0AD part II ideas

[Jugulator]

The Huns, and some other tribes from the central asia

[Apomonomenos]

I know of A few Barbarian tribes from when I was studding Rome few years back.

Vandals (Who took nothing(?) and burned buildings. Hence "Vandalism")

Gauls (Rome's most Comment Enemy, located in the German & French Region, aka Gaul)

Saxons (Hence King Arthur)

Vikings (I think, more likely Later, from what I know at least 500A.D., Also known as the Norse Men).

I probably got a lot wrong, but again, this was from when I was Rome probably 2-3 Years back.

[Mythos_Ruler]

My favored factions for Part 2 would be:

- Imperial Rome (the stereotypical "Roman Empire" we've all grown to love)

- Eastern Rome/Late Empire/Early Byzantine (whatever you want to call it, I don't care. We'll probably call it Byzantine Empire to help distinguish it)

- Dacians

- Germans (Visigoths, Ostrogoths, etc.)

- Huns

- Parthians

[Abadu]

What about the sassanids and palmyrans?

[Justinian]

Sassanids = Parthians (more or less)

[Mythos_Ruler]

I could see Sassanids, Sarmatians, and Palmyrans as uber patch factions. I mean by 0 A.D. 2.5 or whatever we should pros at doing this stuff, right? Scythians would be a sweet civ too, but they'd just be a clone or love child between Huns and Sarmatians.

[Undo]

But why do you relegate those civs to "a patch"? Why can't you include them all together in the first release?

[Mythos_Ruler]

Because the game does 6 factions per part. Part 1 = 6 factions. Part 2 = 6 factions. That has always been the plan. We ain't gonna change it.

[Undo]

I know that was the plan, but it would seem you'd like to see that plan changed... Why making a factions-patch when you already know you want more than 6 factions?

Don't take me the wrong way, I'm not suggesting you should change your plans or something, I'm just curious about what your plans are.

[feneur]

I'm sure there might be other considerations too, but one thing that limits the number of civilisations for the game is balance. Having too many civilisations would take a lot of time to get balanced.

[Mythos_Ruler]

Because additional content is just that: additional.

[t i m a e u s]

18 civs seems a bit too much IMO

[Mythos_Ruler]

Agreed. 12 should be good. Anything additional will be... additional.

[Cassador_Chris]

My favored factions for Part 2 would be:

- Imperial Rome (the stereotypical "Roman Empire" we've all grown to love)

- Eastern Rome/Late Empire/Early Byzantine (whatever you want to call it, I don't care. We'll probably call it Byzantine Empire to help distinguish it)

- Dacians

- Germans (Visigoths, Ostrogoths, etc.)

- Huns

- Parthians

I'm liking this.

I only have a few questions before I give a recommendation. I know this is really jumping the gun guys, so just tell me your "fun thoughts". Nothing is written in stone. So, how will all these civilizations be "drastically" different?

1. How will the two Romes differ in play-style? Both "good all round" civilizations?

2. How will the Huns and Parthians differ in play-style? Both good "cavalry archer" civilizations?

3. How will the Dacians and Germans differ in play-stle? Both strong "infantry" civilizations?

[Mythos_Ruler]

Well, play style can be influenced via economics, technology trees, civ bonuses, team bonuses, and building trees as well. It's not all about the military aspect, if you know what I mean. So, for instance, even though both the Parthians and Huns will be heavily cavalry oriented, they will both play completely different styles because of their tech trees, their building trees, economic styles, etc. Likewise, the early Roman Empire was much different than the late Roman Empire (260AD+) both militarily and economically (and socially and technologically, as you could imagine).

[Abadu]

Cassador,you dont even need to go on gameplay and economic aspects to make those civs diferent.The imperial romans were infantry based while the late ones relied much more in cavalry and auxiliar units.The Parthians used a lot of heavy cavalry too,while the huns didnt;And the germans had good cavalry and weak archers,while the dacians had few horseman but good archers and javelineers.

Edited February 16, 2009 by Abadu

[Cassador_Chris]

I see. I obviously don't know the extent of the system being put in place in 0AD, but let me humor myself here. I did this on my rough knowledge of the different cultures and adapted.

Parthians:

1. Cluster-like Tech Tree. (ex. 5 base techs, each tech making 5 or so new ones available, which dead-end)

2. Typical 'branch' style Building Tree. (ex. this building leads to this building leads to these 2 buildings.)

3. Economy: Focused around manor-like buildings. Each 'region' is self-sufficient (this denotes a special gathering style that ensures no matter what the resource placement, the Parthians can gather the resources they need: lets say there is no stone in a province. A special building/unit can gather-albeit more slowly then usual-that resource)

4. Military: Nearly entirely cavalry: light horse-archers, heavy cataphracts, camels, some mercenaries tossed in.

Huns:

1. Leech-like tech tree. (ex. destroy enemy building, get a tech from it you haven't researched). A few techs unique to the Huns are available from the start with no tree, but at varying expensiveness.

