Anyone else ever play this game? Never see any threads on it but its always been one of my favorites. The CTW campaigns are incredible, immersive and all the nations pretty well balanced (fuck the mayans though). Despite a few things that could be improved it still holds up well to this day. The soundrack is also just pure soul from the very early 2000s. Was it just not that popular or am I one of the few who actually liked it?
Realize my last statement is asking the same thing. Meant was it just underrated or is it considered a bad game. This is one of the few RTS I played so not really sure.
>>2301273Yeah I love this one - the Steam version still has around 700-1000 players. It's just severely hurting in the quality of life area compared to all of the definitive versions coming out as of late. Like, the game is unplayable at 4k because the UI doesn't scale.
>>2301329Definitive versions of this game? I agree about the quality of life in some aspects like traveling on water or seige unit travel patterns. This never became an official esport but there is a dedicated group of “professionals” for this game that used to host tournaments and uplod them to youtube. If you played on Steam its likely you played with some of them.
>>2301273The AoE rock-paper-scissors combat system becomes completely nonsensical after the gunpowder age and once you get airplanes it becomes pretty overwhelming to coordinate your ground and air forces in real time
>>2301273I really like it as a game from infancy but it's almost unplayable on real-time at least for me. It's not as egregious as the Third World War (obscure sega cd game) battle phase at least. Very unfun.
RoN is the only RTS I have played. Its wonder and nation bonuses are great.It's real fuckin' sad that Big Huge Games got fucked by THQ's failure and the cool stuff that could have been instead became the disappointment of Kingdoms of Amalur.>>2301329>Like, the game is unplayable at 4k because the UI doesn't scale.It's remarkable that this is such a widespread problem. I get that scalable UI elements came later and so the era had a set of textures for each resolution range. But no one had the basic future thinking to make just ONE more set way bigger to cover higher resolutions? And there are a lot of examples of games that DO have scaling UIs but they're restricted to hardcoded values so you have to fucking hex-edit to cover a high resolution.
>>2301391If there was ever a time to say skill issue kek. Memes aside can you expand a bit on why it becomes nonsensical? The thing I really didnt like were nukes since the computer spams them to oblivion, and if your playing on toughest or even tougher it can start less than ten minutes into the match. Feels so good to overcome and actually win though in those conditions.
>>2301386Nah, DE versions of the other classic RTS games like AOM, AOE, etc.Rise of Nations EE on Steam is like AOE2HD from 2013 where it technically has some improvements, but said improvements haven't really stood the test of time.>>2301410Yeah It's weird, like the camera functions flawlessly in 4k and you can see much more but the UI just stays microscopic. It affects loads of retro RTS games unfortunately.
>>2301410Always wondered what happened to Big Huge and why I never saw anything else from them. Any favorite nations or wonders you can remember? I played a lot of the conquer the word campaign eventually getting to the point I could beat the comp on toughest. Favorite nation was probably the British just for those archers. Least favorite is Mayans, they just got screwed over with bonuses/UIs that they are so laughably below every other nation. Good for a challenge I guess but could never beat a campaign playing as them. Colossus and Versailles are still the goated wonders.
>>2301423It's only good early game but Terracotta Army is rad.>Always wondered what happened to Big Huge and why I never saw anything else from themKen Rolston left Bethesda during Oblivion's development and joined them to work on a RPG. When THQ folded they got bought and what they had was reworked into the failed MMO.
>>2301391Planes are fine for me, but it's the naval combat that's out of control. It's so retarded and spammy. Either you ignore it or you spend half your time spamming more ships. The rock paper scissors doesn't even matter because they all just converge into a giant pile.>>2301414>can you expand a bit on why it becomes nonsensical?NTA but industrial+ age it does break. Infantry takes repeated direct bazooka hits because they're only supposed to die to tanks and MGs. Or tanks blasting a bazooka guy at point blank range and doing no damage because they're supposed to die to the bazooka guy. The design intent is obvious but it makes industrial+ kind of lame.
>>2301273mid afbland and forgettablea zillion factions which are all indistinct
>>2301546Just believe in the abstraction, my dude. The infantry is spread out and using cover so that a single blast doesn't wipe out a squad. The bazooka guys know how to evade tanks and find a shot on them.
