ANNO 1404

Zip · 4 Jul 2009 at 07:46

So whats the killin' like in this one

Mailman86 · 4 Jul 2009 at 11:00

This is really freaky. I was only just thinking I fancy playing a game something like one I played many years ago. After a bit of digging about I found that game was Zeus: Master of Olympus. After a bit of Googling I found a thread on Penny Arcade where a few people mentioned a game called Anno 1701. I'd never heard of it before so I thought I'll see if there is a demo as it sounds quite interesting.

Anyway I look on a price comparison website and find it's not in stock anywhere. So I have a look on Steam and find what I thought was the game for £34.99. Thought that was quite high for an old game. So I tried searching on various game etailers websites thinking the price comparison site might be wrong, and low and behold, I find it in stock. I believe at this point I was just being lazy and just typing the word Anno in to each search page.

Anyway if you've read this far, you may guess what I had been finding was this game, Anno 1404 and not Anno 1701. I was just getting the names mixed up.

I later find out it's not been released long so I look for some website reviews. I find there doesn't seem to be many about so I thought I would look on these very here forums for a thread. And low and behold I find this on the front page! Very wierd as I have never even heard of this game before or even clocked seeing this thread until now. :eek:

I'm downloading the demo at the moment, but I think I'll just have to buy this game anyway as it must be some sort of sign!

willhub · 4 Jul 2009 at 11:11

phil675 said:
Will give it a go tonight.

You only live once!

Nieldo · 5 Jul 2009 at 18:50

Got 1404 a few days ago. Lacking multiplayer but its a fun game all the same. I was hammering 1701 while waiting for this to come out, really love the new harbor building options, you have to keep up with the flow of ships later on in the games to avoid big traffic jams. Its a challenge to keep everything running smooth.

Its pretty nice that your people now demand different types of food, so the 3rd stage guys want fish, spices and bread to be satisfied. In 1701 all your people demanded was generic 'Food', it could come from fishing huts, from cows or from wheat factorys, it all turned out the same.

Heres some screenshots from my current game, resized down a little bit:

Moved my cider and clothes production to the corner of the island to make space for my homes to expand.

Cider production, hemp to clothes production and pig hide which gets used for leather jackets and clothes.

On a seperate island Im making bread and beer, then shipping it over to my main island.

Tombstone · 5 Jul 2009 at 18:55

Out of curiosity, have they said that they have plans to add in multiplayer at all? I see that anno 1701 had it, so its well within the game engines ability. Any official word on a later multiplayer addition? Even if its an expansion with it?

Nieldo · 5 Jul 2009 at 19:00

Well when I quit just then the game asked me if I would take a survey about the game. There were aload of questions on it about multiplayer, one of them was something like this, "If we were to release an add-on pack (With multiplayer mode, other cultures...) would you buy it?"

So they are looking for info on it, I answered all questions I could indicating that mutliplayer should be top of their list

.

They are also getting an ear full on their forums about it not having any multiplayer, so I think they know that pretty much everyone wants it.

Tombstone · 5 Jul 2009 at 19:13

Nieldo said:
Well when I quit just then the game asked me if I would take a survey about the game. There were aload of questions on it about multiplayer, one of them was something like this, "If we were to release an add-on pack (With multiplayer mode, other cultures...) would you buy it?"

So they are looking for info on it, I answered all questions I could indicating that mutliplayer should be top of their list .

They are also getting an ear full on their forums about it not having any multiplayer, so I think they know that pretty much everyone wants it.

Thats promising, cant quite understand why it was left out if it was in the previous game. Maybe time constraints or something. I really enjoyed the demo (hadnt played one of the Anno series before), but the no MP thing put me off buying it. If it looks likely that there will be MP , even if in an addon rather than a patch, then I will look at the game again

Nieldo · 5 Jul 2009 at 19:17

Try and get your hands on 1701 while you wait for them to add multiplayer. Its a great game.

Raumarik · 5 Jul 2009 at 19:17

Very disappointed with the combat, feels less involved than 1701

was really hoping they'd have done something about it.

Managed to build the imperial cathedral finally, looks cool but doesn't seem to do much for the effort. Still it dominates the skyline of my city!

Love having random layout cities, grid based ones get very boring even if they're efficient

Tombstone · 5 Jul 2009 at 19:29

Nieldo said:
Try and get your hands on 1701 while you wait for them to add multiplayer. Its a great game.

