Alpha 17 Quercus released!

[Jubal]

0AD Alpha 17 - Quercus

Wildfire Games, an international group of volunteer game developers, proudly announces the release of "0 A.D. Alpha 17 Quercus", the seventeenth alpha version of 0 A.D., a free, open-source game of ancient warfare. This alpha features a major gameplay rebalance, units on walls, trigger support, improved mod support and more!

Download from Wildfire Games

Top New Gameplay Features in This Release

Major Core Combat Rebalance: Now, if you send only one unit type to battle, it fares poorly against regiments of the same size that mix more than one type, e.g. melee and ranged units. Technologies as a whole have been made more expensive and unrelated technologies have been "unpaired". Some stats have been adjusted to make training some units viable. Buildings are now a bit easier to destroy. Temporarily, we have removed formations, and we plan to re-implement them again in a more balanced way.
Naval Map Support: The computer opponent now uses transport ships to colonize other islands and attack enemy bases, but naval combat (i.e. ships against ships) is not yet implemented.
Improved Fog of War: The Fog of War is the part of the terrain that has been scouted already but is not in vision range of your units or allied units. Buildings and changes to resources such as trees or metal mines are now also hidden in the Fog of War, and not just units. Hence, players now need to scout more often to find unclaimed resources on the map, hidden enemy outposts and more.
Units On Walls: Units can be garrisoned in wall segments, and appear on the walls at predefined prop points. (Importantly, while the units can attack and be attacked individually, they cannot walk around on the wall.)
Multiplayer Lobby Profiles: Users can now view profiles of other players from within the lobby. Profiles contain user statistics such as rating, games won and lost, highest rating, and ranking that can be accessed on-demand.
New Maps: Siwa Oasis (skirmish map) and Schwarzwald (random map).
Screenshot of the random map Siwa OasisScreenshot of the random map Schwarzwald

Scenario and Mod Design

Triggers: A "trigger" makes an action occur in the game if a specified event takes place. For example:
If you build an outpost within a certain area (event), your enemy's walls are destroyed (action);
Alternatively, if a timer runs out (event), an army spawns on the border of the map and marches towards your city (action);
Or, if a certain building is destroyed (event), the player who owns it loses the game (action).

The new trigger system is perhaps the most important feature that was missing to make narrative campaigns and scenarios possible. Triggers also make it easier to design custom victory conditions, or even multiplayer maps with unique gameplay aspects. Events and actions are easily extensible with some Javascript knowledge and offer a huge set of new possibilities for creative map designers.

Two new maps make use of the trigger system in Alpha 17:

Survival of the Fittest
Each player has one female citizen in the middle of the map where treasures spawn from time to time. The main bases are on isolated spots with no resources and some buildings are restricted. Enemy attack forces spawn regularly and attack your main base. The goal is to survive as long as possible by collecting treasures, recruiting troops and defending your base. (Map type: Random; Map Filter: Standard)

Treasure Islands
Search treasures on small islands and on the water. Collect more treasures than your opponent to win. You can use fishing boats to garrison infantry and send them to other islands. Trade ships can be used to collect floating treasures, but you need to advance to Town Phase before they can be built. (Map type: Scenario; Map Filter: Naval Maps)

Mod Selector and Improved Mod Support
The new Mod Selector allows users to enable or disable mods, save them or just restart into them to test them out. This way, it is a lot easier to test and play mods. This can be reached at: Main Menu -> Tools & Options -> Mod Selection. Also, modders can now easily make small changes to the game without having to copy and modify many files.

Performance Improvements
Several parts of the game and the engine have been improved for better performance. Comparing with Alpha 16, you'll notice significantly higher framerates at the beginning of the game. There are also some improvements observable later in the game, but also additional overhead from new features.

[Marcus]

Might well have to delve back into this at some point.

[Jubal]

At some point I'd like to have a crack at modding it, but hell knows when I'll have time...

[Hell]

At some point I'd like to have a crack at modding it, but hell knows when I'll have time...

Um, no I don't.

[Cuddly Khan]

...Now... who could this be?

[Jubal]

Been seeing some nice new stuff from A18 on the Twitter recently