Suggestions for 0 A.D.

[Phoenix-TheRealDeal]

Or a "defend the wonder" type game.

[Vingauld]

Iwas just wondering; will you be able to see how many units are gathering each type of resource in your in-game display, this would be a nice feature, because it would be much more effective then trying to look for all my (for example) woodgathering units on the map by myself when i want to know how much more i should build

[Vingauld]

About the building things, i do think flaming arrows shuold do damage to buildings because every building has got some amount of wood in it

[Bakayaro]

And about flaming arrows...

That should slow the fire rate of the archers, because it would make them have to light the oily rag (or something else) and then fire, and maybe even make it possible to "misfire" and hurt the archer unit that is attacking.

Could you employ the "Cat" that sheltered medieval soldiers from castle fire, or would that have to wait for a future expansion? This "Cat" was a turtle-like canopy of wood that blocked arrows.

And...

How about making it so that you have to put archers into the towers for them to fire, so that it makes you have to balance between fortification for defense and attack. That way, you don't have ridiculous games where people put towers all over the place. I mean, it's natural to simply put your archers in your towers, right?

[Aeros]

About the building things, i do think flaming arrows shuold do damage to buildings because every building has got some amount of wood in it

What about buildings made of stone or mudbricks which can't catch on fire?

[Phoenix-TheRealDeal]

that sheltered medieval soldiers from castle fire

Well, 0 A.D. is not a medieval time-period game.

And yeah, I don't think that an adobe hut will be burning.... unless it had a thatched roof.

I kinda like that idea of archers being in towers though.

[Bakayaro]

It's sounding that 0ad will be very focused on elements of Macro-management.

I'm more of a micro person, so now i'm tilting toward ideas that promote micro.

Let's say your hero gets better as he/she levels, which happens when that unit participates in combat and a unit that that hero unit dies, then the hero gains experience. Every few exp points then, the hero gains levels, and this strengthens the effects that hero has on morale, much like a good general's effects on the army.

But we have to be creative with a hero, don't we? We can't have altars like WCIII, and in SC heroes were merely campaign units. So what if we had it that your ordinary units (but only 1 at a time!) could become heroes if that unit managed to be enough combat (the details which I have not yet worked out) and then get a randomly assigned name of that civ?

Let's say I have a horsey-dude and he's very combat-hardened (survived 5-8 minor skirmishes). A button appears that lets me designate him my hero unit. This costs no resources, and he gets a cool flag and some stat boosts. Of course, he is also easier to target now, and will automatically be targeted by any neutral units on the map.

Speaking of which. Neutral units, known as creeps in WCIII, should be added to make scouting more difficult and encourage the usage of the hero system that I suggested. This hero system will make players want to micro certain units to make their armies more effective.

But these are all just very basic ideas.

[Lord Zorinthrox]

Ooo, shiny! I like that idea; makes the game more "organic," and organic is always good.

Too bad damage types are already set, otherwise there could be pierce, hack, crush, and burn. Ships would then be resilient to most damage types, but very vunelrable to fire. Turtles or siege cover type units would also be more suseptable to fire. But that would also complicate things far too much.

[derpodude999]

you should have on other settings it be set to unlocked teams and you would have to change it, rather than aom and maybe you could have a random map editor, in addition to a scenario editor, or maybe make it so you can randomize terrain oh and maybe you could see the actual unit being trained in the building

Edited March 10, 2005 by derpodude999

[Phoenix-TheRealDeal]

That last one might be asking a bit much.

[Aeros]

rather than aom and maybe you could have a random map editor, in addition to a scenario editor

A concept we're toying with is the idea of being able to export scenarios into scripts, right now its just an idea and we honestly cannot say if our technology will support that or if it'll work.

or maybe make it so you can randomize terrain

We would like that too. The plans and designs of the editor have probably a hundred different things that no other game has or has even done. We'll be trying to include as many as we can provided they work out and fit well and that we have time.

