Unlocking Gold Ship?

[Lord Strong]

There seems to be an overwelming amount of things to do to unlock the Gold ship in the vanlla version of the game. Has anyone ever done it and is ship worth the time involved. Is there any ideas to make this acheivement more doable. about how many hours of the game can this be acheived, I had one profile with 400+ hours but i seemed stuck having effecient space for one the scenarios. I finally won it but this Gold ship acheivement seems like it could take a decade.

[Helgart]

Played long ago within about a month (somewhere 100-200 hours) and got 66/316 achievements. I think this is a such low paced game, that stands too far from any Warcraft-kind stuff. Even if you are playing just for fun, as i did, it takes too much time. Or time and a specific grind-kind or a save scumming gameplay to get that ship. So, i made 50 save reloads for the "War is Hell!" 150 war declarations. Perhaps it will take more reloads in the vicinity of a large enough Hassan's fleet to sink (or loose?) 2500 ships for the "Food for the fishes" ( i have only 571 for now) and even more time to complete 1500 quests for "Anyone has my ear" (only 1/3 is finished), or to recruit famous pirates captains. I never tried to complete a quest sequence for a certain AI and then again for the next one and again and again. Such as "Faith is my path" with "build a Metropilis and complete... for Marie d'Artois" or the "The Martyr" with "form an Alliance with Marie d'Artois and complete...". But there are some colossal achievements that require the whole bunch of population or the cathedral. I tried to play random favourite maps (with the certain random seed - some of them can be found on wiki ) on the large islands with an easy terrain. With the quest option set to frequent and many neutral powers. They say, there is a terrain editor, never tried it. In any case, this topic has a large enough content to discuss . But this ship. More likely, it represents the global goal. Kind of what is done and what have to be done. It's definitely like a gold medal for sportsmen or a high mountain to climb. Get to it to loose any sense to continue. For you to say: "I made it, feel so emptied and exhausted . Was it worth to play?- Yeah. Will I play tomorrow? - Not sure, but later perhaps"

[Lord Strong]

So this achievement takes a lot of determination to get? I was not far off saying it could take some players a decade? I do enjoy some aspects of this game but i agrree that this game should be played for enjoyment. Getting that Gold ship although a nice achievement I think spending just a few hours a day could take quite a while. I think taking small bits of each achievement can break it down. I'm not a fast player so the easiest scenarios can take me more than 24 hours to complete. Seems sometimes game designers create games that are more time consuming and less fun. This game has some things that are fun but a lot of it just eats up time.

[Helgart]

Yes, time is wasted, as in every game. The main only question for me is whether it is challenging and enjoyable enough. Of course, compared to the MMO's, Anno 1404, as soloed mostly, may be somewhat boring, but it offers good challenges for a hard game. It's still a great game. You probably need a lot of concentration to watch for everything, to control many aspects to be ahead of your rivals. Just don't bother too much with that ship. Perhaps the devs could place it somewhere on the 1/3 of gameplay distance but not on the far behind of its end.

[Lord Strong]

Maybe some continous games can be won just unlocking partricians. not sure about unlocking just citizens. seems theres most the stuff needed for conquest at the patrician level. seems unlocking and maintaining noble populations takes quite a bit more time. first few times i unlocked patricians seems a struggle with income for a little while. i think doing a few easy opponents then working up to more challenging opponents can make this game seem more fun. or go from easy achievements to hard achievements. I thnk my goals for this game may remain small. i think my energy needs to be spent wisely. i kind of enjoy bits and peices of this game from time to time. Rome wasn't built in a day neither can this game be finished in a day.

[Helgart]

Yes, it is exactly about your energy and how to spend it wisely. That's why i'm not playing this game too much but always want to beat such guys as Giovanni di Mercante. These hard dudes always feel your weak points, behave brazenly at the slightest opportunity to start a war to destroy you completely. So, you goal is to have as many nobles as possible. Since it gives more income, which allows to maintain more armies and, finally, as a result, you can see that bully Giovanni becomes pretty sweet and kind. But of course, there is more relaxing gameplay against easier opponents, where many quest lines can be completed or many achievements unlocked. Some options also can be disabled. So, i never played with such savage volcano stuff.

[Lord Strong]

Yeah I thinks thats why i put the game down for a while. Seems relaxing enough and go at pace you feel comfortable with. if i go for any the major acheivements its probably going to be a one time thing.