|
Version 0.75 By Ryan Ries Otherwise, keep reading for an introduction to the game and its rules. Introduction Spud's Rise of Nations Multiplayer Epic Global Domination Super-Campaign (hereafter reffered to as "The Game") was created as a result of my intense fondness for the computer game Rise of Nations, combined with my desire to see a multiplayer version of the "Conquer the World" campaign that can be found in the single-player portion of the game. Think Risk, but with the territory disputes being settled with bouts of Rise of Nations. As you might expect, The Game ends only when one player controls the entire globe, crushing all others under their iron fist. Therefore, it could take weeks to months to finish an entire campaign. There is no set schedule for when the gaming sessions are to take place -- they are made on a case by case basis as agreements between the individual players. We all have different lives and schedules. This is designed as a very slow-paced campaign. The suggested game mechanics that I have set forth thus far are preliminary in nature, and I am always open to suggestions on how to improve the experience. Please use my discussion board freely for this subject, or email me with any suggestions or comments. Getting Started What you will need to play: 1. A computer that can play the PC game Rise of Nations. 2. A copy of Rise of Nations AND the expansion pack, Thrones and Patriots. (The "Gold Edition" also works. Contact me if you have trouble securing a copy of the game.) 3. After installing, click the "Check for Updates" button on the main menu of the game to update to the current version. 4. If you are behind a router/firewall, make sure the appropriate ports are forwarded to your computer so that you are able to host and join Internet games. Check this page for a guide on setting up your router. 5. An instant messaging program, preferrably MSN, so that you can communicate easily with the other participants of The Game. (MSN me at spud347@gmail.com) Alternately, you could just use my discussion board if you'd rather not share your contact information. 6. Bookmark this page, as I will be using this portion of the website to maintain the records and data necessary to operate The Game. How it Works First, any player that wants to participate must pick a Nation and a Color. In Rise of Nations, the nations available are:  Refer to the Game Page if a game is currently in progress to see which nations are already taken. As you know if you are familiar with Rise of Nations, every nation has their own unique units, abilities, and bonuses. Refer to the game for details. Also, you need to pick one of the colors available in Rise of Nations multiplayer games. Here they are:  That's Red, Blue, Purple, Green, Yellow, Aqua, White and Orange. Theoretically, up to 24 people, which is more than 8 people, could play simultaneously, so I might have to get a little creative with the colors if that ever happens. It's first come, first serve, and once a player has chosen their Nation and Color, they cannot change, and no one else will be allowed to make duplicate choices. Make a post about it declaring your choices if you want to reserve your preferred Nation/Color. (Or contact me personally.) Once a game has commenced, new players may still join late, but new players can only pick countries that have not yet been picked and whose capital has not yet been taken by anyone already playing the game. If you are eliminated from the game early on, you might still be able to rejoin as another civilization who's Capital has not already been taken, and start over from there, using the appropriate civilization for that capital. Here is the prototype of the World Map we will be using:  Click to Enlarge It's a basic Rise of Nations style World Map from the single-player campaign. The grey arrows denote the moves that can be taken when there is an ocean or some other obstacle in the way. This is the exact same mechanics from the single-player version of the Rise of Nations single-player "Conquer the World" campaign. The territories are divided up in exactly the same way as well. Because of space constraints, I gave each territory an alphanumeric designation, which can be used to easily refer to The List (which I will explain later) to look up the attributes of that territory. Every territory has the following attributes: - Name - Owner - Maptype - Mapsize - Strength A typical entry in The List will look something like this: A4 - Australia ----------------- Owner: Spud Maptype: Australian Outback Mapsize: Large Strength: 2 Now I'll go over these attributes in more detail. Name: If the territory's name is in all CAPS, underlined, and has a big fat asterisk in it, that means it is the starting location of its associated Civilization. No matter what Civilization you pick, you must start in the designated territory for that Civilization. For instance, the Japanese must start in Japan, the Bantu must start in Southern Africa, etc. No one may start in a non-capital territory or any other territory except the capital territory assigned to their Civilization. I will note in The List which Civilizations start where, or you can fire up a single-player game of Rise of Nations and start a "Conquer the World" campaign to see for yourself. You will eventually be able to play as any civilization whose capital is currently under your control. More on this later. Owner: This is what player currently controls that territory. If it is not under anyone's control, you can assume a bunch of uncivilized barbarians live there and a "--" will be recorded in place of an owner. I will also be filling in the territories with color on the World Map as we go along. Empty territories with no owner can be taken without a fight by an army. Maptype: Depending on where the territory is geographically, I have chosen a map type for it. These are all the available map types:  When a territory is invaded, it will be the responsibility of the person