Some questions about 0ad for a new addict

[arn34]

Hi !

I've managed to compile 0ad on my Mac and on my PC and now I am looking at the various features of the game.

On my system, I cannot :

- select a different civilisation than Hellenes

- select a different map than Latium or Oasis (I can actually, but it has no effect)

- select a different size than large (here again, I can but it does nothing more)

- have more than two players on the map (me and the computer)

- get the computer to do something : it never plays (develop buildings and so on) until I attack it

- research technologies (no "technology" tab available)

- upgrade units or buildings

So I'm wondering if this is a problem on my system or just not implemented in the game yet (but I saw so many screenshots with various units I can't get, so it might be possible).

If some features are available separately (maps, civilizations), where can I get them ?

I've read the FAQ and some posts and know the game is evolving at it's speed, so I completely understand that nothing is yet finished, and that things are rather far from being finished at all, this is not a problem for me (I may even be interested in giving a hand in the project if you accept non-developper profiles).

Cheers,

Arnaud

[feneur]

We're releasing the art and gameplay data for two of the game's six civilisations, but holding back the work-in-progress civs until they are more complete and usable.

From the OS page, explains why there are a bunch of units you don't have access to at the moment.

I think it was you I wrote to a couple of days back saying that selecting a map and checking the Screenshot mode checkbox are the only options which are implemented yet, but that's the case in any case.

The reason you can only select those two maps are since those are the only ones we've deemed stable/relevant enough to include in the public repository. You can however create your own maps in Atlas if you want to be able to play as the Celts.

The AI is very rudimentary so far and unless we get some new team member who's very skilled with AI programming we're going to prioritize getting multiplayer finished first. (You can play a multiplayer game already, though it might crash and since there isn't any win conditions implemented yet you can't win in the sense of getting a "You have won!" screen even if the game doesn't crash.)

What do you mean by "non-developper profiles"? We do accept patches from people not on the team if that's what you mean, see http://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/SubmittingPatches for more info.

[arn34]

Allright, I understand a bit more.

I'll try creating maps in the editor from my windows build (Atlas crashes on OS X, I'll try to help finding why).

About the AI, well it's not important, I prefer the multiplayer game side.

About "non-developper" I mean that I am not able to code in c/c++, althought I have good coding experience in java and php/javascript. But coding took too much of my life and I prefer now not being involved in the coding side of projects.

Anyway, I can give a hand in writting documentation as I did for some opensource projects (http://baghira.sourceforge.net) or maintaining binaries releases for OS X or Windows (I did that for Mandriva Linux in the Baghira project, building rpms every new release) or anything else that is not critical for the project as finding time to free for it is my main problem, so I prefer those kind of "short" tasks rather than making the project slow down because I cannot release the code in the right time.

So if you need this kind of profile, I would be pleased to help.

Edited July 28, 2009 by arn34

[feneur]

Ah, then I understand. We're very happy to receive all the help we can get, and I think I remember seeing some edits to the BuildInstructions document made by you already, thanks for that

(I'm still a bit confused as to what you mean by "profile" in this case though )

[arn34]

Sorry to confuse you about profile , I just meaned I am more a doc writer than a code writer. Don't know if it is the right way to say it in english as I'm French basically , but this is just the idea, you see.

So if I feel the need to write doc, I'll send it to the team .

For now, I'm trying to build a custom map, without making the game crash (and it's sometimes hard wow). About this, can you help me a bit ? I found how to delimiter territories with the special_settlement object, but is it the only way ? Actually, I would like to have only a civil center, like in the Latium map. Is it possible ? In a word, do I need to place the civil center just above the special_settlement or is there another solution ?

[Mythos_Ruler]

In Windows, to launch Atlas double click the atlas.bat file in the \system folder. I personally am going to create a few more maps for the OSers to play on here shortly.

[arn34]

Well, I managed to launch Atlas and I even made a few maps to begin, but my main question was : how to delimiter territories without the special_settlement object ? If I want two players on two territories, I need to put two special_settlements, right ? But what if just want to have a civil center, as in Latium map ? Indeed, it does not provide me with a territory, so I have to put a special_settlement AND a civil center. There is certainly a solution to that, but obviously I don't know it ...