[derpodude999]

1.You should make fire ships really good against all ships (because their wood duh!) but make them have like 10 shots before they have to stock up on oil at the dock.

2.You should make the game more micro-ish as bakayaro said

3.You should add in lots of interesting units,(such as flying purple hippo in Aom), maybe you could have a dancing monkey that explodes or a flying trireme that shoots cupids arrows

4.Maybe make an extra civ (Comon US! Send out those Indians and Natives! Aiyayayayayaya!!!!!! No bombs, Europe didnt come to America Yet)

[Centurion_13]

1.You should make fire ships really good against all ships (because their wood duh!) but make them have like 10 shots before they have to stock up on oil at the dock.

I dont think we're making those anyway, but you could wen its done.

2.You should make the game more micro-ish as bakayaro said

Im sure there will be enough chances to micro. MIlitary will need a lot more than age games as of yet. Formations will play a vital role

[Paal_101]

4.Maybe make an extra civ (Comon US! Send out those Indians and Natives! Aiyayayayayaya!!!!!! No bombs, Europe didnt come to America Yet)

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We're in fact having a Part II which will have civilizations from Europe and Asia spanning the period of 1 AD to 500 AD. On the list for sure are the Imperial Romans, Dacians, Huns, and Goths.

No civs from the Americas I'm afraid, but its for their own good because against metal weapons they wouldn't stand a chance But Americas mods are serious possibilities

[Vingauld]

What about buildings made of stone or mudbricks which can't catch on fire?

Even stone buildings have some kind of wooden skeleton in it (even today) so flame arrows should do some damage to stone (and mudbrick) buildings

[Bakayaro]

Formations will play a vital role

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Formations?!?!?

Don't use them myself... prefer to do everything manually. But hey, it'll help the n00bs.

We're in fact having a Part II which will have civilizations from Europe and Asia spanning the period of 1 AD to 500 AD. On the list for sure are the Imperial Romans, Dacians, Huns, and Goths.

The Han Dynasty?

[Phoenix-TheRealDeal]

I can almost GUARANTEE you, BaKayaro, that you'll WANT to be using formations in 0ad. But they won't be as facile, speciously superficial, as those you've known in other RTS that have given you no real incentive for using them or in spending the time required to put them together when time is of the essence in an RTS.

Yeah, no 'fireship' either... though one could make one in the ScnEd.

And, Paul, my favorite historian, did you know that there was one native American civ that had metal weapons?

*Paul is shocked to hear of this revelation*

Yup, they were known as the Purepecha named Tarascanos (Tarascans) by the Spaniards, and they held sway over the region in what is nowadays the Mexican state of Michoacan with thier capitol in the vicinity of Lake Patzcuaro. This is to the west-northwest of what was then Tenochtitlan (Mexico City), and included parts of the modern neighboring states of Jalisco and Colima. They had achieved a rudimentary level of metal working technology that was good enough to be used to make jewelry for the noblesse oblige, utilitarian vessels and utinsels of various kinds... and WEAPONS. However, these things were held close to the 'kingdom' and not in the hands of ordinary people--a shame really because then tool implements would have been fashioned and the smelting progressed beyond that of a cottage industry--closely guarded and except for times of emergency kept sort of 'under lock and key', as was held the knowledge of the technology itself. It is noteworthy and probably the principal reason that the Azteca, who wanted to conquer everyone in sight gave up on trying to conquer the Purepecha having attacked them and lost badly on several occasions. Disclaimer--this paragraph has NOTHING to do with 0ad.

*Everyone now exits the room proclaiming, hey I heard it from the horse's moiuth that a native American tribe is going to be in 0ad!*

[Lord Zorinthrox]

I know it isn't flowing with the conversation, but I just realized something while looking or freeware stuff: bitmap terrain generation. The AoM editor, for instance, came up with that default elevation by reading a bitmap, a targa to be precise. You could have it so the designer could load a grayscale bitmap image with the same dimensions pixel-to-vertex wise to generate elevation.