>>2301636Before the industrial age, it works like AoE II or most other 00s RTSs. Individual units fight each other and you don't need to imagine anything beyond the on screen animations. The game doesn't prompt you to start imagining action that isn't there at the industrial age, it just stops making sense. I don't want to pretend something else is happening just to convince myself it works. I like this game but I can admit its flaws
>>2301657Before the industrial age no specialization is *that* effective in a rock-paper-scissors way. Think of a peasant with a crossbow clowning on knights but he's still a shitty peasant.
>>2301546Okay so nonsensical in terms of realism but not in game design. Hard to disagree with but never really bothered me, like other anon said it’s a war not a one on one battle. The naval battles though holy shit youre right kek. I had forgotten about that because I am firmly in the ignore them camp. The only time you should ever need to engage is for fish if youre playing multiplayer. Otherwise you can usually avoid the other player’s navy when crossing. Never played AOE2 though I hear about it constantly, your saying pre-industrial the two are pretty similar?
>>2301581Factions as in the nations? To me they're pretty distinct and all warrant separate play styles and strategies. Any similar games you liked better and would recommend that arent AOE2?
>>2301657That is why you limit the max age to Enlightenment and forget everything else exists.You can also play Alexander, New World and Napoleon campaigns just fine.
>>2301273Played in mid 00s. Enjoyed campaigns. Never cared about skirmish/multiplayer.
>>2301410>>2301410Once upon a time there was this thing called physical releases on media with rather limited space. You can eithera. Allocate space to fuckhuge textures so that time travellers will buy your game and bestow great profit upon you.b. Use that space for more unit types or whatever else you think of that you can advertise on the back of your game's box and appease present peasants .
>>2302789a. You are grossly overestimating the cumulative filesize of ui elements.b. While they may have not wanted to do scaling due to poor algorithms in that era, integer scaling down is no problem. A 4k texture can be halved to 1080 and quartered to 540, eliminating the need for either to be stored and netting a filesize increase of 33% (wowee!).c. >the entire last sentence of that post
>>2301410>>2303128Designing a game from the fucking 2000s in 4k just to scale everything down at runtime and have it look worse has to be one of the stupidest things I've ever heard of, there's absolutely no reason for anyone to ever have done that.
>>2303884>Designing?
>>2301273I was terrible at this game but put tons of hours into it with friends. I'm pretty sure I never learned to make more than one military building per type. Terracotta was my top pic wonder because it macros for you.
i think any rts fan will speak highly of it but it's also a game most people have their fun with for a summer or whatever and move on
What was your favorite campaign?
>>2304642Either Napoleon or the cold war ones, though there all pretty good. Wish there was more variation in regards to New World somehow
>>2304640Fair enough. Wonder if this could have been bigger than AOE with some direct sequels and expansion. Was never a fan of the Rise of Legends that came after. They should have just made new campaigns and expanded on the original.
>>2301273Yes, played a lot when I was a kid, good times. If they made a remaster with new stuff and nations I'd buy it in a heartbeat
>>2304762>remaster
>>2304804Ok, maybe a definitive edition then
>>2301273shit game. every time this turd gets posted here i make a double take. wtf is wrong with you retards that this unfinished slop of a ''game'' peaqes your attention. the only good thing about it is the opening cinematic and the OST. wannabe multiplayer e-sports walmart age of empires. And im being generous here.
>>2304991It's fun
>>2305023much better games out there.
>>2303884You're treating a rebuttal to some guy being a condescending prick as if it were the actual argument. The actual argument is right there at the top (assuming that you aren't a fucking retard and can do one single step of extrapolation): that devs should have some basic foresight so users don't have to hack their shit to make it playable.
>>2304991This guy gets conquered on easy difficulty lol
>>2304804Don't just blindly bitch about shit at every opportunity, you huge faggot. We already know that is possible to redo something faithfully and well. The question is whether that's what will happen if a game is remastered and for that you have to look at who owns the rights. Whining incessantly leads to good remasters getting taken out along with shit ones.
>>2305058
>>2304991>peaqes
>>2305063Why are you quoting yourself?
>>2305058Remaster would be a great idea. All they would need to do is fix some glitches, update graphics and it would be a success for me. Even better if they added in some new campaigns too. Not sure what that guy is upset over.
