RISE AND RULE OF ANCIENT EMPIRES v.1.01 PATCH README.TXT ------------------------------------------------------------------- TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INSTALLATION II. PROBLEMS FIXED III. GAME TIPS IV. CHANGES FROM MANUAL V. OTHER ENHANCEMENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------- I. INSTALLATION Insert the patch disk into your A: or B: drive. Go to a DOS Prompt. Then type: CD\ CD\SIERRA\ANCIENT COPY A:\*.* (or B:\*.*) Once you have copied all of the files from the patch disk into your \SIERRA\ANCIENT directory, then type: RISE101 This will install the patch and upgrade you to version 1.01. II. PROBLEMS FIXED Error when finishing the 3rd level of a building. There are a few different error messages that can come up because of this. Here are some examples: RISE95 has caused an invalid page fault in module RISE95.EXE... or RISE95 has caused an invalid page fault im module KERNEL32.DLL... THIS VERSION also adds modem play to Windows 3.1, and significantly enhances the Artificial Intelligence opponents. This also includes technical support tips and more information on multiplayer gaming. SPAWNING Rise and Rule now supports multiplayer with a single CD. Install the game on the machines you will be using (2 with a modem connection, and up to 4 with a network connection) and make sure the CD is in the machine that will create the game (the Master machine; see below). MODEM PLAY AND NULL MODEM PLAY Both Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 users can now play Rise and Rule over phone lines or over a serial null modem link. MODEM/NETWORK Choose "Modem/Network" Game from the introductory dialog box. You are presented with a list of possible network connections, including modem play and (Win95 only) DirectPlay network and DirectPlay modem. The balloon help on the buttons tells you what each button refers to. Win 3.1 users will only see a single button for "modem play". CREATE OR JOIN Clicking one of the network type buttons brings up a dialog box that lets you create or join a network game. For modem play, the choices are create game or dial a number. CREATE GAME OR DIAL NUMBER When you choose to create a game or dial a new number, you will be presented with the modem play setup dialog. Set the communications port, the speed of transfer, whether or not you will be using a null modem or dialup connection, etc. The initialization settings for your modem can be customized by clicking on the "inits" button on the bottom right of the dialog box. If you have created a game, you do not need to enter a phone number, just set up the com port, speed and init settings and hit the "OK" button. If you are dialing a number, you will need to do all the above, then enter the number and hit ok. Your machine will dial the number for the remote machine, and you should be able to hear the phone activity through the speaker in your modem. In either case you will be presented with the standard game setup dialog box. MASTER/SLAVE The master machine is the machine that created the game; in general, the faster machine should be the master. The master has more control over the game than the slave machine. The master should choose the total number of players, using the buttons at the top of the screen, load a map, or generate a new one. If you want to specify an AI player, you can do so now, by clicking on the right hand button for the particular player and set it to the computer graphic, or you can set all the open slots to "remote player" (which looks like a phone), or to human, if you want to have more than one player on the same machine. If you need to make another player available to the other machine, if you know they need more, set that extra player to "remote". When the slave player accepts the game settings, the master will see an outline appear around that player's settings. When the master accepts, the game should begin. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE The AI in this version has been significantly enhanced. The changes have been geared toward aggressiveness as well as character. The Persians and Celts will be most aggressive, attacking pretty much anybody, and expanding through sea routes. The Egyptians and Chinese will be particularly infrastructure oriented, building more than the others. The Greeks will explore quite a bit, and might attack, but generally will do unto others, as will the Indians. Send peaceful messages if you are moving units near somebody else's cities, if you don't want to fight. This might not always work, so be on your guard; sending messages will affect other players slowly, so you may need to send more than one. You can check the diplomatic status by right clicking on the other player's portrait in the right panel; this will bring up the message box for that player with an indication of the status. If you are at war with another player, do not be surprised if they attack you. III. GAME TIPS During another player's turn, whether that player is human or artificial, you can: 1) Change the slider bar settings in all of your cities. This will affect production in the current turn, meaning that any changes you make will take effect at the start of your next turn as if you had made them before ending your turn. This allows you to perform all of your city management while waiting for your opponent to complete his turn. 2) Give orders to units which will be carried out on the next turn. Normal movement must still be performed on your own turn but you can use the buttons on the status bar to order units to Patrol, Explore, Fortify, Build Roads, Cultivate, Set a Distant Point to Move to, and Stop Orders. You must Found cities on