Ask Apolyton Anything About Rise Of Nations

[MarkG]

and Dan and I will try to answer

[Zealot]

Has any member of the Apolyton staff played any alpha/beta/whatever version of Ron yet?

[MarkG]

Dan and i got our betas last week(that's why i can say that we can answer some questions)

[Alex]

How is the implementation of the peasant AI in your betas? Does it work as was described? Does this feature really alleviates some of the micromanagement?

[MarkG]

yes, it works, but on a limited area. e.g. you wont create a citizen(not peasant ) and it will find a job to do in the next city(i'm unsure if this goes in terms of cities or a specific distance)

you also have an option related to this. idle citizens can:
- do nothing
- find a build job
- find a resource gathering job
- find either a build job or a resource gathering job

examples of use:
1)
- put a citizen to put a mine
- add 3 citizens in the build queue of the city in whose area the mine is.
- when created and after pondering about it for a couple of seconds, citizens will go to work in the mine

2)
- you want to build a building so you take the citizens of the mine and give them the build order(you can give a single build order to more than one selected citizens at once)
- after finishing the building, the citizens will return to work on the mine by themselves(again assuming you didnt take them far away from their initial position)


btw, as my RTS experiences are rather limited(what can i say, i got bored) if i'm describing something that isnt new to the genre feel free to correct me

[Inverse Icarus]

can we HAVE your betas?

i'll change my name to Markos, move to Macedonia, eat my neighbors baby, and spoof your IP.

[Main_Brain]

What...
are the German City Names? :=)

[MarkG]

Germans

Leaders
Alaric the Visigoth
Frederick the Great
Field Marshal Rommel

Cities
Berlin
Hamburg
Lubeck
Rostock
Magdeburg
Braunschweig
Leipzig
Erfurt
Wittenberg
Regensburg
Munchen
Wien
Linz
Konstanz
Augsburg
Nurnberg
Wurzburg
Koln
Trier
Mainz
Strakburg
Luttich
Dresden
Brandenburg
Bonn
Koblenz
Heidelberg
Dusseldorf
Kiel
Frankfurt

leaders/cities are in simple txt files

[MarkG]

cheat: there is whole list of cheat keyboard shortcuts, but of course i dont know what will be left in the end

i havent used missile silos and nuclear stuff so far
bombing is rather deadly already(you can level a city in less than a minute, air defence will be crucial)

[Inverse Icarus]

Markos, this is a bit to ask, but could you play a game, and take a screenshot every 10 minutes or so? or at regular intervals so we can see the game progressing?

[adaMada]

Wow! This is awsome .

I guess I'll just start posting questions...

What's diplomacy like? How flexible are the options? (Specifics are nice, but also generals -- better or worse than Civ3)?

Have you had a chance to play against the Computer AI, and how impressed are you so far? Specific questions you may or may not be able to answer re: the AI:
* Does the AI honor its alliances (actually help you instead of just )
* Any way to coordinate attacks? (Even a simple way, such as in EE where you could set a 'flag' and your computer allies would rush troops to the location)

How are planes implimented/controled?

God, I've got so many questions . This is the upcoming game that I anticipate the most, and let me go ahead and apologize to Markos and Dan for asking all these really annoying questions . (I'm really excited about RoN).

EDIT: Two more questions.
1) Is the 'dynamic' campeign included, where you can gradually conquer the world? (Can't remember the name, but think it's something like "Conquer the World" ). If so, what's it like?
2) Are any regular campeign missions included? If so, how long does each mission take to play? How entertaining is the story line? Do they all eventuallytake on the form of "kill all your opponents". (Many Real Time games have nearly every mission end with "New objective: Eliminate all opposition", and to be honest its gotten really annoying...)

-- adaMada

[ixnay]

What are the special units/national bonuses for the civs included in the beta?

[FrostyBoy]

The million dollar question: Do you like the game or love the game?

[MarkG]

Do you like the game or love the game?

at this time i was bored with other RTS games
the different map types and victory conditions ensure that i have lots of stuff to check out

question to more experienced rts players(dont make me dig up my aoe/aok cds): are economic/technology/wonder victory conditions something new?

campaigns: only the first 3 tutorials are included in the beta

diplomacy: i havent used it so much yet
the proposals are three: make peace, become allies, mutual attack on an other nation.
your proposal can be combined with a demand or ofer of specific amount of resources.
if the AI wants more or different type of resources it will respond with exact numbers("give me 600 stone")

[adaMada]

Originally posted by MarkG

Do you like the game or love the game?

at this time i was bored with other RTS games
the different map types and victory conditions ensure that i have lots of stuff to check out

Awsome .

question to more experienced rts players(dont make me dig up my aoe/aok cds): are economic/technology/wonder victory conditions something new?

