Thanks for sharing! It looks like the tutorial for the most part functions as intended, but after seeing the video there are a few areas that we want to improve. :)
The game's civilisations will be inspired by some of the major powers of the Middle and Late Bronze Ages. The one you play now is based on Old/Kassite Babylonia.
Hey! We're adding a tutorial in the next version, so maybe that will help you. It might be that you're not used to the controls in traditional RTS games. Make sure one or more villagers are selected (left mouse button) and then right-click on the fruit tree to forage.
We found a bug with the music that makes it play a small segment of it on repeat. Hopefully that's why you think the music gets repetitive. It's supposed to vary and randomise to a certain degree.
hey guys i have been a fan for a long time. so keep up the work
here are some of my ideas for the game
1.different Faction: their are not a big variety in the game so more Faction can be better with their own perk. like maybe a Blue faction that have +25% Farming speed and a Red Faction with + 30% Damage on Unit's and a Yellow Faction with +20% Build speed for example
2. it takes way too long to kill units. maybe lower health/ increase Damage
I just want to add that point 2., the kill time, is a bad take. In a game where your military takes up food, having them be cheap and expendable goes against the core design.
i am terribly sorry but i will have to agree with Battleschnodder but i understand if thats not what your going with for on this game if i may pls i will like to know your plans for this game.
I meant that I agree with Battleschnooder in that units shouldn't feel too expandable, and if they are more easy to kill then they might feel more expandable.
Please don't be sorry for expressing your opinion, because it's the best way for us to get feedback and improve the game!
We plan to work on the game until it's "finished", and there is a lot to do before we reach that stage. We want it to be a proper commercial game with features you expect, like different factions, single player content etc.
Hi new too the game love it i’ve been looking for a solid rts game and I understand that not all the features are added yet but i’m definitely looking too see what’s going to happen. If you’re looking for suggestions it would be cool too see better options such as bigger maps, roads, walls, more options for the army and a command system. Different terrain, training. Also I know it’s been recommend but diplomacy would be really cool and trade, having other options besides war so if you’re playing a big map you can trade with different cities. I know you guys have a road map and these features might of been recommended but I thought I would add some details that I personally would love.
One more thing in regard to size it would be amazing if you could choose the size and density be it forest, deserts, resource availability. Number of enemies and size of the map and when I say big maps I mean more in line with civilization where you could be on an entire continent. Also it would be cool if you could create specific areas for certain precious metals so as copper etc instead of a general materials. Also if a system for commerce could be created that would be swell
Another small detail if you are going for scale would be that any expansion would need specific units. For example if you had the option of spawning someone who would create a new towns center and you decide to send various workers and troops with that unit it would be cool to include the option of wagons this could be something that could only be achieved if you where able to domesticate cattle for the same reason that if you where to introduce cavalry you would offer the options too domesticate horses and you would use this too create a wagon which would either be linked too you’re main town or you would have a capacity for food. For example one founder, six workers and eight soldiers would require 30 food a day and you would fill the wagon with enough food for you’re journey and of course if you fail to calculate granted it would be obvious how much each unit consumes, but if you fail you’re expedition starves. This would add a whole new dynamic too the size of the map as expansion has a logistical element. This would also apply too sieges. If you where to lead an army for a siege. Aka for example 10 cavalry, 15 footmen, 10 pike men. Since this is a big map any incursion would be much bigger in scale. If you allow the AI too grow their civilization you would need to prepare resources as if you make sieges more realistic in that they take time you would need to prepare food and if you added a camp option such, as much like food you’re troops would need rest and thus you would need to establish a camp. This would add a whole new dynamic too the game as the game war and battles would be more complex and calculated as a bad judgment would cost you more than troops. It would also be cool if you added a weather system too the map so if your playing a long game their are seasons. For harvest , the change in seasons could be used to impact you’re army as marching in the winter would have an impact on you’re infantry as it thus with the lifestock or you make it so that the region you spawn can make you’re troops resilient too certain climate if it’s the north they aren’t resistent too coldness. Just some ideas.
Hi casulaguy212, thanks for all your comments and suggestions! I'm glad you enjoy playing the game. :)
We definitely have plans to work on map settings, walls etc. There are many features to come! Diplomacy and trading is also a feature many have asked about and that we will add at some point.
At the same time, we're cautious about not making the game too complicated. The game is real-time and not turn-based like Civilization, and it's not as slow-paced as typical 4X or city-building game either. So we have to be careful with what we add.
I love your ideas though! Someone could almost make an entirely new game concept based on them. :D
i like the and how you pay attencion to the suggestions that the players write and i appreciatte that, also i think using this method we can give all the advices to make the game better.
Playing a bit, you can notice that, when you attack other troops theres no skirmish sound like swords hiting, people screaming, or buildings burning ( or collapsing). would be nice some additional sound or effect.
Of course this isnt a priority, im just want to mention some of other things that would make the game better :)
Hi, thanks for commenting. We've started on attacks sounds, so these might be included in the next build. Destroyed building sounds have also been made, but we need to animate some kind of effect for destroyed building before we add it in, This will also be included in one of the next builds. :)
Okay i forgot to mention. Could you add a little bit of a diplomacy to the game? Me and my friends love to do diplomacy but our troops just try to kill eachother when we send scouts to ''visit'' eachother. Just the abilty to make our troops not attack them all the time would be enough but if you want to go in depth, could you add an abilty to send eachother resources too? Also obvously the maps are too small and we can only play with 4 people but we still like to do it. However if the servers could be up to 6 people it would be a big improvement.
