Anno 1800 overwhelming??

[Bishy]

So I have been a fan of Anno's for a long time, loving city builders especially.. I've put about 50 hours into Anno 1800 (bought the complete pack with all DLCS with Ubisoft special).. though I'm finding it very overwhelming. I played out the campaign (which I really enjoyed) though am trying my hand in a sandbox - where there's just SOO many layers of resources I need to provide.. adding more complexity to having work work across multiple islands and now lands!! urgh. How is everybody else feeling about this? I'm managed to get to investor level though am now facing a rebuild of all my islands (which is not easy) as with the introduction of electricity I need the addons to help boost output of all my farms, etc as running out of space.

Am I being a princess or are other people facing similar frustrations/headaches?

[Wolfsun]

are other people facing similar frustrations/headaches?

I reached the level of frustration you describe Bishy way before you checked out.

1800 is my favorite of all the Annos but after awhile it does tend to get overwhelming.

NO! You are not being a Princess. Games are designed to be FUN. Once they stop being fun it's time to STOP playing them.

[Sarsgamer]

You could try with no AI or pirates and just have traders. My second game I did with no pirates or AI, just traders, which makes the game feel more causal IMO. The first game I eliminated all the AI and had no desire to do that again.

Also newspapers always doing all consumerism options helps immensely. I wanted to try my second game without them, but it's just too much without it if you're aiming for a couple million residents.

I enjoyed the complications personally, I just like the multiple layers and depth to the game. My first game I had to redo my production multiple times during my play through even moving multiple productions to entirely different islands. There's satisfaction of getting it all optimized to me though. There can be a bit of a "whack-a-mole" feel to the game though, constantly having to fix things. As long as your income or workforce tiers aren't negative then you don't technically have to try fixing everything at once.

The hardest part for me was figuring out what productions to move to different islands and which make sense together. Easy examples is anything pig related goes on it's own island or grain related on another island. My second game I combined grain with all my old world drink productions and all my old world drinks are producing byproduct ethanol which covers my old world need for it.

Specialists like Dario and Bruno and overproduce penny farthings and sewing kits and then use the free byproduct of advanced weapons and steam motors for all your docklands exports simplifies things quite a bit as well. And like production also gets it's own island, like carriages and eventually more gramophones. Dario or Bruno produce byproduct gramophones as well and it's enough to keep you stocked for awhile.

Really when you start using the best specialists and items, and likely should have research to really do it the easiest and quickest, in trade unions or town halls (I focus more on trade unions) it starts to make things a bit easier like no longer needing pearls at all. Or canneries no longer needing goulash and instead uses pigs helps a lot. Among other things.

My second game only initially did I have to move my production. Once commuter piers were up and multiple islands settled all my production moved to the islands I was going to want them at since I already knew what I wanted. Though I did production island layouts compared to my previous game. Also rushed to get my research up and running.

There's also the grand gallery menu that once you've played and got the worlds trade fair you can farm golden tickets (or do scenarios for golden tickets) to make starting the game easier and they will be available in any save once you buy them in the gallery.

[XceptOne]

I would say, don't try to do everything at once. Especially doing the skyscrapers and tourism things requires so many new wares that it almost fells like a game on its own. I guess you could add Haciendas and Airships to that list.
This stuff are all great additions to the game, but maybe do a playthrough (or a couple of them) without using all of these until you are comfortable with the rest of the game.

But, yes, with all the content that is around now, the game will indeed overwhelm any new player who doesn't have a concept of what's what.
Regarding multiple islands and maps especially, try to concentrate on doing one thing at a time and stabilise your production and logistics efforts before moving on to your next goal. Also have things like firefighters and hospitals covering all your residential areas completely.
If you did that you should be able to ignore pretty much any notification the game could throw at you for hours on end, without anything bad happening (minus replaceing ocassional ruins due to explosions and maybe rare cases of lost ships, in case pirates are bothering you.) Also play with 1-star AI only, until you're comfortable.

Even with the base game only, people (includes me) tended to restart the game on their first playthrough once they hit investor stage. Mainly to be able to better integrate rails and electricity into their cities, as obviously noone can forsee these needs without having encountered them.

