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How caqn you say this line, that we totally made up and added, was not the truth?
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Oct 8, 2021 02:57
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Ancient Secrets Revealed Now let’s finish digging to the bottom of the mystery of Kidusi Anitoni. Quite literally.  We pick things up by clicking on the Scholar here. It’s hard to see since it’s a small, yellow-clad model against a yellow background but he’s very much wearing his university robes.  Sources on the Ancient Scripts are few-- though I’m told Waha Desher is something of a trove for forgotten lore. Perhaps… Lord Ketema’s advisor, Biniam, grew up in Waha Desher and received the finest education. He may well recognize these glyphs. The player is asked to snap a picture of the ruins so a copy of the writing can be sent to Biniam.  I expect your translation eagerly. Surely with this evidence, Lord Ketema can no longer deny the legitimacy of our claims!  You seem oddly confident for someone who will have no control over this translation project… Biniam is, of course, more than glad to help.  Hm, I have seen such characters before! A stone not far from where I grew up, tangled in the undergrowth.  A trip back to Waha Desher and we can quickly find the stone Biniam is talking about. It’s the monument down below the quest windows to the left. Snap a quick picture with the Anno-Camera and we’ll have the inscriptions recorded for decoding.  An old friend notices we’ve visited Waha Desher again. Turns out our melancholy worker has something to show us.  If you are interested in the Broken Stone, investigate the Oracle; I saw glyphs very similar there when I was younger. Sure enough, explore the ruins of Waha Desher’s old temple and there are ancient writings covering it. Oh-hoh-hoh! Priests on a mountainside cultivating plants? Not hard evidence but it does mean we’re on the right track at least. A dead end, I fear; it could be anywhere in Enbessa, but we made a copy of the glyphs for you just in case. Perhaps there are answers to be found elsewhere? Rain bless you with guidance. I do not trust those priests. This old library dig is probably a cover for something more sinister...We’re given a copy of a transcript of the oracle’s etchings for our trouble. To think all of this springs from us just being nice enough to give him a photograph of home.  In the meantime Crown Falls gets its own Docklands Wharf. Allowing trades and just giving it a nice, fat pile of appeal for more tourism cash.  Back on Taborime we knock on Biniam’s door and he’s quite eager to start creating a lexicon of the ancient pictograms. If I’m right -- and I probably am -- this is thousands of years old! Look -- two texts, one in each language, so the treaty can be understood by all. If it is the same text in two different language, we could extrapolate a rough lexicon of the Ancient Script from our more extensive knowledge of the Kashtan tongue!       Ah, yes, that does nicely in this context! Now what about this next section…And this is why I split up the Kidusi Anitoni into two updates. The second half of it doesn’t take very long from a gameplay perspective. However it is massively text heavy.  Thankfully Biniam likes to take breaks. During one of the breaks I do some more work on Crown Falls and hit the next population goal. I don’t even have concrete and she wants me to get cracking on electrical power and lights already.       Hm, yes, I see how that would make sense. Then that would mean that this last section is…. Hm, not sure-- any ideas?   For reference if you get something wrong in this section Biniam simply corrects you. This entire 3-quest chain of puzzles is literally just a tutorial for the real quests later.       Aha! We have it! The Lexicon Ya-Enbesa: a guide to the Ancient Script! Take it to the Scholar, he will be positively spitting for jealousy! Hurry! Academic breakthrough can suffer no delay: all must know of our work! As honored as I am to be included, I feel I really didn’t do much and you knew all the answers already… Of course our role in this is to deliver the lexicon. A full Lexicon, and in such short time? Unbelievable! Give it here; doubtless it will be strewn with mistakes and approximations!A short pause later… I have reviewed the lexicon and found no quarrel with it. You have my respect -- and my help with translation if you require it. BOOM! Goodness, what was that? I believe that was Biniam popping off that the Scholar was just as humbled as Biniam predicted he’d be. All the way from Taborime? That boy has some excellent lungs.  Now that the work of preparing the lexicon is done we have Biniam’s lexicon in the right corner to be used for notes.   The answers we give here actually matter. They determine 2 things: the success of the Kidusi Anitoni mission and the value of our final reward. The entire questline started with the Scholar wanting to research Enbessan history and create the Chronicles. No matter what happens we’ll get a copy to stuff into a museum.
  The last correct answer is Farmers. At the end the Scholar writes down everything so the player can double check and re-enter their answers without penalty.  Are you entirely certain? Very well -- I will trust your judgement though something seems off. Something seems off about this entire island… The foundations of our faith are built on these very walls. Once it was a place of pilgrimage, and when Ketema recognizes our claims, will be again. Kidusi has long been a place of prayer and writing, and will remain so. No Emperor can countermand this.Hahaha, not really. If I return the translation as is Ketema will basically launch into the same choice as if the player immediately went to Ketema after the false headstone was found. Previously I said that ended up in a guaranteed failure, but actually I was incorrect: it’s quite possible to have Ketema make peace with the priestesses at this point and is a very quick way to bring Kidusi Anitoni under the rule of Ketema. However I’m obviously going for a perfect result for the island. Thankfully that’s now a possibility thanks to the extra translation the worker from Waha Desher gave the player. Just need to hold off on handing the translation to Ketema until the second translation is done. Another fragment of Ancient Script for my delectation!    Immediately we hit paydirt showing an alternate history of the past, one that challenges the priests’ explanations of their faith. A granary, on Kidusi Anitoni? Wow. If it existed, there must still be traces -- such a building must have been colossal. You know, something bothers me about the excavation. It felt like there would be more below, and yet the priests just declared we were done and didn’t need to go deeper…  Click on the dirt in the center of the dig and sure enough: it’s revealed to show even more ancient architecture. Aha! I think we have it! I should have know the granary would be on a holy site -- a natural instinct for a land void of grains. So vast! And such a hoard of artefacts! We must begin to catalogue them of course.  The important artefact to find is this vase which has more writing on it.      We know the vase was full of hibiscus seeds, which are intimately connected to the priests’ beliefs, and there are legends of a plant that could cure all ills called “Deathless Grace”. This vase connects the two: Deathless Grace and the Hibiscus flowers the priests cultivate are one and the same. The priests cannot have lived here so long and not known of this. Had we not thought to dig deeper... I sense a hidden agenda at work-- you should confront the High Priestess. The High Priestess is standing before the library and at the top of the dig. So you have found it. Perhaps it is best: secrets weigh heavy and I weary of deceit. I suppose you deserve the truth. Come, and listen.       The High Priestess gives a tale of woe how the were betrayed by not one but two Enbessan kings: one by inaction and one by madness and fire. They were left with nothing but what remained of their writings and bent themselves wholeheartedly into them. This letter will lay everything out for the Emperor to see. May wisdom guide him. It is time we embraced our duty to the people of Enbessa rather than our pide. We shall join the Emperor and serve the tenets of a renewed faith, for the good of all.    Interrupting this: the first Battlecruiser floats out of the drydock: HereticMIND’s Rooster has arrived to truly claim the seas for the Goode Sisters. As I have the Ship Livery pack, HereticMIND is allowed to choose how to dress their new Battlecruiser up. Battlecruisers are the biggest, meanest ships on the sea. Equipped with turrets holding massive, accurate, long range cannons, and heavy slabs of steel armor, Battlecruisers can outrange any sail-equipped warship and take a beating in return. Now this doesn’t mean they rule unchallenged: SotLs are massively cheaper to just bulk build, and are outright more dangerous than Battlecruisers if they can engage both of their broadsides. However in nearly all wind conditions competently managed battlecruisers can outrun SotLs it’s obvious who will win in 9 out of 10 competently managed situations. Battlecruisers also have the added bonus that a handful of range boosting items will let them outrange most harbor defenses. Planks, Sails and Ye Olde Canons are far cheaper to produce than Steel Beams, Steam Engines, and Modern Weapons. There’s a reason the Buy/Sale price for a Battlecruiser is $800,000/$400,000 to a SotL’s $50,000/$25,000. There is one more naval ship to unlock: the Monitor. Oddly enough we get the light escort ship after we get Big and Mean here. In the Meantime: due to having 3 cargo hold spaces, 4 ship-item slots, an innate 70 military score the Rooster will be going on many an expedition.  Back to Enbessa it’s time to deliver the High Priestess’s letter.  So all it took to make them see the beauty of change was the discovery of the remains of the past? The irony is precious, but their offer of unity is tempting. They will kneel and pledge to the empire as long as they are allowed to grow the sacred hibiscus? A small favor I shall happily grant! You have worked wonders on Kidusi! Learning truth and tolerance, I have founded a temple here in Taborime, so that we can learn to be more inclusive of individual belief, for the greater good of the whole. I feel the greatest wonder I worked was finding that the desire to make the High Priestess choke on her own words overpowered the desire to strangle her on the spot for her blatant deceit. Sometimes the smallest things are the greatest miracles. At least, our magnum opus is complete! I have had several copies made-- masterful craftsmanship if I do say so myself! The first tangible reward for this questline is, as mentioned earlier, the Chronicles of Enbessa. Since I did everything perfect (with only slight doublechecking to make sure I got everything right) it’s the Legendary edition that gives +50 appeal. Much lies ahead of us, but all things I can look to proudly, without shame or deceit. I thank you for this, come find me in Kidusi when you have a moment. For following the full questline to the best ending the player is also given this artefact: another legendary item that will go into a museum.  Back in Taborime, Ketema has evicted the old church of La Corona and built a new temple to honor the rebirth of ancient traditions.  And Ketema’s palace has grown a massive, modern library and research center. Too long have remained unread and dustladen. I have had them removed to the harbor, so that all may consult them and grow in wisdom.  The High Priestess’s line, and the library, are both references to the new bonus that Kidusi Anitoni grants. All Elder houses now grant +1 Research when provided with However I need to finish the main questline for Enbessa before Scholars, and therefore Research unlocks. Until then it is up to the thread to decide what direction I go next:
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Oct 9, 2021 13:18
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Let's get Angereb e: making my vote clearer Soylent Pudding fucked around with this message at 18:50 on Oct 9, 2021 |
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Oct 9, 2021 13:50
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I am deeply offended at monitors being somehow escorts for battlecruisers. Almost as offended as I am by the idea that wooden ships of the line can somehow be a match for a battlecruiser if they close in with superior numbers.
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Oct 9, 2021 15:07
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Do it properly, I'd say: Angereb -> Unify/Finish Enbesa -> Arctic
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Oct 9, 2021 15:51
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Start the arctic first. Because polar bears
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Oct 9, 2021 17:04
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So far I have...one answer for each option.  Unless anyone else speaks up I might just focus on getting Investors in Cape Trelawny and unlocking the Research Institute.
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Oct 9, 2021 19:11
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For the record, I've dropped out of posting because I don't want to spoiler myself -- I still don't actually have Land of Lions! Or anything beyond Season 1, because there's so many freakin' video games nowadays.
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Oct 9, 2021 19:47
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Alkydere posted:So far I have...one answer for each option. You actually have two votes for doing Angreb next. I realized the way I phrased it was very unclear when I first posted.
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Oct 9, 2021 20:08
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Suffer in the artic.
