What do you think 0 A.D. lacks?

Deicide4u · 2025-10-02T20:16:50Z

I struggled with trying to understand why this game felt weird when compared to other similar titles. For a while now I thought that this weirdness comes from the Citizen Soldier system, but it's not it.

The weird part is that your units don't progress. Yes, many of them have ranks and get cooler looks as they go up in rank. But, it's the same unit in the end. A Hastati is always just a Hastati (unless you upgrade him to a Centurion, a rare example of unit progression).

In "Age of" games, you get unit line upgrades.

Militia upgrades to Man-at-Arms, which upgrades to Long Swordsman, etc.

Scout Cavalry upgrades to Light Cavalry, which upgrades to Hussars. You get the picture.

There isn't that familiar upgrade icon below the unit. We do have unit classes, and this helps to differentiate civilizations. But, for me at least, the unit upgrade system is what the game (intentionally) lacks.

Edited 2 hours ago by Deicide4u

Classic-Burger · 2025-10-02T20:46:05Z

21 minutes ago, Deicide4u said:

The weird part is that your units don't progress. Yes, many of them have ranks and get cooler looks as they go up in rank. But, it's the same unit in the end. A Hastati is always just a Hastati (unless you upgrade him to a Centurion, a rare example of unit progression).

It's normal, many RTS don't have progression. Sometimes people don't feel the technological improvements.

22 minutes ago, Deicide4u said:

In "Age of" games, you get unit line upgrades.

Age of Empires 2 isn't a good example. In AoE, there are eras, while in 0AD, there aren't any; you don't go from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age.

22 minutes ago, Deicide4u said:

.

Militia upgrades to Man-at-Arms, which upgrades to Long Swordsman, etc.

That's fine for ages, in 0AD there are no ages, the equipment of a centurion is not much improved compared to that of a princeps.

I recommend you see it more like Total War series logic.

26 minutes ago, Deicide4u said:

Scout Cavalry upgrades to Light Cavalry, which upgrades to Hussars. You get the picture.

Again, this isn't about turning 0AD into Age of Empires, Delenda Est did a better job with scouts.

Putting centurions instead of a princeps makes no sense.

It's like evolving from a corporal to a lieutenant.

In Age of Empires, it goes from upgrading a 18th century militia to a 21st century marine.That's the logic of AoE. If you want real changes, it's better to differentiate the equipment.