25 years after the debut of The Settlers, the legendary build-up strategy series returns
Forced to leave their homelands after a devastating earthquake of mysterious origins, the Settlers set sail towards the unknown in the hopes of finding a new home. Not only will they face countless new challenges, they will also become part of an ancient mystery that will change their lives forever.
Q: Economy was always very important for me. I always wanted to maximize it. Can I build roads and use vehicles to have an efficient economy?
We will offer multiple road types and multiple vehicle types in the new Settlers. While a pull-cart is fine with a broad path, a donkey cart needs at least a gravel road. Vehicles cannot only load multiple goods, which means you need less carriers for your transport network. They also increase the “throughput” of a road since they allow more goods for the room need on the road. This helps to avoid traffic jams. In our current pre-Alpha version we get already insane traffic jams if you don’t take care of your infrastructure
Q: Will the game have a single player campaign?
Yes, there will be a single player campaign, but we do not reveal details about it yet. I can grant a rough overview though: The continent of the Settlers suffered a cataclysm, and the player will lead a ship with his tribe to uncharted territory and discover an unexplored and mysterious island group.
Q: Can you talk more about the different victory methods?
There are two important things to mention first:
1. The paths to victory are deeply connected to all other game systems, not a separate score ticking up. The player will see every detail and they all affect the ownership of territory, settlers, buildings and goods.
2. The paths to victory are combinable with each other; the player may choose a mix of them as his strategy or focus on one only. Which one makes sense depends on the map layout, available resources, as well as on the enemies and their strengths and weaknesses.
As many are roughly familiar what military victory means in a Settlers game, I will describe one of the other options in more detail: The path of Honor.
The player can build one or multiple training pits and assign an arena fighter to it, who can be trained in different skills to get better. The training may benefit of different goods like specific food or weapons produced in other production chains.
While training the fighter(s), the player can build up an arena itself, which is a quite an expensive building that needs different materials, but it exists in different sizes for different amounts of spectators too. The location to choose for an arena is also important, as it influences travel times of spectators and which areas of your city will benefit or suffer most of the events.
To finally challenge an enemy, you choose a location in enemy territory and the arena will send out a herald to that spot to announce a tournament, while another herald announces the tournament at the arena in your own city. An arena fighter of the enemy and many civilian spectators of both sides will travel to the arena, which of course already has a serious impact on the economy for both players… you better have some reserves who take their spots until those people return.
Finally, the arena fighters execute their duel, and depending on their skills and training status we hopefully win… while the spectators cheer for their hero and the result will cause them to be confident… or they distrust their leaders.
Those spectators will return home to the area where they came from, and those who distrust will protest and they may incite a revolt, which can be countered by different measures, but that is maybe too much detail for now.
However, if the revolt happens, those settlers will change the ownership of a keep or castle (quite similar to territory buildings in early settlers games) and they will take their buildings and goods with them. After the revolt, they continue to work… but now they work for their new leader.
It is very important for us that those new victory methods are connected to many other game systems to ensure additional depth and interesting choices.
We will share more information in a detailed blog post at a later stage.
Q: Can you share first details about the camera? Will I be able to zoom in and out and have full control over my camera?
The player can zoom in very close and enjoy the settlers work procedures and emotions as detailed as never before. The zoom out is limited to a distance where it is still possible to identify goods, as the map is better suited if the player wants even more overview. The player can also rotate the camera to any angle to ensure that any perspective is possible. We currently experiment to add “flick” scrolling to ensure short mouse distances allow fast camera movement, just feels better than pure panning if you ask me.
Q: I never liked districts in The Settlers 7 – How does it work in the new game?
We do not want a pre-defined map segmentation in our new game, everything should be dynamic. There is some kind of “invisible district” ruleset which exists since Settlers 1, as territory buildings secure and claim territory around them. We will have something very similar to that in the new Settlers game. But as mentioned it is a very dynamic system, as e.g. territory now is also extended step by step by military units.
We know that everyone is very eager to play and test the new The Settlers game. We will have beta tests and core playtests to test and check specific features in our game. As we are still working on the Alpha version, we do not have a date for upcoming tests yet. Make sure to check out The Settlers Alliance website to get the latest information.
Q: Houses have a different function than in previous The Settlers titles. What changed?
The standard houses are now the core of the food supply chain. The residents will go and buy food ingredients of marketplaces or food production buildings, return home, prepare meals, and then deliver it to all the hungry craftsmen out there (any craftsman will need to eat now, not only miners). There is much more lovely details, like different types of houses with more advanced citizens and different meal recipes. Of course, the player chooses all locations for houses, market stalls, etc. himself, and since the distances and connections between these buildings are important, it has a major influence on the city layout.
Q: Will you offer a game mode for patient players allowing to play for hours on big maps? Or a sandbox mode without the need to win?
Yes, we will offer very flexible options how to play the new Settlers game. We do not yet reveal details about the maps and game modes as of yet, but I can say there will be a large variety of different map types and sizes. When I play our current medium sized main test map, sometimes I just continue for fun after defeating the enemy troops. If I want to mine, harvest and populate everything with multiple thousand settlers on the map, it takes me more than 7 hours to do so.
