Suggestions for 0 A.D.

[Pureon]

Depending on the type of actions planned for the scenario editor, making an infantry unit transform into a cavalry unit should be fairly simple (in scenarios). Same was the case for AOK and AOE3, can't remember back to AOE1, but probably that too. Lots of scenarios for those games included that form of transformation.

[Alpha of the Eagles]

New suggestion: When destroying a civs last building (or last civic centre) all the resources he had at the time of destruction should be spawned as crates for the soldiers to loot. This would be an awesome feature in a multiplayer game, as the first to go to war wouldn't necessary be at disadvantage when a third fraction involves itself. Plus, it'll be historically correct.

[oshron]

i had also had thoughts that maybe a "plunder" feature would be cool, where resources are physically deposited and kept in a resource drop sites like storehouses and the units of civilizations that can "plunder" (ie, huns, vikings, etc) would steal a portion of the resources deposited there when they destroy them as well as steal resources from gatherers if theyre carrying anything. imagine a few swordsmen are gathering berries and suddenly a hunnic cavalier charges up and kills him. instead of the berries basically falling to the ground, unusable, the hun then picks them up (all instantaneous) and is now carrying the food that the other soldier was carrying.

crates and other containers sound just as cool if not moreso, though

[Alpha of the Eagles]

Well, everybody looted spoils of war, not only "plundering" nations. This was meant as an universal feature, because back in the good old days, you could actually earn solid cash and resources on waging a well planned, successful war.

(Note: My sources are ancient Greek and Roman writers, and in this regard I'm getting ideas from the Anabasis by Xenophon. I'm reading from project Gutenberg.)

[comp3820]

I know this is a slightly drastic change from the current state of the game, but what if the player designated storehouses for supplies. When the storehouses are destroyed, the player would lose the resources.

It would definitely be more complicated, but it would add a realistic tactical side to where you place your buildings, and the importance you put on your storage sites. Stronghold has this, except that you can only build one granary. With the option to store food and other resources in multiple places, you could add that "spoils of war" idea in nicely.

[Mythos_Ruler]

Hmm... another cool idea would be a 'Storehouse' that you build and over time it accrues more and more resources. The longer it exists the more resources it accrues. Then when resources start to dry up on the map (trees, animals, stone, etc.) you can task citizens to work there to gather the resources from it. They'd be kind of expensive at first, expensive enough that you probably need to wait at least 5 minutes before they accrue enough resources to cover the initial investment.

And we do have "Plunder" in the game design. We designate it as 'Loot' that is gained by killing an enemy unit or building. You don't get a bunch of barrels of food or dropped armor or things like that though, but you are given a small amount of resources for each building and unit you kill, as well as XP (experience) for your units to level them up to better warriors (Basic -> Advanced -> Elite).

Edited September 1, 2010 by Mythos_Ruler

[Alpha of the Eagles]

And we do have "Plunder" in the game design. We designate it as 'Loot' that is gained by killing an enemy unit or building. You don't get a bunch of barrels of food or dropped armor or things like that though, but you are given a small amount of resources for each building and unit you kill, as well as XP (experience) for your units to level them up to better warriors (Basic -> Advanced -> Elite).

That's along the lines of what I wanted. Thank you.

[Aldandil]

I don't know whether this is already planned, but can units that are not tasked to attack make an alarm sound when they first "see" enemy units?

What I mean is this: say a bunch of Gaullish infantry and women are gathering food or mining or whatever, and some Greek soldiers show up. (Assuming the Greek and Celtic players aren't allied.) One Gaul (the nearest to the Greeks) yells something ("Invaders!" or whatever) when the Greeks are within LoS. The other Gaulish units within "earshot" (whatever distance that is) of the one that yelled don't also make an alarm noise.

This thought came to me while I watched the Alpha demo and other YouTube videos: when the units from one Greek settlement come close to the other settlement, the defending soldiers don't make a noise first, they just start throwing javelins. I think an alarm noise would be a neat and realistic addition.

Edited September 2, 2010 by Aldandil

[oshron]

here's an idea for future expansions: perhaps some more urban/metropolitan civs could be able to build Manors (similar to the Manors that the Atlanteans could build in AOM:The Titans) that are made only by upgrading a pre-existing House into a Manor, basically just adding a second story onto it. Manors would provide twice as much housing, but you could only have half as many as however many houses you happen to have, rounding down to the nearest one (so if you had 3 houses, youd only be able to make one of them into a manor, and if you had 5 houses, you could only have 2 manors). while on this, is there any limit to the number of houses that a player can have at a time? if there isnt, there should be a cap somewhere (like maybe 20 houses or so, or maybe it could fluctuate with each civ, so more urban cultures get more of them while nomads have less). if there ISNT a cap on the number of houses you can have, there should definitely be one on manors (if theyre implemented)

[Mythos_Ruler]

I could see giving the Imperial Romans "tenements" which were apartments.