Are you planning to add sea or river mechanics? Naval warfare is problably not the biggest priority but maybe fish as a resource would be simple and interesting addition.
I don't know how to send you my suggestions more ''professionally'. Comments are the fastest and easiest to do it but if you prefer emails i can do that too.
We've had several requests for adding diplomacy. Right now there are other features that we want to prioritise first. However, we have this in our backlog, as well as trading/sending resources, and features that are mentioned get bumped up in our backlog, so thanks for commenting on this.
We're definitely going to add river mechanics at some point, with fishing and boats.
It's fine to post your suggestions here! You can also send them on Discord.
Thanks a lot for this game, I used it to introduce my 7yo daughter to RTS games and she really enjoys it. Multiplayer is really cool too, as she can play with a friend of hers during this covid19 times.
I'm an experienced developper and I would be very happy to help improve the game, is there any point of contact for that? Or for submitting bug reports?
Features I would be glad to see:
- more complete AI, especially for multiplayer, +another level of difficulty after expert
- walls for building nice villages and protecting them
- maybe roads to bring even more structure to the world and locally increase movement speed
That's a cool story; thanks for sharing! I feel we have reached our goal in making the game accessible, since your 7 year old daughter who is new to RTS games is able to enjoy the game with her friend.
We're not looking for additional team members, but thanks for asking. :)
We're planning to add most of the features suggested!
Hey man. Still playing your game. I have an urgent suggestion. I think you need to add some sort of artillery unit to the game that deals more damage to buildings but its weak. If someone just builds a fort out of towers and pumps archers. it will take forever to kill him but at the same time you can fortify too. so the game will not end because everyone is fortified and cant kill eachother. Also i think you should add walls to the game because walling with resource camps looks really ugly.
Siege warfare is something we are planning, with siege units and walls, but we have no ETA for this yet. It's interesting that you post this though, because community requests, comments, analytics, videos etc. are the only way for us to know how people play the game. This is the first time we've hard about resource camps being used to create walls. This makes the feature feel more urgent to us, definitely!
Have you tried upgrading Heavy Spearman armour to counter the Bowman and take down the Watchtowers?
Apperantly my friend spent the whole game just fortifying. My whole army died to his bowman spam even though my attack infantry was made out of swordsman. i will try out heavy spearmen and its armour counter next time i play thank you for the suggestion. I think i shouldn't let the enemy fortify and attack before he is able to defend, maybe thats my mistake. I was using houses as walls but i noticed resource camps were cheaper and stronger than houses. Maybe that could use a tweak? I will also try out recording the game for better example.
Hey! Yes, animals is one of the next features we're going to work on. It's becoming an inside joke within the dev team, since "adding animals soon" has been said for a long time. However, it is definitely one of three next big features that we will work on.
Team games are already implemented! In the multiplayer lobby, select different teams. You can even play FFA (4 players against each other). When you create a game, pick large map that supports up to 4 players.
hi there! not sure if this is the best place to ask but here goes. i recently updated my macbook to the most current version of OS Catalina and suddenly the app will no longer open on my computer :( I keep getting an error message because the game isn't from an "identified developer". before I updated my computer I was able to bypass this but now I don't have that option in my settings.. I already talked with apple support and they said it's most likely something in the coding and weren't able to help. this game has been getting me through quarantine and i'm able to play with my brothers who live in a different state which has been really nice :) if anyone has any ideas that might make it work I'd be super appreciative !!!! thx
Hi ohkaterose, I'm sorry to hear that you haven't been able to open the game.
There is a problem for everyone with Catalina when unzipping game files, because of new security measures added.
Here is the guide to open it:
1. Control + mouse click The Fertile Crescent 0.5.4 executable and pick Show Package Contents. 2. Open Contents and control + mouse click MacOS folder and pick New Terminal at Folder (bottom of list). 3. Type "chmod +x The\ Fertile\ Crescent" 4. Close terminal and Control + mouse click executable icon again, and pick Open. 5. When asked about being an unidentified developer, click Open. 6. From now on you can double-click the executable icon whenever you want to play.
Hey thanks so much for responding so quickly ! Was able to make it work finally so I very much appreciate it. I'll be back to playing with my dad and brothers this evening. Really enjoy the game! :)
Thanks for sharing! I'm glad you got to explore more of the game in a more stress-free Sandbox environment. We are currently working on multiple additional ways to ease new players into the game.
Hi guy congratulation for your job! I discover this page/game recently and after saw your github and discovered that you made this game with unity and csharp, nice! But I saw that the source code in your github is older, do you think to do this game open source sometime?
Oh wow, I totally forgot that I had this project open on github in the beginning! I'm not sure how much of the code is the same anymore. At this point we don't have any plans to make the current code open source, but will keep the code that's on github open. :)
Okay man, if you accept private fork tell me, I want learn about Unity and your project look likes very nice to make some experiments, something like Rise of Nations do you know ?? Anyway you are doing a great job!
