As with any other game, Rise of Nations and its expansion Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots have received a number of patches. Additionally, the game is now supported by Steam and was re-released as Rise of Nations: Extended Edition. Known patches and changes are listed here in reverse chronological order.
Rise of Nations: Extended Edition[]
Some information on RoN:EE patches is available on the Steam News Hub for the game, and some additional information on patches is scattered throughout the Steam forums. Major versions include v1.10 and v1.20.
MobyGames has a fairly comprehensive summary of RoN:EE's patches.
Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots (expansion)[]
Patch 2 (version 03.02.12.0800)[]
This patch was released as a beta around December 20, 2004, and then officially released without any changes from the beta on January 19, 2005. It was primarily a gameplay patch. Many of the changes were not reflected in the helpfiles within the game, so the helpfiles may be out of date. The announced changes, with additional notes on the changes in parentheses, were:
Technical fixes:
- Version checking updated to verify EXE - should prevent players using cracked EXEs of the wrong version from joining games and causing out of syncs.
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 (instead of 50% faster) and move speed bonus lowered (now 20% instead of 25%)
- reduced bonus woodcutter slot to +1 instead of +2
- reduced Cavalier hitpoints (by 4, affecting the entire unique Heavy Cavalry line)
- Greeks
- Libraries and Universities are now 66% cheaper (instead of 50% cheaper)
- Iroquois
- reduced speed and LOS of their unique scout units (speed of Takohs, Akweks, and Okwari changed to 35, 36, and 38 instead of 37, 38, and 39 respectively, and their line of sight changed from 10 to 5, 7, and 9 respectively)
- reduced hitpoint bonus for their Heavy Infantry to +5% (from +10%)
- reduced the move speed bonus for their unique infantry (now a constant +1 instead of +3, +4, +5, and +6 for Spearmen, Mohawk Spearmen, Heavy Mohawk Spearmen, and Elite Mohawk Spearmen respectively)
- Lakota
- doubled the free resources generated by their unique Horse Archer line (now 1/3 instead of 1/6 resource per point of damage dealt)
- 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 (they now do 85% damage to foot archers and horse archers compared with pre-patch)
- merchant, caravan, and market cost discount reduced to 10% from 50% cheaper
- Persians
- slightly reduced the cost of their unique Heavy Infantry (base cost changed from 60f/50m for all to 50f/30m for Immortals, 50f/40m for Anusiya, and 60f/40m for Athanatoi; note that standard hoplite base cost is 50f/30m)
- Romans
- wealth bonus per city now +10 instead of +15
- Despotism
- now 15% cheaper units and military research instead of 25%
- The CEO Patriot
- now gives +2 range bonus instead of +4 to friendly units (this includes both attack range and line of sight)
Known Issues:
- Some help text does not accurately reflect the balance changes made.
Patch 1 (version 03.02.07.0701)[]
This patch was released around November 1, 2004. It was primarily a bug fix patch. The announced changes were:
- Bug Fixes
- Fixed bug that caused patriot bonuses to break when switching from military to economic government lines.
- Fixed crash with Red Fort when units were garrisoned inside to heal.
- Aztecs now get full +50 wealth plunder when killing units like caravans, instead of varying amounts depending on their nation bonus.
- Units such as Caravans now give full plunder bonus when Despot is nearby.
- Fixed multiplayer lobby bug that caused player stats to be displayed incorrectly.
- Fixed a multiplayer out of sync issue.
- Fixed bug that gave Russian players capital plunder bonus when their own capital was sacked, as well as the attacking player. Only the attacking player gets it now.
- Fixed issue that prevented library panel at the top of the screen from displaying help text properly.
- Fixed Heavy Archer research bug for Japanese.
- Fixed issue that would cause occasional freezes to technologies being researched at the library.
- Fixed Dutch patriot stats.
- AI controlled Lakota players no longer build farms and can now build outside their borders.
- Fixed bug that caused raze button not to appear on all cities. (it shouldn't appear on capital cities)
The changelist for the different Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots patches can be found here.
