I have been playing Anno 1404 a lot and I am finding that the way the changes that have been made with the patch do not allow any mods. Also there is no way you can compete with a hard AI. For some reason they have more money. they can also create there city much faster than any other player. Just a little one sided. I like to play the game but at this point I do not expect buy any more anno games and not sure I want to continue playing this one.

the ai definitely gets a bit intense (to say the last) since the patch on hard mode .. again, hopefully another thing they'll one day address .. or not

One thing I have noticed if they can not win they with draw from the game. interesting.

It was all the same way in 1701. They could build quicker and get a head of you before you even got started. The one thing we did in 1701 was give them money to keep them happy. Till you get a good foothold on things. It is a little harder to do this in 1404 vs 1701. Plus it was the same way in 1701 they would withdraw too.

I tried and did enjoy 1701 but there were work arounds. Nothing here in anno 1404 that makes it any better. I enjoy the game but sonner or lateer I will give it up same as 1701.

i never got into 1701 personally .. was the support for it the same as 1404?

1701 was ok. I also have a 1601 or what ever installed it but never played a game. Every time I play 1404 I get ticked because of the game play. I have made maps that could really be enjoyed by if you put a hard AI in it get trashed.There are ways to save money just get you money up to 500 or more and put the game in slow and post card and let the money grow. works great at any time in the game.

I'm not sticking up for the game. It does suck at times because all they did was take 1701 and change some things and made worse than 1701. I really like 1701 to 1503 & 1602. Sunflower did do a good job when they went from one game to the next game.

The support for 1701 was good till Ubisoft took over. What I'm hearing is that we have very little support for this game on the english side. We don't even have a link to the support forum, but the Germans do. I was told one time the reason that we are here was that the Everybody want to be together as one forum. It was that way with Sunflower and they want to keep it that way. As you can see it didn't workout. We should be on the the english forum and maybe we would get better support.

This message board is part of the german board. It is just the english speaking part.

I didn't notice a significant change in hard AI's behavior after patching my game, other than they're building (a bit) faster and using auxillary fleets. And speed only matters in the beggining, plus I was able to take on all the occidental islands and 3 largest oriental ones before AI, although it did have an impact on the speed of my main towns progress, but in the end it paid off well.

On the other hand concerning the patch... some bugs they claimed to have fixed are still not fixed. Like Enemy can still build in your military zones (occassionaly) and sometimes in your market zones. Also sometimes the 'watermark' of their armies won't dissapear if the army was destroyed before it got to their destination, thus leaving you with junk wasted space. Last thing - decorational buildings still belong to AI after you have captured their market. The workaround is to destroy that market and build a new one.

Nsanee,

My experience with the hard AI has been a bit different. I can stay ahead of them up through about the middle of the Patrician stage, but once I have to start putting up buildings that take time to build the resources for/cost a lot of money (like cathedrals, mosques and debtors prisons) they get ahead of me, then declare war at a time when I don't have the cash or resources on hand to fight them off. If I can get both nobles and envoys going before they start attacking me I can usually win, but since the patch that's been tough to manage.

I also Noticed the water mark for lack of a better name and you can not build on it or move your army over it.Great shot..I have played 1404 up tothe hard mode before the patch but the changes that have been made make it imposiable. Love the orental cannons but no way I can get them any more.like what was said money runs out. because you just run out of building space.Thanks for the help EdGreyfox. You to nsanee

Retired,

What I've started doing is setting the game up as hard, but switching out the NPC's for medium level opponents. Guy is still pretty agressive, but doesn't build up so fast that you get buried early. The only problem is that it makes it impossible to complete the achievements that require the hard npc's .

I play this game to relax and enjoy myself. I'm an accountant with a fairly stressful job, so the last thing I want to do is set the game up so that it frustrates and annoys me. Would I like to complete every achievement? Sure! But not at the cost of losing my enjoyment of what is still one of the best games of it's type available. I've already logged something like 650 hours since I bought the game in late August (yes, I have no life), and even if the hard AI is messed up that doesn't mean I can't put in another 650 with a slight adjustment to the game settings. In the end it's about having fun, not proving that you can beat the game on every level.

quote:

Originally posted by EdGreyfox:
Nsanee,

My experience with the hard AI has been a bit different. I can stay ahead of them up through about the middle of the Patrician stage, but once I have to start putting up buildings that take time to build the resources for/cost a lot of money (like cathedrals, mosques and debtors prisons) they get ahead of me, then declare war at a time when I don't have the cash or resources on hand to fight them off. If I can get both nobles and envoys going before they start attacking me I can usually win, but since the patch that's been tough to manage.

There's something strange with the economy after the patch. It's either that NPCs buy less products and/or have much more limited buying products and/or they have less money in the pool. Before patch I never had money problems, in a few games after the patch I had to exchange my last honour for money, plus I was at war with pirates with no fleet of my own cause I couldn't pay them. This is of course in the beggining, cause later on money doesn't matter all that much.
You're saying that AI is getting ahead of you when you start building cathedrals etc.. well, I don't personally build those that early - first I secure my military. Besides there must be a reason why AI is getting ahead of you and that might be the fact that you haven't secured all the possible islands - as the AI expands it claims more islands, but it's not like they're taking on everything at once. My experience is that once they advance to (for ie) patrician level they look for an island with wheat fertility, then after a while with wheat and herbs. You have to be there first and put your market buildings all around. Then they'll be forced to buy those off NPCs and that will slow them greatly. In my last game vs trader (can't remember his name) I got to noblemen like 3 hours ahead of him.