hosting the Rise of Nations game to set the map type correctly before the match. There may be more than one maptype declared for a given territory, but I will note this in detail in The List. The reason for this is that a country such as China will probably experience a land battle if attacked from the west, and a water-based confrontation if invaded by Australia. Mapsize: There are six different sizes of maps - Arena, Small, Standard, Large, Huge, and Big-Huge. It is the responsibility of the game's host to set the mapsize correctly, according to which territory is being fought on. Strength: At the beginning of The Game, every territory begins with a Strength of 0. If a player decides not to attack ANY territory, occupied or not, the Strength of all their territories is increased by 1, effective the next round. If a territory is attacked, and the defending territory fends off the attacker, meaning that the defender wins, the attacking army is destroyed, and the strength of the defending territory is diminished by 1, to a minimum of 0. If the original owner of the territory loses, the Strength of that territory is reset to 0 when it is given over to the new owner anyway. Attacking an adjacent territory has no effect on the strength of the territory from whence the attacker is coming from. When a territory comes under the control of a new player, its base Strength value is reset to 0 (before the bonus of a standing army is added,) regardless of what it was when the attacker gained control of the territory. So, to put it another way, if your territory is attacked, its base Strength will go down by 1 to a minimum of 0 even if you win in the defense of your territory. For example, if you decide to attack a territory whose Strength is 2, then you must set your own "Difficulty" or "Handicap" in the multiplayer game setup of Rise of Nations to "Skill +2."  How to Play Now you have your Civilization and your color picked out, and you know where you need to start. You start with one army, which is placed in your capital territory. It looks like this:  This is a knight on horseback in case you couldn't tell. I will color your army appropriately according to whatever color you picked, but an army will never be on a territory that does not also belong to you, and thus the whole territory will already be your color, so there shouldn't be any confusion there anyway. Every time you capture a CAPITAL territory, occupied or not, you will be awarded an extra army, to be placed at your home starting capital territory. The presence of an army on a territory increases that territory's Strength value by 1, effective on the next round. The Strength of a territory goes down by 1 when an army leaves it. A territory's base Strength value cannot fall below 0, so a territory with a base Strength of 0 that has a single army on it has an effective Strength of 1. A territory, once attacked, can not be attacked again that same round. The beginning of the game is likely to be a land-grab, as any territory that is "empty" is taken without a fight. However, keep in mind that if a player's starting CAPITAL territory is taken, ALL of their territories fall immediately and are given to the player who took the other player's capital territory. So an alternate viable strategy would be to rush toward's an opponents capital. The player who's capital was sacked is completely eliminated from the game, however, they might be able to rejoin under the same rules as a late-comer, meaning that if there is a capital that is not yet taken by any player, they may assume the role of that civilization and restart from there. Every player is allowed to make 1 move per turn per age, I'll explain this more in a sec, and the turn or round will not be over until all players have either made a move, or chosen to stay put. A player makes a move by moving ONE of their armies. During the first Age, you may only move an army 1 territory over. During the second Age, you may move an army through 2 of your own territories at a time, until the army hits a territory that does not belong to you. During the third Age, you may move an army through three of your own territories during your turn, until you hit a territory that does not belong to you. And so it goes, through the ages. This is to help represent the fact that it becomes easier to mobilize armies as Ages and technology advances throughout history. If a player chooses to stay put, meaning they do not move their armies at all for that round, the Strength of ALL their territories will be increased by 1. They may still need to defend their territories from an attacker, however. If a player is staying put for that round, but is still forced to defend a territory, the Strength of that one territory will still be diminished regardless of the outcome, but the rest of that player's territories will receive the +1 Strength bonus for staying put. If a player does not get to move because their FINAL army was destroyed, the +1 Strength bonus will not apply to them for the next round. Instead of making a move, or staying put, you are allowed a third course of action for your turn. You may choose to relinquish any one of your territories, thus reverting it back into a white, unoccupied territory, in exchange for a new army, to be placed immediately in any of your other territories, or given to anyone else as a free army under their control. It is important to note that this act of surrendering one of your territories must be done to an empty territory - that is, a territory with no armies on it. Otherwise, any existing armies sitting on that territory will be disbanded if you surrender the territory while they are on it, thus making the move really not worth it. This maneuver gives you another option in case you are presently being attacked by another player, but do not wish to play that person in a game of RoN at that time. You can simply retreat from that territory, giving it to the attacking player without a fight, AND you'll still