Rise of Nations: Difference between revisions
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''[[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 [[Technology Levels|8 ages of world history]]. It also has one of the most clever User Interfaces in recent RTS history, averting the Hunt & Peck Hotkeys that have plagued so many other titles in the genre.
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. In 2006, a [[Spiritual Successor]]
The original game and ''Thrones and Patriots'' were given an [[Updated Rerelease]] as ''Rise of Nations: Extended Edition'' in 2014. Released on [[Steam]], it includes several enhancements such as HD graphics, streamlined multiplayer and streaming support.
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{{tropelist}}
* [[4X]]: A real time strategy version of this.
* [[A-Team Firing]]: Asian "Partisans
* [[Alternate History]]: Some campaigns in ''Thrones and Patriots'' (especially those relating to Alexander the Great, Napoleon, and the Cold War) can (and often will) become this if you deviate from what happened historically, even to a degree anticipating such scenarios. In the Cold War campaign, for example, you can get the Bay of Pigs invasion to succeed in deposing Castro and intervene in Prague Spring for the US; for the Soviets you can take a more active than historical role in the Korean War and unite the Koreas under Kim Il-Sung and defeat NATO and subsume Western Europe into the Warsaw Pact as your puppet without nuclear war.<ref>This will cause Canada and Australia to join the US proper.</ref>
** Interestingly, the Napoleon campaign alludes to this happening offscreen, if you pay attention to the Wonders you control. Assuming you do well enough, you're given wonders from Southeast Asia (French Indochina being formed decades early) and Mexico (French victory in the [[wikipedia:French intervention in Mexico|Franco-Mexican War]]).
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*** Although, anyone who actually needs more than 2 or 3 three nukes... Especially given that the counter allows for over 15 nukes, each of which completely destroy EVERYTHING in the entire fully zoomed-out screen.
* [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard]]: Completely averted, actually, although this might also be due to the fact that, if the enemy is overwhelming you, you can change difficulty settings from the Pause menu.
** Played straight when an AI player gets a missile online
*** To be fair about the Wonders at least, human players also know at all times where they are.
* [[Construct Additional Pylons]]: Except that you're not just building a network of military bases; at the core of each new outpost is a village, growing to a town and then a city. You're building a nation, not just winning a war. In theory, at least.
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* [[Fanfare]]: The game plays victorious fanfares whenever you are winning a battle, and during the victory debriefing screen.
* [[Firewood Resources]]: Only the icon for wood. Workers are shown moving small logs while logging camps (which must be built near forests) are seen moving around large logs and lumber.
* [[From Nobody to Nightmare]]: The [[Eagle Land|Americans]] in the New World campaign start out as a small group of colonies subjugated by the British that no other nation (including the natives) takes seriously and simply get dismissed as a "nation of shopkeepers
* [[Garrisonable Structures]]: Citizens can be ordered to take cover, at which time they will garrison themselves in a nearby city or tower, and use guns or bows to defend themselves. Scholars generate the Knowledge resource when garrisoned in a University, and can be moved from one to the next. Oil platforms require a worker to garrison him/herself inside to function.
* [[Glass Cannon]]: The Katyushas and just about any Artillery Weapons available.
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* [[Invaded States of America]]: Besides starting a [[Nuke'Em|nuclear war]] with them, the Soviets can also stage a conventional invasion of the United States during the Cold War.
* [[Invisible Wall]]: Averted, in a funny way. The edge of the map is literally the edge of a map.
* [[Lost Forever]]: Once a wonder is built, nobody else can build it and others who were also building it (but didn't complete it first) lose all their progress. Also once a wonder is destroyed, it cannot be rebuilt by anyone. See [[Game Breaker]]
* [[Mook Maker]]: The Terra Cotta Army wonder continuously spawns infantry for whoever builds it.
* [[No Fair Cheating]]
* [[Nonstandard Game Over]]: There are two types of defeat
** The [[Cold War]] campaign adds a few new ones involving strategic missiles:
** If you lose even a single battle in the Napoleon campaign, you wind up getting exiled, only ([[Truth in Television|like in real life]]) to return and confront your own version of the Battle of Waterloo that must be won if you wish to continue. Lose ''that'' though, and it's game over.
* [[Nuke'Em]]: Though too much of it could invoke [[Nonstandard Game Over]]. But hey, it looks really cool!
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* [[Reality Ensues]]: Sending in outdated units on a technologically advanced opponent is not guaranteed to end well.
* [[Reinventing the Wheel]]: To ''Rise of Nation'''s credit, while the campaigns play this trope straight, as you advance through different eras the names of the technologies are at least altered to match the time period (if still serving the same function).
* [[Risk-Style Map]]: The Conquer the World campaigns have a strategic map which looks very much like ''Risk'' maps, complete with ''Risk'' army pieces and bonus cards.
