
An open source engine clone of Age of Empires II - andygmb
https://github.com/SFTtech/openage
======
silveira
[http://play0ad.com](http://play0ad.com), 0 A.D, a free, open-source, cross-
platform real-time strategy game. GPL 2+ license for the game engine and the
CC-BY-SA for the game art.

~~~
egeozcan
0 A.D is great, on the other hand, the balance and the tactical variety on the
AoE series is hard to match.

~~~
frozenport
I don't know, I always found AoE2 to be broken. I would slowly build a tower
in my enemies base.

~~~
xerophyte12932
Tower? heck take a group of villagers with your army. Build castles in enemy
territory as you capture it! (or maybe bombard towers) That doesn't mean the
game is broken though.

~~~
Mikeb85
Teutonic town centre rush was ridiculous.

I miss that game.

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M4v3R

        Waaaaaah! It
        * segfaults
        * prints error messages I don't want to read
        * ate my dog
        All of those are features, not bugs. To turn them off, use ./openage --dont-segfault --no-errors --dont-eat-dog.
    

I chuckled when I read that. If that were so easy...

~~~
zem
probably needs to shell out to NOSMOKE.EXE on windows too

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fakeyfake
You should post this on aoczone[0] - probably the largest aoe2 enthusiast
forum. Voobly[1] is the primary aoc client at the moment with fan made
compatibility patches, such as userpatch[2]. They are also hosting a $120,000
tournament in a weeks time with some of the strongest teams around. I'm sure
some of the developers from voobly/userpatch could have a look at it. As
someone mentioned 0ad[3] is an aoe2 inspired game, unfortunately I think their
kickstarter failed but they did add multiplayer support which looks promising.

[0] [http://aoczone.net](http://aoczone.net)

[1] [http://voobly.com](http://voobly.com)

[2] [http://userpatch.aiscripters.net](http://userpatch.aiscripters.net)

[3] [http://play0ad.com](http://play0ad.com)

edit: I jumped the gun before RTFM, sorry about that, might want to check out
[http://aoccs.net](http://aoccs.net) too for aoehd.

~~~
aroman
> Voobly[1] is the primary aoc client at the moment

Is this still true, given that Microsoft has officially re-released AoE on
Steam? I assume most people would have migrated there now...

~~~
fakeyfake
Sorry I meant for online matches, although some people would draw a
distinction between age of empires: the conquerors and age of empires: hd
edition.

You can check the player history for steam here[0], it's almost at an all time
low, although this number includes people logged in playing single player too,
while voobly's numbers (just over 1500 at the time of writing) include people
spectating matches and waiting in lobbies or idling.

Unfortunately there were performance problems on the release of aoehd, pretty
much up until 1-2 months ago, leaving the community fragmented. Typically
steam is where you'll find casual gamers and voobly is where slightly more
experienced players go (although they do have a new player lobby with casual
gamers too). During steam sales however the hd edition does get an influx of
new players every time (you can usually pick it up for $5).

Since I'm talking about platforms it wouldn't be fair not to mention game
ranger[1]. I don't know a lot about it but the rumours are they largely play
standard (non-userpatch) aoc or the forgotten empires[2]. I have got no idea
about the userbase size though.

[0]
[http://steamcharts.com/app/221380#1y](http://steamcharts.com/app/221380#1y)

[1] [http://www.gameranger.com/games/](http://www.gameranger.com/games/)

[2] [http://forgottenempires.net](http://forgottenempires.net)

~~~
baddox
Are the performance problems you refer to the horrible slow-down in
multiplayer? I've never had any client-side performance problems with AoC
(Steam edition or prior), but the network slow-down has always been there, and
makes substantial games with more than about 4 players essentially unplayable.
I haven't checked on the Steam edition since a couple months after its
release, but if they managed to fix that I would be elated.

~~~
fakeyfake
Both client and network but most of the fps issues and scrolling issues have
been fixed. I think patch 3.8 fixed some of the memory leaks and "out of
syncs" also. It's definitely worth another go. They also changed the default
hot keys to a grid layout late last year too, just in case! :)

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jqm
I wish someone would clone Cossacks.

I've been playing it since 2002 and keep an XP box specifically to play it on.
After all these years I still haven't gotten bored of the game and probably
play it 2-3 hours a week or more on average.

I don't know if this means it's a really good game or I'm just a boring
person. But it beats AoE all over in my opinion. I've tried a lot of other
games, played them for a bit and forgotten about them. But not Cossacks. I
just wish they had kept the series going.

