Suggestions for 0 A.D.

[G0d]

What they should add is hero mode where u play as the hero in third person and take control of him or HER and charge in with ur army like they in rise and fall: civilization at war I know that a pretty old game but it still fun just a thing that could be possible in this game

[shieldwolf23]

I agree even I open a command list of buttons and basic command that should be in the game.

Give time to found it.

1are a command similar pressed shift and idle shortcut "," "." You can select idle units one by one

The 3 you use alt to avoid the selection box add females or civilians.

4 That all named as call to the arms command, don't exist yet.

5 is very nice suggestion. We don't have one similar.

6 that is from EE2? I love that. We don't have.

Thanks for the clarification, Lion.

On 1, I would want to select ALL idle units, not only one. With selecting "," would it select ALL of the idle citizens?

On 3, thank you. I'll try that in game.

On 6, I'm not entirely sure (haven't played vanilla EE 2 lately), but I do know that this existed in Rise of Nations.

[Jeru]

Someone from the contact form writes:

Hello,

I meant to send this a while back but never got a chance to play more - it's based on the Sep 1 "2013 - 13794" build so sorry if some is outdated. This is mostly just subjective feedback.

First, awesome job so far. It's clear this is being spearheaded by someone with a lot of passion and/or experience because I know how tough this type of game is to make. I'm a huge fan of AoE & AoM, and AoK kinda. I would always play against the computer, never really into multi-player except co-op vs AI. I'm a pretty scummy player and no matter how many times I win exactly the same way, with walls and towers, it never gets old. And I think being able to do that over and over and never get tired of it, is one of the biggest drawcards to those games for me. I still play a game of AoM once a fortnight or so with my wife.

Just some random first-thought type feedback from me. I'm a commercial game dev since 2004 (technical artist currently, but done a lot of design, environment art, a small amount of programming), and also a serious indie dev in my spare time. I know as an indie dev I find first-thought feedback the most invaluable to keep you concentrated on the the things that people notice, so here's mine:

-Music and sound is great so far. One of the things that indie's usually struggle with so awesome job there.

-Environment, unit & building models all very good too.

-I like the whole territory idea

-Being able to see unit stats and/or select while paused, is something I'm used to being able to do. I know some people think it's kinda cheating, maybe it is, but if I didn't have that option in AoE & AoM I probably would never have got into them as much. Need that time to think.

-Am option to invert the middle-mouse panning would be good

-One of the first things I noticed is that the units blend in withthe background a bit much, hard to see and distinguish, particularly at a glance.

-I'm sure it's coming at some stage, but I'd really like to see a basic overview tech tree - something simpler that you can compare civs with at a glance, as opposed to the more detailed stuff (I think AoM did that pretty well).

-An option to save random map settings would be nice (e.g. if you're always playing you vs 4 AI on random map, them all on the same team, on a particular map type, reveal map & lock teams etc). It's never existed in an AoE game afaik, but just one of those polish type things that would add value, imo.

-The "find idle worker" button selects military that can't work (cavalry)

-Would be nice if the zoom zoomed towards the mouse position (or have it an option eventually)

-I was expecting Ctrl to multi-select, based on the other AoE games. No biggy but worth mentioning.

-Box selecting part of villager doesnt select them, sometimes when box selecting with other units close you have to be precise but it seems to operate on their centers?

-Really couldn't make much sense of minimap (I was playing in deep forest). A lot of colored dots everywhere and no distinction between environment & important units.

-Option for hover/house-over tips on units and resources would be nice, eventually.

-Some global messages when other civs advance to next age etc would be cool. I kinda like the occasional AI banter that's characteristic of AoE games too.

-I missed wall-end snapping

-In the Aoe series, you always had an idea of what tree gaps units could walk through. They have a hard distinction between forest and single trees and it was easy to judge where you needed to block etc. Communicating that slightly better would be good.

Again, awesome job so far and hope it keeps going well

[sanderd17]

Cavalry can work (it can gather food), though it's possible the idle button doesn't select them anymore.

Deep forest is indeed a bit crowded for the minimap (people can hide below the trees), though on most maps, there's no problem.

Wall end snapping isn't really fixed, but you're allowed to overlap wall pieces with unpassable terrain (so it's easier to close off a piece of ground).

For the tree gaps, I don't think that's needed, it makes it a bit more interesting IMO.

[niektb]

How about snapping buildings in general together like AOE3? it makes compact base building more convenient.

Edited April 20, 2014 by niektb

[Lion.Kanzen]

How about snapping buildings in general together like AOE3? it makes compact base building more convenient.

I suggest the same, it's a feature from AoM, that why is so good contrasting 0A.D and AOM.

[Lion.Kanzen]

I want to see the syntagma formation.

Guys how works automatic build in the trac?

[hhyloc]

Maybe follow the instructions here? http://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/BuildInstructions

[Lion.Kanzen]

Maybe follow the instructions here? http://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/BuildInstructions

No no about how works automatic build in the trac. That is clear for me. The guys perform recent changes but need the automatic build to regular windows user don't née compile but when in time is that after a changes?