your own turn. IV. CHANGES FROM MANUAL - refer to your online manual for appendices on combat, unit statistics and keyboard commands. - Right clicking on an opponent's portrait button on the right side of the game screen gives you information on your diplomatic state with that player. The message buttons on the right side of the screen bring up a dialog box to send messages, but you can only set the recipient when you click the button on the right panel, not after the message panel comes up as stated in the manual. - When you select any city, friendly or enemy, the status bar display for the city's affinity shows its affinity for you regardless of who actually owns the city. This is very important. Use this to judge the effects of trading and knowledge sharing on an enemy population's affinity towards you. This will also tell you how difficult or easy it will be to retain an enemy controlled city, before you attack it. - A Level 2 Town Hall helps with your city management by making sure that you don't accidentally starve your population or produce so much food that some spoils. Once this is built you will not be able to starve your city to death. This also prevents an enemy from starving a your city to death immediately after capturing it. To retain a captured a city with a completed level 2 Town Hall, and a decent level of affinity toward another player, an enemy must raise the city's affinity towards himself through trade, knowledge sharing, roads, overfeeding, etc., or risk being thrown out by the populace. V. OTHER ENHANCEMENTS - The Random Map Generator is now much faster. - Wonders now affect a wider area. - Balloon help is now optional. The help messages that appear under your mouse cursor and under selected cities can be deactivated by toggling it on the 'Game' pull down menu. Note that some game features, such as reports of random events and information as to what units a particular level of building will produce require balloon help. - Right clicking on an opponent leader's portrait button on the right side of the game screen will now show your current diplomatic state with that empire. - The "send message to other players" system has been streamlined to be easier to understand. To send a message, left click on the portrait of the leader to send to or click on the 'All Players' button beneath the portrait. Then click on a button on the left side of the dialog box to select which message to send. You may also type in your own message. To send the message either click on the 'Scroll' button on the right side of the dialog box or press 'Enter'. To return to the game without sending a message either click on the bottom scroll (with the X on it) or press 'Esc'. - When you select any city, friendly or enemy, the status bar display for the city's affinity shows its affinity for you regardless of who actually owns the city. This is very important. Use this to judge the effects of trading and knowledge sharing on an enemy population's affinity towards you. This will also tell you how difficult or easy it will be to retain a captured city. - All City populations will now defend themselves better. A lone enemy light infantry now has very little chance of defeating your city's population. - A Level 2 Town Hall helps with your city management by making sure that you don't accidentally starve your population or produce so much food that some spoils. Once this is built you will not be able to starve your city to death. This also prevents an enemy from starving a your city to death immediately after capturing it. To retain a captured a city with a completed level 2 Town Hall an enemy must raise its affinity towards himself through trade, knowledge sharing, roads, overfeeding, etc. - You can change the font size of balloon help in the RRAEHELP.INI file. The default settings are: FontSize=11 FontSize800x600=14 FontSize1024x768=16 To increase the size of the font used in a particular resolution (640x480 is the default), just increase the number, save the file and then run the game. - You can eliminate unwanted units by adding them to a city's population. Place them in the city. From the city screen, drag the unit's icon to the city's population display (the white "man" indicators above the resource allocation slider). This is a good way to spur rapid growth in frontier cities. You cannot raise any city's population above the 2,200 maximum. TECH TIPS ADDED FOR 1.01 PATCH README.TXT Some older Windows sound drivers cause conflicts with modem play. If you receive "out of sync" messages, or if the AI's turn takes inordinately long, try turning the music off, or update your sound card drivers. IF YOU STILL HAVE PROBLEMS -------------------------- If you continue to experience any problems, or if you have any questions concerning any of the above steps, our Technical Support Team will be more than happy to assist you. Please call (206) 644-4343 between 8:15 a.m. and 4:45 p.m., Pacific Standard Time, Monday through Friday. We can be reached by Fax at (206) 644-7697, or by mail at the following address: Sierra On-Line P.O. BOX 85006 Bellevue, WA 98015-8506 Attention: Technical Support You can also reach our Technical Support Team on one of the following services: Compuserve GO SIERRA America Online Keyword: Sierra Internet support@sierra.com or http://www.sierra.com Please outline the problems along with the specific information about your computer system, and we will gladly respond to your letter, fax, or BBS message as soon as possible. When contacting us by fax or BBS please allow 24-48 hours for turnaround. During weekends or holidays, there may be some delays. 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