Blog cleanup...

Well, it's been a sad day for me, at least when it came to cleaning up my blog here.

My recorded games vanished, and several good sites have gone bye-bye too, and so I have removed the links. I think my friend EMELT has some of the recorded games around still, so I will likely have my recorded games back soonish.

It looks like El_Capitan is dormant, as is Out4Blood. *sigh*

But I guess you lose track of people and places when you leave the community for a year and some months. I'm going to try and get back into the scene...

Me and Rise of Nations

Well, it's been a good long run, even though I haven't posted here in a while.

I never did get too far into the player versus player aspect of Rise of Nations, but in the relatively few games I played, I enjoyed myself and learned a lot about the game you can't learn from playing the computer AI.

I can single-handedly take on four toughest AI now, and win about 80% of the time on most maps. I've been pondering giving myself handicaps, but that's for the future.

I can be proud of my Dutch strategy that I wrote, I'll be touching it up in the near future too, I'll keep you all posted. Heh, those of you who still read this anyways. I'll also have to update all the links, make sure to remove the dead ones and maybe add a few more relevant ones.

That said, I'm looking forward to Rise of Legends. ^.^

For Empire Earth II, and Age of Empires 3, just didn't pass muster with me. I've been entertaining myself with Galactic Civilizations 2, and I had a brief fling with Star Wars: Empire at War. But it's not the same... I can't wait for Rise of Legends.

And so, in the very near future, look for my Rise of Legends blog.

I live...!

More soon!

My first MoR article

W00t! So, here I am, the greenest writer on MoR. ;)

My article, Preview of the Premiere League, details my predictions for the top league in MoR, who'll come out on top and who'll provide the entertainment.

I will try to keep my writing separate, with this blog being my personal experiences in RoN, and my writings on MoR more geared towards the League and all it's facets.

I hope you fine folks who read my blog continue to do so, as well as visiting the MoR site to check it out.

Patch 2 Beta seems to have caught on, I've not heard any of the noise that I did after the Patch 1 went in. Either everyone ditched their hacked, no-cd copies of RoN and T&P, or Patch 2 works. :P You be the judge. Either way, it works well enough that I see many more games that say "Patched" than those that declare "no patch". After the start of MoR, and if a few upcoming tournaments are successful, then I think we can declare Patch 2 a success, and perhaps BHG is paying attention to what we, the gaming community that plays RoN, are saying.

Long live Rise of Nations!

Full Patch 2 Beta details

Ok, I've updated my Dutch strategy a little, no heavy changes to the Dutch in the Patch 2, except that their commerce is only 10% cheaper, and they only receive one free ship when a dock completes. This slows the Dutch down a bit, but with cheaper commerce, their free resources, and free ships, they are a good middle-late game nation and on water maps they can hold their own.

The Patch 2 Beta apparently fixes OoS problems, I've played a few 1v1, 2v2 and 3v3 games over Gamespy, and no OoS's to report.

Full nerf/buff info below.

Balance Changes:

Americans

• free resources for infantry units now +2 instead of +3
• removed free science technology at game start
• reduced free bombers at airbases from +2 to +1

British

• no longer get a free fishing boat when they build a dock

Dutch

• receive one free light ship with each new Dock built instead of two
• commerce research now 10% cheaper instead of 25% cheaper

French

• siege is now 15% cheaper instead of 25%
• siege production speed lowered to 25% faster and move speed bonus lowered
• reduced bonus woodcutter slot to +1 instead of +2
• reduced Cavalier hitpoints

Greeks

• Libraries and Universities are now 66% cheaper

Iroquois

• reduced speed and LOS of their unique scout units
• reduced hitpoint bonus for their Heavy Infantry to +5%
• reduced the move speed bonus for their unique infantry

Lakota

• doubled the free resources generated by their unique Horse Archer line

Maya

• increased their timber discount on buildings to 25% from 20%
• increased building hitpoint bonus to 25% from 20%

Nubians

• unique archers now do less damage to other archer units
• merchant, caravan, and market cost discount reduced to 10% from 50% cheaper

Persians

• slightly reduced the cost of their unique Heavy Infantry

Romans

• wealth bonus per city now +10 instead of +15

Despotism

• now 15% cheaper units and military research instead of 25%

CEO Patriot

• now gives +2 range bonus instead of +4 to friendly units

I am also giving my thoughts to a ladder system, something to run 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, and even 4v4 games. I like what MoR is doing, of course, but I think this would be a good idea: create a ladder where your opponents *and* partners are randomly chosen. You could get a good partner(s) or a bad partner(s), and good or bad opponents.

Most clans are exclusive clubs, not necessarily elitism, but usually invite only. Getting into a clan is not always easy. The random system allows for good players to be grouped with bad players (not necessarily bad players, just ones who aren't as good, or perhaps they are new to PvP, or are out of practice), allowing the less experienced players to gain some experience by playing with good ones, and allowing the good players to teach the less experienced ones their ways. Heh, hope that's not too confusing.

Anyways, I am working it out, and seeing what resources are available. I'll keep ya in the loop.

MoR: The Countdown begins...

The Masters League (MoR) is now less than a week away from starting.

The matches begin on the weekend of January 8th and 9th. Check out the standings and the schedule. The league site is here and the forums here

I volunteered to help out the staff at MoR, and I learned just a while ago that I am invited to write for them. :) w00t! So look for my stuff at their site, and as always, here.

Woohoo!

New Years Eve and RoN

It's December 31st. New Years Eve. And so I wish you a happy new year. May your roads be sunny and straight.

Over the next day or two I am going to test out the Patch 2 Beta, and see if my Dutch strategy needs revising. Likely it will, since they've nerfed their early game power a little.

I am also going to write one for the Americans, post-Patch 2. They get a good nerfing, and I suspected they would get one eventually.

If the Patch 2 proves to mostly eliminate the OoS problems, and the nerfs in it are actually decent, then I think I shall undertake to create a tournament, or even a league ladder, in the new year. I'll likely need some help, so if there are any out there who'd like to help me give this a whirl, please email me.

Lastly, for those having problems connecting to Patch 2 Beta games, but no problems hosting one, please see my post below, as well as El_Capitan's post on Out4Blood's Rise of Nations Strategy blog. This HaloScan comments thread is also helpful.

Keep on RoN-ing in the Free World!

Patch 2 Beta part 2

Hah, looks like I solved a problem for those playing with Patch 2 Beta.

If you are having trouble connecting to Patch 2 Beta games, but have no trouble hosting them, then your firewall is likely getting in the way. If you are using Windows XP, with Service Pack 2, you likely have the security center running, with the windows firewall. If you disable the security center, and instead run Zone Alarm, Mcafee, Norton, or another reputable Firewall program, you should find that you are able to connect to Patch 2 Beta games.

If it's not that, you might be behind a firewall router, or running some other software that could be interfering with the game. In past experiences, SETI@Home has interferred with multi-player games, notibly Star Wars Battlefront. Sometimes USB devices have been known to interfere, usually they are misconfigured, or just need to be unplugged and plugged back in. If you're running a USB mouse, try using a PS2 one and see if that solves your problem.

Basically, it comes down to... &$#@&%$ windows! :P