I played a couple hours withThe Fertile Crescent. I really enjoy playing this game, thank you ! Graphics and musics are really awesome.
I spotted two little bugs:
one with selection (spamming double click with shift pressed)
as you can see on the screenshot, the selection bar indicates that I have 61 selected units.
Also when I enter construction menu and select a building with a villager then switch to a idle villager (with tab)
I am forced to build the previously selected building.
I also came across 2 others problems:
- at some point in-game, I failed to select anything. The game was acting like I am pressing left click. Pressing escape and navigating in the menu does not solve the problem. I don't know how to reproduce that bug.
- I failed to use control group hotkeys, I am using a MacBook laptop (with no keypad).
My most wanted features:
- queuing actions with shift
- fight sound effects
- larger map in solo (FFA mode?) + slightly improved AI (scout, build, attack base from different angles)
Hi simbass, thanks for commenting, and especially for pointing out the bugs! We'll work on fixing them for the next build.
Queuing actions with shift is definitely something we want (and really need) to add. However, it requires a lot of code to be refactored, with the potential to cause a pandora's box of new bugs to test for, so we're careful about when we do this and can't provide an ETA. The only thing we can say is that it's 1 of the 3 most wanted features that we want to work on soon.
Improved AI is probably the largest task we have ahead of us. There are very few RTS games (even AAA) with decent AI, and we're a small team, so it's going to be a big challenge. We are definitely going to tackle this challenge at some points, but we can't promise an ETA.
What do you mean by acting effectively against towers? Most melee units deal a fair amount of siege damage against them. Down the track we'll add siege units as well.
When it comes to food and dying a lot earlier, I'm pretty sure that not much has changed since you played last, so I believe you've just become better at the game! ;)
Hey again! I'm loving the update! Sorry I never responded long ago about giving feedback.
I'd say one small improvement I'd like to see is the villager's prioritizing chopping trees that are on or near water tiles. Sometimes I find them running off to chop down some trees in the middle of nowhere.
Also, when I beat the computer player I get bummed that there's nothing else I can do. It would be great if the map was much larger and there were other enemy villages I could attack and defend against in a long-form campaign.
That is a good suggestion. Right now they find the next tree closest to where they left off. Maybe they should instead find the next tree that is closest to the initial order, so it doesn't feel like they're ending up in the middle of nowhere. Then if you order to chop in an area of marshland, they will at least stick around in that area.
We're prioritising the foundation over content for now, but when we've reached a certain point in development, we'll definitely focus on adding more content!
Save feature is not implemented yet. We hope to add this when we're further into development.
I saw your post about map editor. Making a map editor from the ground up will require effort. We want to try to finish this game first, and then we'll see what happens. :)
Hi, it's great to hear that the game worked flawlessly for you.
We have queuing commands with shift in our backlog, so it will definitely be added at some point. Will add your second point to the backlog as well. Thanks for commenting!
I don't agree with that tracking, but you're doing it without my consent. At least for this game you're telling us (most don't…).
How can I disable this ? In the absence of a way to opt-out…
It should be opt-in by default… I'm not willing to play a game that track me against my consent (and I'm not sure it's legal in the UE by the way, GDPR says it's opt-in by default, always).
edit: I'm using linux. If it's not possible to opt-out, then just disable it instead of violating user consent.
Hi, Unity Analytics is enabled from the Unity dashboard. If we disable it, it will be disabled across all platforms. So either we don't use it at all, or we don't export a version at all for Linux, since Unity's opt-out plugin is only supported on Windows and macOS. We are aware of GDPR and have worked with lawyers on this for other products we've worked on. For now you will just have to not play if you don't want any data collected, and then we have to consider if we need to disable Unity Analytics, which is a shame, since it provides us with important error reports. Linux users are ~15% of our current user base. We have to make a decision between supporting Linux or receive important information about how the game is played and performs. Or alternatively, wait for Unity to support Linux with their opt-out before continuing Linux development.
Edit: I will try to have a meeting with my partner soon so we can resolve this. Thanks for your patience.
I'm not sure if "not playing the game" is a valid GDPR consent thing, especially as this analytics starts with first launch of the game, and users are not aware of it. That thing put apart: is there no way to opt-in for this analytics ? Is there any other tool that would be more privacy/consent-friendly that you could use ?
I'm not against it if it's opt-in, especially if it's only for errors and bugs report (as long as this doesn't contains personal information), and maybe I would activate it, especially if it helps you to support Linux (which is great ! And thanks a lot for that :). Maybe I'd prefer to send a bug report in another way if I find a crash/bug.
Especially on Linux I'd think people will be willing to help with bug reports and logs if they encounter some issues.
We figured that the opt-out isn't necessary for Linux users since all personal data gets deleted straight away on unsupported platforms. We'll definitely need an opt-in though!
Hi and thanks for commenting. Being used to GDPR from developing apps in Europe, we take data privacy seriously.
What platform are you on? On Windows and macOS there is an option to opt-out at the bottom of the main menu. Sadly, the opt-out is not supported for Linux by Unity. I hope they change this soon. If you’re on Linux we’ve included a link to Unity’s privacy policy instead. You must decide if this is sufficient and if you want to play despite this limitation or not. Our apologies for the inconvenience.