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Oct 9, 2021 20:11
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Soylent Pudding posted:You actually have two votes for doing Angreb next. I realized the way I phrased it was very unclear when I first posted. Oh I thought you were saying skip to getting the Research Institute. So probably a good thing you made yourself clearer. I think I'll do Angereb next since it's probably the simplest (and dumbest) of the questlines. Gives a good bonus though: +15% Enbessan fire station range. Which is really nice considering they need to be linked to water Zedd posted:Suffer in the artic. You want me to get zeppelins don't you? Honestly I'm more interested in cheap furs at this point and Arctic really does make more sense once I get into Investors. Redeye Flight posted:For the record, I've dropped out of posting because I don't want to spoiler myself -- I still don't actually have Land of Lions! Or anything beyond Season 1, because there's so many freakin' video games nowadays. B-But posts are an LPer's food pellets!  Nah I understand: most of this content is rather plot-free but Land of Lions is super plot dense.
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Oct 9, 2021 20:23
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My vote is for Angereb next. The Kidusi Anitoni questline is my least favourite of them all. The first time I did Land Of Lions I completely screwed it up because I thought that the right thing to do to get the best ending would be to call out the priestesses on their bullshit straight away and I ended up with a crap reward as a result. Also, I really struggled with the translations quest. Turns out code-breaking isn't my strength. Having said that, Enbesa is my favourite of all the regions because it has so much charm, and the Shepherds are my favourite of all the tiers too, they're always so happy and cheerful.
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Oct 9, 2021 22:04
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Angereb. Magni's order makes sense.
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Oct 10, 2021 00:21
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I think Angereb -> finish Enbesa -> Arctic makes the most sense; the Arctic feels the most "endgame" of the extra DLC maps given what you get from it so it makes sense to leave it for last, and while the research institute is good I don't think it really makes sense to rush for it to the extent of getting the sub-optimal ending for the main Land of Lions questline (if nothing else it's just less narratively satisfying to do them out of order).
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Oct 10, 2021 05:10
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Unify Enbesa and then get the research institute. You will want the optimization options as your population explodes with investors.
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Oct 10, 2021 09:24
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Spearhead Back we go again, and today I’ll be taking care of the last Enbessan island. The thread made it clear it really wanted me to fully unify Enbessa before going for research. Also it wanted to go to the arctic, but I can deal with that in a bit. Angereb’s actually a short and, if you know what you’re doing, easy quest chain which gives me some time to clean up some other busy work.  So first thing on the to-do list is to say “YES!” to the anarchist defectors giving me a legendary dude that produces free pearls and gold ore from sand and saltpeter mines. Remember when you guys were trying to bribe me with 20 tons of tallow?  Once I’m done being distracted it’s time to top off the rest of the Enbessan Elders’ wants and needs. The spectacles are easy enough: I’m making more than enough for the engineers on Cape Trelawny so start shipping them to Taborime. Add in some lumber and its a start.  Why lumber? Well turns out the local wanza wood isn’t any good for making paper out of. Lumber from the Old World, New World or even the Arctic on the other hand are all exactly what’s needed. The papermill itself requires a river slot. Since I’m shipping in tons of clay from the New World alongside tobacco for the pipes, I no longer need this local mud collector and replace it with a papermill.  All that’s missing is the Lumier itself to write down their books for the Elders to read.  Oh and of course increase the indigo fields so the Lumier has ink to write with.  In the meantime Bente’s building more museum and zoo pieces means I’ve reached the threshold for another bonus. Now all my culture building modules give an extra +20%  Which means Ditchwater finally has broken the 1750 Appeal mark. So finally the local Tourist Hotels will stop complaining about the island not being pretty enough and I get that last 10% population points and money from them. Of course all this means I am critically low on influence. Part of the reason I’m boosting the Elders is to boost my population count for more influence points.  Speaking of Tourists, Crown Falls sees its first hotel go up.  And I snag another New World island. It isn’t helping my influence but I’m eventually going to want those pearls....   No, I will not take the kids' toys and treats away from them just because you’re an old crone with no joy in her heart. The last two needs for the Elders are lanterns and access to a monastery. The monastery’s easy enough since its just a building, but the lanterns are something of a doozy. First of all I need wax and cotton for the candles. Not cotton fabric, raw cotton. A mistake I’ve made before since everything else uses fabric.  Build a chandler and lanternsmith and we’re good to go.  Enough faffing about it’s time to get the quest done.  Ketema gives the player a flag of parley to approach Angereb with in order to avoid being immediately sunk by Angereb’s defenses.  You would have our trust? Earn it then. Show us you are capable of understanding our land and people.   Angereb starts as something of a picture hunt. We’re told to look around at at a variety of locations that give a rather bleak view of Angereb.  But if you look deeper there’s still life and vibrancy.  There’s history and pride.     Any of the paths are good. You can point out how weak Angereb’s economy is and try to talk them into abandoning piracy, at which point Prince Caleb will ask for trade goods. You can entice them into becoming the biggest and baddest pirates in the region, at which point they’ll ask you to sell them some ships. I prefer to build up their prestige. These all lead to the same end result. You are a guest on our land. If we are to trust you, you must first prove your goodwill.The cost for this questline is 24 mud bricks, a rare (blue) or better weapon or armor museum piece, and an architect loaned from Ketema. The rare item I use is the shield that was stolen from the Pyrphorian headquarters. If you lack any items, or spare frigates to sell, the cheapest path is the economy one. At last, the palace stands again! It is only fitting that you, who made miracles possible, celebrate the inauguration! The ruined ancient palace is built anew, no longer crumbling into rubble.  Caleb asks the player to visit the marketplace. Previously we were forbidden from entering: there were guards posted out front that told us no outsiders allowed if we clicked on them. However the game is played from an overhead perspective so the reveal is done via removing the awnings.  In the market, we meet an “Artefact Specialist”. The palace was also a shrine, and it won’t be complete until someone’s bones are laid to rest. This man will know how to arrange for proper transportation of Yetbarok’s remains. Take him to Kidusi Anitoni. Your assistance to Angereb is testament to a noble heart. Beware that they do not use you against me, however. It’s a quick trip to the island and back. At which point Caleb has some storytime for us. His heir, Mekdem the Young, was due to succeed him, but his younger brother Tomasi had other ambitions. As part of the story we retrace the steps of the survivors of the assassination that ended the reign of the Elamais. Tomasi desired the throne so he sent shade-men to slay Mekdem and his kin. But things turned foul as Tomasi tried to flee. The rocks are moved aside and a small cove and pier are revealed. Something that I am not too proud of, is that Tomasi was my kin by marriage. My grandmother told me tales of the guard’s flight to Kidusi Anitoni for healing. You may recall you helped a man in Kidusi Anitoni. He was on the Spear’s trail, and we believe he may be close to finding it. Find the spear and we will listen to Ketema’s proposal. But be discreet-- the Spear is a secret to most.So yeah the whole “We need the bones of this person to finish the shrine” was a lie and just a cover to send someone to steal a symbol of legitimacy from wherever the priests of Kidusi Anitoni hid it.  Speaking of symbols of royal legitimacy, you still haven’t finished recovering the missing pieces of a certain scepter your Queen tasked you to fetch. Back in the Old World a Botanical Expedition snags me a copy of Anno 2070 sheet music so the Ditchwater Museum gets its own Music Pavillion. I love how the banners basically put the Eden Initiative monument underwater, like something out of Bioshock. God Smiles was always a haunting song. It’s 10x more haunting and just as melancholy when played on violins.  Back on Kidusi Anitoni our secret agent is waiting. Hello again… Thank you for your help earlier. I spoke to the priests, they confirmed that a soldier from Angereb came here long ago for treatment, but he died of his injuries. He must be burried somewhere on this island. Help me find the cemetery. The cemetery is easy enough to find. Excellent. Now to find the guard’s tomb. It is customary for priests to write a dying person’s last wish next to their name on the headstone. That should help us find him.If we click on the graves one of the smaller ones reads: House of A Million Years of Tilahun, royal guard. “The Last Son of Selamawi followed the Rising Sun.” ‘The Last Son of Elam followed the Rising Sun.’ So his name was Tilahun. The princes must learn of this. Perhaps there is more about him in the library? The priests will not talk to me, but perhaps if you ask them? An easy enough task since we’ve already done the Kidusi Anitoni questline and have full access to the library. Tilahun is the second to last entry on the page. You have it! But this mention of an ‘odgoad’... Why would they reference a book? It must be a mistake… Or perhaps a riddle! Of course! They wouldn’t have just written the spear’s hiding place down. Clever, clever, I’ll need some time to think this through. In the meantime why not investigate, and see if you can find anything that might help us.     I mean I could do that or just advance the quest by just talking to the shepherd. The big hint is that the library is kinda-sorta-maybe laid out like the island. Or it probably is if you’re a scholar-priest who basically lives in the library.     So we just have to look on the left side of the island? Well the Odgoad goes on about the 8 virtues, so how about these 8 pillars over here? I have scouted the place and I believe I have a plan. Meet me when you are ready.Our spy has basically 2 plans: try to sneak up the front road to the pillars in front of the crypt which has guards and regular traffic, or try to find an alternate way on a rocky mountain where the locals almost certainly know the goatpaths better than he does. If he goes straight up the path there’s a quest event that determines if he gets caught or not. If he gets caught we have to cough up a valuable enough museum artefact to trade the priests of Kidusi Anitoni for the Spear of Selamawi. Yes that can be just as obnoxious as it sounds.  If you tell him to try to go cross country he asks for help finding an alternate path. A little looking around will reveal this little dock and goat trail. A good idea, but the locals know about this path and he’ll be guaranteed to be caught.  A little more looking and we find this tunnel entrance, probably some sort of drainage system to keep the ancient crypts from filling with water. Now this sounds like a big reward for doing a little extra thinking and looking, and it is, but as the quest log to the left shows it’s not exactly a hard to find easter egg when the quest tex itself tells you “HEY MAYBE YOU CAN TRY THE SUPER SECRET THIRD ROUTE!” Despite warning the Tunnel Entrance is the safe route that guarantees a safe getaway: no one’s going to be looking for someone to sneak out of the ruins and then run right back in for their escape. Into the mountains then. Wait until you hear from me.An 8 minute timer pops up, so off to go manage the other islands. The engineers on Cape Trelawny need coffee. Please don’t tell the Prince, but I had to use the Spear as a walking staff for the last part. Now, to Angereb! I shall have to stay, to clear our trail and tie up loose ends. Sail safe, my friend. The game gives a big pop-up warning you that whomever don’t take the spear to will be upset. Honestly the choices are: -Take it to Ketema then either accept Angereb’s sovereignty (mission failed) or forcefully beat them into submission -Take it to Prince Caleb then either accept Angereb’s sovereignty (mission failed), forcefully beat them into submission, or do another quest to bring everything to a happy resolution.  You all know which option I was going to choose. To think such a day would come! You have worked wonders: come, tell us all about it!         Look to the registries and harbor manifests. A lone ship with a fleeing mariner should have been recorded somewhere. Word on the wind is that the Spear has returned to Angereb. I fear this bodes great ill for Enbessa. The registry we want is of course on Kidusi Anitoni: island of writing down literally everything  And on Waha Desher we find this skiff.  And from when we did the Waha Desher quest, we remember that Matriarch Yara remembers everything that happened here. He arrived on a fishing boat, a few years before I was born. He never could say from where. He was kind to me. He made me bows and arrows to play at hunting. But I never knew his voice, as he had cut out his own tongue. I didn’t dare to ask why. I was often at his house. I remember it well though it is now well overgrown. If you could clear the overgrowth I would relish seeing it once more.  