I've played EE a bit, and you can def. win through wonders. I'm not sure about economic and technology victories, though.

campaigns: only the first 3 tutorials are included in the beta

Ah well -- how are those ?

diplomacy: i havent used it so much yet
the proposals are three: make peace, become allies, mutual attack on an other nation.
your proposal can be combined with a demand or ofer of specific amount of resources.
if the AI wants more or different type of resources it will respond with exact numbers("give me 600 stone")

Pretty cool. Once you get to play with it, or if the AI ever comes to you and makes an offer, let us know .

-- adaMada

[MarkG]

how are those?

well, like all tutorials
lots of lots of audio guidance

Once you get to play with it, or if the AI ever comes to you and makes an offer, let us know

oh, i've had the AI beg for peace lots of times(i'm playing on the easiest level)
and as the situation became worse for it, it offered more resources....
i'd like to see a smac-style "surrender, become eternal ally, pay regular tributes" offer....

there arent any trade agreements either(alliance includes that, you can send your caravans to allied cities)

[Main_Brain]

Whew Thnx.. A pity that half of the Names are Wrong.. Lack of Ü,Ö etc.


// Neither Wien nor Strakburg (I suppose this should be Strassbourg) are German Cities at all. I suppose it comes from some WW scenario..

[tniem]

Main_Brain, It will be in a text file, you can fix them if you like.

Markos: Does diplomacy take you out of the game, i.e. its RTS and how are you able to have meaningful diplomacy in that context?

[MarkG]

when you open the diplomacy window time continues to run. the answer comes in 1-2 seconds.

i think you can do a proposal while paused(you can give build/move/research orders while paused)

[Main_Brain]

@Tniem: Thats true but its quite sad u know I mean its great the use the German names of teh Cities and not the English ones (munich etc.) but I cant see why such things happen in so many Games
Okay I can see why it happens but it makes me sad.

[Inverse Icarus]

Originally posted by Main_Brain
@Tniem: Thats true but its quite sad u know I mean its great the use the German names of teh Cities and not the English ones (munich etc.) but I cant see why such things happen in so many Games
Okay I can see why it happens but it makes me sad.

it's because we're american. duh.

sorry, but if e did it for you, we'd have to do it for others.

imagine playing civ with the chinese city names in chinese.

i can see the diplomacy now:

"dude, you attack that house with a line through it, and i'll go for that upside down T with an x in it"

[theponyguy1]

Do formations and war strategy play a big role as stated in Rise of Nations? Did you ever have a smaller army and defeat a bigger army becasue of your army formation or tactics?

[theponyguy1]

Also, when a building gets damaged, does the health meter automatically come up over the damaged building? Because when I see battle pics, some buildings have the health meters above them but the buildings are not selected.

[MarkG]

Do formations and war strategy play a big role as stated in Rise of Nations?

i havent used formations much but i'd like to note that ron has several models(unit/research costs, combat results) which are transparent to the newbie but the hardcore gamer has lots to dig into and experiment

what is more obvious is the need to use combined forces. you can just build a large army of infantry and tanks and go take a city. airforce and artillery is necessary if you want to minimize your losses
the same goes for infantry and horses in ancient ages, etc

when a building gets damaged, does the health meter automatically come up over the damaged building?

yes

[adaMada]

Originally posted by MarkG

Do formations and war strategy play a big role as stated in Rise of Nations?

i havent used formations much but i'd like to note that ron has several models(unit/research costs, combat results) which are transparent to the newbie but the hardcore gamer has lots to dig into and experiment

Even if you haven't had a chance to use 'em, any chance you know what the interface is like? In empire earth, you could select a group of units and then click a button that set one of several very basic formations. Though this seemed nice at first, I found it sorely lacking (though a more intelligent formation AI might solve that problem) -- even if you haven't played with it much, can you give us any details about how formations are set?

-- adaMada

[MarkG]

pretty much the same way

when you select a group of units(either by selecting them with your mouse or by keyboard shortcut for a team you have set) there is button which goes through all the formations
i'll have to check to seethere keyboard shortcuts for them too....

[adaMada]

Originally posted by MarkG
pretty much the same way

when you select a group of units(either by selecting them with your mouse or by keyboard shortcut for a team you have set) there is button which goes through all the formations
i'll have to check to seethere keyboard shortcuts for them too....

Ok, thanks Markos . (Wouldn't it be wonderful to have an exclusive Apolyton screenshot of the selection dialog box ...)

* MarkG realizes he should have never told people he had the demo
/me snickers, and then resumes groveling.

-- adaMada

[theponyguy1]

Is the bar only temporary, or is the only way to get rid of it is to repair the building?

[theponyguy1]

also, is there an option to change the resource amount bar to the top, instad of top left hand corner. I liked the way it looked in the older screenshots...those were the days *sighs*

[MarkG]

the only way to get rid of it is to repair the building

yes

is there an option to change the resource amount bar to the top, instad of top left hand corner.

where was it? i havent tried to move it