FAQ

By RoLH Staff
Dec 19, 2005, Edited Oct 25, 2006

Who is developing Rise of Legends?
Rise of Legends is developed by Big Huge Games as a follow up to the critically acclaimed Rise of Nations. It is published by Microsoft Game Studios.

What type of game is Rise of Legends?
Rise of Legends is a Real Time Strategy game that immerses the player in a fictional world where the forces of magic and technology meet. Combines pulse-pounding real-time gaming with the epic scope of turn-based strategy games in the campaign game. In the real-time skirmish games, a faster game place is the goal which should allow people to play several games within an hour.

What is the game about?
The fictional world known as the Land of Aio sets the stage for a world where Steampunk genre meets Tales from 1001 Arabian Nights. With the 3’rd race, you can add in the conspiracy theorist that aliens created the megalithic builder cultures like the Mayans as speculated in “Chariot of the Gods”.

How many Nations are there?
Players can choose to play as one of three totally unique civilizations with dozens of technologies and units at their disposal.

Alin – This race is based on the Arabian Nights theme, and has units like genies and Arabic looking Buildings with the onion dome and spires.
Vinci – This race is based on the steampunk genre, and has units that are some kind of mechanical contraption. Its buildings all look like metal tubes.
Cuotl – This race is based on the speculations if Mayan culture was created by an Alien race. Its architecture resemble that of the Mayans, but their gods are actually super powerful aliens who actively control the indigenous cultures.

There are 3 races in the game, each roughly representing the themes of Magic for the Alin, Technology for the Vinci and Religion for the Cuotl.

When will Rise of Legends be released?
Rise of Legends is scheduled for release in Q2 (that is around summer) of 2006 .

What are the minimum specs for Rise of Legends?
No official specs have been released yet but it’s safe to say they probably will be somewhat higher that Rise of Nations. However, expect a wide range of machines to be supported.

What will the graphics be like in Rise of Legends?
Rise of Legends uses an all-new fully 3D graphics engine supplimented by the AGEIA PhysX engine. This will allow for some spectacular looking units, scenery, and effects that were not possible in Rise of Nations. If you have an AGEIA card installed on your machine, you’ll get even more spectacular effects than if you are running in software compatibility mode only.

Will Rise of Legends have multiplayer?
Yes, Rise of Legends will have multiplayer, but at this time no modes for multiplayer have been announced. What we do know is that again the MP matchmaking will be piggybacking on the basic Gamespy service, but have devoted someone on the programming team to do nothing but MP support. So one feature we have heard about is clan support!

Will Rise of Legends have a single player campaign?
Yes, Rise of Legends will have a large story-driven campaign where you take the role of Giacomo in his quest to avenge his brother and united the land of Aio. Giacomo also ventures into the lands of the two other races in the game, but the storyline will allow you as Giacomo to essentually place as all three races so as to get a feel of all of the game races within a coherent story line. In fact, unlike the CTW campaign in Rise of Nations, your standing army carries over from province to province so as to further give the single player campaign a more continuous feel. Indeed, they have built on lessons learned from the sucesses of the the CTW campaigns in Rise of Nations: Thrones & Patriots. The Single player campaign will certainly surpass the previous titles in story and playability to offer the single player campaigner an emersive experience with many options.

Will there be a Conquer the World mode like in Rise of Nations?
There has been mention of a Conquer the World mode in Rise of Legends, however it will be somewhat altered from the Rise of Nations version. Certainly from the screenshots of the strategic map the graphic representation of the world is far more realistic and beautifully rendered.

Will Rise of Legends use the same gameplay elements as Rise of Nations?
Rise of Legends will use a border and attrition system similar to the one found in Rise of Nations. There will also be a new element called Dominance. These include:

Capture: Capturing more neutral locations (such as mining companies, shrines, oases, and smaller towns) than your opponents through the course of the game can allow players to gain certain allies and expand their borders. Gives summon allies spell which allows you to summon an allied army when this dominance is achieved.
Tactical: Destroying building or units gives players raiding points. The side with the most points achieves a dominance and allows for use of a special ability. Gives cease fire spell which allows one to stop all fighting temporarily whenthus dominance is achieved.
Resources: Collecting the most timonium (the main resource in the game) at various points in the game.
Tech: Researching more tech tracks (similar to the 4 main technology tracks in Rise of Nations) than your opponent will allow for dominance. In fact each race in Rise of Legend has access to 4 tech tracks with 2 of them unique to each of them.

What are neutral sites?
These are cities, or camps that exists on various locations on the map which you can trade with and eventually assimilate (you can also purchase their allegiance with wealth), or capture through military conquest.

What about Ages or Epochs?
Instead of ages or epochs. In Rise of Nations, your civilization’s level of development is based on city size. You can add city districts (these adds new buildings to your city which lets you access new units and abilities with certain types of districts being unque to each race) and research tech to make your city grow and thus permanently upgrade the overall stature of your civilization.

What are heroes?
Rise of Legends expands on the ideas of generals and historical hero units in the campaign game from Rise of Nations to add an upgradable type of hero, which adds a kind of role playing element to the game but with simpler upgrading mechanics.

Is the game Moddable?
As with Rise of Nations, BHG has stated that they will indeed release tools that will allow people to add/modify content to the game. Many parameters are in xml files which allows people to tweak game stats and parameters easily using a text editor, without cracking into the code.

Is there a demo available?
Yes, a demo can be downloaded off of the Official RoL site. Or, you can download the demo directly from here.