Rise of Nations (original version)[]
Patch 4 (version 02.04.04.2903)[]
This patch was released around August 10, 2004. It was primarily a gameplay patch. The announced changes were:
- Gameplay Changes & Balance Fixes
- Spanish scouts lose line of sight bonus
- Spanish goodie boxes now give +26 resources instead of +35 for each science tech
- Maya Building Timber bonus reduced to 20% from 33%
- Maya Building HP bonus reduced to 20% from 50%
- Maya Building speed bonus reduced to 20% from 50%
- Maya arrows fired from buildings down from 2 to 1
- All units that attack while moving do slightly more damage against units that attack while moving (up to 115% from 100%)
- Armored car line does 150% damage against: spy, supply wagon, scout line (up from 100%)
- Howitzer and Rocket Artillery made slightly weaker vs foot troops (only 100% damage, down from 115%)
- Armored car at 166% damage (up from 125%) vs siege
- Tanks at 115% damage (up from 100%) vs seige
- Mobile AA at 100% damage (up from 75%) vs helis
- Nerfed Modern Helicopters vs Tanks (2/3)
- Increased Catapult (75 to 80) and Trebuchet (92 to 100) Hitpoints
- Machine gun ramping cost reduced to a flat +10/+10 per unit
- Trebuchet and Heavy Flaming Arrow Upgrade premium reduced to 3/2
- All Longbowmen now have range of 12
- Tercios weakened (19 attack, 195 hits -> 18 attack, 185 hits)
Patch 3 (version 02.03.11.0302)[]
This patch was released around November 13, 2003. The announced changes were:
- Features
- Quickmatch feature added for multiplayer
- New Info DeathMatch option in Game Rules
- CtW added randomize Nation location and bonuses
- The ability to save and exit once a player drops
- Now able to save multiplayer games
- "slash" chat commands added to game setup screen
- Improved MOD support
- Backwards compatibility for recorded games
- Now able to manually assign external IP
- Support for playing custom scenarios in multiplayer
- Support for specifying a script with any game as part of custom rules.
- Gameplay Changes & Balance Fixes
- Moderate difficulty now easier
- Balance fix to Barks and Triremes
- Siege and supply can now garrison in forts and cities. All other ground military units may garrison in any military producing building
- Units more effective against units three or more ages below
- Transport ships no longer receive +2 speed bonus from military bonus
- Scout line more likely to attack spies
- Exploit fixed for Nubian buy/sell to gain wealth
- Fixed exploit of Supercollider allowing instant razing of buildings
- Players now have the ability to declare war on nations that have resigned, and thereby take control of resigned nations' land
- Mongols now get two free Horse Archers when building stables with two military techs, and three at three military techs
- Can't upgrade to Commandos until Industrial Age now
- Mayan reduced timber costs for buildings no longer applies to military buildings
- Nubian rare resource bonus applies only in their own territory and not that of their allies
- Romans now get +15 wealth per city instead of +10
- Mobile AA units have range increased
- Helicopter bonus vs. tanks has been reduced
- Koreans no longer get free Taxation
- Bug Fixes
- Game performance improved for games running behind an ISA server
- User input delays due to lag have been reduced
- Game no longer crashes when a game is saved before patching, and loaded after
- Pathing issue fixed that caused citizens to ignore a build oil platform order
- Bug fixed that caused citizens to not work on oil platforms
- Fixed issue that caused incorrect number of players to be shown in a room
- Fixed exploit of units under building unable to be attacked
- Fixed bug that let you see garrison flags go up and down through the fog of war
- Cliffs now load properly from a saved game
- Warring states and Mediterranean moved to random sea map
- Fixed crash that occurred when loading a saved game from a tutorial
- Fixed hard lock occurring on skill tests
- Fixed various video card crashes
- Fixed bug that caused RISE.exe to not appear after reinstalling game
- Recorded games will playback correctly once RON has been patched
- Global Prosperity help text changed
- Fixed issue of helicopter guarding units
- "ForceStaticCursor" added to rise2.ini to fix issue with GDI cursors
- Fixed bug that caused buildings to auto-complete when bribed by enemy spies
- Removed a limit that prevented game event text and chat text from being shown after 1000 messages had been displayed
- Fix for crash occurring in CtW with an ATI Rage 128
- Fixed bug where players couldn't play bonus cards that they'd just purchased
- Loc issues fixed
- Script Log properly displays all script error messages
- Misc script editor fixes
- Fixed bug in get_starting_loc_x/get_starting_loc_y script functions
- Resolved Win98 end game achievements lock up
- Resolved player list scrolling bug in GameSpy lobby
- Resolved various menu lag issues in GameSpy lobbies
- Fixed potential crashes on launch into Gamespy games, Quick Battle, CtW, Editor.
- Fixed crashes related to changing game resolution
- Resolved compatibility issues with GameSpy Arcade
- Fixed crash bug resulting from misplacing resources in scenario editor
- Misc Technical Improvements
- Improved unit auto-targeting
- Achievements button now appears in the game menu of a recorded game
- Users with Intel 810, 815, 740, and 752 graphics cards now receive a popup message informing them that these cards are not supported (these cards to not meet the minspec printed on the box)
- Improved recorded game playback issues
- The update log appears now only appears when updates or changes are made
- Driver database updated
- Various hotkeys added
- Better Auto AI for citizens constructing buildings
- Changed the color of chat text after multiplayer game is finished to be consistent with team colors
- Various Gamespy UI adjustments
- Scenario Editor much improved
- Maps now easier to create
- Pause sound effect removed in solo game
- set_unit_scale/get_unit_scale script functions added for altering scale of individual units via script
- pause/unpause script functions added to allow auto-pause and unpause from scripts
- starting camera position in custom scenarios can be set per player [this last one can be appended to scenario editor much improved, as it sort of elaborates on that]
- ability to load single player custom scenarios through Quick Battle
- Resolved CTW crash bug
- Resolved Gamespy Lobby crash bug
- Resolved replace-with-AI crash bug
- Fixed several probems that prevented proper version updates
- Fixes to the Gamespy back-end record scripts
- Several Gamespy interface fixes
- Fixed MOTD crash
- Fixed pressing Alt + Tab in the host machine during launch causing the clients to get stuck in the "starting new game menu"
- Fixed the /away command
- Fixed the /whoami command
- Resolved several play-from-behind ICS issues
- Host of a MP game can now start a second game before the first ends.