Better yet, the designer could load a small grayscle image as a brush for editing terrain elevations (be even cooler if you scenario designer could in corporate such images into triggers and elevation effects).

Inspiration was the discovery of the program Height Map Generator. Haven't tried it, but stuff for GNU is usually pretty good/useful.

[Phoenix-TheRealDeal]

Lord Zorinthrox,

Sent your suggestion along to the people who would know whether this might be something implemenable into our game. It does not matter that your post didn't flow with the conversation. This forum is here specificfally so that people can make suggestions that may have relevance to the game's development regardless of what is currently being spoken of. Thank you.

[Aeros]

The option to use heightmaps is already in our editor and we plan to keep it through to release.

[Paal_101]

*Paul is shocked to hear of this revelation*  

Yup, they were known as the Purepecha named Tarascanos (Tarascans) by the Spaniards.....

*Everyone now exits the room proclaiming, hey I heard it from the horse's moiuth that a native American tribe is going to be in 0ad!*

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I am! Never hear about those guys unfortunately Only weapons mentioned are stone, obsidion, etc. Got any links to pics on ya?

LOL guess we opened a can of worms

[Phoenix-TheRealDeal]

About Cobre

Where the hummingbirds were

The Purepecha Empire - Paradise Lost

You don't find a whole lot about it as the history of the times eclipsed what might have been known of them due to the historical emphasis having been put onto the Azteca/Mexica and the grand stage of the Spanish conquest. Furthermore, the Purepecha didn't have a written language to leave behind. They were the 2nd largest of the Meso-American empires (yes, greater than the Maya at the time of the conquest) and a rather extraordinary people in their own right whose language and cuilture seems to have been more linked to the Inca of South America than any in the North... though there is no other direct evidence that would substantiate the claim. They were also older than the Aztec empire while being contemporary to it, and never defeated in battle by the Azteca.

I first came to an awareness that they had metalurgical skills and copper weapons by reading what to me is probably the most awesomely powerful historical novel I've EVER read, Aztec, by gary Jennings.

See here for more on Gary Jennings and his qualifications as an historical researcher.

[Petsuchos Ra]

Ideas:

1) What about bridges? I mean in-game as well as in the map editor. In the map editor, I would like there to be bridges passable by units and ships. (I'm no programmer, but this could work by changing the terrain to a shallows-type terrain, although the graphics could be a little messy.) There should also be bridges only passable by units, like a low pontoon bridge. They should also be damageable in-game. In-game, you should be able to build either kind over water, but they should be weak, expensive,and take a while to build, to offset the inherent tactical advantage. Maybe certain civs could have bridge-building advantages.

2) Could you develop a civilization editor, to be released with the game? That would be neat, to have an official civ editor, instead of modding.

3) Terrain placeable by triggers. For example, the bridges in AOK basically work by changing the water to walkable water, right? So, my idea is, what if you include a bridge-type piece for each terrain? Example: 'sand terrain 1x1', 'forest terrain 3x3', etc. This would be a HUGE tool for scenario designers like myself.

4) A custom formation editor? I don't know if this is feasible, but you could set your own formations. For example, you could have a circular formation. Also, you could choose which types of units went where. For example, it would be possible, but not wise, to have a box formation, with the siege on the outside, istead of the ind

5) Additional unit groups hotkeys. Maybe you push keys 1+2, 1+3, 1+4, 1+5, etc., all of the way up to 9+0. That would be an incredible 90 unit groups possible!

6) The ability to place different objects, lands, and terrain for each player in an RMS. Also, the ability to detect a player's civ, etc.

7) The ability to more precisely control placement of cliffs in an RMS.

8) Please make Transport Ships, etc. large enough to realistically hold X amount of units. No more transport ships smaller than the Siege Onagers they can hold 20 of.

9) AI for unit players. For example, you could set your economy on Auto, so that the TCs will auto-produce villagers when all resources are running low, and distribute villagers according to how much of each resource you are using. It would also auto-trade at the Market (or whatever you have for trading). It would also auto-build houses.

