Hi all!
Today, Wednesday 7th of October, we will release patch 1.1 fpr ANNO 1404

This patch will also fix some issues with the online functions (Gateway to the world) of the game. Therefore we will shut down the ANNO 1404 online servers today.


Patch 1.1 Patchnotes
---------------------------
The most important changes:
- A crash while saving a game could result in the online profile being lost. This error has been fixed.
- The use of special characters within the Windows user name, profile name or savegame name caused several errors (eg invalid savegames or crashes). This error has been fixed.
- Memory errors could lead to invalid savegames under specific hardware configurations. This error has been fixed.
- Ships which have destroyed a target now wait at that spot for new orders rather than returning to their starting point.
- The AI was unable to settle some islands. This error has been fixed.
- A function was implemented allowing the items offered at all three ports to be changed. The player now has the opportunity have the Items on offer changed upon payment of a fee in gold.
- Military influence areas and firing radii were visually improved to further simplify use of the military.
- Norias no longer worked properly after buying the "Mystery of the nomads' achievement. This error has been fixed.
- The "Scroll through Ships" and "Scroll through Warehouses" buttons were moved to a more prominent position above the minimap.
- The achievements "We have no time to lose" and "The Emirate" have been adjusted. The Imperial Cathedral must now be built in 7 hrs and the Sultan's Mosque in 5 hrs (previously 8 hrs and 6 hrs). In return, the condition requiring the people's satisfaction level to be "adequately satisfied" or better was removed.

General:
- It was possible to delete savegames and screenshots in the "Gateway to the World" from within the game. This function is not planned. Effective immediately, savegames and screenshots can now only be deleted locally. If you want to delete savegames and / or screenshots online this must be done directly in the "Gateway to the World".
- Old games from an online profile could be loaded even without successful login to the "Gateway to the World". This function is not planned. Savegames from an online profile can now only be loaded once login to "Gateway to the World" was successful.
- In some cases, when creating an online profile identical ID's were given to different profiles. This could lead to a new online profile overwriting another one. This error has been fixed.
- Some special circumstances occasionally resulted in performance downturns. Errors causing this problem have been fixed.
- An error causing some interface elements to react to external input (eg, volume control on the keyboard, connecting a Logitech USB headset) has been fixed.
- In rare cases the "Fog of War" was not displayed correctly after saving / loading a game. This error has been fixed.
- In some menus the confirmation button was within the text box. This error has been fixed.
- The info bar for quests / messages has been shifted slightly upwards, so that more orders can be displayed when the bar is expanded.
- Some interface elements were still visible in Pause mode. This error has been fixed.
- There were rare cases of ships sailing through islands. This error has been fixed.
- Pigs and cows are now shown the right size on the farthest zoom level.
- Some messages were not properly / fully communicated. This error has been fixed.
- There were various minor bug fixes. (Incorrectly positioned cooldown displays, tool tips, typos, incompletely displayed text, etc.)
- It is no longer possible to use online profiles or create new ones with modified versions [MODs] of the game.
- Some interface graphics (confirmation buttons and sliders) were replaced.
- The current status of a ship is now also displayed in a tool tip in the ship selection drop-down menu in the strategy map.

