For History fans / Strategy gamers

[eXcommunicate]

Hi guys. In my spare time as a hobby I am the Art Director (aka Art Dept Lead) over at Wildfire Games. We're an independent game developer creating a new Freeware real-time strategy game called, "0 A.D." (website), based on the years 500BC - AD500. I've been busy with developing the art for the game and coordinating the art department, as well as assisting in PR over at our ModDB profile. But tonight I found myself with some extra time to go ahead and post some exclusive content for you guys.

Here's a "gameplay" video from 2 years ago. Things have been updated a lot since then (as you can see in the screenshots below) and we'll release more videos soon:


Here's a video I slapped together the other night showing a little bit of our water rendering:


First up for screenshots is a sparse shot of a couple of new Roman "Scout Towers" (freestanding towers that give a line-of-sight bonus to the player), some new "Savanna" terrain textures, and some Roman Extraordinarii soldiers:


A quick shot of an island which shows off our water rendering:


Next is a shot of the Persian faction's walls and wall gate. You'll recognize the wall gate as a replica of the Babylonian "Ishtar Gate" that can be seen in the Berlin Museum:


Some new "Mediterranean" biome terrains and flora. This is the 4th iteration of the Mediterranean biome's terrain textures. I personally have been responsible for the terrains of the game and was very unhappy with the look of the previous Mediterranean terrains. I am now very happy with them. Are they authentic? I based the look on as many photographs of Greece, Greek isles, Sicily, etc. as I could find (like so):

PS: You can also see one of our Greek heroes in that shot.

This is a Celt settlement shot I whipped up to just show some new "Temperate" biome terrains and how the Celt buildings would look with them (no units, sorry - they are completed, I just couldn't be arsed to include them in this particular shot ):


And finally this is a very large screenshot of a small Greek town just getting underway. Here you can see the Mediterranean biome in its full glory as well as glimpse some of the Greek buildings:


We plan on going "Open Source" soon (sometime this year, hopefully this Spring), which means we will release the code of the game to anyone interested in assisting in its development. The art of the game is in an advanced state and we are mostly waiting on programmers to power us through to an open Beta. When we go Beta will depend upon the reception we receive when we go Open Source.

Well guys, hope you liked the shots.

[eXcommunicate]

Here are some other miscellaneous shots for your pleasure.
Iberian (Ancient Spanish) shield designs:


We are in the process of completly redoing all of our ships. Here is the first completed redone ship, the Persian Trireme (modeling done by our guy EmjeR, texture by me):


A sneak preview of a couple of our new Carthaginian structures:

You can see our Carthaginian Sacred Band as well! The Sacred Band (and priestesses, who heal friendly soldiers) will be trained from the Carthaginian Temple you see there.

One of our modelers has started work on the Roman siege walls:



You guys like?

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Those are SWEET, eXc!

One thing that hasn't been gamed yet, to my knowledge, is the Anaconda Plan, the naval of blockade in the American Civil War.

[eXcommunicate]

Those are SWEET, eXc!

One thing that hasn't been gamed yet, to my knowledge, is the Anaconda Plan, the naval of blockade in the American Civil War.

Well, that would be well out of our time frame for 0 A.D.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Those are SWEET, eXc!

One thing that hasn't been gamed yet, to my knowledge, is the Anaconda Plan, the naval of blockade in the American Civil War.

Well, that would be well out of our time frame for 0 A.D.

Understood, but you might want to look into it for a future idea.

The events included pitched sea battles, ironclads, tinclads, cottonclads, and "I wish we were"-clads. Blockade runners and "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead." Assaults on fortresses and dashes through lines of Yankee blockaders. They call it "littoral warfare" now.

[Trolldor]

If that's freeware then I want your children.... let's hope the gameplay is as good as the graphics.

I think the most problem RTS have is repetition. - i not enough variety between races, or something of that sort.

[Animavore]

Isn't that spam?

(only messin'. I want to play)

[eXcommunicate]

I hope it isn't spam. It's a project one of the members works on and it's FREE!!! :Flirt:

We're dividing the game into two parts, representing two epochs. Basically 0 A.D. Part 1 will cover 500BC-1BC, and Part 2 (essentially an expansion pack) will cover AD1-AD500. In between we'll probably release various content patches, along with bug fixes.

The factions for Part 1 are:

- The Hellenes (the Greek city-states and Macedon), who have good infantry, good navy, and strong buildings.
- The Republican Romans (2nd Punic War era), who have good siege and hardy infantry.
- The Carthaginians, who have the best navy, the best trade, and a wide selection of soldier-types.
- The Persians, who have the best economy in the game and large a population bonus (they can train more troops than other factions).
- The Iberians (ancient Spaniards), who are very defensive in nature and also have "guerilla" ambush abilities.
- The Celts (the Britons and Gauls), who have fast units, cheap buildings, and a farm-based economy.

Each faction will be unique (and currently are, even at this Alpha stage of development), each having unique artwork for building and soldiers, and completely unique technology trees. Formations will be included in the game and unlike many other RTS games of this type the formations will actually have an effect on the outcome of battle. Factions will also have from 3 to 6 historical heroes to choose from to lead their armies, each with unique artwork and bonuses.

Possible factions for Part 2 could be:

- Imperial Romans (from Augustus to Aurelius)
- Late Romans/Eastern Romans/Early Byzantines
- Huns
- Parthians
- Dacians
- Germanics (Franks, Visigoths, etc.)
- Sarmatians

[Animavore]

Riveting

[Trolldor]

Huns are compulsory. You don't conquer an empire twice the size of alexander's and not get featured in an RTS game.

[Animavore]

Huns are compulsory. You don't conquer an empire twice the size of alexander's and not get featured in an RTS game.

Unless you're the Eunuchs of Petronia.

[Trolldor]

Huns are compulsory. You don't conquer an empire twice the size of alexander's and not get featured in an RTS game.

Unless you're the Eunuchs of Petronia.

Or Jesus.

[eXcommunicate]

Huns are compulsory. You don't conquer an empire twice the size of alexander's and not get featured in an RTS game.

Absolutely. I think any "Imperial Rome" era game would need to feature them. The plan would be to give them "moveable" buildings. Either buildings that can "pack up" and move or "carts" that can be moved around that grant the abilities of buildings. Not sure how we'll do that yet. We'll hash that out once Part 1 is complete.

Jesus would have to be a unit that is modded into the game by one of our fans.

[Animavore]

Huns are compulsory. You don't conquer an empire twice the size of alexander's and not get featured in an RTS game.

Unless you're the Eunuchs of Petronia.

Or Jesus.

Or De Niro.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Huns are compulsory. You don't conquer an empire twice the size of alexander's and not get featured in an RTS game.

Absolutely. I think any "Imperial Rome" era game would need to feature them. The plan would be to give them "moveable" buildings. Either buildings that can "pack up" and move or "carts" that can be moved around that grant the abilities of buildings. Not sure how we'll do that yet. We'll hash that out once Part 1 is complete.

Jesus would have to be a unit that is modded into the game by one of our fans.

You could have covered carts that can be used as "instant" fortresses by linking them together. Inside the carts would be archers firing through loops. Scorpions and onagers on the roofs.