[Aldandil]

I think they were also tenements in the English sense, too.

[oshron]

well im thinking that just any urban civilization should get them, and also if an appropriate word in that language can be found for each one. i was inspired after seeing a photo of a clay model of a two-story house from ancient mesopotamia in a book earlier today while doing research into godstorm, and the mesopotamians pretty much spear-headed teh earliest of urbanizations

[Aldandil]

Even in the Early Cycladic there were two-storey houses.

[superhafizh]

Trap...

It would be good if there's trap system. Some troops accidentally burned down, or paralized, is good to see on the screen

I would suggest an explosion trap if this game is, at least set on medieval age. But there's no explosion in classical era unfortunately

[sahilahuja]

Don't know if this has been already suggested (and my best bet you already have this in your roadmap), but it would be great if we could actually see a building's condition deteriorate as it's health comes down when attacked.

[feneur]

Don't know if this has been already suggested (and my best bet you already have this in your roadmap), but it would be great if we could actually see a building's condition deteriorate as it's health comes down when attacked.

In one way or another we do intend to visually show how the buildings deteriorate, but depending on what's easiest we might do anything from a few particle fires to edited models/textures (the former seems more likely though as it shouldn't take as much work).

[oshron]

well fire should be how it starts out while deteriorating condition should be included in later patches or expansions

[t0rb3n]

Hi, just gave 0 A.D. a short glance and have some notes:

1. A "Cancel" button on every (pop-up) window that could otherwise be only closed by clicking the "X" in the upper right corner would be much more convenient.

2. Visual response after issuing a command (like some walking feet for a move order, a smashing sword for an attack order) makes my brain feel good.

3. Display health in numbers below the health bar. Who wants to wait to see how much HP a unit has...

4. Command queuing would open up many tactical possibilities, though I'm not sure it would comply with your design plans.

Otherwise.... AWESOME WORK

[feneur]

Hi, just gave 0 A.D. a short glance and have some notes:

1. A "Cancel" button on every (pop-up) window that could otherwise be only closed by clicking the "X" in the upper right corner would be much more convenient.

2. Visual response after issuing a command (like some walking feet for a move order, a smashing sword for an attack order) makes my brain feel good.

3. Display health in numbers below the health bar. Who wants to wait to see how much HP a unit has...

4. Command queuing would open up many tactical possibilities, though I'm not sure it would comply with your design plans.

Otherwise.... AWESOME WORK

1 and 4 are already done (at least to some extent, there may still be some cases where it doesn't work 100%) and will be included in the next alpha (probably due in October if things work out as planned).

3. To get the exact numbers you just have to hover the mouse over the health bar and you'll get the info in a tooltip, for a quick glance the rough percentage should be enough in my humble opinion. In any case the GUI will be redesigned, much information will probably be given in a tooltip in any case though to save place in the GUI for actions etc without the need for tabs.

[Ykkrosh]

Command queuing was in the first alpha release - hold shift when giving orders and it should work (I think).

Maybe displaying something like a quick animated circular pattern on the ground when you give a move/attack/etc order (with different colours for different orders) would be good, for immediate visual feedback. Should be easy to implement if we have the art for it.

[feneur]

Command queuing was in the first alpha release - hold shift when giving orders and it should work (I think).

Ah, thanks. Didn't remember exactly when it was added

[Aldandil]

In one way or another we do intend to visually show how the buildings deteriorate, but depending on what's easiest we might do anything from a few particle fires to edited models/textures (the former seems more likely though as it shouldn't take as much work).

Can damage be added as props to the model base?

[bartos]

I would like to be able to save games.

[feneur]

Can damage be added as props to the model base?

It certainly can In the end it would probably be nicer if we could have at least some partially destroyed version of each model, but some debris/broken parts can definitely be added via the propping system.

I would like to be able to save games.

That's definitely going to be possible later, but it's not something we prioritize at the moment. I'm not sure about all the technical details, but I'm pretty sure that with all the things that are changing it would be pretty useless by the next version. Not necessarily useless, but save files would probably not work between versions. There will be the possibility to save games in the end though, and hopefully sooner rather than later. Just not now

[Ykkrosh]

Saving shouldn't be technically difficult, since the simulation engine already supports everything that's needed (I think) - it'll just take some time to write all the code for saving all the data (currently only perhaps half of it is saved), and some effort to test it all and make sure it's reliable. The same code is useful for other features (multiplayer sync-checking/resyncing, playtesting in Atlas, replays, etc) so it'll be good to get it working soonish.