Q: What role do the gods play?
A: The role of the gods in Children of the Nile is of a passive and indirect nature. Unlike in Zeus, they do not make physical appearances in your city. Nonetheless, they are very important to the people of your realm. If the citizens are worried about something, they will want to visit a shrine or a temple dedicated to the appropriate deity. People frequently want to worship their preferred god or goddess, too. For instance, the sculptor, whose patron is Ptah, will be much happier if there is a shrine or a temple dedicated to his god where he can make offerings. A list and descriptions of the gods and goddesses in Children of the Nile can be found here:
http://www.immortalcities.com/cotn/gameinfo/gods.php.
Q: Can you tell me more about the military?
A: Children of the Nile is chiefly a city-building game with a strong emphasis on society development and social interaction, but there is also a military aspect. Don't expect the depth of a dedicated war game here, though. You can hire different types of soldiers, including city militia, and use your army to defend your realm. You can also send your men out on expeditions. Combat is fairly simple, and won't turn off players who only really want to build a city and tend the society. You will, however, need to hire commanders, assign tasks to them, train men, and employ weapon makers as well as armourers. This aspect is well implemented into the game and does not feel alien or out of place.
D. Technical Stuff
Q: What kind of computer do I need for CotN?
A: Here is the official word on the minimum requirements: Pentium III or Athlon 800 MHz processor or higher, Windows 98/2000/ME/XP operating system, 128 MB of RAM (256 MB required for Windows XP), 1.1 GB uncompressed free hard drive space, DirectX 9.0b, 100% DirectX 9-compliant true 16 bit sound card and drivers, 100% DirectX 9-compliant 32 MB video card and drivers, CD-ROM drive and drivers. This may change when the game is released. A faster CPU, more RAM and a decent video card will benefit Children of the Nile. The video card should also be able to support hardware T&L. Recommended specifications: Pentium 4 or Athlon 2.0 GHz processor, 512 MB of RAM, 64 MB video card.
Q: What is meant by a "DirectX 9-compliant 32 MB video card"?
A: What it does
not mean is that you must have one of the latest DX9 video cards (such as the X800 or 6800GT). It merely means that you need a card that is supported by DirectX 9, which is to say "most every video card sold in the past few years". It just needs to support hardware T&L. 32 MB is really the very minimum, though. 64 MB will serve you much better, and a GeForce 4 Ti-4200 with that amount of RAM can be had for very little money.
Q: Can you give me a list of video cards that are supported?
A: This is not an official list, but below are all video cards that are DX9-compatible and support hardware T&L:
- ATI Radeon 7200, 7500, 8500, All-In-Wonder 8500, 9000, 9200, 9500, 9600, 9700, 9800, X300, X600, X700, X800.
- Nvidia QuadroTM series: Quadro, Quadro2, Quadro4.
- Nvidia Geforce series: GeForce2, GeForce3, 3 Ti, GeForce4, 4Ti, MX 420, 440, GeForce FX 5200, 5600, 5700, 5800, 5900, 5950, GeForce 6600, 6800.
An educated guess is that these non-T&L cards will also work if you have a processor with at least 2.0 Ghz: ATI Radeon 7000/VE series, Intel Extreme Graphics 82845, 82865, 82915.
Q: Uh, how can I tell what video card I have?
A: No worries, you don't need to open your computer case to find out. The easiest way is to look up the information in DXDIAG, a utility that comes together with DirectX. Follow these steps: Click on the "Start" button, select "Run ..." and type in "dxdiag" (minus the quotation marks). Wait a few moments while the program analyzes your computer. When it is done, go to the "Display" tab in DXDIAG. Here you should see what video card you have. If you want to know even more about your computer, I warmly recommend AIDA32 to you. It's a nifty and entirely free program that provides more information about your computer than you ever dreamed of. It can be downloaded at
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download181.html.
Q: What are the best drivers for my video card?
A: As a rule of thumb, you should visit the manufacturer's web site and download the latest version of the driver for your card. If you have a GeForce card, head over to
http://www.nvidia.com. If you have an ATI/Radeon card, check out
http://www.ati.com. Experienced users may also want to look at the unofficial "Omega" drivers at
http://www.omegadrivers.net. These are unsupported and tweaked, but they often offer more performance than the official releases. Please only consider these if you know what you're doing. In no event should you use the drivers that Windows attempts to install automatically. Bluntly put, they "suck" badly, and many games will be nearly unplayable.
Q: What screen resolutions are supported?
A: The game supports just about any resolution that you could ever want. Specific resolutions for LCD monitors and notebooks are also available. The minimum resolution is 800x600. The setting menu will only display resolutions that can be handled by your monitor, so that the hardware won't get damaged by overly adventurous players.
Q: Can I run the game on a LCD display?
