I gotta say I highly recommend this game. Best in the series in my opinion. The single player campaign is basically a big tutorial, and is extremely fun.

Whenever I buy a new game I always make sure and watch the opening movie to get reved up. Some are OK and some are just plain dumb, but I never miss a one. The opening movie for this game is beautiful! It's something you just have to see if you like games.

I have Anno: Create a New World on the Wii, which is supposed to be based on 1404. I'm still in the story mode of the game. I find it plays like a simpler version of the Impressions city builders, as you don't have to worry about employment or building the right neighbourhood.

I'm thinking that the Wii and DS versions might be very different from the PC version, (The screenshots look very different.) so I can't comment on that. The PC version has many similarities to the previous Anno titles, but alot more polish.

I loved the Impressions city builders too.

It's on my list of games to buy. One day...

I don't know about the Wii version, but the PC and the DS versions are different (I have both). The DS version is less complex than the PC version (although on par with many city builders of yore).

I am very very impressed with the game. Not too impressed with the DRM and activation side and not happy at all with the almost none existent manual.

Best game that I have bought for a while :)

I was tempted, but it sounds like war and diplomacy are seriously lacking in this game.

I was tempted, but it sounds like war and diplomacy are seriously lacking in this game.

There is war, but diplomacy is a bit limited (mainly trade or war). This is a city-builder. It is not an an RTS or a 4X game. That means that the emphasis on the game is getting your complex economy working like a finely tuned machine while keeping your people happy so that you can tax them lots.

I am very very impressed with the game. Not too impressed with the DRM and activation side and not happy at all with the almost none existent manual.

Best game that I have bought for a while :)

Yeah, a game like this needs a manual. There are some things that you wish you knew early on that make things easier. For example, on a continuous game, if you buy seeds from northbough or the visier, the seed that they sell will change. So if you need one that's not on sale, just buy one that you don't need and you'll get new choices.

I struggled for a good long time because I didn't know I could buy the seeds I wanted, and none of the islands were fertile for them.

I am very very impressed with the game. Not too impressed with the DRM and activation side and not happy at all with the almost none existent manual.

Best game that I have bought for a while :)

You can get a pretty good one here, for $20 though. I downloaded it today, and haven't been all the way through it yet, but if you are serious about this game, the 20 bucks is worth it.

http://www.primagames.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780761562795

@cephalo - thanks for the hint regardng seeds - I really doubt that I would have ever figured that one out.!

A problem that I have had with the interface is when you are on an Island and at the top left of the screen there is a ribbon bar with icons and numbers representing the stock levels of certain resources, like wood. Well I dragged the bar or icons without meaning to and now there is only the wood icon there..! I'm not sure how you add items to it but I guess I managed to take them away..!!! :D

spider1 - I might need to buy that. Thanks for the link.
I still have my old copy of Caesar 3 and the paper manual was superb for that game.

I played 4 missions for now. It's fun. :goodjob:

So i'm at mission 5 i think. I have to go to an island where there's a sandstorm and a shipwreck. Aparently i have to click on boxes on the island to get 2 items. I clicked on all the boxes i saw and only got one of the two items (the key). I really can't see any other boxes. Can't find any walkthroughs - need some help here...

EDIT: found it :D - it was someplace else, after i did another objective

So I got the game. I have a hard time understanding how "proximity" is important in this game, mostly in the industry part of the game.

I understand that a hemp farm needs to be close to a market building for the carts to quickly gather the resource and put it in the island's warehouse. However, I don't understand or know if the weaver's hut needs to be close to the hemp farms. The game seems to suggest so... But... It's unclear to me.

Can't you just build the hemp farms on one side of the island, with the carts quickly gathering the hemp in the warehouse. Then build another market building on the other side of the island where you build all the weaver's huts, and it transforms it there (warehouses are shared across one island). Carts around the weaver's huts would constantly take hemp from the market building and take it to the weaver's hut where they take linen clothes and bring it back to the market building.

I guess I don't know if the carts are able to do multiple stops... Like:

market building --> hemp farm (pick up hemp) --> weaver's hut (drop hemp, pick up linen) --> market building (drop linen).

Another example:

Leather jerkins can only be produced on a river, they require salt. Do you really need to have a river with brine close by (proximity), or can you produce the salt on another island, import it to that island, and feed it to the leather jerking producing building?

I understand that a hemp farm needs to be close to a market building for the carts to quickly gather the resource and put it in the island's warehouse. However, I don't understand or know if the weaver's hut needs to be close to the hemp farms. The game seems to suggest so... But... It's unclear to me.