>>23050701/10 apply yourself
>>2305072>All they would need to do is fix some glitches, update graphics and it would be a success for me. Even better if they added in some new campaigns too.Sure, plus a free blowjob for all customers. What can go wrong? Except the last time they tried it they introduced a whole new set of bugs and somehow managed to break the game. Extended Edition literally requires you to install a fucking community patch to work properly
>>2305072Oh and enjoy the new campaign where you'll get to play as Harriet Tubman or Aunt Jemima or whoever and rid the world from evil white Europeans or something. Sounds fun
>>2305093>>2305096see >>2305058
>>2305104
>>2305107Nothing has even entered production. There is nothing in the metaphorical ass. Stop being a willful retard.
>>2305110There are literally two cocks in your ass
>>2305112Thank you for admitting that you have no argument.
>>2305117No wait sorry. That's your mom's ass
see >>2305082
It's OK your mom is a crack whore but currently there is nothing in her ass since she is going through a metaphorical dry spell
>>2305093>>2305096Thinking more like a Genghis Khan campaign with the Mongols or maybe something from the Persians or Romans. I get where you're coming from though, they would almost certainly fuck something up I just need more RON
>>2305093>>2305096We calm and consume you shitty wannabe Starcraft indie slop
>>2305058>>2305050lmao someone's fee-fees get hurt fast
>>2301765>unc's idea of a game with distinct factions is aoe2lollmao evenaoe4 has legitimately distinct factions which really do play differently but ofc the goat faction diversity goes to wc3 although i know you'll say that plays too differently and your calcified geezer brain just wants to play the same game forevereven dune had better faction variety
>>2305539I cannot tell if youre trying to insult me or the other guy. Mentioned AOE2 because thats the one that usually gets brought up.
>>2305072They could follow the AoE2:DE route. That went pretty well imo
>>2305507What did the ESL mean by this?
>>2301273RoN was a good but never great game. IMO it never took off bc it lacked the depth that made others like AoE2 stand the test of time. Playing as a kid, I got frustrated with how easy it was to turtle. I believe the fact that resources are inexhaustible makes it much easier to defend; along with the border and attrition system (which are neat concepts) it makes attacking overly punishing.
RoN has some OK ideas, but it's an RTS game for people who hate RTS. Attacking is insanely punishing, so all you really do is try to out-turtle the opponent. The map generation sucks balls so there's no real incentive to expand. The unit counters and movement are painful to deal with.
I NEED FOOD
>>2306048>>2306053Fair criticisms, though in CTW you need to defend initially since you start out behind. Turtling is a viable strategy but its by no means the only one, especially on higher difficulties where you need to show aggression early on (raiding and scouting are key) to avoid being steamrolled. Early onslaught attacks can also be detrimental since youre constantly losing resources/buildings and possibly not collecting if your citizens are garrisoned/killed. Ive never played AOE2 but am interested. What are some specific things they do better in your opinion?
>>2306067I...UH...I NEED KNOWLEDGE
>>2306097Firstly, the tighter focus means that the unit counters are a lot more intuitive and meaningful. This extends beyond things like attack modifiers, but also how each "Age" introduces a brand new type of unit that you can roll out to expand strategies. Knights are punchy when they hit the field and you feel it. It's not like in RoN where it's just another "unit" that is running around. The smoother pathfinding in AoE also makes it just feel better to move your guys around. Attacks are snappier, formations merge and change direction like you expect them too.The presentation I feel in AoE is also so much stronger than RoN. RoN is just a bunch of flat maps and occasionally you see a mountain doodad. AoE maps actually feel like places with more detailed sprites, creatures running around, and tactical effects of terrain (attacking from higher terrain or over cliffs confers additional damage). RoN has ok unit sprites, but I am shocked every time I boot it up how low quality the sound is. The bitrate of all the effects are really, really low, and the music is just snooze inducing.Lastly, AoE has great campaigns. I tried the RoN Risk-style campaigns a couple of times but could not get into them with the constant repeat missions or AI that has no idea how to behave. AoE actually makes an effort to include some scripting and tense moments in their levels. The DE DLC's actually show an amazing progression of campaign design when you reach trios like Dawn of The Dukes, which tells the story of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the defeat of the Teutonic Order, and the Hussite Rebellions. Lots of great writing and unique mechanics in each mission with really, really nice pacing.Lastly, if you are into it, multiplayer balancing is a lot better. I used to play a lot of multiplayer, but I don't anymore. The game just "feels" better to play.