2. One-size-fits-all buildings. A few base structures do everything thats needed of them.

3. Economy: Combines benefits from raiding (attacking enemy structures), as well as possessing a mobile economy. Buildings can be packed and moved, and the Huns don't lay claim to territories, inabling them to set up base inside enemy territories to suck them dry of vital natural resources.

4. Military: Initially consisting of light horsemen, they also have heavy infantry and cavalry (Germans), and excellent siege equipment. These could be mercenaries, super units, or the Huns could have the unique ability to destroy enemy structures to possibly recieve the ability to train an enemy super unit from their own structures.

Something like this then?

Edited February 17, 2009 by Cassador_Chris

[Mythos_Ruler]

Not sure how fancy we'd get with tech trees and building trees. We might have the manpower by the time we start developing Part 2 or we might not. I suspect it will all depend on the success of (or lack thereof) the 0 A.D. Part 1 release.

One of my ideas for Part 2 would be to give each faction a "special ability" similar to a god power from AOM, but they cost resources and have a recharge time. So, like the Eastern Romans (Early Byzantines) would have a Hippodrome building for chariot races. There would be a "chariot race" button in the GUI (called "Bread and Circuses!) when you select the Hippodrome. Click the button, a boatload of resources is taken from your stockpile (Food and Metal, ie "Gold" I'd imagine), the crowd ROARS (all players hear it), and all your cavalry get double charge bonuses for 90 seconds. The ability would take about 5 mins to recharge. Things like that.

[Undo]

Would Germans be divided in Visigoths/Ostrogoths/whatever, just like Celts are divided in Gauls and Britons?

[Cassador_Chris]

Would Germans be divided in Visigoths/Ostrogoths/whatever, just like Celts are divided in Gauls and Britons?

I think someone said this somewhere at some point in time.

I could see Germans break into Goths and Vandals. Goths being more land-bound and Vandals being more sea-bound. The Imperial Romans could actually break into Eastern and Western Empires perhaps.

[Mythos_Ruler]

I think someone said this somewhere at some point in time.

I could see Germans break into Goths and Vandals. Goths being more land-bound and Vandals being more sea-bound. The Imperial Romans could actually break into Eastern and Western Empires perhaps.

Perhaps Goths, Vandals, and Franks for Germanic sub-factions (Franks so we could use their cool throwing axemen). The problem would be finding unique heroes and super units for each. 2-3 heroes for each as well as 2 super units for each. Super units are our game's "unique units" unique to that faction or sub-faction only.

[plumo]

If you want inspiration for the units and the factions:

the expansion of ROme:total war: the barbarian invasion can help you

[Mythos_Ruler]

Actually the RTW mods Roma Surrectum and Rome:Total Realism could be good sources for inspiration.

As a side note: I play Rome:Total Realism Platinum Edition and it is fantastic. My Macedonian Empire now stretches from Illyria to Dacia, Thrace, the borders of Sarmasia, most of Asia Minor, all of Greece, Crete, Rhodes, and Cyprus. The Romans are starting to send their hordes into Illyria and are giving me all kinds of trouble. I recently spanked the Thracians to within an inch of their lives, so my northern borders are good. I have conquered Cilicia and am using the city Tarsus and the Cilician gates near Antioch as my "Thermopylae" of sorts to keep the Seleucids out of Asia Minor while I struggle against Pontus, who have given me a lot of trouble. To help alleviate the Roman attacks on my holdings in Illyria I sent 2 full armies on a suicide mission into Italia (which by now has been under total Roman domination for about a century of game time). I captured Rome, enslaved the people (around 25,000! ), then raised all the buildings. I did this with as many Italian cities as possible until the Roman hordes returned from Illyria and crushed my expeditionary armies in their homeland. What this did was severely weakened the Romans in their heartland and gave me time to rebuild my forces in Illyria in time to face the returning Roman armies. I am finally starting to beat them back. Just as I start to beat back the Romans, Pontus starts sieging my cities in Asia Minor (bah!!!). Great game! Great mod! The original vanilla version of RTW was disappointing, but the "Total Realism" mod is quite exciting and involving.

[Silver]

I'll be dead honest, I suck at Rome Total War, I mean I'm really bad except when I'm in battle... it's just I got bored of it so fast.

If anyone can give me tips on what to build and how to replenish troops and move around faster that would be appreciated.

I'm not very good at turn based games, I guess. I am more of a free type of player (no turns all real time) and just out build, outwork and out maneuver other players.

[Mythos_Ruler]

You can "replenish" troops instantly by combining depleted units of the same type. Just drag one card and drop it over another (you can do this with retinues as well!). The game is much much deeper than a lot of people think. Your family members' traits and retinues do really affect gameplay a lot, especially with city management. Build up super assassins by assassinating petty captains and hapless enemy diplomats before attempting to kill higher ranking enemy family members. The experience system is very good. You can move troops around the map faster by upgrading your roads. It's one of the first things I build when I capture a city. You can also move small armies of cavalry farther per turn than mixed armies (cavalry and infantry), so a divide and march approach could work well if you are trying to get more troops from the center of your empire to the front lines.