[feneur]

Usually it's done pretty much as soon as needed (though sometimes it might take a while if someone knows that another big change will come soon, making it unnecessary to create an autobuild and then have to create a new one soon after).

[Lion.Kanzen]

Someone else can give a capture of last art that enrique upload in the SVN , for now I can get it one, thank you.

[Stan`]

Lion, open the atlas... click on the wolf, and select actor editor....

[Lion.Kanzen]

Lion, open the atlas... click on the wolf, and select actor editor....

id not for me, is for my fans i prefered show as gameplay.

But good piont I forget promotionating the atlas.

[Jay Jee]

I've been playing the game for a while now, and it seems that a player (usually Carthaginians and Iberians) can decide the outcome of a two player game in the first 10 minutes, by using the berry bush/hunting resources to build up a 6-10 strong team of javelin cavalry that then harasses the opponent's woodcutters and farmers. This tactic is devastating against archer factions such as the Mauryans and Persians, but doesn't work well against the Iberians (provided they've started with their outer wall).

On the other hand, putting up palisade walls is very expensive in terms of wood (which is vital for the first phase) and takes up a lot of time and attention on the part of the player.

I suggest that for factions other than the Iberians, you add a "perimeter fence" icon to the town centre. Clicking on it sets up a perimeter marker around your town centre (which corresponds to the layout of the Iberian wall, taking into account the location of obstacles), and you can then assign military units to construct a palisade wall along the perimeter marker. I would suggest you pay an amount of wood upfront to set up the perimeter wall marker that works out as being worth less than the cost of setting it up manually, (but you could have a system of units building the wall until your wood reserves fall below a certain threshold, at which point they wait for more wood to be gathered).

The perimeter fence could be made more effective by

- making it cheaper than building it manually (as I've suggested above)

- automatically installing one gate

- making it quicker for units to build than building it manually

- increasing the garrison size of outposts within the perimeter fence area

I'm really enjoying the game so keep up the good work!

[oshron]

I've been playing the game for a while now, and it seems that a player (usually Carthaginians and Iberians) can decide the outcome of a two player game in the first 10 minutes, by using the berry bush/hunting resources to build up a 6-10 strong team of javelin cavalry that then harasses the opponent's woodcutters and farmers. This tactic is devastating against archer factions such as the Mauryans and Persians, but doesn't work well against the Iberians (provided they've started with their outer wall).

On the other hand, putting up palisade walls is very expensive in terms of wood (which is vital for the first phase) and takes up a lot of time and attention on the part of the player.

I suggest that for factions other than the Iberians, you add a "perimeter fence" icon to the town centre. Clicking on it sets up a perimeter marker around your town centre (which corresponds to the layout of the Iberian wall, taking into account the location of obstacles), and you can then assign military units to construct a palisade wall along the perimeter marker. I would suggest you pay an amount of wood upfront to set up the perimeter wall marker that works out as being worth less than the cost of setting it up manually, (but you could have a system of units building the wall until your wood reserves fall below a certain threshold, at which point they wait for more wood to be gathered).

The perimeter fence could be made more effective by

- making it cheaper than building it manually (as I've suggested above)

- automatically installing one gate

- making it quicker for units to build than building it manually

- increasing the garrison size of outposts within the perimeter fence area

I'm really enjoying the game so keep up the good work!

that's called rushing, and is a viable tactic

[Jay Jee]

The key difference between the Javelin Cavalry rushing in this game and rushing in other RTS games is that while in other games, the rush is trading off your economic development for an early attack that weakens the opponent or knocks them out, the fact that citizen cavalry in 0ad can gather food means that with practice a Carthaginian/Iberian/Mauryan player can have the best of both worlds.

The technique I've found is to start by creating villagers to harvest fruit bushes and wood (the 4 starters + 6 or so more) in order to start creating the Javelin Cavalry. The Javelin Cavalry harvest sheep/chickens and then deer/boar which drastically increases the food reserves. The food reserves are spent on more cavalry (up to 10), then more villagers and age advancement while the Cavalry move off in the direction of the enemy base.

The Cavalry (initially set to stand ground) start by attacking the units in the first location they come across- they gain experience which makes them much more effective. Of the initial 'defence units' the opponent has in the first phase the only effective ones are massed Javelin units and light melee cavalry (which only Romans and Hellenic factions seem to have). Archers and Cavalry Archers are quickly killed by the javelins (but Mauryan archers need special attention), while melee infantry cannot keep up with the Cavalry (they can rapidly move/split up to attack a new location). An 8-10 strong team can rapidly destroy farms around the opponent's town centre without getting in range of its arrows.

While the raiding requires a good deal of micromanagement (especially against the Mauryans), the initial food boost combined with disrupting the opponent's resource extraction is enough to catapult your economy over theirs.

The Cavalry by themselves do not end the game - it often carries on with the opponent doing very little while (in the case of Carthage) enough basic spearmen are created to destroy their town centre.

