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Megazver
Jan 13, 2006

hardycore posted:

disappointed by the lack of TRAINS

p sure this has trains, excuse you

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boar guy
Jan 25, 2007

i had no idea so many people were in to these obscure rear end logistics management games

Jacque Pott
Nov 6, 2010

Radiation Cow posted:

I've sent both of you friend requests.

Just activated it - cheers!

PhantomZero
Sep 7, 2007

funakupo posted:

If anyone still out in the cold for invite, I have 2 left. Quote this and your Uplay name. I am assuming no regional shenanigans on beta? I'm in Belgium for reference.

My Uplay is "Phantom__Zero" with two underscores.


Anno is one of my favorite games and i'm excited for these changes. I hope the changes will be a bit deeper than "I picked the tyrant hq instead of workers paradise hq" which was kind of how they handled ecology in 2070.

Mazz
Dec 12, 2012

Orion, this is Sperglord Actual.
Come on home.

boar guy posted:

i had no idea so many people were in to these obscure rear end logistics management games

The series sells well in Germany IIRC, to no one's surprise. Also it owns and more people should play it. 1404 is decently up there on my favorite games ever list.

I'd be slightly interested in a beta key if any more show up, but I always hate jumping into betas because I burn out on the game before it's finished and never play the release version. I might just wait it out, can't decide. I'll keep an eye on the thread.

Poil posted:

It's ubisoft so of course there's going to be drm out the rear end. But hopefully always on crap at least won't be.

The GoG version of 1404 runs perfectly for me on an old crappy computer with 10, so maybe that one would for you too. Unless it's an issue with modern hardware. :sigh:

I've had the same computer more or less for like 5 years and I feel like I played it before (off an iso before I could find it elsewhere), so it might just be a Windows 10/Steam thing since GoG actually puts in the effort to make these games function. I'll check it out, I don't mind giving BlueByte/GoG a few bucks in that regard. Thanks.

Mazz fucked around with this message at 00:17 on Jan 30, 2019

Bloody Hedgehog
Dec 12, 2003

💥💥🤯💥💥
Gotta nuke something
Was watching some streams of this, and while I really love Anno 1404 and think it's the best of the series and one of the best games ever made, Anno 1800 really looks and plays simply like a reskin of 1404. Maybe there are some new mechanics you get further into the game, but early stuff seems like a carbon copy to the point of parody.

boar guy
Jan 25, 2007

Bloody Hedgehog posted:

Was watching some streams of this, and while I really love Anno 1404 and think it's the best of the series and one of the best games ever made, Anno 1800 really looks and plays simply like a reskin of 1404. Maybe there are some new mechanics you get further into the game, but early stuff seems like a carbon copy to the point of parody.

probably trying to get back to what made it so popular. i liked 2205 a ton but it was a pretty huge departure from the rest of the series

Radiation Cow
Oct 23, 2010

Bloody Hedgehog posted:

Was watching some streams of this, and while I really love Anno 1404 and think it's the best of the series and one of the best games ever made, Anno 1800 really looks and plays simply like a reskin of 1404. Maybe there are some new mechanics you get further into the game, but early stuff seems like a carbon copy to the point of parody.

I'm okay with this. The base formula is what is addictive about these games, and sometimes you just want the same thing with a different time period. They got burned by trying to deviate too much from 1404 with 2205, so I don't blame them for playing it safe this time around.

Pyromancer
Apr 29, 2011

This man must look upon the fire, smell of it, warm his hands by it, stare into its heart

boar guy posted:

probably trying to get back to what made it so popular. i liked 2205 a ton but it was a pretty huge departure from the rest of the series

The difference between the way you operated in different biomes was a nice touch IMO, but that was the continuation of 2070 ocean floor mechanics. But the orbital station and combat minigames were kind of a head-scratcher, like someone just shoved them in first and then came up with the benefits they provide, so people bothered to do them.

boar guy
Jan 25, 2007

Pyromancer posted:

The difference between the way you operated in different biomes was a nice touch IMO, but that was the continuation of 2070 ocean floor mechanics. But the orbital station and combat minigames were kind of a head-scratcher, like someone just shoved them in first and then came up with the benefits they provide, so people bothered to do them.

orbital station has massive, massive benefits, especially in the bio/farming track, but it's never explained how they work

StrixNebulosa
Feb 14, 2012

You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

Bloody Hedgehog posted:

Was watching some streams of this, and while I really love Anno 1404 and think it's the best of the series and one of the best games ever made, Anno 1800 really looks and plays simply like a reskin of 1404. Maybe there are some new mechanics you get further into the game, but early stuff seems like a carbon copy to the point of parody.

