
0 A.D.: A free, open-source game of ancient warfare - andrevoget
http://play0ad.com/new-release-0-a-d-alpha-19-syllepsis/
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jfaucett
This is an absolutely awesome open source game. I keep a list of awesome open
source games and its one of only two super high quality ones I've been able to
find. It also has an embedded SpiderMonkey engine for scripting which was
really useful when I was trying to figure out how to get an embedded scripting
engine setup a while ago.

Heres the link to its source for those interested:
[https://github.com/0ad/0ad](https://github.com/0ad/0ad)

The other game Hedgewars has a great haskell server, you can read a summary
here with lnk to source: [https://github.com/jwaterfaucett/awesome-foss-
apps#hedgewars](https://github.com/jwaterfaucett/awesome-foss-apps#hedgewars).

Anyway tip of the hat to O A.D devs they are doing a great job!

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Nadya
A bit off-topic, but do you mind sharing that awesome list?

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jfaucett
sure the list is awesome-foss-apps in my original post
([https://github.com/jwaterfaucett/awesome-foss-
apps](https://github.com/jwaterfaucett/awesome-foss-apps)), would've just
posted the direct link to Hedgewars but the original link gives a good summary
of why hedgewars is so awesome from a devs perspective :)

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cjslep
Have you played Battle for Wesnoth?[0] I would seriously consider including it
in your list. Insanely fun and difficult turn-based game.

[0] [http://wesnoth.org/](http://wesnoth.org/)

~~~
jfaucett
thanks! The code for Wesnoth is really nice its got great examples of lots of
stuff, test suits, gui / interface managers, game servers. I just added it :)

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frik
0 A.D. is great. I used to play a lot of RTS (real time strategy) games
between 1995 and 2005. Sadly the whole RTS genre died because of the shift of
PC game developers to consoles and their casual softened gameplay (HaloWars,
C&C4) didn't work out. And the free-to-play AoEOnline / C&C Generals 2 (beta)
were failures and SC2 drifted into a hardcore online niche. Not everyone wants
to play repetitive Moba/tower defence style games. There would be a huge
market for RTS games.

I loved the Age of Empires series, as well Empire Earth, C&C Generals. And
building games like The Settlers, Anno 1602, Sim City.

0 A.D. is similar to Age of Empire/Mythology. Keep up the good work!

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jon-wood
Act of Aggression came out recently, and you've got AI Wars from a few years
ago - I believe they've got a new RTS out soon as well. Supreme Commander and
its sequel were proper RTS and still fantastic even if they are a bit older
now.

Then you've got a new Anno game last year, Cities Skylines, Age of Empires got
a re-release on Steam, and if you can find a copy Settlers II 10th Anniversary
Edition completely reimplemented the original with modern graphics and UI.

If anything digital distribution and crowd funding is bringing about a
resurgence of all those genres big publishers shunned.

~~~
frik
I know. See my comment below:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10640337](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10640337)

I played all of them. The Total Annihilation series is a niche sub-genre. Anno
2070 just come out this month but has little in common with the old Anno 1602
or Anno 1404. The AoE "HD" releases were a quick buck for Microsoft and get
boring again a few hours later (when you own also the original versions).

What the world needs are new RTS games inspired by AoE/EmpireEarth/C&C with a
good singleplayer campaign and random maps with good offline KI that can play
various game-modes. That's why 0 A.D. is so great!

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willvarfar
0 A.D. is gorgeous!

Another great RTS, with a strong focus on fun gameplay and modding, is
Megaglest [https://megaglest.org/](https://megaglest.org/)

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kelvinn
Good coincidence seeing this here, as my partner and I are about to play a
game while our baby (hopefully!) takes a nap. We call it our 'team bonding
activity'.

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officemonkey
Good luck with that. We had a simple rule: "sleep when the baby sleeps" that
was the default for the first year. But if you can squeeze in some 0AD games,
then good for you!

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superskierpat
I only really played a game for the first time the other day, but I lost my
entire afternoon.. I really like that all the factions are so different, I
dont remember having had that much fun with age of empires.

I kept getting my ass kicked by catapults though...

