may present themselves in various ways.... Summer thunderstorms in some places being strong and violent, Winter rains in others being long-lasting and drizzly-dreary, whatever is 'characteristic' of the region. Now to the crux of the matter on how 'might' affect gameplay... in a couple ways. For the human player, HP, I guarantee you that if it is snowing or raining it is going to BE more difficult for YOU to SEE your troop dispositions or what ever else going on on the map (though indicators may appear on the mini-map) therefore weather is gong to have an adverse affect on your ability as an HP to command and control your civ when the weather is adverse... that 'fits', doesn't it? By the same token the computer player, CP, will 'feel' the affects of adverse weather, too. Frex, if the ground is wet and muddy or deeply snow covered troop movement rate will be slowed down by some factor commensurate with the degree of hindrance and LOS may be reduced, ergo, poor visibility and lousy target acquisition, eh? Also, 'fitting' of an environment that seeks to cast an aura of realism as immersive qualities inherent in the game, or not if not so desired by the HP setting it up. Note also the HP's units will not move as fast on soggy or snowbound ground either. So, this is how we've looked at the issue of how virtual weather might affect gameplay. These are things still being worked on and still being worked out, so of course not yet a 'done deal' as far as programming is concerned, nor for that matter even if we do get them to 'work' it remains to be seen if how work will be realistic enough to continue to bother with or just a bother in the main and not. If implemented, whether or not anyone joins the host's game the way he/she sets it up is entirely up to them, and of course, 'comers' can make their own judgments about that. Tes, there will be a lot of variability, options, in how that may be done regarding game set-ups to include the kinds of games to be played... and noone shall know which fall out as being the most popular ways to set-up until after people have played the game for a while and those begin to 'shake out' of the mix. Anything before that is pure speculation. We've stated what we want to have in the design document, now we are having to see if we can make that 'come true'. Any programmers out there that want to join a great team that has made a lot of progress and still has work to be done that one could hone their skills on... that isn't going to be a flake and bug out when finds that great coding and documentation is a lot of WORK to get this thing well made? If so, please apply.. see the 0ad webpage for where and how.

I don't really know what Federico's current status is except that he joined DGDN some time ago now. He may be 'inactive' just because there hasn't been much for him to do in the interim.... until such as beta testing and/or scenario development become a main thrust.

Well, that's right and you aren't likely to because you live in a Mediterraean Biome climatalogically. The Med climate gets most of its rains during Winter season then followed by long hot dry summers that can be as long as 8 or 9 months ocnsecutively, while in Holland Argalius lives in a Temperate Biome climate, so it may rain at any time of the year, any Season. In the game, 0ad, rainfall (and snowfall if existing)) will be tied to the map biomes (presuming that we get all the mechanics worked out for that). However, one won't HAVE to play with Seasons turned on as it is a game setup function whether will be used during the session at the option of the game host.

He dances so fast, like a dervish, that he creates this big whirlwind all about himself that just blows enemy units away like they are sucked up in a tornado (even eles). He is like the 'divine wind' of the kamikaze that cometh upon the foe wreaking havoc close around.... and after a time he self-destructs blowing himself to smithereens, but everywhere that a bit of him then falls a flower grows and freindly troop morale goes UP because the world is a better place for him having been there. Don't sell a dancing Wijit short.

I'll probably play the Iberians first because I designed that civ first. Then, I'll play the Carthaginians second because I disigned that civ second. Then I'll prolly play all the rest of 'em, too, but I wasn't the principal desingner on any of those. :D BTW, I deliberately picked the Iberians and Carthaginians to design myself because those are the ones that people know the least about (but I had some good help doing that by a professor of Romano-Greco-Iberico history at a university in Spain--Piteas).

Congratulations, Jan, and thank you for your continued dedication to the game project.

Super Units are 'elitist'... if not called elite.

In the regular game, No. Initially, yes, such as standard bearers that would have an impact upon formations, hornblowers, civil engineers and military engineers of three kinds, helmsman for ships, all of which had 'purpose' but they didn't make the cut in our massive reassessment of the Design Doc in the Summer of '03. Why? => All of these units would have required 'additonal micromanagement' in some manner while playing a game session. => Too many unit types adding complexity to the game. => Too many units in that they all also take up pop slots that could be used advantageously 'elsewhere' (understanding that pop cap will be 'limited'--no 'thousands of units' im this game). => Too many unit types to have to develop specific AI for. => Too many unit types that peculiar art and animations would have to be developed for. => Too many units types that specific language (words, phrases--peculiar to all civs) would have to be developed for in order for their jobs to seem more realistic. => Too many hunits that have to 'callable' to be rendered on the fly habing their own attributes in the files. => The challenge and perception of what it would take to get the job done considering our skills resources with or without them, in a timely manner. => And how we could otherwise 'make these things happen' through the use of units retained. Yes, but it might look a bit funny to swap in a standard to a unit whose AI has it swinging a sword. Units... though it may be that they have to be manned, that is attended, by at least one hominid unit in order to function. A 'side issue' is that hominid units in attendance of siege weaponry could be expected to defend such if coming under attack... however, while doing so the weapon itself would cease firing if already firing. Also, generally speaking, siege weapons will take longer to 'pack' and 'unpack' than they did in such as AoC. And, once packed, they MAY have to be accompanied by 1 to 3 hominid units in order to 'travel' from point-to-point. It sounds like all this could be a bit micro-intensive but I think that could be accomplsied with no more than 3 commands. We are still to work out some of the details wrt siege... so we'll see how it comes out in the end. Our boss, Jason, has a particular fondness for siege (like I have a fondness for the ships), so I expect it'll turn out to be good. It is presumed that during the course of gameplay a player (or the Comp AI) may want to assign Super Units to act as a Hero's bodyguard. Just a thought there. But again, one could do so with any combat units, methinks, optional to the player what HE/SHE wants to do. And yet again, we aren't going to 'waste' pop slots on a unit designed to merely guard some other unit's 'body'... so Guard command shall suffice.