History VideoGame / TheSettlers

''The Settlers'' is a series of {{RTS}}/empire-building computer games from Blue Byte Software, which premiered on the UsefulNotes/{{Amiga}} in 1993. The series was first conceived by German developer Volker Wertich, who designed the first game as well as returning to work on the third installment. He was not directly involved in the creation of the other titles, but in 2018, Ubisoft (who purchased Blue Byte back in 2001 and acted as publisher ever since) announced that Wertich was leading the development of a new title in the series, set to release in 2020. This was pushed back to 2022, and then further delayed indefinitely two weeks before it was due to launch. This eventually became ''The Settlers: New Allies'' which went on to release on PC on February 17th, 2023.

The first two games are slow as molasses. Starting wood production, for instance, means designating a spot for a woodcutter's hut and hooking it up to a road. A leveler will then walk over from the headquarters and prepare the ground. A builder will then walk over and add planks to the hut as a bucket chain of carriers brings them in. Once the builder's done, a woodcutter will walk over to occupy the hut, walk over to a nearby tree, cut it down (then strip off the branches in the first game), carry it back and leave it in front of the hut. Carriers will bring it over to a sawmill, which will turn it into one unit of planks, fresh and usable once the carriers get it where it needs to go. Matches will take hours. The games will frustrate sane people (one review in an Amiga magazine provided a recipe for a tuna melt, so that players would have something to do while they waited for their orders to be carried out) but have a strong [[CultClassic cult following]], especially in their native Germany.

''The Settlers'' is a series of {{RTS}}/empire-building computer games from Blue Byte Software, which premiered on the UsefulNotes/{{Amiga}} in 1993. The series was first conceived by German developer Volker Wertich, who designed the first game as well as returning to work on the third installment. He was not directly involved in the creation of the other titles, but in 2018, Ubisoft (who purchased Blue Byte back in 2001 and acted as publisher ever since) announced that Wertich was leading the development of a new title in the series, set to release in 2020. This was pushed back to 2022, and then further delayed indefinitely two weeks before it was due to launch.

** ''The Settlers IV: The New World and ''The Settlers IV: Community Pack'' (German only expansions)

* ''The Settlers II 10th Anniversary'' (2006) (A remake of settlers II)

* AdamSmithHatesYourGuts: In ''The Settlers IV'', priests can use mana to perform miracles. Unfortunately, each individual miracle becomes more expensive the more you use it.

* ShieldsAreUseless: In ''The Settlers II'', low ranking soldiers carry shields. High ranking soldiers do not.

''The Settlers'' is a series of {{RTS}}/empire-building computer games from Blue Byte Software, which premiered on the UsefulNotes/{{Amiga}} in 1993. The series was first conceived by German developer Volker Wertich, who designed the first game as well as returning to work on the third installment. He was not directly involved in the creation of the other titles, but in 2018, Ubisoft (who purchased Blue Byte back in 2001 and acted as publisher ever since) announced that Wertich was leading the development of a new title in the series, set to release in 2020.

* ''The Settlers''
* ''The Settlers II: Veni, Vidi, Vici''

* ''The Settlers III''

* ''The Settlers IV'' (known as ''The Settlers: Fourth Edition'' in North America)

* ''The Settlers: Heritage of Kings''

* ''The Settlers II 10th Anniversary'' (A remake of settlers II)

* ''The Settlers: Rise of an Empire''

* ''The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom''
* ''The Settlers: Castle Empire/The Settlers Online'' (Online Browser Game)

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: In ''II'' you have the highest count of specific craftsmen that can't be then put into a different job: a gold minter can't work as an iron smelter, an armourer can't be a metalworker etc. On top of that, they all require specific tools (from ''III'' onward, many jobs stopped having a tool requirement and simplified remaining ones).

