the royal tax is killing the game for me.

[DMN]

edit 2 :
if you have no problem with the royal taxes. then good for you. this thread isn't for you. no need to reply here. go ahead and enjoy your games. why waste time posting here?



original content :
i don't want to use mods if possible. but it seems i will have to. because the royal taxes is killing the game.

i play not for that kind of realistic moronic addition. i know that history. but that doesn't mean you have to add it to the game. at least add option to disable royal taxes.

i play games to have fun not to be stressed out.


edit :
i own the game on Epic.

[Lord Shizzle]

I think the game is to easy, should i cry at the forum to? The hardest thing of the game is that you have to write manually your own annual reports to keep up what is happining on each island. they could atleast add more dept in shipconstruction - and ship upkeep costs.

[DMN]

Originally posted by Lord Shizzle:

I think the game is to easy, should i cry at the forum to? The hardest thing of the game is that you have to write manually your own annual reports to keep up what is happining on each island. they could atleast add more dept in shipconstruction - and ship upkeep costs.

so what?

it's not about it being easy or hard.

not everyone wants to play game at hard or very hard.

like i mention above. i play to have fun not to be stressed out.

because the more citizen i have = more tax. and if not for the mods. i would uninstall this garbage.

[Harris]

I agree with the OP. The way to play the franchise for me was to keep the starting island as the "main hub" or "metropolis" where I would strive for the max level population, most beautiful city etc etc, while keeping the production on other islands to provide goods for the "mainland".

The claimed aim of royal taxes to "urge the player to expand" or "prevent the player from using only one island" is kinda absurd really, as you can't ever get all the goods you need from one island, Anno's always been that way.

The game even has things that /kinda/ encourage the kind of playthough I just mentioned - the pier that lets you "connect" the workforce from one island with another and literally only use another one for farms/industry.

But this is actually punishing as two commuter piers are insta 2000 in upkeep, and that's even before royal taxes.

Maybe this kind of optimization is a very late game thing, when you have lots of money from such an investment, but right now I can't really see any way to profit from it.

Right now the way the game want you to play it is to run all islands at once with 1k pops of every class on every of them and not more. This prevents you from specializing your production for islands, makes your logistics messy and throws at you the tasks of keeping in mind where you have what production and in what quantities.

This on top of plenty of micromanagement and no active pause is actually even worse.

So ironic that the game is so visually beautiful with many ways to make your city aesthetically pleasing but you actually can't do it because of so many other things to do, like constant competition with the AI, expeditions, constant fires and other nuisances etc.

So yes, as much as I want to love the game, royal taxes, active pause and loads of micro with too little ways to help keeping all that in mind prevent me from loving it. I still never reached Investors in any of my games because I abandon it at some point. Sigh.

[DMN]

Originally posted by Harris:

I agree with the OP. The way to play the franchise for me was to keep the starting island as the "main hub" or "metropolis" where I would strive for the max level population, most beautiful city etc etc, while keeping the production on other islands to provide goods for the "mainland".

The claimed aim of royal taxes to "urge the player to expand" or "prevent the player from using only one island" is kinda absurd really, as you can't ever get all the goods you need from one island, Anno's always been that way.

The game even has things that /kinda/ encourage the kind of playthough I just mentioned - the pier that lets you "connect" the workforce from one island with another and literally only use another one for farms/industry.

But this is actually punishing as two commuter piers are insta 2000 in upkeep, and that's even before royal taxes.

Maybe this kind of optimization is a very late game thing, when you have lots of money from such an investment, but right now I can't really see any way to profit from it.

Right now the way the game want you to play it is to run all islands at once with 1k pops of every class on every of them and not more. This prevents you from specializing your production for islands, makes your logistics messy and throws at you the tasks of keeping in mind where you have what production and in what quantities.

This on top of plenty of micromanagement and no active pause is actually even worse.

So ironic that the game is so visually beautiful with many ways to make your city aesthetically pleasing but you actually can't do it because of so many other things to do, like constant competition with the AI, expeditions, constant fires and other nuisances etc.

So yes, as much as I want to love the game, royal taxes, active pause and loads of micro with too little ways to help keeping all that in mind prevent me from loving it. I still never reached Investors in any of my games because I abandon it at some point. Sigh.

thank you and yeah, i also often abandon my game before reaching investor level.

the royal tax was kinda fine at first. but then it went insane. and that is my last straw.

i even had to start a new game. because i use mods. just to make sure there are no conflict with the game.

and yup. the only thing this game has is graphics. i still play it, because i want to make my purchase to be at least worth my money. by spending hours in it.

really wish steam had a like a comment button. kinda what YT has.

