Suggestions for 0 A.D.

[feneur]

Further to what Lion Kanzen is saying, is this game very intensive on hard drives? Is it not very well optimized yet? I haven't tried it on my desktop pc, but on my gaming laptop I'm having problems with it ... Further into the game, it starts lagging ... but it's not about FPS, that's fine and smooth, it's just the whole game that works as if someone was constantly pressing play/pause/play/pause/play/pause/play can't explain better than that ... I've been doing some troubleshooting and I know for sure that my GPU handles the game with no problem and it would seem to be the same for my CPU (CPU usage of the game peaks at 30%, havent looked at individual cores though). My HDD's disk transfer rate keeps reaching huge sudden peaks at a 100% though, so I have no idea what's going on. The problem is worse on water maps, worse the more AIs are on the map, and worse with the better AIs like qBot (as opposed to demobot).

Any ideas? Can post my hardware and OS info if that helps.

http://www.wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=15796 In other words: it's something we're aware of and that we will work on to fix before the game is finished

[feneur]

yes i know those issues, but im not the only, and i know the game will finish in 2 or 3 years fully fuctionally, the Game commnuty grow day to day, The Proyect is more seriusly than AOEO (Casual Gamers),

My reply was to Marcello66, I know you're aware of these issues

[Marcello66]

My reply was to Marcello66, I know you're aware of these issues

Thanks for the information

[ironbmike]

Here is one idea, probably too late to implement but I want to put it out there none the less.

A winter season. Spring, summer, autumn don't matter but winter does. Traditionally winters were when armies went into winter quarters and active campaigning was put on hold. For this, it could be a time when leaving your own territory with units results in massive attrition damage, or some other mechanism to make you keep your units in your territory.

The point of this would be to make 3/4 of the game normal and 1/4 a "breather" for work on the economy or building, thus giving players who are behind a chance to catch up or players who are ahead a chance to distance themselves and prepare for spring warfare.

The art requirements would be low, maybe just add a grey to everything during winter?

I think this would add a new element that RTS games really haven't had and it would make gameplay more interesting, e.g. "can I finish my attack before winter comes?" or "can I hold on until winter comes?" Very dramatic!

[ironbmike]

Also, would it be possible to always have units stats shown on the GUI instead of having to hover the mouse over to see?

[oshron]

iirc, seasons and a day/night cycle have been put on hold until part 2; i agree that its awesome, but it doesnt contribute much to gameplay, and the point is to actually FINISH the darn game first

[ironbmike]

Well of course, the core gameplay should be nailed down before anything else, but I think that seasons should have a dramatic impact on gameplay if/when they are implemented. They shouldn't just be eyecandy. And historically armies rarely campaigned in wintertime. This could even be a civ bonus for the Celts.

[feneur]

Also, would it be possible to always have units stats shown on the GUI instead of having to hover the mouse over to see?

It would be possible, but then the GUI would be more crowded/or we'd have to remove other things. I'm sure there will be GUI mods though that might do something like this For the main version we're not very likely to change it though as unit stats aren't something you generally need to access quickly (apart from health/loyalty, but those you get easily displayed with the colored bars for a quick check and hover over for more detail).

[FeXoR]

It would be possible, but then the GUI would be more crowded/or we'd have to remove other things. I'm sure there will be GUI mods though that might do something like this For the main version we're not very likely to change it though as unit stats aren't something you generally need to access quickly (apart from health/loyalty, but those you get easily displayed with the colored bars for a quick check and hover over for more detail).

I agree. I'd like to be able to see more informations though. For example the pop limit increase of a fortress (can be seen in the build menu of a worker able to build it but not in the fortress itself AFAIK). I think there are others like the attack bonus or the amount of food a farm grants. Not sure about all of this but I think they should be viewable in-game though most only by tooltips/mouse hover (how is this called ) to keep the GUI clean. 

Edited April 24, 2012 by FeXoR

[feneur]

I agree. I'd like to be able to see more informations though. For example the pop limit increase of a fortress (can be seen in the build menu of a worker able to build it but not in the fortress itself AFAIK). I think there are others like the attack bonus or the amount of food a farm grants. Not sure about all of this but I think they should be viewable in-game though most only by tooltips/mouse hover (how is this called ) to keep the GUI clean. 

the pop limit increase of a fortress - sure, could be added. I don't personally see much need for it as the change has already been done though + it's one of those things you quickly learn

The amount of food a farm grants is shown (the right bar, hover over to see exact amount).