We rifle through the old guard’s stuff and find the last entry in his diary. He never actually brought the prince here. The guard was helpless to protect either his king or the king’s heir as the boy ran off into the streets of Angereb. Take his diary, and may it keep his memory alive a moment. And back to Angereb we go. The time is come for a new king, a new age! Let this rule be a time of glory for Angereb and generosity for it’s friends. Oh I don’t like the sound of this… Basically Caleb honestly didn’t care all that much about rumors of an heir actually surviving. Thanks to us he has the Spear of Selamawi which is a powerful enough symbol that with his bloodline he can claim himself ruler of Angereb. Which puts him above the other princes on the island and threatens Ketema’s legitimacy due to Angereb being the historical seat of power for Enbessa. All hail King Caleb of Angereb! He who will free us of the usurper Ketema! And hail our friend who brought this joyous day upon us! Ketema is not our king, but neither would we have war with him. If you will support our independence, he will have no but to comply. As I said, no matter who you give the Spear to, you end up forced into an “Are you with us, or against us?” ultimatum. Giving it to Angereb however does offer a small window for a third choice. I’m gonna be completely honest: when I first played this and had this pop up I freaked out. I was sure I had screwed up and the 15 minute timer had me running around, digging through Kidusi Anitoni and Waha Desher in panic. But the solution to all of this is right here on Angereb.  If we look at this other dilapidated corner of Angereb’s palace/fortress we find Old King Wag’s advisor sitting in a ruined nursery that was turned into something of a garden. Wag was the king that took control of Enbessa a few years after the old line died out, and was the ruler who raised and trained Ketema. Apparently Wag returned to this wing of the palace as he died, reliving old memories.  Dig around a bit and we find an old, beat up child’s toy that once belonged to Haile, the surviving heir that escaped to the streets of Angereb. This inscription-- ‘to Haile, who feared the dark, and Wag, who turned and faced it.’ Could this mean King Wag was… King Wag’s office holds the information. I have a key, but I doubt I should be welcome in the castle. You on the other hand… And this part caused another blood pressure spike the first time I played through Angereb’s questline. I had also rebuilt the old palace then. The rebuilt palace’s model not only hides this mostly nondescript door very well, but it's model’s hitbox for mouse priority is also a bit inflated so unless you’re looking in from a steep angle the mouse will highlight the rebuilt palace and not the door.  All is explained. Wag was really little Haile. The once gentle prince became bloodthirsty and ruthless, he worked his way up from just another beggar on the street, hiding his bloodline, to become King of Angereb and Emperor of Enbessa. Blaming his family for leaving him, he quietly had the survivors hunted down and killed. All besides his Nephew who he raised as his heir: Ketema. The Emperor should know of this. Bring him King Wag’s notes, and tell no one else. At this point the timer is stopped as we bring Wag’s notes to Ketema. So it is true… My father spoke of the pride of Selamawi’s blood, but I had always thought it merely inspirational…   You have convinced us of Lord Ketema’s virtue. We shall yield to him our fealty, upon the Spear of Selamawi, and be united. So you just...give up on your ambitions just like that? Yes. Two completely unrelated people tell you something outlandish and you just believe it? You’re not going to fight it? Wag fought his way up from the streets to become king of pirates and raiders despite him hiding that he was the royal heir out of very real fear for his life. How dangerous do you think such a man was? How dangerous do you think the man he raised as his adopted son to be his heir? Be these claims true or the last false prank of Wag from beyond the grave, if these documents truly are in Wag’s hands then I wouldn’t last a week before the other Princes ousted me to try to appease Ketema’s wrath. You have shown yourself much too reasonable to be a king anyways. Caleb asks us to return the spear to Ketema as a sign of his fealty. Though I loathe to part with it, please take the Spear. You have fought the hardest for it-- may it bring peace to you as well. In your brave work on Angereb, you have uncovered facts about my heritage I didn’t know myself! I have agreed, per Angereb’s request, to raise monuments here to Hytia the trader and strengthen our newfound bonds. And now the spear is a legendary (50 appeal) museum item.   With Angereb brought into the fold Ketema’s palace is now complete. A new Military Academy is built, training Enbesa’s future soldiers and navies...and firefighters. The bonus for this questline is a region-wide +10% range for firefighter stations. Something that is actually incredibly useful considering how Enbesan fire stations have to be connected to the canals.  And now that the ships of Angereb no longer prey on Enbesan trade, and in fact protect it while preying on competitors, Enbesan trade has bloomed. And with that Enbessa is united. Now I can focus my attention on growing Crown Falls (and maybe actually finishing its story line), starting the main Enbessan questline to unlock Research, and growing my population because I’m really starting to hurt for Influence. I need to get some investor houses up and running.
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Oct 10, 2021 13:31
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Oooh, Steven MacLeod is quite the draw for your first trade union legendary item. Used right, this guy just breaks the jewelry resource chains over his knee, turning Old World sand mines in range of his TU into the equivalent of multiple new world gold mines and pearl farms each. In fact, even without any other modifiers and ignoring his own productivity bonus, he already turns a sand mine into the equivalent of one pearl farm and like 1.75 gold mines. Now add in that with the right items and modifiers you can easily push that sand mine to 500%+ productivity and put multiple in the radius of a TU? Things start to get really silly at that point.
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Oct 11, 2021 00:13
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He's not my first Legendary TU. I also have Mark van der Mark from a few missions back: Sadly he's not as gamebreaking. Another one I really want is the guy who has carpentry buildings produce pearls, because then massively overproducing on Windows and using them as a Dockland trade good becomes an absurd loop. But yes, I am very much looking towards vomiting massive amounts of free gold and pearls in Cape Trelawny. Though either the woman who replaces the cotton need for fur coats with wool, or the guy who does that AND replace the furs need with iron ore, would also be nice.
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Oct 11, 2021 11:57
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50 hunting and 30 diplomacy makes him more useful in expeditions than his farm bonuses. Alpaca wool is already easy to overproduce and the livestock bonus really only provides workforce and maintenance cost efficiency when what you really need in the new world is space efficiency.
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Oct 11, 2021 14:12
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The Golden Pigeon So Everything’s all hunky dory over in Enbessa which means it’s time to continue the questline to unlock Scholars and research right? Riiiight?  Incorrect! This episode is about Cape Trelawny! As a side note, if you press the keys CTRL+SHIFT+R while over one of your islands your camera will move down to ground level and you can actually walk around your city. It’s really cool, if at times somewhat visually buggy. But you can get a beautiful first person view of your city and population. The graphics are very early 2,000’s era with blocky people, but chock full of little details and easter-eggs. It also gives a very good view of how empty this area was before I get to work in this update.  So why am I in Cape Trelawny? Well a few reasons. First of all I’ve let my influence be used up. There’s two main ways to gain influence points. The first is to use population to gain profile/corporation levels. From levels 1 to 41 this is rather simple: you level up and gain influence every 400 population. Every level up gives 10, 15, or 20 influence depending on the game’s settings. After level 41 the requirements become exponential. With 25,142 residents across all sessions I’ve reached level 46. To reach level 47 for the next population bonus I need to reach 27,510 residents. So over 2,300 more to get 15 points (I’m playing on medium influence). That’s already quite a spike from the previous 400 pop requirement and it only gets worse from there. So pure population is no longer a reliable way to gain more influence. There is another way to get influence but that requires making my engineers happy enough to level up. And for that I need power, which needs oil. Lots of it. However the oil on Crown Falls is a long, long way from the coast which means the oil harbor has to send trains a long, long way. This leads to messes like this. I’ll need to produce redundancies and alternate paths in my network to prevent the trains from being silly like this. Which needs steel girders for rails. So there’s a bit of a to-do list today.  The beautiful, barely touched vista I showed just two pictures ago is already giving way to a blighted industrial cityscape. Even better is the power plant is close enough to the copper and zinc mines shown here that with a bit of fiddling they’ll both be powered for even more brass.  I’ve neglected my Crown Falls engineer population’s happiness desires so far, so it’s high time I slap down a penny farthing factory. I couldn’t do it before because the penny farthing factory is one of the very first consumer goods factory that demands power, much like the steam engine and advanced weaponry factories. I mean I could have imported bicycles from Ditchwater but there’s a huge reason I want to built the bicycles here. That reason is Dario here: I use most of my remaining influence to slap down a Trade Union to house him in. He’s juicy for two reasons. First of all, every 8th bicycle will produce a pocket watch AND a gramophone. Secondly the bicycle factory now just takes raw iron, which saves the need (and cost) of mixing coal to make steel.   A Draughtswoman gives the bicycle factory a small productivity boost. Since both her and Dario affect sewing machine factories it’s a no brainer to move the existing one nearby to give it power, and the power to produce free watches and grammaphones. Oh and MacLeod is moved into the third slot since the sand mines are nearby. I’m not really doing much with the pearls and gold ore yet, but if I get backed up guess I can sell them to Old Nate who buys gold ingots at a premium.  What the new industrial district looks like after some work. Complete with parallel tracks to keep the trains running in a reasonable fashion, and the new Pedestrian Zone cosmetic pack’s open air sewers making sure all the nasty stuff from various industrial processes is safely disposed of in the ocean.  Here we witness the magical moment I realise “If I’m in Trelawny, I might as well finish the rest of the Sunken Treasures questline.” When we left off one piece of the scepter had been found but Nadasky’s journal warned the player about mines. Mines that could still apparently be lurking here after decades. Well better safe than sorry, it’s probably best to ask the local inventor if he has any ideas.   In return for 5 tons each of quartz sand and steel ingots Nate gives us a primitive sonar! It must be around here somewhere. Proceed with your...goobling, or however you call it.  With a sonar equipped on the salvager it can start to home in on various points of interest. Yellow waves originate from quest locations, white ones from random locations the salvager can investigate for scrap and a chance at rewards, and red for any mines (quest related or not).  Oh dear indeed! Seems Vasco got here first.  You must know, the last thing I want is a repeat of the battle of Trelawney. If we both delve into the haycock for that very special needle, there’s a chance at least one of us snags a bloody thumb. So you’re playing best of three? I hope you realize the seriousness of such a gamble -- it seems you have better win. Meanwhile, during all this time that I’ve neglected them, the art restorers have finished with Nadasky’s Journal.  So yeah, the Queen’s father was not the most level-headed of monarchs. What Nadasky writes of here… The heroes that tilted the battle in our favour were stranded! They never returned, but we may still learn what became of them. The island is found due east of Crown Falls. Complete with the wreckage of the Ajax and abandoned ruins of the makeshift camp where the crew died of thirst. A mere frigate against a ship-of-the-line…? Only Father’s obsession with the scepter could have clouded his judgement so! The last piece must be down there in the murk. Captain Richardson’s logs tell a sad tale. However there’s a chance the scepter can be found. Ajax suffered exactly the fate one would expect of a smaller ship facing such a well armed behemoth, but they managed to strike back as well. The Santissima Vitoria’s rudder was damaged, causing the flagship to wreck itself.  And what do you know, one head of the scepter! Yes! Oh, for a second I thought he’d beaten us to it! Marvelous! You know, now that I see it, it really doesn’t look much like an eagle, does it? Oh well -- none of my subjects will ever dare to question it! We have the eagle! And Vasco promised to yield the pommel -- he promised!Yup, it looks rather...pigeon-y for an eagle. Honestly who cares what kind of bird it is: it’s royal, historical and made of gold.  