0 A.D. Download PC

0 A.D. is a free and open-source, real-time strategy game under development by Wildfire Games. It is a historical war and economy game focusing on the years between 500 B.C. and 1 B.C. for the first part, and a planned second part for the years A.D. 1 to A.D. 500. The game is cross-platform, playable on Windows, OS X, FreeBSD, Linux, and OpenBSD. It aims to be entirely free and open-source, using the GPLv2+ license for the game engine and CC BY-SA for the game art.

Gameplay

0 A.D. features the real-time strategy gameplay components of building a base, training an army, combat, and technology research. The game is about economic development and warfare. The game will include multiple units and buildings specific to each civilization as well as both land and naval units.

Twelve different civilizations are available, which are each represented as they were at their apex. During the game, the player does not advance through time, but from village phase over town phase to city phase. The phases represent the sizes of settlements in history, and every phase unlocks new units, buildings and technologies.

Modes

The game features both a single-player and a multiplayer mode. In single-player mode, the player's opponents are controlled by the game. In both modes, players can choose between computer-generated random maps, hand-made scenarios, or skirmish maps as a hybrid form.

Multiplayer functionality is implemented using peer-to-peer networking without a central server. There is, however, a central lobby server which can be used to discover other players and set up a game. Players can also bypass the lobby and connect directly to each other using their IP address. When players connect to each other, one player's computer acts as a host. The host gathers commands from all players and distributes them. Sending just the players' commands reduces the amount of data that must be sent, which reduces delays due to slow network connections. However, all connected players must calculate the entire game state from those commands, which means that the game can only be as fast as the slowest computer in the game can handle.

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