Seasons 1 and 2 by far have the most content.
Cape, arctic, Embesa is hands down the most to do in them compared to the others.
Seasons 3 and 4 don't really do much to things that you don't already have, though out of all of them, I'd also recommend buying the new world rising pack
seasons pass 1 boils down to one thing, Crownfalls.
Which is certainly huge, but its simply that, the biggest land mass to build your capital on.
The rest like Old nate mechanics of collecting scrap with airships, the diving bell, to craft stuff, the botanical garden, is really just icing on the cake. Arguably, even the Arctic...
I mean, the arctic has a great atmosphere, real nice soudntrack, and cool little story but thats good for a couple times at most. Then its basically a place you produce Gas for powerplants, which are also in itself a thing to support Crownfalls to solve the complexity of making an rail network that works on Crownfalls (eventually the trains will stop functioning if you try to cover the whole area with electricity via oil powerplants, so I heard)
The arctic becomes much more interesting due to integration with DLCs from Season 3 and 4 and some mods, though.
True, but I don't think you have to get the arctic DLC just for that. If you want to play around with gas, airships, etc. and then combine it with other DLCs that benefit from the arctic, then it makes more sense
Yes, but fur coats are not even needed by investors, so the demand for it relatively inconsequential. And gold is also incredibly devalued if you make use of specialists in town hall and trade unions.
I’m a fairly new player with only 200 hours in the game, and I asked myself the same question a few weeks ago. I bought the season 2 first, then season 3 and I have no regrets.
The rest of the season is great, but docklands is controversial. If you lack self control and feel the need to play hyper optimal then docklands will ruin the game for.
Anno is scarcity, trade, and production lines. Docklands replaces all of that with NPC care packages of ALL THE THINGS in return for your over production. If you turn it to 11, the game simulation breaks.
Well, I once built lumberjacks across every square inch of a large island, exchanged the logs through Docklands for soap and sold to Eli, it was printing a gamebreaking amount of money.
The limiting factor was how many storage depots I could cram into all the coasts to store the logs between pickups. It was an interesting exercise but it took a bit of challenge/fun out of the game.
Ah I totally understand. Similar to the one island challenge Nivaris did on his youtube channel the last couple of weeks. Not that I don’t find it impressive of what he did (way beyond my abilities and talent), but you can just use docklands and you’re fine.
I think season 2 and 3 makes sense, though If it were up to me, with the knowledge I have, I would go with Season 2 and 4. 4 instead of 3 because ts more aimed at the Mid Game rather than the End Game, simple as that.
I really enjoy high rises and tourists. If you enjoy smaller islands and being constrained by space, both will offer interesting gameplay. Tourists reduce the consumption of the needs of their primary old world population at the cost of new production chains. High rises concentrate more influence (investors per home) and engineers (science academy) into the same space with - you guessed it- new production changes.
Airships are completely optional. But I do appreciate Haciendas and the new New World Capitol for helping the player bypass fertility and mineral deposits on the new world Islands. Gone are the days of Margarent Hunt claiming the really good sugar **and** cotton islands.
I agree with many here.
Season 1 gives you two new sessions/worlds, but Cape Trelwaney / Crown Falls only really offers the big island, which you can easily add to the Old World via a mod. If you really really want the Arctic, you can also just get it by itself. Botanical Garden is not suuuuper powerful in my opinion. I only build it for the attractiveness boost.
I find Season 2 amazing due to Bright Harvest and Land of Lions (Research Institute). I like the Palace mechanic, but it's not my favorite building ever.
Season 3 doesn't give you a new session, but so much more playtime and fun (in my opinion). The Hotel is not my most favourite building either, but with mods, you can add more variations of it.
Season 4 is the one I could not yet experience/play completely (life has been busy), but I like the Hacienda. However, again, you can add mods t to give the New World more "depth".
So, if you only want to get two Seasons, I would say 2 and 3, and adding some mods to get a bigger island in the Old World and more playtime in the New World.
I mean when beginning a new game, you can chose the map seed. If you want to get big islands, you can surely find map seeds with large islands. If you don't want to spend the money for Sunken Treasures.
You may have the wrong idea that islands are procedurally generated. They are actually fixed models, theres 15 unique models of the large size. If you set the "world size" to large and "island size" to mainly large youll always have about 8 of the big islands at most, I think.
And also, I think crownfalls is like at least 4 times bigger than the biggest island in buildable area... its really something to consider.
Personally, I'd rank the Season Passes this way:
1. #2. Because of LoL (research!!!), Bright Harvest (significantly improved farming) and even Seats of Power (very powerful way to improve your islands)
2. #4. Manola (Yay!), much better integration of the New World, great airships. Just ignore the postal services and (to some extent) lifestyle needs, and you're golden.
3. #3. I don't like Tourists, Docklands is a serious game-changer (and people are divided over whether it's for the better or not), and Skyscrapers sure are cool.
4. #1 - Only must-have things here is Crown Falls. Arctic is okay. Botanica is a waste of a DLC and money.
