The next Alpha of the open source RTS 0 A.D. [Official Site] is moving along with development and it sounds like it's going to be a fun release.
Alpha 22 has no release date set yet, but it does already have lots of new goodies included in the latest builds.
One of the newer additions is a new game mode called 'Capture The Relic', where you must capture and hold all the Relics on a map for a certain amount of time to win. It sounds like a really fun mode, so I look forward to trying it out.
It will also add in many more animations for units like Attack, Walk, Jog, Run, Idle, Gather, Farming, Sheepslaughter, Trade and more.
To make the game feel more polished, they also added in 62 various death sounds from opengameart.org.
The AI is also set to get a little smarter, with it gaining the ability to reply to alliance requests, neutral requests and it also now has some improved chat messages.
The multiplayer side also has something usually found in multiplayer games, with it now showing who is still loading the game. This will help prevent sitting and waiting without knowing why you're sat waiting.
All of that and much more can be found on their feature list for Alpha 22 here, which they regularly update. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Alpha 22 has no release date set yet, but it does already have lots of new goodies included in the latest builds.
It will also add in many more animations for units like Attack, Walk, Jog, Run, Idle, Gather, Farming, Sheepslaughter, Trade and more.
To make the game feel more polished, they also added in 62 various death sounds from opengameart.org.
The AI is also set to get a little smarter, with it gaining the ability to reply to alliance requests, neutral requests and it also now has some improved chat messages.
The multiplayer side also has something usually found in multiplayer games, with it now showing who is still loading the game. This will help prevent sitting and waiting without knowing why you're sat waiting.
All of that and much more can be found on their feature list for Alpha 22 here, which they regularly update. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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12 comments
Sil_el_mot Apr 17, 2017
i tried 0ad once and i cannot get in use with this territory-mechanics.
0 Likes
oldrocker99 Apr 17, 2017
I've been following 0AD since 2011. This is grand news; it's not the best RTS out there yet (Warzone 2100, in the repos, still takes that prize), but these new improvements look divine.
0 Likes
This game is really amazing. I'm still waiting for someone making a Lord of The Rings mod for it.
3 Likes, Who?
Mountain Man Apr 17, 2017
This game is really amazing. I'm still waiting for someone making a Lord of The Rings mod for it.I'm waiting for the game to actually leave alpha. It has been in development for nearly a decade, which is notable in and of itself since open source game projects tend to be abandoned after a couple of years, but I'm still suspicious that it will never really be finished.
2 Likes, Who?
I'm waiting for the game to actually leave alpha. It has been in development for nearly a decade, which is notable in and of itself since open source game projects tend to be abandoned after a couple of years, but I'm still suspicious that it will never really be finished.
There's just so many improvements that can be made, they're not planning to go into Beta until they've finished with all the feature development (they're planning to just bugfix in Beta, so maybe Beta would be quite a short stage? Imho once they reach Beta you can bet on a release fairly soon, relatively speaking) which could take forever if they keep on thinking of new stuff yeah, but I can understand that it is nearly impossible for an open-source project (as awesome as this one is) with little funding to keep up with current proprietary game quality. Perhaps they should just jump to Beta, release, and patch from there (they could do fairly big gaps between releases (other than bugfix and balance updates), longer than between Alphas so that a metagame can develop over the course of each release) but perhaps they don't feel that it's really release quality.
I know they were planning to do a sequel once they've finished this game but imho they should release a Beta for 0AD sooner than they seem to be planning, ditch the sequel idea and just focus on making 0AD a great AAA-quality competitive game with regular balance updates and much less regular big feature releases.
Imho they should go something like this:
Whenever-its-ready: Instead of releasing Alpha 22, release Beta 1 (package version 0.1)
Every month: Release a new Beta (package versions 0.x)
When vast majority of bugs gone/bug-wise it's release-ready: Release 0AD Season 1 (package version 1.0.0, use semantic versioning for future releases)
Over each Season, make bugfix releases as (x.y.z) z updates and balance changes as y updates (if both in one release, release as a y update)
Every year or every two years - make a new Season (x update) with all the non-bugfix/balance changes they couldn't include before due to release policy. This should be forked off the master branch of development (where all these changes should've been pushed) with a few Betas and RCs released for stability (as x.0.0-beta1, -beta2, -RC1 etc)
Last edited by Ads20000 on 17 April 2017 at 10:11 pm UTC
4 Likes, Who?
GustyGhost Apr 18, 2017
0AD: FOSS Empire Earth that only goes up to the bronze age. .. give or take a few epochs.
