RevolutionDCM for Rise of Nations

[glider1]

This thread would be a good place to discuss a little mod I have made to Rise of Nations Thrones and Patriots some time ago. It is better that this work does not go to waste. The concept is to slow the game down so that it has more of a single player civ like feel without destroying the balance of the game or the experience of a real time battle. This is not a simple task for a variety of game balance reasons, but it has been satisfactorily achieved through some active script coding. The challenges for human players in this mod are more interesting and the AI has been improved in three areas as well (see below). The script code is very stable.

The mod is attached below. I have uploaded it to Ron Heaven as well.
Cheers.

EDIT: Version 2 just changes the balance a little bit and adds some more text. It's only balanced on Warring States maps at the moment but I can adjust it for other maps if there is interest. It also adds an option (that is off but can be turned on) where the game automatically pauses at the moment a battle begins, so that players can save the game, reload and record the battle as it unfolds (to get around the saved replay game bug).

 

[msteiner]

Have you visited Rise of Nation Heaven or its forum? Its the last surviving RoN community and if you're looking for more activity, please do visit, upload your mod, and register on the forum.

 

[glider1]

Hi Msteiner
Yep. Rise of Nations Heaven is a nice site and I agree that it should be supported.
Cheers

 

[msteiner]

Cool Stuff!!!

 

[msteiner]

I just advertised your mod on the RoN Heaven Forum, so you should see a large influx in downloads.

However, I would greatly suggest that you upload the mod to RoN Heaven so you can get even more downloads.

 

[glider1]

Thanks msteiner
I did put a heap of work into it at the time. It produces nice games if you learn how to tweak it for your own playing style. It's basically set up for tougher difficulty. The mod is on RoN heaven download page.
Cheers.

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

Tell me more...

 

[glider1]

@Thorvald of Lym
'x' is my reality Thorvald! For I do not know what reality is and am blind to it.

To adjust the difficulty, modify the scenario script right at the end where main execution occurs at the lines marked:

// Here the human player looses x percent of their resources to make it easier for the AI.
// All resources are handicapped including knowledge. This has the same effect to increasing
// the difficulty level beyond toughest if that were possible.
float ai_handicap = 25; // percent is the default handicap
if (get_current_age(human) == 1) ai_handicap = 16; // up to age 3, the AI on tougher level is a better resource collector 
if (get_current_age(human) == 2) ai_handicap = 20; // even without considering corruption in the human nation.
if (get_current_age(human) == 3) ai_handicap = 24; 
if (get_current_age(human) == 4) ai_handicap = 26; // by age 4, the human on tougher is on par with resource collection
if (get_current_age(human) == 5) ai_handicap = 28; 
if (get_current_age(human) == 6) ai_handicap = 30; // from age 6 onwards, the human is a much better resource collector
if (get_current_age(human) == 7) ai_handicap = 32; 
if (get_current_age(human) == 8) ai_handicap = 34;

You are looking to create an ai_handicap curve across the ages that works for 'u'.
Cheers.

 

[Danwood]

Wow Glider, this is awesome!

I expecially like the 30 min break feature, really NEEDED (no kidding) since i use to stick to the PC for a huge amount of hours :S

Few questions if i may:

-Can it be played in multiplayer (with a friend using the mod as well) ?
-Can i enable default FOV setting (i like seeing my ally getting attacked , but i know why you recommended to use the no-fov option, in order to let the player learn scouting, right?)
-Can i use a slower tech advancement option, or it'll mess with the balance?

Thanks, hope the thread isn't still totally dead

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

Someone who's played through? Tell me, what exactly are the features of this mod? I'm rather averse to downloading anything that doesn't come with a description, benign or otherwise.

 

[glider1]

Wow Glider, this is awesome!
I expecially like the 30 min break feature, really NEEDED (no kidding) since i use to stick to the PC for a huge amount of hours :S

Really glad you enjoyed it Danwood. The 30 minute break option is there because this mod intense enough lasting 4-5 hours that it could give you deep vein thrombosis if you aren't forced to take a break (It can be turned off). I'd say from memory, I poured hundreds of hours into it's development including some improvements to the AI.

I wish we could make the maps bigger!! That would allow for even more expansive games. However I don't think it is possible unless we get access to the code. RoN is an amazing game way ahead of it's time! It's got features in it that not even vanilla Civ5 has got, and despite being real time, the AI is still comparable with vanilla Civ5 and in fact with this mod, there is not that much difference between it and Civ5 vanilla, just that Rise of Nations code is much more efficient and visionary (real time 1UPT with well thought out abilities to control the formation of your armies to minimize micromanagement).

@Thorvald
The readme does have lots of details especially about the correct game setup for this mod.

Here is a quote I made over at the the RoN forums to help better explain the mod:
"Thanks Wadis. To balance out the game at the slower gather rate requires active scripting like this mod does. There is no way to balance it just using xml.

The first thing you to notice, is that even though the gather rate is four times as slow as vanilla, the ability to continue a war time economy during a real time battle is not impeded and the AI will be able to produce defenders during the battle. This cannot happen in a balanced way if you slow the gather rate down without coded scripting.

The second thing to notice is that the attacking party can do balanced raiding damage as well, and they can damage the economy very much like the vanilla game. This also cannot be done if you slow the gather rate done without coded scripting.

The third really nice thing to notice, is that you can customize the human handicap rate for each age to tailer your preferred playing style against the AI. The default handicap is designed to allow both the AI and human to rush in the ancient and classical ages, but to slow the human player down significantly in the latter ages, where the AI becomes quite inefficient, despite a few scripting algorithms I have added to try and improve that. This makes the latter ages much more enjoyable and challenging.

There are a lot of unplayable maps in RoN because of the limited AI, but so far I've worked on Warring States and it plays pretty nice. Of course the script file can be copied, renamed and the handicaps tailored for each type of map as well.

It is a pity that a lot of the AI code is unavailable to modify, but this is the best that can be done. There is still some more scope if there is any interest to continue this mod.

Enjoy! RoN is now a lot of fun, like a game of civ"

Cheers