My first "mod"

[Deicide4u]

I proudly present my first game modification

I've replaced the weird Hellenic infantry spearman portrait (found here) with a more aesthetically pleasing one (just a previous icon, really):

 

Here is how it looks in-game:

 

Now, let's see if I can replace that ugly old Barracks portrait. And maybe fix some bugs by backporting code to this version.

EDIT:

I've replaced the icons for both Barracks and the Roman Army Camp.

Alpha 9 used Fortress portrait as a placeholder for the camp.

EDIT2:

Persian Barracks and stable portraits also backported. It's already much nicer to look at.

Edited August 13 by Deicide4u
Added more "fixes"

[Seleucids]

This is the current hoplite icon:

I think it might be a good idea to use the same icon for the same unit type, irrespective of civ, to avoid confusion and decrease thinking time. Hoplites are not the same as spearman though. 

 

[Deicide4u]

23 minutes ago, Seleucids said:

This is the current hoplite icon:

Not applicable or appropriate for the Alpha 9 version, that I'm using.

I'm doing incremental updates to an earlier Alpha. My first big plan is to backport healing by Priests, and any bug fixes possible. I've already removed the useless and legacy "Stamina" attribute.

There was a blue bar next to health, now it's gone.

Eventually, I hope to make a total conversion mod for this specific version, complete with custom AI and build orders. If you've ever played Praetorians RTS, that is something I have in mind.

[Deicide4u]

Update:

Roman Army Camps can now train Marian Legionaries.

I've restricted them to training only melee infantry and Siege Rams. I've also made a bunch of other "balance" changes. Looking now for a way to limit the population cap to a more manageable number.

EDIT:

Was an easy fix inside
simulation/components/Player.js

Edited August 14 by Deicide4u

[Deicide4u]

5 minutes ago, Classic-Burger said:

And  what about the gameplay?

 

It will be presented later, in a separate thread.

6 minutes ago, Classic-Burger said:

Are you going to use the counter system from the old alphas?

 

Yes.

6 minutes ago, Classic-Burger said:

I mean gsm play from the latest alphas + balances from alphas 10-23.

Gameplay will be different. Core part of it will be the lack of phases, as they don't really make sense to me in 0 A.D. The timeline is fixed, and the city development can be balanced differently. One example is with structure costs. Higher tier buildings will require much more resources to build. Most will have build limits, as well.

We'll see, I'll post details when most of it is ready.

[Deicide4u]

28 minutes ago, Classic-Burger said:

I'm interested to see how the counter system works in older versions compared to the current one.

 

Due to janky animations, it is hardly noticeable. Units either die too quickly or are practically immune to attacks. Some balance changes need to be made to make it work as intended.

For example, units died to siege very fast. That's why I made organic units almost invulnerable to crush attacks, as they are in recent alphas.

[Obelix]

It's great seeing your progress-I wish you a good portion of endurance!

Personally I never crossed the border to modding, only a bit towards development.

[Deicide4u]

Changes so far, when compared to Alpha 9 vanilla.

Siege Weapons overhaul:

Siege weapons are much better at destroying buildings, but much worse at killing organic units. At the same time, all economic and civic buildings are more vulnerable to hack damage.

Building costs overhaul:

Overall, higher tier buildings (Fortresses, Army Camps, Gymnasiums, etc.) are now much more expensive to build. This is in part to compensate for the lack of phases. In the future, there may be some form of requirements for certain buildings, similar to StarCraft.

Champion units:

They are now much stronger than Citizen Soldiers, but also cost more population space. Champion infantry costs 2 population, champion cavalry costs 3. So, there is no more champion unit spam.

Heroes:

All Heroes are now just very powerful units, identical to Greek heroes from Age of Mythology. I'm still working on implementing a training limit. They also cost more population space. Celts and Hellenes can now train only 3 Heroes, the same as other civilizations.

Hellenic heroes are Leonidas, Alexander and Themistocles. Celtic heroes are Boudicca, Brennus and Vercingetorix.

Technical changes:

All features that weren't implemented, or were implemented partially, were either removed or tweaked. Charge attacks are removed because they didn't work and they were cluttering the UI. Priests are removed for now, but the Temples now heal faster and can garrison up to 30 troops. GUI buttons that did not work are removed. Civilization pages that showed technologies and bonuses are also removed, as almost nothing was implemented at the time.

Population cap is now at 200. In Age of Empires 2 campaigns, you had only 75 population space. I think 200 should be more than enough. I considered reducing it to 150, but it could have made some scenarios hard.

The AI (legacy qBot as base) is now harder, and attacks with more units. Roman AI can train Marian Legionaries from the Army Camps, while Hellenic AI can now train Siege Towers.

Towers and Fortresses:

Towers are now weaker, but you can build more of them. You can now only construct 5 Fortresses, so turtling is not really an option.

Changes not considered:

There are some features that won't be included. For example, does it make sense for our civilizations to research "Iron Plow"? No, so technologies that can be researched won't be included. For the short term, I will explore other options for bonuses, that don't require compiling the game from source. I would like to implement auras on the more basic level.

More changes and testing is on the way. I will provide more when the testing of the current changes is complete in Single player.

Edited August 15 by Deicide4u
Some small additions.