I apologize for my lack of German, but I love settlers too much not to get involved. If someone could perhaps translate for me, I know google doesn't do a very good job of translating to German.
Okay, I have no idea if this is the right place to post, perhaps there needs to be an english section? I don't know, but I've got many ideas about this game. So, I will explain.
The first thing about me, is that I am not from Europe, so, like many people out there we learnt to play this game on the English versions. We also weren't able to get involved with much of the multiplayer functions of the game, because it wasn't an option for us. I am definitely rare, but I know that there has to be plenty of people out there.
Why is it that settlers 2 is so good? There are plenty of games that are more complicated, I think what makes Settlers 2 so good is the simplistic nature of it. Yes, I find the game simplistic. It always has been. Which is the reason why 3 and 4 and those new games have failed. Settlers 2 is like a race, it's a race to become stronger then your opponent. It's a race to pick your tactics, and apply them. Your timing becomes critical.
If you are playing settlers and you run out of planks of wood and clay, you have basically failed tactically, and you will not win from this point. What I find the best about this game is maximising every second you are playing. For most of us, we find it hard to maximise, most the time it's because our opposition isn't smart enough. The AI is no challenge at all to anyone who has played for more then a few minutes.
Multiplayer is the only way to solve this. I cannot believe that not that many people play this game, there is nothing better then this. I play this game on a daily basis, constantly playing the same map over and over, each time, I am trying to get the most out of it.
At the moment, my obsession lies with Settlers 2: TNG, vikings expansion. My favourite map is the 80 x 80 green mile with the gold in the centre. I will play this game over and over, and I have never been defeated at it. My partner plays against me, she's okay at playing it, but still, I need more of a challenge.
For many here, you probably will hate me saying this, but I actually like Settlers 2: TNG over the old settlers 2. It's not for the graphics, because I couldn't care less about them, and in fact, I find the interface in 2.5 a lot better. The reasons that I like TNG are as follows:
* The ability to move soldiers out of buildings, to me this is perfect, it means you can have a front line, and hold it, and all the buildings behind this line can be empty. I think this is very important for the game, I know that you can do this in 2.5 via using the sliders, but building evacution is a good tool to use.
Take for example, I attack my enemy, then evacuate the building which the troops came from, enabling more troops to come to the front line. As buildings aren't replenished when the attacking troops are in the field, so by hitting the evacuation button for a bit, you force more troops to come to the front. Big advantage.
* Building placement, the thing I love about TNG, is the way you can toss way more buildings next to each other, as terrain seems to effect building placement less. In TNG my method of building is to place a flag, then run a road to the south-east, then east, and place a flag there. Do this over the entire map and you have a tonne of 2nd tier buildings. A negative I find in 2.5 is the way building placement effects your ability to place other buildings near to you.
* Farms work better. In TNG, I block the dirt where I don't want the farmer to plant, I force him to use 4 blocks of dirt that are the closest to the flag. This increases production significantly, and also enables farms to be placed much closer together without stopping each others production. Imagine if you will a flag and a farm connected to it. From this farm, you run a road to the south-east 2 squares and flag it. From the original flag, you run a road to the north-east, east, north-east and flag it, and then from the original flag you run a road to the west, south-west, west and flag it.
From the two flags on the left and right of farm that are 3 away, you run a road 2 squares from each flag to the north-west and flag them. At these two flags now, you place farms. From these farms you run a road that goes between the two with a flag half way at the top of the original farm, and then a road north-west for 2 squares. The end result is a tonne of farms in a pattern which enables 14 farms to be placed in green mile all of them able to achieve the most productive 4 crop placements.
In 2.5 the farms do not work as well, when I tried this in 2.5, crops would appear in two places to the left, but not the right. Some issues with this maybe? Not sure why.
So, yeah, my suggestion is ease the rules on building placement a little bit, more like TNG.
Also, as a lasting point, I cannot stand that new game, the interface is terrible, you know the cultures game? I didn't like it one bit.
Thanks for your time.