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The
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# ? Mar 25, 2019 18:03 |
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# ? Jun 1, 2024 17:28 |
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The next beta will be an open beta, opening on Friday, April 12 and running until Sunday, April 14. The game then releases on April 16. No further details have been posted about it yet other than that while it isn't going to be the full game it will have more available than the closed beta back in February did. Nothing major news wise has come up in recent weeks. So far as I can tell this wasn't at GDC this year, it's next press event isn't until April 4 when they show it off at something called EGX Rezzed. SubNat posted:Hm? I didn't see anything referring to scenarios at all, just that you can adjust the full range of custom-map settings, as if you were playing singleplayer. (ie difficulty, mapsize, type, etc.) I completely missed this earlier and now rereading the article I'm not sure what I was thinking or thought I read. But yeah it looks like the game will have the standard set if map/player/victory condition customization as previous games had. You can play endless if you want but can also set it finish much sooner if you just want a quick game. "Quick" being relative here.
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# ? Mar 25, 2019 18:14 |
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Man, this game had me right up until trains were discussed. Are they limited to just hauling oil? If so, that feels like a huge missed opportunity given just how important railroads were in the era.
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# ? Mar 25, 2019 18:26 |
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They might have been important to the era but they were probably more or less non-existent in archipelagos. Trains are moving a lot of stuff a long way. These are islands, so that is what boats are for.
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# ? Mar 25, 2019 18:37 |
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In their current iteration, yes, trains are only used for hauling oil to/from ports. The reason why was brought up in an Annocast a few weeks ago but I'd need to sit down and watch then again to find it. But to paraphrase the reason why they were simplified was that the devs didn't want to take on the challenge of having to design and build two separate logistics systems for the same game that they'd have to design the game around being functional with both in mind. It would've very quickly escalated the complexity and they felt it wasn't worth the risk if they got it wrong. The size of the islands don't particularly lend themselves to building giant train sets, either.
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# ? Mar 25, 2019 18:41 |
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Ah, that does make sense if it's an archipelago.
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# ? Mar 25, 2019 19:02 |
Edit: Wow I was late with this response
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# ? Mar 25, 2019 20:24 |
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Yeah, if I'm not misremembering the trains had a bigger role in earlier designs of the game. I'm pretty sure they talked about having non-island wide storage, and the trains roles were to chuck goods around. It seemed like they were angling for a way more complex simulation. (With transport playing in to efficiency and bottlenecks.) Just to justify the presence of trains. (I think the first video, or one of the first videos had a train hauling goods from a large farm hub.) Then they scaled it back, possibly due to tester feedback, on top of them finding it to not be a good fit.
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# ? Mar 26, 2019 12:35 |
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Too bad really, trains are neat. I'll just hope they make an expansion featuring them, then. Maybe use them to exploit jungles and deserts, connecting 'islands' of civilization in the seas of trees/sands. Maybe some sort of continental coastline. I dunno, I just like trains.
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# ? Mar 26, 2019 21:50 |
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As cool as I think trains would be, they just don't really make sense when the islands are relatively small like in Anno. I guess you could have something like multiple settlements on the coast of different maps and use trains to ship goods off-map (eg 19th century trains sending timber and coal from west coast to the east coast), but that would be a pretty different game I think.
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# ? Mar 27, 2019 09:08 |
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If you wanted this on steam and you haven't pre-ordered, better do it now, cause the game is heading to the Epic store and won't be purchasable on steam after April 16th.
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# ? Mar 30, 2019 18:30 |
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lol? In that case they can gently caress right off without any of my money.
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# ? Mar 30, 2019 22:01 |
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Galaga Galaxian posted:If you wanted this on steam and you haven't pre-ordered, better do it now, cause the game is heading to the Epic store and won't be purchasable on steam after April 16th. You may always just skip epic and get it in uPlay directly, I preordered it in uplay anyway, because they give 20% discount for 100 of their u-points
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# ? Mar 30, 2019 22:53 |
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Which is probably exactly what Ubisoft is doing here. They池e trying to pull people away from steam and onto their own store, not EGS.
