I’m pretty sure the game keeps a certain amount of lower class people no matter what, so you just need to build more houses.
Ouch. That’s going to keep me from buying.
Ouch. That’s going to keep me from buying.[/quote]
Same here. It will be the first game of that series I haven’t purchased.
Well, that seals the deal for me.
Wii version it is…
One email to support and they restore your activations when you need more.
See the FAQ: http://forums-de.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/5251042375/m/7431092667
Do they have the construction materials they need to upgrade their houses? If so, make sure you haven’t someone disabled automatic house leveling at your marketplace.
-Tom
Regarding ascension, there appears to be an undocumented cost. From peasant to citizen, it’s 1 tool. From Citizen to Patrician, it’s some amount of stone (I don’t think it’s just one).
It’s either beauty or proximity to the marketplace that causes my bigger cities to only ascend from the middle. So far, my biggest single city has been 1300+ people.
My problem, so far, is money management. I set up trade routes as soon as I can, but they never surmount the costs of maintenance. I can declare as much as I want for sale from my docks, but the AI players only really pick it up when I’m in dire straits. In this last game, I ran nearly the last half hour of play in the red.
I’m going to restart again, and try and keep a closer tab on my $$.
Here’s a trick I learned: You need to be able to build in market-building covered areas, right? To extend those areas, you can build another market-building, but its area has to overlap with another construction zone.
However, once you’ve built the second or third market-building to extend your area, you can delete the buildings in between. If you’re playing on easy mode, there’s no penalty – you get all the materials back.
This allows you to go and build a stone quarry on the other side of the island without having to stretch your construction zone all the way out there.
Hmmmm…other things I just figured out regarding money management: You tax each level of society differently. So, even if you set peasants to be taxed on the contentment level, your citizens are still possibly euphoric.
90% of the time, you only need to have your population content. Only when you’re getting people into the dwellings do you need them happy, and only when you want them to ascend do you need them euphoric.
I keep the bottom rungs euphoric but the top rung even tempered. This way, if there’s an opportunity, the bottom rungs will move up. Since each level means bigger houses, you want as many as possible at the top.
Except it seems that there’s a limit (and I can’t find the documentation to support this). For X number of citizens, you need X number of peasant support, and the same goes for each level of the advancement.
Quick question…
My wife tends to like city builder and economic games (i.e. Tropico, Patrician, etc.) I’ve also noticed that the gold version of 1701 can be found fairly cheaply. Is there any really compelling reason to skip 1701 for the new 1404, espcially considering she’ll be playing on a laptop which may not be up to the graphical demands of 1404?
In other words, is 1701 a good introduction to the series?
Just crossed into hour 6 of my most recent continuous game. I’ve got my first noble-folk in the city, and I’ve managed to spend most of the game over 40k in the bank. The key was micro-managing the taxation, I think, and maxing out the amount of ships dumping excess goods on my allies.
The noble buildings cost a lot of money, however, and even though I’m still profiting from taxes, it’s a lot less, now, and I’m down to 20k in the bank.
In general, 1404 has improvements over 1701 on most aspects, except that it doesn’t offer a multiplayer mode. 1404 also has an optimized engine - it will look better than 1701 on the same hardware and with an even improved framerate. Gameplay-wise, 1701 has a more limited economy model and offers few challenges in the longish freeplay mode.
But for beginners in the genre, 1701 is still an excellent choice.
Hour 12 – Game asked me if I’ve eaten today. I had to admit to myself that perhaps I hadn’t eaten enough, and certainly nothing healthy.
I’ve constructed the Large Warehouse monument on my main island, and I’m upgrading my noble folk to the point where I can start creating the imperial cathedral. I have to start up a wine industry, so that’s taking a little time. Luckily, I’m now dealing with large scale trade ships, so trade routes are much more efficient.
Numbers so far: 8k population, 1800 profit, 80k in the bank.
Care to post any screenshots? I don’t think enough can be said about how lovely 1404 is. The little details are really amazing.
Here are some shots:
Anno 1701 and now this new one have the best use of Depth Of Field that I’ve ever seen. The effect usually annoys me in games and I switch it off, but the last two Annos use it to create this beautiful diorama effect like somebody built a model town.
I picked up the Wii version just for kicks and, as mentioned, it’s a very simplified version of the game. It’s also got a very slick interface, nice (cartoony) graphics, and a well conceived story mode. I reminds me of the 1701 for the DS in that it’s a great title that appears to take advantage of the hardware it’s running on. My daughter loves it, too.
From the looks of it, I’ll have to get the PC version as well. That looks gorgeous.
D’oh. Game crash on hour 16. Luckily, I think there was an autosave about a half hour ago. Just have to get my nobles back up to 2500 again. sigh