Once I figured out what I was doing, this was a lot of fun. The added survival game element (your civilization needing food to avoid starving) at first was really annoying, but once I got that under control it was RTS business as usual. Food is very important in this game. (The survival aspect does make the game more realistic than Age of Empires).
The automatic generation of villagers from the Tribe Center is interesting - for beginning players like me, it made it seem like I was contending against not just the enemy, but life itself. I had to keep on eye on that early in the game in order to maintain a strat that didn't involve starvation and rebellion even before an enemy was sighted.
I think the overall aesthetic is great - and the camera angle / map is perfect. Good functionality in click-to-send both on the world screen and the corner map. I did have a little lag upon the final takedown of the red-colored CPU tribe (beginner mode) but other than that everything else was smooth the whole time (MacOS).
I like the tech upgrade system and that it costs nothing (except time). This game respects time as a resource more than AoE in that regard. I can't say I've figured out a good strategic order for upgrading in the tech tree, but I think it's a good system nonetheless.
The tower system is better than AoE in that it explains what manpower is behind them in the first place since you have to stock them with a unit in order to attack from them. I like the way that it affects unit attack.
Idle Villager functionality is also very well-built. Reading the comments, I see that "I" is a hotkey for idle villager, and I'll definitely use that from now on.
Everything that is built and in the game is built well. The absence of half-formed or half-working systems makes for a very enjoyable demo (it acts as a full game).
Also, music is good. Never got sick of it, left it on to write this comment.
Cheers on your development, thanks for the dev and updating this project! Lot of fun and it's awesome to see this kind of RPG in live production again!
hello,i have old laptop inter core2duo with mobile family chipset.in game the buildings are color black,villagers is fine.i hope yu fix this soon.thanks
Hi and thanks for the encouraging comment! It definitely motivates us to read that people are playing the game.
Progress on the next update has been slow lately due to demanding deadlines within our paid jobs, however it shouldn't be too long until we're able to publish the next version.
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Can't wait to try it on my linux and to see updates ! Key mapping would be awesome. Great job so far.
We'll add key mapping at some point. It's a popular request! :)
Thanks for sharing! It looks like the tutorial for the most part functions as intended, but after seeing the video there are a few areas that we want to improve. :)
I love the game. I like where it keeps to the AoE formula and I like where it diverges. Really great job.
I hope we will see the defining aspect of mesopotamian agriculture represented some day: arigation!
Glad you enjoy it! We're thinking about how to include irrigation. Stay tuned!
welp, turns out i botched the spelling of that word hard. keep up the good work!
A realy greate game! Congrats!
Thanks, glad you enjoy it!
This game is absolutely amazing! As a history teacher I might use this in class once things go back to normal-ish.
That's cool. :)
The game's civilisations will be inspired by some of the major powers of the Middle and Late Bronze Ages. The one you play now is based on Old/Kassite Babylonia.
I will do that!
This game looks pretty fun but whenever I try to forage it won't let me. I'm most likely doing something wrong but just in case.
Hey! We're adding a tutorial in the next version, so maybe that will help you. It might be that you're not used to the controls in traditional RTS games. Make sure one or more villagers are selected (left mouse button) and then right-click on the fruit tree to forage.
Dude, awesome game! Love the watch towers and how you can shoot the people off them.
Little thing I would add would be holding shift to build multiple buildings at once.
music is cool, but gets repetitive. Also need more sound effects.
I'll be watching this one : ) keep it up
Thanks for sharing your feedback!
We have queueing commands with shift in the backlog, so it will be added at some point. :)
We're also currently working on attack sound effects, and will add more sound effects in general soon.
We found a bug with the music that makes it play a small segment of it on repeat. Hopefully that's why you think the music gets repetitive. It's supposed to vary and randomise to a certain degree.
ah okay, that may have been it. I'll have another go again sometime soon
Great game. Beaty pixelart grafics, great music. Great job, your have a new fan of the game
Thanks for the feedback, really appreciate it!
hey guys i have been a fan for a long time. so keep up the work
here are some of my ideas for the game
1. different Faction: their are not a big variety in the game so more Faction can be better with their own perk. like maybe a Blue faction that have +25% Farming speed and a Red Faction with + 30% Damage on Unit's and a Yellow Faction with +20% Build speed for example
2. it takes way too long to kill units. maybe lower health/ increase Damage
3. it way too easy to get technology points
thank you very much, i am also working on a game
Thanks for posting!
We are planning to add different civilizations. :)
What game are you working on?
no just a Little Fan Horror game for game jacksepticeye it my firts game realy
thank you
Good luck on your game!
i got a bug on the game
i put down two building next to each other but a worker was in between them when i place them down too be build and got stuck.
then all the units stop moving and non of my command's work on the units and buildings
Hi, thanks for reporting! Was this v0.5.6? I've tried to cause the same bug but I'm not able to replicate it.
I just want to add that point 2., the kill time, is a bad take. In a game where your military takes up food, having them be cheap and expendable goes against the core design.
We're not going to shorten the time it takes to kill units. If anything, we would go the other direction. :)
i am terribly sorry but i will have to agree with Battleschnodder but i understand if thats not what your going with for on this game if i may pls i will like to know your plans for this game.
thank you i meant no harm
I meant that I agree with Battleschnooder in that units shouldn't feel too expandable, and if they are more easy to kill then they might feel more expandable.
