Handy RoN tip

Games
1

RoN has so many undocumented features. I keep stumbling over really neat stuff all the time.

If you got any tips that would ease gameplay or understanding the underlying mechanics, this could be a good place to post them.

I’ll start off with this one. Very handy, IMHO.

“Kornelis Sietsma” wrote in CSPIGS:
One important tip - if you set the waypoint of a barracks (etc) to a
unit, then the troops produced by that barracks will move to that unit (wherever it is), and will join the group produced by that unit (i.e. the group set by “Ctrl-1”. I thus tend to set a group “leader”, whether it be a general or just a tough unit, And set all production from one building to join that unit. Saves a lot of fiddling.

2

Yeah, I noticed that when I was accidentally clicking on a unit rather than on the ground next to it. Looks like a nice feature but I’ve yet to evolve my ingrained AOE habits to actually use it!

3

Whoa. I’d noticed that it would try to get output sent to a unit sometimes when I wasn’t trying to do that, but I had no idea those new units would auto-join the group. That’s handy enough I might go ahead and use it rather than finding a clearer patch of ground to use like I typically do.

4

That’s AWESOME. I didnt even know about that. Thats some smart game making.

5

You can also set control groups to buildings or to camera locations (set the control group with nothing selected to set the camera). Control groups can also use the F-keys as well as the num-keys.

And while on the subject of control groups, units can be members of multiple groups. This allows you to set, say, ctrl-1 to your entire army while also having ctrl-2 be just your cav and ctrl-3 be just your inf.

6

That’s AWESOME. I didnt even know about that. Thats some smart game making.

And it’s been in Warcraft 3 since day one.* I really missed this function in AoM. I intuitively expected it to be in RoN and it was, so kudos to them. The did their homework on the interface.

I also noticed that if you have a numbered group garrisoning a building, the newly created units will garrison the building too.

  • you can set spawn points to units, which is incredibly useful, but in WC3 they don’t auto join the numbered group, which would be nice. This is probably a side effect of blizzard forcing us to use groups of maximum size 12… you know, because Blizzard Knows Best. Actually, I think it’s an interface decision due to the way they show the health/mana portraits of the selected group on screen-- you can click each unit portrait, tab through subgroups, and it shows spell status per unit (cursed, and so forth), etc. Anyway, the more units you have, the less viable this interface design would be. That’s probably why. Also because Blizzard hates Tom Chick. And gamers in general.
7

Anyone else experience problems with ONLY the world map of the CTW campaign? I can play the actual battles with no problem – but the world map lags by about 10 seconds – meaning I can click my mouse and it does not respond for about 10+ seconds. The cursor moves fine – but it’s so slow that it is unplayable. I’ve updated my video drivers and tried everything else I can think of – but no luck.

Anyone else with that type problem? Or is it just me?

8

When we first started playing RoN, I printed these out for the guys at Shoot Club. Some of y’all might find them helpful (even though the formatting didn’t keep…grr…).

Pause P
Cannon time Bsp
Cycle available research TAB
Diplomacy F9
Minimap signal Ins
Select all units of that type Home
Scroll messages Ctl + PgUp, Ctl + PgDn

Data Display
Change Display F12

Political Alt + Shf + 1
Economy Alt + Shf + 2
Market Alt + Shf + 3
Military Alt + Shf + 4
Cities Alt + Shf + 5
Upgrades Alt + Shf + 6
Groups Alt + Shf + 7
Diplomacy Alt + Shf + 8
Wonders Alt + Shf + 9

Buildings
Library L
City C
Market N
University U
Barracks K
Stables S
Siege Factory O
Dock D
Airbase I
Missile silo X

Units
Military unit ,
Idle citizen .
General /
Scout ‘
Spy ;

Guard R
Patrol Z
Attack move A
Halt H
Recall air unit Y

Forward Ctl + up
Back Ctl + down
Rotate Ctl + left or right

Aggressive Shf + A
Defend Shf + D
Raid Shf + R
Raze Shf + Z
Stand Ground Shf + G
Hold Fire Shf + H

Bookmarks
Ctl+1-0, Ctl+F1-F8

Airbases
Launch one plane RtClick
Launch all planes Shf + RtClick
Launch fighters Alt + RtClick
Launch bombers Ctl + RtClick

General Tips

Give a building a rally point on another unit. All newly produced units will go to that unit and join its control group.

