Multiplayer Setup


After going through all the ways that one can configure their own gaming experience, we moved into the multiplayer setup screen. Once again we dove into the details of how the game could be configured to provide new and exciting game variants.

The setup screen contained the standard listing of connected players and a chat area. This is where you select the Nation you are going to play and your player color. Something interesting that Big Huge Games has added here is the ability to set your handicap. The handicap is a feature used to make sure that players of varying skill sets can compete against each other and still have an enjoyable game. It does this by giving weaker players a faster gather rate on their resources. So if a really good player were playing against a new player, they could set their handicap to +10. The good player would play the game and gather at a normal rate while the newer player would gather resources 10 times faster. This gives the newer player a better chance at putting up a good fight and makes the overall experience more enjoyable. It's an interesting idea, and one that I think will let new players ease their way into the game while more skilled players work on seeing how much of a handicap they can give their opponent and still win.

Moving over to the game configuration screen, we see that not many of the options have changed since the press beta. You can set your game type, Survival of the fittest, Teams of 2, Barbarians at the Gates, etc; You can read more about these in this article by Brian Reynolds. The Map Style can be set, with each one providing its own interesting twists and nuances. For the demo game that Tim was setting up for us, he chose the Amazon Basin which features lots of overgrown areas with narrow chokepoints and rivers. These two items allow a well prepared player to hold off an attacker easily. Map sizes and game speed can be chosen here as well as picking between the various default rules for the game types.

Within the game rules sections you can set all sorts of items about how the game will be played. Starting resources, pop limit, start and end age, town size. All can be set here to provide a unique experience. The game also allows you to set various “No rush" rules. These rules put a moratorium on players attacking each other until certain conditions are met. You can have peace until a certain age, like gunpowder, or you can set a time limit for how long peace will last. There is even the option of having a completely non violent game. Perhaps even more interesting here is the ability to set your victory conditions. One thing that Rise of Nations does away with is the need for a player to have to be completely wiped out in order to be eliminated. I'm sure we have all had games where we have utterly crushed our opponents and then spent the better part of an hour trying to find that one last guy they have hiding in a corner somewhere. The game allows players with commanding leads to be given victory after a certain amount of time has passed without having to be bothered with this residual mop up. In keeping with their motto though, the design team has allowed players to set the victory condition so that every last enemy unit must be destroyed before victory can be declared. A particularly interesting variant thrown in here is “Musical Chairs". In this variant on victory conditions, every few minutes(once again, configurable. Oh c'mon, at least pretend to be surprised... ;-) ) the computer looks at the scores of each player and the player with the lowest score is instantly eliminated.

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