Q: Will there be heroes with their own character in the game like in Settlers 5+6?
There will be no RPG-hero-action-mode if anyone is scared about that… We will have different important characters like generals (military leaders), arena fighters and more which are important for the different winning methods. E.g. generals lead armies and have one special ability the player can activate during combat. While playing, the player will find new, different and potentially better characters over time which he can take along.
Q: Will there be a technology/research system like e.g. in Settlers 5 or 7?
No, this will be different. The player can advance from outpost to village, town and city status on a map. While in outpost status, the buildings are mostly made of raw tree trunks, but all different areas like food, building materials, military recruitment, craftsmen training, etc. exist already. Wooden boards created in sawmills are needed to upgrade or build new village buildings, and more advanced materials will be necessary for buildings of town and city status. Of course, the player does not have to advance to the highest status in every map, it is his choice to define his strategy depending on what makes most sense considering the challenges he faces.
Q: Will it be possible to save in multiplayer games?
Yes, of course.
Q: Will it be released on Steam
Yes, the new Settlers will be released on all common digital platforms, including Steam and Uplay.
This video shows all official gameplay clips from the dev blog. A lot of detail is shown and it gives a good sample of what the new Settlers game will look and feel like.
Hmmmmmm. Settlers was fun on the Amiga. Same with Settlers 2. However, bringing ~25-30 year old games back (ie. their game design) tend to fail since we've all moved on except when loading up on a proper Amiga/Atari/Whatever or in an Emulator for the nostalgia.
Hmmmmmm. Settlers was fun on the Amiga. Same with Settlers 2. However, bringing ~25-30 year old games back (ie. their game design) tend to fail since we've all moved on except when loading up on a proper Amiga/Atari/Whatever or in an Emulator for the nostalgia.
Yeah, I'm not sure why people would play such a thing when they could be climbing Ubisoft towers.
I randomly tried playing Settlers 7 again yesterday, had forgot why I'd barely touched it the first time around. It's just not Settlers as I'd want it to be, I really would rather just boot up Settlers 1 on an emulator.
If they can bring back the magic of Settlers 1 and 2 I'd be more than happy.
Since the announcement that “The Settlers” are back, we have received an overwhelming amount of comments, feedback and suggestions.
There are so many “The Settlers” fans out there who love the many different aspects of the game. Be it the economic part, the military, the look and feel, the “wuselfaktor” or the inviting world – to name a few. We are incredibly grateful for your feedback, and over the last few months, while performing playtests and diary studies, one thing became clear: while we are on the right path to deliver a great game, we really want to deliver an exceptional gaming experience.
Since quality is our main priority, we want to take the time necessary to make it right. Therefore, we had to make the difficult decision to postpone the release of the game until further notice. The additional time will be used to address your feedback and deliver the best “The Settlers” game possible. While we cannot provide a new release date yet, rest assured we will keep you updated via The Settlers Alliance and our other channels as soon as we can give you further information.
When I saw the new Siedler two and a half years ago, I was quite impressed. The game was not supposed to be a complete return to old virtues, but the complex mechanics and interesting ideas shown could appeal to me a lot more than the various games of the years before. Unfortunately, after the long radio break, there is nothing left of that. I'm almost shocked at how depressed all the game systems are. Even the blessed Siedler 2 over 25 years ago had more complexity to offer. Now what I could play was quite fun. It's just settlers, it's bustling around and feels right. I just wonder how long it will last with such rudimentary game systems. So I'm particularly excited about the campaign, which will hopefully offer variety and excitement for a few hours of play.
They say they were invited in 2019 to see the game and they were excited by what they saw. They say it was complex and refreshing, with various bold inovations for the series. What they saw now is everything got striped and they simplified everything to the extreme.
Which is funny, i was just reading and they did exactly the same with Settlers 5. And failed, obviously:
Quote:
Originally intended as a cross-platform title that would also include PlayStation 2 and GameCube releases, Heritage of Kings was specifically designed as a new type of Settlers game, one intended to appeal to North American gamers. After seeking feedback, Blue Byte decided to move the game away from its pseudo-city building origins, and more in the direction of a traditional real-time strategy. [...]
Towards the end of September, Blue Byte advertised for a closed beta, specifically seeking casual gamers, families, and people with little interest in real-time strategies.
Also : For the rest of 2001, Blue Byte sought feedback from professional critics such as PC Games, as well as focus groups, other developers, and forums, asking such questions as "what is the core of The Settlers", "what is the future of The Settlers", and "what doesn't work in The Settlers"?
This made me think about EA and Dice, who said they cant make a new good Battlefield game because they dont know what people liked about the old ones )) Bluebyte seems to have been in this position for 20 years almost. They had success with Settlers 2, then 3 and 4 were criticized for being too samey. 5 for being too different. And they got lost after that
Why do marketing people still think its a good idea that we want to see bald people making an ass of theirselves and grown men in robes, like wtf man ,....
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