30 replies to this topic

[Jeru]

Wildfire Games proudly announces the release of the first alpha version of 0 A.D., a free, open-source game of ancient warfare. After 9 years since the concept of 0 A.D. was designed on paper, we have a close approximation of a playable game. This release comes with aggressive units that attack enemies on sight, lifelike animals that escape danger, two new maps, in-game multiplayer chat and much more. Alpha releases of 0 A.D. will each get a number and a name, so this one is "Alpha 1 Argonaut".

Easy Download and Install
Download and installation instructions are available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. 0 A.D. is free of charge and always will be. No registration, no advertising, no catch.

New features in this release:

• Maps: Added new maps "Arcadia" and "Hellenized Egypt", improved the "Multiplayer demo" map; Added textual descriptions to maps.
  
• AI: Added animal AI (walking around, running from danger). Redesigned unit AI: added order queues, auto-attack, auto-gather.
  
• GUI: Added in-game multiplayer chat; Fixed GUI stretching on widescreen resolutions; Improved selection outline rendering; Many other GUI changes, such as buttons and cursors; Changed camera controls.
  
• Graphics: Added floating decorative objects, such as lily pads; Added building collapse and corpse decay; Tweaked animation speeds.
  
• Gameplay: Added 'delete unit' command; Added rally points.
  
• Installation and compatibility: Added Windows installer using NSIS; Added Linux packages for many distros; Improved compatibility when 3D acceleration is missing; Improved FHS compatibility for Linux installations.
  
• Miscellaneous: Added terrain smoothing tool to Atlas map editor; Added some sound effects; Improved performance; Fixed bugs.
  

Room for improvement:

• There are no victory conditions implemented yet.
  
• There is no computer opponent AI yet. In single-player games the enemy does nothing.
  
• There is no random map generation yet.
  
• There is no fog-of-war yet.
  
• Many unit stats are still unbalanced.
  
• Many planned gameplay features are not added yet: There is no research, no auras, no rank upgrades, no settlements and territories, no resource dropsites, etc.
  
• Many bugs and small missing features.
  
• There is no multiplayer matchmaking service. You have to connect by IP address. (More convenient ways may be implemented in the future).
  

An overview of the gameplay feature status is on our wiki, and as you can see, there is still a lot of work to be done. If you want to be part of this effort too, you're welcome to get involved!

Why "Argonaut"?
From now on we will name our releases according to development status ("Alpha" or "Beta"), successive release number (1, 2, 3, ...) and a word relating to the ancient world, in alphabetical order ("Argonaut" for A, ...).

The Argonauts were a band of heroes in Greek mythology who, in the years before the Trojan War, accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece. Their name comes from their ship, the Argo, which was named after its builder, Argus. "Argonauts", therefore, literally means "Argo sailors". (Source: Wikipedia). To celebrate Alpha 1 Argonaut, we included a recreation of the Golden Fleece, which can be found on the "Hellenized Egypt" map.

Referring to the original Jason mentioned in Greek mythology, the word "Argonaut" is a tribute to our former project lead, Jason "Wijitmaker" Bishop, who managed the game's development between 2002 and 2008. 0 A.D. would have never made the transition from an idea on paper to a piece of software that runs on your machine without the countless hours of work by this gifted leader. Thanks, Jason.

Long Time, No Siege
Wildfire Games will continue releasing new versions of 0 A.D. periodically. Watch our news feed to keep updated, or follow us by e-mail, RSS, Facebook or Twitter. And you're always welcome to join the 0 A.D. community on our forums.

Edited by Jeru, 02 October 2010 - 03:36 PM.

[phil44]

Hooray for progress! I'll be sure to try this version later this week when i have time.

[umi]

Yay! Congratulations!

[Arthur_D]

And hooray for the people making the progress! :D

[omicron1]

Mein gott... the music! The music in the trailer! It's like Age of Empires reborn! I am literally crying from happiness right now.

[eggman]

I cannot contain my joy.

[Exüberance]

1 pseudo-word: Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Can't wait for the Beta! I'm VERY excited about this game.

[Mythos_Ruler]

I'd like to see if anybody with a nice computer will post some gameplay videos on YouTube. :)

[Aldandil]

Yay! Congratulations! I almost missed this since these things aren't announced on the forum.

Very cool. Even though the changes have been gradual, it suddenly makes 0 A.D. jump out and seem much more of a "real" game that'll be playable. I'm very impressed that you all kept this project going for 9 years without quitting. Keep up the good work!

[Random_Freak]

Sweet! downloading now can't wait to try it out. Looks like you've made a lot of progress since i last checked.

[gac6]

I have been watching your development during months and tried every alpha and pre-alpha release. Continue with your project, every day more and more people have knowledge of your game. I will try to make a hd video with my computer it has an ati 5830 and windows 7 and also with ubuntu 10.04 and if I have spare time I will try to make it work in FreeBSD.
If you want some help I speak spanish and catalan very fluently and I could help in the translations.

[Sophokles]

Am I the only one experiencing extreme lag? I have a super-powerful 64bit Windows 7 laptop, yet it several seconds for the game to catch up with the cursor, making it unplayable.

[Dargaret]

I've had no lag at all, and on a much older, single-core computer with settings maxxed.

Had a lot of fun just mucking around what the alpha brings, but I did notice that - at least imo - the current GUI hasn't got much on the older GUI from a year or two ago.

[WhiteTreePaladin]

The current ingame GUI was rebuilt mostly from scratch. It should be near or greater than the functionality of the old GUI. The lag is mainly due to the pathfinder - if you don't move very many units or have any significant battles, you might not have much lag.

Edited by WhiteTreePaladin, 19 August 2010 - 03:16 AM.

[jd823592]

lag might be related to graphical drivers i believe.. the GUI's functionality is good but the frames (borders and background) dont look so great in game.. menus are wonderful but the bar with map and unit info isnt appealing

[Shield Bearer]

Yes, but we're planing on changing that. Just be patient, its hard trying to come up with good ideas for a GUI so complicated :P

[WhiteTreePaladin]

GUI ideas are welcome. Maybe we should have a thread just for GUI suggestions.

[carlinho]

wow!!!!! amazing graphics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
simply beautiful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was drooling at the units, water, flora, textures..models, everything!!!
amazing work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

had a hard time with rotating camera with the control keys though, I guess it takes time to get used to.
formations are not implemented yet no?
because I noticed in some screenshots you used them but couldn't figure how to use them in-game
really really amazing job guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
hooray!!!hooray!!!!hooray!!!!

[lutovac18]

I have a problem installing the game. I choose directory in D:/ and then the game start to install but it come up with error: Extract Error writing to file elephant_walk_01.dae. i downloaded the game couple of times and i still have this problem sometimes it have :Error writing to file deer_walk_01.dae.

Anyone who can help? Thanks.

[Ykkrosh]

Do you have enough free disk space on D? Do you have a virus scanner that might be interfering with the installation? (I can't think what else the problem might be.)