Sure enough, Vasco keeps his promise. Mr. Oliveria was truly a man of his word. Had it been me, I’d never have let him have our piece of the sceptre. Looks like it was made to be split into three. Shouldn’t be too hard to put back together… I have not undergone all this trouble so that flea may lay his oily digits on it! Haven’t we plenty of scholars versed in the art of restoration already? Indeed we do! Now all that’s necessary is to provide the resources! The restoration requires gold ingots and pearls, which I already have in Crown Falls so it’s a simple issue of allowing the artisan access to them. However if the player doesn’t have such materials available, Nate will offer up some good locations for the salvager to haul up such materials. For a price of course.  And there we have it, the restored Scepter of Capon! It’s a unique, quality-free museum item worth 50 appeal. So basically...a Legendary item without the coloration on the icon. There’s no use owning such a treasure, unless it can be grandly displayed for my subjects. They shall see that -- in ambition -- I am at least my father’s equal! The Scepter’s museum module is a golden version of the generic dome. One that has an endless fireworks display over it.  Ah, thank you Editor! It’s been a while since we’ve seen you about. My dreams -- one’s youthful imaginings of this place of triumph -- so dutifully have you made whole. In particular I am indebted to you for helping me see the king, my father, as he really was -- warts and all. I always believed my father, when he claimed to be the unsung mastermind of the battle of Trelawny, but it was Nadasky all along that was saving his blushes.IMG]http://lpix.org/4142147/23.jpg[/IMG] In addition to this, we get two thirds of the Cape of Trelawny museum set and Hogarth, a legendary Harbormaster. Sadly the Scepter doesn’t count as the third piece of the set, it is it’s own unique thing. Hogarth is pretty impressive. Every time there’s passive trade with an NPC at any docks in his range he has a 30% chance of producing extra of various goods: cotton, gold, rum, coffee, and chocolate. That pales to his other bonus of providing +100% loading speed to said docks in his range. Well it’s high time I returned to rescue poor old Archie -- he may otherwise start chattering about his bowels. Look after Crown Falls for me, won’t you? I only really care for the taxes now. Oh and visiting now and then. You will make a truly extraordinary tourist destination, won’t you? Of course! I have plans. I am going to make Crown Falls into a proper destination!  We close out on the Sunken Treasures story by escortring the Queen’s ship, the Lap of Victory, to the edge of the map.  Back to city management. The engineers need lights to go with their electricity.  Now that the Sunken Treasures main quest is done the player still gets to keep the salvager. Sunken Treasures also adds treasure maps for the salvager. They can be bought at Nate’s workshop, or found as rewards for quests or from Pirate Hunt expeditions. Opening one up creates a map like this of an island with an X of where to look.   Finding the spot means the salvager will pull up a juicy item, with a side of scrap.  Anyways I route a rail line down to where my engineers are growing to fuel a second power plant. Thankfully Crown Falls had a full 6 oil seeps so I have exactly what I need to run both. Lightbulbs and power were the last thing needed and now the Jorgensen Trust has...Investors!  Investors are the top tier Old World population, at least if you discount Tourists and Scholars. Up to 50 population per house and they vomit out cash. The catch? They don't provide workforce. Instead they provide influence! Every investor house provides 1-3 bonus influence points depending on the starting setting. This will go a long, long way to making sure I don’t run out of influence any time soon.  The first Investor need is fermented grape juice. So lets slap some vineyards down where I previously had hops (which are currently being supplied via docklands trade).  Shove those grapes into some glass bottles and we have some Bubbly. Oh and it pisses off Dr. Mercier because he doesn’t like booze.  Investors want banks to make them happy which is a bit of a pain. Not only are these things huge, but they aren’t actually unlocked by investors. Banks are unlocked at 3,000 engineers. Thankfully I already house 3K engineers back on Ditchwater. I just didn’t have any real interest in having investors on that island.  Of course there’s other ways to make investors happy, such as fine dining! My hotel districts are growing on Crown Falls so I can start to bring the actual perks of having tourists to Crown Falls. As a side note, until now I’ve never realized how the Restaurant, Cafe and Bar are basically the exact same model with different colors and doodads until I slapped them down just now.    Of course those perks are somewhat enhanced by having items that boost said dining locations thanks to the High Life DLC. There’s now 3 specialists that enhance dining locations and all three of them were being sold by Eli. Sure they’re a lot more expensive to run now but thanks to these specialists each of these three buildings will provide 55 appeal, canned food and jam for tourists to eat.  The next investor growth need is cigars! I set up a somewhat different trade route for those. See, the cigars need marquetry for the boxes they’re stored and sold in. The marquetry can be built in the New World but that takes obreros and obreros are something of limited resources.  Or since a lot of later Old World goods need fancy wooden inlays, I can make the marquetry here in Crown Falls and take advantage of the power plant bonus.  Of course the cigar factory itself has to be in the New World.    Since I’m getting Investor houses up and running I spend some influence on some monitors, shown here in all 3 of their skins. Monitors are basically a cross between frigates and gunboats but better. Their combat strength is comparable to a stronger frigate due to higher HP and higher damage, and they move about the same speed. With of course the normal steamship caveat that it only outruns sailboats in about 80% of wind conditions. Since a monitor’s guns are mounted on turrets instead of broadsides it can also follow behind to harass fleeing ships: chipping away and slowing targets of opportunity for the rest of the fleet to prey upon.  The Cafe in the super-cluster is now up and running, providing Palmier Biscuits (reduced champagne, bread and coffee consumption).  At this point I actually destroy the bicycle factory in Ditchwater and set up a trade route trading Crown Falls penny farthings for shampoo and the spare cinnamon. I want as many bicycles to be made in Crown Falls to get those free pocket watches and grammaphones. One thing I really don’t like about Sunken Treasures is how your starting island becomes more or less abandoned. I’m mainly using ditchwater as my shipyard and a backup store for construction materials at the moment.   Next comes the last food service building for the tourists. The Bar is where your tourists, and rest of your old world population, comes to get drunk. Of course the only recipe I have at the start is the Daquiri Tonic, which needs sugarcane and plantains. Easily supplied by La Isla.  The hotel quarter is coming along quite well I feel. Complete with scenic canals and parks.  The next luxury investors want is a Members Club which is thankfully far, far smaller than the bank.  Just a slurp and you can simply tell it was made to keep you awake! Tut-tut-tut, those investors! Placing down a members club after having a working bar is the prerequisite to unlock the Black Muscovy which I feel is a far better bar recipe to have, at least near my investors. Reduced champagne and chocolate is some good stuff.  I also realize it would be a better deal to have my dining establishment further inside my city instead of at the very edge. I also add a second bar serving up Daquiris since I already went ahead and made a trade route for them. Yes, a house can absolutely be affected by multiple restaurants, cafes or bars provided they’re running different recipes. Imagine a drink capable of making Enbessan Elders doze off in the sun before a service. Now that’s a drink! I also get the Enbessa Sunrise recipe for the bar because I’ve kept my Elder population nice and happy for long enough. Lovely but I really don’t feel like importing spices and hibiscus.  I keep upgrading and my Investor population continues to grow. Next up on the needs list at 1750 investors is chocolate which requires sugar (refined from sugarcane) and cocoa.  And at the same time jewelry is unlocked for both investors and tourists. Thanks to MacLeod being absolutely bonkers I already have free gold ore and pearls coming in so its just a matter of building the factories. A massive saving the upkeep and effort of getting more gold mines, pearl farms, running. A recent update did something really nice with tourist luxury needs. Before the tourist luxury needs were unlocked via tourist population which sounds great...until you realize how Tourists are unlocked at 500 engineers, and a tourist’s need for jewelry is unlocked at 750 tourists, but the player can’t actually create jewelry. Now tourists luxury requirements unlock with investor population so the tourists don’t get cranky about not having jewelry the player can’t create.  And with that I’m going to bring this update to a close. It was shorter than usual, but represented a good 4-6 hours of play and building. Next time I’ll start on the main Enbessan questline.
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Oct 15, 2021 00:29
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Getting Ready for College It’s finally time to work towards getting the real juicy stuff from the Land of Lions DLC. Enbessa is fully unified and now that I have investors I can just upgrade some engineer houses whenever I need influence, so there’s no point in putting things off.  Now I have done some of the main questline for Enbessa since it also serves as something of a tutorial for how the local mechanics work. Where I left off was at this point where Biniam pops in. He’s looking for architects to design a new campus for a great university.   The first proposal comes from a group on Taborime. Biniam feels this one is just quaint.   The next proposal from Kidusi Anitoni is better, yes, but still missing something.   The last proposal comes from Biniam’s home of Waha Desher and is precisely what he’s looking for: a sprawling, unorganized mess of a campus. Complete with observatory. Now I just need to find someone who’ll actually pay for this to be built… My friend Bente will. Wait...really? It’s that easy!? Absolutely. She specifically sent me to Enbessa to actually find someone to found what will become a world-famous university in the Jorgenson/Goode name. I thought it was an oddly specific request at the time, but here you are.No sooner than that finishes then Ketema starts talking about sanga cows and dried meats. As I said, this questline has some heavy tutorial elements that I left behind a long, long time ago. One that normally only triggers when the player has only one local island.   I need to up my dried meats production as Ketema wants me to fulfill satisfaction, and two islands have enough shepherds on them to desire dried meats but aren’t being provided with any. I could make some locally, but I would much rather centralize production for efficiency wherever I can. And in the process doing so I reach the 300 point threshold on optimization and globally have all building maintenance reduced by 10%.  Next is some quest tutorializing. Ketema here is teaching the player how to click on various doohickeys around Enbessa by clicking on the towers around his palace’s courtyard. All of the towers are named, so just click them in order they’re mentioned in the story. The two front ones, the two just behind that, and finally:  The central tower at the front of his palace.  Then comes cleaning up the royal baths. Again: tutorializing about how to click/clean up stuff. The player is supposed to do this before they tackle the three islands.  Finally the goats start singing! Click them in the right order (Do, Mi, So, Ti, La) to continue. There’s an achievement/Sound of Music reference here: click them in Mi, Ti, So, Do, La order to unlock “Goatberg Variations” and the shepherd icon as a player avatar. Tell no-one I said so, but...I’ve heard court musicians less talented than these wonderful creatures…And you kept a perfect bleat…But I’m afraid now we must get back to work. Indeed we must for a fleet appears…  ...maintain the position Her Majesty set out in her letter…use any means at hand to achieve the necessary result...a personal failure would be unacceptable...I swore to myself I’d never return -- swore it!  Hi Archie! For whatever reason the previous lines are credited to Ketema in the actual video despite them clearly being Sir Blake’s lines and spoken by him. I could say the same myself. I had no idea the Crown had such personal interest in these lands… Ah, yes, of course! Yes of course -- Her Majesty has no qualms with free traders...but please, no politicking for the Crown has a vested interest in Enbessa. Tssss….a bit late for that I fear old chum. I’m neck deep in politics and trade around here. After a certain point one becomes the other and visa-versa after all. Oh dear…I appreciate the honesty. In the corner of the map there was an island claimed by a group of “nomads” that the player couldn’t interact with. Why? Because the game wanted to save Little Clarence for Sir Blake to claim for this part of the story. The empire settles the island and Blake goes to town setting up a town. Let him settle, so long as it is not on our land. We shall refrain -- for the time being -- and observe. It was only a matter of time before Enbesa attracted such attention. Now will its true test begin. I am told you know each other. Pray welcome him in my name then, and see what wind bears him ashore. Archibald immediately asks for a meeting with Ketema. He should know of me already -- I wrote often enough, but communications in this land seem haphazard. A meeting? Very well, although I fear I know the outcome. Let us nonetheless be civil and prepare a banquet. In the meantime an expedition returns which isn’t exactly notable outside of the legendary treasure map. Oh and that I lucked out and beat this expedition at literally 1 moral point remaining. That last point is the most important point (and saves me from having to build another battlecruiser).  