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0 A.D. is a free, open-source, cross-platform real-time strategy (RTS) game of ancient warfare. It's a historically-based war/economy game that allows players to relive or rewrite the history of twelve ancient civilizations, from Iberia to Mauryan India, each depicted at their peak of economic growth and military prowess. Developed using Pyrogenesis, a ground-breaking new game engine custom-built to suit this project, 0 A.D. will give players a rich and entertaining real-time gaming experience.

Report RSS New Release: 0 A.D. Alpha 22 Venustas

0 A.D. Alpha 22 "Venustas", is now out. New features: "Capture the Relic" - a new game mode, plenty of new maps, a lot of new art, multiplayer hosting that should work for more people, new music, aura/heal range visualization, a new tutorial, "Espionage" technology, team bonuses, AI improvements and more!

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Wildfire Games, an international group of volunteer game developers, proudly announces the release of 0 A.D. Alpha 22 “Venustas”, the twenty-second alpha version of 0 A.D., a free, open-source real-time strategy game of ancient warfare.Wildfire Games, an international group of volunteer game developers, proudly announces the release of 0 A.D. Alpha 22 “Venustas”, the twenty-second alpha version of 0 A.D., a free, open-source real-time strategy game of ancient warfare.

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. Although you might find some people selling copies of 0 A.D., either over the internet or on physical media, you will always have the option to download 0 A.D. completely gratis, directly from the developers.

How to Download 0 A.D.Instructions for WindowsInstructions for LinuxInstructions for OS X


Moreover, you can redistribute the game and modify it freely as long as you abide by the GPL. You can even use parts of the art and sound for your own projects as long as you abide by CC BY-SA. No “freemium” model, no in-game advertising, no catch.

Top New Features

  • Remake of many models, animations and textures, two new music tracks
  • Configuration-free Multiplayer Hosting
  • Capture the Relic Gamemode
  • Aura and Heal Range Visualization
  • Twelve new maps, including scripted enemies, rising water and a tutorial
  • Espionage Technology, Team Bonuses and Hero Auras
  • Petra AI Diplomacy and Attack Strategies
  • Summary Screen Graphs
  • Cinema Path Editing
  • Buddy System

A complete list of user-relevant changes can be found in the changelog at Trac.wildfiregames.com.

Capture the Relic Mode

A relic is a wagon that holds the sacred remains of a great leader. Like to have your armies boosted or construct buildings with a discount? Venture into the unknown and secure these priceless items before they fall into the hands of the enemy!
The team that manages to keep all relics for a manually set amount of time wins the match.

Catafalque.png

Spartans guarding a captured relic

Capture the Relic

A Catafalque captured by three enemies (10MB Super-HD)


New Graphics

Hundreds of models, animations and textures were handcrafted to replace the lower quality art. Together with the improved icons and new main menu backgrounds, both new and experienced players can (re)discover 0 A.D.


Damage Variants and Scaffolding present (only) Carthaginian buildings in new variety:

ScaffoldingScaffolding at construction sites (21MB Super-HD)


The new unit models bring both visual and gameplay balancing improvements. Here we present the never-seen-before Ptolemian Infantry Champion Pikeman:

pikemen.jpg

New Ptolemian Infantry Champion Pikeman (11MB Super-HD)


New Music

The original soundtrack was extended by the songs "Tale of Warriors" and "Sunrise". You can hear the former in the trailer.
Listen to or download the entire 0 A.D. soundtrack at: Play0ad.com .
Lossless quality versions can be found at Trac.wildfiregames.com.

Configuration-Free Multiplayer Hosting

This release of 0 A.D. brings hosting multiplayer matches to the mass of players. It features a new "STUN" option that enables most players to start a match without any prior internet router configuration.

STUN Lobby

STUN option when hosting a lobby match


Aura and Heal Range Visualization

Aura + Heal Range

Mauryan Hero Healer Chanakya (23MB Super HD)


Finally, players can judge the effect range of aura bonuses and healing abilities of their fighters and supporters. A solid line indicates an aura, while the plus-symbols indicate the heal radius.

New Maps

Players of the new release will be able to enjoy the game in twelve new worlds!

New Tutorial

A new tutorial, that can be started from the "Learn to Play" option in the main menu, was put in place to help beginners find their way into the game mechanics.

New Tutorial

New Economic Walkthrough


New Scripted Maps

Three new maps come with scripted events that shape the story of each match.
On Danubius, teams are separated by the Danube river, which is defended by reoccurring Gallic ships that focus the players fleet and land invasion forces.Each side of the river comes with a Gallic stronghold that spawns attackers until it is wiped out by the players.

Danubius

Danubius (9MB Super HD)


On Extinct Volcano, players have about twenty minutes to rush their enemies until the water starts to rise.Attacks and marches will become risky as the water level can rise suddenly anytime.Units below the sea level will drown, and buildings become unusable, so you better get the ships ready to evacuate!

Extinct Volcano

Extinct Volcano (9MB Super HD)


On Polar Sea, there is virtually no vegetation, so players have to use their initial wood treasures and market wisely. Wolf packs reappear from time to time and look for meat. Any kind of meat!

Polar Sea

Polar Sea (11MB Super HD)


Notice that these maps have not been optimized for computer players.

