Suggestions for 0 A.D.

[oshron]

i narrowed my modern mod ideas to range from the renaissance to the year 3039 (from the "Modern Era: Digital Age" onwards would be a fictional future time period and kinda goes on a nostradamus prediction concerning a 27-year war starting in 2012); theres 18 Eras (instead of phases; these specifically cover a time period rather than phases of development) in the initial release and 2 more are added in the expansion which would delve into space.

here's what i personally planned as civilizations, a total of 30 for different regions:

Austro-Hungarians

Aztecs (Mexicans)

Balkans (Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbians)

Brazilians

British (+Canadians & Australians)

Chinese

Confederates

Dutch

French

Germans (minus the Nazis)

Indians

Iranians

Irish

Israelis

Italians

Japanese

Koreans

Mongols

Nazis (supremacist/fascist Germans)

Russians (minus the Soviets)

Saracens (any Arab or Muslim nations that do not have their own faction)

Scandinavians (Norwegians, Swedes, Finns, Danes, Icelanders)

Sioux

Songhai (collective West African)

Soviets

Spanish (and Spanish-speaking Central & South America, minus Mexico)

Turks

Vietnamese

Yankees

Zulu

with this, pretty much the entire world is represented. for the actual release, if it ever happens, the countries could be divided into packs instead of releasing all 30 at once

ill gladly go into greater detail in the thread i already made for my modern mod. perhaps we could collaborate on a project and even merge our two ideas?

Edited July 5, 2010 by oshron

[SMST]

I would gladly work with you. I think I open a new thread in the mod section already where I can lay down my concept a bit further.

Your civs are good, but there is the problem (if it should fit in my plans) to find representations for them in all ages. (something I struggled within my own civs, think of Ancient Russians, for which I finally chose Skythians/Sarmatians)

[oshron]

we could perhaps go for a bit of fictionalization in some of those cases. for instance, a medieval american faction could be a "Vinlander" faction based on the viking colonization of north america

or we could divide it in one or two parts within the game: "Ancient-Medieval" and "Modern-Future", or something like that. alternatively, the two could be two seperate games but share alot of content and concepts

heres a link to a thread where we can take this discussion: http://www.wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=12931

Edited July 6, 2010 by oshron

[Aldandil]

Why would you use Viking invaders when the Native Americans had tons of different cultures in North America? If you want a "civilization" use Cahokia or the Anasazi, Calusa, or Northwest Coast.

[oshron]

because culturally the vikings were closer to the american colonists than the american natives were

[Aldandil]

Oh, you're planning to have a game that stretches into the modern day, aren't you? Yeah, that does pose a huge problem for Native American nations, unless you want to do alternate histories.

[morrisonvaz]

hi I'm from Brazil

I do not speak very well English but I can help?

i have some ideas

the Romans could have the ability to lift walls faster than other factions

friends how much time getting ready for the game?

I can still help?

[Hiram]

It just came to me like a revelation, players should be able to take hostages from the enemy female villagers!

It's something included in clasic literatura, and history, if you wanted to destroy a civilization, after conquering the city, you kill the men, sell the childrens as slave, and take the women for you, that's what Agammemnon did, and it work fine for him... until he got kill, but he sure had fun in the mean time!

So maybe after destroying the enemy town center(or what ever is going to be call ), the players soldiers should be able to capture one female villager, and take them to their own city

[Mythos_Ruler]

Actually, it is spec'ed that female citizens are capturable (with cavalry in a similar manner that animals are also captured). In fact at one time this feature was implemented.

[oshron]

wait, im a little confused now. does that mean that female citizens cant be captured?

[SMST]

At the moment, they cannot. At least not in the latest Alpha release.

[oshron]

aah. okay. it would be great if they could be captured for realism i imagine it would be something like conversion by a priest in other games? maybe it could be reserved for part2?

which reminds me, ill have to go back and change the dog units in Godstorm so that they dont mention capturing citizens

[Mythos_Ruler]

It will be in Part 1. At one time (pre-pre-alpha) female-capturing was implemented, but it is currently not implemented since the simulation code was completely redesigned.