I have made maps that allow the island to be equal so that you do not have to aquire more islands. The AIs dont know that so I have made island that they can aquire there extra stuff. in fact you can play the complete game with only two island. but the AIs still have more money and can build at a faster rate than I can. that is where the problem is.

Nsanee,

I try to avoid combat in any form until I'm to the late patrician stage at the very least because I can never seem to afford the upkeep. As for grabbing islands, once again the upkeep costs to completely secure the majority of the islands can keep you too broke to build or fight effectively. You need to grab some, but trying to grab all of them (or even most) will just leave you short of cash really early.

I don't build warships, weapon makers, etc until I feel I have no choice because the base costs and upkeep costs for all of them ruin my economy if I put them in any earlier. Don't know about you, but in my games I'm generally working with less then 10K cash by the time I'm starting the patrician/final nomad phase, and that's not enough to do a rapid jump to nobles/envoys when your income is less then 500.

What kind of populations are you building up in the peasant, citizen and patrician stages before you jump to the next level? I usually try to make the jump from peasant to noble as fast as possible, so I rarely build up many more patricians then I need to allow me access to the debtors prison. Maybe what I need to do is focus on building a much larger population in the citizen/early patrician phases and accept that the AI is going to beat me to nobles/envoys.

quote:

Originally posted by EdGreyfox:
Nsanee,

I try to avoid combat in any form until I'm to the late patrician stage at the very least because I can never seem to afford the upkeep.

Actually I avoid it for much longer. There's little point in combat when your economy is weak.

quote:

As for grabbing islands, once again the upkeep costs to completely secure the majority of the islands can keep you too broke to build or fight effectively. You need to grab some, but trying to grab all of them (or even most) will just leave you short of cash really early.

Well, you don't have to secure all of them at once. Just the ones with fertilities that AI needs at the stage they're currently at. First you may want to grab all the oriental islands with spices, although I didn't succeed it even once, since it's the beggining of the game and you're short on resources. So what else does the AI need which isn't available on his main island? He may already have a wheat fertility on his main island so that's bad for you, cause he can make bread right away, but your job now is to grab all the islands with wheat and herbs fertility. You don't have to build the market buildings right away, but keep the wood and tools to build them on these islands, in case your opponent tells you he had that island in mind and you loose reputation - then you start building more of them. Note that you don't have to cover every single piece of land with your influence area - even more, you don't want to do that. Always leave him a few squares on all shores so he can build his warehouse there. Otherwise if he's unable to settle the isle he wants you will constantly loose reputation.

quote:

I don't build warships, weapon makers, etc until I feel I have no choice because the base costs and upkeep costs for all of them ruin my economy if I put them in any earlier. Don't know about you, but in my games I'm generally working with less then 10K cash by the time I'm starting the patrician/final nomad phase, and that's not enough to do a rapid jump to nobles/envoys when your income is less then 500.

I don't build warships either. I usually start expanding my fleet when I can afford building large warships - I find small ones useless and they cost a lot. One weapon maker is ok when you have a few trading attainments bought since weapons sell well with NPCs, especially the pirate.

quote:

What kind of populations are you building up in the peasant, citizen and patrician stages before you jump to the next level? I usually try to make the jump from peasant to noble as fast as possible, so I rarely build up many more patricians then I need to allow me access to the debtors prison. Maybe what I need to do is focus on building a much larger population in the citizen/early patrician phases and accept that the AI is going to beat me to nobles/envoys.

Well, in my games AI usually gets to envoys much faster than me, but that's irrelevant at this stage of the game. When I get to the carpets productions I usually abandon the orient for a while. Why carpets? They sell well with all NPCs and for a very good price.
I do not grow my population to its limits at all, I usually stop at 2000 nobles and then I start building up my fleet and armies. After I've done this I can start building a cathedral, but honestly I see little point in building it at all. Depends on what you want - I usually start a new game when I've beat the enemies, but you can claim their islands and build up much larger population.

There's one more tip for easy money-making. There's usually plenty of small-medium islands with at least cider fertility. You settle an island like this and build up lots of peasant houses + fisherman huts and cider farms to supply them. You don't need that many tools to make it run, but you'll need plenty of wood - you can build some woodcutters in the beggining and demolish them once you're done. I usually keep getting wood from my main town.

Of course as long as the peasants are coming you want the taxes at green level - once they're all in their houses you put the taxes slider to yellow. I've made these screenshots just to show you how it works. First 4 screenies show that town with peasants only - you don't build chapels in case it should be enough. The second option wields better money but involves getting spices and building some chapels + getting more tools/wood for houses advancement. Last 5 screenies show the same town and its income with citizens, plus one screenshot of oriental island which provides spices for them. As you can see the income has doubled. That's really a small piece of land I've used and 2000+ (after substracting oriental isle expenses) gold income/minute from just one small town is what should get you going.


One more thing; don't build weaver huts. The return in taxes from supplying linen garments to citizens is next to none and they take up lots of precious space for production.

Screenshots: http://picasaweb.google.pl/Nowakowski.Peter/Anno1404#