Wildfire Games, an international group of volunteer game developers, proudly announces the release of "0 A.D. Alpha 9 Ides of March", the ninth alpha version of 0 A.D., a free, open-source game of ancient warfare. This alpha debuts the Roman faction, new combat and trade systems and more.Top new features in this release:
- The Roman Republic faction, playable on custom scenarios and random map scripts--in single player and multiplayer, complete with a new art set, including new buildings, units, and ships.
- A new combat system that adds bonuses and weaknesses to each unit, like rock-paper-scissors (e.g. spearmen defeat melee cavalry, but are countered by skirmishers and cavalry archers).
- A brand new trading system, over land with traders trained from markets, and over sea with merchant ships built at the dock. Establish a trade route between two markets or docks, and your traders will gain resources for every trip made. You can choose which resource will be gained by a trader.
- Over a dozen new random map scripts by Spahbod, wraitii, and mmayfield45.
- New animations: Rowing oars for ships, rams, some catapults, traders, some animals.
- AI improvements: 0 A.D.'s default AI, qBot, has had a performance increase and had a serious bug fixed with the attack code.
