Too many things to manage and too many different resources

[ErrosFB76]

Hey,

So I'm not here to complain about difficulty or anything in particuliar. The game is great.

But there's too many things to manage at the same time. To the point that it burnt me out of the game in only 20 hours of play time.

I'll take one exemple. The one that made me decide to quit and put the game aside.

To make the Bowler Hat : I have to build 1 cotton plantation, 1 alpaca farm, after that 1 Cotton Mill, and 1 Felt producer. It's only after that that I can build the Bombing Weaver that produce the Bowler Hat ... That is too much !

I wish there was less step to make to be able to produce this product. I decided to stop the game after that because I thought that it would get only worse later. And I'm playing with no DLC activated, the base game only.

So yeah, I'll put the game on hold for now, play a few games that I got from the current Steam sale and maybe come back to Anno after.

I know that I made some mistakes, where I should have focused more on trades with the AI. And maybe specialized more my islands, to mass produce only a couple of resources and ship them to my main island where I'll only produce the final product ... And others things that I probably didn't think of.

So yeah, in the end, while I still rest my case that there is too many things to manage at once, I'll admit that maybe my mistakes also had an impact burning me out of the game.

I don't know when but when I'll play the game again, I'll do much better and have more fun than right now.

By the way, if you have some more laid back and casual games like Anno 1800 to recommend me, please feel free to do so. (While I'm used to play games like that, this the first Anno game that I play).

(My main city before starting the New World part of the campaign : )
https://imgur.com/a/NohxRD3

[Gregomoto]

Maybe the creative mode is something for you if you „only“ want to build w/o caring about resources/production chains.
In terms of similar games like Anno it‘s not easy to recommend one as Anno is kind of unique genre, but if you want to build a city i‘d say Cities:Skylines (part 2 is comming in october) would be a choice, if it‘s transport/logistic part i‘d recommend Transport Fever 2. If you‘re looking for something historical creating/growing/supplying a population maybe Medieval Dynasty could be something for you.

[sm303030]

I tend to agree. After about the 3rd game, and fixing mistakes i made from the first two, I got much deeper into the production chains. (all DLC minus the fluff) I started realizing I wasn't really having fun anymore. It wasn't that i was getting completely overwhelmed. It was the part where i'm turning it more into a job than a game. Lost its luster after opening up the 4th area for me. Tried picking it up again at a later date and smashed into a wall at near the same spot. Moved on.

[Sistermatic™]

Maybe bowler was a not such a good example.

To be at that stage, cotton, cotton mill and alpaca wool would already be in production. You can also get an item character (milliner) who bypasses felt production so you would literally only need a bombin' weaver factory. So, ultimately, that's one additional building.

In fact it's fair to say most production chains are organically grown from existing chains and not new chains at all. Perhaps as you play longer you'll see that emerge.

I will admit that if you play with all DLC enabled it can be full on. But that can be adjusted.

[Wuik]

Hello,
Like Chess and if even you well know the rules, Anno take a long time to master ...
Aleas the old forums UBI where you may found a lot of tips and good advices are all closed ?!?
There is yet some goods playthrought on YT..
So , if you try to unlock somes achievements little by little, you will learn more quietly..
But i must admit than it was effectly more a job sometimes than a game ^^
And before "the Research institute" it was impossible to complete entirely a zoo or a museum for exemple ^^or to continue to produce glasses without ONLY one special item...
Make bowlers was a piece of cake after meet "the tourists",
You will see ^^
I forgot : Foundation and Timberborn are two very good games (on EA but Anno 1800 was not exempt of bugs at the beginning ..), but you need to learn the rules too..

[Rubyko]

The game's difficulty settings are pretty customizable and you can create the circumstances where nothing is pressuring you as you play. You also don't have to tackle everything in one go even when playing against AI. I like to take things slowly and one at a time, this is doable as long as you keep in mind which production lines you have to scale up, which ones you will have to transfer etc.

