What do you think 0 A.D. lacks?

[Emacz]

1 hour ago, Dakara said:

Call to Arms" button exist already ! 

Wait, call to arms button? I must be nub.

 

1 hour ago, Dakara said:

This seems to be a minor issue or rather, a case of player inattention; if a player decides to gather resources while under enemy fire, that’s not a problem (towers or archers deal low damage).

I agree do some degree. But I still think from a practicality/logical point of view; if you are out working the fields and you see an enemy raiding party, or more importantly one of your comrades is being attacked chances are you are going to take up arms and defend, or retreat

if your opponent is really good, and you are nub like myself and they are attacking from 2 or more areas, you might just be focusing on one and not realizing you are being attacked somewhere else. 

[Thalatta]

2 hours ago, Dakara said:

Call to Arms" button exist already ! 

Where? I see only six buttons: Self-Destruct, Abort, Attack, Garrison, Occupy Turret (which I don't know yet what it does) and Repair.

[Atrik]

12 minutes ago, Thalatta said:

Where? I see only six buttons: Self-Destruct, Abort, Attack, Garrison, Occupy Turret (which I don't know yet what it does) and Repair.

Vanilla UI doesn't have space to display all unit action button, so it doesn't show it. You can use the hotkey as an alternative.
I can also recommend using ModernGUI as others and myself contributed to fixing bugs and limitations of the game UI. There are at least 100+ bug fixs like this in the mod. You can also choose to wait a few decades  for them to be addressed in vanilla (no sarcasm, just a extrapolation of the time to get one item merged), staff and contributors do whatever they can to make it happen but the process is slow by nature.

[Emacz]

I didnt even notice it on moderngui, will need to study more carefully.

[Atrik]

1 minute ago, Emacz said:

I didnt even notice it on moderngui, will need to study more carefully.

The absence of a bug is generally less noticeable then when it's here 

[stevenlau]

This is the call to arms button, folks!

[Thalatta]

3 hours ago, stevenlau said:

This is the call to arms button, folks!

Jesus Fricking Christ... you are totally right. Just tested it and it works perfectly. In part it's our fault for not reading the tooltip, but it's not intuitive to give it such a simple name which, I think, in most games means something else, more so when most people talk about "Call to Arms" (the button should be called like that). Btw, what does Occupy Turret do? The tooltip is not clear enough, and I can't find any specific info. Maybe I just haven't come across "turret points". Also, as per one of my previous suggestions, a "Capture" button should be added.

Edited Saturday at 11:51 by Thalatta

[Thalatta]

On 04/07/2026 at 11:50 AM, Thalatta said:

Just tested it and it works perfectly.

Well, actually, it would be nice that, if the terrain is clicked, units would go there after dropping resources, but instead, if the button is used nothing happens, and if the hotkey is used, the message "some unit(s) can't go back to work" appears, and nothing happens.

Edited 42 minutes ago by Thalatta
My bad, it works. Explained in comments that follow.

[Obelix]

On 04/07/2026 at 11:50 AM, Thalatta said:

Also, as per one of my previous suggestions, a "Capture" button should be added.

I strongly oppose, there's no more place for another button. It's okay to read the manual before start gaming and playing around with CTRL and ALT keys.

Manual -> Hotkeys -> Modify mouse actions -> C + Right click ...

On 04/07/2026 at 11:50 AM, Thalatta said:

Btw, what does Occupy Turret do?

This button appears only for ranged units. Have a look on Tips and Tricks 'City Walls' and Structure tree -> Phase 2 (of every Civilization) -> Wall -> Turret.

I never used it before, but should do it in the future on scenario maps or when ruling Iberians. In other 

[Thalatta]

2 hours ago, Obelix said:

I strongly oppose, there's no more place for another button. It's okay to read the manual before start gaming and playing around with CTRL and ALT keys.

It seems to me that not having a button for something as important as Capture is bad design, a manual should not be needed, nor should newbies be expected to read it, for something like that. A place for a button can be made.

 

2 hours ago, Obelix said:

This button appears only for ranged units. Have a look on Tips and Tricks 'City Walls' and Structure tree -> Phase 2 (of every Civilization) -> Wall -> Turret.

Ok, that's confusing as hell. That Wall Turret icon appears beside the Gate in the Structure Tree, but not in-game, it's not something that can be built/upgraded, but that appears automatically. Then, the Turret button doesn't work on a Wall Turret, but on the Wall itself (nice to see that units can appear in its walkway!). It says "current turrets 16/16", but that has nothing to do with turrets, the gaps in the battlement are called crenels, although since there are 2 people per crenel, maybe "stations" would be a better word. It seems to me that this button is unnecessary, the garrison button should have this function when applied to Walls, after all it's really confusing that to man the Wall that button must be used, but to man the Wall Towers the Garrison button must be used. Maybe a more generic "Occupy" button could be used, which could also act as a Capture button if an enemy building is selected, with the description "Order the selected units to garrison a building, staff a station, crew a unit, board a ship, or capture a structure." There's no need for different buttons if the functions are similar and, if I'm not wrong, there's no overlap between them.

Edited 21 hours ago by Thalatta

[Obelix]

24 minutes ago, Thalatta said:

Then, the Turret button doesn't work on a Wall Turret, but on the Wall itself [...].

I am using a2cae and can confirm. I'd call this a bug as well and reported it.

[Thalatta]

4 minutes ago, Obelix said:

I am using a2cae and can confirm. I'd call this a bug as well and reported it.

OK! Something I'd like to add, because maybe there's a case (or plan), to have structures that can be both garrisoned and posted (this should be the term, instead of "turreted"), the Occupy Turret button could be renamed to Post (in contraposition of Garrison, for external vs internal discrimination, and ignoring for now a more radical possibility of rearranging units from the structure itself). Capture could still be achieved with the Garrison and/or Post buttons on enemy structures, and if in the future (or some mod) units will be able to capture fortifications by storming gates or ramparts, this distinction would already be supported.

[Atrik]

2 hours ago, Thalatta said:

It seems to me that not having a button for something as important as Capture is bad design

Have to say you are right.

Spoiler

 

2 hours ago, Obelix said:

I am using a2cae and can confirm. I'd call this a bug as well and reported it.

Hardly a bug. But it's confusing game-play choice (in fact, just a left-over from old wall towers being able to shoot). I have a pending patch were I replace garrison for turret points on wall towers.

[Thalatta]

2 hours ago, Atrik said:

  Hide contents

It seems to me that those buttons are placed on a panel dedicated to something else… What about something like this instead? (I also changed their ordering to something a bit more thematic):

 

2 hours ago, Atrik said:

Hardly a bug. But it's confusing game-play choice (in fact, just a left-over from old wall towers being able to shoot). I have a pending patch were I replace garrison for turret points on wall towers.

There would still be the issue I mentioned that many turret points have nothing to do with turrets, which was confusing me from the beginning.

[Atrik]

1 hour ago, Thalatta said:

It seems to me that those buttons are placed on a panel dedicated to something else… What about something like this instead? (I also changed their ordering to something a bit more thematic):

I like the gain in clarity and the attempt to normalize panel's heights.

There are a couple reasons why I still couldn't go for this.

• Lateral space is already scarce in ModernGUI if you don't have a big screen
• Although your suggestion takes as much total space as what's implemented in the mod, it adds the clutter a bit more to the center of the screen. For users that use hotkeys for unit action anyways, or at least for myself, this is not desirable (maybe it's just something you could get used too idk)
• Contrary to what you say, the placement is logical. All possible actions are on the right side, all attribute-like options on the left (formation stance..)
• Currently the single selection detail panel wouldn't be able to shrink down height without losing something.
  Spoiler

  

 

1 hour ago, Thalatta said:

There would still be the issue I mentioned that many turret points have nothing to do with turrets, which was confusing me from the beginning.

You are basically saying the wording "turret point" is confusing but you aren't suggesting anything.

[Thalatta]

1 hour ago, Atrik said:

1) Lateral space is already scarce in ModernGUI if you don't have a big screen

2) Although your suggestion takes as much total space as what's implemented in the mod, it adds the clutter a bit more to the center of the screen. For users that use hotkeys for unit action anyways, or at least for myself, this is not desirable (maybe it's just something you could get used too idk)

3) Contrary to what you say, the placement is logical. All possible actions are on the right side, all attribute-like options on the left (formation stance..)

4) Currently the single selection detail panel wouldn't be able to shrink down height without losing something.

•   Hide contents

  

1) Yes, I realised I might be occupying too much horizontal space, but instead width can be reduced and height increased, after all I proposed this redistribution of the construction panel some time ago: https://wildfiregames.com/forum/topic/143192-construction-panel-layout/

2) I'm not sure what you mean by this, but some panels could be reordered.

3) Yes, I realised that and I almost swapped the 2nd and 3rd panel because of it. In any case, actions are divided in what structures to build, and the rest, which seemed a bit different to me.

4) Yes, I thought about the single selection case, but considered that the username could be placed somewhere else, like in the upper panel. After all, why does that appear for single selection, but not for multiple selection? That doesn't make much sense to me.

 

1 hour ago, Atrik said:

You are basically saying the wording "turret point" is confusing but you aren't suggesting anything.

I proposed plenty of things in my preceding posts: first said "maybe "stations" would be a better word", that "a more generic "Occupy" button could be used, which could also act as a Capture button", and later said that, in case one wants "to have structures that can be both garrisoned and posted (this should be the term, instead of "turreted"), the Occupy Turret button could be renamed to Post", and that "Capture could still be achieved with the Garrison and/or Post buttons". Since on the latest layouts there seems to be plenty of space for extra buttons, that last thing doesn't seem necessary (could still be an option).

In conclusion, right now the simplest thing would be to rename "Occupy Turret" to "Post", or "Take Post", and to change its description from "Order the selected units to occupy a turret point" to "Order the selected units to take a post", and with the present icon I think things would be clearer. Or "Order the selected units to take a post on the battlements", if all these external points are going to be behind parapets with crenellations.

Edited 13 hours ago by Thalatta
Added "battlement" modification.

[Thalatta]

@Atrik considering your four points, and using the Construction Panel layout I proposed long ago, I end up with this, which has the same height as your panels, and the additional width is less than the width of a small button:

 

Edited 6 hours ago by Thalatta

[guerringuerrin]

On 04/07/2026 at 7:41 AM, Thalatta said:

Well, actually, it would be nice that, if the terrain is clicked, units would go there after dropping resources, but instead, if the button is used nothing happens, and if the hotkey is used, the message "some unit(s) can't go back to work" appears, and nothing happens.

The button does work, but after clicking on it you need to left-click the terrain to issue the command, just like with the other command buttons in the panel. You can try the same with Patrol, Guard, Repair. When using the hotkey instead, the command is issued with a right-click.

Edited 1 hour ago by guerringuerrin

[Atrik]

I think I'll consider this proposed layout, I see a some benefits. One of them might be an option to hide it as some players like myself already know each unit command hotkey. I also like that you get 10 slots for unit commands which is the exact number to not have any overflow for single-type selection even including new capture button (the 10th is "back to work") but doesn't have much dead space. The overflow in multi-type selection (worker + building) will overflow but that's somewhat fine, not worth adding space for this.

About the construction panel layout, it's not worth pursuing your attempt to order building, in my opinion. Due to the fact that the list of construction is very variable : across civs, mods easily add some, and in a multi-type selection (if any of the selection is a trainer, a researcher or can be upgraded) then you cannot keep the ordering. Also on your mock the order isn't even done by any entity classes that would make it possible.

[guerringuerrin]

Regarding the design, I think the ModernGUI approach makes the best use of the available space. (thanks for preserving this work from boonGUI @Atrik)

Spoiler

13 hours ago, Atrik said:

• Currently the single selection detail panel wouldn't be able to shrink down height without losing something.
    Hide contents

  

 

IMHO adding a separate panel dedicated to these actions introduces a few complications. For example, if only a few actions are available, the panel would need to resize dynamically. Otherwise, it would leave a lot of empty space. This already happens when selecting buildings, where only three actions are available.
On the other hand, if more than ten actions become available in the future, the panel would either have to grow or choose which buttons to display, just as the current vanilla implementation does. 
In fact, this already happens when selecting units together with buildings. So I think some level of tolerance for certain buttons not being shown under specific conditions is necessary. Otherwise, we'd have to resize the bottom panel dynamically, and I don't think that's a desirable solution.

[Thalatta]

7 minutes ago, guerringuerrin said:

The button does work, but after clicking on it you need to left-click the terrain to issue the command, just like with the other command buttons in the panel. You can try the same with Patrol, Guard, Repair. When using the hotkey instead, the command is issued with a right-click.

All true! I don't know why at least one of those possibilities didn't work for me before, and I can't even reproduce the message I was getting...

 

4 minutes ago, Atrik said:

The overflow in multi-type selection (worker + building) will overflow but that's somewhat fine, not worth adding space for this.

2 minutes ago, guerringuerrin said:

if only a few actions are available, the panel would need to resize dynamically. Otherwise, it would leave a lot of empty space.

2 minutes ago, guerringuerrin said:

On the other hand, if more than ten actions become available in the future, the panel would either have to grow or choose which buttons to display

What about having 3 columns showing all possible slots always, with the non-functional for the given selection being greyed out? After all, that's what happens with the other actions (the construction panel). This would also show the player all that is possible. The possibility I like less is not showing buttons for actions that can be performed, it's not about knowing the hotkeys, it's about clearly showing new players what can be done. I think it's good to have the option to hide certain things.

 

4 minutes ago, Atrik said:

you cannot keep the ordering. Also on your mock the order isn't even done by any entity classes that would make it possible.

Well it had mostly vanilla in mind, and the row ordering criteria I defined was quite generic (mostly economic, civic, military, and special), but yes, those new classes would be needed for it to work.

[Atrik]

14 minutes ago, guerringuerrin said:

if only a few actions are available, the panel would need to resize dynamically. Otherwise, it would leave a lot of empty space.

If you are referring the @Thalatta's last mock, then the dead space would always be less then current ModernGUI layout (10 slots vs current 12) but it's a bit closer to screen center which might look worse as said above. Your other points I acknowledged them in the last comment, so agreed but you always have to make compromises, goal is to make the best ones.  

 

6 minutes ago, Thalatta said:

What about having 3 columns showing all possible slots always, with the non-functional for the given selection being greyed out?

We're back to first exchange : too much clutter, too much space used. The second option is just slightly better enough to make it interesting.

[Thalatta]

13 minutes ago, Atrik said:

too much clutter, too much space used

And sidebars or overflow arrows? Which could be hidden but work by scrolling. But I have the feeling these are avoided, even when they could help reduce space used. 

[Atrik]

11 minutes ago, Thalatta said:

But I have the feeling these are avoided, even when they could help reduce space used. 

Exactly. For a game overlay, they are the worse thing possible.