0AD Guide: From nub to OP

[Yekaterina]

Hey guys, Kate here and right now I have a complete 0AD guide manual that teaches cosmic noobs how to become 1500+ players!! 

Please suggest improvements!! :))))

From nub to OP.docx

[sarcoma]

pdf for non windows ppl?

[Yekaterina]

3 hours ago, sarcoma said:

pdf for non windows ppl?

Sure. Which OS are you on?

For Linux users, you can open it in LibreOffice or WPS Office. 

Actually I typed most of it up in Arch Linux...

[Yekaterina]

0AD guide from nub to OP.pdf

 

@sarcoma`

[nani]

LaTeX version?

[Stan`]

Could also be part of Trac to make it collaborative.

[Yekaterina]

3 hours ago, Stan` said:

Could also be part of Trac to make it collaborative.

How? I suppose we can use google docs

 

3 hours ago, nani said:

LaTeX version?

Too much work lol

Feel free to make your own one

[seeh]

1 hour ago, Yekaterina said:

I suppose we can use google docs

or Etherpad (look for: free etherpad instancees, or use it in a matrix-client, who its already possible to use)

[Thales]

Thanks very much. Extremely helpful. Still reading through this guide.

I would like to suggest including in your document header, the hyperlink to this thread and the date of publication. That will make it easier for the reader to re-find this thread in the future and to see if they have the latest version of this guide.

Edited December 14, 2021 by Thales

[LetswaveaBook]

15 hours ago, Yekaterina said:

Hey guys, Kate here and right now I have a complete 0AD guide manual

With 10 pages, I suppose the document is a serious attempt on explaining the matter. To make it more complete you could mention Athenians,Britons and Persians who are the only ones not being mentioned.

The nbr. 1 rule for RTS games deserves special attention: Spent your resources. You can spend your resources to do thing to win the game, but if those resources spent them then you fail to take advantage of them. This is probably the most important rule and I think it does deserve special attention.

MysticJim uploaded a video recently where a player on the losing side, there was an player that had over 10k food and 5k wood in the bank that weren't being used. If she had sent those resources to her two weaker allies, then these allies would love her very much and they would be able to spend these resources each recruit 50 women and 50 infantry for a total of 200 extra units on the team.

The 3rd tip in CH4 is not highlighted in bold letters.

I disagree with the 5th tip in CH4. Hack armor technologies can be ignored in some cases. Neither do I think the p3 mining upgrades are extremely useful, especially the stone mining technology. That technology cost 900 resources and it is not like you will be mining a lot of stone.

Finally the last rule: Break all previous rules whenever it suits you.

[seeh]

i want give you a other tool for discuss and set arguments.
debategraph . I don't think you will use it for copy/past all your tips in such a map (hard work), but maybe. definitely good to know that tool.
example:
http://debategraph.org/eprocurementpilot
https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/collection/eprocurement/specifications-and-standards

Edited December 14, 2021 by seeh

[thephilosopher]

This is helpful, and I'm playing around a bit with the build order. I'd say that for beginners, the main thing I'd point out is that a lot of them will run out of wood early when using this build order. I think a lot of people playing their first multiplayer games take things too cautiously and create too many infantry too early. If they do that on the build order in this doc, they'll run out of wood repeatedly in the first 5 minutes of the game.

They'll have to compensate either by creating fewer infantry or assigning more units to wood collection (or by building farms more slowly, but that wouldn't be ideal).

[BreakfastBurrito_007]

I like the instructions very much. You did a good job keeping it concise and well organized and detailed. I was once a cosmic nub and it took me at least 2 years before I was moderately good (good enough to be balance-able in TGs). 

One thing to keep in mind about 0ad though is that a build order can be great to start out, but to get better from there means to be highly adaptable, and this comes with playing quite a few matches. To be adaptable means to be ready to break from your plan or perform well measured economic adjustments to keep up with enemies. I can't think of a more adaptable and flexible player than @ValihrAnt.

[Yekaterina]

8 hours ago, LetswaveaBook said:

If she had sent those resources to her two weaker allies, then these allies would love her very much and they would be able to spend these resources each recruit 50 women and 50 infantry for a total of 200 extra units on the team.

jajaja... excuse my nubness, I read 15K as 1500   and no one asked for anything. They just shouted for military support. 

8 hours ago, LetswaveaBook said:

Hack armor technologies can be ignored in some cases.

True, but only if your enemies are nubs and train only ranged units. The hack armour can really save your melee from enemy eles or swordsman. 

[Yekaterina]

P3 mining techs can be useful, because they allow you to have a stable income of minerals despite having only 4 or 5 units per mine. It is a bargain at times since it allows you to field more inf.

[mysticjim]

Just adding the official 0AD Newbie Rush edition of @Yekaterina's  guide here;

 

Download link below

Massive thanks to @Yekaterina for allowing me to produce the official tie-in version, I've no doubt it's going to be popular and look forward to reading future, updated editions (not least because I'm so bad at the game myself and need all the help I can get!)

 

From_nub_to_OP_Dec2021.pdf

[kun0]

So fighting is only attack move? Or can you micro in a fight? Focus on single units instead of all? Does it make sense to fight big battles with melee cav or should they be used for raiding? Or should one always micro cav then to attack ranged units and keep them out of the way of spears?

 

Maybe make a second guide, how to move from 1400 to 1600-1700?

Edited December 22, 2021 by kun0

[Yekaterina]

1 hour ago, kun0 said:

1 hour ago, kun0 said:

So fighting is only attack move? Or can you micro in a fight? Focus on single units instead of all? Does it make sense to fight big battles with melee cav or should they be used for raiding? Or should one always micro cav then to attack ranged units and keep them out of the way of spears?

