Thank you for installing 0 A.D.! This page will give a brief overview of the features available in this incomplete, under-development, alpha version of the game.
[font="serif-14"]You can switch between fullscreen and windowed mode by pressing Alt+Enter. In windowed mode, you can resize the window. If the game runs too slowly, you can change some settings in the configuration file: look for binaries/data/config/default.cfg in the location where the game is installed, which gives instructions for editing, and try disabling the "fancywater" and "shadows" options.
[font="serif-14"]The controls and gameplay should be familiar to players of traditional RTS games. There are currently a lot of missing features and poorly-balanced stats – you will probably have to wait until a beta release for it to work well.
Basic controls:
• Left-click to select units.
• Left-click-and-drag to select groups of units.
• Right-click to order units to the target.
• Arrow keys or WASD keys to move the camera.
• Ctrl + arrow keys, or shift + mouse wheel, to rotate the camera.
[font="serif-14"]The main menu gives access to two game modes:
• [font="serif-bold-14"]Single-player[font="serif-14"] — the game does not have any AI opponents yet, but you can use this to test the game's mechanics.
• [font="serif-bold-14"]Multiplayer[font="serif-14"] — play against human opponents over the internet.
To set up a multiplayer game, one player must select the "Host game" option. The game uses UDP port 20595, so the host must configure their NAT/firewall/etc to allow this. Other players can then select "Join game" and enter the host's IP address.
[font="serif-bold-16"]Game setup
[font="serif-14"]In a multiplayer game, only the host can alter the game setup options.
First, select a map to play on. The "techdemo" maps are designed for testing particular gameplay features and are probably not generally useful.
Next, you can use the drop-down lists in the player list to select who controls which player in the map. This always shows 8 players – anyone who is assigned to a player that doesn't exist in the map, or is not assigned to any player at all, will probably not have a fun time.
When you are ready to start, click the "Start game" button.