Well it was notable for another reason. On the world map expeditions actually have locations. New World, Old World, Arctic, Enbessa. Those determine what events the player can get in them. By completing an expedition in the Arctic the bar unlocks the Glogg recipe which is grapes, cinnamon and...whale oil. I’m surprised, the whale oil doesn’t taste entirely terrible in there. I suppose the captain did say it was good for warding off scurvy… In the meantime Sir Blake is just melting under the heat. You know, the usual British response to anything over 10 C. Cool water would mollify him for further entreaties. So swift to learn from those who came before… Let us hope he proves grateful. Is that really all there is to it? Pish, better than roasting to a cheltam-salt crisp!  And Little Clarence experiences a sudden boom as irrigation is introduced.  After all of this, the banquet is ready: just needed to provide 5 tons each of tapestries and dried meat. Now all that’s left is to escort Sir Blake to the meeting. Time to saddle up? Very well, lead the way -- a familiar face ought to put the “king” in a good disposition. Ato Blake. A pleasure to make your acquaintance. Sir Archibald will do, my good man -- your Emperor will be expecting me. I am Biniam, Sir Blake, emissary for his Imperial Majesty and tasked counseling him on this delicate matter. And I am nobody of import at this upcoming shipwreck. If you need me I’ll be enjoying the banquet- Get back here! Let us see then what business brings Sir Blake to Enbesa. Come, your presence will be invaluable.     Nothing you do here really matters. Sir Blake will explode and storm out at the end no matter what. Though I’ll admit the “This is old Archie Blake, my best friend.” line amuses me. Outrageous! Arrogant! How dare he think himself an equal to her Majesty? Pompous little kinglet... Of all the useless...Why did I ever agree to come back to these wretched shores? It’s pointless. The really outrageous part was that I was forced to miss out on the banquet to watch Archibald have his tantrum… A distemper man if I ever saw one. And you say he is usually amicable? (thoughtful sigh) I hold no ill will towards Sir Blake. It takes time to accustom oneself to new surroundings. Bring him food and he may yet soften.Here’s the part that had me rushing to grab some land in Enbessa several updates back. Ketema wants to send 2 tons of seafood stew and the player can be blocked off from lobster or spices by expansive AIs. Thankfully lobster, spices, and even completed seafood stew are all available in the Docklands trade menu but a) that’s using a later DLC to fix a prior one and b) just kind of annoying to deal with. I mean alternatively one could get some rare items to find them, there’s an epic item that provides lobster fertility, and a legendary item that has the kitchen make the stew with sanga cow meat. However the chances of a player getting their hands on either item at this point in the game is vanishingly rare.  Thankfully at the same time Biniam asks the player to build the Research Institute. So how did the meeting go? I barely got past the words “world renowned research institute” before your friend Bente was rubber stamping everything.  Now I’m not going to build it on Crown Falls. I’m going to set it up on Gekeren, one of the other islands in Cape Trelawny, the Iron Tower. Why? It has to do with the Tourist Season monument. It has a recipe that can affect scholars, and only scholars. However it would be a waste to set the Iron to a recipe that doesn’t affect the rest of the Old World population of the island and you can only build 1 Iron Tower per island. The key words there: “per island”. The scholars are going to get their own Island Tower. In the meantime the Research Institute needs learned workforce to build and run it. Which means I need to set up commuter docks in Cape Trelawny. Doing so jumps me up over 300 influence used in Expansion. Now all my islands in the New World, Old World and Cape Trelawny sectors get +200 workforce of all tiers.  The Research Institute itself is a hefty monument. Just to lay the foundations it costs $120,000, 100 lumber, 150 bricks, 125 girders, 75 windows and 75 reinforced concrete. And for what it later gives this is an absolute steal of a price. Unlike the Iron Tower, the Research Institute is a different class of monument and there’s only 1 allowed per game.  A “Big Oof” moment comes at the pricetag for phase 2. Not because it’s expensive, but because it needs normal, un-reinforced concrete. Something I don’t exactly keep around. There’s no limestone quarries on Gekeren and my reinforced concrete factories on Crown Falls are devouring the stuff coming out of the local quarries almost as fast as its produced. Key word: Almost. This stage is going to be a while.  Also at the same time Archibald gives a completely optional quest. Doing this will net a nifty reward from him. It’s a real bugger what with the heat and the terrain, but the idea is we name every landmark we stumble across.The player is given a sketchbook with 4 scenes in it. The player then needs to find all four locations.   This sketch goes with a rather dreary barren on an island's edge. Archie names it “Elephant Grave Theta.”  [IMG]http://lpix.org/4144356/38.jpg[/IMGNext is this suspiciously familiar rock. Just sail into the inlet here to trigger the quest. Sir Blake has the player take a picture and names it ...Actually that island is unclaimed and is rather big. Perhaps I should set up shop there before the AIs do.   The third sketch I find is this arch, which is perhaps the hardest landmark to find. It’s not on an island, it’s out in the middle of the map as a tiny little doodad that can be nearly impossible to see on the minimap.  Archibald takes one look and declares a race. If you win he names it “Victory Bow”, if he wins he names it something groan worthy that I can’t remember.   Back on Crown Falls I start producing tractor fuel after increasing the oil output of La Isla. The wheat farms get vastly shrunk down in an event I call “The Wheatening.”   The last sketch to match is this waterfall. This one is probably the easiest to find on the map as the island its on will have a big notch to fit the waterfall cove.  A far younger, more drunk, Archibald was apparently once stationed here. That’s all of the major landmarks -- you realize you have done the Queen a vital service…accurate cartography is of great importance to the empire, if we really are to master the country. On the heels of “The Wheatening” comes the “The Potatocalypse.”  With that done Archie finally gets his soup delivery. How thoughtful...Oh deary me, spices? That won’t do -- I’d be burning up inside like the Sixth Circle! I hear Sir Blake is too poorly to explore the lands he lays claim to -- it is the heat, surely. Shall we bring some of Enbessa to him? Ketema wants the player to show off Enbessa to Sir Blake, at which point he tells the player to take pictures of the three nation-states that, if this quest line hadn’t been pushed off like this, might not have actually joined at this point. I guess they are culturally Enbessan. We start with the trading post of Kidusi Anitoni which was frustratingly hard to get to register for the camera. The learned men are wise, but wary of novelty. Take care not to startle them with your camera. Next is the lighthouse of Angereb Angereb. There is beauty, even some wisdom hidden here, behind those high and headstrong walls. And finally Waha Desher I was born here, in less happy times. It was rough sailing, but my mother and I took care of each other. Such different lands, united under wise rule! How could anyone doubt the splendor of Enbessa now?You still take the pictures, but Biniam only adds that last bit about how they’re unified under one rule if you’ve actually unified the three lands. Natural beauty, certainly! But Her Majesty did not send me here to sightsee. She has great hopes that Enbessa might fall in line and become a powerful industrial cog. In return Archie asks the player to submit a picture of an Old World industrial zone. Specifically a steel mill. You call this progress as though it were one of only two paths to be chosen. The next part of the questline asks the player to have 600 elders. Of course I’ve blown past that to have over 1,500 elders so it basically skips and plays the victory lines. To attract such approval from the Irenya is no small feat. On such pillars will you build my capital. Further expansion? This will not do at all -- stem the tide! Her Majesty greatly appreciates, and rewards, loyalty.The next 2 quests are an either-or setup that Anno gives now and then. Not as much in 2070 where you had two factions that hated each other but they do appear from time to time. In this case I have a choice of maintaining the elder happiness below a certain threshold to appease Archie or have over 800 elders. The timer’s already counting for the 800+ quest so I’d have to go and downgrade dozens of houses down to pause that countdown in order to piss off the elders to satisfy Archie. I obviously don’t do that and it's basically a free win for Ketema.  See how he gathers for war? Hospitality of Enbessa, I’ll say...Bring me the cannons and I’ll reward you handsomely.Next the pair ask for some weaponry with a side of some bricks and wood to make fortifications.  Obviously I deliver the goods to Ketema since Archie’s being an rear end. To later get the reward for this section the player has to back Archie both times. I’ve never done it because of that first quest of pissing off the Elders so I had to look up the item he gives. It’s a specialist that boosts defensive turrets in its range. It’s a big boost, but...as things go it’s not one of my priorities. I had hoped Taborime would have no need of such beasts. I hope it still. I wouldn’t wish to accuse you of disloyalty. Have the people of Enbessa not suffered enough? There must be some other way -- a compromise, a meeting… I will give Sir Blake one last chance to repent. Bring him this gift -- I am sure he will understand the message.I’m not so sure Sir Archibald Blake will understand any message not delivered via hammer upside his skull right now. After this mission things kind of just take off in Enbessa so I'm cutting this update here. Tune in next time to see how everything turns out, and to see the power of the Research Institute.
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Oct 17, 2021 20:40
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Ooops, doublepost.
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Oct 17, 2021 20:41
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Alkydere posted:Here’s the part that had me rushing to grab some land in Enbessa several updates back. Ketema wants to send 2 tons of seafood stew and the player can be blocked off from lobster or spices by expansive AIs. Thankfully lobster, spices, and even completed seafood stew are all available in the Docklands trade menu but a) that’s using a later DLC to fix a prior one and b) just kind of annoying to deal with. There's also an IIRC rare item that gives spice fertility to any farms in range of its trade union.  So yeah, you technically can get all you need for the production chain without fertilities, it's just a giant pain in the rear end and/or a lot of re-rolling at Ketemas harbor. Magni fucked around with this message at 01:29 on Oct 18, 2021 |
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Oct 17, 2021 21:56
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You're far more likely to be cut off from lobster than spices. Spice fertility is almost as common as indigo which is basically "everywhere but your starting island". Lobster and bees are the only fertilities that are kind of rare in Enbessa. And technically you never need bees if you get the item that makes the lanternsmith use light bulbs instead of candles. The only other use for beeswax is if you want to sell pomade at the drug store in High Life.
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Oct 18, 2021 23:52
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C'mon Archie, stop bein' a jerk.
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Oct 19, 2021 00:58
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paragon1 posted:C'mon Archie, stop bein' a jerk. Archie's a mid 19th century British colonial official type. The only people they (were forced to) respect are fellow Brits or other Europeans to the exact degree that those nations have a navy. Everybody else gets to either kiss the ring or get kissed by incoming cannonballs. Victorian England at the dizzying heights of its power was a lot of things but respectful of others was not one of them.
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Oct 19, 2021 06:27
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Alkydere posted:You're far more likely to be cut off from lobster than spices. Spice fertility is almost as common as indigo which is basically "everywhere but your starting island". Lobster and bees are the only fertilities that are kind of rare in Enbessa. And technically you never need bees if you get the item that makes the lanternsmith use light bulbs instead of candles. The only other use for beeswax is if you want to sell pomade at the drug store in High Life. Yeah. Though getting the Lobsterman* is basically just a question of throwing a million bucks or so at Ketema to re-roll his inventory, and you can fit like 8 Lobster Fisheries into a harbormaster's radius with a long enough and relatively straight beach. That and him plus two other items can get those fisheries above 200% productivity to boot. *For those not knowing, yes, that is actually the name of that specialist item.
