4.72

0 A.D. - Historical real-time strategy game

A free, open-source, cross-platform real-time strategy game of ancient warfare. As the leader of an ancient civilization, you must gather the resources you need to raise a military force and dominate your enemies.

Category: software, open source, free, game

Stable Version: 0 A.D. 0.0.26.alpha

Release Date:

Runs on: windows, mac, linux, openbsd, freebsd

windows mac linux openbsd freebsd

 Download 0 A.D. / Install Binaries: Links on the Official Website
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  Get the Source Code of 0 A.D. / Software Source Code Download

Specifications:

  • Project Developer: Wildfire Games
  • License: GNU General Public License (GPL) v2 and CC BY-SA 3.0
  • OpenSource, Free: Yes
  • Written in: C++, Javascript, JSON, XML
Building from Source: dependencies
  • Boost, Icu4C, LibXML2, LibFmt, CURL, LibIConv, LibSodium
  • SDL2, LibEnet, Gloox, LibVorbis, OpenAL, LibPNG, MiniUpnpC
  • Bash, CMake, Python, Rust, Cargo
  • LLVM or GCC compiler

Review

0 5 4.0
The 0 A.D. is a real-time ancient warfare strategy game where you can play against computer or other human players. The main objective is to build and expand your empire through several ages, command and control armies of soldiers, defend your empire borders and dominate the rival empires (game opponents).
The game is somehow similar in objectives with other games such as Age of Empires, Rise of Nations, Northgard, Empires Apart and Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds. However the 0 A.D. differs from these games by several aspects: first of all it is free and open-source and second the game concept, strategy, civilizations, maps and scenarios are more realistic and more balanced. Perhaps the fact that the developer has been decided to make this game open-source thus increase a lot the number of game contributors lead this game to what is today, a modern and cross platform game available to anyone wants to play.
It can be installed on a variety of operating systems and platforms and does not require special gaming hardware. For those players that already have special dedicated gaming hardware the experience of playing this game will be vastly improved because the game is able to deliver enhanced rendering scenes on better hardware including the water, shaddows and other graphics in the game making it to look very exciting. Also the music is very pleasant if you spend an hour or many playing the game the time will pass without you know ...

Pros +
  • Resources can be adjusted per scenario
  • Civilizations are well balanced, each one having it's strengths and weaknesses
  • The game plays well on regular hardware but is able to deliver excellent graphics on dedicated gaming hardware
  • Improved security by using an embedded Javascript engine instead of executable code thus less "untrusted" code can be executed when downloading map scripts, missions and GUI mods
  • The game is under active development, new releases and updates are available on regular basis
  • There is a large community of players involved in sending feedback with bugs, possible security issues, contributing to the game with new ideas and improvements
Cons -
  • The game is still not having a stable release, prior to this version was beta, now alpha branch has been marked, many players still expecting for the stable branch to be released
  • The AI is a bit too predictable but since this game is still under development an improved AI is expected for the next releases
  • It would be nice (but lacks) a feature to see the idle workers that had been wasted the dedicated resources to collect

About

Play the Game - 0 A.D. and step into an ancient world of lost empires and civilizations. Be a leader, rule your empire, defend your enemies.

Features

  • Unique civilizations: each civilization is unique in its appearance and gameplay, including units, structures, and technology trees.
  • Citizen soldiers: Some infantry and cavalry units can not only fight, but also gather resources and construct buildings, making them substantially more versatile than in typical RTS games.
  • Combat experience matters: The more time your citizen soldiers spend fighting your enemies, the higher they go up the ranks. With each rank, they become stronger, but they also get worse at civilian tasks.
  • Technology tradeoffs: Some technologies are arranged in pairs, and within each pair, you can only research one technology at most in each game. This choice is irreversible, so choose carefully!
  • Unit formations: Arrange your units in historical battle formations from the Phalanx to the Testudo and gain bonuses, such as increased armor. However, beware the costs that may come with them, such as lower speed!
  • Excellent language support: 54 different languages currently available.
  • Authentic historical details: Designs of units, buildings and technologies all reflect the hallmarks of each civilization. Even the names in the original ancient Greek, Latin, Punic, Celtic, etc.
  • Planned lifelike naval warfare: Ships will be on a much larger and more lifelike scale than seen in other games. They will move more realistically and even be able to ram other ships.
  • Powerful map editor: Draw landscapes with a palette of hundreds of terrains, build majestic cities and set the position of the sun in the Atlas Editor, your tool to design intricately detailed maps.
  • Excellent moddability: From new computer opponent behaviors to extra civilizations, easily create your own modifications (mods) of this game by editing game files, all freely available in standard, open formats.

