Rise of Nations (Trial version)
May 2003
© 2003 Big Huge Games, Inc. Portions © 2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Welcome to the trial version of Rise of Nations!

This file contains information to help you install, start playing, and troubleshoot the trial version of Rise of Nations. It also includes late-breaking information not included in the in-game Help.

CONTENTS
A.	System Requirements
B. 	Playing Rise of Nations
C.	Getting Help
D. 	Known Issues
E.	DirectX Troubleshooting
F.	Video Board Troubleshooting
G.	CD-ROM Drive Troubleshooting
H.	Audio Troubleshooting
I.	Video Board Manufacturers
J.	Rise of Nations Information

A. System Requirements 

Rise of Nations requires a personal computer running either Microsoft Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows 98, or Windows Millennium Edition. It is also required that your computer have a processor speed of 500 megahertz (MHz) or higher, at least 128 megabytes (MB) of RAM, and a 16 MB video card.

B. Playing Rise of Nations

Gameplay Modes

There are two modes in which you can play the trial version of Rise of Nations:

1. Tutorial
Select “Quick Learn” from the Main Menu to play the Rise of Nations tutorial. It’s a great way to learn to play the game. 

2. Single player vs. CPU
This option includes a subset of maps and game types found in the full retail game for solo play against the computer.

3. Multiplayer
	Multiplayer Rise of Nations games are not available in the trial version. 

4. Conquer the World
This series of linked scenarios is not available in the trial version.   

Walkthrough

The following walkthrough of the first few minutes of a single player vs. CPU game is designed to get your first game of Rise of Nations off to a great start. In this game, your goal is to capture your opponent’s capital city, which is marked with a star. You start the game with three Farms, manned by Citizens, and a Woodcutter’s Camp manned by two Citizens, as well as a Library and a City Center.

1.	Select your City Center, and create two new Citizens.
2.	Select a Citizen, and construct a new Farm. Constructing a Farm gives you a one-time bonus of food and increases Food income. Repeat with the other Citizen.
3.	Select your City Center, and create two more Citizens. Right-click the Woodcutter’s Camp to set the gather point there. When you do so, the new Citizens automatically start working at the Camp.
4.	Select your Library, and click the first blue, civic technology: City State.
5.	Create one more Citizen, and when City State has been researched move this Citizen to the forward edge of your national border. The border shows the farthest point at which you can build new buildings. Use this Citizen to create a new City.
6.	While the new City is being built, research the first green, commerce technology at the Library: Barter.
7.	When the Citizen has completed the new City, tell them to create a Market (Barter research must be completed before you can do this). 
8.	Select the completed Market, and create a Caravan. When finished, the Caravan automatically begins a trade route between your two Cities, increasing your Wealth income.
9.	Build more Farms around your new City. Each City can contain only five Farms. If you find yourself short of Timber, find another patch of woods and build another Woodcutter’s Camp.
10.	When you can, research the first red, military technology: Art of War. When Art of War has been researched, you can build Barracks and create troops for your army.
11.	When you have enough food, research the Classical Age at the Library.
12.	When Classical Age research is completed, you can have Citizens gather Metal by building Mines near any mountain within your national border. Create a few Citizens to run the Mines.
13.	When you reach the Classical Age, order a Citizen (create one if your entire population is busy) to build a University. Select the University and create Scholars. Universities (especially those populated by Scholars) gather Knowledge, which is necessary for additional Library research.
14.	Order a Citizen to build a Barracks. Select the Barracks and create a few military units to defend your nation. Later, you can also upgrade your units.
15.	To conquer an opponent’s City, build a Siege Factory and create some siege units. Siege units can reduce a City’s defenses, at which point you can send in foot troops to capture the City.
16.	Use the in-game Help to discover the other available structures, units, and technologies.
17.	Keep playing and have fun!

C. Getting Help

You can find out more information about Rise of Nations by using the in-game Help.

Displaying in-game rollover Help

Hold your mouse pointer over any button or interface item in the game. Help text automatically appears at the lower left of the screen.

Displaying the list of keyboard hot keys

While playing a game, click the Menu button or press F10, click Options, and then select the Hotkeys tab to display a complete list of the hot keys used in Rise of Nations. Most hot keys are also listed in the in-game rollover Help. The following quick reference lists some of the most common hot keys.

Camera and Status
To…	Do this…
Move (pan) camera	Move the pointer to the edge of screen, or press one of the
	arrow keys.
Zoom out/in	Roll the mouse wheel, or press the PAGE UP or PAGE DOWN
	keys.
View information on unit	Click it.
Basic Orders
To…	Do this…
Move selected unit(s)	Right-click the destination.
Order selected Citizen to	Right-click the building (this order only works if there are
occupy a gather building	available openings in the building).
Order selected Citizen to build 	Click the Build button on the panel in the lower-left portion of
	the screen, and then click the desired building category
	(Buildings, Military Buildings, Wonders). Click the desired
	building, and then click to place it on the map. The building will	turn green when over a valid location.
Creating Units
To…	Do this…
Build a military unit	Click your Barracks, Stable, or Forge, and click the button for
	the desired unit type.
Build a Citizen	Click a City, then click the Create Citizen button.
Selecting Units and Buildings
To…	Do this…
Select a unit	Click it.
Select multiple units	Click and drag to draw a box around them.
Add units to selection	Hold down SHIFT while selecting additional units.
Select next idle Citizen	Press (.) PERIOD, or click the Idle Citizen button in the lower
	center screen. 
Select all idle Citizens	SHIFT + (.) PERIOD.
Select all units of one type on the screen	Double-click one of the units.
Select next City	Press C.
Select next Barracks	Press K.
Select next Stable	Press S.
Select next Forge	Press O.
Select next Market	Press N.
Select next Library	Press L.
Select next University	Press U.
Combat
To…	Do this…
Order selected unit(s)	Right-click enemy unit(s).
to attack enemy unit(s)
Attack move	Press A.
Queue multiple orders	Hold down SHIFT while giving multiple orders.
Grouping
To…	Do this…
Group selected unit(s)	Press CTRL and a number key (0–9). 
Recall group	Press a number key (0–9).
Recall and jump to group	Press a number key (0–9) twice quickly.

D. Known Issues

No music in trial version of Rise of Nations: Music tracks are only available in the retail version of Rise of Nations.

Games recorded in trial version of Rise of Nations cannot be played back in the retail version: While games may be recorded and viewed in the retail version, the playback becomes corrupted if viewed with a retail version of Rise of Nations.  

Anti-virus software: Having anti-virus software enabled while playing Rise of Nations can significantly degrade game load times and performance.  

Rise of Nations runs too slowly: You can increase the performance Rise of Nations by lowering the game’s graphic settings. To change the settings, select Options & Profiles from the Main Menu, click the Graphics Tab, and select the Low checkboxes next to individual graphic settings. 

Limited Users overwrite profile files: Playing as a Windows-limited user (someone that does not have permission to write to the hard drive), does not prevent that user from saving to other user's profile folders and overwriting their files.

Game crashes cause subsequent games to lag: If a Rise of Nation game crashes or is terminated through the Task Manager, games played after this will slow down. To resolve this issue the user should reboot their computer before playing another game.

Hardware color cursor support and game resolution: If running Rise of Nations on systems without hardware color cursor support, you cannot change the bit-depth from the Graphics options panel within the game. To change the bit depth between 16- or 32-bit, exit the game and from the Start menu, select Settings, and then Control Panel. Double click on the Display icon and the click the Settings tab. Select either 32- or 16 bit color quality.

Replay of saved games may not function: If a Rise of Nations game is saved in the middle of a battle, and the player quits and subsequently tries to view a replay of that game, the replay function may not work. To avoid this issue, do not save games to be played back when battles are occurring.

E. DirectX Troubleshooting

Microsoft DirectX version 9.0 or later must be installed on your computer before you can play Rise of Nations. Rise of Nations Setup should install the correct version of DirectX on your computer.

If Setup does not detect DirectX properly, you can install DirectX manually by running Dxsetup.exe in the directx folder on the Rise of Nations CD.

If you experience sound or video problems using DirectX, go to http://support.microsoft.com/support/directx/ for the latest troubleshooting information.

You should also check with your video or sound card manufacturer for the latest DirectX-compatible drivers.

F. Video Board Troubleshooting

Check with your video board manufacturer for the latest DirectX-compatible drivers. See “I. 3-D Card Drivers and Manufacturers” In this document for more information on video board manufacturers.

Some video drivers may cause the pointer to flicker: To solve this problem, right-click the Rise of Nations shortcut and click Properties or select Rise of Nations from the Start menu, right-click, and select Properties.  In the Target box type -nohwcursor at the end of the existing text (e.g. \rise.exe” -nohwcursor). Click Apply and OK.

Creating a Merchant causes the game to crash: This problem may occur on the Diamond Viper V550 and Intel 845 chipsets. To resolve this problem, update to the latest drivers for your video board.