- Gamespy games no longer showing up on LAN list
- Gamespy added characters no longer effect saved games
- "Slash Dialog" functionality is now advertised
- Several game save/load bugs fixed
- AI no longer hangs in Medieval Age in some rare occasions
- Mouse pointer no longer flickers on the ATI Radeon Mobility 7500 and 9000
Patch 2 (version 01.14.06.0500)[]
This patch was released around June 12, 2003. The announced changes were:
- Multiplayer & Technical Fixes
- MP Lag seems to be fixed even for severe clock drift. The major MP lag issue was not related to network bandwidth.
- The major issues with hosting behind a NAT have been fixed.
- MP ratings are fixed. Ratings will be reset as the current ones are not meaningful.
- GameSpy Arcade and the in-game matchmaking services are now compatible.
- Chat message are now white with only the player name colored.
- Additional anti-cheat protection.
- Fixed ping-sorting for in-game matchmaking.
- Armageddon does not happen in "Sandbox" mode (1-player).
- Auto-Patch System Updates
- Much better support for pre-prelease patch testing.
- You can now check for updates without going into GameSpy.
- Conquer the World
- CtW crash related to 16-bit vs 32-bit color on battle loading has been fixed.
- Color Adjustment Support
- Added a semi-documented way of adjusting the colors as requested by some colorblind players. Thanks to Ike for putting it in and providing a sample set of colors.
Patch 1 (version 01.14.05.0902)[]
This patch was released around May 19, 2003. The announced changes were:
- GameSpy Matchmaking
- Settings no longer locked in setupwin.
- Lockable/unlockable game settings.
- Auto-kick ignored players, display host in green.
- Fix to peerIsReady when not in staging room.
- Using player name passed from Arcade.
- Fix to status text on popup for players.
- Check for player ready relative to arcade.
- Resetting focus to editbox when dialogs are closed, so that accidentaly pressing spacebar won't kick the player out.
- Removed ping beside player's name (now found in mouseover text)
- Fixed setupwin not taking gamespy requests.
- "Add to buddy list" popup keeping modality when launching fix.
- Refreshing ids in player listbox when entering and leaving rooms
- Profiles that are ignored are removed from your buddy list
- Group chat persisted when entering and leaving rooms
- Switching lobbies does not clear chat buffers
- Short map names added
- Long nicknames cropped in player listbox
- (LOC) Buddy list requests now in the language of the player receiving the request, rather than the one sending it.
- Icon for locked/unlocked game settings.
- Various sorting and other UI fixes
- Scenario Editor
- Pack state persisted in scenarios
- Added Groups::clear() when creating new map
- Fixed fighter bomber queue crash
- Unqueuing units no longer trashes resources.
- Disabling "create unit" buttons when the leader does not have enough tech to create the unit
- Some type editor values should be able to be reset to zero
- Line of Sight max limit added
- Limits for max_range and armor
- Rush rules now work in scenarios
- Fix for crashes when re-initing or clearing all in scen editor when mine placed on mountain
- Increasing the # of script timers
- Added sniper ability to script functions
- Gaining non-unit techs now also gains all prerequisites
- Misc Fixes
- CTW: overrun and card bug fixes
- CTW: purchasing territories fix, cheat key fix
- CTW: replay bug fixed
- CTW: crash fix
- fix script function has_cast_order to get sniping for scenarios working
- fix AI taunts directed toward other teams
- fix AI taunts when sound is disabled
- fix unpacking siege in scen editor
- fix to packet padding in MP (chat).
- fix crash bug in scenario loading
- fix for turkish merchants
- fix for save/load of units that were available but didn't actually exist in the world.
- rivers now try to connect out to edge of world if possible, so they don't just hang 1/2 wcoord inland, esp for scen editor
- Fixed OOS for alt+tab on Win98
- Added a text to rendermanager, added some emoticons
- Script bug fixes with use of find_capital
- Various anti-cheat fixes
- Removed unreferenced anims, added some siege mortar crew default animations
- ALL VERSIONS: Fix to possible infinite loops in ifacerendermanager tiling.
The changelist for the different original Rise of Nations patches can be found here.