Questions

[sniedermeier]

1-Will villagers be children, adults, etc., or will they be spawned from a town center?

2-I'm seeing articles about the Southern slavs, Noricum, etc., will these be playable in the game?

3-Is there any kind of release date for this game?

[Justinian]

1-Will villagers be children, adults, etc., or will they be spawned from a town center?

Villagers will from memory be guys and girls (adult).

2-I'm seeing articles about the Southern slavs, Noricum, etc., will these be playable in the game?

The Playable Factions are Romans (Republic), Hellenes (Greeks), Carthaginians, Iberians, Celts and Persians.

This stuff is on the nav-bar under Factions

I add that i would like to see misc civ's (think the native american tribes of AoE III).

3-Is there any kind of release date for this game?

No. This project started as a mod for AoE2 way back in 2002 and is expect to go on 'til 4th quarter 2007.

Though it should be pointed out that expectations where on Q2 2007 sometime last year (or the year before).

Edited April 28, 2007 by Scipii_Alemanus

[wozowozoo]

I have also a question. If you build units do you get 40 or so in one grouparmy type or do you get them one by one?

Edited April 28, 2007 by wozowozoo

[216 B.C.]

This question may be kind of dumb but will terrain play any major role in unit formations, for example will unever terrain break apart the close cohesion of a phalanx like at Pydna and Cynoscephale.

[Justinian]

I have also a question. If you build units do you get 40 or so in one grouparmy type or do you get them one by one?

From memory 1 by 1 not in groups. the engine is based for lower numbers think AoE I or II. You are thinking of R:TW which is a good game but, it gets boring after a bit.

[Justinian]

This question may be kind of dumb but will terrain play any major role in unit formations, for example will unever terrain break apart the close cohesion of a phalanx like at Pydna and Cynoscephale.

That is a very good question. Can I get someone who knows something about this to respond

[Mythos_Ruler]

At this stage, the player will have plenty to worry about to have to worry about which terrain texture his phalanx is traveling over. You have to worry about training units, constructing buildings, gathering resources, researching technologies, grabbing territory, scouting the map, unit formations, hero placement (to best utilize his/her bonuses), and paper/rock/hammer/scissors/pencil fighting dynamics. In a Total War game, all this is not going on at the same time unlike a true RTS like 0 A.D. Adding things like "phalanx breaks up over terrain A, B, and E" would be way too much.

About units and how they'll be handled - It'll be possible to handle units on a per-unit basis or in groups. When they are placed into a formation, they act like one giant unit, ala RTW. When the formation breaks (due to too many losses) or when the player manually breaks the formation then it will be possible to handle them one-by-one.

A little tidbit maybe we haven't mentioned before is the way units are shaping up to be trained. Basically we plan to implement a feature to where players can train them one-by-one in a queue, or train them in groups of varying sizes. There will be some benefits to doing this that I won't get into, but it's one of those things that I really like about our game design.

[sniedermeier]

Two more questions-

1-Will there be dates, such as 419 B.C.E., or will there be ages, such as Pre-Classical Age?

2-Will there be territories that armies can walk through, i.e. My army traveled from Rome to Spain, or will there just be random maps like AoE?

[wozowozoo]

I also have another question.

How many units can their be trained, Or is it restricted like 2OO per region?

[Villi]

1-Will there be dates, such as 419 B.C.E., or will there be ages, such as Pre-Classical Age?

There will be "phases", I think they're village->town->city. The phases seem to be simular to the "ages" from the "Age of" games gameplaywise.

Edited April 28, 2007 by Villi

[Justinian]

Two more questions-

1-Will there be dates, such as 419 B.C.E., or will there be ages, such as Pre-Classical Age?

I asked the same question. There will be city phases, BUT, you still have to research them.

2-Will there be territories that armies can walk through, i.e. My army traveled from Rome to Spain, or will there just be random maps like AoE?

Think Empire Earth, I hope, i distinctly remember seeing something of a territory marker in a screenshot.

I also have another question.

How many units can their be trained, Or is it restricted like 2OO per region?

Restrictions are put in to make sure you can run the game without lag. 2000 troops takes up to much... whatever it takes up. The game isn't designed for numbers.

[Mythos_Ruler]

Keep this in mind too: RTW or M2TW don't actually have thousands of units on screen. You actually only have 20 units on screen (as far as the game engine is concerned). Understand that in a TW game you can never control a single lone unit like in an RTS. All the thousands of units you see in a TW game are just meshes and animations tied to at most 20 "real" units that you control. So, really, you aren't required to control much of what you see going on on-screen.

Territories: There will be territories on the game map, but not like RTW. Maps are random map scripts like AOM or AOK.

Population Cap: This will be as high as we can make it without effecting gameplay (lag, too much to handle, etc.). At this point there really isn't a population cap instituted. Our estimates range from 150 to 300. Keep in mind that even if pop cap is only set on 150, most of those will be fighting units because units perform both economic and military tasks.

Ages: This has been answered many times. There are no "ages" per se, like "Classical/Hellenistic/Imperial," but there are "city phases" that you upgrade your city, unlocking additional structures you can build.

Release Date: I have decided to just ignore these questions. Every estimate I give seems to be wrong and I tick off my friends. Let's just say at least another year before a public beta (we have plans we'll release soon regarding this, you'll be happy).

[216 B.C.]

