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Fudgebar
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FOlks I was very excited anticipating the arrival of this game but to be perfectly honest I hadnt followed it's history in depth like alot of people here have. So my expectations might be a bit different from alot of you.
What I was basically expecting was perhaps a RTS version of my all time favorite Civilization. However I think this game plays more like a blend of AOE and Total War....which is not a bad thing by any means but just different then what I had anticipated. Honestly I am a bit let down by the game.....I just dont like the idea of the game broken down into 2 distinctly different engines and modes of play.....One is a map Risk-like conquer sections screen and the other is your standard RTS terrain maps and gameplay. The reason I dont really like it is because the seperation of these 2 distict games within the overall campaign make the game feel somewhat less fluid and less of a continuation of your great empire building. It's like each time you plan to either conquer or defend a sector, there is really no carry over of what you built and accomplished in the prior scenarios...even when you have to fight in the same sector again, everything that you built and conquered seems to be reset
I would have much rather have seen a huge RTS World sized map with all the nations building from the early start of time up working their way thru the ages very similar to Civilization and even Empire Earth to a certain extent.....I would have loved to have seen more focus on building your cities and civilization and less emphasis focused directly on war. What made Civ such a great and addicting game was the the fact that going WAR actually was something you desperately wanted to avoid because it had such an impeding effect on your civ's ability to advance....War was something you really tried to avoid. Plus the diplomacy aspect of the game was more rich with more options and doors of choice to really give a player a sense of bargaining with the AI
Now Im not all down on RON...its a good RTS game that is enjoyable and I love the idea of borders and the impact they pose on your strategic maneuvers.
Also I love the almost hand painted graphics in the game bu I just cant get into the animations....they almost feel as tho they are missing some key transistion frames in the movements, explosions, ect. It gives the game a very choppy like feel to it ...even when my framerate meter displays 70FPS....they should have motion captured the movements better like in AOW.
The animation engine reminds me alot like the Cossacks game
Im not sure how I really feel about this game yet...Ill have to play it more.
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Fudgebar
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I actually played the QUICK BATTLE mode and was able to set it to play on a HUGE map with 7 CPU opponents and I set the game to standard mode with DIPLOMACY instead of teams or FFA and it actually played closer to what I feel I was looking for in this game ( a Real Time Civilization)
I am glad that Quick Battle is there because this mode of play actually feels more continuous and fluid in terms of building your cities and empire from the beginning of time from nothing deep into the future ......However with this said, I still wished there was more diplomacy options and a better graphics and even more importantly, sound effects engine.
The sounds are fine independantly but when you have groups of different things attacking, they dont all play or sound very dynamic
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Bridger
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Yeah, i can imaging games on Big Huge with 6 players on diplomacy would be your online version of Civ basically. There were a lot of players that liked to play AoK that way, called shimo i think, where you would forge aliances and break them over the game. I think the diplomacy model in RoN would make for thos games to work even better online than shimo did for AoK.
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Fudgebar
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Actually...after some more playtime with RON in QUICK BATTLE mode , 7 CPU players/1 human with DIPLOMACY enabled, I was pleasantly surprised to see the 'first glance' simplistic diplomacy actually to be quite a bit deeper than it appears!
I actually spent half of the game simply testing it's limitations and the AI's saavy to figure out my motives. What I found is a pretty intersting AI that seems to take into consideration quite a few variables when deciding to either goto WAR, PEACE or ALLY with a civ. The only thing that really appears to be shallow or limited is the actual interaction and possible choices of diplomacy....its really just Peace, war, or Full Ally. I would have like to see a bit more options of negogiating and deception choices,,,,,,,, but for what is actually there, I have to give credit to RON, because the AI seems to play with these few diplomatic choices very intelligently and how you would EXCPECT a civ to react in certain situations
Im pretty pleased even in its simplicity.....perhaps a future patch could offer more wealing and dealing with the CPU and Human players. a wide range of Diplomacy is really crucial to enhancing the fun factor of a game like this.
its growing on me......but the animations and very shallow multi channel sound effects of weaponary is still buggin me. Just watching missiles flying thru the air with such choppiness after being so used to the fluid and explosive awe of carnage in C&C Generals really puts a damper on visually enjoying anything else....even if its not the main scope of this game. It could have still been smoothed out a bit better. Seeing huge Battleships and Cruisers completing full 180 degree turns in the water in 3 frames just gives me the heebie Jeebies! I mean even Total Annihilation had ship momentum, turn radius, ect down brilliantly several years ago....it should be so hard to pull off.
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Fudgebar
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actually I think its just a lack of transistion animations in the unit movements that leads to a rather rough look
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Fudgebar
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This game is growing on me....the more I play it the more I find it just like a Real Time version of Civ....One of the most exciting and enjoyable addictions in Civ was having your explorer hunt for hidden treasures and bonus land resources to build your city on and RON captures that same excitement wonderfully......Altho one thing has me a bit concerned is the fact that I THINK you can still have merchants extract resources outside of your cities boundaries really taking away from the city boundaries limitations a bit
The game is a SOLID 85-88% and would have easily been in the MID to HIGH 90's if the design team spent a bit more time on making some smoother more engaging unit animations and explosives visuals as well as adding a more layered sound effects track that let you literally hear all the carnage when multiple units are bombarding. Alot of times I will see silent streaks of missiles or Ariel bombings on the screen and it just takes away a bit from the smooth video game feel that this game deserves.
Finally, I would have loved to seen just a few more options for diplomacy and haggling with other nations to really allow for some interesting exchanges and interaction with the AI nations
But this game is very engaging
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Demerzel
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latest drivers aren't always the best thing especially when you don't have the latest card. it can lead to slower framerates than if you stick with a version of the drivers designed when your card was top dog, e.g. gf3 users should stick between v22 - > v31
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Rohag
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quote:
Originally posted by Fudgebar
I actually played the QUICK BATTLE mode and was able to set it to play on a HUGE map with 7 CPU opponents and I set the game to standard mode with DIPLOMACY instead of teams or FFA and it actually played closer to what I feel I was looking for in this game ( a Real Time Civilization)... |
Though I hesitate to call RoN an RTS Civ, I've experienced much the same thing and have thoroughly enjoyed several similar game setups (diplomacy with multiple computer nations). When I examine the main and mini-maps after such a game, they very much remind me of Civ maps.
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Fudgebar
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No disrepect to any of you people that think the animations are as smooth as silk but you simply have no means to measure or quantify your interpretation of 'smooth fluid motion' This is not a hardware issue I am seeing because even at 50 FPS on the screen with few objects moving, the motion in the units just isnt completely as fluid as some of the more recent games like Generals and even Age of Wonders. Does this kill the game?.....no! Does it slightly detract from the enjoyment or the excitement of watching your little army men skirmish before your eyes...yes. I really hope that Big Huge can put this high on their list for next year. The whole excitement of playing a RTS game, aside from the strategy aspect, is the watching of your world unfold before your eyes in lifelike proportions as if you really were watching the action take place high above the clouds.........I really hope that this is something that could be improved upon.
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Buckets
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Re: unit animations.
I can only speak regarding the demo for now, but... I see what you're saying. (from a technical/professional perspective here..) They seem to 'jump' from time to time. Another problem is that the foot units look entirely weightless, just sliding around (apparently). Part of the problem is that the walk cycles are not at all synchronised with their movement speed. The other thing is that their up and down movement should be more exaggerated for their scale. Yes, it might look cartoony up close, but it reads better when the units are barely a dozen pixels tall. I hope they didn't solely rely on motion capture, because that would expalin it.
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13-05-2003 04:59
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