0 Likes
thelimeydragon Apr 18, 2017
Woolooloo
2 Likes, Who?
I was pushed back for some years by the "alpha" status as well. Till I decided to give it a try, said that the "alpha" status is just a formality to mean that they still want to add content. The game is very polished, and playable, with good amount of content, and game play, even multiplayer working! So if the "alpha" is what's pushing you back it shouldn't, the game could be released tomorrow as a "finished" game and anyone wouldn't complain actually. Not to say it kicks the ass of most of the "early access" steam game on content and playability.This game is really amazing. I'm still waiting for someone making a Lord of The Rings mod for it.I'm waiting for the game to actually leave alpha. It has been in development for nearly a decade, which is notable in and of itself since open source game projects tend to be abandoned after a couple of years, but I'm still suspicious that it will never really be finished.
3 Likes, Who?
Guess I should really give it another try. Have a bad taste in my mouth from last time.
Years back I fired it up, figured out the interface a bit, built a couple new farms and a couple of javelineers or something, and just as I was starting to get the feel of that a bunch of enemy warriors showed up out of nowhere and wiped out my village. The numbers weren't even close. So I was like "OK, if my attempts to start figuring out how to play are going to be interrupted every five minutes by being wiped out and having to start over, I have other things to do," and haven't yet been back. But things are probably quite different by now.
Years back I fired it up, figured out the interface a bit, built a couple new farms and a couple of javelineers or something, and just as I was starting to get the feel of that a bunch of enemy warriors showed up out of nowhere and wiped out my village. The numbers weren't even close. So I was like "OK, if my attempts to start figuring out how to play are going to be interrupted every five minutes by being wiped out and having to start over, I have other things to do," and haven't yet been back. But things are probably quite different by now.
0 Likes
Guess I should really give it another try. Have a bad taste in my mouth from last time.
Years back I fired it up, figured out the interface a bit, built a couple new farms and a couple of javelineers or something, and just as I was starting to get the feel of that a bunch of enemy warriors showed up out of nowhere and wiped out my village. The numbers weren't even close. So I was like "OK, if my attempts to start figuring out how to play are going to be interrupted every five minutes by being wiped out and having to start over, I have other things to do," and haven't yet been back. But things are probably quite different by now.
The AI is still a bit hard! Yes, but you can tweak the numbers, set a truce in minutes and control the starting resources.
0 Likes
Didn't find AI the problem. I am finding the whole game design to be the problem.
I am playing as Carthage, but game feels like if you had SC2 and all you could build was zerglings, roaches and queens. And zerglings and roaches were also workers.
The game has just too few things and is really monotonous. Sure, I can chose two mercenary posts. But since I can have only TWO mercenary posts, I can never mix enough of mercenaries. So I am building archers and spearmens, archers and spearmens. One elephant, two siege weapons, a few javeline horsemen and archers and spearmens.
There are even not any nice upgrades (that would change how game is played), walls sucks as you can't properly use terrain to your advantage (WTF units crossing hills?), ships were barely working the last time I played it, elephants sucked as the most common units everyone can build are spearmens and archers, which have bonus or what against elephants.
And town that you build while playing does not feel like real town, like what is the results in Age of Empires, where your cities look nice.
I am playing as Carthage, but game feels like if you had SC2 and all you could build was zerglings, roaches and queens. And zerglings and roaches were also workers.
The game has just too few things and is really monotonous. Sure, I can chose two mercenary posts. But since I can have only TWO mercenary posts, I can never mix enough of mercenaries. So I am building archers and spearmens, archers and spearmens. One elephant, two siege weapons, a few javeline horsemen and archers and spearmens.
There are even not any nice upgrades (that would change how game is played), walls sucks as you can't properly use terrain to your advantage (WTF units crossing hills?), ships were barely working the last time I played it, elephants sucked as the most common units everyone can build are spearmens and archers, which have bonus or what against elephants.
And town that you build while playing does not feel like real town, like what is the results in Age of Empires, where your cities look nice.
0 Likes
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