[oshron]

i was going over the building specs in the design document recently and--though i knew this a long time ago--saw that gates and towers arent built independently and instead automatically appear on walls at end points (for towers) and in the middle of walls of certain lengths (both towers and gates)

towers automatically appearing on walls sounds like a good idea to me, but i think maybe a better idea would be to implement an idea based on an old Age of Mythology mod, which made it so that towers could be built up on wall endpoints on the command of the player. those who have played Empire Earth II may remember that this could also be done in that game (in fact, now that i think about it, there were free-standing outposts and heavier wall towers in that game, too, just like there is planned for 0ad). also, in EE2, gates would automatically appear in a wall if it was built over a road or if it a road was built through it. (btw, will roads be regularly buildable?)

anyway, i think a better way of building walls, towers, and gates would be like in AOM where you place down a wall endpoint and extend it as far as you want and then construct towers or gates independently, though they can still only be built on walls (this would be more for aesthetics and possibly for strategic placement; you wouldnt want to pay for towers all over your wall if youre only being attacked from one side, would you?

im imagining it like this. ill try to make a little diagram

imagine = as being a regular wall portion, with towers represented as T, gates represented as 日, and wall endpoints as O

this would be a regular wall, newly built by the player:

O=====O

at the moment, its just a bare wall, just like any other. then, by selecting the center segment of the wall, the player can create a gate or a tower right in the middle of it, like this:

O==日==O

O==T==O

lets suppose the player chooses to create a gate and tasks their builders to make it. like any other building, a foundation comes up and the gate is constructed. now, since this is a critical point on the city's defense and is presumably a bit more vulnerable than the rest of the wall. with this weakness, the player decides to defend their town by independently building two towers around the gate at each of the endpoints. when construction is over, the wall looks like this:

T==日==T

[Fejj]

Your wall idea is very Battle For Middle Earth 2, Oshron,

I lke that games cavalry charging the enemy down, but changed for this game so that its only when the enemy's sighted.

When I'm unbanned from aom I'll be coming for you on the mythology thread.

Give credit where its due.

[oshron]

i see...

[chess007_phoenix_clan]

As far as villagers being captured, why not have a "loyalty" tech that could be researched? That tech would give them a higher probability of fighting back and dying rather than being captured.

It would not be unrealistic for a nationalist villager to fight back. I understand they would likely die, but at least they go out in a blaze of glory.

[Mythos_Ruler]

Not a bad idea! I like and prefer technologies to unlock features or abilities, rather than just boost this or that stat.

Edited August 14, 2010 by Mythos_Ruler

[phil44]

Hey guys, just thought i'd make a suggestion while it's still in my mind. Would it be possible to implement an 'attack group' command. How it would work is that instead of only being able to attack a single unit at at time with the right click, you could right click and hold to drag a selection of enemies to attack. I think other games have implemented something similar (can't recall which though), but it's a simple but handy function.

I remember from AoE it got a bit annoying having to attack a single unit initially, afterwhich the ai would take control and attack multiple enemies as a group (which was only a result of each unit going for the nearest enemy). I'm not too sure how you would determine who attacks what, but it would make initial engagements a bit more interesting, ie units of armies would clash at the frontline simultaneously.

Sorry if this has been suggested or planned already, but a search of the forums resulted in nothing (maybe since it's a bit of a vague topic name).

[Mythos_Ruler]

I think this will occur naturally when a formation of units is tasked with attacking an enemy formation of units.

[Bothorth]

Separable Cavalry units ... horse and rider are individuals and can gain experience, be upgraded or killed independently.

Riderless horses can still 'belong' to the player, or go back to Gaia to be captured or eaten by others. Unhorsed riders fight on foot or remount.

[comp3820]

I definitely like the idea of horses being separate from guys. It might make the game more complicated, but much more realistic - you could have the units dismount while waiting, or even tether their horses (maybe even allowing the horses to be stolen or stampeded?). It would go along with the idea of a more versatile unit, which can build, gather units, and procure its own transportation.

[oshron]

i think the cavalry should stay as dedicated cavalry, but maybe there could be a bonus for cavalry-oriented civs so that infantry could be permanently transformed into cavalry (or maybe they could be changed between those modes in civs that have infantry and cavalry that use the same weapons, ie, a mounted and foot archer)

however, what i think would be GREAT would be if heroes could independently become cavalry or infantry, which would work well for scenarios, so you could perhaps have alexander begin as an infantryman and switch between infantry and cavalry modes at any time, so in a cinematic, you would see alexander talking to someone while on foot and then walk over to a stables (or something like that) and transform into a horseman. this would ideally have a cinematic animation of him getting onto his horse, but in regular game mode, it would be instantaneous. this would work like the packing and unpacking thing with the trebuchets in AOK

[Aldandil]

Heroes who transform between cavalry and infantry, at least for non-combat animations, would indeed be very cool. Then Alexander can get off of his horse sometimes, and Boudicca isn't stapled to her chariot, etc.

[Mythos_Ruler]

I doubt we'll implement any of that. Sorry. Unless an Open Sourcer creates an insanely awesome patch.

Edited August 30, 2010 by Mythos_Ruler