Not sure what you mean by "attack bonus", it does say which units a unit is bonused against/which are bonused against it if you hover over the unit portrait with one selected (ok, it does say "counters/is countered by", but the meaning is the same). If that is what you mean

[FeXoR]

the pop limit increase of a fortress - sure, could be added. I don't personally see much need for it as the change has already been done though + it's one of those things you quickly learn

The amount of food a farm grants is shown (the right bar, hover over to see exact amount).

Not sure what you mean by "attack bonus", it does say which units a unit is bonused against/which are bonused against it if you hover over the unit portrait with one selected (ok, it does say "counters/is countered by", but the meaning is the same). If that is what you mean

I think pop cap bonus sould be seen even of it's already added.

I forgot about the resource bar, your right and it's nice and consistent.

The quality of the attack bonus is shown, yes, but not the quantity. Is it a multiplier and if how high ('x1.8 vs. cavalry' e.g.) or a fixed amount ('+12 pierce/+8 hack vs. cavalry' e.g.)?

[oshron]

if it hasnt already, i'd recommend a "history" page like what we had in AOM where you could double-click on a unit or building's icon while its selected and allow you to see not only all of its stats and bonuses in simple and explained language (for example, the "stench" aura that camel units would have could be described under "Special Abilities" as "Stench: enemy horses loses morale when nearby"). this could also help with aforementioned suggestions

[FeXoR]

Other missing infos AFAIK are:

- Attack range

- Attack rate

- Move speed (only shown in the train menu AFAIK)

- Charge/run speed

- Stamina

- Quantity of aura bonus

Edited April 26, 2012 by FeXoR

[njam2]

um will there be a easier way to do the walls? i find it hard placing them one by one beside each other.

like on Age of Mythology or empire earth 2 you can extend the wall as you make it.

[FeXoR]

um will there be a easier way to do the walls? i find it hard placing them one by one beside each other.

like on Age of Mythology or empire earth 2 you can extend the wall as you make it.

On it's way. A patch already exists.

[njam2]

awesome!

that would make this game so much more fun!

[Flamelasher]

Just a small suggestion, but you should make switching units to run mode easier.

[feneur]

Just a small suggestion, but you should make switching units to run mode easier.

You currently can't, so that is why it's hard =) When running is implemented it will be done by right-double-clicking (as opposed to single right-clicking for walking), which should be easy enough

[njam2]

that's awesome!

[feneur]

(Just realized I had missed "'t" in my reply above so it said "you can" rather than "you can't" which is what I meant It's fixed now though. =) )

[Sef]

It would help if there was a "Call to arms" button on town center that makes all male citizens currently working to put there fighting gear on and kill any intruders. The women should go to the town center and garrison it. When you click on call to arms when the intruders are killed, Your people go back to work.Its annoying when you have to manually assign them to there jobs and this feature would save a lot of time.

I know the war dogs are not complete yet but here is an idea: when you command the dogs to attack, they will become independent and will not retreat from the battle until the enemies are dead or the dogs are killed. If you win the battle you can control the dogs again. Would add a bit of a realism to the way dogs work because i bet it was hard to handle hounds back in the day lol.

I think cavalry should be able to knock enemies over if they run into them and not just ride up to them and start hitting them. Would give an edge to the cavalry since they are better than foot-soldiers and not to mention would look awesome!

Celt women should be able to become shield maidens if they rank up. This would make the Celts more of the cheap and rushing civ. (maybe an early tech tree upgrade)

Make neutral settlements on the map that you can use your trade caravans on. The neutral settlement requires you to have military units in there boarder to be able to trade with. You have a choice to what you can trade with the settlement.

Idle villagers will help build.

Ability to tell your soldiers to patrol around boarder. Your soldiers have more health when fighting in there own boarder.

When walls are implemented, the ability to build them through your fortress/castle.

Edited May 7, 2012 by Sef

[Zeta1127]

It would help if there was a "Call to arms" button on town center that makes all male citizens currently working to put there fighting gear on and kill any intruders. The women should go to the town center and garrison it. When you click on call to arms when the intruders are killed, Your people go back to work.Its annoying when you have to manually assign them to there jobs and this feature would save a lot of time.

I know the war dogs are not complete yet but here is an idea: when you command the dogs to attack, they will become independent and will not retreat from the battle until the enemies are dead or the dogs are killed. If you win the battle you can control the dogs again. Would add a bit of a realism to the way dogs work because i bet it was hard to handle hounds back in the day lol.

I think cavalry should be able to knock enemies over if they run into them and not just ride up to them and start hitting them. Would give an edge to the cavalry since they are better than foot-soldiers and not to mention would look awesome!

Celt women should be able to become shield maidens if they rank up. This would make the Celts more of the cheap and rushing civ. (maybe an early tech tree upgrade)

Make neutral settlements on the map that you can use your trade caravans on. The neutral settlement requires you to have military units in there boarder to be able to trade with. You have a choice to what you can trade with the settlement.