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# ? Mar 30, 2019 22:56 |
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What about GOG though
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# ? Mar 31, 2019 13:44 |
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To my knowledge 1800 was never offered on GOG - some of the previous titles are (excluding 2070 and 2205 for some reason) but no plans to offer this on the platform had been announced. Had an inkling this may happen after they announced February's delay, but was hoping this title would've been small enough to escape notice though. But hardly surprising, Ubisoft has been trying to get their platform off the ground after totally loving things up not long after it's launch and at one point even removing the store IIRC. A shame they had to go muddying the waters so close to launch like this and jeopardize this franchises' future - again - with lovely business decisions. On a related note, their FAQ did make mention of the open beta coming up in ~2 weeks. The beta will be handled entirely through Uplay (not Steam nor EGS) so you will require an account in order to participate. Fortunately if you've ever owned an Ubisoft game you already have one even if you've never used the app outside a game itself.
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# ? Mar 31, 2019 15:27 |
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When I bought 2070 I had to stop playing it because UPlay was so aggressively terrible. At least it seems better now, with the 20% discount thing I値l probably just buy it there.
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# ? Mar 31, 2019 15:36 |
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Never really had a problem with UPlay besides it being another piece of software to juggle on my PC.
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# ? Mar 31, 2019 15:56 |
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My issue was a little self inflicted because I somehow had 2 accounts, Steam and reg UPlay I think, but recovering and merging those accounts was a loving nightmare and I知 pretty sure it was impossible early on but finding that out took me like 3 days. Anyway it was way easier when I tried again more recently.
Mazz fucked around with this message at 16:46 on Mar 31, 2019 |
# ? Mar 31, 2019 16:34 |
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Mazz posted:When I bought 2070 I had to stop playing it because UPlay was so aggressively terrible. At least it seems better now, with the 20% discount thing I値l probably just buy it there. Based on the beta, you could play it entirely offline without internet connections, didn't even give any warnings or anything IIRC. So hopefully this one doesn't have any of the insane issues that 2070 did in regards to meta-progression or just playing the drat game. The campaign looks pretty legit in this one, neat that it also transitions into sandbox mode once you finish it. Hopefully it's decently meaty seeing as there doesn't seem to be challenge scenarios this time around (betting those are going to be an early DLC though).
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# ? Mar 31, 2019 18:17 |
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Challenge scenarios were my favorite part of anno 1404.
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# ? Mar 31, 2019 18:22 |
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Yeah I've been rocking Venice and holy poo poo I'm hyped for this game... Any good rundown of features that isn't marketing material out there? Ala well of souls. Also how is 2070 from a die-hard 1404 player?
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# ? Apr 1, 2019 01:33 |
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Gyshall posted:Yeah I've been rocking Venice and holy poo poo I'm hyped for this game... Any good rundown of features that isn't marketing material out there? Ala well of souls. Like, 95% the same mechanics wise, only you have two versions of the "occidental" citizens, the "oriental" citizens give you a good chunk of the really cool stuff (but don't actually earn you money unless you have the expansion), and you have to deal with "ecobalance" and power mechanics. And you have maybe 1/3 of the pretty doodads to make things pretty. Oh and a giant pile of QoL improvements for the UI. If you're a "Die Hard" 1404 player I would recommend playing the Ecos. A lot of 1404 players trying out 2070 complain how washed out the 2070 color palette is. The palette is actually a visual representation of the ecobalance/"health" of an island. An industrial wasteland's gonna be grey with dying trees, but if you increase the ecobalance past neutral you start getting the Disney-esque saturated greens and golds.
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# ? Apr 1, 2019 09:49 |
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Alkydere posted:Like, 95% the same mechanics wise, only you have two versions of the "occidental" citizens, the "oriental" citizens give you a good chunk of the really cool stuff (but don't actually earn you money unless you have the expansion), and you have to deal with "ecobalance" and power mechanics. And you have maybe 1/3 of the pretty doodads to make things pretty. Oh and a giant pile of QoL improvements for the UI. Pro post, thanks.