A weaver's hut needs to be close to a market building.
The game "suggests" it because it's more efficient to have your hemp industry all in one area. And it's nice to have "zones" of your island. Like the hemp zone, the iron zone etc.
Can't you just build the hemp farms on one side of the island, with the carts quickly gathering the hemp in the warehouse. Then build another market building on the other side of the island where you build all the weaver's huts, and it transforms it there (warehouses are shared across one island). Carts around the weaver's huts would constantly take hemp from the market building and take it to the weaver's hut where they take linen clothes and bring it back to the market building.

I guess I don't know if the carts are able to do multiple stops... Like:

market building --> hemp farm (pick up hemp) --> weaver's hut (drop hemp, pick up linen) --> market building (drop linen).
In your first example with the island yes it's possible. Actually - in very long games, i do that. Because a wearhouse cant handle a crap load of plantations (like i make later in the game) and weaver huts at the same time even with the maximum number of carts.

However in your example with the cart route i dont know if it works like that or not. But i think it's easy to test. (i would have tested it but my game is no longer installed). I always put my processing buildings (as in not raw product production) really close to the marketplace, so if your example is true i guess i wasn't affected too much.
The proximity between the plantation and the weaver's hut might make your production line more efficient but it's definetly not mandatory.
Another example:
Leather jerkins can only be produced on a river, they require salt. Do you really need to have a river with brine close by (proximity), or can you produce the salt on another island, import it to that island, and feed it to the leather jerking producing building?
Yep like with most of the products that you will need for your city later in the game you'll find yourself taking stuff from 3 islands at some point just for a product.

(answers to my questions...)

Thanks a bunch. I find the game's documentation is really lacking, as it has been discussed before. I really like the game, but it's really unclear in many ways. Learning to set up trade routes is a nightmare, with me overproducing a bunch of stuff and the boats being unable to drop off their goods anywhere and thus not picking the beer up anymore and making my main island angry. I just figured out that maybe I should put one last stop at the AI islands where I force sell anything that might be left on the ship, hehe.

Yea that's annoying. You could also make another boat to help.

The game needs a lot of micromanaging a lot of times.

If you build the buildings that consume resources near enough to the producer, they will not use the warehouse carts to fill up. This means that there is less down time, less cost, less roads needed (allowing denser packing), and less warehouses needed (allowing even denser packing).

My biggest gripe is the "Where's Waldo" missions. The Sultan wants you to find his lost harem girls in the next ten minutes or you have to wait another half hour to win the game.

So, now I have nobles and I'm giving them the meat they love and all, but I'm not sure what they're for. I mean, a patrician house gave me +1400 something, when I upgrade it to nobles it now gives me +120. Same for the oriental islands, when I upgrade the nomads to envoys, same sort of drop in income comes.

I just fail to see the advantage except for having access to better buildings, but same goes for going from citizen to patrician, and you actually get income from patricians.

In the long run, the higher grade citizens are better. They have a greater population density (which means the money per tile goes way up - once you can make them happy enough). In addition, they unlock some trade goods that sell for a lot more than the basic goods.

This is the newest one? I remember wanting the 1704 one or whatever it was, never got around to it though. Is there a demo for this? And what's the drm? Just an install limit or is it on steam or something?

Is it better than the old city builder games like Caesar 3 and Zeus and whatnot? I used to love those but there hasn't been a new one in a while that seemed to interest me.

The first patch for the US version of this game is out now. There are some interesting fixes, the ones I've found most useful are:

You can now hold the shift key and upgrade all your norioas on an island at once.

Ships sent to attack another ship now stop at where they sunk the ship, not at the initial contact point.

There are some dice in the AI's wharehouse/islands now so you can change what is being offered. After you roll the time a timer goes off before you can change the offerings again.

For the English/UK version but not the US version, there is a world editor and tools kit. Hopefully they'll have this soon for the US version of the game. A world editor would be really nice for this game.

Below are the complete patch notes if you are interested.