[Verty]

I'm a huge fan of 1404, also recently bought the History Edition to relive the fond memories. In 1404, the AI tracks what you need and even arranges a quest and their rewards accordingly. Eventually accomplishing a task organically micromanages a potential shortage in a resident need.

Anno series are founded on economy management where you always give something to get something in return. Playing 1800 (with S1) always felt like the game is giving or taking away for nothing.

Solo opponents donating money while I'm financially stable, senseless gifts from residents and "Royal Taxes" as a balance control concept all feel cheap. Such string of ideas are obviously implemented rather late in the development stage just to polish the gameplay but resulting in intangible economics.

There is a huge cry out in forums to be able to disable the royal taxes which I believe will change the balance of the game significantly -possibly towards negative. I understand those tweaks are there for a reason but I strongly support an in-game reasoning.

For instance building a Bailiff in 1404 reduced 10% all maintenance cost, so through S2 "Seat of Power" add-on (which I am yet to own) low-tier policies could be implemented, in order to:
* Lower Royal Taxes percentage (maybe in return of increased maintenance cost on other islands)
* Ask for gold from competitors for a cost of relation (maybe 20k for -5, 50k for -15...) and loans with payback interest, else war declaration from pirates.
* Generate more gold on quests.

Other means of making a sweat to earn meaningful gold would be:
* To be able to create bulk supply contracts for over produced items (like spamming Soap to Eli but more legitimate),
* Ship building contracts besides the quests,
* Sabotage missions, costing relations with the one party but making money and friends with the other.

And Ubi team, please work on your war diplomacy. I should be able to cease fire on my terms when I crush an opposition, not pay them +20k to end the war.

[jamiechi]

I use a mod from the Nexus that disables the Royal Taxes. I believe it is in the Spice it Up mod collection. This game has enough other things to keep me busy for a couple of years without it. Note that I am retired and I currently am doing very little besides playing Anno 1800.

[DMN]

Originally posted by jamiechi:

I use a mod from the Nexus that disables the Royal Taxes. I believe it is in the Spice it Up mod collection. This game has enough other things to keep me busy for a couple of years without it. Note that I am retired and I currently am doing very little besides playing Anno 1800.

same i use a mod to disable royal tax.

because i play to have fun. not to be stressed out.

when the mod is not functional anymore is probably the time i stopped playing this game.

well... i do get a bit tired with this game. probably why i rarely play it anymore.

[vandalism]

Royal taxes aren't that big of a deal. Money is really easy to make in this game if that's your goal, learning how to do it takes a little time and effort, though. Also active pause is not needed whatsoever.

The early game can be a little hectic but once everything is up and rolling money is never a problem, even with hard AI and difficult settings. Some common traps are trying to produce a lot of steel at the beginning, over expanding and over producing, and getting huge into the red. This happened to me frequently when I started with the game.

One way to mitigate this is to expand out to an island that you can get going up to workers and make a few chains of soap, and then sell the soap to Eli. That should alleviate early game expenses and allow for importing steel.

I have 300 hours in this game. It is not easy to learn, but there are a lot of videos online to help. I personally don't mod but the mods to remove that stuff make this all a non issue.

The game owns.

[Magni]

Meh. Once you're at Artisans or Engineers even a minimum of competence in setting up your stuff means you'll make more money than you'll ever be able to spend, royal taxes or no. And let's not even talk about investors, at that point it just becomes completely irrelevant.

Also, all pops on one island isn't even particularily good. Get those dirty peasants and workers off the good real estate, together with all their ugly stuff. You don't need commuter piers everywhere, though. Well, outside the new World anyway, because ♥♥♥♥ letting Obrero populations go up high enough that they start demanding sewing machines. That's something you do once to unlock buildings, then you spread em' out over several islands to get rid of the headache.

Also, if you have money trouble early on? Sell soap to the prison, fried plantains to Isabel and/or beer to the pirates. Those are all profitable enough that building a small production settlement next to the NPCs to create a regular trade route will get you a tidy profit.

[kmmacman]

My strategy in all Anno games has been to settle as many islands as I can by buying the material I need from anyone selling it and setting up buy items in my warehouses and going into debt until I reach a point where I can comfortably start producing them on my own.( you don't lose a game with a negative cash flow unless you don't take action to correct it at some point) I also will popularize settled islands with farmers in order to collect tax income from them to get out of debt.
I agree with Magni - once you get things rolling the royal tax is not a problem, I have reached as much as 900 mil. + with no problem. If you have to go into debt in order to provide items for your pop. the reward will follow.

