The Settlers II

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The Settlers II
In-game title screenshot (PC)
Developer(s) Blue Byte Software
Publisher(s) Blue Byte Software
Designer(s) Thomas Häuser
Platform(s) PC-DOS, Macintosh
Release date 1996 (PC), 1997 (Mac) 2007 (Nintendo DS)
Genre(s) Real Time Strategy
Mode(s) Single player, multiplayer
Rating(s) OFLC: PG

The Settlers II is a real-time strategy computer game, released by Blue Byte Software in 1996. Its gameplay is very similar to that of its predecessor, The Settlers, albeit with a Roman theme and improved graphics.

Many fans of the franchise consider this the best game of the Settlers series, primarily because future installments changed the transport management aspect considerably.[citation needed] This popularity was recently acknowledged by Blue Byte's decisions to publish a remake of the game, The Settlers II 10th Anniversary for the PC, and a port to the Nintendo DS more than a decade after the original release.

Contents

[edit] Gameplay

Settlers II can be played in either campaign mode or through individual scenarios defined by the user. The user can also engage in a split screen match with a human opponent on the same computer with a second mouse.[1] The player's main objectives are building a diverse economy and conquering every computer opponent. The player begins each map with a warehouse and a set amount of materials and tools. The economy is driven by serfs who transport goods through a network of roads and also populate a building once its completed, if the necessary tool to perform the building task is present in the warehouse. The economy is based on gathering raw materials which include food, rock, lumber, and ores. The player has control over what percent of a materials is transported to each building for processing. All raw materials are used to enable different economic functions such as food enables miners to mine, rock and lumber are used as material to construct buildings and other tasks while different ores are used to construct tools and war material.

The player has a limited territory (area of land) upon which he can construct buildings and roads. During the start of the game, the main warehouse is the main building granting territory around a specific radius. Territory can be expanded by creating one of four military complexes (Barracks, Guardhouse, Watchtower and Fortress) near the present territory border. Each complex must have at least one soldier garrisoned to receive the added territory bonus. Soldiers can be created by manufacturing a sword and shield, and using them to upgrade a serf. One "unit" of beer is also required to upgrade a serf to a soldier. Gold coins can also be added to raise the rank of a soldier making him stronger in combat. The player can send any amount of available soldiers to an enemy military complex where the soldier(s) must defeat all enemy soldiers housed in the building. If the player's units defeats all housed soldiers then the military complex is taken over by the player with the accompanying territory of the buildings radius. The player wins the scenarios once he defeats all opponents by occupying all their military complexes including the main warehouse or, in campaign mode, when he gains control of a specific area of the map that allows access to the next level. At this point, the game gives an option to either quit the game or continue playing even though all opponents are destroyed.

House Materials Input Output Worker Tool
Woodcutter 2*board wood Woodcutter Axe
Forester 2*board tree Forester Shovel
Quarry 2*board stone Stonemasson Pick-Axe
Fishery 2*board fish Fisher Rod and Line
Hunter 2*board ham Hunter Bow
Barracks 2*board 2*soldier, 1*coin training Soldier Sword and Shield
Guardhouse 2*board, 3*stone 3*soldier, 2*coin training Soldier Sword and Shield
Lookout Tower 4*board view Scout
Well 2*board water Worker
Sawmill 2*board, 2*stone 6*wood board Carpenter Saw
Slaughterhouse 2*board, 2*stone 6*meat ham Butcher Cleaver
Mill 2*board, 2*stone 6*grain flour Miller
Bakery 2*board, 2*stone 6*flour, 6*water bread Baker Rollin Pin
Iron Smelter 2*board, 2*stone 6*iron ore, 6*coal iron Iron Founder Crucible
Metalworks 2*board, 2*stone 6*iron, 6*board tool Metalworker Tongs
Armory 2*board, 2*stone 6*iron, 6*coal sword, shield Armorer Hammer
Mint 2*board, 2*stone 6*gold, 6*coal coin Minter Crucible
Shipyard 2*board, 3*stone 6*board ship/boat Shipwright Hammer
Brewery 2*board, 2*stone 6*grain, 6*water beer Brewer
Storehouse 4*board, 3*stone store, recruit Worker
Watchtower 3*board, 5*stone 6*soldier, 4*coin training Soldier Sword and Shield
Catapult 4*board, 1*stone 4*stone missile Worker
Farm 3*board, 3*stone grain Farmer Scythe
Pig Farm 3*board, 3*stone 6*grain, 6*water meat Pig Breeder
Donkey Breeder 3*board, 3*stone 6*grain, 6*water Pack Donkey Donkey Breeder
Harbor Building 4*board, 6*stone store, recruit, harbor Worker
Fortress 4*board, 7*stone 9*soldier, 6*coin training Soldier Sword and Shield
Gold Mine 4*board 2*fish/2*bread/2*ham gold Miner Pick-axe
Iron Mine 4*board 2*fish/2*bread/2*ham iron ore Miner Pick-axe
Coal Mine 4*board 2*fish/2*bread/2*ham coal Miner Pick-axe
Granite mine 4*board 2*fish/2*bread/2*ham stone Miner Pick-axe