Idle villagers will help build.

Ability to tell your soldiers to patrol around boarder. Your soldiers have more health when fighting in there own boarder.

When walls are implemented, the ability to build them through your fortress/castle.

Excellent suggestions, especially Celt women becoming shield bearers and walls connecting to fortresses!

[OrganicHallucinosis]

Yeah, units on walls will likely be pushed back to Part 2 (0 A.D.'s sequel/expansion pack). Wall turrets/towers can shoot arrows though, and the more units you place in them, the more arrows they shoot. This at least gives the player a more in-depth siege gameplay than AOM or AOE had.

This is the best thing. Its already better then AOE was with the individual unit diversity(I love this, I can't even describe on how awesome this is.) Another aspect of siege warfare that would be something is if your archers could fire over walls, or if you could designate an area to volley or for at like in Stronghold; Crusader or LOTR: BFME. I specifically registered to post this suggestion, and seeing that it is planned is great.

• Ability to plant trees, especially since farms cost a bunch of trees and the farms themselves are finite. Maybe after researching a late era tech, or specific tree farm buildings. I only read back 2 pages and im sure this has been discussed before. Maybe have infinite resource buildings that can only be made available through expensive and late game tech. Tree farms, Crop rotation(or irrigation), Open pit(or hush) mines. These buildings provide a slower trickle(or gather rate) of resources then that of foraging and hunting. Trees and crops have to grow, Ore exposed, etc. Like farms, these buildings should be worked on by units, of course. No units, no income.
  

• Vineyards or more diversity in farms and the size of farms. Sometimes i just don't have the room to plant a gigantic farm. What would also be neat is different textures for the current farm: Grain, Vegetables, Rice, Barley, etc. Farm Variety produces small bonuses to Hitpoints of soldiers, and a bonus for gathering rates of gatherers.
  

• Different housing for the different castes of society. Elite population and housing for elite/bodyguard/noble Units. The housing is more expensive and only slightly increases the elite cap.
  

• The ability for ranged cavalry to move and fire at the same time. I'd also like to see more expensive cavalry. I don't think cavalry was significant in any army at the time. The Persians had significant cavalry corps, but i think the infantry eclipsed them.
  

• Standards, officers or heroes that provide a small boost to the units that they are attached to. When the unit is killed the units in that attachment take a significant hit to attack and defensive stats for a small time. What could be cool is if levy units could only group in formation if attached to an officer or standard.
  

• Decorations, statues, etc. that provides a small boost the defensive abilitys of troops within a towns limits. Might be something to add just because people enjoy adding decorations.
  

• I'd also like to see a greater diversity of buildings in general. Special buildings that have a limit. Baths provide a short boost to population caps of buildings, and can be a prerequisite for elite housing. Examples: You can only recruit elite hellenic units through a gymnasium, but you need to build a Blacksmith and parade ground to recruit elite phalangites, etc. All historically accurate of course. Something like 10 common houses + Baths + Temple + Library(or tech building) = Elite Housing.
  

• This might be alittle much, especially for older computers, but you could add Units that are part of the buildings(like the guy in celtic tower) or maybe something like unclickable(?) units that aimlessly wander around your town, or maybe something like Stronghold where each building provides a walker with a task. I remember reading that you guys are having a serious issue with pathfinding, so this might not be possible, but i think it would do wonders for he depth of the game.
  

• Units on ships that fire on the closest ships, and can fire on multiple ships. Look at Sins of a Solar Empire, or any major Space sim. When you target an enemy ship, your ship moves in to ram it, catapults fire, etc. But roving archers on your ship pick thier own targets. This can also be applied to Elephants and Siege towers. I think this would also add to the depth of the game and chaotic nature of a battle, Especially if you allow bigger ships(Quadquirime, Quinquiremes and maybe even Hexaremes).
  

As for the slave suggestion, I personally think it should be a resource, although a resource with a cap that slowly regenerates. You could give the player bonuses in the regen rate when they kill enemy units. Could be a core gameplay mechanic.

.

I apologise if these have been suggested already, 90 pages is a lot..

[Zeta1127]

I really like Sef's walls connecting to fortresses suggestion, and I have an idea for a good way to do it, treat the four corner towers of a fortress like wall towers in the wall system.

[Pureon]

I really like Sef's walls connecting to fortresses suggestion, and I have an idea for a good way to do it, treat the four corner towers of a fortress like wall towers in the wall system.

In a number of cases the wall segments are higher than the fortress corners, so this could look very messy unless fortresses were remodeled.