To order a siege attack, select a group of units with siege weapons and Alt + RtClick your target. The siege weapons will attack and the other units will hang back to guard them.

Hold the mouse over a unit’s range icon (the bullseye target) to see its range on the map.

Use taunts on the computer players and if they’re allied, they’ll try to follow your instructions.

Alt + LfClick a unit to select its entire group

Alt + a target or command to give a unit an order without interrupting its previously queued orders.

Ctl + drag to select all units, civilian and military
Alt + drag to select all non-siege military units
Ctl + Alt drag to select all siege units
Alt + Shf drag to select all aircraft
Ctl + Alt + Shf to select all transports

Ctl select units in the selection box to remove them
Shf select units in the selection box to select all of that type
Ctl + Shf select units in the selection box to remove all of that type

 -Tom
9

Well, that should be easy to remember.

10

It’s no Sacrifice.

11

It’s a Big Huge Game
I’m playing strong
Though my research staggers
And wonders take too long

Over your boundary
To harry your land
Sweet resources callin’
Fallin’ into my hand

Got no heart
As I run to you
Ignore those legions, baby
Just passin’ through

It’s no Sacrfice
But that’s just a verb
I can go multiplayer
Or Conquer the World
But it’s no Sacrifice
No Sacrifice
It’s no Sacrifice at all

Troy

12

I’m winning more and more now. Using Temples is working really well to shore up defenses, and the autojoin thing means that my armies out in the field stay refreshed with new units (instead of having to build new ones).

The units themselves do a great job picking targets and staying out of each other’s way - I noticed the supply cart tends to stay at the back of the pack in a fray, which is really handy since I typically designate it as the auto-join unit.

13

Another tip, which I found by accident: on the button for changing a unit’s stance (agressive, defensive, etc…) you can right-click it to “back up”…you know, if you go past “Raid” and onto “Stand Ground”, right-click to go back to “Raid”.

14

Unverified but according to the ingame help units take extra damage, and take longer to cross in rivers, and light infantry receive a bonus in rocky terrain. I ran a cav unit back and forth across a river and couldn’t tell any difference in speed, so if it is still a part of the game its probably not very dramatic.

15

Didn’t see this mentioned. If you select multiple buildings (i.e. a barracks, siege factory, and stables), you can set one rally point for ALL of the selected buildings. I LOVE this game!

16

You guys stank up the board with so many RoN threads I finally tried out the demo. Damn, it’s pretty cool. I like in the endgame once you’ve researched AI you can produce units as fast as you can click to cue them. Whole armies pouring out of factories/barracks. I don’t know what the hell is happening with lots of the stuff, though. Ended up loosing in a world government/wonders scenario. I guess cause I wasn’t building any. Now I have to go back and read all those threads I was ignoring…

17

You have been assimilated.
Resistance is futile.

18

Here is your problem. Loosing leads to inevitable defeat in RoN. :wink:

Someone write down how many RoN threads there are because it evidently takes that many to get the bullheaded attendees here at Qt3 to try a demo for an A+ title. (Oddly enough, it only takes one thread for some people to try out games that get a 0/5 stars.)

We will need to make sure this number of threads is a minimum for the next title on which there is near universal agreement.

19

I felt so taunted I had to go download it.

20

Tom also forgot to give everyone the handy dandy shortcut of Ctrl + Alt + Delete twice in a row. It only works as a SuperShortCut™ if you happen to be the server of a game, and it immediately ends a losing game without resulting in a loss for you.

Tom, I can’t believe you didn’t point out this mega-cool shortcut. Come on, man, it’s like your favorite!

(Oh, yes, yes, I feel it coming on, here we go…):

:twisted: