some questions

[theponyguy1]

In the later ages, will there still be huts on unique resources, or other things, like factories?

Is it possible to delete units or buildings? I hated the fact that in SC it wasnt possible to do so.

Are peasants able to repair buildings? Again, in SC, I was playing as Protoss, and it wasnt possible.

Will there be barbed wire or walls in the game?

Will cities benifit from being next to a river or ocean?

Do I actually choose what city I want to be my capital, or is the first city I build is the capital automatically?

If I dislike the current capital, will I be able to change the title to another city?

Will there be unique buildings to the capital?

Are there different classes of Battleships and tanks?

I have heard there will be unique regional artwork for infantry and tanks, but will there also be unique regional artwork for water and air units?

Thank you for reding these, and if you have the anwers, please post them!

[Graham@BHG]

"In the later ages, will there still be huts on unique resources, or other things, like factories?"

Yes I believe their art does change as you advance in age, but I don't think there is a building for that in the later ages yet. (like a factory) I'll get back to you on that...

"Is it possible to delete units or buildings?"

Yep! Deleting units is straight forward, but razing buildings takes a little time so you can't mometarily capture an enemy city, gaining control of buildings around it, and delete them all knowing that the city would be retaken. On the up side, you get some resources back when you scrap buildings.

"Will there be barbed wire or walls in the game?"

Walls were in the game at one point, but were taken out to make things less defensive. There is no barbed wire at the moment.

"Will cities benifit from being next to a river or ocean?"

Rivers actually offer some defensive benefits, as enemy units are vulnerable when they slog their way across them. If you're thinking of the benefits you get in Civilization when you found a city by a river or near the ocean, at the moment there aren't such benefits in RoN.

"Do I actually choose what city I want to be my capital, or is the first city I build is the capital automatically?"

Your first city is your capital city. In my games, it is generally the city that is the greatest distance from the enemy and likely has the most defenses around it. Losing your capital is very bad.

"If I dislike the current capital, will I be able to change the title to another city?"

At present, no. If you were about to take a player's capital and it turned out that it wasn't his/her capital anymore...that wouldn't be much fun.

"Will there be unique buildings to the capital?"

There aren't any I can think of. Wonders can be built at any city so they wouldn't count...hmmm. Nope.

"Are there different classes of Battleships and tanks?"

There are different lines of warships and armoured vehicles. Would you consider those classes? For example, in the Information Age you can train the imposing main battle tank or a lighter armoured and faster unit. (the Bradley for example)

"I have heard there will be unique regional artwork for infantry and tanks, but will there also be unique regional artwork for water and air units?"

There will be quite a bit of unique art for air units (Lancaster Bombers, Zeros etc) but regional art for ships and planes is not currently planned.

[Sonic]

Something I always wanted to ask about aiforce (because I always like to use airforce in all RTS games very extensively) and I though this could be a good thread:

Will there be carriers in RoN. If so, what units will be able to take off from carriers (Just fighters or bombers also?)

Will Japanese have kamikazes as one of their unique units?

What there will be air force lines (families) despite of bombers and fighters?

Will nukes be a special unit, which could be loaded on simple bomber or will there be a special kind of nuclear bomber? Also, will there be ICBMs?

Will planes have a range limit, like in EE?

Will planes have a limit on number of bombs/rockets/ammo, like in Red Alert 2?

Will airports have limits on number of planes they can hold?

Will planes have a realistic speed (something what EE lacked - jets had the same speed as infantry)

How will zeppelins be treated? Same as simple bombers or will they be what they what (highly flammable, slow, ultimately long range heavy bombing devices)?

Will there be hot air baloons in enlightment age as a "prequel" to fighters or bombers?

How will air force work? I've heard you'll just specify a target and bombers will fly there automatically. However, how about fighters escort then? Will you be able to specify amount of fighters you want to send with your bombers as an escort?

How about patrolling the airspace? Will your fighters be able to do that?

Will there be helicopters? If so, only transport helicopters or also attack ones (like Apache)?

Will there be cruise missiles?

Thank you for answers to questions before...

[theponyguy1]

Thank you for answering Graham!

Now, for the filled in outline. After all the protest, is BHG even considering having an option that would not feature this, like in EE. In EE, people could change the settings of this if they didn't like. If BHG is considering, (which I hope they are), here are some ideas. Have an outline, just not filled in, like in AOK and The Conquerors. Or just when a unit gets behind a building or tree, for no shadow or outline to appear, and the unit dissapears behind the building or tree, like one of the option in EE. A lot of people said that they disliked the filled in outlines, so why would BHG do something that would upset the fans? PLEASE, reconsider.

[theponyguy1]

Also, when i click on a resource, will it's attributes and name apear in the unit info box? In Cossacks, i hated that. When i clicked on a recource, nothing showed up and i got really confused because the recources looked alike and I didnt know which one to collect for my strategy. Also, the farms in Cossacks were horrible. I had tro wait before I could send my villies to farm. I hope this won't be an issue in RON.

[theponyguy1]

Oh yes, and also, what is the limit on building cities? and how much population does each one give?

