The Settlers 3 Ultimate Collection

The game was designed and co-programmed by Volker Wertich, creator of the original Settlers game. Although the core supply and demand-based gameplay is broadly the same as in previous titles, many of the game mechanics have been altered; the player now has direct control over their army; roads are no longer necessary to connect buildings, headquarters no longer automatically generate settlers as required, and the different races now have different economic models, different magic spells, and several unique abilities and buildings. The game was also the first in the series to feature online multiplayer.

The Settlers III received mixed reviews. Whilst the economic system and the interrelatedness of the various buildings, as well as the graphics and animations were generally praised, most critics felt it was too similar to previous Settlers titles. The game was a commercial success, selling over 200,000 units in Germany within the first twelve months of its release, and ultimately going on to sell over 700,000 units worldwide.

The Settlers III is a real-time strategy game with city-building elements,[4][5][6] controlled via a point and click interface, in which the primary goal on most maps is to build a settlement with a functioning economy, producing sufficient military units so as to conquer rival territories, ultimately gaining control of either the entire map, or a certain predetermined section of it.[7] To achieve this end, the player must engage in economic micromanagement, construct buildings, and generate resources.[8]

Whether playing Campaign, Scenario or Multiplayer mode, each game begins the same way; the player has a small settlement, a set amount of raw materials and tools, and a predetermined number of settlers.[8] The basic gameplay revolves around serfs (the titular \"settlers\"), who transport materials, tools and produce, and who populate and perform the requisite task of each building.[9] New settlers can only be acquired by the construction of residences.[8][16] The player issues general orders (such as ordering the construction of a building), with the AI handling the delegation of orders to specific settlers.[16][17]

A major change to the mechanics in The Settlers III is that players do not have to construct a road network. Instead, settlers can walk freely around the player's territory, with the AI handling pathfinding.[8][18] Players can also build marketplaces, which allow for the establishment of trade routes between areas on the same geographical region,[19] and shipyards, which allow for the manufacture of both transport ships and trade ships.[20][21]

The player's territory can only be expanded by using pioneers or building a military complex near the territory border.[9][16] Each complex must have at least one soldier garrisoned for the territory to expand. To recruit soldiers, the player must build a barracks, with each individual soldier requiring their requisite weapon to transition from settler to soldier.[28] The player can also build lookout towers, which are manned by regular settlers, and which can see for great distances, but don't grant new territory.

The first major design decision Wertich made related to the complexity of the game's economic system. Due to the innovations he planned to introduce to the mechanics, and because the supply and demand-based gameplay of Settlers III was going to be more intricate than in previous titles, he felt that forcing players to concentrate too much on logistics would serve as an unwelcome distraction, and so decided to remove the need for a road network. Instead, settlers would have the freedom to move anywhere within the player's settlement, with the AI handling pathfinding.[53] Another early decision was that the different races in Settlers III wouldn't just look different, they would have different abilities, different economic models and certain buildings unique to each one.[53] Wertich, in consultation with Hertzler, also decided to create the game in high color, a first for the series, which had used 8-bit color for previous titles.[53]

By July, Hess had begun working on the sketches for the individual settlers, paying particular attention to the differentiations between the same settler from different races (the specific differences between a Roman and an Egyptian baker, for example). It soon became apparent that the workload was too much for one person, and in August a second artist was hired; Thorsten Wallner, who also worked as the game's 3D modeling artist and character animator.[56] Once on board, Wallner realised that Hess's designs were too detailed, and, as a result, were unrealisable given the current level of technology, so the pair decided to scrap them, and redesign the characters from scratch. Hess had failed to take into account that the designs of the settlers couldn't be too complex, since small details would be lost, given their size (32 pixels in height). At the same time, the designs had to be detailed enough so as to seem at least somewhat realistic, even at such a small size. To solve this problem, Wallner decided to exaggerate their proportions, \"so that the subtleties could be recognised\". He also decided to give them weapons and tools proportionally too big, as correctly sized implements would be far too small to be seen. After a week, Wallner presented his first 3D designs to Wertich and Hess (the standard Roman carriers, diggers and builders),[57] who decided to make some additional changes, such as making the settlers more rotund and enlarging the heads.[58]