 

All of these are good questions, and they don't have a fixed answer like which button to press for attack move. You need to micro the units based on the terrain you are fighting on, your enemy's composition, your own composition and so on.

If you spot an enemy unit that does huge damage but has few health, e.g. mercenary cav, hero, champion fire cav, then it is worth it to snipe it with your ranged units.

If you have more melee than your enemy, then you can divert some and order them to attack enemy ranged units, which will route their formation.

For melee cav, just try to take out their ranged units. 

For ranged cav, use javelin cav as infantry javelineers and archer cav to take out their ranged units. 

Again, if their melee is overwhelming then it might be worth it to fight their melee first. 

Sometimes you need to retreat just the ranged units to protect them from enemy melee.

 

There is no difference between boom speed of anyone between 1400 and 1800. What matters is playing special strategies, rushing and antirush. Also the fighting ability matters.

 

[Yekaterina]

Suppose you are given the chance to boom. In your big push, the more units you field, the better. Meanwhile, upgrades, champions and composition makes the biggest difference. Ideally, you push with 150 soldiers in total, with at least 40 melee units.

The positioning of your siege weapons and elephants is also important; if you fear being outnumbered, you may want to charge the rams or elephants at the front to distract their units so that you can steal a few kills. Or, if you want to ensure their death, you put rams behind your organic units so that you can immediately siege them as soon as you win the fight.

Before you push, you need your hero trained and all pierce techs researched to at least tier 2. In order to supply your front line, you need to spam at least 7 infantry barracks with the batch training tech researched. When fighting, never batch train. Instead, put all barracks in the same control group, then train 1 soldier at a time. This ensures that your front line population never falls under that of your enemy and hence you win the fight.

If you are at a disadvantage, don't linger and withdraw immediately, otherwise it will be a 1 sided massacre. To keep this supplying process going, you need most of the eco techs researched, 30 women farming, 15 javelineers on wood and 5 on metal. It might be advisable to wait until to you float resources before you commit to a big push, so that you can barter away resources if the fighting takes longer than expected.

 

 

[Yekaterina]

On rushing and early pushes, you need to do a lot of damage to your enemy without hurting your own eco too much. Cavalry is expensive so too much cav will hurt your eco too much but your can't do much with too few cav.

There are many approaches to doing cavalry rushes; you can watch TG replays or ask good rushers. You can also do infantry rush or infantry push, but these are risky as your base becomes vulnerable and your eco stops for a few minutes. Also it's possible that you lose everything in your enemy's base and you are eco dead.

Mercenary rushes are low risk and cheap. So if you are Kush or Carthage then they are a must. Any civ with a mercenary unit can do mercenary rush, that includes Macedonia, Seleucids, Ptolemies, Athenians. Mercenary cav is better for rushing, because they have more health attack and easy to escape. Also mercs are trained quicker. If your enemy has any cav at all then spearcav is useful; of they are all ranged then sword cav is better. For mercenary rushes, you can commit to the from the very beginning of the game like Akazid, or, you can train some in situ in P2 without delaying yourself too much. 

Later Rush = more units needed to be successful

 

 

[SDM]

Just want to say thank you, and that this guide is probably for someone like me who's terrible at RTSes

[Yekaterina]

Also a 1600+ player shouldn't complain about their civ too much in A25. Yes the civs are not balanced but unless your enemy spams certain OP units, you should have a fair chance at winning. 

There are unit strategies that are suitable for each civ.

[LetswaveaBook]

19 hours ago, Yekaterina said:

Ideally, you push with 150 soldiers in total, with at least 40 melee units.

The positioning of your siege weapons and elephants is also important; if you fear being outnumbered, you may want to charge the rams or elephants at the front to distract their units so that you can steal a few kills. Or, if you want to ensure their death, you put rams behind your organic units so that you can immediately siege them as soon as you win the fight.

Before you push, you need your hero trained and all pierce techs researched to at least tier 2. In order to supply your front line, you need to spam at least 7 infantry barracks with the batch training tech researched. When fighting, never batch train. Instead, put all barracks in the same control group, then train 1 soldier at a time. This ensures that your front line population never falls under that of your enemy and hence you win the fight.

If you are at a disadvantage, don't linger and withdraw immediately, otherwise it will be a 1 sided massacre. To keep this supplying process going, you need most of the eco techs researched, 30 women farming, 15 javelineers on wood and 5 on metal. It might be advisable to wait until to you float resources before you commit to a big push, so that you can barter away resources if the fighting takes longer than expected.

These are things that I mostly don't really do. Anyway, thanks for the guide to 2k.

[Dizaka]

On 13/12/2021 at 6:28 PM, Yekaterina said:

4. BATCH TRAINING. This is the single thing that separated cosmic noobs from a more experienced player. Always train units in batches instead of one by one queued up after one other. Hold down shift and click on a unit in the CC to train in a batch. Hover your cursor on a unit and scroll the mouse wheel to change default batch size. My habit is to set default batch size to 1, then hold down shift and repeatedly click on the unit to append as many units into the same batch as I can afford.

 

OMG.  I'm cosmic :(.

[Yekaterina]

2 hours ago, LetswaveaBook said:

These are things that I mostly don't really do. Anyway, thanks for the guide to 2k.

That's fine, I know you are a rusher and I was referring to people who boomed for 14 minutes straight. 

24 minutes ago, Dizaka said:

OMG.  I'm cosmic :(.

I will explain in a later edition (from 1400 to 1600) some times when these rules can be broken. Your merc rush is certainly one of the special strategies that requires you to break these rules.