Continuous play/Scenarios:
- In some cases, quest rewards were not properly transferred to the players. This error has been fixed.
- The Carpenter was still able to repair buildings during battle. This was not planned. Buildings currently involved in combat you can no longer be repaired.
- Assignments requiring the player to pay gold can now only be accepted if the player's balance allows it.
- In rare cases, a few menu items (for example, the menu of a production building) were not displayed correctly. This error has been fixed.
- In rare cases, there was a significant delay before the caravel was given to the player after the delivery of the first gift for Al Zahir. This error has been fixed.
- The player could still purchase ships from Hassan ben Sahid even after their ship limit had been reached. This was not planned and has been fixed.
- In rare cases, the Trebuchet also took damage when bombarding a building. This error has been fixed.
- In rare cases, some Market buildings did not send out Market carts to pickup goods. This error has been fixed.
- The effectiveness of ranged combat units (especially against military buildings) has been slightly increased.
- The effectiveness of naval bombardment against land units has been slightly reduced.
- The Emperor's Quest "Nurturing the Alliance" has been simplified. Instead of 75 contracts only 40 contracts must now be completed.
- The base chance of a ship on an expedition being successful has been reduced.
- In some cases where several ships were ordered in one shipyard, the ship limit points spent on them were not refunded if the shipyard was destroyed before the ships were completed. This error has been fixed.
- In rare cases, transport ships were unable to build castles. This error has been fixed.
- The maintenance costs for Military buildings and Castles are now correctly booked correctly under "Military" instead of under "Buildings".
- The effect of the attainment "Binding handshake" at level 3 has been corrected. Before it had the same effect as at level 1.
- In rare cases, ships that were part of an assignment appeared inside an island. This error has been fixed.
- The Corsairs no longer sink ships required for quests.
- Items which the reduce building / vessel maintenance costs no longer reduce those costs to a negative level.

Artificial Intelligence
- In some cases the AI was able to build within the player's influence area. This error has been fixed.
- In rare cases the AI was able to demolish roads within foreign influence areas. This error has been fixed.
- The use of a trade route allowed more goods to be bought from AI players than they had put up for sale. This error has been fixed.
- In some cases AI transport ships just stood still when attacked. This error has been fixed.
- Ship AI has been improved. AI ships (especially in larger ship formations) now behave more intelligently when under fire.
- Military AI target selection has been improved.
- In rare cases the AI was able to withdraw its units even though they were in combat. This error has been fixed.
- In some cases the proceeds from the sale of "favorite articles" to the AI players were not calculated correctly. The AI players now pay the corresponding (higher) price.
- The AI can no longer build a castle when the corresponding transport ship is in combat.
- The AI no longer puts "0 t" of an Item up for sale.
- The AI now builds its walls more efficiently, making it more difficult to capture an enemy AI settlement.
- The AI now also builds Carpenters at Patrician level (and higher). This improves the AI's cityscape, especially at higher levels of civilization.
- In rare cases active trading did not function properly at AI Harbors. This error has been fixed.

Campaign:
- In rare cases the game crashed when loading mission 6 or 8. This error has been fixed.
- In rare cases, the game crashed at the end of mission 8. This error has been fixed.
- Under some special circumstances, no gift was given to the player in Mission 4. This error has been fixed.
- In rare cases, players were unable to obtain the Black Pearl in Mission 7. This error has been fixed.
- In some cases the attack in the side quest "Preservation of knowledge" in Mission 5 did not start correctly. This error has been fixed.
- The quest "Glassworks" in Mission 5 was not completed if all the necessary manufactories were built before the start of the quest. This error has been fixed.

Achievements/Medals:
- In some cases the achievement "Man the battlements!" was awarded under false premises. This error has been fixed.
- In some cases the achievement "The road map in your head" was awarded under false premises. This error has been fixed.
- The achievement "Turn the hose on!" did not always unlock properly. This error has been fixed.
- In some cases the medal "Order of the Treasurer" was awarded under false premises. This error has been fixed.
- The requirement for the achievement "Who is this Robin?!" has been lowered. Now only 50 Bandit camps are needed.
- The requirement for the achievement "Eureka!" has been lowered. Now only 75 attainments are required.
- The counters in the tool tips for some successes have been corrected and now show the actual values required.

This looks like a good list of fixes. Glad to see that the studio is still working on the title.

It would be great for the community to have some idea of what further plans there are for the game. There have been a lot of remarks, ideas, suggestions, and indications of problems in the game, but like someone else said, no word whatsoever in return. That word in return, that single "We've taken notice of this" does wonders for a community.

I can't imagine that the German forums and posts do not hold a similar amount of remarks and so on.

Just to have a word that these things are being read, that they have been noticed would be great.

Do you have a link to the download, or to where it will be available from?

Thanks

The patch will be ready for download this evening, i guess about 6 p.m. or 7 p.m. german time, means about 5 hours from now on.

Looks great. looking foward to installing the patch.

