What is the best "Settlers like" game?

[covr]

I've played 7 this year and it is shit. I've heard that 6 and 5 are worse. 4 was cheap copy-pasta of 3.

 

[exe]

Settlers 5 is a normal RTS if I got the number right.

 

[Renegen]

I really liked 7 a lot but the DRM was excessive. 6 is too simple.

 

[Martyrized Dinosaur]

6 is too simple.

Do you mean not enough different things to build?

 

[Renegen]

Do you mean not enough different things to build?

Yeah, 7 I felt like it had a truly complex economic system, you can get the same resources in different ways, boosting is important etc

 

[Johannes]

I dont think Children of the Nile fit in your "settler-like" definition. Because if it is, then CotN and Caesar3/Pharaoh/Zeus is where it's at.

And in that case, it's hard to say which game is the best. Because each is different from the rest.

The China one is the best of those, honestly. Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdoms.

Spoiler

It's the most refined all the games of those series, being the last one made. More of the same except better. Can't get into too much detail since I don't remember them so well, but you've got all kinds of nifty shit like customizable roadblocks now, and walls which allow for tighter city design with some planning. And the scenarios were more challenging and interesting on average.

 

[laclongquan]

I havent got the interest to play it beyond the first ten minutes. it's just not attractive enough compared to others.

But maybe one of these days I will try it again.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdoms.

Never heard about it before which is weird considering how popular the other games in the series are.

 

[Lacrymas]

Emperor is great! It's the most polished of all the city builders in its vein and it has the best "graphics".

 

[Rahdulan]

Nice to see Emperor mentioned, but I wish they dropped Feng shui mechanic because it just leads to a whole lot of "this is the most optimal way to build your city, period" frustrations compared to other Impressions city-building titles. Which makes it kinda funny thinking back on reviews when people complained how it didn't change the series enough and was just stale at that point.

 

[JarlFrank]

never played Emperor, and back when I got all the titles on GoG they didn't have that one

Does GoG have it now? Might give it a try.

 

[Lacrymas]

never played Emperor, and back when I got all the titles on GoG they didn't have that one

Does GoG have it now? Might give it a try.

Unfortunately, no. I don't know why, though I still have it and it runs fine on win 7 out of the box.

 

[Goliath]

Cultures 1 & 2.

 

[potatojohn]

Fallout 4

 

[Johannes]

Nice to see Emperor mentioned, but I wish they dropped Feng shui mechanic because it just leads to a whole lot of "this is the most optimal way to build your city, period" frustrations compared to other Impressions city-building titles. Which makes it kinda funny thinking back on reviews when people complained how it didn't change the series enough and was just stale at that point.

You can pretty much ignore the Feng Shui if you want, though.

 

[Lacrymas]

You can pretty much ignore the Feng Shui if you want, though.

I still don't know what the Feng Shui mechanic even does. I think it has something to do with the offerings to the gods - the better Feng Shui you have, the more pleased the gods are with your offering. I'm not sure though. If it's only that, you can pretty much ignore Feng Shui :p

 

[made]

Emperor never clicked with me. Much prefer the Egyptian setting with its pyramids and obelisks. It does get boring eventually but I always come back to Pharaoh when I try to play one of the others.

 

[Johannes]

I still don't know what the Feng Shui mechanic even does. I think it has something to do with the offerings to the gods - the better Feng Shui you have, the more pleased the gods are with your offering. I'm not sure though. If it's only that, you can pretty much ignore Feng Shui :p

Yeah it's something like that, though I recall it having more effects than just that, but of similar subtlety.

Thing is, getting 100% feng shui is really hard and annoying. But getting the next rank, >90%, is actually extremely easy.

 

[Lacrymas]

So, anyone tried Valhalla Hills, yet? I've played it until the 3rd island and it's literally Cultures with a face-lift. I hated the vikings aesthetic then and I hate it now. I don't have an opinion on the mechanics, yet, I have to play some more.

 

[Goliath]

So, anyone tried Valhalla Hills, yet? I've played it until the 3rd island and it's literally Cultures with a face-lift.

"Face-lift"

Cultures 2

Valhalla (Feminist?) Hills

Well it is a matter of taste but as far as I am concerned: decent pixel art > basic 3D graphics

 

[Lacrymas]

Well it is a matter of taste but as far as I am concerned: decent pixel art > basic 3D graphics

Oh, definitely. I usually prefer 2D graphics too. Not to mention the banality of the aesthetic of VH.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

And chromatic aberration

 

[Severian Silk]

And chromatic aberration

Do you abhor the aberration?

 

[ortucis]

Does Stronghold count?
I had a lot of fun with the first one and the crusaders expansion. Didn't try the sequels.

It had the whole settlers thing with supply lines where goods were refined into more useful goods and you had to keep your peasants from starving. As an added bonus, you got to build moats and trebuchets.

I am playing Crusaders Extreme (HD) right now and it's pretty fun. One thing I really like is that if you use up your peasants to raise an army, you have no grown men left to do labor (mills, making spears, etc.). That means, you have to wait for new borns to be.. well, born and raised. You will hear sounds of babies crying and it's a sweet nectar for your ears, since that means you can train the bastards to fight and die in your name.

A screenshot I took (second map where Turks are burning crops):

The only problem with this edition is that HD graphics mean (in this game) that you can see wider area. Everything else is still zoomed out and looks tiny at 1080p (imagine at 4k) and recognizing army from peasants becomes annoying. Also, left click (and drag) to select troops and then left click to move them is annoying. Left click should be select and right click should be move. I keep deselecting them since right click is deselect. You can't rebind keys nor (as far as I can tell) you can assign the armies to a group (Ctrl+1,2,3.. etc.). At least you can make them patrol, which is what I recommend doing from start.


Another problem is that you can't build in a place if a person is standing there. As your population grows, peasants will start randomly moving making it a nightmare to place buildings next to each other (those mothers in shot were standing there forever, meaning I couldn't place more Hovels there).




PS: All mothers are voiced by a man, similar to Monty Python. Pretty funny.

 

[Lacrymas]

Stronghold Crusader is the best of the lot, SH2 is pretty disappointing.