Anno 1503
Encyclopedia
Anno 1503: The New World (known in North America as 1503 A.D.: The New World) is a game with both real time strategy and city building
City-building game
City-building games are a genre of strategy computer game where players act as the overall planner and leader of a city, looking down on it from above, and being responsible for its growth and management...

 elements, developed by Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

-based Max Design
Max Design
Max Design was an Austrian game developer located in Schladming who originated various games which attained cult status – like the Anno-series – especially in German-speaking regions...

 company. It revolves around building and maintaining a 16th century colony in the New World. It is the sequel to Anno 1602
Anno 1602
Anno 1602: Creation of a New World is a game with both real time strategy and city building elements, developed by Austria-based Max Design company....

and the predecessor to Anno 1701
Anno 1701
Anno 1701, also marketed as 1701 A.D., is a video game with both real time strategy and city building elements, developed by Germany-based Sunflowers Interactive Entertainment Software company. It revolves around building and maintaining an 18th century colony in the "New World"...

.

Gameplay

Anno 1503 begins with the player in control of a ship filled with men and material searching for an island to settle. After finding a suitable site city building begins. Resources begin as food and cloth, but progress into more complicated and different goods. Eventually, citizens become Aristocrats, and require at least ten different goods and numerous services, such as access to a large church or a bathhouse. The game is constructed around one human player and three computers. Like Anno 1602
Anno 1602
Anno 1602: Creation of a New World is a game with both real time strategy and city building elements, developed by Austria-based Max Design company....

, the AI computers are progressive, meaning that they advance along with the human players. The computer players also have adjustable personalities, which the player customizes before the beginning of a game. Each different player, human or computer, is represented by a color.

Economy

The economy in Anno 1503 is built on providing different goods to colonist citizens. It begins with the creation of cheap goods, and progresses in civilization levels throughout the game leading to more advanced goods. Since the game is built on different levels of civilizations (pioneer, settler, citizen, merchant, aristocrat), each civilization level requires more goods and more balancing skills and finesse.

The aristocrat level is not considered the highest level. Instead, it is a bonus level that advanced players can upgrade to. Besides being able to build a custom designed palace in the aristocrat level, the entire population at merchant level is more strategically sound.

Technology

Technology of Anno 1503 begins on the pioneer level. After giving citizens basic goods like food, cloth, and alcohol, they develop into Settlers, the second civilization level. The second levels allows the player's settlers to build more advanced buildings; however, settlers require more goods to stay alive. Buildings in the game do not necessarily have a specific function for the player, but have an implied or under effective function for settlers in the game. Building abilities are amplified with expansion, meaning larger populations have more effective building powers.

The military form of this game is more complex than that of Anno 1602
Anno 1602
Anno 1602: Creation of a New World is a game with both real time strategy and city building elements, developed by Austria-based Max Design company....

. The game has more than seven different types of units as opposed to Anno 1602 with only four. Thus, during battles, the game experience becomes more intense as deploying different units becomes key in strategy for winning a battle.

The buildings in the game are more extensive than those of Anno 1602. This is mainly because the game play area and islands are many times bigger than that of 1602. Thus, it makes it possible to have many more plantations and diversity of farm houses. With the original houses and farms featured in the previous game, this game also has many more extensive farms for gems, silk, whale blubber, lamp oil, medicinal herbs, hops, wine, indigo, coal, hides, leather and salt, increasing gameplay difficulty. Building and house graphics are improved over the previous game.

External links

  • Official website
  • Anno 1503 at GameFAQs
    GameFAQs
    GameFAQs is a website that hosts FAQs and walkthroughs for video games. It was created in November 1995 by Jeff "CJayC" Veasey and was bought by CNET Networks in May 2003. It is currently owned by CBS Interactive. The site has a database of video game information, cheat codes, reviews, game saves,...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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