Rise Of Nations
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hates endnotes Join Date: 2003-05-14 Member: 16320Members
hates endnotes Join Date: 2003-05-14 Member: 16320Members
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">review/incite for you to buy it</div> Yes...I'm aware of this <a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=10&t=43866&hl=rise+of+nations' target='_blank'>post</a> and <a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=10&t=34882&hl=rise+of+nations' target='_blank'>this</a> one.
However, despite those two threads, I'd like to incite some people to buy the cool AoE clone with improvements. First off, if you don't have it, get the <a href='http://www.microsoft.com/games/riseofnations/downloads.asp' target='_blank'>demo</a>...
Some basics of the game, for no one that's heard of/seen it:
The game spans the length of history from ancient to slightly futuristic times (no mechs...just tanks...although I don't think a mech is a viable weapon in any time period...).
There are 4 areas of research (5 if you count age advances...but I don't). This is one of the well balanced aspects of the game:
Military - allows you to build new military units (if your age is advanced enough), increases your unit limit (very important). Some techs allow construction of military buildings.
Social - expands your national borders (yep, you get national borders, any other non-friendly nation with units in your area takes a little 'attrition' damage over time, unless they have supplies). Social also allows you to construct more cities (also important). Also allows research of some temple techs that increase taxes and borders.
Economic - races your commerence cap, allowing you to collect more resources (say 100 food per minute to 150, if you have enough farms and stuff) (that's it's important part). Allows use of markets (1st tech), buying and selling at markets (2nd tech). You need these to be efficient and make lots of resources
Scientific - Makes all other techs and age advances cheaper, effectively speeding your economy. Also allows construction of some buildings.
It's very well balanced, and depending on how militaristic or diplomatic you are, you can go down the path anyway you like (although getting all scientifics before anything else is pretty much impossible).
Combat:
Initially the combat is a lot like AoE2. You've got archers, sword dudes (...they're not called sword dudes...), and slingers (eventually pikes). Then the cavalry comes, and then the gunpowder, and then you just roll over people with tanks, and then you break out the airplanes.
Generally you want a fairly wide variety of units. Generals help to, they let you use special abilities, like ambush (army is invisible to enemies, except scouts, for a short while or until they attack), force march (army moves faster for a little while), decoys (doubled units, but only half will do damage, used to confuse the opponent) or the best one, fortify (break out the sandbags and start shooting, only really works for ranged units).
I'd also like to point out that in Skirmish (...multiplayer) you can set the games final age to whatever you want, you can stop it at tanks, cavalry...planes, but not advanced planes....whatever age you want...I think there are 7.
Resources:
Food: farms, fisheries and some merchant bonuses. Food is used a lot for research and also for unit building. Output can be increased with granaries and granary techs.
Wood: forests ...or buy some from a market if you're really hurting. Lumber Mill does the same as granary (except for wood). Wood is used for a lot of early units and research.
Metal: Mines; metal is mostly used for units in the 2+ stages. Output can be increased with smelters and their techs (like granaries or lumber mills).
Knowledge: Universities, knowledge is only used for techs, generally you need a lot of it, until the end of the game where you generally have to much.
Wealth: ...It's gold. Taxes or trade routes between cities get you wealth. Used to get stuff at market, and what you get for selling it.
Oil: Oilfields (rocky outcroppings at the beginning of the game). Oil is used for later units (like tanks...) and also in some research. Oil output can be increased by a refinery.
Conquer the World:
There is no single player 'campaign' to speak of. Theres skirmish mode and conquer the world. In conquer the world you take control of a nation (say the russians). You'll be given the territory where there capital is (Think of a risk board with some differences). The Russians get Russia, with Moskow as their capitol. You get 1 army to start. You move it to one of the surrounding lands to capture more territory (and possibly get more armies). Once you pick where you want to go the game goes into the the actual RTS type of the game, and you play a game (like defend against the barbarians, diplomacy with the barbarians (called 'wheel and deal' in the game) or other things depending on the land and enemy).
Basically it's Risk strategy with RTS instead of dice.
The Civilizations:
There are tons of civs to choose from. Each one has their own unique units and bonuses. Since I lent my cd to someone down the hall, I'll try to get the Russian bonuses and stuff from memory:
Oil output is increased (by like 15% or something)
National Borders increase each age, and do more attrition damage
One extra citizen at the start of the game
...and there's some more.
Each civilizations are different. I like the Russians and the Germans, but there's like 15 to choose from. It's fairly well balanced (although the Chinese have instantly build citizens which seems a little unfair, but I guess it works). Technologies, units and civilizations fit together pretty well.
Some of the bad stuff:
On normal the computer seems to do a little do well, from Easy. Against people it's okay though.
The game takes a lot of micromanagement sometimes, if you want resoruces coming in smoothly, at least until you get 4-5 cities.
Scenario Editor could use some work.
Needs more people playing multiplayer, come on people, buy it already!
Also, I would like the CtW stuff if it let me set how many turns the game takes in that mode. In order to win you have to constantly attack, which is kinda dumb.
It's very fun, I suggest you at least try out the demo. The demo gives you plenty to do, tutorial mode (not the actual tutorials, it's a 'learn as you go' thing, works fairly well) and skirmish with quite a few options. I think there were 6 civs to choose from too. All the cool RoN and NS players could go play the mulitplayer, it'd be cool.