ANNO 1404 – Patch Notes 1.1

The most important changes:
- A crash while saving a game could result in the online profile being lost. This error has been fixed.
- The use of special characters within the Windows user name, profile name or savegame name caused several errors (eg invalid savegames or crashes). This error has been fixed.
- Memory errors could lead to invalid savegames under specific hardware configurations. This error has been fixed.
- Ships which have destroyed a target now wait at that spot for new orders rather than returning to their starting point.
- The AI was unable to settle some islands. This error has been fixed.
- A function was implemented allowing the items offered at all three ports to be changed. The player now has the opportunity have the Items on offer changed upon payment of a fee in gold.
- Military influence areas and firing radii were visually improved to further simplify use of the military.
- Norias no longer worked properly after buying the "Mystery of the nomads' achievement. This error has been fixed.
- The "Scroll through Ships" and "Scroll through Warehouses" buttons were moved to a more prominent position above the minimap.
- The achievements "We have no time to lose" and "The Emirate" have been adjusted. The Imperial Cathedral must now be built in 7 hrs and the Sultan's Mosque in 5 hrs (previously 8 hrs and 6 hrs). In return, the condition requiring the people's satisfaction level to be "adequately satisfied" or better was removed.

General:
- It was possible to delete savegames and screenshots in the "Gateway to the World" from within the game. This function is not planned. Effective immediately, savegames and screenshots can now only be deleted locally. If you want to delete savegames and / or screenshots online this must be done directly in the "Gateway to the World".
- Old games from an online profile could be loaded even without successful login to the "Gateway to the World". This function is not planned. Savegames from an online profile can now only be loaded once login to "Gateway to the World" was successful.
- In some cases, when creating an online profile identical ID's were given to different profiles. This could lead to a new online profile overwriting another one. This error has been fixed.
- Some special circumstances occasionally resulted in performance downturns. Errors causing this problem have been fixed.
- An error causing some interface elements to react to external input (eg, volume control on the keyboard, connecting a Logitech USB headset) has been fixed.
- In rare cases the "Fog of War" was not displayed correctly after saving / loading a game. This error has been fixed.
- In some menus the confirmation button was within the text box. This error has been fixed.
- The info bar for quests / messages has been shifted slightly upwards, so that more orders can be displayed when the bar is expanded.
- Some interface elements were still visible in Pause mode. This error has been fixed.
- There were rare cases of ships sailing through islands. This error has been fixed.
- Pigs and cows are now shown the right size on the farthest zoom level.
- Some messages were not properly / fully communicated. This error has been fixed.
- There were various minor bug fixes. (Incorrectly positioned cooldown displays, tool tips, typos, incompletely displayed text, etc.)
- It is no longer possible to use online profiles or create new ones with modified versions [MODs] of the game.
- Some interface graphics (confirmation buttons and sliders) were replaced.
- The current status of a ship is now also displayed in a tool tip in the ship selection drop-down menu in the strategy map.

Continuous play/Scenarios:
- In some cases, quest rewards were not properly transferred to the players. This error has been fixed.
- The Carpenter was still able to repair buildings during battle. This was not planned. Buildings currently involved in combat you can no longer be repaired.
- Assignments requiring the player to pay gold can now only be accepted if the player's balance allows it.
- In rare cases, a few menu items (for example, the menu of a production building) were not displayed correctly. This error has been fixed.
- In rare cases, there was a significant delay before the caravel was given to the player after the delivery of the first gift for Al Zahir. This error has been fixed.
- The player could still purchase ships from Hassan ben Sahid even after their ship limit had been reached. This was not planned and has been fixed.
- In rare cases, the Trebuchet also took damage when bombarding a building. This error has been fixed.
- In rare cases, some Market buildings did not send out Market carts to pickup goods. This error has been fixed.
- The effectiveness of ranged combat units (especially against military buildings) has been slightly increased.
- The effectiveness of naval bombardment against land units has been slightly reduced.
- The Emperor's Quest "Nurturing the Alliance" has been simplified. Instead of 75 contracts only 40 contracts must now be completed.
- The base chance of a ship on an expedition being successful has been reduced.
- In some cases where several ships were ordered in one shipyard, the ship limit points spent on them were not refunded if the shipyard was destroyed before the ships were completed. This error has been fixed.
- In rare cases, transport ships were unable to build castles. This error has been fixed.
- The maintenance costs for Military buildings and Castles are now correctly booked correctly under "Military" instead of under "Buildings".
- The effect of the attainment "Binding handshake" at level 3 has been corrected. Before it had the same effect as at level 1.
- In rare cases, ships that were part of an assignment appeared inside an island. This error has been fixed.
- The Corsairs no longer sink ships required for quests.
- Items which the reduce building / vessel maintenance costs no longer reduce those costs to a negative level.