Downloaded and installed - but cannot log into the Gateway so cannot play using my online profile.... maybe the Gateway isn't back up yet? - but it is just telling me it is not recognising my password and isn't telling me that the Gateway is off-line...

I can log into here and at Ubi.com OK - but the game won't log me in so I cannot play any of my saved games

The gateway is still offline.

quote:

Originally posted by Zomby_Woof65:
The gateway is still offline.

Thanks for letting me know it is their problem and not mine

probably worth trying the patch but will wait until independent confirmation that the claimed fixes work.. and it doesn't break the game.

*sits on fence. (meaning, sticking to Majesty 2 for now)

This patch may have fixed some problems but it's caused a new one. Fleets no longer centre on the screen when you press their assigned number. A right royal pain when a ship is being attacked and you can't remember or see exactly where they are.

Even though I said I wasn't going to, I went ahead and updated my game with this patch. So far I'm having no problems. Two things I like about so far are you can hold down the shift key and refill all your norias on an island at once, instead of having to do them one at a time. The other is when you are buying things, there is a set of dice now that will allow you change the offerings on the 2nd row. After you click the dice, a timer goes on before you can do it again. This is great, because now instead of buying seeds I don't want just to have something else offered, I can roll the dice so to speak without spending honor.

Also just noticed, when the Acadamy of Wisdom discovers something, in the message now it's displayed what is discovered.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: thorn1951,

quote:

Originally posted by Retired1936:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by ALXIAN:
probably worth trying the patch but will wait until independent confirmation that the claimed fixes work.. and it doesn't break the game.

*sits on fence. (meaning, sticking to Majesty 2 for now)

[/QUOTE

First thing you are going to find out is that you will no longer have acess to your profile.I tried using the patch but was not happy the way things worked so I went back to the un patched game and my profile was there but I could not acess it thru the game.

quote:

Originally posted by Soesah:
This looks like a good list of fixes. Glad to see that the studio is still working on the title.

It would be great for the community to have some idea of what further plans there are for the game. There have been a lot of remarks, ideas, suggestions, and indications of problems in the game, but like someone else said, no word whatsoever in return. That word in return, that single "We've taken notice of this" does wonders for a community.

I can't imagine that the German forums and posts do not hold a similar amount of remarks and so on.

Just to have a word that these things are being read, that they have been noticed would be great.

Remarks , what kind , ATI screencorruption problem might be the driver problem , but who knows. I have HD4870 with 9.7 catalyst 32bit xp , and I don't get any black textures or corruptions.

Remarks game wise ,what's wrong?

I don't spot , cause I am a new anno player but I love the game more than anything.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Stewox,

Remarks, as in, the things that people notice in the game and about the game that don't quite work as they should, as good as they could, or that just plainly get in the way of good gameplay.

Don't get me wrong, I am as hooked on this game as anyone here, and I love it all the same. All I am saying is that it'd be nice to hear, and know, that the developers also have this love, and are working to improve the game.

I play EVE for example, and it is great to see their devblogs and see that they listen to the player when it comes to new and old features, and take what the players say into account when they make their own decision about what they do with the game. It shows they love the game, and that they care about improving it.

Related Designs doesn't seem to tell anyone that they work on a patch, that they see the bugs and problems that people report or why they choose to fix A and not B. If we knew they worked on it, and saw they see what we see, and understand that they choose to fix A, but not B, because of this or that, it would go a long way for me, at least, to love this game even more.

I enjoy the game very much but I find it hard to really enjoy it because you have to balance the money and defend you self and keep the poplation growing. If it were easy to make money or reduce the cost of many of the items and reduce what it takes to assend it would be help full to me. I do not like to play game that cause a lot of stress. Because of my age. I do get very involed in this game how ever. I also relly enjoy it. You can check out just how much I enjoy the game under my profile under the same screen name.

Hello,

I noticed that now that I've installed the patch, custom entries in binding.ini are no longer working. Anyone else have this problem?

I had enabled the "developer's pause," because I like being able to look around the map with the game paused.

Joe.