Please don't be sorry for expressing your opinion, because it's the best way for us to get feedback and improve the game!
We plan to work on the game until it's "finished", and there is a lot to do before we reach that stage. We want it to be a proper commercial game with features you expect, like different factions, single player content etc.
Man, this game is genius !
It's one of the best strategy games I've ever seen, and it looks like you're still updating it !
Very well done, dev !
Glad to read you enjoy the game! We will continue to improve it. :)
It looks amazing and I hope that things go well over their.
Thanks for sharing your video and setting up the fundraising, SGP! Best of luck to you. :)
Hi new too the game love it i’ve been looking for a solid rts game and I understand that not all the features are added yet but i’m definitely looking too see what’s going to happen. If you’re looking for suggestions it would be cool too see better options such as bigger maps, roads, walls, more options for the army and a command system. Different terrain, training. Also I know it’s been recommend but diplomacy would be really cool and trade, having other options besides war so if you’re playing a big map you can trade with different cities. I know you guys have a road map and these features might of been recommended but I thought I would add some details that I personally would love.
One more thing in regard to size it would be amazing if you could choose the size and density be it forest, deserts, resource availability. Number of enemies and size of the map and when I say big maps I mean more in line with civilization where you could be on an entire continent. Also it would be cool if you could create specific areas for certain precious metals so as copper etc instead of a general materials. Also if a system for commerce could be created that would be swell
Another small detail if you are going for scale would be that any expansion would need specific units. For example if you had the option of spawning someone who would create a new towns center and you decide to send various workers and troops with that unit it would be cool to include the option of wagons this could be something that could only be achieved if you where able to domesticate cattle for the same reason that if you where to introduce cavalry you would offer the options too domesticate horses and you would use this too create a wagon which would either be linked too you’re main town or you would have a capacity for food. For example one founder, six workers and eight soldiers would require 30 food a day and you would fill the wagon with enough food for you’re journey and of course if you fail to calculate granted it would be obvious how much each unit consumes, but if you fail you’re expedition starves. This would add a whole new dynamic too the size of the map as expansion has a logistical element. This would also apply too sieges. If you where to lead an army for a siege. Aka for example 10 cavalry, 15 footmen, 10 pike men. Since this is a big map any incursion would be much bigger in scale. If you allow the AI too grow their civilization you would need to prepare resources as if you make sieges more realistic in that they take time you would need to prepare food and if you added a camp option such, as much like food you’re troops would need rest and thus you would need to establish a camp. This would add a whole new dynamic too the game as the game war and battles would be more complex and calculated as a bad judgment would cost you more than troops. It would also be cool if you added a weather system too the map so if your playing a long game their are seasons. For harvest , the change in seasons could be used to impact you’re army as marching in the winter would have an impact on you’re infantry as it thus with the lifestock or you make it so that the region you spawn can make you’re troops resilient too certain climate if it’s the north they aren’t resistent too coldness. Just some ideas.
Hi casulaguy212, thanks for all your comments and suggestions! I'm glad you enjoy playing the game. :)
We definitely have plans to work on map settings, walls etc. There are many features to come! Diplomacy and trading is also a feature many have asked about and that we will add at some point.
At the same time, we're cautious about not making the game too complicated. The game is real-time and not turn-based like Civilization, and it's not as slow-paced as typical 4X or city-building game either. So we have to be careful with what we add.
I love your ideas though! Someone could almost make an entirely new game concept based on them. :D
i like the and how you pay attencion to the suggestions that the players write and i appreciatte that, also i think using this method we can give all the advices to make the game better.
Playing a bit, you can notice that, when you attack other troops theres no skirmish sound like swords hiting, people screaming, or buildings burning ( or collapsing). would be nice some additional sound or effect.
Of course this isnt a priority, im just want to mention some of other things that would make the game better :)
Hi, thanks for commenting. We've started on attacks sounds, so these might be included in the next build. Destroyed building sounds have also been made, but we need to animate some kind of effect for destroyed building before we add it in, This will also be included in one of the next builds. :)
Okay i forgot to mention. Could you add a little bit of a diplomacy to the game? Me and my friends love to do diplomacy but our troops just try to kill eachother when we send scouts to ''visit'' eachother. Just the abilty to make our troops not attack them all the time would be enough but if you want to go in depth, could you add an abilty to send eachother resources too? Also obvously the maps are too small and we can only play with 4 people but we still like to do it. However if the servers could be up to 6 people it would be a big improvement.
Are you planning to add sea or river mechanics? Naval warfare is problably not the biggest priority but maybe fish as a resource would be simple and interesting addition.
I don't know how to send you my suggestions more ''professionally'. Comments are the fastest and easiest to do it but if you prefer emails i can do that too.
We've had several requests for adding diplomacy. Right now there are other features that we want to prioritise first. However, we have this in our backlog, as well as trading/sending resources, and features that are mentioned get bumped up in our backlog, so thanks for commenting on this.
We're definitely going to add river mechanics at some point, with fishing and boats.
It's fine to post your suggestions here! You can also send them on Discord.
I just saw that there's a 5.5b update. What's the difference?
