PC games like 1701 A.D.?

billwill

You guys recommended this game to me about a year ago and I fell in love with it. It is incredibly addicting, and I love the economic aspect (and the fact that there is a continuous play option).

The thing is, I would have never heard about this game otherwise, which got me to thinking maybe there are other similarly awesome games out there that I don't know of.

What I like:

+Focus on economics
+Setting in the past
+The city building
+Real time strategy

I know there's a sequel to 1701 A.D. (my computer just isn't fast enough to play it). The only other RTS games I know of are Age of Empires and Rome: Total War; the former bores me because it's not very strategic, and the latter is fun, but I don't think I could run the more current games in the series.

Thanks!

SammyF

Was I the one who recommended that to you? Because I would certainly recommend it, and I honestly don't know anyone else who plays it. If it was someone else, well, holy shit, then, there's three of us here who have played it.

If your computer is on the slower end, I would suggest looking at either the Patrician series or the Port Royale series. Both of these games are similar in terms of daisy-chain economics during the age of sail, but instead of a city-builder strategy game your role would be better described as a merchant or business owner who lives within one or more existing cities. The Guild 2 series also falls somewhere along these lines, although that drills down so deeply into the lives of individual business owners and consumers that it's almost an economic RPG. I don't have any personal experience with The Settlers series, but that may also be something you'd like to look at.

Aldo

Settlers?

billwill

SammyF wrote: »

Was I the one who recommended that to you? Because I would certainly recommend it, and I honestly don't know anyone else who plays it. If it was someone else, well, holy shit, then, there's three of us here who have played it.

If your computer is on the slower end, I would suggest looking at either the Patrician series or the Port Royale series. Both of these games are similar in terms of daisy-chain economics during the age of sail, but instead of a city-builder strategy game your role would be better described as a merchant or business owner who lives within one or more existing cities. The Guild 2 series also falls somewhere along these lines, although that drills down so deeply into the lives of individual business owners and consumers that it's almost an economic RPG. I don't have any personal experience with The Settlers series, but that may also be something you'd like to look at.

I really don't remember, but yeah, the Anno series is criminally overlooked. I don't understand why more people don't play it!

Patrician IV and Settlers 7 look really good, but in reading reviews I saw they were bashed because of their DRM schemes. Was this removed, or is it still there? I ask because I know Dawn of Discovery had a similarly unfair DRM system that was removed via patch later on.

billwill

Also I used to play Europa Universalis quite a bit, but I honestly didn't know what I was doing. Are there games like similar to that that are slightly less complex?

Aldo

Total War?

--

Settlers has the Ubisoft package of "are you buying our game legally? Enjoy our annoying extra security measures FREE OF CHARGE". They made it slightly less annoying in Assassin's Creed 2, but a 1 minute search does not tell me anything else about how this affects Settlers. A quick Google search for "Ubisoft DRM Controversy" will provide you with a lot of information of what it entails.

SammyF

Aldo wrote: »

A quick Google search for "Ubisoft DRM Controversy" will provide you with a lot of information of what it entails.

Does that Google search actually yield *useful* information? It's such a hot button topic that I feel like most of the opinions I've seen on the topic were not necessarily informed. Case in point: I couldn't tell you about Settlers 7's DRM because I haven't purchased a Ubisoft game since they implemented it. It might actually not suck as much as I suspect/am told. I dunno. I expect that I won't find out until Ubisoft publishes a game that I care enough to purchase on PC -- if Silent Hunter 5 hadn't been so poor compared to Silent Hunter 3, I'd probably have sucked it up by now.

As far as Patrician IV's DRM, I gather from a quick search which yielded this thread that registering is only necessary if you want to auto-install patches or something along those lines, although I'm not entirely clear. The thread devolves around post #18 to:

Just for the record:

My anger at a particular member here is because of what I typed in the first line.

That particular member - whos face I'd love to slam through the citywall since that particular member is obviously trolling here - created this particular thread; in which he already complained about something that isn't true. Yet, that particular member isn't prepared to admit his mistakes and instead has begun infesting other threads with his needless complains.

and I'm pretty sure I'm not going to find a single piece of useful information after that. :?

SpongeCake

Games like Anno 1701?

Anno 1404 is the first thing that comes to mind.

Edit: Helpfully called "Dawn of Discovery" in the US apparently. It's the sequel anyway. Buy it probably.

milehigh

Older (as in, hopefully your computer can run them older) but any of the Impressions city building games:

Caesar 3
Zeus

I think there was one set in ancient China too. Honestly when I started playing Anno 1404 the first thing I thought of was these games.