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# ? Apr 1, 2019 11:23 |
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Anno 2070 is probably technically better than 1404 but the atmosphere of the game is inferior and why I've never been able to play it as much.
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# ? Apr 1, 2019 13:38 |
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Gwyrgyn Blood posted:The 20% discount didn't work for me but someone from Bluebyte said it's supposed to. So YMMV I guess. The uplay points only work for pre-orders in some regions unfortunately.
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# ? Apr 1, 2019 14:07 |
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Yeah there痴 a little pop up about the 20% for UPlay points thing and in the US at least it says it excludes preorders right in the pop up now. Just gonna grab it from Steam since I have everything else there, excited at the prospect of playing my own video games being more difficult for no reason at all. Also this is one of the very few games I値l immediately pay full price for anymore, 1404 earned them a lot of good will in my book. Mazz fucked around with this message at 14:22 on Apr 1, 2019 |
# ? Apr 1, 2019 14:15 |
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If there were any issues, they've fixed it now. In EU I can use one of the -20% codes on the preorder without issue. And honestly, with their -20% I guess they're actually the cheapest legit site to buy from, which makes a lot of sense. (GMG currently only has it -15% off. ) And to anyone annoyed that it's not on Steam anymore: Don't ubisoft games still force you to use uplay anyhow, even if you have them on Steam? I've just bought ubi games straight from/for uPlay for the last couple of years, so I'm not sure if they still do that or not, but I remember it being a thing back with Anno 2070, From Dust, etc.
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# ? Apr 2, 2019 15:03 |
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SubNat posted:And to anyone annoyed that it's not on Steam anymore: Don't ubisoft games still force you to use uplay anyhow, even if you have them on Steam? Yes, if you buy it on Steam you're actually just adding a third layer of DRM to it. For example I bought R6 Siege on Steam, so in order to play it I must have both Steam and UPlay running.
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# ? Apr 2, 2019 15:17 |
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Alright, then I really see zero downside to them not offering it on Steam, honestly. (Though offering it on the Epic Store, which is undoubtedly going to do it in the same way anyhow, seems kind of weird. ) I guess they're just terrified of framing it as an uPlay exclusive, and being able to lean on the Epic Store as an excuse is giving them an out in regards to stepping away from Steam then. (Even if the Epic Store might only account for a small fraction of the sales, since a lot of people are likely quite tempted by the -20%/100coin offers. (Especially since you get most of them back for buying it anyhow.)) And then they'll probably just release it on Steam in a year/once the Game+DLC bundle is done, and in effect get a secondary launch, with any publicity and sales that might garner. SubNat fucked around with this message at 15:27 on Apr 2, 2019 |
# ? Apr 2, 2019 15:25 |
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The Epic store thing is mostly annoying because a good competitor to steam is needed, but they have a pretty lovely client and track record so far so atm it's just fragmenting the market so bleh. But hey if they got some of that fortnight money to make good quality (relatively) niche games more viable in the future I won't complain. Was gonna buy it on uPlay anyway so no skin off my back.
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# ? Apr 2, 2019 15:40 |
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SubNat posted:Alright, then I really see zero downside to them not offering it on Steam, honestly. Many Internet Conspiracy Theorists think this was a case of Ubisoft gladly taking Epic's money while also banking on the general dislike of EGS driving people directly to Uplay where they get 100% of the revenue instead of only 70% or 75% or 88% or whatever. Apparently this same strategy worked well for them with the Division 2's release so we'll see what happens here. Anno appeals to a much different, and much smaller, fan base so people actually holding off a purchase because of this could much more pronounced. I debated switching my pre-order from Steam to Uplay because of the discount but from what I've heard the Uplay discount is not available in North America. That may have been part of the earlier bug though, I've not checked since. Either way I suspect that since this is being pulled from Steam any further DLC or updates will need to be aquired through Uplay any way so you may be forced to move over at some point if you want to keep up with anything new.
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# ? Apr 2, 2019 15:50 |
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I mean it's not really a conspiracy theory in that that's pretty much what'll happen because no one really likes EGS right now, so if they were gonna buy it anyway buying it on Uplay is a non-issue. And no, the uplay points discount doesn't work for NA pre-orders and probably never will.