ATI Rage 128: When using video boards based on this chipset, buildings will be displayed with solid white textures. To resolve this problem, download and install the latest drivers from the manufacturer. 

NVIDIA GeForce: When using some GeForce drivers, you may experience significantly decreased game performance the first time the game is started after the computer has been restarted. If this occurs, exit the game by pressing ALT+F4, and then restart the game. After restarting once, the game should perform as usual until the next time the computer is restarted. 

NVIDIA (GeForce 3, 4): When using these video boards, nuclear explosions may have a muted, grayish effect and boat reflections will not be present. To resolve this issue download and install the 43.45 version driver from http://www.nvidia.com.

Intel 740, 810, and 815 Chipsets: Attempting to launch Rise of Nations on these chipsets results in a black screen followed by a crash to the desktop. There is no known solution.
SiS 315: Shore effects may appear blocky on game map. To resolve this problem, download and install the latest drivers for your specific video board.
ST KYRO: When using video boards based on this chipset, the graphics may be so corrupted that the game is unplayable. To resolve this problem, download and install the latest drivers from the manufacturer.

Specific 3-D graphics accelerator issues
It is usually a good practice (unless otherwise noted below) to always install the latest certified drivers for all your hardware.

•	3dfx Voodoo 3 3000: Rise of Nations will not run on computers using this video board, regardless of operating system. After the program is run, the screen will briefly flash black before returning to the desktop. There is no known solution.
•	3dfx Voodoo 5 (AGP Series): Various graphical anomalies occur on water portions of a Rise of Nations map when using this video card on a Windows 98SE operating system. There is no known solution.
•	3dfx Voodoo 5 (AGP Series): Rise of Nations is unplayable when running the game in 32-bit mode on a Windows 98SE operating system due to missing text, buttons, and other graphic corruptions. To resolve this issue run Rise of Nations in 16-bit mode. To change from 32- to 16-bit mode select Options & Profiles from the main menu, select the Graphics tab, and then set the resolution to one of the 16-bit resolutions.
•	ASUS v-3800 Ultra: Rise of Nations may not run on computers using this video board. To resolve this problem, download and install the latest drivers from http://www.asus.com.
•	Creative Annihilator Pro: The pointer flickers and may cause minor corruption to the game graphics. To resolve this problem, update to the latest drivers from the chipset manufacturer.
•	Diamond Monster Fusion:  Rise of Nations will not run on computers using this video board, regardless of operating system. After the program is run, the screen will briefly flash black before returning to the desktop. There is no known solution.
•	Guillemot Maxi Gamer Cougar:  Attempting to launch Rise of Nations on a system using this video card may result in a graphical initialization error. To resolve this problem, please update to the latest driver from the chipset manufacturer at http://www.nvidia.com.
•	Hercules 3D prophet 4500 (PowerVR Kyro 11): When the Rise of Nations is run with this video card at 32-bit resolution on a computer with a Windows 2000 or Windows XP operating system, the mouse cursor will flicker during the game. To resolve this issue run Rise of Nations in 16-bit mode. To change from 32- to 16-bit mode select Options & Profiles from the main menu, select the Graphics tab, and then choose one of the 16-bit resolutions.
•	LeadTek GeForce3 Ti 200: A nuclear explosion may appear as only as a white circle. To resolve this problem, download and install the latest drivers from http://www.leadtek.com.
•	Matrox Millennium G-400: Buildings may appear covered with solid white patches instead of color graphics, and some button text may not appear. To resolve this problem, download and install the latest drivers from http://www.matrox.com.
•	Matrox Millennium G-550: When the Rise of Nations is run with this video card at 32-bit resolution, the mouse cursor will flash during the game.  To resolve this problem, update to the latest drivers from http://www.matrox.com.
•	nVidia GeForce2 MX 200: When using this video board with the retail drivers on a computer running the Windows XP operating system, the pointer may become sluggish and/or jump around the screen. To resolve this problem, download to the latest nVidia drivers from http://www.nvidia.com.
•	nVidia GeForce2 MX 200: When using this video board with the retail drivers on a computer running the Windows XP operating system, water textures may not blend smoothly. To resolve this problem, update to the latest nVidia drivers from http://www.nvidia.com.
•	nVidia GeForce 256: When using this video card and playing Rise of Nations in 32-bit mode, the cursor may flash. To resolve this issue run Rise of Nations in 16-bit mode. To change from 32- to 16-bit mode select Options & Profiles from the main menu, select the Graphics tab, and then choose one of the 16-bit resolutions.
•	Radeon 7500: Ground colors may appear smeared or stretched, or the ground may appear black when using a computer with this video board. To resolve this problem, download and install the latest drivers from http://www.ati.com.
•	Radeon 9700: The pointer may not be visible when using this video board. To resolve this issue download and install the latest drivers from http://www.ati.com.
•	Radeon 9700: When using this video board and running Rise of Nations on a computer running Windows ME and Windows XP, graphical corruption may occur in the game after a period of time. To resolve this problem, download and install the latest drivers from http://www.ati.com.
•	Radeon 9700: When using this video board with the 9062 version driver on a computer running Windows ME or Windows 98, Rise of Nations will not start. To resolve this problem, download and install the latest drivers from http://www.ati.com.
•	STB Velocity 4400: When using this video card with the retail drivers on a computer running the Windows ME operating system, graphical anomalies may occur with the in-game tree shadows.  To resolve this problem, update to the latest nVidia drivers (version 4109 or better) from http://www.nvidia.com.

G. CD-ROM Drive Troubleshooting

Rise of Nations uses SafeDisc encryption technology. Some CD-ROM drives may not be compatible with this technology, as follows:

•	Acer CD-624a: If you experience problems with this drive when using real-mode drivers, install protected-mode drivers.

•	Cybermedia 204: You may experience problems with this drive. There are no known solutions.

•	Liteon 4265: You may experience problems with this drive. There are no known solutions.

•	Memorex CD-RW2224: You may experience problems with this drive. There are no known solutions.

•	Sanyo CRD-256P: If you experience problems with this drive, do not attempt to run Rise of Nations more than once before restarting your computer. Also, try ejecting and reinserting the CD-ROM. 

•	Sony CDU77E 2X: If you experience problems with this drive, make sure it is configured as a master, and then run the game again.

•	Yamaha 2216E, 4416SX and CDR6416S: If you experience problems with these drives, contact Yamaha for a firmware upgrade at http://www.yamahamultimedia.com/.

H. Audio Troubleshooting

Check with your sound board manufacturer for the latest DirectX-compatible drivers.

Following are the known audio issues and workarounds:

•	Audio stops playing: If some parts of the in-game audio (including combat sounds) stop playing after the game has been running for a while, add the -sw3Dsound command-line option to the Rise of Nations shortcut. To do so, left-click the shortcut and click Properties, and then in the Target box type -sw3Dsound at the end of the existing text. Click Apply and OK.

•	Audigy 2: Using an Audigy 2 sound board may interfere with SafeDisc, the encryption technology used to protect Rise of Nations. To resolve this issue, disable the Audigy 2 splash screen. Also, if you play a DVD, you must restart your computer before running Rise of Nations.

•	Aureal Vortex: Rise of Nations audio may not function with Aureal sound cards. To resolve this issue, turn off the hardware acceleration. From the Start menu, point to Settings, and then choose Control Panel. Double click Sounds and Audio Devices and select the Audio tab. Click the Advanced button in the Sound Playback section and then click the Performance tab. Move the Hardware Acceleration slider to None and click Apply.

•	SoundBlaster Live!: Using this sound card when running Rise of Nations on a Windows XP operating system may degrade game performance. To resolve this issue, turn off the hardware acceleration for this sound card. From the Start menu, point to Settings, and then choose Control Panel. Double click Sounds and Audio Devices and select the Audio tab. Click the Advanced button in the Sound Playback section and then click the Performance tab. Move the Hardware Acceleration slider to None and click Apply.

•	SoundBlaster Live! Wave: Sound will only come from one speaker when using the 5.1.2535.0 driver. To resolve this issue download and install the latest drivers from http://www.soundblaster.com.

•	Onboard sound: Some audio hardware included on motherboards is not currently supported.

•	DirectX: If you experience audio problems using DirectX, connect to the DirectX Web site for the latest troubleshooting information, as explained in the “DirectX Troubleshooting” section preceding.

I. Video Board Manufacturers
3DFX					[http://www.3dfx.com]
ASUS					[http://www.asus.com]
Creative				[http://www.creative.com]
Diamond Multimedia			[http://www.sonicblue.com]
Guillemot				[http://www.guillemot.com]
Hercules				[http://www.hercules.com]
Leadtek					[http://www.leadtek.com]
Matrox					[http://www.matrox.com]
NVIDIA					[http://www.nvidia.com]
ATI (Radeon video boards)		[http://www.ati.com]

J. Rise of Nations Information

For more information about Rise of Nations, visit:

•	http://www.riseofnationsinsider.com