However, despite those two threads, I'd like to incite some people to buy the cool AoE clone with improvements. First off, if you don't have it, get the <a href='http://www.microsoft.com/games/riseofnations/downloads.asp' target='_blank'>demo</a>...
Some basics of the game, for no one that's heard of/seen it:
The game spans the length of history from ancient to slightly futuristic times (no mechs...just tanks...although I don't think a mech is a viable weapon in any time period...).
There are 4 areas of research (5 if you count age advances...but I don't). This is one of the well balanced aspects of the game:
Military - allows you to build new military units (if your age is advanced enough), increases your unit limit (very important). Some techs allow construction of military buildings.
Social - expands your national borders (yep, you get national borders, any other non-friendly nation with units in your area takes a little 'attrition' damage over time, unless they have supplies). Social also allows you to construct more cities (also important). Also allows research of some temple techs that increase taxes and borders.
Economic - races your commerence cap, allowing you to collect more resources (say 100 food per minute to 150, if you have enough farms and stuff) (that's it's important part). Allows use of markets (1st tech), buying and selling at markets (2nd tech). You need these to be efficient and make lots of resources
Scientific - Makes all other techs and age advances cheaper, effectively speeding your economy. Also allows construction of some buildings.
It's very well balanced, and depending on how militaristic or diplomatic you are, you can go down the path anyway you like (although getting all scientifics before anything else is pretty much impossible).
Combat:
Initially the combat is a lot like AoE2. You've got archers, sword dudes (...they're not called sword dudes...), and slingers (eventually pikes). Then the cavalry comes, and then the gunpowder, and then you just roll over people with tanks, and then you break out the airplanes.
Generally you want a fairly wide variety of units. Generals help to, they let you use special abilities, like ambush (army is invisible to enemies, except scouts, for a short while or until they attack), force march (army moves faster for a little while), decoys (doubled units, but only half will do damage, used to confuse the opponent) or the best one, fortify (break out the sandbags and start shooting, only really works for ranged units).
I'd also like to point out that in Skirmish (...multiplayer) you can set the games final age to whatever you want, you can stop it at tanks, cavalry...planes, but not advanced planes....whatever age you want...I think there are 7.
Resources:
Food: farms, fisheries and some merchant bonuses. Food is used a lot for research and also for unit building. Output can be increased with granaries and granary techs.
Wood: forests ...or buy some from a market if you're really hurting. Lumber Mill does the same as granary (except for wood). Wood is used for a lot of early units and research.
Metal: Mines; metal is mostly used for units in the 2+ stages. Output can be increased with smelters and their techs (like granaries or lumber mills).
Knowledge: Universities, knowledge is only used for techs, generally you need a lot of it, until the end of the game where you generally have to much.
Wealth: ...It's gold. Taxes or trade routes between cities get you wealth. Used to get stuff at market, and what you get for selling it.
Oil: Oilfields (rocky outcroppings at the beginning of the game). Oil is used for later units (like tanks...) and also in some research. Oil output can be increased by a refinery.
Conquer the World:
There is no single player 'campaign' to speak of. Theres skirmish mode and conquer the world. In conquer the world you take control of a nation (say the russians). You'll be given the territory where there capital is (Think of a risk board with some differences). The Russians get Russia, with Moskow as their capitol. You get 1 army to start. You move it to one of the surrounding lands to capture more territory (and possibly get more armies). Once you pick where you want to go the game goes into the the actual RTS type of the game, and you play a game (like defend against the barbarians, diplomacy with the barbarians (called 'wheel and deal' in the game) or other things depending on the land and enemy).
Basically it's Risk strategy with RTS instead of dice.
The Civilizations:
There are tons of civs to choose from. Each one has their own unique units and bonuses. Since I lent my cd to someone down the hall, I'll try to get the Russian bonuses and stuff from memory:
Oil output is increased (by like 15% or something)
National Borders increase each age, and do more attrition damage
One extra citizen at the start of the game
...and there's some more.
Each civilizations are different. I like the Russians and the Germans, but there's like 15 to choose from. It's fairly well balanced (although the Chinese have instantly build citizens which seems a little unfair, but I guess it works). Technologies, units and civilizations fit together pretty well.
Some of the bad stuff:
On normal the computer seems to do a little do well, from Easy. Against people it's okay though.
The game takes a lot of micromanagement sometimes, if you want resoruces coming in smoothly, at least until you get 4-5 cities.
Scenario Editor could use some work.
Needs more people playing multiplayer, come on people, buy it already!
Also, I would like the CtW stuff if it let me set how many turns the game takes in that mode. In order to win you have to constantly attack, which is kinda dumb.
It's very fun, I suggest you at least try out the demo. The demo gives you plenty to do, tutorial mode (not the actual tutorials, it's a 'learn as you go' thing, works fairly well) and skirmish with quite a few options. I think there were 6 civs to choose from too. All the cool RoN and NS players could go play the mulitplayer, it'd be cool.
Comments
[<span style='color:red'>Edit</span>] Oh you, you can't forget that this game also supports custom models! So if you want you could build an Alien race, or anything you want for that matter. Unfortunatly not many people are modding it so the selection of new models is pretty slim.