Artificial Intelligence
- In some cases the AI was able to build within the player's influence area. This error has been fixed.
- In rare cases the AI was able to demolish roads within foreign influence areas. This error has been fixed.
- The use of a trade route allowed more goods to be bought from AI players than they had put up for sale. This error has been fixed.
- In some cases AI transport ships just stood still when attacked. This error has been fixed.
- Ship AI has been improved. AI ships (especially in larger ship formations) now behave more intelligently when under fire.
- Military AI target selection has been improved.
- In rare cases the AI was able to withdraw its units even though they were in combat. This error has been fixed.
- In some cases the proceeds from the sale of "favorite articles" to the AI players were not calculated correctly. The AI players now pay the corresponding (higher) price.
- The AI can no longer build a castle when the corresponding transport ship is in combat.
- The AI no longer puts "0 t" of an Item up for sale.
- The AI now builds its walls more efficiently, making it more difficult to capture an enemy AI settlement.
- The AI now also builds Carpenters at Patrician level (and higher). This improves the AI's cityscape, especially at higher levels of civilization.
- In rare cases active trading did not function properly at AI Harbors. This error has been fixed.

Campaign:
- In rare cases the game crashed when loading mission 6 or 8. This error has been fixed.
- In rare cases, the game crashed at the end of mission 8. This error has been fixed.
- Under some special circumstances, no gift was given to the player in Mission 4. This error has been fixed.
- In rare cases, players were unable to obtain the Black Pearl in Mission 7. This error has been fixed.
- In some cases the attack in the side quest "Preservation of knowledge" in Mission 5 did not start correctly. This error has been fixed.
- The quest "Glassworks" in Mission 5 was not completed if all the necessary manufactories were built before the start of the quest. This error has been fixed.

Achievements/Medals:
- In some cases the achievement "Man the battlements!" was awarded under false premises. This error has been fixed.
- In some cases the achievement "The road map in your head" was awarded under false premises. This error has been fixed.
- The achievement "Turn the hose on!" did not always unlock properly. This error has been fixed.
- In some cases the medal "Order of the Treasurer" was awarded under false premises. This error has been fixed.
- The requirement for the achievement "Who is this Robin?!" has been lowered. Now only 50 Bandit camps are needed.
- The requirement for the achievement "Eureka!" has been lowered. Now only 75 attainments are required.
- The counters in the tool tips for some successes have been corrected and now show the actual values required.

I am a big fan of 1602. I loved that game utterly; its on my top ten of all time. Should I get this one?

I am a big fan of 1602. I loved that game utterly; its on my top ten of all time. Should I get this one?

I like it, it's a great game, but there is no (as of yet) map editor. Right now the map editor only works on the Anno 1404 version, not the Dawn of Discovery version which is sold in the US.

It's a good game. Very addictive. On the easier difficulties I colonise all the islands so I box the AI in. On harder difficulty levels I found the AI can colonise an island you're on though, I thought once you claimed an island it was yours entirely.

It's a good game. Very addictive. On the easier difficulties I colonise all the islands so I box the AI in. On harder difficulty levels I found the AI can colonise an island you're on though, I thought once you claimed an island it was yours entirely.
You can colonise an enemy island for a relations penalty.

Does it come with a level editor where you can make your own maps and towns?

Does it come with a level editor where you can make your own maps and towns?

Um, not as far as I know? But making towns is the game, why would you want to build towns in the editor? Might as well draw a town in MS paint, hehe.

Um, not as far as I know? But making towns is the game, why would you want to build towns in the editor? Might as well draw a town in MS paint, hehe.

Do you have any idea how long that would take? To draw a town with that style graphics?

I like making cities and level editors are really good at that, provide they have enough graphics for it.

I just got this game, quite impressed with it so far, but it's fairly evident that the tutorials are... lacking. I have some basic questions if someone would be good enough to answer them.

1. Is it important to keep a balanced number of peasents, citizens etc? If all of my peasents for example promoted to citizens, would there be no one left to do the peasent jobs of wood chopping and fishing?
2. How many houses should I be laying down in the beginning? As many as I possibly can so I can get the maximum tax income?
3. Why can I not build certain buildings (seems to me like industry buildings) out of the range of my warehouse? I have some fur deposits and iron mines I'd like to exploit but I can't because I can't build the buildings.

Um, not as far as I know? But making towns is the game, why would you want to build towns in the editor? Might as well draw a town in MS paint, hehe.

ಠ_ಠ :trouble:

I spent hours building cool towns in the editor for Anno 1602 alone, not to mention many other games.

Come on Scamp, I bump a 2 year old thread with questions and you complain about the editor or some such drivel. :p

Come on Scamp, I bump a 2 year old thread with questions and you complain about the editor or some such drivel. :p

I thought this was your other thread on Anno 1404.

No I bumped this as this was the original thread, I was linked to it.