General Suggestions

[Revan Shan]

Future factions

"In future Expansion Packs, we hope to expand the number of available cultures by incorporating additional civilisations from 1 A.D. to 500 A.D. So expect this section to grow after 0 A.D. is released! The list will not be finalised until the first edition has gone gold, but possible civilisations include the Germanics, Vandals, Sarmatians, Late Rome, Imperial Rome or Eastern Rome, Saxons, Parthians, Huns, Dacians, Goths"

I don't think that's a good idea. If it's 0 A.D. it's 0 A.D.

Factions I support: Germanics, Samaritans, Parthians + Egyptians

Semisupport (appear a bit late in history): Dacians

Do not Support (they appear too late in history): Vandals, Saxons, Huns, Goths

Definitely do not Support: Late Rome, Imperial Rome, Eastern Rome (you cannot have 4 factions for Romans, plus, this would add a lot of balance problems between them).

If the team really wants to add the late factions (I supose cause they love the imperial segmentata armor and they want them in) I suggest making historic modes with which you would divide the eras, or directly another game (500 A.D.)

Map size

They should be much bigger. AoE III failed in this and lost part of the charm and campaign epicness AoE II had.

Unit Speed

All units should have their speed increased, they feel too slow.

No Phantom Ships

Please, fix this thing AoE never did. Add a fake crew to ships.

Renovable Resources

Make animals and plants respawn (it felt really bad in AoE when the map had no trees left). Fishing baks should respawn as well.

Add battle music

For now there is only 1 song for the map. I really like it but it doesn't fit a battle. Of course I'm sure you are looking forward to more variety like I do, but the game doesn't only need more tracks. I remember when in Age of Mythology or AoE III troops gathered to fight battle music played instead.

Lootable ships

This could be fun. Letting fishing boats loot material from sunken ships.

Edited March 13, 2011 by Revan Shan

[Jeru]

I am very glad to say you are barging into an open door in respect to most of your (constructive) criticism. (unit speed, no phantom ships, battle music).

Future factions are a long, long way off. Lootable ships will probably have to wait for a mod for this purpose.

[feneur]

About the factions/time period: The game is overall meant to encompass the period between 500 B.C. and 500 A.D. The name 0 A.D. is chosen partly because it's in the middle of those two.

Renewable resources are very unlikely, it's one of those things that sounds great in theory, but isn't all that great in practice. With trade you should never be in a situation where you cannot get more resources anyway.

[Revan Shan]

About the factions/time period: The game is overall meant to encompass the period between 500 B.C. and 500 A.D. The name 0 A.D. is chosen partly because it's in the middle of those two.

Renewable resources are very unlikely, it's one of those things that sounds great in theory, but isn't all that great in practice. With trade you should never be in a situation where you cannot get more resources anyway.

But it's not only for resources. It will also make the map alive all throughout the game. Do you remember how AoE maps look like after a good time playing? Like deserts.

[feneur]

But it's not only for resources. It will also make the map alive all throughout the game. Do you remember how AoE maps look like after a good time playing? Like deserts.

If nothing else you might take that as a reason to win quicker Seriously though, where would new resources be placed? In the middle of your city? That would not be too good, having trees appearing where your units are supposed to walk or your next building should go. Far away from your city? Wouldn't there already be resources there as you haven't expanded there yet, if not you'll most likely at least have a Mill there, and how would the "tree placing algorithm" know the difference? Where it's only one building? That might be a scout tower overlooking a good access route to your enemy which might then be blocked if more trees are added. If only around mills, then you might get trees where you don't want them. If only near mills which are far away from other buildings it may be a mill you built to gather metal or stone which could risk getting blocked by trees.

The only resource I realistically see being renewable would be animals, but I don't think it's worth spending the time implementing renewable resources just for food which is something you should be able to get from farms by that time in any case.

[Revan Shan]

To begin with respawning at the initial points in which they already spawned, if no buildings have been built in their place. And this could be expanded yes, with a new code which would spawn trees after other get chopped down, all around the map in land areas. Including next to buildings, but within a certain distance. The code could also see if there is actually a city or town (a group of buildings) and take them as a center from which trees could also spawn but with a greater distance.