Having to rework industry isn't uncommon, especially when you hit electricity and can basically halve most of your more advanced industries, due to double productivity.
For agricultural stuff it helps to preplan a bit for tractors and to use silos from the get go. Also, at least in my opinion, farms don't do well on your main residential island, as they tend to take to much space.

Other than that, heavy reworks should only be necessary once you go real crazy with inhabitants. Before that you should only need to do the electricity reworks (and keep in mind that not every small thing actually needs it, if you've been fine before. Reworks is more a thing about freeing up workforces and tidying finances in that stage).

For the New World, I'll have to admit that settling the large island (Manola) isn't as easy as it first seems. Also try to concentrate on the first to inhabitant stages, until you're comfortable with that. They'll provide everything you need.
The third stage is pretty much the newest DLC and can go crazy if you want to fulfill all their needs from the get go (electricity in the New world wasn't a thing before either).

All in all, trying to learn all of the dlcs at once is a perfect recipe for headaches, better to do one step at a time. It will probably help to read up what each dlc actually does and what's new in there so you can specifically avoid major features of them.
Starting them all up without being somewhat firm in the base game and previous major content dlc will just be hopelessly overwhelming.
But with a plan and some experience all of that will be lots and lots of fun, while still providing a very relaxing atmosphere as you will know by then: There is no need for rushing things. And there are only very few things that actually require immediate attention.
And there is no shame in just ignoring content that is still too much for you.

[Splutty]

At the creation of a new game, you can select which DLCs you want to include in it. If you haven't played since the start (which you don't seem to have), it's a bit easier to just disable (almost) all the DLCs and start with that, to get a bit of experience in how things work before adding more and more of the production chains.

Yes it can be extremely overwhelming, not just you! But slowly building up to it might help.

One of the things I tend to do if I just "Want to play a game", is get the wimpy computer players, and get friendly with both pirates (just pay them off constantly, and your standing will slowly increase enough to eventually get a trade agreement with them, just decline all alliance offers from the wimps).

And another thing is to get your territory/population perks up, so that your new islands start with a certain base amount of workers, and later on you can 'share' workers between islands. That helps a lot with the "Oh god, do I really need to build yet another worker's camp!?" feeling.

[Iron Horse]

I am overwhelmed at 200 hours. I bought the game, like you did, with all the DLC's. Everyone is a little different. They may have different approaches they like. I play with the easy AI, and most of the setting at normal. The easy AI takes away a layer of latent stress trying to figure things out while you the AI is claiming Islands. I like the normal settings because I don't want to get used to playing on easy for the actual building. Being able to move buildings is nice at first.

What takes away layers of stress where you feel alright with the game? After I figure out the campaign "Throws" the DLC's at you, not necessarily in the order you should do them, that took away some stress. Starting out, it may be ok to have all the DLC's that add areas....and we do the different areas as convenient. Going to another area/DLC for awhile gives some time for resources to build up. I like the Seeds of Change DLC. The Hacienda gives a big bonus to island desirability, which helps with the $$$ from public moorings. The other good thing about that DLC is the fertilizer. It is a game changer. Also, the big Island in the New World is nice. For a first play through, I would just go with the DLC's that add additional areas, and the Seeds of Change, and the Dockyards. You do what you like, but learning more of the base game first takes away layers of stress and micromanagement until you are comfortable.

[Iron Horse]

Personally, with the Seeds of Change DLC, haven't done much with it other than make sure to place a Hacienda on each Island, with the Public Mooring.....make sure to place all the animal farms close together to gain fertilizer, and produce beer in the New World rather than bring it from overseas. That may get you into the later game pretty well.

One of the biggest headaches for me was transitioning through the Engineer Stage. What helps speed it up is buying steam motors from Old Nate. All you have to do is open up Cape Trelawney, and find Old Nate.

The other things the game doesn't tell you about, is it may behoove you to do the scenarios. The scenarios earn you points you can spend in the Grand Gallery. There are useful Items and Specialists you can call in from the start of any play through. One the most useful ones, for me, has been Bruno Ironbright. You can set up your sowing machine factories with him, go to the New World, and get that started, and by the time you are ready to get your Engineers you have passively gained steam motors. There are a lot of ways to take advantage of the Grand Gallery once you are more familiar with the game.

[Fekin]

There's so many ways to play Anno 1800, and so many official mods to tailor the game play to suit your preferred style, just play around with them and find your balance.

[Whispdragoon62]

You need the ability to wipe your own island unless I just haven't found it yet. Building up an island from scratch is completely different from optimizing an island in late game.

Also a map screen showing what production chains are on which islands would help.

Sometimes I forget like, where was I even making all the soap again?

Perhaps a global production readout vs population so you can see if you're overshooting certain supply chains and just chewing through the stockpiles. They need to make it more clear like "Soap supports 3,800 pops" or "Sausages supports 600-800pops" etc.

[Splutty]

I just name all my islands after their main production.

[Sarsgamer]

Originally posted by Splutty:

I just name all my islands after their main production.

Same, in old world I have like Pigs isle, drunk isle (all drinks), OW orchards, clothing isle and some others. I just try not to name it as an actual product, like sugs isle for sugar production so when I search for like sugar in my routes the island doesn't get listed.

NW though I will forget which one is doing ponchos or fried plantains, but I know it's either one of two islands.

[Sarsgamer]

Originally posted by Whispdragoon62:

You need the ability to wipe your own island unless I just haven't found it yet. Building up an island from scratch is completely different from optimizing an island in late game.

You can but only way to do it is destroy your trading post. You'd have to reclaim the island and all your inventory is wiped out so not a plausible solution heh. Since my first game I just have an idea what my production islands are going to contain so as soon as I can afford commuter piers I start up my production islands so still pretty early game. Lot less redoing doing it that way. My first game though I probably moved stuff around 4 times figuring out how and where I wanted my productions.

Originally posted by Whispdragoon62:

Also a map screen showing what production chains are on which islands would help.

Sometimes I forget like, where was I even making all the soap again?

In production tab you can select the product and select all islands and on the right click on one of the tabs and shows what islands are producing it. Also I name my islands based on some key that'll remind where something is being produced. Like pigs isle, all my pigs and related productions are on that island. Pigs, Sausage, soap, canned foods, tallow and biscuits cause of the tallow.

Though I would like to see in the production tab, similar to how it shows what islands are producing it I'd like to see what islands are consuming it.

[MarkShot9]

I haven't read the whole thread, but I am new to the ANNO series and 1800.

Do this. Visit YouTube ID = "Taka".

He has two superb and up to date tutorial play lists. Besides being a game expert, he is natural born teacher. He will make this game very simple for you; and he is brief and succinct.

You will get much more from the game after doing so. (also, his presentation is not a collection of cheats and exploits)

[20202rick]

Originally posted by MarkShot9:

I haven't read the whole thread, but I am new to the ANNO series and 1800.

Do this. Visit YouTube ID = "Taka".

He has two superb and up to date tutorial play lists. Besides being a game expert, he is natural born teacher. He will make this game very simple for you; and he is brief and succinct.

You will get much more from the game after doing so. (also, his presentation is not a collection of cheats and exploits)

Thanks for that as I am feeling overwhelmed as well.

[Primigenia]

For me it is more overwhelming in the beginning because with all the dlcs (18 or 19 I think) it's quite full of different people talking, giving you missions, fully queued quest books, but once I keep going it gets better, I start discovering the new lands, fulfill some quests and delete others, and it gets more manageable, the important thing is to take it slow.

[Xenomorph Kitty]

Originally posted by MarkShot9:

I haven't read the whole thread, but I am new to the ANNO series and 1800.

Do this. Visit YouTube ID = "Taka".

He has two superb and up to date tutorial play lists. Besides being a game expert, he is natural born teacher. He will make this game very simple for you; and he is brief and succinct.

You will get much more from the game after doing so. (also, his presentation is not a collection of cheats and exploits)

I've searched for this guy, but his playlists are not up to date. They're like from two years ago, unless I'm just finding the wrong ones.