How do they compare? Is Anno 1701 essentially the same game but with multiplayer or is Anno 1404 a major evolvement from 1701?

(Something that bugged me from the demo for 1404 was that when I finished a map the next map would start and all my buildings had moved around to "default" positions? Kind of broke the immersion that *I* was designing things. Any news whether that is going to be patched, or is that a normal feature of the series?)

4p · 5 Jul 2009 at 19:34

Tombstone said:
How do they compare? Is Anno 1701 essentially the same game but with multiplayer or is Anno 1404 a major evolvement from 1701?

(Something that bugged me from the demo for 1404 was that when I finished a map the next map would start and all my buildings had moved around to "default" positions? Kind of broke the immersion that *I* was designing things. Any news whether that is going to be patched, or is that a normal feature of the series?)

I THINK Thats just the demo mate

Tombstone · 5 Jul 2009 at 19:41

Thorpy said:
I THINK Thats just the demo mate

Oh !! Really? Thats darned good news !

rypt · 5 Jul 2009 at 19:42

What I want to know is ... how is everyone placing their coal creator hut things; they have a large tree requirement area :/

Hunders · 5 Jul 2009 at 19:54

Thorpy said:
I THINK Thats just the demo mate

It's not just the demo unfortunately. I don't mind too much though tbh...

rypt said:
What I want to know is ... how is everyone placing their coal creator hut things; they have a large tree requirement area :/

They can plant their own trees ya know

bakes0310 · 5 Jul 2009 at 20:01

Im stuck on chapter 4 i think (loading screen is that woman in armour on her boat). Ive got to make indigo, but i just cant figure out how to do it without having enough honour/prestige.

D D Danneh · 5 Jul 2009 at 20:26

bakes0310 said:
Im stuck on chapter 4 i think (loading screen is that woman in armour on her boat). Ive got to make indigo, but i just cant figure out how to do it without having enough honour/prestige.

You either need more honour (so you can buy those scrolls from Lord Northborough to trade for prestige), or you need to put some wood and tools on a boat and colonize another island (that is fertile for indigo). If you can't get enough honour, you've either not done some other quests, or you have spent too much on other items, and may need to redo the mission.

I can't remember exactly which mission that was, but those are usually the reasons.

Tombstone · 5 Jul 2009 at 20:41

Hunders said:
It's not just the demo unfortunately. I don't mind too much though tbh...

Awww..poo. Dont suppose they have said whether they will patch it or not so that it doesnt do it? Or have all the Annos done it?

Its not a gamebreaker, but its kind of annoying when I have gone to the trouble of laying my city out all nice and how I like, then the next map in the campaign starts and all my aesthetic work is changed totally.

Nieldo · 5 Jul 2009 at 21:23

Tombstone said:
Awww..poo. Dont suppose they have said whether they will patch it or not so that it doesnt do it? Or have all the Annos done it?

Its not a gamebreaker, but its kind of annoying when I have gone to the trouble of laying my city out all nice and how I like, then the next map in the campaign starts and all my aesthetic work is changed totally.

Well its only in the campaign, theres three "modes", campaign, scenario and continuous.

Campaign is the chapters as seen in the demo, starting town gets changed about every chapter.

Scenario are just solo chapters with set goals I think, not tried one yet.

Continuous mode is where you get put in a boat and have to select an island to colonize, it is one big game leading up from peasants to noblemen, your buildings never get changed around its just one big game.

The campaign for me would be a one play though I guess, continuous and multiplayer is where it is at

. Hope the hurry up with the addon.

Hunders · 5 Jul 2009 at 21:24

It's really only an issue in the early stages because in the later chapters you change maps every time. Or at least, that's what it's like so far anyways.

Tombstone · 5 Jul 2009 at 21:26

Nieldo said:
Continuous mode is where you get put in a boat and have to select an island to colonize, it is one big game leading up from peasants to noblemen, your buildings never get changed around its just one big game.

The campaign for me would be a one play though I guess, continuous and multiplayer is where it is at . Hope the hurry up with the addon.

Thanks for the info, Continuous mode sounds like the sort of thing I would like most. Kind of Civilization-ey. Multiplayer would be a great touch

Hunders said:
It's really only an issue in the early stages because in the later chapters you change maps every time. Or at least, that's what it's like so far anyways.

Ahh..thats not too bad then, thanks.