[bill2505]

i strongly agree about renewable resources

[Salesome]

If nothing else you might take that as a reason to win quicker Seriously though, where would new resources be placed? In the middle of your city? That would not be too good, having trees appearing where your units are supposed to walk or your next building should go.

I absolutely agree with you that it is silly to have a forest growing into your settlement. The cleverest way is to let new trees grow near to old ones (like a cellular automaton - if there are enough trees around, a new one will grow). That would mean that a big forest that has almost been chopped down would slowly regenerate itself, but it would stop when it has reached its original size. With that configuration, there should be no problems with forests overgrowing.

Regenerating fish is quite easy, as the number of food in one fishing patch would slowly increase over time and when it's empty, it would not disappear. Instead, it has 0 food and is regenerating.

Animals shouldn't be a big deal either. E.g. in Empire Earth, there are small groups of animals with a defined amount of individuals standing around on the map. When their number is dropping, new individuals are spawned until the original number has been reached again.

Generally speaking, I would be really excited to have these features in the game, as it would make it more alive and (that's a strong advantage) more realistic.

[Pureon]

The market building allows players to barter for resources between allied factions. Merchants will travel between markets to exchange resources.

How about 'buying' tree seeds from the market building, planting them in available spaces near your city, and then chopping them down when they've grown to full wood capacity. The wood from these trees could be used to build farms, therefore making food a renewable resource too.

[oshron]

if you want, the player could be able to trade with themselves to indefinitely generate metal or other resources (since gold as a distinct resource doesnt exist in 0ad) like you could in AOM, thus allowing you to buy other resources indefinitely

[Pureon]

So the further one market is to another the more resource can be collected?

[feneur]

The current plan is something like: trade between a player's own markets give a basic amount of resource (when territories are implemented you'll only be able to build one market per territory, so this will be another reason making players expand ), trade between a player's market and another player's market gives a bigger amount of resources.

[Pureon]

Therefore renewable resources will be available through trading, so everyone's happy

[oshron]

yup, that sounds about right. it could also potentially give the player incentive to go athens and build long walls from one town to another to defend their trade route

[Pureon]

I like the sound of that, I suspect I'll be going athens on a regular basis

[General Octavian]

Hopefully maps will be much larger when final release comes

[oshron]

i hope so, too, or at least that there's an official patch made to allow for gigantic maps. i really liked one map in particular on AOM that recreated pretty much the entire world and was GIGANTIC. it even had a decent amount of accuracy to it. just imagine the detail that a 0ad map that size could pull off for an entire map of the ancient world!

[Alpha of the Eagles]

How about 'buying' tree seeds from the market building, planting them in available spaces near your city, and then chopping them down when they've grown to full wood capacity. The wood from these trees could be used to build farms, therefore making food a renewable resource too.

This. Would've been awesome.

[Arthur_D]

Just implement a forester, which plants trees around his house.

[Mythos_Ruler]

The problem is that we have scant evidence (none?) that the ancients actually replanted forests.

[Alpha of the Eagles]

The problem is that we have scant evidence (none?) that the ancients actually replanted forests.

True. The Romans did deforest the entire Mediterrean, and especially northern Africa. How about making this a barbarian thing? I mean, druids did often take special care of nature, and it could be a sort of spell or something that makes him pop a few seeds out of his pocket (or from the nearest villagers ear for that sake) and plant a few trees.

[Yves]

This topic made me think back to AOE2 times.

I always hated these stupid villagers who cut the decorative trees in my village.

I often killed them for doing that

Maybe a category for decorative objects could be added for that purpose. This would not really affect gameplay.

Edited March 17, 2011 by Yves

[Jeru]

Just to be picky: Forests don't necessarily need to be planted. They self-replenish within a century or so as soon as agriculture and grazing stop. This has occurred every time a civilization has taken a hit, e.g. after war and exile.

[Revan Shan]

Therefore renewable resources will be available through trading, so everyone's happy

You didn't get my point. I dont care about running out of material. What I want is being able to find myself in a desert after playing a couple of hours.

Edited March 19, 2011 by Revan Shan

[Pureon]

You didn't get my point. I dont care about running out of material. What I want is being able to find myself in a desert after playing a couple of hours.

Renewable resources were discussed by others before I made my comment, so it wasn't a direct response to your point. The way our terrains and flora work, that's not going to happen unless you started in a desert.