[edit] Data Sheets

1. Material requirements for construction
Building Planks Stones
Headquarters 0 0
Hunter 2 0
Fishery 2 0
Quarry 2 0
Forester 2 0
Woodcutter 2 0
Well 2 0
Sawmill 2 2
Slaughterhouse 2 2
Mill 2 2
Bakery 2 2
Mint 2 2
Armory 2 2
Metalworks 2 2
Iron Smelter 2 2
Shipyard 2 3
Farm 3 3
Pig Farm 3 3
Donkey Breeder 3 3
Storehouse 4 3
Mine (any) 4 0
Harbor building 4 6
Lookout Tower 3 0
Catapult 4 2
Barracks 2 0
Guard House 2 3
Watch Tower 3 4
Fortress 4 7

2. Occupancy radius of territory
(Border and building itself are not included)

Name Size (hex)
Fortress 10
Watch tower 9
Guard house 8
Barracks 7
Headquarter 8
Harbor building 3

NOTE : Every buildings have their own origin not on a flag but upper-left of the flag.

3. Working radius of buildings
(The building itself is not included in the radius)

Name Size (hex)
Hunter 24
Catapult 12
Quarry 8
Woodcutter 6
Mine (any) 2

[edit] Tips

1. Catapult
The catapult can only attack an enemy's military buildings, such as Fortress, Watch tower, Guard house, or Barracks. As long as stones are supplied, the catapult will fire automatically. The possibility of a successful attack is about 2/3.

[edit] Tools made by fans

The game has inspired a lot of fans to create their own modifications, additions and tools for the game. Over the time a lot of these tools have disappeared from the Internet, but some do still remain.

[edit] Map generators

There are two known map generators available.

Both of the map generators do not provide all the required information in the resulting files, which results the map seem "flat" in the map window when loading the map into the game. This problem can be solved by using The Settlers II Map Editor to resave the map (this tool is provided with the Gold Edition and Mission CD releases of the game).

[edit] Translation tools

There is one known translation tool available, the Ingame Strings Editor by Vesa Piittinen.

[edit] Object editor

Jörg Scholl has created Object editor. The version available requires registration, but the author has provided registration code for free use as stated by Isch and Ivans Settlers II site. The tool can be used to place objects into maps and to create your own campaigns. It is only available in German.

[edit] Other tools

Jürgen Nagel Software provides several useful tools for modifying the game, however all of the programs are commercial. All of the programs are only available in German.

[edit] Widelands

Widelands is a slow-paced real-time strategy free computer game under the GPL. It is an open source project. Widelands takes many ideas from and is quite similar to The Settlers and The Settlers II. It is still a work in progress, with development still required in graphics and bugfixing. The game runs on several operating systems such as Linux, BSD, Mac OS X and Windows.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Rog. Settlers II: Veni, Vidi, Vici. The Electric Playground. Retrieved on 2006-10-28.
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The Settlers video games