But I do understand the frustration though, this game feels intimidating at times, just keep in mind you can play at your own pace.

I also think you should check out Islanders, it's a very relaxing game but it's more of a puzzle game than a city builder. Nebuchadnezzar is also relaxing, the production chains are a lot more linear so maybe that's more to your liking, it has a stronger focus on space management though.

[justfaded]

Play a Paradox game. Much simpler games than they pretend to be.

[arjensmit79]

Thats what this game is about.
Try a game like Ozymandias or Terraformers if you want a strategy / builder game with little to manage.

[Sarsgamer]

It's what I enjoy about the game honestly. And in late to end game ways to fully optimize these chains where like that one cotton farm supports way more than it used to.

I've played numerous city builders, logistics, business managements and I'd put this one at the top. There's a lot of depth in the game.

The new world production chains are quite crazy though. But as someone else said you'd likely be producing the sub products already, though would need more.

[Deathspore]

I think the production chains are fine, but it is very awkward and clumsy how material transport is managed between islands.

[Lailantie]

I agree that the game is very challenging. I need to be totally focused and whenever I get some RL distraction I forget what I was about to do. Because it's not only "hey I'll build another sheep farm", but it's "I'll build a sheep farm so on the other island they can produce more xy and from there the trading ship can bring the products to island ABC so I can level up some houses there". (Just an example).

This game is addictive and yet very mentally exhausting for me. Yesterday I wondered why I don't get more gold. I finally figured out that I had built a second gold mine but it had no road and no storage. Most probably I was interrupted by something and forgot about it.

I played Medieval Dynasty, Foundation, Ostriv, the demo of Manor Lords and Immortal Mayor. With Immortal Mayor being a Chinese game you subscribe to chaos, untranslated chinese texts and more, so you can't take it for serious and it's fun. The other games all were manageable for me and also fun. And yes, they are easier and much more forgiving. After playing Anno 1800 I finally understand why a lot of players of the other games in the forums complain that the games were too easy and not complicated and challenging enough. I will now recommend those players to try Anno 1800 :-)))

[Torx]

Seems the problem is that to get a final product we need to go down most or the entire supply chain instead of just adding said final product producer. In general obviously you need first base goods to make something more out of it. But is seems it is too 1:1 regarding placing buildings which is in general the only way to increase production.

So. Production buildings should be upgradable instead of having to place yet another building to produce more? A tech tree would be good for that. That is how it works in the real world. In the real world we have even entire revolutions or eras because of how much technology itself can be improved. We are now in the 4th industrial revolution.

[Sarsgamer]

Originally posted by Tech Priest:

Seems the problem is that to get a final product we need to go down most or the entire supply chain instead of just adding said final product producer. In general obviously you need first base goods to make something more out of it. But is seems it is too 1:1 regarding placing buildings which is in general the only way to increase production.

So. Production buildings should be upgradable instead of having to place yet another building to produce more? A tech tree would be good for that. That is how it works in the real world. In the real world we have even entire revolutions or eras because of how much technology itself can be improved. We are now in the 4th industrial revolution.

Only some productions are 1:1 ratio. Some produce 1 per minute or some produce 1 every 15 seconds and other various timers. And quite often you're already producing the sub products and can indeed just place the final production building. At some point you're probably producing enough Alpaca wool that could supply over 100 bowler hats production cause Alpaca farms also produce byproduct dung and fertilizer so you build extra to keep up on the byproducts.

Production buildings can technically be upgraded via items placed in a trade union. Or tractors for farm, fertilizer or corn for farms, electricity for other buildings. Tractors and fertilizers/corn for farms alone can push production up by 500%.

[justfaded]

I agree and I usually like stuff like this. This is a great game but it feels way too formulaic at times. And it gets tedious. Its not complex or interesting, it's just tiresome.

This game reminds me a lot of imperialism, an old strategy game from the 90s. Has a lot of similar systems but this game feels a lot more like they just added a bunch of stuff just for the sake of adding stuff.