Campaign Question

[Gamerwolfsix]

I just started the campaign. It periodically says "a player has set up a new trade route" or "someone has established a new port". While going through the story, am I also competing against AI? Or can I sit and take things slowly, and build up a powerhouse before continuing with the story some more?
Also, what are solid ways to make money?

[Kalil]

There are AI but I think they might be a bit limited in campaign, you should be able to build up as long as you don't progress the quests too quickly.

Make soap and sell it at the prison is a good way to make early money.

Claim another island or two when you can.

[Chaosium]

You can remove the opponents in the campaign settings at the beginning if you feel like they are claiming ground too fast or annoying in general. Expert AI typically will not wait for you to settle in the New World for instance, but Easy won't go there before you do (if you've just started, I assume you haven't pumped difficulty to max)

[Gamerwolfsix]

I started in 'normal mode', just unlocked soap and the ability to eventually get iron.

[Smokerbait]

Originally posted by Gamerwolfsix:

I just started the campaign. It periodically says "a player has set up a new trade route" or "someone has established a new port". While going through the story, am I also competing against AI? Or can I sit and take things slowly, and build up a powerhouse before continuing with the story some more?

The easy AI: Princess Qing, Willie Wibblesock, and Bente Jorgensen, are very easy opponents. They are easy to make friends with, very hard to anger into a war (unless you just straight up declare one), and will not colonize islands without your permission. They also won't go to new regions until you do. These AI opponents are ideal for taking things slowly and going at your own pace.

The other AIs classified as Medium and Hard, will expand at their own initiative regardless of what you do. You cannot sit and take things slowly as they will eventually colonize all the other islands leaving you with nothing left unless you take it by force, or buy their island shares (which will anger the AI you bought it from and could lead to war)

In the campaign, you are guaranteed two islands in the New World, as it's part of the story, but all other islands are up for grabs.

[Gamerwolfsix]

Dont see easy medium hard, just normal advanced expert. Is normal easy? And if I picked normal they wont colonize?

[Smokerbait]

Originally posted by Gamerwolfsix:

Dont see easy medium hard, just normal advanced expert. Is normal easy? And if I picked normal they wont colonize?

I did misspeak, and the game does use normal/advanced/expert as the difficulty terms.

If you chose the Normal difficulty opponents; Princess Qing, Willie Wibblesock, and Bente Jorgensen, then you'll be fine. And just to clarify, the Normal AI will want to colonize other islands, they will simply ask you for permission first, and you can always say no. You take a diplomacy penalty hit for doing so, but it's easy to recover.

[Hailstorm]

Just don't AFK for too long, because if you don't say "no" quickly enough, they will settle on an island anyway :D

[War Hamster]

normal is easiest. they will colonize but slowly. best way to make money is grow luxury goods and upgrade your people to higher class
I play at a very relaxed pace, and on normal I think you have enough time to be able to survive. it's not a high pressure game on normal settings. that's just my experience

[Hundinger]

The "normal" difficulty setting has two one star AIs and unfortunately one two star AI. It's better to choose a custom game, there you can just choose with whom you want to play. You can choose to play with no AI if you want, you can play with all three or just one or two. I really recommend starting a custom game and leaving everything on normal and just change the AI settings. Oh, and you can choose if you want to play with or without pirates too.

[Sarsgamer]

I'm pretty new myself. One thing I've found is you can go slowly, but don't do an expedition to a new region until you're ready to expand in that region. The AI won't go to that region until you discovered it yourself.

For me, Cape whatever, I have the one big island there, but another AI owns all the others. I "discovered" it and then ignored it and the AI took over all the islands in that region.

in the reverse, I went to the arctic later game and settled all islands there and there's no AI there.

The fun side is i'm about to start an epic war with the more advanced AI. Beryl is going down!

[Gunny]

Originally posted by Sarsgamer:

I'm pretty new myself. One thing I've found is you can go slowly, but don't do an expedition to a new region until you're ready to expand in that region. The AI won't go to that region until you discovered it yourself.

For me, Cape whatever, I have the one big island there, but another AI owns all the others. I "discovered" it and then ignored it and the AI took over all the islands in that region.

in the reverse, I went to the arctic later game and settled all islands there and there's no AI there.

The fun side is i'm about to start an epic war with the more advanced AI. Beryl is going down!

If playing above Easy the only region the AI will not go to until you get there is the Arctic. All other regions are on timers and the AI will eventually go with or without you. The AI will never settle Manola or Crown Falls though. Those will always be left for you. The AI will however take them from you if you are at war. I have had the AI attack Tamberine but I have never seen them take it.