Anno 1404 Dawn of Discovery

[cephalo]

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.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

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.

 

[cephalo]

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.

 

[Rub'Rum]

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

 

[warpstorm]

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).

 

[VimesUK]

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

 

[Thorn]

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

 

[warpstorm]

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.

 

[cephalo]

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.

 

[spider1]

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

 

[VimesUK]

@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..!!!

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.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

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

 

[Heretic_Cata]

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 - it was someplace else, after i did another objective

 

[Rub'Rum]

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?

 

[Heretic_Cata]

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.

 

[Rub'Rum]

(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.

 

[Heretic_Cata]

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

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

 

[warpstorm]

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.

 

[Rub'Rum]

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.

 

[warpstorm]

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.