Game Play
There are two basic ways to play the game:
  • Play against your computer having one ore many opponents as the computer AI
  • Play against other human opponents (Multiplayer) - requires a network connection

Game Objectives
In a nutshell you start out with three things: buildings, units and an initial amounts of four resources: Food, Wood, Stone and Metal.
you need to gather more of these four resources, and then use them to train (create) various units at your buildings. In turn, you will need to put some of the new units to work gathering more resources and building more types of buildings. In this way, you build a strong economy with a constant income stream of all four resources, and prepare for building a strong military.
As soon as possible, you need to train a large, powerful army, that can even include siege weapons and war ships. Training each of these military units costs the resources you gathered.
Ultimately, you will send off your army to battle in an attempt to destroy all your enemies’ structures that can generate units, and all units that can construct buildings. The first player that achieves this goal, wins.
Every new unit counts toward your population limit, indicated on the top left of your screen. The limit can be increased, by building more buildings such as houses.
By building and expanding your empire you may train different type of units, you may research all available technologies and close to the end of your technology research you will be able to train "champion units" and some advanced facilities that will help your empire to thrive.
There are 3 game phases: the "Village Phase", the "Town Phase", and the "City Phase". Near the citizens that help you to gather the game resources there are 4 military unit types: Infantry, Cavalry, Siege weapons and War ships.
Trading allows you to gain resources simply by having your traders shuttle between markets or docks. Traders that travel over land can be trained at markets, and merchant ships that sail over sea can be trained at the dock.
Bartering allows you to buy and sell resources in exchange for other resources at the market. Resources are traded at exchange rates that vary with each deal.

Game Civilizations
The game contains several civilizations you can choose to play with or against:
  1. Athens
  2. Britons
  3. Carthage
  4. Gaul
  5. Han
  6. Iberia (Lusitano)
  7. Kush
  8. Maurya
  9. Macedon
  10. Persia (Achaemenids)
  11. Ptolemies (Egypt)
  12. Romans (Generic)
  13. Seleucid
  14. Spartan

Screenshot: Main Screen
0 A.D. Game - Main Screen



Changelog Highlights

2022-09-24 : version 0.0.26.alpha

notable changes

  • A new civilization: The Han
  • New campaign maps: Tarim basin and Yangtze
  • Now units have acceleration
  • Many balance tweaks
  • Twenty-six new music tracks
  • New and updated art
  • Better formation movement, especially turning and navigating through and around objects for more fluidity
  • Easier drag & drop mod installation
  • Interface and performance improvements for the Atlas Editor
  • Graphic Engine Improvements
2022-02-19 : version 0.0.25.beta

notable changes

  • Pathfinding And Netcode Improvements: better Pathfinding, Performance and Reduced Game Lag
  • Order Restructuring - Players Can Now Push New Orders To The Front Of Their Production Queues
  • Improved Unit AI
  • New Biomes Incorporating New 2k Textures And Normal/Specular Maps
  • Initial Implementation Of Single Player Campaigns
  • GUI Improvements, Extended Graphics Options
  • Improved Mod Support And Game Filtering In The Multiplayer Lobby
  • Ongoing Civilization Balancing
  • Various Other Game Stability Bug Fixes And Speedups
2018-05-17 : version 0.0.23

notable changes

  • A new Civilization: Kushites
  • Cavalry and Spartan Building Models
  • Combine Victory Conditions
  • Attack Range Visualization
  • Diplomacy Colors
  • Destruction Damage
  • Unit Information Dialog
  • AI Behavior improvements
  • Lobby Authentication to prevent impersonation
  • Nomad Mode on all Random Maps
  • New Random Maps: Lower Nubia, Jebel Barkal, Elephantine, Fields of Meroë, Hellas, Dodecanese, Scythian Rivulet