Magni fucked around with this message at 01:46 on Oct 20, 2021 |
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Oct 19, 2021 20:22
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School’s In Session Do you know what today is? Why today is our first day of Anno-College! Also finally time to finish the main questline in Enbessa. I cut off last time because once this later part gets started it just goes.  Though first we need to start the school year off right! Remember to get fresh supplies when starting a semester at school. Such as enough concrete to actually finish construction! ...I can’t believe it took me this long to remember I could just order concrete in bulk via Captain Tobias. In fact it’s something I kind of want to do in the long run: ordering 1404 total concrete will unlock the ability to directly order steel and brass ingots from Qinsa Mining.  And don’t forget to bring refreshments for those long classes in dusty rooms! It’s time to take care of the next tourist good by making some fresh lemonade! Lemonade needs three things.  First I’ll need citrus fruit orchards to provide the lemons, oranges, grapefruits, etc.  Sugar for the sweetening.  And delicious, nutritious...actually I mean toxic niter! Now this seems out of left field: why would the tourists be putting niter in their drinks? Was it a fad of toxic flavorings like perhaps a rather unfortunate decision to use arsenic as a sweetener in candy? Actually Niter (a.k.a. Saltpeter or more modernly Potassium Nitrate) has an interesting property: mixing with water creates an endothermic reaction! So the niter isn’t for the drinks, it’s for creating chilled baths to serve the bottles of lemonade in!  Also building a citrus orchard unlocks the Fish and Frites recipe at restaurants. I had tried this when I was young, but the vinegar everywhere...ugh. Citrus is far cleaner.  With literal shiploads of concrete coming in it doesn’t take much longer to finally finish phase 2 of the Research Institute monument. The last one is easy enough since it takes full, proper construction materials and not the components.  It’s looking good already.   So with that taken care of, let’s go back to Enbessa. Ketema wants this sweet yet subtly dangerous message sent to Sir Blake.  I… I see. How kind. Please take these away-- somewhere distant, preferably. There is fruit enough here for all of Ketema’s people. Sent in from the Old World-- the long way. If this King is going to behave like a spoiled child, then I’ll give him a piece of my own mind.  I really don’t think Ketema is the one acting like a child. Anyways, a “fresh” load of fruit, which travelled all the way around the Horn of Africa, is delivered. I dare not leave home while pestilence roams the streets unchecked! Taborime (Ketema’s version on the hill, not the player’s version down on the field) is suddenly full of plague miasma. Deliberate? I will not believe it! Though it is not the first time men of the Old World inflict their sickness upon new lands. There have been precedents… How could they not know, if there is a precedent? How could this not be deliberate-- be murder? Simple: replace any active intent and malice with arrogance and apathy. Something must be done to drive that parasite out of Enbessa--out of our lives-- for good… The water! Of course...that’s it! Hurry then! I must get to the canals before first light-- without them, the land will dry up, and Archibald will have no choice but to leave! You won’t be dissuaded will you? *sigh* Climb on board. Now the next part of the quest chain is supposed do be a smuggling quest but the patrolling ships ended up on the far side of Little Clarence where they’re useless I’m pretty sure it’s an Anno tradition to have smuggling quests end up absolutely non-issues now and then.  I’ve switched the lighting mode to nighttime to make it more dramatic, and because Biniam is technically supposed to be doing this at night. It makes it a bit less silly than if he’s doing this in broad daylight. I will not have families torn asunder by one man’s blind greed! Hey, where did my case of lucky dynamite go? He can’t manage this land without our help, yet he says we need him? We never needed him. Never! Biniam, that was my dynamite! Archie’s understandably a bit cheesed about this. Of course since we’re in plot territory and not gameplay territory those water wheels aren’t rebuilt any time soon. There will be no transportation. Biniam is a subject of Enbessa and will be returned to us for trial. And who are you, o king, to countermand the will of Empire? I fear our talk must now be of fleets and steel! I had hoped good counsel would make for peaceful times, but it seems I had neither. So be it, we must sound the drums of war. I’m assuming that I will be providing the fleet? This mess was made by your hands. Excellent! The sisters are always happy to show off their fleet. You’re not supposed to be upset, not excited!At this point the player is required to bring a minimum of 6 warships to Enbessa. Takes a while just from having to cross the ocean, but once you do…  If naught has changed by your return, the ships will sail to our foe in arms, and visit the wrath of the Empire upon him. Oh dear. It’s time to fess up. Biniam, is that you? Oh, my apologies, I thought you were my son. And you would be?   I have no idea what happens if you try to lie to Kyria. Probably the same result in the end only with Kirya rightfully calling you out as an rear end.  So her response to finding out her son has been captured is to cryptically ask the player to help dig up some orange trees for replanting… The roots are deep; make sure to sift through the earth to clear it all, will you?    Oho, what’s this? A journal hidden in the roots of Kyria’s orange trees. And who’s this dapper soldier with curls that have apparently survived decades while unchanging. The truth is an orange, sour skinned and pithy. Sharpen your blade, and when ready, peel it open. Kyria suggests the player check the old records over at Kidusi Anitoni since the priests there keep records of everything. It’s a short hop and shockingly the priests already had the records ready at Biniam’s request! Sure enough, Archibald Blake is listed as a junior officer posted to Waha Desher, and Biniam knew. As a side note, I love how “Old World” and “New World” are in-world official designations. So Biniam knows… I had thought it best to keep it from him, all those years-- keep him safe. Besides, they paid me to keep quiet about it… Janihoy Ketema. I do not know how to put this… I knew Sir Archibald-- before. He and I were in love once. Biniam is the product of that union. I had a suspicion there was something, but this… Thank you for sharing, Elder Kirya. It may prove our salvation... but for you to appeal to Archibald’s heart, Kirya, you must be able to reach him. I fear then we have no choice but to carve you a path through the royal fleet. A process that’s disgustingly easy. For reference:
One of the SotLs gets beat up, but let’s be honest: they’re giant blobs of hitpoints, that’s their job. Lives lost, ships destroyed, and for what? So a kinglet may make a mistaken point? The way is clear, and time is of the essence! Quick! Engage cutscene mode!   Release him, Archibald. I really caught the perfect frame here. This entire scene Archibald sounds exactly how he looks in this snapshot. Not...not Biniam? He can’t be… Awo, Biniam is my boy.  Janihoy Ketema, there will be no war between us, for the truth is I have no quarrel with any here, save myself. I have all along had power to do great good here, yet was distracted, and upset...by matters personal. He is no father of mine, nor has he earned that title. I thought Enbessa was a land of heat and fire, and yet I just felt a chill. He only saw me, Archibald, he did not see you--for many years. No-one could ever have replaced either of you...but I poured all that terrible guilt with constancy into Her Majesty’s nurture and protection… Then care for this land as much as you do her, and perhaps our peoples can still bond in sisterhood.   Archibald decamps from Little Clarence right away. In minutes the entire town is torn down. All the arrangements are made-- not a trace left on the island. Escort me before Emperor Ketema once more. I am ready to negotiate. I should have known better than to fear and deny the past-- to lie to others, lie to myself. Only the worst of politicians would do that. I give Sir Blake an escort in style (and with enough force to keep him from doing anything stupid).  And now Actual negotiations begin!   This part is basically a check of what all the player has done to this point, and how well they have done it. The first check is reaching 1800 elders (and a bunch of shepherds) across the land. I actually backed out at this point and went to get the last 200-ish Elders I needed to get the reward which is basically this crazy dude.    For uniting Enbessa the player is given this harbormaster. She’s going to be overseeing Taborime’s ports eventually as it becomes a major trade hub. Besides, all of the passive goods she gives feed the elders, which I’m keeping/quarantining Taborime anyways. The only elders I’ll be building elsewhere are likely going to be supporting farm mechanization projects.   This is the one bonus goal I didn’t get. As I said in the last post: it would have been an utter pain to downgrade all of those elder houses to shepherds and then re-upgrade them. I probably should have done it but I can live without Rear Admiral Richard B. Sharpe. While I do have plans to one day defeat one, if not both, Dr. Mercier and von Malching for the thread, diplomatically both of them are basically eating out of my hands right now. At that point I’d love to have a harbor with emplacements that are +50% more accurate and with +800 hit points. That point is a good ways off though.   The last bonus quest reward is for finding all of Archie’s landmarks. Doing that snags a free item that gives a flat +35% speed boost to any ship that equips it.   And with that the main storyline of Enbessa is completed! Now I’m probably going to take a small break to start building pretty cities and get ready for moving into the Arctic. There’s some stuff from The Passage DLC that I absolutely need sooner rather than later (mainly: furs, furs, more furs, even more furs). The Rise of Emperor Ketema questline finishes off with Biniam giving the player 10 free licensees to build Scholar Residences. A lot of Research Institute buildings and unlocks work on license points where the player is only allowed to build a building or use an ability only so many times. It's how the game balances out how ludicrously powerful the Institute is.  Why thank you, Editor! However I’m not done with the update! Now it’s time to get into the nitty gritty of the Research Institute and why it’s so absolutely bugfuck broken   Around the time Biniam was burning down water wheels the Research Institute finished! To avoid confusion I put it off until now (because it would have been really weird to have Biniam shouting for joy about his life’s work being completed while he was being held prisoner by Archie).  Now the Research Institute...um.. Why is it so dark? I was expecting a modern Research Institute to be filled with tesla coils! Jacob’s ladders! Explosions of funny colored smoke! ...at the very least some better lighting… Well electric lightbulbs require electricity. Oh...OH! One moment! I had the forethought to set up an oil route to supply power...and then completely forgot to actually build a power plant. Much better! Welcome to the research center! We do...Research here! And we actually follow proper safety procedures so no, no explosions. So what does that “research” involve? Well you hear that constant low groaning noise? More feel it really. We’re currently stress testing reality itself and seeing at what point it breaks. Ooooh!Anno 1800 breaks down research into 3 segments.   First there’s researching items to “discover” them. The player can research cultural items, broken down to zoo, museum and (if the player has it) botanical items. Then there’s Talent (slotted items that are people) and Technological (slotted items that are not people). These two categories are broken down into Industrial (trade union), Civil (town hall) and Maritime (ships and harbormasters offices) categories. In this case I went with Technology, Industrial to get two juicy items: a blade that allows tighter crowding of lumber mills and charcoal kilns, and a pen that boosts animal farms. The bag of gold is a temporary (yes temporary) boost to production and reduction of riot chance: it’s bleh but now it’s identified and is permanently out of the discovery pool so it won’t show up again. The items offered are entirely random, but as the pools are drained the player will start to see a lot of legendary items. Of course every time the player researches a field, the next research becomes more expensive. So next Technology research will cost 150 points, then 200, then 250, etc. Discovery is the only part of research that’s instantaneous, everything else takes time.  The next option is Item Development. I.e.: actually building/buying the item the player wants. The Research Institute provides access to nearly every item in the game. No longer just playing slots at various NPCs (though it never hurts to check them). If you can identify an item, you can buy it at the Research Institute again and again. White (common) items are all available at the start, but very few of those are needed or wanted. At the top the three items I just researched are available but greyed out since I’m currently capped at 1K research. The costs to develop an item:
So if I wanted 3 copies of a rare item I’d need 250 spare engineer workforce, 2,000, then 4,000 and finally 6,000 Research points for the items as each time it would get 2K more expensive. So at least early on Research is more about a game of increasing the cap than pure, raw research points per minute. Every time an item gets made there’s a 5% chance for a free Major Discovery. Let's go look at those.  Major Discoveries are broken up into three sections. Revolutionary Concepts, Mastery of Nature, and Production Methodology. Or as I like to call them: “Breaking the game, breaking the game, and breaking the game.” Here in Revolutionary Concepts we can obtain licenses for more scholar dormitories, Great Eastern trade ships, Advanced Piers and build research kits. A lot of Research Institute stuff works on licenses. I.e.: the player is allowed to only build a certain number of an item and has to research to gain more. So every Campus Extension Permit allows the player to build an additional 5 dormitories. The Great Eastern is a unique ship, well formerly unique trade ship, that the player can get ahold of at 5K investors. It’s a monster with 8 cargo slots and 3 equipment slots. Once the player gets their first, the Research Institute allows the player to get extras. Oh and The Great Eastern was a very real ship with a lot of history and it’s really cool the game references it...and then later lets the player build dozens. Advanced Piers have double the loading speed of normal piers, and allow the player to select filters so that the piers will only be used by trade routes using certain goods. Research Kits allow the player to immediately add an owned item to the discovered item list to make extras.  Mastery of Nature allows the player to fiddle with the map. Move Clay Deposit and Move Oil Spring are exactly what they say on the tin: they allow the player to physically move a clay or oil deposit around its island (no moving to another island). So the player can eventually cluster all of the oil seeps to be right next to an island’s oil harbor. Change Deposit Ore allows the player to change what an Old World or Trelawny ore deposit is. Only works in the Old World biome since the New World and Arctic only have gold, and Enbessa has no ore deposits. Finally there’s Change Fertility: no more searching for seeds, just swap an island’s fertility about! I have a couple plans with this.  And here’s the page that people drool over: Production Methodology. Each of these gives the player a single license to build an Old World building that produces a New World product out of alternate resources. Turn malted grain into coffee! Coal and potatoes into Rum! Logs and wool into Cotton Fabric! Each one is obviously expensive since the player unlocks only 1 at a time and each unlock increases the research requirement of the next. Even worse: each of these Advanced Production Facilities requires electricity, so sadly they don’t get a +100% bonus. However it still adds up, and they’re affected by any specialist or item that would boost the normal New World versions.  Of course I can’t make any of these: with the exception of some of the items and expanding the campus I simply don’t have the research points because I’m currently capped at 1K. How do I increase my cap? More scholars! At 500 scholars I’ll get another +1K to my cap, and then every 100 scholars past that point is another +1K. That first 500 is definitely the hardest to work through. Also see that slider under the item in development? The Research Institute will gladly suck up any spare engineers in a work pool to increase production speed. At 10,000 engineers every single project in the Research Institute will take 10 minutes.  Technically the scholars don’t have to be near, or even on the same island, as the Research Institute. However it just feels…right to have their dormitories nearby.  Scholars want an eclectic mix of goods from engineer, investor, elder and even obrero pools with a couple of their own desires. They start out wanting access to a university and canned food to start. For happiness they want rum, and their first scholar-specific good: tailored boots. Boots require sanga cows from Enbessa. Simple enough other than the import requirement. Scholars don’t produce a penny of income. Their needs produce population and research points, their wants produce happiness and more research points.  With that it’s time to bring this update to a close. I think from now on I’ll be posting this High Score page that was added with the High Life DLC to show progress on the game. I’ve been wanting to show how the empire has been growing and only just now realized I could be doing this. Better late than never I guess. Future goals: -Get some real research going -The Arctic -Actually clean up and build up Bright Sands -Prepare for War Some of these are very much long term goals. Alkydere fucked around with this message at 02:10 on Oct 22, 2021 |
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Oct 22, 2021 02:06
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Thanks for showing this off! It inspired me to restart my anno game and actually give it a try. The last time I bounced at the transition to artisans and just never picked it back up. I don’t have the last three (or one? The third group of DLCs), so I’m tempted to run Enbesa before Crown Falls just so I can take advantage of that research on a project that actually gets me somewhere.
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Oct 22, 2021 05:14
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That's a lot of ships! 
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Oct 22, 2021 15:49
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I accidentally slipped into skyscraper territory. It just kinda popped up at 5K investors and, well, it was the only DLC I'd never touched before so I couldn't resist. So expect an update on that before I go into the arctic. On the plus side: all my influence needs aren't just dead but buried. The down side: Oh my god if Donald Bader was a real person I'd hate his guts. Also I still need more COFFEE.
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Oct 22, 2021 17:01
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Alkydere posted:Also I still need more COFFEE. Everyone needs more coffee, always. Like, I can't even imagine the hell it must have been before Bright Harvest, it was bad enough providing enough cofffee to Crown Falls in the pre-Docklands days. Magni fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Oct 22, 2021 |
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Oct 22, 2021 17:59
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Yeah and it only gets worse once you get into skyscrapers. I'm honestly not even sure how you're supposed to satisfy those needs once you really start building them up, the demand is just so high and the space in the New World is fairly limited. I guess the point is that by then they expect you to really start abusing scholars/docklands/trade unions.
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Oct 22, 2021 18:49
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And it's needed in the Arctic too which is why I NEED MORE! I need more engineers to get more Research Institute items to get more coffee to get more engineers etc. Upgrading engineers to skyscrapers means the house now, itself, eats more coffee. I'm at the point where updates take more playtime to get progress (since I'm trying to avoid too much story stuff). Which is good because I actually kind of like just chilling out and building, but updates might slow down from this point on as I've done like 80% of the plot of the game. All that's left is the Arctic, the rest of the Tourist stuff (which is basically one big tutorial), the High Life stuff (basically works the same way as the Tourist stuff only with the Tourist lady being replaced by an rear end in a top hat businessman), rebuilding Bright Sands and one last bit of story stuff in Enbessa (that I'm actively avoiding because as much as I love the region I've spent enough updates there recently). Oh and building my first Worlds Fair which isn't exactly story filled but an ordeal in and of itself.
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Oct 22, 2021 19:05
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The Cheshire Cat posted:Yeah and it only gets worse once you get into skyscrapers. I'm honestly not even sure how you're supposed to satisfy those needs once you really start building them up, the demand is just so high and the space in the New World is fairly limited. I guess the point is that by then they expect you to really start abusing scholars/docklands/trade unions. Don't forget the tourist gastronomy and shopping mall buildings. Those consumption reductions are a huge help when you place them in the middle of your skyscraper blocks.
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Oct 22, 2021 22:10
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Going Up Main plot (Old World and New World) done. Trelawny plot done. Enbessa plot done. What’s next? Obviously the Arctic. But there are some issues that desperately need to be taken care of first.  First issue is that I simply can not get enough cotton to both Ditchwater and Crown Falls to satisfy my fur coat needs. I need them for artisans and engineers, but tourists are just devouring them left and right as a happiness good. It has reached the point that I have forbidden the sales of fur coats to tourists on Crown Falls.   Thankfully I have a solution for that! Earlier I picked up a Costume Designer from Wormways Prison. This is one of the most sought out items for obvious reasons: suddenly you don’t need all that cotton in the New World! One thing I’m not too big about is replacing the artisan workforce with workers since that means it takes more houses to satisfy the building. On the other hand it’s worth it to have the fur trader’s needs be filled via wool.  Of course I’m going to need wool, but that’s absolutely not an issue: sheep farms are small and compact and make nice little clumps like this. I can now turn the fur coat tap back on for the tourists.   I need linen for the second scholar good: Tailored Suits which are made of linen and cotton cloth. So I settle Pride Rock here which is going to be a massive factory farm for all things linseed. Even the tea will be linseed based. Slowly I start working with tearing down Taborime’s linseed farms, linen mills and the embroiders making finery (shirts) as I’m making them all on Addis Tarara. Tailored suits need to be made in the Old World, and I’ll still be making Tapestries on Taborime though.  Also to make it easier to find/remember and to sate my sense of humor I give the island a far more appropriate name later.   I still need plenty of alpaca wool in the New World, both for ponchos and for bowler caps which are now not only an obrero need, but a scholar happiness good as well. So Mark van der Mark is now overseeing the new, redesigned alpaca farms! Three farms, each running at 500% productivity...I think I'll be good for a while. Rodrigo the Rancher is moved to the new Sheep Complex to make beef for the goulash needed for canned food. The Milliner simplifies the bowler cap production by skipping the alpaca wool to felt step. I’m far more okay with the workforce being shifted to jornaleros here since I’m cutting an entire building out of the chain. Also the bombin weavers that make the bowler caps only take 20 workforce.  While this was happening my scholar houses have grown up to the point my research cap was now at 13,000. With populations stable now that a bunch of cotton has been freed up for tailored suits and bowler caps it’s time to get cracking on some serious research. The first major project is fertility swap which should help me produce more coffee. So much of this update is about coffee in one way or another…  Oh and because the botanical garden item pool is so small I targeted it first and got i tout of the way. Now every botanical garden slot item has been identified.  Wait...what? Oh! Editor! Why are you here? We didn’t have anything special planned and the new edition isn’t due for a while. W-What? He told me you were expecting him and this edition! Who told you? So working to get more investors for more influence I finally hit the 5,000 mark. This triggers a few things:
I already do not like this man… Sorry, you’ve probably heard of me-- I’m Donald Bader, call me Donny. They say don’t brag, but who has time to be coy? I’m the best Investor this city has, apart from you of course-- my guru! I inspired this man? Oh lord help me…Right, well Bader is the NPC guide through the High Life DLC that I accidentally tripped. On the plus side: this does wonders for my influence. On the down-side this just sucks my attention right in as I hadn’t had time to play with High Life previously. After all it came out after the LP started.  To start with I’m going to need elevators and...whoof. That is a production chain. Our elevator plants are cutting-edge. Time to get production off the ground! The “elevator factory” is actually an Assembly Line: one of the new multifactories High Life added. High Life took the idea of Tourist Seasons multifactory Chemical Plants and Orchards and ran with it. In addition to the Assembly Line there’s new orchard recipes for the Old World, a New World version of the Chemical Plant, a new recipe for the Old World/Tourist Season Chemical Plant, and finally the Artisan’s Workshop. Every single one has multiple recipes. We have the elevators, so let’s elevate our ambitions-- Sky’s empty, so we fill it. We’ll be kings in no time, looking over our beautiful kingdoms. And elevate I do! Both engineer and investor houses can be turned into skyscrapers. Since I’m hurting on engineer workforce I start with an engineer house to make my first skyscraper. Suddenly the UI has drastically changed. First of all the needs are listed in lines of 3, the happiness tab will also be listed the same way. Skyscrapers have such a massive list of goods that the devs found it better to list them this way. It’s not so bad right now, but the investors want more than the engineers...and investor towers can go all the way up to level 5 to the engineer’s 3. Secondly there’s that little marker saying “weak”, that references the Panorama Effect bonus. Skyscrapers get a bonus for being taller than other nearby skyscrapers, and a penalty for being near buildings of the same or greater height. The Panorama Effect goes from 0 (none) to 5 (intense) and gives bonus population and income from basic resources, as well as a general profit multiplier. Engineers gain +5 population per Panorama level from spectacles, coffee, electricity and lightbulbs. Which means 20 per level. Investors gain +5 population per Panorama level from champagne, cigars, chocolate, steam carriages and electricity. So 25 per level. The formula for Panorama Effect is [skyscraper level] + [shorter skyscrapers in range] - [greater or equal skyscrapers in range]. So being a level 1 engineer skyscraper with no other skyscrapers in range this house now gets an extra 20 maximum residents plus another 20 from its first new need. There’s also two more details down at the bottom: The fact that skyscrapers cost maintenance and give influence (yay!) and that they also cost maintenance (aww). Manage your skyscrapers’ Panora Effects well for extra cash or else almost all of your skyscraper profit will be devoured by maintenance. So proud we laid the first stone. Keep it up -- plenty of real estate up there! My rivals are trying to keep pace, which is so funny to me, because they are all failures. I seriously detest that man, but I love what he’s offering. And now it’s time to learn about shopping arcades! You see shopping arcades are...   