>>2301273for me, it's Battle at Witch Creek https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bjAwW7tTxQ
>>2306120kek
>>2306372Based. For me its The Russian https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=18xusjopmKE&pp=0gcJCR4Bo7VqN5tD>>2306213Thanks for the reply. I think the biggest thing that has kept me away from AOE is the general design. For me its always looked a bit childish. I just started watching a playthrough of the Kings campaign though. Agree with the storytelling as its more immersive than the wall of text in RON. The formations and units arent really impressing me so far as they look kind of goofy, ill stick with it though as the actual campaign is interesting.
>>2306666The formations are more to make unit pathfinding easier and more intuitive, as units in a formation with each other will ignore collision, unlike in RoN where everyone drunkenly stumbles into each other and breaks down immediately. Line, Staggered, and Flanking formations do have meaningful gameplay impacts though if you are trying to avoid things like catapults.
>>2301546Naval combat is based as fuck in RoN.Your either forced to make 1/3rd your units naval, or risk unsupported landings/harassment. If you get fucked out of having a navy anything near oceans can be destroyed with bombard ships, and you can easily capture and hold a city just by putting your units under them, or bleed out enemy armies because the splash damage from the ships hits multiple ones, and with great frequency. Groups of 3-5 work fine 2 isn't enough.Or you risk it, and find that one place where the enemy cant see you and sneak a huge force in after faking a landing on the place farthest from it, and having an advantage because they have a large navy.Fish+whales are also one of the few easy and reliable ways to make gold early game, so good luck.Also in MP/custom you can limit it to never go past gunpowder age and the game is far better.
>>2301763>Otherwise you can usually avoid the other player’s navy when crossing.Patrol function. Just have three ships set to patrol three long distances, and assign your other ships to follow them at will, you can now converge on their navy and box them in, or reinforce yours or retreat and leave behind the damaged ones and it often times allows you to intercept their landings.Also if you follow quick ships with slow ones it trails them and creates a larger area of you being able to see, automatically. Flanking decide battles, ontop of RPS, but in reality this means spam mini gunners and rocket troops, and have your mini gunners set to not move, and base all attacks on leapfrogging your anti infantry. While you have a fast moving force that comes in from the flanks, while this tactic stops being applicable for the last two ages.V2 bombs are fun cause if you are a dink you can build a fuckload and use them to make them think an attack is going to happen in x location and split their forces, or toss a bunch at a city and see what happens.
>>2308959>>Also in MP/custom you can limit it to never go past gunpowder age and the game is far better.That seems to be the most common "solution" to latter age problems offered here. It's pretty bad game design if you have to block out half the ages for it to not annoy you.
>>2308959I just find it so weird and clunky that every single unit becomes its own ship, they shouldve used transports.
What would you all add?>each city gives +10 market cap for each resource, making agression more rewarding>cavalry doesn't receive attrition until patriotism, to encourage actual raiding>split Medieval era in two (mostly so the castle can be used for longer) but also for late-antiquity and high medieval split >add split Industrial era for a Victorian times, with rifled muskets and gatling guns, can start gathering Oil. Maybe some kind of railroad feature that sends a very-fast moving transport to a selected city/railroad junction >Norse civ that goes from Vikings to Caroleans (north europe architecture)>Portuguese civ but idk how to make different from Spain, Dutch, and Nubians>Polish civ >some kind of south Slav or Hungarian (who can also be the Austrians)>eastern Europe architecture for Russians, Polish, and Balkan option>Brits and Norse receive a more Protestant looking Church during Gunpowder era, Germans, too, if choose President over King>Chinese share Korean architecture Spitballing ideas>Thai or Khmer civ (using South Asian architecture?)>Indonesian or Malay civ >Polynesian civ>Malian or Ghanaian civ>Cherokee or Missippian civ>Mongolian campaign
>>2313448also, throw in a Brazil, Gran Columbia, and Arabian civ while we're at it
>>2301273Loved this game. I became good enough to beat the hardest AI (+50% cheating), which was much harder than beating most +50% cheating AI (SupCom, AoE3, Ashes of Singularity).Favorite economic system, but boring military gameplay, made even worse in the extension with unsnippable heroes generals, which was the only real micro the game had. Empire Earth military gameplay was similar but much better.Also, Dutchs have one of the most broken mechanic in very late game I have ever seen in a RTS, making the Broodlord Infestors Zerg of Wing of Liberty looks balanced.