~~~
ptomato
It's on GoG now, fyi:
[http://www.gog.com/game/cossacks_anthology](http://www.gog.com/game/cossacks_anthology)

Currently on sale for $1.79, and that version will work on modern versions of
Windows.

~~~
j_s
Also on Steam:
[http://store.steampowered.com/sub/11264/](http://store.steampowered.com/sub/11264/)

------
captainmuon
The internals of AoE II are quite interesting, especially when it comes to how
the terrain is rendered. There is an epic thread here [1] where it's discussed
a bit and one of the original developers (Matt Prichard alias MattP) chimes in
and talks a bit about AoE II's development.

Trying to clone AoE II seems like a pretty cool and challenging project, and
actually if I was going to write a game with 2D isometric graphics, I might
steal some tricks from AoE.

[1] [http://aok.heavengames.com/cgi-
bin/aokcgi/display.cgi?action...](http://aok.heavengames.com/cgi-
bin/aokcgi/display.cgi?action=ct&f=3,40110,0,30)

~~~
thejj
Terrain blending theory:
[https://github.com/SFTtech/openage/blob/b7af79f1d5bfcc986935...](https://github.com/SFTtech/openage/blob/b7af79f1d5bfcc9869353a73577bfe68193a2a10/doc/media/blendomatic.md)

Terrain blending implementation:
[https://github.com/SFTtech/openage/blob/b7af79f1d5bfcc986935...](https://github.com/SFTtech/openage/blob/b7af79f1d5bfcc9869353a73577bfe68193a2a10/cpp/terrain.cpp#L380)

I think we got the perfectly matching algorithm, we even get the same blending
bugs with snow :D

~~~
captainmuon
Cool! How do you draw heights? I always wondered whether the ground texture
was really texture-mapped, or whether it was just drawn flat and then shades
were drawn over it.

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bluehex
I'm going to out myself as oversensitive and lacking a sense of humor in many
of your eyes (or so I imagine) but I can't stand the kind of sarcastic humor
in the contributing section.

Sarcasm is only funny to me when it's not mean spirited.

The joke about segfaults: "\--dont-segfault --no-errors --dont-eat-dog." was
quite funny, on the other hand. I'd like to see more playful expression in
this way rather than playing with negativity; because even though it's
obviously a joke, there's enough negativity in the world already that it
doesn't make me laugh thinking about it.

I imagine i'm in a tiny minority. :/

~~~
bluesilver07
FWIW I felt the same way too. The contributing section wasn't funny enough to
justify the negative tone.

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egeozcan
Scripting AoEII maps with a decent scripting language has long been a dream of
mine. Current trigger editor is "hard to use and lacking" to put it politely.
Python support in the map editor would be amazing.

~~~
andygmb
>Scripting AoEII maps with a decent scripting language has long been a dream
of mine

Isn't the current AI scripting done in Lisp?

~~~
renekooi
It's something that kind of looks like lisp, but the only thing it has in
common is the parentheses. You basically set condition→action rules, one level
deep, with a limited amount of global-only "variables" (goals). I think the
amount of conditions and actions per "rule" is limited, too.

~~~
andygmb
[https://gist.github.com/Andygmb/1e3a6d9d444b2dfa8c40](https://gist.github.com/Andygmb/1e3a6d9d444b2dfa8c40)

I went and had a look for the AI I had seen before, here's it on gist if
anyone would like to read it (it's 28,000 lines).

------
Aethelwulf
Has anyone else seen a big difference between the original AoE2 and the Steam
re-release? I swear that the AI is barely aggressive anymore, even on the most
difficult setting.

