Many hours of play, and these are some of my thoughts. Mote, I enjoy a more relaxed approach to city building, so I’ve played on the easier two levels.
The game is really fun and addictive so far and plays pretty smoothly with acceptable framerates and resolution on my machine, aside from semi-occasional crashes to desktop.
However, I agree with the others who say the traders are too unreliable. I’m currently in a game where I’ve upgraded to the second level buildings. I am mining iron but I can’t smelt ingots yet. I have run out of tools. The iron trader skipped a couple years, and when she finally showed up there are still no tools or ingots for sale. My settlers are harvesting and building really slowly now (I guess they are using their fingernails), and now it’s going to be at least another year unless I do a bunch of reloading.
Also, the influx of new settlers is pretty uneven and unreliable, and I haven’t gotten more than a couple at a time for 2 years now. I keep getting a message that I need builders and laborers, but I need new people to do this, unless I want to shut a bunch of production buildings down. This feels unbalanced. Note I have a school, temple, healer’s house, and maypole plaza, and my population is all very happy and plenty of food.
A few things that I’d like to see:
-
Children not being completely idle. I know games have to reflect our modern sensibilities more than history, when kids often had to work pretty hard at younger ages than modern kids, but the kids could certainly do some light tasks, at least, such as fetching food and water for their households (so the parents don’t have to as much).
-
Speaking of kids, where are they on the streets? Even if they have child labor laws in this society, they’d be out playing, wouldn’t they? TV and video games haven’t been invented yet
Street life in general is a bit dull. No one ever uses the festival poles or shows up for the sermons at the alters etc.That was something I remember from the anno games, at least. Villagers roaming the streets, doing various things when they aren’t working. Maybe there should be a founding date festival or something? -
Having the ability to prioritize all the gathering nodes? Currently, you can prioritize berries and hazelnuts, but it would be nice if you could let the forager know you want them to grab the birds’ nests before the greens, or focus on willow if the basketmaker is out etc.
-
Sheep farms for meat and for wool for the weaver to make warmer clothes?
-
The ability to see more of the map when rolling it at the beginning. Given how unreliable the traders are, I’d like to be able to know which resources will be available as my city grows, outside the initial “fog of war.” I had to restart one map in the start of the fourth era because it had no sand at all, and I realized I needed glass for the food preserver I just built. None. Zilch. And the traders who sell it simply didn’t show up with it reliably enough to keep a glassworks adequately productive.
-
I think the preserver should be available earlier in the game, but maybe have it start in second building era with just making fruit jam that requires pottery but expands what can be “canned” with later upgrades, maybe moving on to things like sauerkraut and pickled eggs, even.
-
I’m surprised salt never makes an appearance, since it was a valued commodity that was used for many crafts and in food preservation. Vinegar too (if wineries are ever introduced).
-
I understand there is going to be a fifth building level eventually. It would be cool to see grapes and wine. I’m hoping more varied luxury goods will be included at this level.