Hi, I wrote a short dev blog with the change log for 0.5.5B now.
Thanks, didn't check it out before
Hi LincRead,
Thanks a lot for this game, I used it to introduce my 7yo daughter to RTS games and she really enjoys it. Multiplayer is really cool too, as she can play with a friend of hers during this covid19 times.
I'm an experienced developper and I would be very happy to help improve the game, is there any point of contact for that? Or for submitting bug reports?
Features I would be glad to see:
- more complete AI, especially for multiplayer, +another level of difficulty after expert
- walls for building nice villages and protecting them
- maybe roads to bring even more structure to the world and locally increase movement speed
- other resources? horses, gold?
- more complex science tree
- bigger maps
Regards
That's a cool story; thanks for sharing! I feel we have reached our goal in making the game accessible, since your 7 year old daughter who is new to RTS games is able to enjoy the game with her friend.
We're not looking for additional team members, but thanks for asking. :)
We're planning to add most of the features suggested!
I'm wondering if there will be or is a faction system to differentiate between players and "force" different playstyles.
We would like to add factions and have planned for them, but it's still a while away. Thanks for asking.
Glad to hear it. Looking forward to when its implemented. :)
One of my favourite features of an RTS used to be lots of different factions, so we have to add them at some point! :D
Hey man. Still playing your game. I have an urgent suggestion. I think you need to add some sort of artillery unit to the game that deals more damage to buildings but its weak. If someone just builds a fort out of towers and pumps archers. it will take forever to kill him but at the same time you can fortify too. so the game will not end because everyone is fortified and cant kill eachother. Also i think you should add walls to the game because walling with resource camps looks really ugly.
Siege warfare is something we are planning, with siege units and walls, but we have no ETA for this yet. It's interesting that you post this though, because community requests, comments, analytics, videos etc. are the only way for us to know how people play the game. This is the first time we've hard about resource camps being used to create walls. This makes the feature feel more urgent to us, definitely!
Have you tried upgrading Heavy Spearman armour to counter the Bowman and take down the Watchtowers?
Apperantly my friend spent the whole game just fortifying. My whole army died to his bowman spam even though my attack infantry was made out of swordsman. i will try out heavy spearmen and its armour counter next time i play thank you for the suggestion. I think i shouldn't let the enemy fortify and attack before he is able to defend, maybe thats my mistake. I was using houses as walls but i noticed resource camps were cheaper and stronger than houses. Maybe that could use a tweak? I will also try out recording the game for better example.
Preventing your enemy from fortifying sounds like a good idea. Try to apply pressure on him earlier.
We're going to make a few changes to Watchtowers and ranged units overall for the next update that we are excited about.
Hello i have a question when will the animals gonna be added ? and team match ?
Hey! Yes, animals is one of the next features we're going to work on. It's becoming an inside joke within the dev team, since "adding animals soon" has been said for a long time. However, it is definitely one of three next big features that we will work on.
Team games are already implemented! In the multiplayer lobby, select different teams. You can even play FFA (4 players against each other). When you create a game, pick large map that supports up to 4 players.
Any plans fro make it multi-language feature?
It's not a priority right now, but at some point we will work on adding more content, and adding languages will be part of that process.
hi there! not sure if this is the best place to ask but here goes. i recently updated my macbook to the most current version of OS Catalina and suddenly the app will no longer open on my computer :( I keep getting an error message because the game isn't from an "identified developer". before I updated my computer I was able to bypass this but now I don't have that option in my settings.. I already talked with apple support and they said it's most likely something in the coding and weren't able to help. this game has been getting me through quarantine and i'm able to play with my brothers who live in a different state which has been really nice :) if anyone has any ideas that might make it work I'd be super appreciative !!!! thx
Hi ohkaterose, I'm sorry to hear that you haven't been able to open the game.
There is a problem for everyone with Catalina when unzipping game files, because of new security measures added.
Here is the guide to open it:
1. Control + mouse click The Fertile Crescent 0.5.4 executable and pick Show Package Contents.
2. Open Contents and control + mouse click MacOS folder and pick New Terminal at Folder (bottom of list).
3. Type "chmod +x The\ Fertile\ Crescent"
4. Close terminal and Control + mouse click executable icon again, and pick Open.
5. When asked about being an unidentified developer, click Open.
6. From now on you can double-click the executable icon whenever you want to play.
Hope that works for you!
Hey thanks so much for responding so quickly ! Was able to make it work finally so I very much appreciate it. I'll be back to playing with my dad and brothers this evening. Really enjoy the game! :)
Glad to hear you're enjoying the game! Thanks for playing it. :)
thank u so mach
Thanks for sharing! I'm glad you got to explore more of the game in a more stress-free Sandbox environment. We are currently working on multiple additional ways to ease new players into the game.
Hi guy congratulation for your job!
I discover this page/game recently and after saw your github and discovered that you made this game with unity and csharp, nice!
But I saw that the source code in your github is older, do you think to do this game open source sometime?
Oh wow, I totally forgot that I had this project open on github in the beginning! I'm not sure how much of the code is the same anymore. At this point we don't have any plans to make the current code open source, but will keep the code that's on github open. :)
Okay man, if you accept private fork tell me, I want learn about Unity and your project look likes very nice to make some experiments, something like Rise of Nations do you know ?? Anyway you are doing a great job!
Yeah, loved Rise of Nations! We won't be sharing the code as for now. My apologies for the inconvenience.
I do want more developers to make RTS games, so maybe one day I will talk more about how we developed the game, share tips for developing them etc. :)
I love this game so much, thank you.
Thanks for playing it!
this game will be added to steam?
Maybe, if we decide to commercialise the game. :)
Hello I really love this game but the problem that I can't save my game when I play, I hope you read this comment and improve it
Hi, glad to hear you're enjoying the game. We haven't added save games yet and we hope to add this in the future.
Okay thank you I didn't know that, even though thanks for the information, I hope that you will add it soon
Thanks for responding
Hello,
I played a couple hours withThe Fertile Crescent. I really enjoy playing this game, thank you ! Graphics and musics are really awesome.
I spotted two little bugs:
one with selection (spamming double click with shift pressed)
as you can see on the screenshot, the selection bar indicates that I have 61 selected units.
Also when I enter construction menu and select a building with a villager then switch to a idle villager (with tab)
I am forced to build the previously selected building.
I also came across 2 others problems:
- at some point in-game, I failed to select anything. The game was acting like I am pressing left click. Pressing escape and navigating in the menu does not solve the problem. I don't know how to reproduce that bug.
- I failed to use control group hotkeys, I am using a MacBook laptop (with no keypad).
My most wanted features:
- queuing actions with shift
- fight sound effects
- larger map in solo (FFA mode?) + slightly improved AI (scout, build, attack base from different angles)
I hope new releases are coming soon ! :D
Hi simbass, thanks for commenting, and especially for pointing out the bugs! We'll work on fixing them for the next build.
Queuing actions with shift is definitely something we want (and really need) to add. However, it requires a lot of code to be refactored, with the potential to cause a pandora's box of new bugs to test for, so we're careful about when we do this and can't provide an ETA. The only thing we can say is that it's 1 of the 3 most wanted features that we want to work on soon.
Improved AI is probably the largest task we have ahead of us. There are very few RTS games (even AAA) with decent AI, and we're a small team, so it's going to be a big challenge. We are definitely going to tackle this challenge at some points, but we can't promise an ETA.
Hi SGP, thanks for sharing your video!
What do you mean by acting effectively against towers? Most melee units deal a fair amount of siege damage against them. Down the track we'll add siege units as well.
When it comes to food and dying a lot earlier, I'm pretty sure that not much has changed since you played last, so I believe you've just become better at the game! ;)
Hey again! I'm loving the update!
Sorry I never responded long ago about giving feedback.
I'd say one small improvement I'd like to see is the villager's prioritizing chopping trees that are on or near water tiles. Sometimes I find them running off to chop down some trees in the middle of nowhere.
Also, when I beat the computer player I get bummed that there's nothing else I can do. It would be great if the map was much larger and there were other enemy villages I could attack and defend against in a long-form campaign.
Thank you for taking my feedback <3
Thanks for commenting and your feedback!
That is a good suggestion. Right now they find the next tree closest to where they left off. Maybe they should instead find the next tree that is closest to the initial order, so it doesn't feel like they're ending up in the middle of nowhere. Then if you order to chop in an area of marshland, they will at least stick around in that area.
We're prioritising the foundation over content for now, but when we've reached a certain point in development, we'll definitely focus on adding more content!
That is a perfect solution!
Looking forward to more updates
muy buen juego gracias
Gracias por tu comentario. Muy apreciado!
I haven't had much time to play the game yet but right away the only problem I see with the game is no way to save.
I'm about to sit down and play a bit more of the game now that I'm back home.
I look forward to seeing where this game goes. not sure if you seen my reply to another post but a map editor would be cool.
I think it would be a pretty cool addition between random gen maps and custom maps I see good things in the future for this game.
good luck and I hope to see how this goes.
I've just noticed most of these messages are over 2 years ago so this game has been in development way longer than I realized.
am I missing something because I can't seem to save my game?
Hi, thanks for commenting!
Save feature is not implemented yet. We hope to add this when we're further into development.
I saw your post about map editor. Making a map editor from the ground up will require effort. We want to try to finish this game first, and then we'll see what happens. :)
I played yesterday with my friend, me on Linux, her on Mac.
It worked flawlessly and it was easy to understand how to play the game.
Well, I still lost the two first games to starvation/revolt. Units do eat a lot… ^^'
That what's make the game fun, thanks a lot for developing it!
Here are a couple of suggestions:
Thanks again!
Hi, it's great to hear that the game worked flawlessly for you.
We have queuing commands with shift in our backlog, so it will definitely be added at some point. Will add your second point to the backlog as well. Thanks for commenting!
How do we disable Unity Analytics ?
I don't agree with that tracking, but you're doing it without my consent. At least for this game you're telling us (most don't…).
How can I disable this ? In the absence of a way to opt-out…
It should be opt-in by default… I'm not willing to play a game that track me against my consent (and I'm not sure it's legal in the UE by the way, GDPR says it's opt-in by default, always).
edit: I'm using linux. If it's not possible to opt-out, then just disable it instead of violating user consent.
