Part of the 0 A.D. Design Document

Gameplay features

This page contains a listing of all the gameplay features.

Technologies

Technologies are in games to give the gamer a sense of improvement. Traditionally they are mini-steps as you progress down the path of the game. The more techs you research the more "advanced" you are into the game. The more advanced you are, the greater the likelihood that you will "win".

Your current gameplay state is defined by what techs you have researched.

Technologies are usually broken down into two groups: Unlocking and Bonus. The way Unlocking works is that you have to "pay" a certain amount of resources to unlock some feature in the game. The way the Bonuses work is that you usually have to make an investment of resources that in the long run will be more beneficial to you than your initial investment. The result is usually a bonus in the attributes of some entity.

The ways 0 A.D. differs

It is a moment in time that never was. The span of our game is not thousands of years. Technological advancement is not based on technology evolving over time, but instead we are looking at the civilizations at their pinnacle of existence. The evolution of the technologies will be contingent on the local evolution of the city growth instead. Therefore, we should make our tech requirements based on what structures are constructed, and what technologies are currently researched. This removes us from the time concept (ages).

Related features

Definition of existing entity XML data

Phases Similar in concept to "Ages" in other RTS games. In general technical terms they will work as technologies, but will have some further implications in gameplay terms.

Related tickets and implementation resources

Tickets: #3, ###, and ###.

Technical documentation:Old definition, Google docs spreadsheet with WIP technology definitions and statistics, Notes on Hellenic technologies, Notes on Celtic technologies, Notes on Carthaginian technologies, Notes on Iberian technologies,


Phases

As mentioned in the section about technologies 0 A.D. will not feature ages, but rather the progression of a city from humble beginnings to greatness. We call the stages of progression "phases", and they are: the Village Phase, the Town Phase, and the City Phase. When the game starts the player is already in the Village Phase, but the Town and City Phases will have to be researched.

In essence Phases are unlocking technologies, however, there are a few extra needed features. The main difference is that phases will for some civilizations (Celts, Gauls and Britons, and Hellenes, Poleis and Macedonian) include and allow for a choice between two sub-civilizations which allows further differentiation within the individual civilizations.

Researching a new phase will be done at the Civic Center,

Related features

Technologies Phases are similar to technologies, apart from a few details, and so likely to share a lot of implementation details.

Related tickets and implementation resources

Tickets: #3.

Technical documentation: link to any further info in e.g: the technical design document; art design document; forum discussion; and, if someone else is willing to add this (as I don't have the knowledge), relevant parts of the code, preferably linked to the online view of the SVN.

Gameplay manual

A link to relevant parts of the gameplay manual for implemented features.


Feature name

http://wildfiregames.com/images/design_document/feature.jpg

A caption for the image if it exists.

Descriptive text with basically non-technical info, perhaps some background and relevant inspiration etc.

Related features

Links to related features, say for healing we list auras (unless we decide to do healing some other way) and perhaps also the relevant units/buildings.

Related tickets and implementation resources

Tickets: ###, ###, and ###.

Technical documentation: link to any further info in e.g: the technical design document; art design document; forum discussion; and, if someone else is willing to add this (as I don't have the knowledge), relevant parts of the code, preferably linked to the online view of the SVN.

Gameplay manual

A link to relevant parts of the gameplay manual for implemented features.

Last modified 12 years ago Last modified on Mar 7, 2012, 1:54:23 AM
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