Africa DLC sucks

[Dexter]

This is one of the worst Anno DLCs ever made. Like 90% of the quests in this DLC are listening to the (made-up) lore and history of the region. Apart from me not caring at all about the made-up lore/history, it's really bad for the pacing of the overall game. You have to sit there and listen to characters tell stories while you have things going on in the Old World, New World, Arctic and Cape Trelawney. Also, since there is a significant delay between messages, I assume so players don't get overwhelmed with notifications, it takes forever to get through.
That's not what Anno is about and I hope the developers never repeat this. Cape Trelawney, on the other hand, is one of the best DLCs ever made for Anno because it gives players a huge island to play with. It's such a stark contrast between 2 DLCs for one Anno game.

[asterix52]

Sorry, but I totally disagree. The main purpose of the Land of Lions is to allow the Research Institute to be developed and then to use that research capability. The Land of Lions islands provide essential supplies for the Scholars,
You don't have to follow all of the story lines if you don't want to. The one centred around Ketema is the only essential one; you can't get the Research Institute and Scholars without it. The three stories around the other islands aren't essential. You get a reward for completing them, but it's up to you.
In fact, there is a connection, because you can make better use of the big island if you us the features of the Research Institute.

[Dexter]

Originally posted by asterix1952:

Sorry, but I totally disagree. The main purpose of the Land of Lions is to allow the Research Institute to be developed and then to use that research capability. The Land of Lions islands provide essential supplies for the Scholars,
You don't have to follow all of the story lines if you don't want to. The one centred around Ketema is the only essential one; you can't get the Research Institute and Scholars without it. The three stories around the other islands aren't essential. You get a reward for completing them, but it's up to you.
In fact, there is a connection, because you can make better use of the big island if you us the features of the Research Institute.

OK, but none of these reasons you stated make the DLC fun. Saying "it's essential" doesn't make a difference - it's not fun. It's essential to play the last mission of Far Cry if you want to finish the game, but the last mission of Far Cry is also the worst designed mission in the game and not fun at all. Same goes for the Africa DLC.

[kmmacman]

I have to agree with Dexter. I did not enjoy going through all those quest that, IMO, gain you nothing. I added LOL to another saved game and when asked if I wanted to help unite the islands selected not to. Got a nasty look from King What's his name, and life went on. You still have to deal with the whole Archibald love letter thing but can get through it pretty quick. But even after all that there still seems to be endless quest in that region. I like the Research facility and all that comes with it but in this case LOL definitely does not mean laugh out loud.

[Dexter]

Originally posted by kmmacman:

..but in this case LOL definitely does not mean laugh out loud.

LOL

[asterix52]

Oh well. It seems like we'll just have to agree to disagree. I find it fun; you don't. No problem.

[Dexter]

Originally posted by asterix1952:

Oh well. It seems like we'll just have to agree to disagree. I find it fun; you don't. No problem.

Sure, I'm glad you enjoy it. :)

[kmmacman]

Hey don't get me wrong I love this game and have been playing it since Anno 1602 and I believe Anno 1800 is the best of all the series. That story line in Land of Lions just didn't do it for me but the DLC as a whole is great and I do enjoy developing the region.

[YannickJ]

I agree wholeheartedly. The problem is that this game is constantly demanding our attention and is pulling you in fifteen directions at once. So I really didn't enjoy these 'click around the island' and 'solve linguistic puzzles' since there isn't really a relaxing time to go ahead with this.

Seems only doable when everything is running smoothly in the old, new and Trelawney and you aren't at war with anyone or aren't trying to outpace the AI when it comes to colonizing. In my game the AI colonized the only island with lobsters (and wasnt willing to trade) so I had to wage a Hell-War in order to conquer that island (for the stew) just to advance the questline :s ...

But even then... it's boring. The area and buildings look great though!

[Draktok]

Hmm, i bought the season 1 pass. Are you telling me the season 2 pass dlc is not worth? xD

[kmmacman]

I don't think that's a fair statement. The Research Institute is an amazing addition and a complete game changer. You just have to get through the whole story line of the LOL region history and it is soooooooooo time consuming, not really uninteresting, but it seems somewhat pointless. I typically don't play with any NPC's active so I have the whole region to myself, and it's really not that big of a region either so I can see where having NPC's settling on other islands could be a problem as YannickJ mentions. I would say if you can get the dlc at a good price - go for it.

[Dexter]

Originally posted by Draktok:

Hmm, i bought the season 1 pass. Are you telling me the season 2 pass dlc is not worth? xD

It's worth it if you have everything else done and want to play more Anno 1800, especially if you want the Scholar residence for the Old World, but it's a boring DLC in my opinion. I started Anno 1800 with all DLCs installed and it's the last region I'm playing because I had too many things going on in the other regions to care until now. As someone else said though; the buildings are pretty cool and it really does look like somewhere off the Horn of Africa.

[Anolis]

It is way too wordy. I have done all the 4 possible research types and never seem to get anything. What does one need to do to make artificial cotton and rum. I have done the highest level; 4 times and received nothing. Can anyone explain the research?

Sorry keeping the scholars happy adds a level of tedium to the game. But what bothers me I never get anything from my research projects which add frustration after all my work.

[Magni]

Originally posted by Anolis:

It is way too wordy. I have done all the 4 possible research types and never seem to get anything. What does one need to do to make artificial cotton and rum. I have done the highest level; 4 times and received nothing. Can anyone explain the research?

Sorry keeping the scholars happy adds a level of tedium to the game. But what bothers me I never get anything from my research projects which add frustration after all my work.

The advanced cotton/coffee/rum projects give you license to build one advanced cotton mill/coffee roaster/rum distillery in the Old World/Cape Trelawney every time you finish the project in question. The buildings in question require electricity and an engineer workforce, and use different (old world) raw materials to produce their stuff.

The other projects like changing mining spot resources and moving clay and oil require you to click on the respective resource spot, and open up a button there.

[dodesskiy]

I found myself trying to plain get through it, cause it's there and I love the main game. It's made when it's made by the people it's made by. They twist it to fit their world view till it made no sense to me. This is about 1800s. The quests were the very worst to me, Anno is a world builder, but they tried to get you into a huge bunch of adventure stuff. To me that ruined it, it has no controls for it, no close up view from a 1rst or 3rd person done right. Oh well, I got through it, and occasionally add stuff to my villages there. Though I guess not mine, I built them for their king. Some of it like irrigation was fun. It was what it should have been about 100%. We have problems, I hear you build well. Help us, we'll do cultural outreach, maybe some cool raw materials trading for your advanced technology products. Short, simple, to the point.

[vandalism]

It doesn't feel very "anno" but it is superbly well written. It is a change of pace and has some good choices and court intrigue. I dont like that it all pops up at you and you have to manage so much other stuff while paying attention to the story too (or risk making a bad choice then having to figure out where you messed up and go back). But overall it is good. It has a better plot than 99% and better writing than 99.9% of AAA games out recently. :) i like it. Lol.