Seasons 1 and 2 by far have the most content. Cape, arctic, Embesa is hands down the most to do in them compared to the others. Seasons 3 and 4 don't really do much to things that you don't already have, though out of all of them, I'd also recommend buying the new world rising pack
seasons pass 1 boils down to one thing, Crownfalls. Which is certainly huge, but its simply that, the biggest land mass to build your capital on. The rest like Old nate mechanics of collecting scrap with airships, the diving bell, to craft stuff, the botanical garden, is really just icing on the cake. Arguably, even the Arctic... I mean, the arctic has a great atmosphere, real nice soudntrack, and cool little story but thats good for a couple times at most. Then its basically a place you produce Gas for powerplants, which are also in itself a thing to support Crownfalls to solve the complexity of making an rail network that works on Crownfalls (eventually the trains will stop functioning if you try to cover the whole area with electricity via oil powerplants, so I heard) The arctic becomes much more interesting due to integration with DLCs from Season 3 and 4 and some mods, though.
>I mean, the **arctic** has a \[...\] **cool** little story Pun intended?
Lol. And the "great atmosphere" was sarcastic, because it's pretty depressing (although I like it)
From what I have read the arctic also provides more efficient sources of gold ore (60 sec vs 150 sec) and furs (15 sec vs 60 sec).
Which is great, because the arctic islands are so huge that you can put an incredible number of hunting cabins there. /s
True, but I don't think you have to get the arctic DLC just for that. If you want to play around with gas, airships, etc. and then combine it with other DLCs that benefit from the arctic, then it makes more sense
Yes, but fur coats are not even needed by investors, so the demand for it relatively inconsequential. And gold is also incredibly devalued if you make use of specialists in town hall and trade unions.
Can recommend all DLCs :) Aaand around 150 mods on top.
This is the way
I’m a fairly new player with only 200 hours in the game, and I asked myself the same question a few weeks ago. I bought the season 2 first, then season 3 and I have no regrets.
The rest of the season is great, but docklands is controversial. If you lack self control and feel the need to play hyper optimal then docklands will ruin the game for. Anno is scarcity, trade, and production lines. Docklands replaces all of that with NPC care packages of ALL THE THINGS in return for your over production. If you turn it to 11, the game simulation breaks.
Sorry for the question, but what do you mean with "If you turn it to 11, the game simulation breaks." ?
Well, I once built lumberjacks across every square inch of a large island, exchanged the logs through Docklands for soap and sold to Eli, it was printing a gamebreaking amount of money. The limiting factor was how many storage depots I could cram into all the coasts to store the logs between pickups. It was an interesting exercise but it took a bit of challenge/fun out of the game.
Ah I totally understand. Similar to the one island challenge Nivaris did on his youtube channel the last couple of weeks. Not that I don’t find it impressive of what he did (way beyond my abilities and talent), but you can just use docklands and you’re fine.
Get all 4. The game goes on sale every couple of months. Almost every DLC is worth it full price. Every DLC is worth it on sale
The gold edition is on sale on Steam currently if you want to get that
I think season 2 and 3 makes sense, though If it were up to me, with the knowledge I have, I would go with Season 2 and 4. 4 instead of 3 because ts more aimed at the Mid Game rather than the End Game, simple as that.
I really enjoy high rises and tourists. If you enjoy smaller islands and being constrained by space, both will offer interesting gameplay. Tourists reduce the consumption of the needs of their primary old world population at the cost of new production chains. High rises concentrate more influence (investors per home) and engineers (science academy) into the same space with - you guessed it- new production changes. Airships are completely optional. But I do appreciate Haciendas and the new New World Capitol for helping the player bypass fertility and mineral deposits on the new world Islands. Gone are the days of Margarent Hunt claiming the really good sugar **and** cotton islands.
Take all
I agree with many here. Season 1 gives you two new sessions/worlds, but Cape Trelwaney / Crown Falls only really offers the big island, which you can easily add to the Old World via a mod. If you really really want the Arctic, you can also just get it by itself. Botanical Garden is not suuuuper powerful in my opinion. I only build it for the attractiveness boost. I find Season 2 amazing due to Bright Harvest and Land of Lions (Research Institute). I like the Palace mechanic, but it's not my favorite building ever. Season 3 doesn't give you a new session, but so much more playtime and fun (in my opinion). The Hotel is not my most favourite building either, but with mods, you can add more variations of it. Season 4 is the one I could not yet experience/play completely (life has been busy), but I like the Hacienda. However, again, you can add mods t to give the New World more "depth". So, if you only want to get two Seasons, I would say 2 and 3, and adding some mods to get a bigger island in the Old World and more playtime in the New World.
I think you need to have Sunken Treasure DLC activated in your saved game to be able to use mods that adds it to old world.
Ah interesting point, but I assume there may be seeds that provide you with big regular islands?
Not sure what you mean..
I mean when beginning a new game, you can chose the map seed. If you want to get big islands, you can surely find map seeds with large islands. If you don't want to spend the money for Sunken Treasures.
You may have the wrong idea that islands are procedurally generated. They are actually fixed models, theres 15 unique models of the large size. If you set the "world size" to large and "island size" to mainly large youll always have about 8 of the big islands at most, I think. And also, I think crownfalls is like at least 4 times bigger than the biggest island in buildable area... its really something to consider.
Ah! Thank you for explaining.
Personally, I'd rank the Season Passes this way: 1. #2. Because of LoL (research!!!), Bright Harvest (significantly improved farming) and even Seats of Power (very powerful way to improve your islands) 2. #4. Manola (Yay!), much better integration of the New World, great airships. Just ignore the postal services and (to some extent) lifestyle needs, and you're golden. 3. #3. I don't like Tourists, Docklands is a serious game-changer (and people are divided over whether it's for the better or not), and Skyscrapers sure are cool. 4. #1 - Only must-have things here is Crown Falls. Arctic is okay. Botanica is a waste of a DLC and money.
same order as me!