Dude, if this is true, I might be able to finally enjoy 1404. My eyes are not made for reading tiny fonts.

Gwyrgyn Blood
Dec 17, 2002

Bloody Hedgehog posted:

Was watching some streams of this, and while I really love Anno 1404 and think it's the best of the series and one of the best games ever made, Anno 1800 really looks and plays simply like a reskin of 1404. Maybe there are some new mechanics you get further into the game, but early stuff seems like a carbon copy to the point of parody.

There's a bunch of stuff that's new/different:
- Doesn't have the Occident/Orient stuff from 1404 at all. Maybe something else replaces that dynamic? E: Apparently it's South America and Plantations or something to that effect.

- There are worker types now, like you need Farmers, Factory Workers, and Artisans to run their respective building types. So the population tiers aren't just straight progression so much, you need enough of each tier to keep buildings running. Workers rights/strikes are also a thing now, as is crime and police force and such.

- There's a new Blueprint tool which lets you plan out your city layout without spending resources to build things immediately.

- City attractiveness and tourism is a thing now, and many things effect that, such as decorative placements, pollution, crime, culture, and attractions. With all the new stuff like Zoos and such it sounds pretty Sim City-ish by comparison to 1404.

- There are expeditions now, which are like little COYA segments that require preparation for food/hunting/crafting/ship morale/etc. Stuff like archaeological expeditions to find artifacts, and 'discovery expeditions' which I think is a replacement for how you used to scout islands in 1404.

- Placing fields for farms doesn't require tile tetris anymore, you can just paint in an area more fluidly to fill up to 100% now.

- There seems to be a bunch more information in regards to efficiency now, like the game will highlight the roads that will be used by buildings when you are placing them, and selecting a building highlights any carts carrying their goods around and their quantities. There's are also clear production chain diagrams when building stuff, which I think was added in 2070? Lots of little QoL stuff like that.

Gwyrgyn Blood fucked around with this message at 18:30 on Jan 30, 2019

Psychotic Weasel
Jun 24, 2004

Bang! You're dead.

Gwyrgyn Blood posted:

There's a bunch of stuff that's new/different:
- Doesn't have the Occident/Orient stuff from 1404 at all. Maybe something else replaces that dynamic? E: Apparently it's South America and Plantations or something to that effect.

There's been something like this in just about every Anno game except for the first one. Island 'biomes' (I guess you can call them) were introduced in 1503 along with island fertilities/deposits. 1701 introduced a mix of foreign cultures you could interact with and 1404 expanded that by splitting the civilization tiers between two distinct types of populations (Occidental/Oriental). The main difference this time is that not all islands will be sharing the same map.

Each subsequent release has also been expanding on things tried in earlier titles and iterating on them further. If you looked at the main gameplay loop in all of them they basically all follow the same formula. But it works so why try and fix it?

1800 will have 5 tiers for temperate cities and 3 tiers for your South American colonies. Not quite as complex as 2070 with the Tycoons/Ecos/Scientists. More in line with what 2205 was trying to do in mixing things up.

Brutakas
Oct 10, 2012

Farewell, marble-dwellers!
As a random aside, I remember reading that there was a German word that BlueByte used to describe their games. It meant something to the effect of "the joy of watching things move around" akin to watching an ant farm or something. Does anyone know the word?


Gwyrgyn Blood posted:

- There's a new Blueprint tool which lets you plan out your city layout without spending resources to build things immediately.

- Placing fields for farms doesn't require tile tetris anymore, you can just paint in an area more fluidly to fill up to 100% now.

- There seems to be a bunch more information in regards to efficiency now, like the game will highlight the roads that will be used by buildings when you are placing them, and selecting a building highlights any carts carrying their goods around and their quantities. There's are also clear production chain diagrams when building stuff, which I think was added in 2070? Lots of little QoL stuff like that.

These all sound excellent. As much as I enjoyed the challenge of placing farms in such a way as to provide avenues to place additional fields and also keep things aesthetically pleasing, I think being able to create dynamic fields will ultimately be be better. Also, the blueprint feature sounds great. I'm hoping it will help get me away from designing endless grid cities.

boar guy
Jan 25, 2007

modules were a cool addition, i hope they retain some of the stuff from 2205 that actually did work

none of that world market horse poo poo, though, i hope (i haven't paid close attention because i dont like hype)

lagidnam
Nov 8, 2010

Brutakas posted:

As a random aside, I remember reading that there was a German word that BlueByte used to describe their games. It meant something to the effect of "the joy of watching things move around" akin to watching an ant farm or something. Does anyone know the word?

