2070 vs 1404

[ChallAcc]

Hi guys!

I used to play 1404 all the time, and was really happy when 2070 came out. I mainly play continuous games on both. However, shortly after playing through 2070, I realised that the CPU players don't actually play. They settle a city, and a standard template appears. You try to blockade them, and they do just fine... Infinite resources...

My question is have I done something wrong in the settings? In 1404 they would progress and evolve with you, so they could effectively be another human player. Is this issue resolved with the DLC, or is this only an issue for me?

Please note that I haven't played the game in over a year due to this, I just wondered if it had been changed as it's a game breaker for me.

[Joseph Stealin']

Yeah, it's the one thing that the game suffers from, just how much of a bunch of cheating ♥♥♥♥♥ the AI can be. They'll re-settle islands without sending out ships and pull advanced facilities out of their backsides almost right from the game start. Some of them are much more blatent about it than others, though, while one or two do actually try to maintain some semblence of plausability.

EDIT: But honestly, it's still very much worth playing despite this, it means you just have to get all your ducks in a row before you declare war on an AI to make sure you can counteract their BS.

[A Blu Skittle]

I agree its kinda stupid that happens but the game is definatley worth playing

[K2]

No, AI pretty much cheats in 2070. Overall I think 1404 is sightly better.

Btw after going to back to 1404 after playing 2070 for a while I noticed these are the pros:

2070:

Energy/Eco management (ofc these make little sense in 1404)
Improved UI (trade route drag/drop, multi-waypoint movement, etc)
Improved GFX
No crash issues
ARK
2 major CIVs instead of one (but they each is less developed)

1404:

(this is huge) Game is much better balanced
- it is harder to get an positive income - in Anno 2070 once upon reaching 2nd stage I never go into negatives again, with enough room to spam units and stuff, while in 1404 you actually have to work for a postive income
- end-game is more of a challange then anno 2070, i.e. tier 3 needs 4 resources and tier 4 gradually becomes harder (with more then just 2 resources)
- interaction between orient/okzident is much better then ecos/techs or tycoons/techs
Better AI and generally more realistic
Honur/Upgrades actually give you a sense of progression as opposed only to research
Diplomacy seems to be sightly better, too (AI +/- seems more reasonable)
Neutral powers (NPCs on islands offering you units/items/resources and occasionally tasks)
Land Warfare
Endgame takes longer to achieve (it seems quite easy to get the monuments in 2070, while in 1404 they take longer to build and are harder to get)

[la_nague]

they were too lazy to make a real AI, so they just made the cpu pülayers spam the same stuff over and over without regards for resources and money.



Its a real shame, i remember playing anno 1602 and on one map there was no fertility for sugar or something, so i created a huge trade imperium by spamming sugar plantations (where 80% of the crops wouldnt crow), refined it and then sold the products for the maximum price and everyone begged me for more. And if some player would annoy me, i would cut his supply and all his settlements would crumble.


Cant do stuff like that in the new anno games, no idea how they could make a good AI 10 years ago and now they are unable to?

[TrueChaoS]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von la_nague:

Cant do stuff like that in the new anno games, no idea how they could make a good AI 10 years ago and now they are unable to?

Simple. They don't want to rewrite the AI for each new game to adjust it for every new variable, so they've become progressively lazier with it, to the point they're at now, with the AI just following a couple dozen templates and build orders before stalemating because they don't have anything else to build on the islands they have.

[DaWarMachine]

Anno 1404's difficulty is relentless compared to Anno 2070. I've actually started on Anno 2070 first before playing Anno 1404, but I noticed the difficulty spike right away. There are much more demands from your citizens and those demands require many production buildings to achieve. It is also hard to maintain a positive income due to those buildings.

[TrueChaoS]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von |IR| DaWarMachine:

Anno 1404's difficulty is relentless compared to Anno 2070. I've actually started on Anno 2070 first before playing Anno 1404, but I noticed the difficulty spike right away. There are much more demands from your citizens and those demands require many production buildings to achieve. It is also hard to maintain a positive income due to those buildings.

Not to mention that, if fish were to ever go extinct, your settlements would be the prime suspects... xD

[marya024]

mai provato anno140. Posso solo dire che anno 2070 è ben riuscito e appassionante

[Dutchgamer1982]

I never played 1404, but I have played 1602 and 1704.
(still need to get me a copy of 1404 to complete the set one day)

to me anno 2070 is a decend game, but it certainly aint the best anno game.

things is miss :
-the absolute lack of "land units", I loved building walls with defences AROUND my city's.
and landing troops on an island. why there are no say tanks and marines?
sure the eco's force-fields count for something.. but thats not quite the same.