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jrometty
I have been searching for the true successor to AOE2 for so long. I can't wait
to try this out!

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superskierpat
Alot of features are still missing, but its totally possible to play a fun few
games. And the good thing is that you regurlarly get new features (And its
free...)

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onionjake
I love 0 A.D.! The only issue I have ran into is it slows down so much that it
is basically unplayable with more than 4 players or so (or a few AI players).
I've been meaning to jump in for awhile and help improve things.

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PeCaN
I don't know what it's like now, but when I used to work on it we badly needed
a new short-range pathfinder design. That and the range manager would pretty
much just die once there was a significant number of units.

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bluesilver07
Yeah, that was the most talked about need when I was working on the project
too. The release notes for Alpha 19 say there's a new Pathfinder.

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andreyf
I'm curious how a little bit of randomness and more realistic combat would
affect the RTS genre. Perhaps something like Overgrowth [1] for combat, and
maybe even a MMO/RTS combination for intelligent units? Does anyone know of
games exploring this possibility?

1\.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct7xp0R-tnQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct7xp0R-tnQ)

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addled
Allegiance takes a stab:
[http://www.freeallegiance.org](http://www.freeallegiance.org). A Microsoft
project that failed commercially, but the community eventually convinced them
to release the source code for.

It's an RTS/space-sim hybrid. Each team has a commander that mostly stays in
starbase and leads from top-down perspective. Boring jobs, like mining and
construction are handled by AI, but all the other ships have real players
flying them. I don't think I have played a game that emphasizes teamwork more.

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JoBrad
Cool. It looks sort of like an upgraded Age of Empires.

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ancymon
It's current version is "0 A.D. Alpha 19 Syllepsis". Is it done and playable?
Maybe it's better to wait for some "real" release?

By the way, it seems to me that open source games don't have visible
milestones. So one cannot notice when there's a good moment to download and
play bug free game. Do you have same impression?

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ajankovic
It's very playable. There is only one ruining problem, as the game progress
and number of objects on the map increases, game becomes ultra slow. Like one
frame in 10 seconds.

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JoshuaJB
That's almost entirely fixed with this release.

Since I help develop the game, I'm rather biased, but I think that it's as
stable or more so than most triple-A titles released today.

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MrBra
What I observed is that from time to time it slows down to almost unplayable
but this lasts some 30 seconds and then it get backs to normal. This happens
once every 15-20 mins. Hope it helps.

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eklavya
Can't thank you enough. You people totally rock!!

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gamesbrainiac
I'd definitely pay for a game with a campaign built on the foundations of the
game. I miss good strategy games with nice long campaigns.

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JoshuaJB
Campaigns are on the roadmap. All the required code to support them is
complete, we just need to build the scenarios.

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evolve2k
I love the game and so do my kids, is there an easy way to know how people can
contribute? I mean do you need more assets? Storyboards for campaigns? In game
copy? Designs? Historical research? Coding help?

Tell us what your needing, coding and otherwise. Congrats on the great work so
far also!

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JoshuaJB
We'd love help in any of those areas! If you'd like to help with programming,
take a look at [1]. For other areas, the processes is less structured and I'd
suggest starting on our forums [2]. In both cases however, jump on our IRC
channels if you have any questions (#0ad and #0ad-dev on quakenet).

In terms of where we most need contributors, at the moment I'm not aware of
anyone working on campaign storyboarding or UI mockups.

[1]
[http://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/GettingStartedProgrammers](http://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/GettingStartedProgrammers)
[2] [http://wildfiregames.com/forum/](http://wildfiregames.com/forum/)

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Tharkun
It's either 1BC or 1AD. There is no 0AD.

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evanpw
From [http://play0ad.com/game-info/project-overview/](http://play0ad.com/game-
info/project-overview/):

> “0 A.D.” is a time period that never actually existed: In the usual
> calendar, one goes from 1 B.C. to 1 A.D. and skips zero. This reflects the
> historical fiction in the game

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vaadu
You can't skip what didn't or couldn't exist. 0 was a transition point from BC
to AD - it had no quantity of time or duration.

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drjesusphd
The game is make-believe, like the year 0ad.