[jamiechi]

Once I get past the first few hundred hours playing this game, I may go back and try it with the taxes enabled. And maybe even finish the campaign.

[LootSoldat]

Wtf, i have 0 problems with taxes. I've long forgotten that they exist. I have my main Island on Cap Trewlany and have nearly 2Million income so even the royal taxes with 1M are peanuts. I never expected that people exist who have proplems with this

[dodesskiy]

Originally posted by DMN:

edit 2 :
if you have no problem with the royal taxes. then good for you. this thread isn't for you. no need to reply here. go ahead and enjoy your games. why waste time posting here?



original content :
i don't want to use mods if possible. but it seems i will have to. because the royal taxes is killing the game.

i play not for that kind of realistic moronic addition. i know that history. but that doesn't mean you have to add it to the game. at least add option to disable royal taxes.

i play games to have fun not to be stressed out.


edit :
i own the game on Epic.

I know this is many years old, but others might read to find answers. Your number 1 source of income are properly through High Life done investors. As in with panorama effect intense on every other building in lines. Think chessboard/checkerboard. I had to re enable royal taxes just now because I was earning 2 billion, and 2.1 turns into the negative. So once the taxes were taken out they were about 40%. So I'm now making 1.2 billion. I do some trades to the NPCs yes, but for fun more than anything. The cash gains for intense level 5 investors is crazy. Artistas in the New World really seem under done. They needed levels to their housing too. I play heavily moded yes, but you'll get huge numbers anyhow. I just get way more because I can build houses in the harbor which actually expands the game, making it much cooler. It's called Harbor Life. I also needed Build On Water mod. Point is, you guys never toughed it out through the first few investors on at least that main island. Once you got them maxed, and in the checkerboard pattern. After a while I saw you can do 4/5/4/5 also. Cash gain flew right up. This is more for others newer to the game. But as far as what you said about relaxing, and not stressing out. I agree 100%. I make the game as hard or easy as I want it to be with mods. It's not online multiplayer thank god. It has an option, but that's it. I think this current play through has 250 hours in. I'm refusing to stop improving here and there LOL. Now with taxes being back in I can keep adding investors.

[DMN]

Originally posted by dodesskiy:

Originally posted by DMN:

edit 2 :
if you have no problem with the royal taxes. then good for you. this thread isn't for you. no need to reply here. go ahead and enjoy your games. why waste time posting here?



original content :
i don't want to use mods if possible. but it seems i will have to. because the royal taxes is killing the game.

i play not for that kind of realistic moronic addition. i know that history. but that doesn't mean you have to add it to the game. at least add option to disable royal taxes.

i play games to have fun not to be stressed out.


edit :
i own the game on Epic.

I know this is many years old, but others might read to find answers. Your number 1 source of income are properly through High Life done investors. As in with panorama effect intense on every other building in lines. Think chessboard/checkerboard. I had to re enable royal taxes just now because I was earning 2 billion, and 2.1 turns into the negative. So once the taxes were taken out they were about 40%. So I'm now making 1.2 billion. I do some trades to the NPCs yes, but for fun more than anything. The cash gains for intense level 5 investors is crazy. Artistas in the New World really seem under done. They needed levels to their housing too. I play heavily moded yes, but you'll get huge numbers anyhow. I just get way more because I can build houses in the harbor which actually expands the game, making it much cooler. It's called Harbor Life. I also needed Build On Water mod. Point is, you guys never toughed it out through the first few investors on at least that main island. Once you got them maxed, and in the checkerboard pattern. After a while I saw you can do 4/5/4/5 also. Cash gain flew right up. This is more for others newer to the game. But as far as what you said about relaxing, and not stressing out. I agree 100%. I make the game as hard or easy as I want it to be with mods. It's not online multiplayer thank god. It has an option, but that's it. I think this current play through has 250 hours in. I'm refusing to stop improving here and there LOL. Now with taxes being back in I can keep adding investors.

i know that after our income is quite big. having taxes doesn't kills it. it's just the taxes when starting out, is what is killing the game for me.

but it also been a long time since i last played the game.

and cos the game has gone back to steam. i plan to buy it when it's cheap and play it again on steam.

and that's why i use trainers when playing games. cos i want to enjoy the games. and not be stressed by the games. but i don't turn on everything. i only turn on what i felt that i need.

edit :
playing games that are too easy is also not fun. that's why trainers or mods are only turned on when i felt that i need it.

[Hurricane]

Op just play the game and you'll realise its very easy to get money and you'll be dripping in it later on... spending millions to reroll shops.

Don't worry about these taxes they are puny compared to the income you'll be getting...