Just curious to know if anyone has played the new Rise of Nations Gold Edition yet, and how it compares to Civ3 (just been reading a feature (http://www.apple.com/games/articles/2004/12/riseofnations/) on RON over at the Apple site).

Just curious to know if anyone has played the new Rise of Nations Gold Edition yet, and how it compares to Civ3 (just been reading a feature (http://www.apple.com/games/articles/2004/12/riseofnations/) on RON over at the Apple site).

Hi fruno! Here is a copy/paste of a personal review I posted over at IMG. I really like RoN. You will not get the "think-deep" experience, but it's not as much a click-fest as you might think of re: RTS games.

RoN Gold is a very good game. I'm more a fan of TBS strategy games, but RoN's pause feature, similar to HOI and EU2, allows me to mull over decisions. Now, utilizing the pause feature doesn't make one a very strong player in MP, but I rarely play MP. I find RoN a very good SP game. On the tough difficulty level and up, the AI's use of spies will drive a human to frustration quickly. However, a massive invading AI army is easily diverted by a handful of units attacking on a second front, giving the human player an advantage in building forces, collecting resources, advancing tech levels, and/or repairing damage.

I give RoN Gold a 9/10 because it keeps me coming back. With the civs and their various bonuses and UUs, one can try a number of strategies. I highly recommend the Infidels Clan website.

My criticism of RoN Gold is that specific units do not draw certain parts when "low" detail is selected. For most of these units, it works. But, merchants, horse drawn artillery, etc. do not have horses on "low" detail. Uh, that's wierd. An srtillery piece moving across the field of battle with no men or horse accompanying it.

Other Personal Reviews (http://www.insidemacgames.com/reviews/user_reviews.php?ID=546)

Btw, my wife and I are planning a trip to England (London, etc.) this coming July. Any recommendations? Going "on-the-cheap" of course.

Re: Civ3

There are those who claim RoN blends TBS elements. I personally think that is a stretch. About the only thing that allows RoN to make that claim is the pause feature.

The inclusion of governments is another aspect similar to Civ3, but RoN Gold governments are geared toward specfic strats a player is trying to utilize, otherwise RoN governments are simply curb-appeal. And, there are no negative consequences attached to each form of government in RoN. Despotism v. Democracy is simply a matter of which bonus you want at the moment.

Victory in RoN falls along the lines of clasic RTS games, defeat the enemy = war. Civ3 offers more in this area, by far. But, RoN Gold does allow the player to select condiitons for victory that are more interesting in my personal opinion. I use custom diplomacy where coexistence does come into play for part of the game.

RoN units win hands down. From spies and special ops to excellent UUs, I much prefer the unit options in RoN. Make sure you bring along the helis to take out enemy armor.

I don't play the Conquer the World mode, but there are those who prefer it. It definitely brings in a turn-based approach, but doesn't go far enough for me. I really like Spartan's set-up w/ turn-based elements and real time battles.

Hi dojoboy, thanks for the replies and your views on RoN. I was thinking of buying it but I've never really enjoyed RTS games as much as TBS ones, like Civ3 and EU2. Games like 'Age of Empires' used to annoy the hell out of me because they were so 'thin' in terms of strategy (and victory conditions) and very unwieldy and too rapid in terms of unit management. Still not convinced enough to buy it - am really holding out for Crusader Kings :king:

Re. coming to England/London in July... what sort of things are you looking to do/see? Museums, galleries, castles... ? There are a TON of excellent museums in London...

National Maritime Museum (www.nmm.ac.uk/) in Greenwich (with the Royal Observatory nearby on the hill. Lots of good restaurants and pubs in Greenwich too!)
Victoria and Albert Museum (www.vam.ac.uk)
British Museum (www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk)
Imperial War Museum (www.iwm.org.uk)
Museum of London (www.museum-london.org.uk)

There are also things like the London Eye (http://www.londoneye.com/) and Leeds Castle (http://www.leeds-castle.com/) (which is in Kent, a short-ish train journey away from London).

I can honestly say you'll enjoy RoN more than AoE. There are a lot of improvements over AoE, such as worker assignments. Once you assign a worker, that's it. No MM of workers. I've not been discouraged by unit management, mainly due to the ability to pause. My best MP game was a "coop" game where I teamed with another human player against two CPUs. It was real fun, took about 45 minutes.

Thanks for the links on England. Museums and castles are definite stopping points. But, so are the pubs! :) What is the name for public transportation (rail) in England, so I can search prices on the web? Also, I'm going to be doing a bit of Q&A of the citizenry with questions geared toward British/European perspectives on America/Americans for use in my geography course. I'm planning to do spot interviews and a standard questionnaire.

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

Thanks AlanH!. Very nice. :)

...am really holding out for Crusader Kings :king:


VP has commented in their forums that they will be publishing Crusader Kings, and HOI2. :)

Re: Civ3

There are those who claim RoN blends TBS elements. I personally think that is a stretch. About the only thing that allows RoN to make that claim is the pause feature.


Actually, it's the Conquer the World (CtW) mode that really makes it a TBS game, IMHO. Instead of having to RTS through a whole game, you have turns broken up by short RTS battles. There's even some strategy in the CtW mode. I actually find it a better game overall than CIV III, for reasons too complex to go into here. One reason that I prefer it to RTS games I've tried in the past is that THE RESOURCES DON'T RUN OUT. This seems like a minor thing, but it makes a really big difference in the play experience. Much less micromanagement and more time to enjoy the fighting. Runs beautifully on my dual 800/GeForce3, too. Highly recommended, but get the excellent Sybex strategy guide, one of the few in recent years that's actually worth the money. Besides, for a change, us Mac folks get the whole game for one price instead of having to shell out for the basic game and the expansion pack like the PC types did. Thanks MacSoft - this one almost takes away the bad taste left by Master of Orion III. :goodjob:

Thanks MacSoft - this one almost takes away the bad taste left by Master of Orion III. :goodjob:

Yeah, I never got into playing MOO3 at all - the overall interface design seemed so unwieldy....

VP has commented in their forums that they will be publishing Crusader Kings, and HOI2. :)

Great news on Crusader Kings!
:king:

i have rise of nations without any expansion packs or anything. never do i recall government changes. also, i was disappointed with spending $30 on it. on the 3rd dificulty (i believe), i finished a game in an hour. it was absolute chaos! nuclear bombs EVERYWHERE! never again will i play that game ... EVER!

i have rise of nations without any expansion packs or anything. never do i recall government changes.

Governments are introduced in the expansion pack (T&P), which is bundled w/ RoN in the mac version (RoN Gold).

on the 3rd dificulty (i believe), i finished a game in an hour. it was absolute chaos! nuclear bombs EVERYWHERE! never again will i play that game ... EVER!

When war is taking place after flight is introduced, then it does get busy. Did you try any game variations, like the diplomacy mode?