[Vushum]

I think the maximum number of cities is 8, not including those you capture.

[Graham@BHG]

"In the later ages, will there still be huts on unique resources, or other things, like factories?"

...getting back to you on that. Yes the merchant huts will change to a more modern looking building in later ages.

"Will there be carriers in RoN. If so, what units will be able to take off from carriers (Just fighters or bombers also?)"

There are indeed Aircraft Carriers. Currently only fighters can take off and land on them.

"Will Japanese have kamikazes as one of their unique units?"

No, although it was considered of course. The idea just wouldn't sit well with some folks, so we left them out...

"What there will be air force lines (families) despite of bombers and fighters?"

That's all the air force lines we have in the game right now. Each line has four different units, although that doesn't include unique aircraft. (there are several of those)

"Will nukes be a special unit, which could be loaded on simple bomber or will there be a special kind of nuclear bomber? Also, will there be ICBMs?"

Nukes are only currently delivered via missiles, constructed at missile silos. There are indeed ICBMs, the ultimate nuke, which is available in the Information Age.

"Will planes have a range limit, like in EE?"

Yes, planes have a limited range. Players occasionally risk forward building airbases at the edge of their borders in order to be able to reach more targets.

"Will planes have a limit on number of bombs/rockets/ammo, like in Red Alert 2?"

I never played Red Alert 2, but our planes certainly can't stay over a target bombing forever. They must return to their airbase to refuel and load up on ammunition.

"Will airports have limits on number of planes they can hold?"

Yes, you have a limited amount of space in each airbase for planes. More airbases = the more planes you can build. At this point, a couple of airbases is enough for quite an impressive air force.

"Will planes have a realistic speed (something what EE lacked - jets had the same speed as infantry)"

As realistic as we can get it. Zeppelins are slow and ponderous for example, while Information Age fighter jets are blazingly fast in comparison to something like infantry.

"How will zeppelins be treated? Same as simple bombers or will they be what they what (highly flammable, slow, ultimately long range heavy bombing devices)?"

They are the first crude unit in the bomber line. They are slow, but they can really beat up on cities with no anti-air units. Zeppelins can be upgraded to the more traditional WWII style bomber.

"Will there be hot air balloons in enlightenment age as a "prequel" to fighters or bombers?"

We do not have balloons...tough to control those things for a bombing run. Interesting thought though.

"How will air force work? I've heard you'll just specify a target and bombers will fly there automatically."

That's pretty much it...no fuss, no muss. While you have your airbase selected, you can specify targets. You can specify how many planes you want to attack each target.

"However, how about fighters escort then?"

You can assign your fighters to patrol an area you're about to send your bombers so that they can clear it of enemy fighters. What I generally do is send my fighters to attack targets with the bombers...a task in which they end up flying with the bombers as an escort would.

"How about patrolling the airspace?"

Whoops, yes...answered above.

"Will there be helicopters?"

Yes, there are attack helicopters in the game.

"Will there be cruise missiles?"

Yes! Handy little devils they are.

"Now, for the filled in outline."

If you wish to not see your units behind buildings, you will be able to perform a small edit to an XML file to make it so. We probably won't have time to add in a button, but you never know.

"Also, when i click on a resource, will it's attributes and name apear in the unit info box?"

None of our resources look the same, or are gathered in the same fashion so I don't think you'll have any sort of problems telling the difference between them. ...except special resources I guess. You gather each of them in the same fashion, but you can click on those to see the various bonuses they give you.

"I had tro wait before I could send my villies to farm."

You don't have to wait for your farms to grow or ripen in our game before you get food from them.

"what is the limit on building cities? and how much population does each one give?"

You limit on building cities is how far down the line of Civics technologies you've researched. There are 8 Civics techs.

Cities do not give you any benefit towards your population limit. To increase your pop limit, you must research another line of technologies at the library.

[The diplomat]

I am a little nervous about the news that there aren't any city walls.

In the RTS games that I have played like Age of Empires, I have found that cities without walls are almost impossible to defend. The enemy can swarm in from lots of directions. You find yourself with enemy units spread all over your city destroying stuff. So, walls are essential to prevent units from storming your city.

How easy will it be to defend a city in RoN?

[Sonic]

Graham, thank you for answers . However, some more questions/notes arisen:

How pre-ICBM nukes and cruise missiles will work? Like in Civilization 3 (moving like a simple unit around the map), or will you only be able to have them in cities? Could they be launched from subs/ships, or jsut from your land territory?

As for hot air baloons, they indead were never used for bombings. However, they were used for reconcaisse purposes since about French revolution/Napoleon era. They were quite useful to watch the terrain where army needs to go, etc - mostly because there were no AA/fighters at a time to kick out these slow and easily flammable baloons. So I meant observation baloons - it would allow to observe all map when that time comes and that would fit nicely with enlightement age title.