A: Children of the Nile isn't an "ego shooter", so you won't need a fast LCD display with a TN panel. It will run perfectly fine and without smearing effects on LCDs with S-IPS panels (and is very beautiful to look at!). While I've not tested this, I see no reason why it should not also work on the displays with slower panel technologies such as MVA and PVA. CotN supports a number of different screen resolutions. For 17", 18" and 19" LCD displays, you get the best quality in 1280x1024. If you have a 15" or 16" LCD monitor, 1024x768 is recommended for you. Users of 20" or 21" displays will get great results in 1600x1200.
Q: Which copy protection system does CotN use?
A: It uses SecuROM.
Q: Should I prepare my computer by updating drivers?
A: This may not be necessary, but in general it's not a bad idea to keep the drivers for your hardware properly updated. This can make your system more stable and may increase the performance. Below I have listed a number of URLs of hardware manufacturers. Please check the sites below for new versions of drivers or firmware for your devices and components, if you would like to update your computer. Please always read any available documentation (such as readme files) and instructions carefully before installing new drivers.
WARNING: Only "flash" new firmware if you know what you're doing. If you do not know what you're doing, you can damage or completely destroy a hardware component. Please ask for assistance if you are unsure how to go about updating the firmware of a device. I cannot give any guarantees, and whatever changes you make, you make them at your own risk.
Video Cards
nVidia (i.e.TNT2 and GeForce) --
http://www.nvidia.com
ATI (i.e. Radeon) --
http://www.ati.com
PowerVR (Kyro I / II) --
http://www.powervr.com
Matrox --
http://www.matrox.com
SIS --
http://www.sis.com
Main Boards
Intel --
http://www.intel.com
SIS --
http://www.sis.com
Via --
http://www.viaarena.com
nVidia --
http://www.nvidia.com
Sound Cards
Creative Labs (Soundblaster) --
http://www.creative.com
Terratec --
http://www.terratec.com
Q: I need technical help. Who can I contact?
A: Since the game hasn't been released yet, there is no technical support available for it. If you have general questions, such as concerns whether your computer can run the game, you could try the official forum at
http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/. Please do not email me directly with questions of this kind. You're likely to get much better (and faster!) information if you use the forum.
E. Resources
This final section of the Unofficial Children of the Nile Orientation FAQ offers a collection of useful links to CotN sites, both official and unofficial. If you run a fan site or a forum, and your URL isn't listed below, please drop me an email at
cironir@gmail.com (please put "CotN" somewhere in the subject line). Please also check the links listing at the official CotN site (
http://www.immortalcities.com/cotn/community/links.php), and let Tilted Mill know if you have a fan site that isn't yet listed (the email link is on the links page).
Forums:
Official Tilted Mill Community Forum
http://www.tiltedmill.com/forums/
Heaven Games CotN Forum
http://caesar3.heavengames.com/cgi-b...action=t&fn=37
PlanetNile Forum
http://www.forumplanet.com/planetnile/
Staedtebauen Forum (German)
http://www.staedtebauen.de/modules.p...forum&forum=17
The Pharaoh's Forum
http://www.forum.jehromefritz.com/forumdisplay.php?f=5
Fan Sites:
Ancient Citybuilding
http://home.tiscali.nl/ancientcitybuilding/
Children of the Nile / Saet.de (German)
http://www.saet.de/COTN/index.html
Children of the Nile Heaven
http://emperor.heavengames.com/cotn
PlanetNile
http://www.planetnile.com/
Rnett's CotN Fan Site
http://home.earthlink.net/~rnett4205/index.html
Satsui's Immortal Cities
http://www.blindnation.net/cotn/index.html
The Oasis of Knowledge
http://www.purpledragonsoftware.com/cotn/
The Pharaoh's Forum Fansite
http://fansite.jehromefritz.com/
Media:
Official Screenshots Gallery
http://www.immortalcities.com/cotn/gallery/ssview.php
Official Music Archive (MP3)
http://www.immortalcities.com/cotn/downloads/music.php
Official Movies Collection
http://www.immortalcities.com/cotn/downloads/movies.php
Commented Strategy Videos
http://www.immortalcities.com/cotn/p...r.php (bottom)
Desktop Wallpapers
http://www.immortalcities.com/cotn/d.../wallpaper.php
Children of the Nile Fan Kit
http://www.immortalcities.com/cotn/d...fansitekit.php
Miscellaneous:
Designer Notes
http://www.immortalcities.com/cotn/g...n_insights.php
Interviews with the Designers
http://www.immortalcities.com/cotn/press/interviews.php
Previews
http://www.immortalcities.com/cotn/press/previews.php
Revision history
* 2004-11-10, 1.01: Revised version, changed wording to reflect US release.
* 2004-11-04, 1.00: Initial release of the FAQ.
* 2004-10-23, 0.9b: Draft.
* 2004-10-19, 0.00: Project start.
A big "Thank you!" to everyone who has contributed to this FAQ! You guys (and gals) are the greatest! 