How do I Install 0 A.D.?

What is 0 A.D. and how can I install it on Ubuntu?

Solution 1:

There are several ways to install 0 A.D., here are the easiest ones:

Personal Package Archives(PPA)

To install the latest 0 A.D. on Ubuntu, add its official PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:wfg/0ad
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install 0ad

The official 0 A.D. PPA, usually, only holds packages for supported Ubuntu releases, not End of Life (EOL) releases.

Note: In the newest Ubuntu, it also sports the latest 0 A.D. version. But, when a new release of 0 A.D. is out, you will need to add the PPA to update it. Ubuntu updates packages per a new Ubuntu release, with some exceptions. Read more about it here.

Snappy (package manager)

Next to the PPA, you can use snap to install 0 A.D. in a secure environment.

sudo snap install 0ad

If you haven't installed snap, please see the installation guide: Installing snap on Ubuntu | Snapcraft documentation

flatpak

To install 0 A.D. using flatpak, from the flathub repo, you need to have flatpak installed on Ubuntu, after you have installed flatpak, you can then install 0 A.D. from the flathub repo, like so:

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

For detailed information, see the flathub documentation.

After the installation of the flathub repo, you can install 0 A.D.:

flatpak install flathub com.play0ad.zeroad

What is 0 A.D.

"0 A.D. (pronounced "zero ey-dee") is a free, open-source, cross-platform real-time strategy (RTS) game of ancient warfare. In short, it is a historically-based war/economy game that allows players to relive or rewrite the history of Western civilizations, focusing on the years between 500 B.C. and 500 A.D. The project is highly ambitious, involving state-of-the-art 3D graphics, detailed artwork, sound, and a flexible and powerful custom-built game engine." - Wildfire Games

0 A.D. is a free and open-source RTS game for a variety of Linux distributions (although it is also available for macOS and Windows NT) including Arch Linux, Debian, Fedora, Gentoo Linux, openSUSE and Slackware. Despite this, it is still in alpha stage!

That being said, I noticed lag only on a low end PC/laptop. On a high end laptop, it took about 1000 units walking around my view to experience 'some' lag.

^{Personal pick. For more see: 0 A.D. media/wallpapers}

Features

Below are some of the features available for 0 A.D.

Intense Gameplay

• Cross-platform: 0 A.D. is set to run on Linux, macOS (specifically 10.7 and later) and Windows NT (specifically XP and later).
• Unique civilizations: In 0 A.D. each civilization is unique in its appearance and game-play, including units, structures, and technology trees.
• Citizen soldiers: Some infantry and cavalry units can not only fight, but also gather resources and construct buildings, making them substantially more versatile than in typical RTS games.
• Combat experience matters: The more time your citizen soldiers spend fighting your enemies, the higher they go up the ranks. With each rank, they become stronger, but they also get worse at civilian tasks.
• Technology tradeoffs: Some technologies are arranged in pairs, and within each pair, you can only research one technology at most in each game. This choice is irreversible, so choose carefully!
• Unit formations: Arrange your units in historical battle formations from the Phalanx to the Testudo and gain bonuses, such as increased armor. However, beware the costs that may come with them, such as lower speed! (As of August 2012, this feature has not been implemented yet.)

Realism and Authenticity

• Real world map realism: Random maps are based upon real geography of the ancient world with realistic plants, animals and terrain.
• Authentic historical details: Designs of units, buildings and technologies all reflect the hallmarks of each civilization. We even give them names in the original ancient Greek, Latin, Punic, Celtic, etc.
• Lifelike naval warfare: Ships will be on a much larger and more lifelike scale than seen in other games. They will move more realistically and even be able to ram other ships. (As of August 2012, this feature has not been implemented yet.)

Make the game your own

• Translation and locale support: Play 0 A.D. in over a dozen languages.
• Powerful map editor: Draw landscapes with a palette of hundreds of terrains, build majestic cities and set the position of the sun in the Atlas Editor, your tool to design intricately detailed maps in 0 A.D.
• Excellent moddability: From new computer opponent behaviors to extra civilizations, easily create your own modifications (mods) of 0 A.D. by editing game files, all freely available in standard, open formats. You can install them by moving their contents to /usr/share/games/0ad/mods/<MODNAME>, where <MODNAME> is to be replaced with the name of the mod you are installing. You can find information on community-provided mods and download links for them, here.

0 A.D. Mods - mod.io

• 0 A.D. also has built in support for mod.io.
• All 0 A.D. mods from mod.io can be downloaded/installed/enabled from inside 0 A.D. You can also view all 0 A.D. mods from the 0 A.D. mod.io page itself.

There are also some planned features that are still in the making, if your curiosity is tickled, give it a read.

System Requirements

• Processor: 1 GHz Intel or x86 compatible

• Memory: At least 512 MB

• Graphics Card: Any supporting OpenGL 1.3 with 3D hardware accelerated drivers and at least 128 MB memory, e.g., Radeon 9000, GeForce 3, or similar

• Screen resolution: 1024×768 or above

0 A.D. has a large following and has been featured in numerous websites, including my own:

• WEB UPD8: Free RTS Game 0 A.D. Sees New Alpha Release

• EuroBytes: 0 A.D. Alpha 14 Naukratis - EuroBytes

• OMG! UBUNTU!: Historical Strategy Game 0 A.D. Looks to Crowdfunding for Future Development

• Dedoimedo: 0 A.D. - Ancient civilizations clash, for free

YouTube Videos

• Play 0 A.D. official YouTube page

• 0 A.D. alpha 0.0.14 Naukratis Gameplay [Part 1]

• 0 A.D. alpha 0.0.14 Naukratis Gameplay [Part 2]

Official road map

You can read the official road map, to see which release is in the making, when it is going to be released, and how many bugs are active, still.

Do note that the due date is for the feature freeze. The actual release happens when the bugs are fixed, which can take some time.

Reference

• 0 A.D. | A free, open-source game of ancient warfare
• 0 A.D. Alpha 14 Naukratis - EuroBytes
• Free RTS Game 0 A.D. Sees New Alpha Release ~ Web Upd8: Ubuntu / Linux blog
• Historical Strategy Game 0 A.D. Looks to Crowdfunding for Future Development - OMG! Ubuntu!
• 0 A.D. - Ancient civilizations clash, for free - Dedoimedo

Links

• GitHub: 0ad/0ad
• Trac: Wildfire Games
• www.transifex.com: 0 A.D. localization
  • Text translations for 0 A.D.
• bandcamp.com: 0 A.D.
  • Original soundtrack of Wildfire Games' 0 A.D., a free, open-source game of ancient warfare.
• Mod DB: 0 A.D. Empires Ascendant Windows, Mac, Linux game
• Indie DB: 0 A.D. Empires Ascendant Windows, Mac, Linux game