~~~
poglet
Original AOE2 and AOE2HD both started with the same AI.

AOE2 received a 'userpatch' that updated the AI allowing it to do more
complicated things

The userpatch wasn't made my Microsoft so AOE2HD was unable too take advantage
of it but 2 months ago there was a patch that made the AI very difficult and
aggressive.

Still, the AI is unable to do certain things that the userpatch AI could do
(using walls, moving deer, playing on forest maps etc).

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hhsnopek
The engine looks solid, I loved AOE II growing up as a kid. also: I can't tell
if they're joking when it comes to contributing...

~~~
th0br0
"Don't note the irony, you idiot"

~~~
hhsnopek
oh haha, there it is!

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Void_
Can someone explain to me how can software be "free as in freedom"?

~~~
virgoerns
It's all about software licenses.

1) free as in "gratis" (freeware software) - you can download it for free,
install it and use it. And that's all. Usually it's already compiled so you
don't have an access to the source code. Sometimes you are forbidden to copy
it and give it to a friend (because you both should e.g. download it from
author's web page).

2) free as in "freedom" (free software) - you can do literally anything with
this kind of software because it's licensed in a way that doesn't restrict the
user in any manner (i.e. license preserves user freedom). Run it, fork it,
modify it, sell it, give it away to your friends (or to anyone), you can do
anything. There are several free licenses which handle these cases in a
different way (e.g. GPL, LGPL, Apache License, MIT License, Boost License, Vim
License and so on). They're sometimes called copyleft licenses (as opposite to
copyright term). If you're interested, here's the wiki page comparing most of
free licenses: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_free_and_open-
sou...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_free_and_open-
source_software_licenses)

Please note that it doesn't mean that the software is being given away "for
free (gratis)" (but usually it is) - it only means that once you obtain it,
you can do anything you want with it.

Oh, and a mandatory link when we're talking about Free Software:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sJUDx7iEJw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sJUDx7iEJw)

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sebastianavina
I just want to sudo apt-get install it and play it.

~~~
erikb
Something like this needs work. In an open source project if you want
something you can and should do it. So how about taking a free weekend to read
how to make a .deb package?

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timwaagh
how does this work with copyright & trademarks & stuff?

~~~
joepie91_
No different from eg. OpenTTD. If they don't distribute any of the original
assets or code, copyright is not relevant. That's most likely why they require
an original installation to get the game assets from.

They don't present themselves as AoE2 either - saying that it's _like_ AoE2 is
not infringing - so no trademark issue either.

Can't see a problem with this.

~~~
jehb
I don't disagree in principle, but the last time I got excited about an open
source RTS clone using a game's original assets, this happened:

[http://games.slashdot.org/story/03/06/21/1323249/freecraft-c...](http://games.slashdot.org/story/03/06/21/1323249/freecraft-
cease-and-desisted-by-blizzard)

(And yes, it's been 11+ years since I got excited about one.)

~~~
Houshalter
>The development team received a cease and desist order due to the name
'FreeCraft' causing possible confusion with the names StarCraft and WarCraft

Good job blizzard on preventing any games from ever ending in "craft".

~~~
ajuc
Minecraft seems to bo OK, so it's probably only rts *craft games, possibly
only such games that are clones of the real thing.

This kinda makes sense from the trademark POV, try starting sports car company
called "Ferari".

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Starcraft is a product of Blizzard. If you wanted to draw a parallel it would
be with a product of Ferrari, so a Testarossa say. And it's only the suffix
that's duplicated.

So to get close to a car analogy [it's still poor] it should rather be "try
giving away plans for a car called a 'Triangolorossa'".

The real chance of confusion is pretty close to zero but no doubt a motivated
lawyer and a legal system corrupted to favour mega-corps would still be able
to decide it was a genuine trademark confusion.

If it's a clone then there are copyright issues. If it's not a clone then
having a similar but clearly distinct name is not a genuine point of confusion
for the public.

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himanshuy
AOE II is one of my all time favorite game.

