1701

Ok, what is it about?
 
You have sailed to the New World (aka an archaepeligo in the Caribbean) and must start a new colony. You then grow the colony and through diplomacy, trade and/or war become a very wealthy and successful colony. You can colonise other islands on the map too.
 
I have 1602 and 1503 both. I was actually just talking this morning about going to pick up 1701.

A basic rundown from 1602 and 1503:
Usually, you usually start with a boat with 50 tons of tools, wood, and food. The you found an island. Some islands have iron ore or gold on them in the mountains (Salt and Marble also on 1503) and each island can grow up to 3 different resources such as tobacco, wine, and sugar, etc. The resources grow based on the island type. Northern climate: Tobacco, Sugar, Wine**. Southern Climates: Spices, Cotton, Cocoa**)

** 1503 Changed some of these and removed Cocoa but added in a few more.

You also have basic resources like wood, furs, bricks, tools, etc. 1503 has a little bit more complex of economy and a better military system than 1602 did. It is mostly an economic/builder game. If you enjoy mostly playing as a builder in Civ then you would probably enjoy 1503 and 1701, perhaps 1602 as well but 1602 is better if you have not played 1503 and I am guessing 1703 will have the same effect on the previous versions. 1503 had a great campaign system.

The point is to build an island and begin to build housing for your inhabitants. They start at the pioneer level and require low level resources. As you supply them with more recreational buildings and resources they will go up to settlers, then citizens, then merchants etc. All the way up to aristocrats.
You will gain more options of things to build as they go up in level. Designing the layout of your island is where the real strategy comes in and it mostly is a laid back game I enjoy because I like the planning. The soundtracks are nice to for a day you want to relax on.

Pirates come into play and are usually the most annnoying enemy but you can also bribe them to attack someone else.

Military is pretty basic in 1602 and the AI is not very bright. I can wipe ut an entire island with only 1 cannon if I want, but I usually use about 5-10 to speed it up alot more. :p
1503 was improved upon by alot and I actually have to mix up my units. Also advancing on an enemy on the same island as you can be difficult and time consuming.
Your Navy has been so far the most important aspect of the game though of course militarily. I think checking out any of these would be worth it if you enjoy the builder strategy of Civ and don't mind longer games.
 
I picked this game up today and will probably be playing it over the next couple days. I will post a report about it once I see all the new things. Maybe post some sceenies too. This thread put me back in the modd to play 1503 again though and I started the campaign over on it.

I am extremely bored and out of town so while I anxiously await to get home and try out 1701, here is a list of all of the resources in 1503 and the ones in blue are in 1602.

Building Materials:
  • Tools (Iron Ore Mine/Ore Smelter/Tool Maker)
  • Wood (Lumberer's House)
  • Bricks (Quarry/Stonemason)
  • Marble (Quarry/Marblemason)

Economic/Luxury Resources:
  • Food (Fisherman, Hunting Lodge, Wheat Farm/Mill/Bakery, Cattle/Butcher, Potato Farm)
  • Salt (Salt Mine/Salt Refinery)
  • Cloth (Sheepfarm/Weaving Mill)
  • Hides (Hunting Lodge/Tannery)
  • Beer (Potato Plantation - OR - Hops Farm/Brewery - OR - Sugarcane Plantation/Distillery)
  • Spices (Spice Plantation)
  • Tobacco (Tobacco Plantation/Tobacco Manufacturer)
  • Silk Cloth (Silk Plantation/Dye Plantation/Weaving Mill)
  • Clothing (Clothing Maker) [Silk Cloth + Furs]
  • Lamp Oil (Whale Hunter/Lamp Oil Manufacturer)
  • Wine (Vinyard)
  • Jewelry (Gold Mine/Goldsmith)

Raw Resources:
  • Rope (Hemp Farm/Rope Maker)
  • Furs (Trapper)
  • Dyes (Indigo Plantation)
  • Medical Herbs (Medical Herb Farm)
  • Charcoal (Charcoal... Smelter?) [Wood]