That would be "wuseln".

Which can be translated as something like: " to move around busily" but in a cute way.
Funnily enough, when "The Settlers 8" was premiered at last years Gamescom the German press immediately went back to that word.

Poil
Mar 17, 2007

There are some let's play up already. This is the... least bad... I found: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8q0hrwMXc6c

funakupo
May 9, 2006

the ultimate longterm partner
Oven Wrangler

PhantomZero posted:

My Uplay is "Phantom__Zero" with two underscores.


Anno is one of my favorite games and i'm excited for these changes. I hope the changes will be a bit deeper than "I picked the tyrant hq instead of workers paradise hq" which was kind of how they handled ecology in 2070.

Just saw this, sent friend request

Ultimate Shrek Fan
May 2, 2005

by FactsAreUseless

funakupo posted:

If anyone still out in the cold for invite, I have 2 left. Quote this and your Uplay name. I am assuming no regional shenanigans on beta? I'm in Belgium for reference.

I could do with an invite, uplay is U_S_F

funakupo
May 9, 2006

the ultimate longterm partner
Oven Wrangler
Ok invites gone out hopefully

Gwyrgyn Blood
Dec 17, 2002

Unless I'm mistaken, this should be playable in about 15 minutes, for anyone whose still awake out there.

E: Gave it a quick 30 minute check tonight, mind you there is NO SAVING in the beta.

All the new interface stuff is amazing, the new blueprint tool is incredible by itself but there's tons of other little improvements going on too. You can relocate buildings now. All the filtering/chains stuff is a godsend coming from 1404.

Contrary to what I said about the flexible farm areas, only SOME buildings work that way, others are old fashion tile tetris.

This definitely feels super familiar but there's so many new little things and QoL stuff even just from a quick session. Can't wait to get some real play time in over the weekend.

Gwyrgyn Blood fucked around with this message at 15:47 on Jan 31, 2019

lagidnam
Nov 8, 2010

Gwyrgyn Blood posted:

E: Gave it a quick 30 minute check tonight, mind you there is NO SAVING in the beta.

All the new interface stuff is amazing, the new blueprint tool is incredible by itself but there's tons of other little improvements going on too. You can relocate buildings now. All the filtering/chains stuff is a godsend coming from 1404.

The move building and copy existing one functions are also in 2205. Same goes for "no saves". It saves the state of your game world when you exit to title or quit the game. Auto saves are just an emergency function in case the exit save fails. As long as you don't start several games you can just start the game, click continue, play and close the game at the end.

After a few hours it really feels like Anno 1404 with the quality of life changes from the last two games, plus some new additions to keep things fresh. I really like it.

Also take care when you're running a pc setup that might have heat issues. I played it with my maximum fps PUBG config and the game put 100% load on my GTX 970.

Davincie
Jul 7, 2008

one of the big new features that hasn't been mentioned yet is electricity. so now you actually have to connect all those little 'production islands' you ended up in the earlier annos where you just got a storehouse surrounded by production buildings for them to work.

another new feature is that you can build dynamic museums and zoos where you can stuff all the random things you find and look at them whenever. this ties into the new attractiveness/pollution system (a bit like 2070s pollution but more involved i suppose) where you get tourists that give rewards if your place looks nice enough

also biggest islands in the series yet

GhostDog
Jul 30, 2003

Always see everything.

lagidnam posted:

That would be "wuseln".

Which can be translated as something like: " to move around busily" but in a cute way.
Funnily enough, when "The Settlers 8" was premiered at last years Gamescom the German press immediately went back to that word.

Wasn't the term Wusel-Faktor coined for the first Settlers?

PhantomZero
Sep 7, 2007

funakupo posted:

Ok invites gone out hopefully

I don't seem to have got one, is it supposed to show up in your library or do you get an email or what?

haldolium
Oct 22, 2016



Gwyrgyn Blood posted:

Unless I'm mistaken, this should be playable in about 15 minutes, for anyone whose still awake out there.

E: Gave it a quick 30 minute check tonight, mind you there is NO SAVING in the beta.

All the new interface stuff is amazing, the new blueprint tool is incredible by itself but there's tons of other little improvements going on too. You can relocate buildings now. All the filtering/chains stuff is a godsend coming from 1404.

Contrary to what I said about the flexible farm areas, only SOME buildings work that way, others are old fashion tile tetris.

This definitely feels super familiar but there's so many new little things and QoL stuff even just from a quick session. Can't wait to get some real play time in over the weekend.

Relocation sounds awesome.

GhostDog posted:

Wasn't the term Wusel-Faktor coined for the first Settlers?