be awarded a free army to be placed in any of your other territories, or given to an ally. You may not do this to ANY capital territory, to prevent abuse. Alliances are allowed, and may be made secretively. It is possible to be attacked by multiple players at once. If two players both decide to attack the same occupied territory at the same time, a 3-way free-for-all will be held, with the lone victor taking control of the besieged territory. If two different players simultaneously attack separate territories belonging to the same player, the matches will be one-on-one and held subsequently. If player A and player B choose to be allies, and both have armies adjacent to a third player C's territory, they may choose to engage player C in a 2v1 battle, but they must decide ahead of time which one of them is going to take control of player C's territory once they win. You may not pass through another player's territory, even if you are professed allies. Even if a player has more than one army, only one army may be involved in a move at one time. The other armies will have to wait until the next turn. In the case that two opposing armies are adjacent, and each player desires to attack the other, a match will be held on the territory with the lowest Strength value, and the loser will lose his army, and the territory that his army was sitting on prior to the confrontation. If both territories have the same Strength value, the battle will be held on the territory with the lowest alphanumeric value. If a player attacks any occupied territory and loses to the defender, the attacker loses his army. If a player loses all of their armies, but still has their starting capital territory, they are given one new army back at their capital territory. The new army does not get to move until the next round, but their territories will not receive the "staying put" bonus of +1 Strength to all their territories. The increase in strength to all territories is only applied if the player had an army, but chose not to move it. In the Rise of Nations multiplayer game setup screen/lobby, you need to remember to correctly set the Difficulty/Strength of the territory you are attacking. Thus, if you are attacking a territory with a Strength of 2, the attacker has to set HIS Difficulty setting to "Skill +2." The host of the game must also set the map type and map size appropriately. Also, remember to set the "Game Rules" to "Custom" so that you can set the "Start Age" and "End Age" to the appropriate values. Each "Age" lasts 5 turns. So, if The Game is currently on the Ancient Age, you MUST set the Game Rules to Custom, and then set the Start Age to "Ancient Age" and the End Age to "Classical Age." If the game has advanced one age, it is in the Classical Age, and you must set the "Start Age" to "Classical Age" and the "End Age" to "Medieval Age" and so forth. Only one Age advancement is to be allowed during the 5-turn period of an Age. Any other game settings, such as "territory victory allowed" are considered trivial and may be decided on by the players at the beginning of each game. When you fight, you may choose to play as any civilization whose capital is currently under your control. You will find The List - the master list of the attributes of all the territories in The Game - on a separate webpage, tailored especially to the exact instance of the game that you are currently participating in. I'll keep adding and updating to these rules, so check back periodically. Remember, this campaign is a very slow-paced and epic undertaking, involving the scheduling of dozens of individual games of RoN amongst several different people at many different times, who all have different lives and schedules. So there is no rush. Questions & Answers What follows are some questions that I have been asked, with the answers provided for further clarification of the rules. Q: What's the point in having multiple armies if only one of your armies can attack at a time? A: You can move your different armies alternately, one after the other, if you want. You can have armies on opposite sides of the globe, which can drastically cut down on the number of turns it takes you to get somewhere. You can also stack multiple armies on a single territory to buff the territory's defenses. (Strength bonus +1 per army.) Q: If I move one army but not the others, do the territories housing my other armies that don't move get a strength bonus? A: No. You get the strength bonus to all your territories worldwide if and only if you do not make any moves whatsoever with any army. Q: Do you still have to fight over a territory if there is no army there? A: You have to fight with another player over any colored territory. A territory that is colored means it is owned by another player. The only effect that an army sitting on that territory has is that it adds +1 to that territory's Strength. You do not have to fight to take an unoccupied territory. Q: When an army is destroyed is it gone forever or does it reappear at your capital? A: When an army is destroyed, it is destroyed forever, with the exception of your last army, which will reappear at your capital should it also get destroyed. So a player will always have at least one army. An army is gained when a player takes over a capital territory, even if that capital territory is unowned. An army is destroyed if it is involved in any fight and loses. Q: How fast are the rounds going to be? It's going to be a while before we even fight each other. A: Each round or turn lasts as long as it takes until every player has made a move or chosen to stay put. Since at the beginning of The Game, all the players are spread out, it will likely be a couple turns before any players actually meet. The first few rounds will likely be a bit of a land-grab, depending on how many players are on the map. The plus side of that is that the first couple rounds will go much faster, since no actual Rise of Nations matches will need to be scheduled. |