As for the limit of bombs ike in Red Alert 2, this means the limit on number of rockets you are able to launch on each raid before coming back to airport. The question ment - will you be able to bomb/attack targets as long as you have fuel or will you have go back to airport before if you launched some amount of rockets/bombs. In Empire Earth for example, bombers had this limit - they wre only able to perform a strike once before having to turn back. WHile fighters and other planes in EE didn't had this limit, they were able to attack as much as they can before fuel runs out.

Again about types of air force. I am quite confused, because at first you said there only will be fighters and bombers, while later you said that there'll also will be attack helicopters. So, three air force types then? Or will there also be transport helicopters/more types of helis, other flying units?

As for launching an air attack, will you ahve to send each bomber/fighter separately (something what annoyed me in EE), or will you be able to select a group of bombers and launch them all against the same target, for example city?

And the last question - will planes suffer attrision from being in peaceful countrie's airspace or being in Russian airspace?

[Graham@BHG]

"How easy will it be to defend a city in RoN?"

It is fairly easy to do. You can build defensive buildings around and in your city and target enemy supply wagons so that they suffer more from attrition.

In most other RTS games you can forward build in another player's territory and train troops right at the site of the battle. In Rise of Nations the defender is the only one who has that advantage, as the attacker's reinforcements must travel from their territory to yours...perhaps suffering from attrition damage along the way if they don't have supply wagons.

"How pre-ICBM nukes and cruise missiles will work?"

They are constructed and launched from missile silos. You can't move missiles around the map as in Civilization.

"So I meant observation baloons - it would allow to observe all map when that time comes and that would fit nicely with enlightement age title."

Cool idea. I believe Cossacks had a tech like that. There are observation posts that you can build for cheap which have a large LOS that perform much the same function.

"will you be able to bomb/attack targets as long as you have fuel or will you have go back to airport before if you launched some amount of rockets/bombs."

I don't think I can answer that question with much certainty right now, as a lot of units are being tweaked still.

"So, three air force types then?"

Whoops. Yes, helicopters would be the third type of air unit. I forgot all about them since they aren't available until the Modern Age, when you can build the other two in Industrial. Currently there is just one type of (attack) helicopter. That may change of course...

"will you be able to select a group of bombers and launch them all against the same target, for example city?"

Yes, or you can instruct them to go one at a time...either is possible.

"will planes suffer attrision from being in peaceful countrie's airspace or being in Russian airspace?"

Air units do suffer attrition when they go into another nation's territory that they are at peace with. Generally though, they do not take attrition damage, even from the Russians.

[tniem]

Attrition keeps coming up and of course you are still tweaking the values, but how much effect does it have? How much does it aid in defense? Does it effectively hurt early game rushing?

Another line of questioning, how is diplomacy going to work? How easy is it going to be? How does it fit in a fast paced RTS game? Does it interupt the flow? Does time stop for diplomacy? How many options will there be? Does the AI know how to use them effectively?

[Kniprode]

Yet more questions

Will it be possible to turn off the Russian Winter? In a Crimean War scenario (for instance), the Russian winter should have no effect. It would be really nice to be able to specify a cycle for seasonality; that would force someone anticipating an attack on Russia (in the northern climes, anyway) to time the attack to avoid the attrition if possible. The Russian player then can try to stall the aggressors until winter comes, conducting periodic skirmishes and strategic withdrawals, while the attacker must go all out regardless of casualties in order to try to take a city (in which attrition is minimized/eliminated) to station his/her troops before winter hits. If attrition due to the Russian Winter is even mildly destructive of an invading army, is on all the time, and can't be defended against by stationing invading troops in a city, I think the fave nation in the multiplayer world has just been found. I'm hoping against this, as then in order to balance the game other compromises on Russian forces will have to be made. And what happens when the Russian player takes a city - does its climate now become "russified", even though it wasn't in the Russian Winter area just prior to the peace treaty? This is going to make scenario creation a bit more unrealistic. I like the idea of Russian Winter, but hope it can be turned off in specific scenarios, and/or can be dealt with by specific strategies like stationing invading troops within conquered cities during the "winter" phase of each game. This would make for great strategy, and you could even make the Russian Winter attrition effect that much harsher for those invaders who don't pay enough heed to the season and are unable to take a city to station their troops.

Possibly as a simpler fix, define the "Russian Winter" by area on the map while you are creating a scenario, rather than simply all areas owned by the Russian player?

[Kniprode]

Walls

Separate question, so a new reply posted. Walls are really, really crucial in an RTS game. I can't imagine a siege of Constantinople without walls. No Great Wall of China to keep out those Mongol Hordes? What about the many walled towns in France, Germany, Italy, and Austria? Many of these Medieval walls were still used as cover for field artillery and men up to WWII. Of course, they didn't stand up as well to modern tanks and howitzers as they did to medieval trebuchets and sappers (although even the latter were successful with enough time and effort). So even if Walls are not allowed in the multiplayer game to promote balance, are they allowed in scenario creation? It sounds as if you had them in an early version of the game, so hopefully its simply a matter of making them available in scenario creation. Of course, this is more problematic if the artwork is not up to par, doesn't have culture or age variations, and all of the hit points/armor etc. specs are not completed.

[One_Dead_Villy]

great idea about the seasonality for russian winter