In January 1998, Hess met with Blue Byte's head writer, Wolfgang Walk, to discuss the game's storyline. As it had already been decided that a new gameplay element would be \"Divine Intervention\", Hess suggested the plot have something to do with the gods of each culture, and the two worked out a rough draft in a single evening, based around a competition between Jupiter (Roman), Horus (Egyptian) and Chi-yu (Asian). Hertzler and Wertich approved the concept, but it quickly became apparent that the team currently working on the game would have no time to design or render any cutscenes. As a result, Hess suggested using a traditional animation studio with whom he had worked in the past, a Turkish company called Denge Animation.[59] Subsequently, based on designs created by Hess, one of Blue Byte's in-house artists, Tom Thiel, drew sketches of the three main characters, with different facial expressions and seen from different angles, from which Denge would ultimately produce the finished animation.[60]

The Settlers III was notable for its method of copy protection. Using Blue Byte's own in-house copy protection system, Sysiphus, pirated copies of the game would seem to run perfectly at first. However, iron smelters would produce only pigs, residences wouldn't produce new settlers, newly planted trees wouldn't grow, goods placed at a harbour for transport would disappear, and manna couldn't be generated.[23][61][62] In a press release issued by Blue Byte in January 1999, by which time the game had sold 500,000 units, Thomas Hertzler stated:

The Settlers III was a commercial success. It was the number one selling game in Germany in November 1998, and remained the number two game throughout December and January.[71] It ultimately became the German market's third-best-selling game of 1998, behind Tomb Raider III and Anno 1602.[72] By January 1999, global sales had surpassed 500,000 units.[73] That February, it was awarded the \"Platinum Award\" by the Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland e.V. (VUD); an award given to titles costing DM55 or more, which sell over 200,000 units nationally within the first twelve months of their release.[74] By April 1999, worldwide sales had surpassed 600,000 units, of which nearly 400,000 were sold in the German market.[75] Blue Byte's Thomas Hertzler commented on the game's success: \"I was sure The Settlers III had the potential to be a successful title. But the fact that the demand was so great completely surprised me\".[71] The game proved so popular that PC Fun, a German video game retailer, reported occasionally having more customers than game units.[71] When the Gold Edition was released in June 2000, the original game had sold over 700,000 units worldwide.[76]

In October, Blue Byte released a second expansion, The Settlers III: Quest of the Amazons, featuring ten new maps for single-player mode, ten new maps for multiplayer mode, an improved map editor, a new race (the Amazons), and two new twelve-mission single-player campaigns, one in which the player controls the Amazons against the other three races, and one in which they control the combined forces of the others against the Amazons.[79] The idea to include female settlers stretched back to the earliest conceptions of the game, and had always been seen as a potential idea for an expansion.[54] Blue Byte's development manager, Erik Simon, stated of Quest of the Amazons: \"Fans of the series have been bombarding us for ages with requests to finally let female Settlers pit their skills against their male counterparts. The new Amazon race will no doubt introduce some turbulence into the previously male-dominated Settlers world\".[78]

Blue Byte has announced that its special Settlers III collection is now available on its online store. Named The Settlers III: Ultimate Collection, the pack includes the full version of The Settlers III, The Settlers III Mission CD, and the Quest of the Amazons expansion CD. Blue Byte will also be adding a few extras, including additional maps and strategic mission support.

The game was a commercial success, selling over 200,000 units in Germany within the first twelve months of its release, and ultimately going on to sell over 700,000 units worldwide. Whilst the economic system and the interrelatedness of the various buildings were generally praised, and the graphics and animations especially lauded, most critics felt it was too similar to previous Settlers titles, with the changes to the mechanics seen as not enough to fully differentiate it from its predecessors. Although acclaimed in its native Germany, where it was heralded as the best game in the series thus far, the international reaction was more muted. The game was also the first in the series to feature online multiplayer, the addition of which had been one of the main requests from fans. For example, combat is more involved, with the player given direct control over their army roads are no longer necessary to connect buildings, as all settlers can now walk freely around the player's territory headquarters no longer automatically generate settlers as required, instead the player must build residences to gain new settlers and the different races are no longer merely aesthetically differentiated, they now have different economic models, different magic spells, different war machines, and several unique abilities and buildings. 59ce067264

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