* [[Rock Beats Laser]]: Subverted. While somewhat less-advanced nations can still put up a fight, the wider the technological gap [[Reality Ensues|the more one-sided matters become]]. Thus unless it's in sheer size, "spear beat tank" moments become highly improbable.
* [[Scenery Porn]]: The landscapes are quite pretty, especially the Caribbean-esque archipelagos.
** Maps in the Conquer the World campaigns actually resemble (quite closely) the area they represent (a battle in Japan will take place on a map of Honshu, attacking Britain will require a dock built in the English Channel, etc
** The ''Extended Edition'' completely revamps the campaign overview maps such that they're even ''more'' of this.
* [[Schizo-Tech]]: You can have main battle tanks squaring off against crossbowmen and dragoons (leading to a [[Curb Stomp Battle]]). Also, although it's most likely going to be strategic suicide to focus on Science research rather than going up Ages and upgrading your troops, you can access electronics and computers while your men consider the arquebus to be the latest big thing.
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* [[Symbology Research Failure]]: The Kremlin wonder is actually St. Basil's Cathedral, but [[Viewers are Morons|hey, who's gonna notice?]]
* [[Tactical Rock-Paper-Scissors]]: ''Rise Of Nations'' plays this trope absolutely straight; it's practically [[Crippling Overspecialization]]. Several combinations ahoy; here's one: Assault Infantry ➞ Missile Infantry ➞ Tanks ➞ Armored Cavalry ➞ Machine Gun Infantry ➞ Assault Infantry. Better write that down.
** Somewhat subverted, however, in that more upgraded units can generally make mincemeat of less advanced ones, including those which would have handily beat them previously. Can become an outright [[Curb Stomp Battle]] if the technological gap is wide enough.
* [[Take Over the World]]: The objective of the various Campaigns:
** World: Take over the entire world in a free-for-all between every sizable nation on Earth from the beginning of history up to the future.
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* [[Units Not to Scale]]: Typical of an RTS game. A Main Battle Tank, for instance, is one third the size of its factory. A real army tank plant, on the other hand, takes several hundreds of acres. In the case of the [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/lima.htm Lima Army Tank Plant], the main production building is roughly the size of ''thirty'' football fields.
* [[Updated Rerelease]]: The ''Extended Edition''.
* [[Video Game Caring Potential]]: Not much, but it does make you feel kind of sad or like an [[We Have Reserves|inept, uncaring bastard]] when your Citizen, who you sent out with your army to make any emergency captured-city repairs, screams in agony and staggers away to die as the enemy [[Impaled with Extreme Prejudice|plugs her with a five-foot-long flaming ballista bolt]]
* [[Video Game Cruelty Potential]]: There's something to be said for watching a nation that's getting [[Curb Stomp Battle|destroyed]] plead frantically for peace even as your troops are marching on their capital. Not to mention how much fun it is to [[There Is No Kill Like Overkill|nuke the fishermen, use cruise missiles on the Citizens, and launch airstrikes against the Scholars]] of the nations you've defeated.
* [[Video Game Cruelty Punishment]]: Using nukes reduces the "Armageddon Clock". Using too many means the game ends in apocalypse.
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* [[A Winner Is You]]: The game has this for the different campaign modes. You conquer the entire known world as Alexander the Great and all you get is a splash screen that says something along the lines of "Great job. Your empire will surely go down in history as the greatest." The only amusing ones are when the game goes [[What the Hell, Hero?]] on you if the [[Nuclear Option]] is employed in the Cold War campaign.
* [[Worker Unit]]: Actually called citizens.
* [[X Meets Y]]: ''[[Age of Empires]]'' meets ''[[Civilization]]'' and ''[[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]]
* [[You Have Researched Breathing]]: Even if you are in the
** Although, some researches are cheaper if someone else on the map has already researched it. Also, science research tends to lower the cost of other types of research.
* [[You Require More Vespene Gas]]: Food, Stone, Wealth, Metal and Knowledge, specifically. Unlike other games, there's limits to how quickly each resource can be gathered or produced; making a bunch of Farms early on in the hopes of becoming an economic superpower will fail without Commerce research or Wonders to increase those limits.
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** In the New World campaign, the Native American nations will start with this as the only tactic available to them, since unlike the European colonist they don't have access to gunpowder weapons and only have their larger population as an advantage. But eventually, [[Took a Level In Badass|they will get access to gunpowders weapons to level the playing field]].
** Later upgrades allows citizens to instantly become militia.
** One of China's bonuses is instant citizens. Combine that with the Partisan upgrade in the Modern Age, and you'll get an inexhaustible horde of AK-47 wielding villagers.
** Researching the [[Near Future]] technology [[Artificial Intelligence]] reduces all your units' creation time to zero, allowing you to instantly spawn entire armies if you have the resources.
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