Yeah, pretty sure thats where it originated in some German magazine back in the 90s.

Gwyrgyn Blood
Dec 17, 2002

lagidnam posted:

The move building and copy existing one functions are also in 2205. Same goes for "no saves". It saves the state of your game world when you exit to title or quit the game. Auto saves are just an emergency function in case the exit save fails. As long as you don't start several games you can just start the game, click continue, play and close the game at the end.

Oh nice, I was thrown off by the lack of any menu options to Save and that there was apparently no saving in the last beta test. In retrospect, the game even has an announcement for auto-saving every 5 minutes :downs:

Jacque Pott
Nov 6, 2010

PhantomZero posted:

I don't seem to have got one, is it supposed to show up in your library or do you get an email or what?

They send an email. If your Uplay account address is a Gmail address it may have gone into the promotions tab - that's where I found mine.

Spaseman
Aug 26, 2007

I'm a Securitron
RobCo security model 2060-B.
If you ever see any of my brothers tell them Victor says howdy.
Fallen Rib
If anyone has an invite they don't need I will gladly take it off your hands. Uplay name is: Spaseman101

Psychotic Weasel
Jun 24, 2004

Bang! You're dead.
So far, apart from wanting to give everyone streaming this game a good shake, the most irritating thing I've seen is that you have to manually deploy your firemen whenever there is a fire. I haven't seen anyone progress to a point where they have crime or pandemics so I don't k ow if they require manual intervention as well but it seems like something that would be 'neat' exactly once the just annoying from there on out.

They've also made it possible for non-residential buildings to catch fire as well so you'll need much broader coverage now.

Megazver
Jan 13, 2006

Psychotic Weasel posted:

So far, apart from wanting to give everyone streaming this game a good shake, the most irritating thing I've seen is that you have to manually deploy your firemen whenever there is a fire. I haven't seen anyone progress to a point where they have crime or pandemics so I don't k ow if they require manual intervention as well but it seems like something that would be 'neat' exactly once the just annoying from there on out.

I've only played a smidge, but I am pretty sure my firemen went out and put out the one fire I had on their own.

Gwyrgyn Blood
Dec 17, 2002

They also brought back those 'find the 5 pigs running around town' quests which is nooooooooooooooot great.

Psychotic Weasel
Jun 24, 2004

Bang! You're dead.

Megazver posted:

I've only played a smidge, but I am pretty sure my firemen went out and put out the one fire I had on their own.

That's good that they'll eventually respond on their own. I guess the option to manually dispatch more is for a bigger response or something?

funakupo
May 9, 2006

the ultimate longterm partner
Oven Wrangler
I just played about 30 minutes, and very true about this giving your GPU a real workout currently. So monitor your temperatures.
I am adoring relocate, as I always plunk poo poo down wrong long-term and want to adjust much later.

I double checked that Ubi showed PhantomZero and USF as friends and invites as sent, so please cross check spam/tabs/email associated with Ubi and all that sort.

PhantomZero
Sep 7, 2007

funakupo posted:

I just played about 30 minutes, and very true about this giving your GPU a real workout currently. So monitor your temperatures.
I am adoring relocate, as I always plunk poo poo down wrong long-term and want to adjust much later.

I double checked that Ubi showed PhantomZero and USF as friends and invites as sent, so please cross check spam/tabs/email associated with Ubi and all that sort.

Thanks! I was able to get access. I checked my email several times but couldn't find it. I was able to chat with Ubisoft support and they were able to give me the link pretty quickly.

Fans
Jun 27, 2013

A reptile dysfunction
Is there a combat mini game in this one? Please say no.

Megazver
Jan 13, 2006

Fans posted:

Is there a combat mini game in this one? Please say no.

I'm pretty sure it's like 1404, so the enemies will attack you on the main map instead of it being an optional side-activity in an otherwise peaceful city builder.

I hope you people are happy.

Fans
Jun 27, 2013

A reptile dysfunction

Megazver posted:

I'm pretty sure it's like 1404, so the enemies will attack you on the main map instead of it being an optional side-activity in an otherwise peaceful city builder.

I hope you people are happy.

Yes. It was only optional in the last one if you were willing to sign up to a lot of pointless waiting.

Fans fucked around with this message at 18:13 on Jan 31, 2019

Gwyrgyn Blood
Dec 17, 2002

There is just Naval combat on-map. They ripped out the land combat entirely from this game.

You can also disable rival factions and pirates if you want as little of that stuff as possible.

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boar guy
Jan 25, 2007

really liking the zoom level, they let you get down in there :)

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