First impressions, ideas, a few bugs

[recursion]

This game is excellent! I'd even go as far as saying it's what every "age of ___" game should have been.

I decided to try out the multiplayer recently with a friend. We were both surprised to find the alpha version of this game was already lots of fun! We especially liked the multidirectional viewing and the ability to zoom in to ground level of the units. I also really like the amount of detail put into the buildings/units/maps

A few things I noticed immediately which I wouldn't doubt are already known to the devs ...

Bugs:

• birds stuck in flight
  
• dogs don't animate attacks, some animals legs don't animate at all
  
• one siege unit doesn't seem to want to animate any attacks
  
• gates don't work at all in fact at the moment they're more useful than a wall because of their size
  
• walls don't seem to extend. piecing together bits of walls is time consuming and never fits properly.
  
• the AI in general is buggy, units stop attacking enemies randomly while other times they continue looping attacks against dead enemy units/buildings as well as animals. Resource gathering units sometimes carry on looking for nearby resources other times they simply stop. Similarly builders sometimes stop after completing one building even if you've assigned them to build multiple buildings
  
• I don't know what the max pop is at but I got it to over 450 units
  

ideas:

• would like it if I could see a units total health in an integer format rather than just a health bar which doesn't tell me how much stronger say woman is to building. That way I can strategize what sort of units to use for attacks before sending them in.
  
• I know this goes without saying and I don't doubt more is coming but I can't wait to see more civilizations, units, advancements/upgrades.
  
• I like the formation buttons for groups of units however, I would like to be able to select different stances for that groups meaning "aggresive" "defensive" "neutral" "stand ground".
  
• A small focus on awesome expensive siege weapons while also balancing it with effective defense buildings.
  

I wish you all the best with this project. Really like what you're doing and looking forward to future updates/releases! Much appreciation for all the time, money, effort placed into every piece of work within this project.

[Mythos_Ruler]

You guessed it--most of these are already known to us! However, it's great to hear feedback from players and see what jumps out at them right away or which features and bugs feel important to them.

would like it if I could see a units total health in an integer format rather than just a health bar which doesn't tell me how much stronger say woman is to building. That way I can strategize what sort of units to use for attacks before sending them in.

We've gone back and forth on this one. On one hand we'd like to display as much info as possible, but on the other hand we really really like the lean UI of games like Battle for Middle Earth II. We tried to have the best of both worlds by allowing you to hover your cursor over the Health Status Bar and see a tooltip that tells you the pertinent information. Try that next time and see if it works well enough for you!

I know this goes without saying and I don't doubt more is coming but I can't wait to see more civilizations, units, advancements/upgrades.

More units* especially and more factions will be forthcoming in upcoming releases. Plus, within the next couple of releases we will implement the feature where units 'Level-Up' automatically based on their experience. Basic -> Advanced -> Elite.

*I have added a few units into the editor (Altas) for Alpha III that I think people will like.

I like the formation buttons for groups of units however, I would like to be able to select different stances for that groups meaning "aggresive" "defensive" "neutral" "stand ground".

In the future you will be able to select stance by clicking the "sword" or 'shield' icons next to the unit portrait.

A small focus on awesome expensive siege weapons while also balancing it with effective defense buildings.

Right, siege will eventually get special bonuses vs. buildings (rams vs. gates, especially). Also, infantry units will gain the ability to capture buildings.

[AuroN2]

On the note of bugs, i have noticed that the formations dont work, whenever i click the buggers, they always do the spread formation, every formation is one, i figure thats the only one that works or is my version just buggy? o.O

[SMST]

As Mythos already stated somewhere, "basic formations" means "basic". Yeah, only one is working right now.

[Mythos_Ruler]

It amazes me that so many people have a problem with this. Others on the team wanted to keep the formation buttons out of the UI, because they felt people would be easily confused. I argued that the buttons should remain so people can see what's in store for later releases and that players wouldn't get confused, because the buttons are grayed. I was wrong.

[Pureon]

We gain the mentality of small children when given new toys to play with, you should have known better Mythos

*I have added a few units into the editor (Altas) for Alpha III that I think people will like.

Beware the dragon Brilliant!

I've only just had time to look through all the extra goodies this evening, and there are some very nice additions to the units/objects available. I especially like the look of the Celt buildings, they have visually matured to a stage where the Civ feels like a true adversary to the Greeks, which perhaps it didn't in Alpha I.

Edited October 22, 2010 by Pureon

[recursion]

Glad you care about feedback I half expected this post to go un-noticed. I'll continue to submit bug reports and ideas with each release.

I've been an Age of empires addict for years and 0 A.D may just be the top linux game I have yet to play.

I'll keep checking back on the forum here to see whats up. As I said this looks like an excellent project and I look forward to any updates/releases.

[brazenbat2]

recursion turned me on to this game last night and we played mulitplayer with no real setup issues and no game crashes at all.

Real Tight.

I was impressed with how well the graphics ran, with no lag even though I don't have the best network connection.

The bugs we saw were no problem to us we were getting off on how much we could do so early in dev.

Nice.