Military Resources:
  • Bows & Crossbows (Bowmaker) [Wood + Rope]
  • Swords (Swordmaker) [Iron Ore]
  • Lances & Axes (Weaponsmith) [Iron Ore]
  • Armor (Armory) [Iron Ore + Hides]
  • Muskets & Ship Cannons (Gunsmith) [Iron Ore + Wood]
  • Catapults (Seige Factory) [Wood + Rope]
  • Bombard Cannons (War Machine Factory) [Iron Ore + Wood]

The Military Resources on 1602 may include more of them. The blue ones are the ones I use really and I can't recall if the others are on it. I don't think they are though. As you can tell I am really bored and it is almost time for the long commute back to the city. Just killing time mostly. Unfortunatley the manual to 1701 is very basic and uninformative as to alot of the concepts hidden on my disc atm. Too bad this comp is very basic and can't handle it. :(

Well, here is a list of the resources and their buldings nonetheless. May have some left off. ;)
 
I think 1701 is way more entertaining and polished compared to CivCity and Caesar 4 by far. Caesar 4 was just too bland. It had no personality.
 
1701 is a good game. I guess you'd call it a "City Builder", but I've never really played that genre before. I bought 1701 just because it sounded interesting and got good reviews.

You start with one ship and use it to colonize an island. You set up buildings like lumberjacks and weavers to produce building materials and provide for your people who pay taxes. You also buy and sell goods with the other players and various neutral NPCs. Once you start playing well, you'll notice how naturally supply and demand works, so you you'll be buying a particular material when you need it, and selling the same thing later when you're producing too much. For example, early on you'll need lots of wood to build the first houses, so you build lumberjacks and buy wood from the Aztecs. But after that, you're making more lumber than you can use, so you should sell it for a profit. But you'll have stop selling in order to have enough to build ships later.

Providing the appropriate goods and services to your people causes them to "advance" and pay more taxes. Pioneers only need food and a city center to survive, but when you provide them with with enough new clothing and a church, they upgrade their houses and become Settlers. From there, they become citizens, then merchants, then aristocrats, and every level needs new goods and services. You need to advance your people in order to gain the ability to train new types of soldiers, conduct espionage, build bigger ships, etc.

Each island on the map can only provide certain resources, so you'll be colonizing more islands as you try to provide the goods to advance to the next level. For example, to get to merchant level your citizens need desserts, so you'll colonize an island that can grow cocoa, and an island where you can make honey, then ship those raw materials to the same place so they can be made into chocolate. Once you build the production facilities and assign the trade routes, the whole process is automatic. By the time you have aristocrats, your trade empire will be spread across many islands with ships criss-crossing the seas to keep your city supplied.

Of course, you'll be competing for these resources with the other players. So that's where diplomacy, espionage, and warfare all come in. Diplomacy and warfare are simple but useful, but espionage gives you a surprising variety of ways to help yourself and hurt your enemies.

The whole game plays out in real time, and it runs fast enough to keep you busy but there's no real reason to rush. I kind of expected a game called 1701 A.D. to be more historical, but the game is set in a generic archipelago and the characters are all fictional. There are a wide range of game settings, opponents, and victory conditions so it is quite replayable. It doesn't have quite as much scope, complexity or longevity as Civ4, but overall I'm enjoying it a lot.
 
Personally, I like 1503 better due to the clumpy maps on 1701. In 1503, you had more room to work with on your islands and the maps were much bigger. The AI is smarter on 1701 and actually aggressive at the higher difficulties. It is a nice game though. I mostly play for the [Scroll Lock] key for camera mode.

An expansion is planned to come out at the end of this year. However, one came out for 1503 but it was never released in the USA as EA decided it wasn't worth their time or money. US popularity for the game isn't so hot for some reason. Hopefully, Aspyr will publish the expansion for 1701 inside the US.
 
The maps and islands in 1701 don't feel too small to me. Building space is a limited resource. You have to plan your development to make the best use of it, and you have to compete with to other players to get enough.
 
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