Oooh! They’re restaurants! But for shopping! Madame is correct.Yeah it’s totally fair to feel that High Life basically took a lot of Tourist Season mechanics and then refitted them for normal end-game populations. I’m totally fine with that! Also if you click on the shopping arcade it’s obvious that the poor artisan is trapped in retail hell from the line he spouts. The VA has truly perfected the “I’m dead inside but I work on commission” retail voice. A Toaster! The perfect trap. Pipe toasty smells out and put the suckers in mind of breakfast surrounded by family, childhood camping trips...all weak spots we’ll target. … Erm? Who are you? Where is Bente? Eldest, I am going to go help Lady Faithful prepare for her long-overdue arctic expedition where I will not have to hear one more word this blowhard speaks. I will not be your secretary. Oh drat. Toasters are selling fast! Imagine the profits if we had more types of products in our stores!As I said, shopping arcades are like dining venues. Only one of their perks is they also boost the income of affected houses, which further offsets the maintenance of skyscrapers. Just like dining venues, a building can potentially be affected by every single one in range as long as each arcade is promoting a different patent.  Donald Bader offers the player an option to expand their catalog of shopping arcade patents via a quest instead of organically. Knew you’d be onboard, oh wise one! To kick off we have to invest in R & D -- a bore-chore -- but we delegate. Once we’ve built them their lab we can get to the real stuff.Easy enough, Bader just wants a few more engineer skyscrapers to be upgraded.   In the meantime I get my first level two skyscraper and a demonstration of the Panorama Effect. If you click on a skyscraper any smaller skyscrapers adding to their Panorama bonus will show up in green. Any that are the same size or larger, and therefore detracting from the bonus, are shown in a dark brown. Size 1 skyscrapers really don’t exist to get Panorama, but to give it to others.  Getting my first level 2 skyscraper unlocks the need for gum! Rubber, sugar and cinnamon, yum! All skyscrapers level 2 and up will need to be supplied with chewing gum.  There, I have the engineer skyscraper space for some R&D offices. Only Bader’s bitching about there not being enough green space. Just slap down the gazebo he wants near one of the engineer skyscraper to make him happy. Not too shabby! Should be a breeze now for Miss Jenny, my house help here, to get to work. We do the big picture, she’ll do the nitty-gritty. Here is Miss Theodora Jenny. Bader’s assistant. The engineer counterpart to Bader’s investor. She uses the engineer’s “at work” model. Miss Jenny, be a dear, I have a cup here with no coffee in it -- Now, to business: our first patent! You’ve earned the executive decision, partner, what’ll it be? A one what ticket for you far, far away from me the moment you’re no longer profitable to keep around? How about that Angereb place Aarhart’s letters mentioned? I do wonder how many battlecruisers they’ll want in return for quietly locking you up in their deepest, darkest cell?   On one hand I kinda screwed myself over by not having started The Passage DLC yet: the fridges are the only one of the patents available that don’t require me to get to a tier 3 investor skyscraper to unlock recipes. On the other hand getting natural gas requires going through almost the entire Passage questline/tech tree. The wife will be thrilled! Though the noise is intrusive -- how will I enjoy the sunday paper? During testing, miss Jenny will want to get vacuuming and find a way to keep it quiet. Very well, Mr. Bader, I’ll see to it… Stupendous! Well partner, I’ll be in contact once the lab have finalized the patent.A few minutes later…  Of course nothing can go smoothly. You were out, Miss Jenny? I thought your work was your life -- well, but can you still continue our research? I’m afraid not. Without these materials I cannot move forward with the prototype. Darn it, this is stalling us. Wasted time, wasted money, Miss Jenny -- my partner and I will have to look at your salary, won’t we? Perhaps you can replace the goods, guru, you know, keep your side of the bargain? Not sure I trust Miss Jenny to do it on current form...Likely an eager rival trying to tweak his odds. I’m used to slander, it is part and parcel of the business, but that a peer would stoop to thievery. Embarrassing. Production will take time, so let’s diversify our portfolio -- The Arcade could cater for the furnishings of empty office towers.So yeah, this is gonna take a while. To unlock the celluloid I need to produce the vacuum cleaners (and the ethanol to produce the celluloid) I need to reach 15 tier 2 investor skyscrapers. I haven’t made a single investor skyscraper because I haven’t made any Steam Carriages yet.   One of the issues I have is quite simple: NOT ENOUGH COFFEE. Getting a fertility change was one of the steps I’m taking to fix that. La Isla originally had its own coffee production to sate the local obreros’ needs. La Isla’s consumption was long ago folded into El Zaro’s production, so instead I’m going to make chocolate on La Isla...via making fried plantains! The 8 plantain kitchens needed to support the region’s fried plantain needs are producing more chocolate than the whole production chain on El Zarao was. A production chain that can be ripped apart to give more land and workforce over to coffee. It’s not exactly obvious from the screenshots but I spent a lot of this update fighting with a lack of sufficient coffee. I have to time any skyscraper upgrades to be soon after the coffee boats arrive to Crown Falls. The issue is I can’t expand to any more major islands in the New World: the rest have been snapped up by Mercier and von Malching. There’s only so much space and workforce on El Zarao. Which means I’ll have to find other ways to up my vital coffee production.  The chocolate bananas must flow!  In the meantime I...apparently forgot to take pictures but I got Steam Carriage production up and running. Rubber+lumber for the chassis, steam engines that I’ve been making forever for steam boats, tractor sheds and now elevators. Mash them together and you get an investor’s joy ride! And with that need satisfied I can start upgrading their houses into skyscrapers!   Even better: I finally, finally have enough resources (and no other pressing need for them) to build the Palace! Welcome to the Seat of Power DLC which has a grand total of 8 buildings and, like many other DLCs, does absolutely silly things to the balance.  What the Palace does is give a set of bonuses to a variety of buildings in range. There’s 5 departments, each one has a set bonus (shown at on the left here) and a slot for a specific bonus. The specific bonuses are unlocked by making the island more beautiful. And if I get enough attractiveness to reach that crowned diamond with the “1” on the top right? Well then we get into prestige levels and all of the fixed bonuses level up! You bet it gets absurd, but that’s only after building the beauty of the island to absurd levels. Now the palace only affects buildings in its range. So that +50 island workforce per town hall bonus only applies to town halls it can reach out and touch. If only there was a way to increase the Palace’s range…  Well what do you know: there is! See the two little palace wing modules I’ve built? Each one increases the palace’s range by 2 road or 3 paved road tiles! They’re also worth 15 beauty points so they help boost an island’s appeal. The downside is they have to be attached to the palace or another module: no building them off alone. Modules are gained by upgrading the player’s profile level via population growth: the same mechanic as getting regular influence bonuses. Also I just wanted to show off this bonus: anything made in a “Heavy Industry” category building will produce an extra 1/3 of its main production out of thin air provided it’s within range of a palace-boosted trade union...which also means its also getting the free palace +10% productivity bonus (or more if the palace has prestige levels). Yes, Biscuits count as “Heavy Industry” because they’re made in a High Life assembly line. One of the other ones I picked up makes museum modules free (technically a 10 influence rebate). There’s also one for zoos, but you have to choose one of the other. Since the botanical gardens are DLC there’s no policy for them.  Arvsbyn is quickly becoming “Red Pepper Island”. It’s also connected to the Cape Trelawny commuter network so it is now providing extra workforce. This is important because the other issue I’ve been fighting with (and slowly building out of) is a lack of engineers for heavy industry and research. I’ve been fighting it in part by upgrading the engineers to skyscrapers, but...that also increases the amount of coffee each house consumes. The commuter dock is a source of 200 engineers that don’t drink coffee.  Oh, quick note: the High Life DLC adds hot air balloons! They’re cool looking.   All this talk about about not having enough engineers, or enough obreros for coffee, and it took me so long to realize the solution: Nate! Here I am researching items that reduce workers needed and I can just craft them at Nate’s lighthouse without waiting for an hour! The Legendary robot reduces workers needed by 50%, the Epic one by 35%  Keep building up skyscrapers and...oh my, Bader’s getting threatening letters? Someone likes a crystal ball -- if I wanted foreboding notes, I’d go see my cardiologist -- Only no hopers hate change. Can we expect you up on the skydeck for lunch? I push an expedition too far and lose a ship (and some nice items on it). This happens from time to time, especially with hard expeditions.  It’s easy enough to replace ships. I could just churn them out at this point if it weren’t for the influence requirements.  Nate’s Robot gets to El Zarao and suddenly I have a massive pool of obreros to work with. Finally I can enough coffee to get ahead! Sadly this also uses up my free influence which...means I need more skyscrapers.   Speaking of influence: taking advantage of my 10 influence rebate on museum modules in Crown Falls lets me boost ahead and get the gold tier bonus for cultural buildings. Now museums, zoos, and botanical gardens are 35% stronger. I’ve also been building a few turrets here and there, getting ready for when I pounce on either of my opponents. I need more land in the New World eventually, but I don’t want to do that before I build up defenses.  The Salvager’s  Bente’s windows are starting to get some real popularity and are now trading at 1.6x value!  Some fresh binders of dark orchard secrets are found letting me squeeze some in even tighter...and get New World crops from them! Fresh coffee, tobacco and cocoa? Yum! With the other production boosts this is a juicy boost to all three crop production.  The palace’s range reaches the first trade union! In addition to the free +10% palace bonus, the Heavy Industry bonus comes into play and I slap some steam engine factories down to take advantage of the free production out of thin air for a very expensive component.   And now, time for the very first cultural set bonus! Cultural sets provide bonuses that are island wide and range from “pleasant” to “massively powerful”. The Heirlooms of the Gold Realm bonus is definitely not bad: a chance for free gold or jewelry when selling off excess items on Crown Falls. It’s just nothing to write home about either.  At 15 level 2 investor skyscrapers the next item for investor consumption is introduced: biscuits! Flour, tallow and citrus! Yum! And of course it goes next the palace boosted trade union for an extra 10% and 1/3 production.  And a bit later...Crown Fall’s very first level 3 tower appears! Which introduces the need for cognac! But that will wait for next time.  Oh and the very first Advanced Coffee Roaster is built! Only one now, since each research only grants one license! But this puts me even further ahead on coffee! The model is basically a reskinned coffee roaster from the New World.  Next time I swear I’m going to actually start the Passage DLC, if only because all the fur I need for fur coats is getting silly. I really need to go to the Arctic for a better source of furs.  Next time: The Passage DLC! I promise!
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Oct 24, 2021 07:07
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I can't blame your population for their coffee needs. The bean makes the world go round!
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Oct 24, 2021 17:24
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I feel like the takeaway is that if playing with expanding AIs be prepared to blitz the new world and snag good coffee islands before anyone else gets there.
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Oct 24, 2021 18:02
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Soylent Pudding posted:I feel like the takeaway is that if playing with expanding AIs be prepared to blitz the new world and snag good coffee islands before anyone else gets there. Yeah this is kind of what you have to do with any AI above 1 star difficulty (the 1 stars will ask for your permission to expand so you don't have to worry about them as much). You end up pretty tight on influence though because you have to hold on to a lot of islands that aren't doing anything yet.
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Oct 24, 2021 20:14
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Would you mind posting some big overhead shots of Crown Falls? I'd love to see how it's coming along (and I like comparing city layouts with folks.).
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Oct 27, 2021 20:55
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