kajinking said:
Thinking about getting this. Anyone have it that can recommend it to a serious fan of the sim city series?
Depends on what you like about SimCity. I've always found Anno to be a bit more 'hardcore' when it comes to citizens' demands and such. Like in Anno 1404, if you're planning on building some kind of mega-city you need a massive trade empire to support it, you can't just build advanced buildings whenever you want. It's almost more focused on the economic development of your states then Sim City definitely, and you do have to develop your city in a certain way if you want to develop effectively. For example:
In Anno 1404, I want to advance my patricians (the tier-3 population units) to the status of noblemen (tier-4) because I want access to better technology. So what do I need? Well I need these goods: Beer, Bread and Leather. I also need a church and a prison, which cost wood, tools, stone and other resources I need from the Orient (fortunately I already have an Orient settlement supplying me so that's no problem). But for the other goods:
Beer- Well I need hops and grain, as well as breweries, unfortunately my main island is unsuitable for hops and grain production. So I'll establish a colony on a nearby island that can support it, maybe throw down a small town of peasants to help cover the cost of maintaining the infrastructure. I'll build some grain fields and some hops farms, and I can build my brewaries there (or, if I want to have it as just a staple goods colony, I can just have the hops and grain shipped back to my main island and set up breweries there to get the whole goods produced faster but at the cost of waiting for the staple goods).
Bread: Well I already have a grain colony, so I'll just expand it and get a few more grain fields. Then I'll build some mills to grind it into flour, then build some bakeries and get fresh bread transported by ship to my main island.
Leather: Well, I need two things: salt and animal hides. Fortunately there are animal hides on most islands so I can just establish a colony for it where ever. Salt, however, is gathered from mines but is unprocessed, so I have do that first. I need to make a salt refinery, which uses unrefined salt and coal (I'm pretty sure, its been awhile since I played so honestly I can't really remember how to make leather that well haha). Coal can be mined but only at the noble stage, so I have to produce charcoal from trees instead. Finally, I mix the processed salt and hides together to produce leather garments.
This isn't even getting into how you also need to produce books, which require paper, ink, etc. It's basically Sim City meets Minecraft. If this wall of text appeals to you you will LOVE this series haha.
As to the OP: Dammit, why are all the games I was waiting for coming out when I have all my essays and exams due? Big fan of the Anno series, I really want to see how they handle a futuristic game considering all the others were based around historical eras. I'm just hoping that they didn't divide these technology choices up and instead they allow you to develop your civilization the way you want to choose.