Hi, Unity Analytics is enabled from the Unity dashboard. If we disable it, it will be disabled across all platforms. So either we don't use it at all, or we don't export a version at all for Linux, since Unity's opt-out plugin is only supported on Windows and macOS. We are aware of GDPR and have worked with lawyers on this for other products we've worked on. For now you will just have to not play if you don't want any data collected, and then we have to consider if we need to disable Unity Analytics, which is a shame, since it provides us with important error reports. Linux users are ~15% of our current user base. We have to make a decision between supporting Linux or receive important information about how the game is played and performs. Or alternatively, wait for Unity to support Linux with their opt-out before continuing Linux development.
Edit: I will try to have a meeting with my partner soon so we can resolve this. Thanks for your patience.
I'm not sure if "not playing the game" is a valid GDPR consent thing, especially as this analytics starts with first launch of the game, and users are not aware of it.
That thing put apart: is there no way to opt-in for this analytics ?
Is there any other tool that would be more privacy/consent-friendly that you could use ?
I'm not against it if it's opt-in, especially if it's only for errors and bugs report (as long as this doesn't contains personal information), and maybe I would activate it, especially if it helps you to support Linux (which is great ! And thanks a lot for that :). Maybe I'd prefer to send a bug report in another way if I find a crash/bug.
Especially on Linux I'd think people will be willing to help with bug reports and logs if they encounter some issues.
By the way I found a way to disable Unity analytics by hand (https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/eb3y7q/if_youre_the_kind_of_person_that_doesnt_like/) so I played to your game: still a bit basic (that's understandable) but already quite funny, I like it, well done.
We figured that the opt-out isn't necessary for Linux users since all personal data gets deleted straight away on unsupported platforms. We'll definitely need an opt-in though!
Hi and thanks again for raising your concerns. We have decided to disable Unity Analytics completely. We will write a post about this.
Ok, thanks for disabling it, and I'm sorry if it makes bug reporting harder. I'm happy to help testing things on Linux if needed.
A blog post would be a good thing for transparency, thanks for that.
Thanks, we'll rely om bug reporting until we have a new solution for opt-in in the place. :)
Quite minor but worth mentioning: There needs to be a setting in-game to be able to turn off Analytics.
Hi and thanks for commenting. Being used to GDPR from developing apps in Europe, we take data privacy seriously.
What platform are you on? On Windows and macOS there is an option to opt-out at the bottom of the main menu. Sadly, the opt-out is not supported for Linux by Unity. I hope they change this soon. If you’re on Linux we’ve included a link to Unity’s privacy policy instead. You must decide if this is sufficient and if you want to play despite this limitation or not. Our apologies for the inconvenience.
Hi and thanks again for raising your concerns. We have decided to disable Unity Analytics completely. We will write a post about this.
Once I figured out what I was doing, this was a lot of fun. The added survival game element (your civilization needing food to avoid starving) at first was really annoying, but once I got that under control it was RTS business as usual. Food is very important in this game. (The survival aspect does make the game more realistic than Age of Empires).
The automatic generation of villagers from the Tribe Center is interesting - for beginning players like me, it made it seem like I was contending against not just the enemy, but life itself. I had to keep on eye on that early in the game in order to maintain a strat that didn't involve starvation and rebellion even before an enemy was sighted.
I think the overall aesthetic is great - and the camera angle / map is perfect. Good functionality in click-to-send both on the world screen and the corner map. I did have a little lag upon the final takedown of the red-colored CPU tribe (beginner mode) but other than that everything else was smooth the whole time (MacOS).
I like the tech upgrade system and that it costs nothing (except time). This game respects time as a resource more than AoE in that regard. I can't say I've figured out a good strategic order for upgrading in the tech tree, but I think it's a good system nonetheless.
The tower system is better than AoE in that it explains what manpower is behind them in the first place since you have to stock them with a unit in order to attack from them. I like the way that it affects unit attack.
Idle Villager functionality is also very well-built. Reading the comments, I see that "I" is a hotkey for idle villager, and I'll definitely use that from now on.
Everything that is built and in the game is built well. The absence of half-formed or half-working systems makes for a very enjoyable demo (it acts as a full game).
Also, music is good. Never got sick of it, left it on to write this comment.
Cheers on your development, thanks for the dev and updating this project! Lot of fun and it's awesome to see this kind of RPG in live production again!
-Dandin
Hi and thank you for taking your time to provide this feedback. It's deeply appreciated!
Love this take on RTS, shift+clicking to queue commands to units/workers would be my #1 desired feature for 0.5.4 or 0.6.0
Thanks for commenting. After playing other RTSs lately and going back to play TFC, I've really missed this feature myself. We'll see what we can do!
hello,i have old laptop inter core2duo with mobile family chipset.in game the buildings are color black,villagers is fine.i hope yu fix this soon.thanks
Hi, this has never been reported before and I'm not sure what the cause is.
Really looking forward to seeing the game progress :)
Good Job so far!
Thanks!
Awesome layouts and inventory systems. I will try the game out shortly (macOS)
Still waiting for updates man. The game IS being played so don't lose your motivation.
Hi and thanks for the encouraging comment! It definitely motivates us to read that people are playing the game.
Progress on the next update has been slow lately due to demanding deadlines within our paid jobs, however it shouldn't be too long until we're able to publish the next version.