-The useless maps, maps in earlier anno games used to be relatively much larger.
one could fit 4 HUGE city's on 1 island.. all walled, with most supporting farms and such in between. The islands in this game are relatively smaller. Also in earlier game, the surface of water was both a lot bigger, as well as more unevenly spread, giving you more a feel of crossing an OCEAN, instead of only passing "the canal"
(I personally don't like the rocky coast, in comparising with earlier anno games featuring nice smooth coasts all around mostly, but that I grand as a new game feature and I see as just a change in gameplay, and since it makes the game more difficult, is an improvement)

-the ecology noncence?? : this anno never had, it was all about building nice and well planned city's and fighting others.. while I see how it fits in the storyline, I do find it somewhat tedious.

-the dumb AI, I remember the GREAT single player mission of earlier anno-games, that were hard at times, and required you to really take one island at a time, starving them out.
in this game the AI is dumb, it can sell unlimit goods, buy unlimited goods, and cannot be starved.. that sucks!

-the lack of proper missions :
in earlier anno games, a lot of missions were like "invade that huge well-defended city with only a handfull of units and take the princess from the caste"
while the "quests" we are given in anno 2070 do something of restoring that fact, the lack of proper island to island interaction I find sad.

-the lack of ability to take units and goods with you to the next mission.
true we have the arc, but in previous anno games, you could often build a whole fleet, load them with goods, and have that SAME fleet and goods available to you in your next mission.
that made those missions and campaigns feel more continues than they do here.

-the way to easy economy : in earlier anno games, break even point did not come untill you had like tier 3 citycens, so you would LOSE money on lower level city's.
And even on those advanced city's only when really well planned, finding a design that actually earned you a small profit was quite hard.

-the insane base on money : in earlier anno games it was all about GOODS, not money.
while every building did cost upkeep, as well as every unit, building stuff did not cost you money like it does here, only goods. running in the red here has way less concequences also than it had before (running in the red in earlier games, would have you lose most of your armies and fleets and if not handled soon, would lose you the entire game)

=> so while it still is an enjoyable game, where you need to properly manage big city's and the infrastructure to support for them, it has lost some of it's edge, compaired to earlier installments.

[K2]

You should definetly get 1404, imho it's the best anno out of the 5 games :) (not couting the anno online crap)

[TRIARII`Euphoria]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von marya024:

mai provato anno140. Posso solo dire che anno 2070 è ben riuscito e appassionante

Well, if you read in english then in good manner is write back in english too. You have translate sites as well as we have. I'm always curious why people answer in their native language even if discussion is in english, gosh. Pls, try to write in english, it's good exercise ;)

I see here veterans with in depth game knowledge. At first I was disappointed because of this how 2070 looks similar to 1404, but the biggest difference for me is climate. Futuristic vs Middle ages. Unfortunately, as stated in first post, AI is poor and schematic. If you want some interaction, solo game is rather for "build my city" only. But hey, we have more multiplayer option than in Anno 1404. It's a step forward, isn't it?

[DaWarMachine]

It's actually nice that they made this game easier to get the casual people interested. Anno 1404 is hell to get through and the citizen demands are FAR worse than in Anno 2070 since you literally had to make every component of a product in order for it to be complete for handing over to your people; you would be nearing the negative income. There are far more disasters in Anno 1404 as well and getting along with the other rulers was not as easy since they cannot be paid out too often.

All in all, if you like a good challenge, go with Anno 1404. However, Anno 2070 is also a good game; it is more casual-friendly.

[K2]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von |IR| DaWarMachine:

It's actually nice that they made this game easier to get the casual people interested. Anno 1404 is hell to get through and the citizen demands are FAR worse than in Anno 2070 since you literally had to make every component of a product in order for it to be complete for handing over to your people; you would be nearing the negative income. There are far more disasters in Anno 1404 as well and getting along with the other rulers was not as easy since they cannot be paid out too often.

All in all, if you like a good challenge, go with Anno 1404. However, Anno 2070 is also a good game; it is more casual-friendly.

While 1404, as I stated, is harder, it can also be rather simplified though the settings so you can do some careless setteling if you wish (like no/easy comps, easy corsairs, best islands, full building refund, lots of gold and honour to start with). The thing is with Anno 1404 the difficulty is more natural, like you actually feel challanged and not cheated like in 2070; AI is a prime example imho (strindberg :P), but generally 2070 is just a cakewalk, especially with deep ocean, the shares just generate a ridiclous amount of income.

Anno 2070 has much less feel of accomplishment, too. You get Tier 4 pretty quickly, and from there on it seems there is no real progression. I mean, yeah I've filled my entire island with tier 4 guys, but all I'm really doing is to pop more production buidings and little less (except buying productivity upgrades maybe).

While the researching is a nice touch, you can get the stuff you need quite quickly and it carries over into the next game (unless it's a mission), the unlockable upgrades in 1404 just gave you real feel of progression (as well those continously unlocking new requirements for your noblemen and envoys), The movement/storage bonus from the storage wonder is a nice touch too.

Also I have to note that the missions in anno 1404 (esp. venice) are far better, interesting challange or touch here in there (like the labyrinth mission ... or trying to settle in an area on tiny islands)

[Swaginspekteur]

I think in 2070 the AI is better, because they fit better to the setting. Or why should an oil global player or an eco terrorist build cities?