New Regular Maps

Wild Lake

Wild Lake (15MB Super HD)


Corinthian Isthmus (4)

Corinthian Isthmus (4) (8MB Super HD)


African Plains

African Plains (15MB Super HD)


River Archipelago

River Archipelago (15MB Super HD)


India

India (12MB Super HD)


Arctic Summer

Arctic Summer (13MB Super HD)


The Botswanan Haven and Cinema Demo map are not depicted here.
To live up to its title, the unique "Survival of the Fittest" map was reworked to spawn heroes, some never-seen units and to become exponentially more difficult in later stages of the game.

Espionage Technology

After having researched the Espionage technology, players can bribe a random trader of a selected enemy, letting it share its vision and thus supply potentially invaluable insights into the enemy's home base.
The diplomacy dialog is used to select an enemy and initiate the conspiracy.

Team Bonuses

Each alliance between players now confers bonuses upon the allies, depending entirely on their choice of civilizations. For example, if you choose to be an ally of the Macedonians civilization, you get 20% more sales when bartering resources at the market. The exact team bonuses can be found in the History section of the "Learn to Play" menu and in the changelog at Trac.wildfiregames.com.

Hero Auras

Many heroes' auras were added and rebalanced that require players to decide more wisely which leader to announce.

Wish to see what our "Swag" aura can do? Play Iberians and have a great experience discovering new additions at every corner! The details are revealed in the Structure Tree of the game and the changelog at Trac.wildfiregames.com.

Petra Diplomacy and Attack Strategies

Like to play single-player games with bots?
The AI bot, Petra, became much smarter this release. It can strategically plan attack and defense strategies depending on the different types of victory conditions (Conquest, Regicide, Capture the Relic, Wonder Victory). It also fully takes capturing into consideration.
The economy of the AI was improved as well. Petra now avoids establishing trade routes that cross enemy territory and researches economic technologies sooner.
Find a complete list of changes at Trac.wildfiregames.com.

Team Notifications

To improve the cooperation between players, chat notifications have been added that inform allies of tributed resources and researched phases.

Summary Screen Graphics

The chronology of all military and economic game statistics is now visualized in the summary screen. Track your and your team's progress throughout the game on a graph and derive factors that decided the winner of the game.

Summary Charts

Summary Graphs


Buddy System

Keep up with your friends and locate them in-game with this feature.

As a host, you can optionally prefer buddies to become players in the match setup and allow only buddies to join running games as observers.

Cinema Path Editing

With Alpha 22, our map editor Atlas has received new controls to create and edit cinematic camera paths (like the ones seen in the release trailer).

Try the Cinema Demo scenario map in the game and in the Atlas to see an example. Consult the Atlas manual for further instructions: Trac.wildfiregames.com.

Cinema Path Editing

Cinema Path Editor


Under the Hood

Creating a custom mod of 0 A.D. has become easier. Hobby developers can now add new resource types and match options with a few keystrokes or debug AI matches by simulating many games in a row.
The Windows and macOS helper libraries have been updated to resolve security issues. Several ways to cheat in multiplayer games were plugged. If you couldn't play the game before due to a crash, try this release!
Make sure to check out the options page and hotkeys, since new entries were added there as well.

Why "Venustas"?

"Venustas" is latin for "attractiveness" and was picked to match both the foremost feature of the release (the new models and animations) and the release numbering (V being the twenty-second letter of the alphabet).

This time we will not ask the community to find a name for the next release, Alpha 23. We have decided that we will name it after Ken Wood, one of the founders, who passed away in 2006.

Support Us

The work is still in progress and can use every helping hand. You can support us by translating the game into your language on Transifex, contributing art or code or simply by donating.
If you experience a technical problem with the game, please report it at trac.wildfiregames.com. This is also the first address to visit when you wish to dedicate some of your time to help to patch the code.
Got any further questions or suggestions? Discuss them with other players and developers in the forum or talk with us directly over IRC.

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Contact info for press, bloggers, etc.: aviv@wildfireCAESARgames.com without the capitalized name of a well-known Roman dictator, whose family claimed to be the descendants of Venus.

Post comment Comments
Darklord42
Darklord42

Awesome! Keep it up! It looks like this is really starting to come together!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+9 votes
suerteto
suerteto

Well done, guys, well done :)

Reply Good karma Bad karma+7 votes
JjForcebreaker
JjForcebreaker

I've played it and it works great.
Like new features.


Keep up the fantastic work, guys!

Reply Good karma Bad karma+4 votes
Ragnak2
Ragnak2

I seem to be getting some strange stuttering when I'm trying to play any ideas?

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
feneur Author
feneur

Lag is to be expected as the game is not optimized as well as it can yet, but it sounds like you experience something different. If you want to try and help us find the cause please post here: Wildfiregames.com with more information. Most importantly you should try to explain in more detail what you are experiencing, maybe even try to record a video if you can. But providing your system info (see Trac.wildfiregames.com for where to find the system_info.txt file on your system, if you provide that all the relevant information will be included without you having to do much digging). You can also try some different options to see if certain settings cause things, most importantly disabling GLSL and possibly the more advanced water effects. As well as playing on smaller or bigger maps, using fewer AI opponents, lower max population etc.

Reply Good karma+2 votes
Ragnak2
Ragnak2

I think it's to do with the AI potentially the neutral ai on the map. I haven't been through all the maps but the big ones with lots of neutral settlements such as Corinthian isthmus. Smaller maps or maps with no neutrals seem to be fine.

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
nazfalas
nazfalas

You guys are too amazing for this world. :->

Reply Good karma Bad karma+1 vote
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