Rise of Nations is a real-time strategy computer game, developed by Big Huge Games and published by Microsoft on May 20, 2003. The development of the game was led by veteran Brian Reynolds, of Civilization II and Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Concepts taken from turn-based strategy games have been added into the game—including territories and attrition warfare. Rise of Nations features 18 civilizations, playable through 8 ages of world history.
On April 28, 2004, Big Huge Games released Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots, an expansion pack. Later that year, a Gold edition of Rise of Nations was released, which included both the original and the expansion.
Microsoft acquired the intellectual property for the Rise of Nations franchise in 2013. Together with developer Skybox Labs , the game received graphics improvements, bug fixes, updates necessary to play on modern systems, Steam-based multiplayer (ranked and unranked), Twitch integration, Steamworks integration, as well as Steam Trading Cards. The expansion Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots was included in this new release. Rise of Nations: Extended Edition was released on Steam on June 12, 2014.
Overview[]
Rise of Nations employs the concept of "territory," as employed in the Civilization long series of games; the area near the player's settlements is considered their territory, and players may only construct buildings within their .
Citizens (resource-collecting workers) in Rise of Nations don't remain idle after creation until orders are given to them; rather, after a brief pause, idle citizens look for any nearby construction sites, unoccupied resource gathering sites, or damaged buildings and automatically move to build, gather, or repair there. This option can be disabled if desired. All resource patches in Rise of Nations are infinite, unlike the finite amount of resources found in, for example, Warcraft single-player campaigns; the main limit is the player's maximum-collection-rate cap, which must be upgraded via research.
Unlike most RTS games, which feature three (Warcraft), only two resources (StarCraft, Warhammer 40,000:Dawn of War) or even one (Homeworld, Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars), there are six resources in Rise of Nations, five of which (Food, Timber, Metal, Oil, and Wealth) are used mostly to build units and buildings. The sixth resource, Knowledge, is used for researching technologies, though it is also necessary for the construction of missiles and the last two Wonders (Super Collider and Space Program). Despite this proliferation of resources, each building, technology or unit type requires only one or two types to build; thus, gameplay is streamlined. While creating harvesting infrastructure can be time-consuming, it is partially eased by the fact that certain resources only become very available after progressing to a certain age; for instance, the player cannot harvest Oil until they have entered the Industrial Age because oil was not needed until after the Industrial Revolution.
As in the Civilization series, any nation can be played during any age, regardless of that nation's fate throughout actual history. Some unique units are based on units that those factions had, if certain nations were not destroyed in real-life history: for example, the Native American nations (the Aztecs, Maya, and Inca) have unique units in the Modern and Information ages which resemble real-world Iberian-South American
guerrillas. The end conditions are also made to be historically neutral, in that one can win the game by a capital capture, territorial superiority, researching four dominating technologies, or the usual wonder and score victories. It is also worth noting that the same city can be built by multiple nations: if the Romans, Greeks, and Turks are found in the same game, it is possible that the cities of Byzantium, Constantinople, and Istanbul will co-exist during the same game, despite the fact that these are different historical names for the same city.
Each of the 18 nations in Rise of Nations has special advantages called Nation Powers, along with three to eight unique units spread throughout the ages.
Rise of Nations uses a hybrid 2D/3D engine to render buildings, but a 3D engine to render units, terrain, and special effects.
Gameplay[]
Gameplay focuses heavily on creating a balance between offense, defense, and the nation's economy based in the city. In each battle economy is vital is to win. If a nation loses all the cities it controls, the game is immediately lost. Leadership is also a major factor, like in most RTS games; this includes a knowledge of the troops and what they are good at fighting (pikemen will kill cavalry easier than cannon will). Learning the surrounding terrain of your empire to defend from attack and to flank an enemy army will allow a player to fight more efficiently. Generals can also be created from a fort to aid an army.
There are five tactical formations available, including the ability to compress or expand the line of battle. When a formation is chosen, the selected units automatically reposition themselves accordingly, typically with faster moving units in the front and slower moving, vulnerable units in the rear. With sufficient skill in creating proper unit distributions in an army and fielding that army, it is possible to defeat a numerically superior enemy in Rise of Nations.
In a manner similar to chess, slight strategic mistakes early in the game can turn into major tactical problems later on. For example, if a player starts with the nomad setting (where no city is build at startup) it is wise to scout for an area that has resources before building a city, for without resources there is no army and the player will lose.