Jigrah

I am a huge fan of Europa the Guild: 1400 and it's sequel The Guild II. They are really buggy but fan made patches have helped out a great deal.

CygnusZ

You may have more luck asking on Apolyton.

freakish light

SammyF wrote: »

Aldo wrote: »

A quick Google search for "Ubisoft DRM Controversy" will provide you with a lot of information of what it entails.

Does that Google search actually yield *useful* information? It's such a hot button topic that I feel like most of the opinions I've seen on the topic were not necessarily informed. Case in point: I couldn't tell you about Settlers 7's DRM because I haven't purchased a Ubisoft game since they implemented it. It might actually not suck as much as I suspect/am told. I dunno. I expect that I won't find out until Ubisoft publishes a game that I care enough to purchase on PC -- if Silent Hunter 5 hadn't been so poor compared to Silent Hunter 3, I'd probably have sucked it up by now.

That flavor of DRM requires an always-on internet connection. If your connection drops or flags for any reason, I think it just boots you out of the game. They softened it in Assassin's Creed 2 and Splinter Cell: Conviction so that it's just a check before you launch it, but they never actually got around to doing that to Settlers.

They're dropping it for their new games, though. Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood doesn't have it.

firewaterword

Can you run Medieval 2?

If you can, grab it (and the expansion) and kiss a few hundred hours of your life goodbye.

TychoCelchuuu

Grand Ages: Rome?

Darksier

The Guild 2. You basically start with a single poor dude and try to make a powerful dynasty in town. Has stuff like merchandising, child making, backstabbing, and buying out (read: burning) your competitors. Argh gonna go reinstall it now.

Sir Carcass

I have Patrician IV (off of Steam) and the only DRM I know of is having to log in when you run the game. It hasn't caused me any problems, anyway. It's a pretty awesome game, if you like trading, building businesses, and all that.

The Guild 2 is also awesome, but like mentioned is a little more focused on your dynasty and 2 or 3 cities. If you get that, I'd recommend just ignoring the rest and getting The Guild 2: Pirates of the European Seas, then checking out the official forums for mods.

Siska

I also recommend The Guild 1&2. You get to run several businesses, dabble in politics, feud with other families, get married, have kids in a medieval town. The game doesn't really end, you just eventually run out of new things to do due to owning everything and everyone. Your character will eventually die from old age, but as long as you remembered having kids you can continue on as one of them. Besides from the occasional bug the only other negative I can think of is that the AI is an idiot. As in it wont put up any real fight and quite frequently just shrivel up and die on it's own without outside assistance.

This pack from amazon includes both games with all expansions, I think.

http://www.amazon.com/Guild-Universe-Pc/dp/B0012J0I8W/ref=sr_1_1?s=software&ie=UTF8&qid=1300907253&sr=1-1

Another old goodie is Pharaoh. Very similar to Caesar series, if you played that. Only much more fun and a lot less frustration.
http://www.amazon.com/Pharaoh-Gold-pc/dp/B000C05XRI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1300908208&sr=1-1

In Tropico 2 you run a Caribbean pirate outpost. The game is shorter than the other two but it still definatly has at least $8+shipping worth of fun!
http://www.amazon.com/Tropico-2-Pirate-Cove-Pc/dp/B00007M9ST/ref=sr_1_1?s=software&ie=UTF8&qid=1300908671&sr=1-1

spool32

Ubisoft DRM amounted to: you can't play the game unless you're connected to the Internet. That's a deal-breaker for me.

Pel

Never played 1701 but 1602 was amazing. Its true spiritual successor is probably Dwarf Fortress TBH.

RadicalTurnip

Siska wrote: »

Another old goodie is Pharaoh. Very similar to Caesar series, if you played that. Only much more fun and a lot less frustration.
http://www.amazon.com/Pharaoh-Gold-pc/dp/B000C05XRI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1300908208&sr=1-1

I liked Patrician, but I actually liked 3 more than 4, but they're both still good, and 4 is easier to learn.

Have you heard of Dawn of Discovery? The friend that turned me on to Patrician (and I turned him on to Pharaoh) got it for me for Christmas, and it's pretty awesome, and an economic/city building sim. It's pretty good, but a newerish computer is nice (Mine's 3 years old and runs it alright, but not amazingly)

Edit: and yes, if you don't care about graphics at all, Dwarf Fortress is pretty cool.