My concern is that once this technique gets refined, it will be the only tactic that Carthaginian/Iberian players use. (The Mauryans may develop a 'lets park a worker elephant outside his hunting grounds for a double food boost' variant). Any risks incurred from losing the Cavalry units in the rush are balanced out by the amount of food they've gathered early on in the game. Any Non Roman/Greek facing Carthage/Iberia will have to spam Javelin Infantry/Javelin Cavalry by default and as for the Ptolemies...

What I'm suggesting is that since this strategy is likely to dominate the first phase, (unless we want to rebalance the unit attributes) there should be the option of a viable defense strategy (at a cost) for the first phase. A wide enough palisade wall would prevent the Javelin Cavalry sabotaging the farms, but what prevents it being seriously considered as an alternative to Javelin spamming is the amount of time and resources to build it (it takes up a lot of wood, and needs close attention to be efficient, otherwise you wind up with units standing around). If it requires too much time to lay it out before the enemy Javelin cavalry arrive at your base, would it be possible to adapt the script that lays out the Iberian wall at the start of the game to create a pre-set palisade wall pattern that a couple of units can beaver away at?

If a player is then faced with a javelin cavalry enemy, he can then face a choice of walling up to protect his farms, or spending more wood on building javelin units/cavalry to protect the resource gatherers on the edge of his base/prevent his meat supplies being poached.

(And I am aware that making the cost of a pre-set wall pattern cheaper would need to be balanced to avoid becoming the 'default defense')

[FeXoR]

It is easy to add to ramdom maps. Though settings are not yet supported.

(If RMGEN lived in simulations it would be easy for all maps...)

However, building lots of javelin infantry is not bad for economy so I don't see the need for a palisade.

(I'm not playing a lot though so this might be better judged by a more active player)

Edited April 23, 2014 by FeXoR

[Lion.Kanzen]

It is easy to add to ramdom maps. Though settings are not yet supported.

(If RMGEN lived in simulations it would be easy for all maps...)

However, building lots of javelin infantry is not bad for economy so I don't see the need for a palisade.

(I'm not playing a lot though so this might be better judged by a more active player)

Is not needed at start up but if in some defensive tactics, I prefer this one can be building in neautral territory to protect resources or try to stop a army as a preventive wall outside of base. I love use in Aok to these things, are very weak are more for tactical use.

[Sanguivorant]

yeah, because troops can also gather resources, the nature of rushing in this game is a bit different. I have personally never encountered the javelin cavalry rush, though I have attempted it myself and failed.

Some of the other rushes are devastating as well, like the Roman Rush and the Briton slinger rush. The only way to counter those is to be planning a rush yourself in the early game.

Speaking of slingers, how the hell do you counter them? They seem to be good against everything.

[Lion.Kanzen]

yeah, because troops can also gather resources, the nature of rushing in this game is a bit different. I have personally never encountered the javelin cavalry rush, though I have attempted it myself and failed.

Some of the other rushes are devastating as well, like the Roman Rush and the Briton slinger rush. The only way to counter those is to be planning a rush yourself in the early game.

Speaking of slingers, how the hell do you counter them? They seem to be good against everything.

Cavalry melee. All infantry are weaker against that.

[Lion.Kanzen]

Its possibly if the commnd scort can have a version may be named follow to escort a bunch of groups.

Example: Priest only focus in protected unit, but need focus may be in the nearly units to heal all army and have a proper distance or range to avoid be hurt in battle.

[Radagast.]

This is where the pathfinder discussion comes in . I just bumped the topic today night. They also wanted to assure that the archers and healers keep proper distance. (at least as a distant goal. first the pathfinder itself should work of course and I'm pretty confident it does.)

I suggest that for factions other than the Iberians, you add a "perimeter fence" icon to the town centre. Clicking on it sets up a perimeter marker around your town centre (which corresponds to the layout of the Iberian wall, taking into account the location of obstacles), and you can then assign military units to construct a palisade wall along the perimeter marker. I would suggest you pay an amount of wood upfront to set up the perimeter wall marker that works out as being worth less than the cost of setting it up manually, (but you could have a system of units building the wall until your wood reserves fall below a certain threshold, at which point they wait for more wood to be gathered).

We could reuse the wall building algorithm from Hannibal AI. agentx linked a nice presentation of the/a AoK and AoM AI developer.

Instead of such smaller balancing issues I would rather see the short range pathfinder or other new features. We're still in Alpha. And Alpha should in my opinion be fore developing new features (and not improving wall building which of course sometimes can be a hassle and time consuming).

The rushes are interesting. But also I dislike it .. if we had a homeland fighting bonus hose were out of the question (but perhaps that's even a feature ).

Edited May 4, 2014 by Hephaestion

[Zeta1127]

I have a minor issue to report, in the skirmish map Mediterranean Coves, the metal treasure at the base of the Gaia Iberian Tower to its left is unobtainable without destroying the tower.

[oshron]

I have a minor issue to report, in the skirmish map Mediterranean Coves, the metal treasure at the base of the Gaia Iberian Tower to its left is unobtainable without destroying the tower.

perhaps that's the point?

[Zeta1127]

It could be, but all of the other treasure around the tower can be obtained with out doing that, so I seriously doubt that is intended.

Edited May 16, 2014 by Zeta1127