10) Units automatically attack the units they counter, eg. archers attack infantry, cavalry attack archers, infantry attack cavalry. If there weren't any units of the kind they counter, they would attack their own kind(archers would attack other archers, etc.) Only as a last resort would they attack the units that counter them.

11) The ability to tribute units and buildings as well as resources.

12) The ability to 'mine' ruined buildings for stone, like what happened to some Roman buildings.

13) Recorded games keep recording, even after being saved and reloaded.

14) A slide-bar type difficulty selection? Maybe scaled from difficulty 1 to difficulty 50?

15) Make units and buildings less capable of fighting as they are damaged further?

16) A requeue button like in AOM, to keep producing the same unit(s), one after another.

17) Auto-rebuild farms option. Rebuilding farms should be cheaper, because the ground is already prepared, etc.

18) Meteors and Meteor shower weather events! Meteors would be very rare, but they would cause immense damage in a rather large radius around the point of impact. Note: because asteroids generally have precious metals in them, maybe the impact could create ore mines. Meteor showers would be less damaging, but over a large area. They would create smaller ore mines.

19) Weird editor units, like the POREX mine, etc.

20) The ability to edit resources; like increasing the amount of ore in an ore mine, etc.

21) Revolutionary Concept: No map edges? In Alpha Centauri, there are only two map 'edges'; the other two 'sides' blend into each other. This would add a little realism. This may be a little weird for RMS, but it may be a neat idea.

22) Regrowing trees; after a while, they should re-grow, for added realism, and gameplay difference. They should take about 20 minutes to regrow.

23) Definately allow catapults to clear forests, like in AOK.

24) Regicide-type games, except with a 'general' instead of a King.

25) Sudden death-type games, like in AOM. The special building should be easily distinguished from other buildings, to avoid confusion.

BTW, I like the 'Ore' term. It always bothered me in AOK that 'Gold' also represented iron, etc.

Edited March 17, 2005 by Petsuchos Ra

[Gunthahaha]

Ideas:

1) What about bridges? I mean in-game as well as in the map editor. In the map editor, I would like there to be bridges passable by units and ships. (I'm no programmer, but this could work by changing the terrain to a shallows-type terrain, although the graphics could be a little messy.) There should also be bridges only passable by units, like a low pontoon bridge. They should also be damageable in-game. In-game, you should be able to build either kind over water, but they should be weak, expensive,and take a while to build, to offset the inherent tactical advantage. Maybe certain civs could have bridge-building advantages.

Very interesting

8) Please make Transport Ships, etc. large enough to realistically hold X amount of units. No more transport ships smaller than the Siege Onagers they can hold 20 of.

Of course

10) Units automatically attack the units they counter, eg. archers attack infantry, cavalry attack archers, infantry attack cavalry. If there weren't any units of the kind they counter, they would attack their own kind(archers would attack other archers, etc.) Only as a last resort would they attack the units that counter them.

I think they will simply attack the nearest unit

Edited March 16, 2005 by Gunthahaha

[Petsuchos Ra]

Correction

Ideas:

1) What about bridges? I mean in-game as well as in the map editor. In the map editor, I would like there to be bridges passable by units and ships. (I'm no programmer, but this could work by changing the terrain to a shallows-type terrain, although the graphics could be a little messy when ships cross it.) There should also be bridges only passable by units, like a low pontoon bridge. They should also be damageable in-game. In-game, you should be able to build either kind over water, but they should be weak, expensive,and take a while to build, to offset the inherent tactical advantage. Maybe certain civs could have bridge-building advantages.

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More Ideas:

26) Cheat units:

-Flying transport(same idea as the Roc in AOM)

-Similar unit to the Photon Men in AOE

-Nuke Trooper

-A cheat that turns your 'Civic Center' into a nuclear missile silo

-A cheat for completely unlimited resources for all players

-A cheat for completely unlimited resources for just you