>>2313448Agree with all of these, NINTENDO HIRE THIS MAN
>>2313448>What would you all add?Reasonably simulated projectile physics to kick in at the gunpowder age, to replace the rock paper scissors formula that becomes nonsensical in later ages. This was already feasible in the early 00s in games like cossacks and blitzkreig and would fix all of the rock paper scissors issues of the latter ages. It would also make cannons and gunships much cooler to use
>>2301273Mogs the absolute fuck out of age of empires and I have no idea why it died and AOE didn’t. Empire Eternal looks like it will be in the same zip code as RoN and it has a page up on steam.
>>23063724me. its https://youtu.be/r2OYEU1D42k?list=PLh4Eme5gACZGehSPzOTy0F8gQ4bOA-SjO>>2301273This game was my childhood. Fave nation probably Egypt but I always go random. Least favorite definitely Lakota or whichever one couldn't build farms. It was a flawed game in retrospect but it's so much more polished than other RTS's at the time that it's the only one I still play sometimes. Enlightenment age end is a must, unless you really love spamming infinite instantly produced troops at each other until the one with slightly more economic and/or reflex edge gradually and painstakingly ekes out the win (or you use too many nukes and lose..)
Loved Rise Of Nation and I'm sad it never got a sequel or a spiritual successor. The only real problem with the game is that it becomes hard to manage or pay attention to your stuff after a certain point. They really needed to create a vassal/client/puppet state system.
>>2313448Siege weapons that deal splash damage.Allow clipping in units moving in formation.
Is there a good mod with more content?
Havent played this but how does it compare to Empire earth or Age of empires?Have come very close to getting this game many times over the years
>>2316252It is sad that they abandoned the Rise of Nations formula for Rise of Legends. RoL is basically 50% RoN, 50% Warcraft 3.Nobody asked for this, symmetrical maps are soulless compared to generated maps, the economic system is bad and has a critical design flaw.The setting is quite kino and the combat is funnier, but that is all it has.
>>2301581>a zillion factions which are all indistinctDidn't hurt AoE2
>>2316423Better than Empire Earth. Worse than Age of Empires. The biggest problems are lackluster singleplayer.
I'd like to see something like pic rel in a RoN2 that will never happen.
>>2322027>mokcup
>>2316423Really depends what you're looking forBoth EE and AoE have way better campaignsRON has the best QoL features by far but AoE is simple enough that the relative lack of automatic actions isn't THAT bad.EE has the best sense of scale and of the three has the most epic feeling large maps with pretty high popcap for its time.RON has best soundtrack (see the rest of this thread) but EE has best sound direction (early attempt at dynamic background music, distinctive sounds for all attacks, death shouts, voice lines for all hero units, etc.)RON has the most in-depth economy / city building. Also, the combination of territory following cities and attrition damages removes a lot of the tedium of cleanup operations when capturing enemy territory (though some may argue it makes it too expensive to attack in the early- and midgame).Back then I liked EE the most but it is WAY more jank than the other two in a lot of ways. At the time the jank was cool and endearing but it's more noticeable now.
>>2301273Is there any mods worth playing?
>>2322027Who owns the rights? Microsoft? Weird they haven't done anything with this IP. So many civilization clones coming out you'd think someone would make a new Rise of Nations.>>2316423I like RoN but I wouldn't say it was better than Empire Earth, definitely not AoE.Its more like someone tried to merge Civilization with Age of Empires so you have borders built around influence like in Civilization.Just a basic sequel with some innovation would sell pretty good I imagine.
>>2323361>Weird they haven't done anything with this IPThey spent a solid decade focused on resurrecting AoE to which RoN would be a direct competitor. Maybe now that AoE is officially back they can try a remaster cash grab. But I doubt enough people would paly that to justify a full resurrection like with AoE
>>2323327None that were finished.
>>2316229>unless you really love spamming infinite instantly produced troops at each other until the one with slightly more economic and/or reflex edge gradually and painstakingly ekes out the winso like WW1
>>2301273played this when i was 5 and it gave me autism10/10https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeYH-2_93qY is seared into my brain, it always plays whenever you drop a nuke on someone
>>2306048aoe2 is alright but i don't think it's any better than RoN or similar games of that period. it just has better support.this idea that aoe2 is some sort of be all end all rts game is a very recent one.