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# ? Apr 2, 2019 15:58 |
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Psychotic Weasel posted:I debated switching my pre-order from Steam to Uplay because of the discount but from what I've heard the Uplay discount is not available in North America. That may have been part of the earlier bug though, I've not checked since. Either way I suspect that since this is being pulled from Steam any further DLC or updates will need to be aquired through Uplay any way so you may be forced to move over at some point if you want to keep up with anything new. I had the same concern but the steam page mentions Ubi's assurance that the DLC and updates will be available. https://store.steampowered.com/app/916440/Anno_1800/ quote:The publisher has assured us that all prior sales of the game on Steam will be fulfilled on Steam, and Steam owners will be able to access the game and any future updates or DLC through Steam.
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# ? Apr 2, 2019 15:59 |
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Orv posted:And no, the uplay points discount doesn't work for NA pre-orders and probably never will. That's what I figured. With no incentive to change my behaviour I'm not going to bother with switching to another store. Brutakas posted:I had the same concern but the steam page mentions Ubi's assurance that the DLC and updates will be available. I found this was worded deliberately vaguely - to me it implies that while you'll still be able to play the game and it will still be updated it never mentions that you'll be able to purchase the additions through Steam. I would not be surprised if anyone who bought it through steam instead had to go elsewhere for future expansions (because what reason does Steam have to support the game anymore?) but they will still work with your game regardless of where you bought it.
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# ? Apr 2, 2019 16:34 |
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So unless they changed something about Uplay's architecture when interacting with Steam they can't actually force you to buy the DLC on Uplay if you own the base game on Steam. For instance I own AC:Syndicate on Steam and got gifted the DLC package on Uplay. This doesn't work in either direction so I don't get to play the DLC unless I buy the game on Uplay itself.
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# ? Apr 2, 2019 16:40 |
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I bought the odyssey sale deal a week ago on steam because it was cheaper than just the season pass and I ended up with 2 independent copies of odyssey on UPlay as I already had the base game. I would assume it痴 because they are independent digital keys, but in the odd case you cannot buy the 1800 DLC on Steam at all I知 sure they値l have some way of merging the keys or something, that痴 just bad PR for no reason. I知 thinking if GMG does have a 15% discount for a UPlay key tho I知 changing my mind again. Mazz fucked around with this message at 16:47 on Apr 2, 2019 |
# ? Apr 2, 2019 16:44 |
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Orv posted:So unless they changed something about Uplay's architecture when interacting with Steam they can't actually force you to buy the DLC on Uplay if you own the base game on Steam. For instance I own AC:Syndicate on Steam and got gifted the DLC package on Uplay. This doesn't work in either direction so I don't get to play the DLC unless I buy the game on Uplay itself. That's disconcerting, and one of the things I had hoped they'd find a solution for since I know it's been an issue on other storefronts as well (most notably GOG). Another piece of uncertainty that didn't need to be there. Maybe they'll just give everyone who has a Steam key Uplay key as well that automagically ties to their account and hope they switch over without much of a fight. Guess we'll have to wait and see now.
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# ? Apr 2, 2019 17:00 |
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Psychotic Weasel posted:That's disconcerting, and one of the things I had hoped they'd find a solution for since I know it's been an issue on other storefronts as well (most notably GOG). Another piece of uncertainty that didn't need to be there. No no what I mean by that is that because of it working that way they'll have to offer the DLC on Steam. I believe it's also some level of Steam policy on third-party DLC that you can't offer cross-client/store purchases on Steam.
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# ? Apr 2, 2019 21:05 |
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# ? Jun 1, 2024 17:28 |
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Some news came out about the open beta stuff. Tl;dr version: - Open Beta will be locked to Tier 3 again, but you will be able to play Multiplayer and the Campaign. - Save games don't carry over to the final version. - You get a unique decoration for playing in the open beta. - Starts 8PM EDT on the 11th. Less than 2 weeks until release now y'all
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# ? Apr 2, 2019 23:22 |