[stefanp]

Is there any work done at selecting units by double clicking a unit?

and there is indeed a bug that a unit keep fighting after building or unit is gone.

an other annoing bug is a way point at a tree or something, doesn't auto set task for the unit.

i will try to warm up some people at my study club to look into the code an try to make some things.

greetz,

Stefan

chairman at study group in the Netherlands (Utrecht)

[WhiteTreePaladin]

Double click for selecting all of a type on the screen and triple click for selecting all of a type on the map have already been implemented. They will appear in the next Alpha release.

[Thorfinn the Shallow Minded]

These are some ideas I have. I think that the cavalry being capable of hunting makes sense, but I think that it would be more realistic if they could hunt with javelins and maybe could hunt birds. I think that at least some time, it would be neat to make it so that cavalry knock down infantry when they charge. I also think that adding in a unique death for fiery arrows would look pretty awesome. (kind of like the deaths in rome total war.) Other wise, I would like it if the farms would not partly vanish when put on hilly ground. (That was something I saw in the first alpha version. I haven't installed the second alpha yet.)

This is just a question, but in the video showing two individual units fighting against each other, they had blocking animations. Will all units fight this way?

[Mythos_Ruler]

This is just a question, but in the video showing two individual units fighting against each other, they had blocking animations. Will all units fight this way?

There are no actual blocking animations. In that video the soldiers simply alternate attacking animations and it ends up looking like they are blocking.

[Aldandil]

I second the idea of giving cavalry a javelin animation and the ability to attack at range when hunting. I know that sort of thing isn't a priority for the first version, but it would be a nice addition for later.

[oshron]

iirc, the ancient greeks stabbed boars while hunting with spears

[plumo]

About the animations: whenever i destroy a building with my soldiers / or kill enemy troops : there are always 1 or 2 units where the attack animation keeps on going.

[Thorfinn the Shallow Minded]

There are no actual blocking animations. In that video the soldiers simply alternate attacking animations and it ends up looking like they are blocking.

That's interesting. So is it just by chance that they looked that way?

[feneur]

I second the idea of giving cavalry a javelin animation and the ability to attack at range when hunting. I know that sort of thing isn't a priority for the first version, but it would be a nice addition for later.

Ranged cavalry already have that ability. I personally don't think it makes sense to add it to the non-ranged cavalry though.

[stefanp]

Double click for selecting all of a type on the screen and triple click for selecting all of a type on the map have already been implemented. They will appear in the next Alpha release.

Ok Nice!

any idea if the waypoint task set is beeing done? or the option that builders don't stop building after finishing one.

[Mythos_Ruler]

The building thing has to do with groups not being adequately implemented. We're aware of the problem though. Individual units though DO respond to building queues however.

[Thorfinn the Shallow Minded]

Ranged cavalry already have that ability. I personally don't think it makes sense to add it to the non-ranged cavalry though.

Well the reason I brought it up was this, gazelles for instance, can run at forty mph. That is about the top speed of a racing horse. The point is that it will be hard enough to catch up with the gazelle on horseback and you still have to hack it to pieces. I am just saying that it would seems to me much more logical. How many times does a hunter hunt with a sword or a hand-to-hand spear?

This is another idea, probably not for the next alpha but perhaps for the one after the one after that, but I think that it would be neat if animals functioned realistically. For instance, wolves could stay in packs and would raid stock and protect their territory.

Will camels produce milk? Maybe you could shear some domestic animals to gain gold as an alternative to having them be milked.

[feneur]

Well the reason I brought it up was this, gazelles for instance, can run at forty mph. That is about the top speed of a racing horse. The point is that it will be hard enough to catch up with the gazelle on horseback and you still have to hack it to pieces. I am just saying that it would seems to me much more logical. How many times does a hunter hunt with a sword or a hand-to-hand spear?

This is another idea, probably not for the next alpha but perhaps for the one after the one after that, but I think that it would be neat if animals functioned realistically. For instance, wolves could stay in packs and would raid stock and protect their territory.

Will camels produce milk? Maybe you could shear some domestic animals to gain gold as an alternative to having them be milked.

For more info on how we plan to make animals work see: http://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/Design_...Entities:Nature . I doubt we'll give non-ranged cavalry a ranged attack just for hunting, but if it proves to put one civilization at a disadvantage we might as well.

[Thorfinn the Shallow Minded]

Thanks for the info. This is one recommendation for sharks though. They should be more attracted when a unit is wounded and would be more active at night.

[jotakob]

some things i noticed right when first playing the game.

• i'd prefer a mouselook mode without having to hold shift
  
• the color-change for buildings that can't be built where you place them atm should be made more visible, i coulfd hardly tell the slight red tone from the normal wall
  
• if i order a group of units to chop wood or get food, is it possible to make them not all target the same unit but to let them chose the nearest target so as not to get them crowded in a single place?
  

i'll tell you if i happen to notice more

but good work anyway!

[Mythos_Ruler]

if i order a group of units to chop wood or get food, is it possible to make them not all target the same unit but to let them chose the nearest target so as not to get them crowded in a single place?

This would definitely be good. Good suggestion!

[SMST]

This would definitely be good. Good suggestion!

You may consider that for your soldiers attacking an enemy formation as well. It is kind of weird if your troops concentrate all on the same enemy as it is the case in all present RTS that I know about.