Alpha 14 Planning

[Mythos_Ruler]

Other feature is battalion system, but they don't group, like total war series. total war is already a other kind of rts mixed with turn strategic map. Is more a simulator than a old school rts. But one best and finest, TW series destroy other historical based strategy games. If you read some pages, the rise of Total War series, converges with fall of some franchises like Empire Earth, AOE,.

This is an interesting topic, but perhaps best reserved for a different thread. Have RTS gamers gravitated now toward the "battalion" model, the "strategic campaign" type of play vs. the narrative campaign or what? Excellent questions.

I think overall, 0 A.D. should appeal to "old school" RTS gamers, but also include new innovations.

[Mythos_Ruler]

Let's talk about a timeframe for Alpha 14 release, and also what we think we can accomplish (see: first post), code and art. Also, Jeru (and me), how the release date could impact the crowd-funding campaign (and vice-versa).

[fabio]

It would be nice to try to include at least 3 items every release from the GamePerformance page. Alpha 14 already has 1 .

[Mythos_Ruler]

It would be nice to try to include at least 3 items every release from the GamePerformance page. Alpha 14 already has 1 .

I agree, Fabio. Perhaps 1 major, 1 medium, and 1 minor game performance upgrade. I think this should be a standard thing for each release, whether we have 4 more or 100 more alpha releases.

Let's say what we can accomplish:

3 major gameplay features

3 minor gameplay/UI improvements

3 Performance upgrades

3 major art improvements (can be replaced by a new faction release when applicable)

and 3 minor art upgrades.

In each Alpha. How much time would that take? Let's look at past Alphas for reference!

[wraitii]

Takes about 2/3 alphas, iirc . If we still work at the "current" rate, that's probably a good 4 months.

(of course, this is assuming current rate is the good rate to estimate this. Which may or may not be right).

[Mythos_Ruler]

Takes about 2/3 alphas, iirc . If we still work at the "current" rate, that's probably a good 4 months.

(of course, this is assuming current rate is the good rate to estimate this. Which may or may not be right).

Hmm, if we want the game (a full-featured release) to hit Gold within our lifetimes we need to try some new things. Any thoughts?

As (acting) Project Lead, I need to garner thoughts from all the best corners.

[wraitii]

Well the thing is, we kind of need to capitalize on people when they're available... Which is a bit of a problem with a short Alpha release cycle a the freeze takes a good 3 weeks out of actual development for some people. Also, for longer stuffs, there has been a lack of developers, which is kind of tied to the fact that newer features are sometimes a little nebulous to understand, without proper updated description (which is why the new design committee posts are necessary).

Also: this summer should probably be more efficient because more people will have time (well, students, at least).

But generally with good design documents, implementing the new features should be semi-fast. The problem is starting to do it, and generally for now these kind of things were only for 1 developer, since code-sharing is not really practical (thing git).

The problem is actually the major gameplay features. The rest is consistently there between each alphas (spaced out 3 months apart generally). Major gameplay feature require a good idea of what to do, how to do it (which requires knowing the code) and time to actually go through or it'll be lost forever.

(Art is moving swiftly enough).

This might be caused by a lack of effective planification in the programming area, though.

[Mythos_Ruler]

I see and hear you. I really think we need an actual Programming leader, either paid or volunteer. I think this is crucial to moving forward. A different discussion thread though.

[quantumstate]

I did start looking at running and charging (I wasn't looking at trample). My idea for charging was to have something quite similar to ship ramming, when you aim a charge and units will accelerate up to a charging speed. To get this working well would need some interaction with the pathfinder, which is where I got stopped. A slightly simpler idea could work without pathfinder interaction though. I'm not currently actively working on this.

[wraitii]

I think running/charging can(well, should, really) be delayed until after the pathfinder. I believe that however we look at it, it's going to be linked to that issue somehow and this will stall progress, which would be inefficient.

Trample damage on the other hand sounds reasonably easy to do. Conversion and Building Capturing would require a proper guideline. There have been many discussions about building capturing (latest things being, I believe, the topic I did about that a few months ago). A member of the design committee could look into that, make a few different propositions and then it can be decided upon once and for all allowing the programming to actually start.

(note that again, I'm saying this strictly informatively, since I have no time to work on it. Reading the forum already makes up most of my pauses ).

[Shield Bearer]

Can't we somehow combine 'trample' with auras? Seems like it could be just another aura with a damage property or something.

[wraitii]

Trample could be directional, so Auras wouldn't fit.

I'd rather have it not use the same logic anyway, so it's easier to mod/change/upgrade.

[historic_bruno]

It would be nice to try to include at least 3 items every release from the GamePerformance page. Alpha 14 already has 1 .

We still have one to fix from A13. Just saying...

[Shield Bearer]

I think we should put the move to Git on the agenda

[historic_bruno]

I think we should put the move to Git on the agenda

Sounds like Philip is making good progress on that, he's already got a Git server up and running, and much of the conceptual work is done. Last I heard he was starting to work on the update script / package which will be what people use to get the latest Windows build / precompiled libraries. (If there's been more progress than that, I need to read the past 1-2 days logs to see it) Of course even when the technical work is done, we'll need to write tutorials so everyone knows how to work with Git.

[Shield Bearer]

Thats good to hear

[wraitii]

I think [13357] counts as a minor gameplay improvement: ability to garrison in your allies' buildings.

[Lion.Kanzen]

That sounds, good Feature, i never see that in a RTS before, i think. when Lobby is Finish that would be nice to Party Allies.

[idanwin]

AoE, you could garrison in allied buildings/boats

[Pedro Falcão]

Yeah, but you couldn't ungarrison them... I remember the time i needed to cross a simple river with a ballista and it got stuck in a dang yellow boat for the rest of the game because the AI didn't know how/when to ungarrison a unit that wasn't theirs. I then tried the same in AoK and got the same result. So please, don't forget the ungarrison button, too!

Edited April 14, 2013 by Pedro Falcão

[Mythos_Ruler]

Exponential Armor

#1908[Patch]

- Related design thread.

- Workers: Alpha123, Quantumstate

^Is this ready for testing?

[alpha123]

Exponential Armor

#1908[Patch]

- Related design thread.

- Workers: Alpha123, Quantumstate

^Is this ready for testing?

Yup. Quantumstate should probably review it though.

[Mythos_Ruler]

Yup. Quantumstate should probably review it though.

I've taken a look and the patch works perfectly as far as I can tell. Changing armor stats in all the units now.

[Lion.Kanzen]

Are a easy way to explain in few words how works this feature, actually I understand how, but is hard to explain easily to people or why we chosen use this feature.

And it's would nice to use same explanation in a loading screen .

Edited April 30, 2013 by Lion.Kanzen

[alpha123]

Are a easy way to explain in few words how works this feature, actually I understand how, but is hard to explain easily to people or why we chosen use this feature.

Basically, each unit has an armor level (actually 3, for pierce, hack, and crush) and a percentage is calculated from that level. Then, any attacks that hit take that percentage less damage. Here's an example: a unit has level 3 pierce armor and gets shot by a 20 pierce arrow. Level 3 is 27% damage reduction, so the unit only takes 15 damage, instead of 20. The reason it's in level instead of percentages directly is so that techs can simply increment the level instead of messing around with percentages.

Really all the user needs to know is the higher the level the less damage their units take.