Units[]
There are more than 200 different types of units in Rise of Nations, ranging from the Ancient Age Hoplite to the Information Age Stealth Bomber. Military units are created at certain structures: the Barracks, Stable, Siege Factory, Dock, Airbase, Missile silo and Fort. Unit types such as Light Infantry, Heavy Infantry and Ranged Cavalry are upgraded as the player advances through the ages. These upgrades usually represent revolutionary changes in their particular field. For example, the Arquebusier of the Gunpowder Age becomes the Musketeer of the Enlightenment Age, representing the great advantage of flintlock muskets over the earlier matchlock muskets and showing increased attack power and reload speed.
Each nation gets its own set of unique units, replacing standard units in certain ages. For example, the Greeks can build Companion cavalry; the Russians can build Red Guards infantry and T-80 tanks; the British can build Longbowmen, Highlanders, and Lancaster Bombers; and the Germans get the Tiger and Leopard tanks.
Because of the wide variety of units in the game, players have the opportunity to create an army customized to their tastes. Most units have a cost that is roughly equal to that of their peers. Additionally, most units use only two resource types, making the creation of diverse armies easier and almost required. Terraced costs further contribute to the incentive for a diverse army, as each additional unit a player creates of a single type will cost more (this is also known as "ramping up").
Wonders[]
Wonders are an important type of building in the game. They are real-life structures ranging from the Colossus, and Pyramids to the Supercollider and Space Program. They improve resource gathering and also provides many other benefits to the game. Building wonders can also win you the game from wonder victory which is a custom setting of the game. Wonders can be built starting in the Classical Age. The only exception is the Egyptians can make wonders at a earlier age. As you progress in the game the wonder points for wonders are higher.
Campaign[]
A single player campaign, Conquer the World, is included in the game. It is comparable to the board game Risk, except that attacks on enemy territories take place as RTS battles rather than being resolved with dice rolls. The player can also purchase reinforcements or bonus cards and engage in diplomacy with other nations. The campaign starts at the Ancient Age and progresses slowly over the course over the campaign to end at the Information Age. Within the context of a battle, it may be possible to advance to the next available age (and thus benefit from the associated potential unit upgrades in that battle).
Multiplayer[]
On Microsoft Windows Rise of Nations previously used the GameSpy matchmaking service. GameSpy stopped supporting this in December 2012. Rise of Nations: Extended Edition currently uses Valve Corporation's Steam service for multiplayer.
On Mac OS X, Rise of Nations previously used GameRanger as a matchmaking service.
Cross platform play is not supported between Windows and Mac users. Rise of Nations: Extended Edition was not released on Mac.
Rise of Nations uses an Elo rating system to rank players.
Reception[]
Rise of Nations received many positive reviews from most websites and magazines and won several awards.
Reviews[]
- PC Gamer (UK) - 88%
- PC Gamer (US) - 95% (Editor's Choice)
- PC Format - 93%
- Gamesmaster UK - 89%
- GameSpot - 9.3/10 (Editor's Choice)
- IGN - 8.2/10
- GameSpy - 90/100
- Eurogamer - 9/10
- Maximum PC -10/10
Awards[]
- GameSpy 2003 Game of the Year - PC RTS
- GameSpy Top 10 RTS Games
- Best Strategy Game of 2003 by Gamespot
- Best PC Game of 2003 by Gamespot
Sales[]
Rise of Nations and its expansion pack Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots have received combined sales of over 1 million copies.
Development overview[]
- Publisher: Microsoft
- Number of full-time developers: 26
- Number of contractors: 16
- Length of development: 3 years
- Release date: May 20, 2003
- Target platform: PC
- Development hardware: WinXP PC
- Development software used: Boundschecker, Altova XMLSpy, Araxis Merge, MacroExpress, PCLint, 3DS Max, Character Studio, MS Developer Studio 6.0, Perforce Source Control, Xoreax Incredibuild, Visual Assist, Workspace Whiz, Alexsys Team, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere, Intel VTUNE
- Project size: *.C, *.CPP, *.H: 1,721 total source files, 837, 939 total lines, 24,610,223 total bytes; *.BHS: 46 total files, 24,330 total lines, 966,289 total bytes[1]