My first Impressions (3rd Pre-Alpha Release)

[Bladex1200]

After much frustration due to being unable to run the 0 AD 1st and 2nd Alpha releases (incompatibilities with Windows 7), I finally got this baby working. And let me tell you, I am THRILLED to see this Alpha release.

The units are more polished than they are in most freeware games, and the buildings are pleasing to look at. Definitely a plus on graphics. I expected the game to look pretty primitive, due to its alpha state, but it looks polished on the outside.

Delving into the actual gameplay, the AI is, understandably, incomplete. The villagers harvested resources well enough, except for the farms. I had the female villagers build farmsteads and farms. However, I could not get the villagers or the citizen-soldiers (I tried hoplites and peltasts) to harvest the food from the farm. Still, considering the game is still pre-alpha, the AI is surprisingly complete. All they need is some minor tweaks, and the AI will be perfect in terms of economy. I didn't test out the pathfinding or military AI, but I will and post my review at a later time.

Sound is really lacking. I could hear ambient music, which was a pleasant surprise. However, that's about all I heard. The game said that the sound files for moving units and unit responses (ie. "Moving out!" or something along those lines) were missing. The sounds were practically non-existent. I can understand not having unit voices (it takes some time to hire, coordinate, and actually record the voice actors' voices), but even sounds for building a farmstead and farms were absent. Overall, this is the only part lacking, and it's not really a game-breaking flaw.

Overall, based on first impressions, the game looks REALLY promising. If the final game is as good as what this sneak-peak has shown me, then I can safely say that this game earns a solid 10/10 from me. Superior to almost all free time RTS games, and even better than several commercial RTS games, 0 AD has rocked my socks off. Congrats to you, 0 AD team. Good luck with finishing the game.

[WhiteTreePaladin]

I have to take credit for the farm bug... It's already been fixed, and should be in the next version. (I was trying to consolidate things and I ended up only allowing units to gather resources not owned by the player. Since you can gather from enemy farms, it encourages cooperative play. )

There is no player AI yet - we are focusing on multi-player first. (Units will not even attack nearby enemies yet.)

[Jeru]

Thanks for this assessment! You certainly sound like you know what you're talking about.

Can you provide examples of other freeware RTSes you have tried?

[Ykkrosh]

Sound is really lacking.

There's a combination of missing sound effects, missing sound effect triggers (we need to fix all the actor XML files to play sounds at the right time in the animation), and engine bugs (it doesn't cope properly with large numbers of the same effect). At least the first two are being actively worked on, so it should be much improved in the next release

[MattSherman]

I would like to add that many sounds (which worked in previous releases) are currently "broken" due to a recent implementation that will grant us more control over when the sounds are triggered during an animation (Thanks for this Philip!!) In the long run this will make sound much more accurate and exciting.

I would not expect true immersive sound during the alpha phases though, while we have already committed hundreds of original sounds for 0 A.D. we are saving true dynamic and immersive sound for later more polished releases :-)

As Philip stated expect more basic sounds in the next release.

0 A.D. will be graced with a deep and original sound track / sound scape that will allow for full immersion during gameplay ;-)

Thanks!

EDIT / P.S. Very basic ambient sounds should be functioning in this release (if you mute the music it may be easier to notice them)

Edited July 16, 2010 by MattSherman

[phil44]

Can i just chime in and say that the music is FANTASTIC. Really professional stuff, and suits the context of the game perfectly.

Edited July 19, 2010 by phil44

[Arthur_D]

Totally agree, great job!

[Bladex1200]

A few other freeware RTS games I've tried include Globulation 2 (not really an RTS, more like a strategy game focusing on macro-management), Glest (awesome 3D RTS game - definitely worth a check-out), and a few others I've forgotten already. I also own several commercial RTS games (Starcraft, Age of Empires (1 and 3), and Age of Mythology).

My perspective mostly stems from being a fan of historical games. I have interest in WWII ( such as in Company of Heroes) and ancient history (such as in Age of Empires). Overall, when comparing scopes of such RTS games, 0 AD feels like the perfect scope.

If you take a game like Empire Earth, the scope is IMMENSE. This is okay, and I actually kind of like it, but it turns games into LONG, 10-hour affairs where everyone's trying to get to the final epoch/stage while building a suitable raiding army. Don't get me wrong, having a huge scope is fun. It diversifies the game and makes it very replayable. However, it also makes the game feel bloated, since having so many units and counter-units means that you're forced to have a manual or cheat-sheet on hand to be able to memorize all the combinations (ie. archers good vs. cavalry; cavalry good vs. infantry; infantry good vs. archers; etc.). This makes the game a little tedious.

Taking another game on the opposite scale, Starcraft is very intense, with fewer selections. This makes gameplay fast and furious, but it also feels a little small. Sure, there's three races with diversified units and powers, but with each race having only around 9 or 10 units, it feels like the game is a little stripped-down. I don't mind furious, action-packed games. However, the game formula gets repetitive after a while and you start losing interest.

0 AD piqued my interest in that it has a good balance. Similar to how Age of Empires had several stages (vs. just researching upgrades like in Starcraft), 0 AD maintains a scope that feels epic. It still manages to retain enough playability, though, to be fun (Empire Earth gets a little frantic when there's so many research trees and upgrades). Overall, 0 AD seems like a solid RTS game. Oh, and thanks for the responses. I thought the farm glitch was just my game or something.

[Mythos_Ruler]

People will gather from farms, but not automatically. Is this what ur experiencing?

[WhiteTreePaladin]

He's referring to the bug that only allows you to gather from farms you do not own. (Already been fixed BTW)

Edited July 21, 2010 by WhiteTreePaladin