WORK IN PROGRESS PAGE

This page describes some basic principles that are used to design the gameplay of 0 A.D.

1. Clever strategy and tactics should be more important than fast and efficient micromanagement (knowing the shortcuts, all the stats and the math behind it and being fast).
2. Repetitive tasks with little or no variation should be avoided.
3. There should be as many different viable strategies as possible and it's good if every game plays out differently. If the player does something the same way in every game, that could be something which needs a redesign.
4. Options which are always wrong should be balanced properly or removed.
5. Gameplay mechanics must work well for all major/official game modes (Singleplayer/Multiplayer, Scenarios/Random maps etc.)
6. Every feature should have a concept behind it answering some basic questions like these:
   • What does the player do here?
   • How often, how much does the player do that compared to other things?
   • Why is that fun, how does that improve the game or what are the gameplay reasons behind this feature?
   • Is that sufficient to justify the feature?
7. Only change things if there are good reasons.
8. Historical accuracy is important, but gameplay takes precedence if good gameplay and historical accuracy can't be combined.