I figured the terrain interactions might be a little too advanced, but i figured id ask being a "history buff" ohh and buying units in blocks of troops very sweet

[Justinian]

Keep this in mind too: RTW or M2TW don't actually have thousands of units on screen. You actually only have 20 units on screen (as far as the game engine is concerned). Understand that in a TW game you can never control a single lone unit like in an RTS. All the thousands of units you see in a TW game are just meshes and animations tied to at most 20 "real" units that you control. So, really, you aren't required to control much of what you see going on on-screen.

what about when you lose the 39 or so soldiers that make up the squad. Then is there one left?

Besides i like the reality of having +1000 troops, as opposed to having -200. It's more fun, more tactical, and you can really tell when your hoplites (RTW) has completely destroyed enemy equitves (Europa Barbarorum) and that makes it soooo much better.

Territories: There will be territories on the game map, but not like RTW. Maps are random map scripts like AOM or AOK.

How about Empire Earth?

[Mythos_Ruler]

what about when you lose the 39 or so soldiers that make up the squad. Then is there one left?

Come on now - semantics. Once you're down to that, that "squad" is pretty much dead. All 40 "units" within that squad are simply representations of how much "life" that "squad" has left - similar to 3 units (visually) making up 33% of the health of a unit in 'Rise of Nations.' Visually it's more appealing, but tactically, strategically, you're really only commanding one unit. And my point was, when people say, "Look! I am commanding thousands of units on screen!!!1!" - no they aren't. They are only commanding 20 units on-screen. The mechanics of the gameplay are the same whether there are 100 units per squad or 10 units per squad. In an RTS - each unit you see on screen is supposed to matter. That's the angle we are shooting for.

Empire Earth - I haven't played that game, only the demo (don't think there was territories in the demo, not sure).

[Justinian]

Empire Earth - I haven't played that game, only the demo (don't think there was territories in the demo, not sure).

You really should good game. It doesn't have anything on Rise of Nations but it's still good.

EE2= better graphics and Territory system

RoN= better eveything else (mostly better CtW)

Come on now - semantics. Once you're down to that, that "squad" is pretty much dead. All 40 "units" within that squad are simply representations of how much "life" that "squad" has left - similar to 3 units (visually) making up 33% of the health of a unit in 'Rise of Nations.' Visually it's more appealing, but tactically, strategically, you're really only commanding one unit. And my point was, when people say, "Look! I am commanding thousands of units on screen!!!1!" - no they aren't. They are only commanding 20 units on-screen. The mechanics of the gameplay are the same whether there are 100 units per squad or 10 units per squad. In an RTS - each unit you see on screen is supposed to matter. That's the angle we are shooting for.

That's whats so good about R:TW the way they managed to pull off game play mechanics was extra ordinary. they didn't just slop on 40 clones. Each soldier actually reacts to the environment they is/am/are/in on, and the formation they is/am/are/in.

Edited May 4, 2007 by Scipii_Alemanus

[Belisarivs]

Needless to speak about MTW2 where in single squad not all units look same.

Actually, when commanding huge numbers of units, it wouldn't make sense to have each soldier separated as in classical RTS.

But we must keep in mind, that unlike RTW, in 0AD you look at all units form same range and therefore see them in full detail.

In total war game it is possible to use LOD (Level of Detail). When some units are farther these aren't displayed in full details but are replaced by sprites.

You can see it when approaching to some formation by camera. I certain point you see that units slightly change (but visibly, it is also task to make this "switch" as invisible as possible). That is point when simple sprite is replaced by model and vice versa.

But in 0AD fight of 300 units is hw intensive. There can't be done any tweaks other than Hidden Surface Removal and so. Also each unit is treated separately. In RTW these can be sinced to some extent and so, improving performance.

[Mythos_Ruler]

Vit got to my point better than I did. Basically in RTW you see 100 units on screen but they only represent 1 unit gameplay-wise.

[sniedermeier]

First of all, thanks for this game! Secondly, I have three more questions.

1)When you select a province, will you click on it on a larger map, like Aoe3, or select it from a list like AoK?

2) In these games, will you follow a village from 500 B.C. on, or will you have to choose different campaigns from different periods?

3) Will your village/province be affected by history, i.e. a cillage in Persia would be affected militarily and culturally by Alexander?

[Mythos_Ruler]

1.) provinces aren't like in RTW - there is no world map, per se. A province is a section of the random map you are playing on. Gaining a province (by building a Civic Centre at its center) gives you control of that province. Each game you play will have a minimap in the GUI that represents the entire map. Every time a player claims a province, that province turns that player's color on the minimap so territory is easily understood.

2.) There aren't any different "periods" like ages or anything. You are playing a civilisation from its height (within the time period 500BC-1BC). So, when you play the Greeks, for instance, it is at their height during the Classical Age of the 5th century BC. When you play the Carthaginians you are playing them at their height during Hannibal's campaigns. Each civ in the game represents those civilizations at their pinnacle.

3.) Don't understand this.

[Justinian]

I think he is saying will a later Persian house look more like a later Greek house.

[FirePowa8]

To my understanding, that's a no - the Persians are the Achaemenid Empire in the game. There wasn't enough time in the Achaemenid timeline (it practically ended upon Darius III's defeat) to show major Hellenic influence, though of course Persians and Greeks alike had shared culture for years beforehand.

I'm not going to spoil anything for anyone who doesn't know, but the Persian buildings I've seen are, to me, the most interesting and unique in the game.