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|MYT|Beerbelott
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Joined: 13 Mar 2011, 23:02

Rise of Nations - Installation/Configuration tutorial

  1. Installation
    Rise of Nations can nowadays be commonly found as a bundle cold Rise of Nations Gold which contain both the original Rise of Nations game (let's call it RoN) and its standalone expansion Rise of Nations: Thrones & Patriots (let's call it RoN:T&P), but maybe you will find them as separate versions.
    1. Separate Original RoN version & Expansion RoN:T&P owners
      Nothing special for you here, just install both games and you will end up with separate shortcuts to both versions without any trouble.
    2. Gold version owners
      • Upon the bundle installed, you will only find a single shortcut planted on your desktop/'Start' menu (under 'Microsoft Games\Rise of Nations Gold' directory), incorrectly named Rise of Nations Gold. Since playing the Gold version doesn't mean anything and since these shortcuts are for RoN:T&P, you might want to safely rename them to Rise of Nations - Thrones & Patriots.
        If you go in the properties of those shortcuts, you will find they aim to the following path:

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        <Programs directory>\Microsoft Games\Rise of Nations\thrones.exe
      • You might want to create some shortcuts for the original RoN game. For that, create a shortcup aiming at the following file:

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        <Programs directory>\Microsoft Games\Rise of Nations\rise.exe
        Name it 'Rise of Nations', then move/copy it anywhere necessary.
  2. Update
    To check your version number, in both game versions, use the following menus entries:

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    Tools & other info > About Rise of Nations
    In the original RoN game, your version must be 02.04.04.2903.
    In the expansion RoN:T&P, your version must be 03.02.12.0800.
    You won't be able to join a multiplayer session of someone who has not the same version as you!
    1. Original RoN (not needed for the owners of the Gold bundle)
      1. Download and install Rise Of Nations Update 3
      2. Start the game, and use the Check for Updates button on the main menu to install Update 4
    2. Expansion RoN:T&P
      Start the game, and use the Check for Updates button on the main menu to install the update
  3. Configuration
    Both games can be configured in the same way, so the following may be done in both game versions.
    Note that both the game versions (RoN and RoN:T&P) share the same configuration, so you only need to check/modify the ports in one of the versions.
    1. If you are using a firewall software that handles per application authorization (such as Windows' firewall), allow both RoN and RoN:T&P to use the network.

      For RoN, allow

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      <Programs directory>\Microsoft Games\Rise of Nations\rise.exe
      For RoN:T&P, allow

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      <Programs directory>\Microsoft Games\Rise of Nations\thrones.exe
    2. If you are using a physical firewall (such as a router) or a firewall software which doesn't support per application authorisation, you need to configure incoming ports for the game to communicate on the Internet.

      One specificity of that game is that it allow you to choose which port it will use.
      To know what ports are being used by the game, start one of the game versions, then on the main menu, choose the Options & Profiles button, then at the bottom left of the Game pane, inside the Multiplayer section, you will find 2 boxes called respectively Host port n° and Client port n°.
      Default ports are set to 34987. You might want to change them.

      These are ports to open as UDP incoming traffic in your router/firewall
  4. Enjoy!

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