** In ''The Settlers IV'', the AI doesn't use certain buildings a human player would find useful. The most notable examples are large towers and fortresses for defensive purposes - if the AI doesn't start with them, it will never have any at all. They also won't build warehouses to store surplus goods or build, let alone use ships unless scripted to do so. This means that if you are on different islands, you don't have to worry about being attacked at all.
*** The AI is also incapable of manning towers to their full extent. This means that if you take an enemy tower and they retake it, it pretty much stops being a threat since they will only put one soldier in there.
*** Ironically, the AI could man towers it captured in the previous game.
*** On the other hand, the AI will make liberal use of priests, special units and squad leaders, the latter of which are often neglected by human players.

* VideoGameSettings
** BleakLevel: In ''The Settlers IV'', pretty much every level featuring the Dark Tribe can turn into this, if you don't stop the Tribe's expansion. Luckily, the damage can be reversed.
*** The last three missions of ''Heritage of Kings'' also take place in an environment like this.
** DecadeDissonance: Heritage of Kings features the cities Cleycourt and Barmecia. While ruled by brothers, Barmecia is much more religious and are mindful of the ecological impact of their economy. Cleycourt simply exploits the local resources with no regard for the consequences.
** GreenHillZone: Your standard generic green island.
** LethalLavaLand: The wasteland maps, first introduced in level 5 of the first game's campaign. They reappear in the second game as well.

** A fully-upgraded soldier in ''II'' can plow through dozens of freshly conscripted ones. Higher evasion, [[OneHitKill kills with a single hit]] and any attempt to ZergRush against them is bound to fail - they can easily put down entire offensives of 15+ soldiers on their own. Of course, this only works when they face the most basic soldiers - the smaller tier disparity, the more fair the combat.
** The Squad Leader in ''The Settlers IV''. While his raw stats are only very slightly above, he also has an armor-stat which reduces all incoming damage to him. High-level soldiers won't have much trouble with him, since the damage reduction is a flat value rather than a percentage, but early on, even one can be devastating. Fighting is not their primary role, however. They are slower than most units and cannot capture towers like regular swordsmen can, and are instead intended to help control larger armies and provide a buff to their attack power. Paired with their high cost, they are rarely used.

** A good example of one of the longest chains of refinement is the process of turning water into weapons. Firstly, water has to be collected from a well, and transported to your farms. With water, farms can grow wheat, which is sent to the windmill. There it is refined into flour, which is sent to the baker's. The baker combines flour with more water to make bread, which is sent to the iron mines and coal mines. The miners eat the bread and dig out iron ore and coal. Both are sent to an iron smelter, where they are combined to make iron ingots. These are sent to the weaponsmith (along with more coal) to be turned into weapons. The weaponsmith makes swords and shields separately, and one of each is needed in order to train one soldier. The process can take a very long time, as you can expect, especially if the roads become congested...

** The mission "The Flood" requires you to collect a variety of resources for a scientist, so he can build a weather machine. This combines this trope with StealthBasedMission, since the only way to get enough sulfur-resource is to sneak in your rival city and get a key for a sulfur merchant, so he can trade with you.

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: Destroying the last enemy storehouse, harbor, or headquarters in ''The Settlers II'' will cause the settlers, workers, and donkeys within to flee. Usually, they'll head toward the closest storehouse they can hide in--but without one, they'll aimlessly wander around with nowhere to go and nobody to save them. Eventually they starve, let out death knells, and collapse, turning to skeletons.

** In The Settlers IV, Sulphur is pretty much uselessium. The mayans and trojans can use it as ammo for warships and catapults, which are rarely useful. The trojans can also convert it into iron using magic. The romans and vikings have no use for it at all, making you wonder why the devs put sulphur on maps where you play as any of those two (or where the mayans are completely absent). Even the AI doesn't use it.

[[SpaceManagementGame Space within your territory is limited]], and some structures take up a lot of space, so the decision to place a structure in a specific spot can have a great impact. In addition, smart placement of roads to connect these buildings can dramatically cut down on the time it takes for resources to travel from their production sites to their processing sites and storage facilities, and failure to cut down travel times means losing the advantage. This makes the series unique among RTS games: it focuses on logistics and resource management rather than simple military might. In fact, in the first game it was often possible to win a level without any meaningful military engagement, as the AI would tend to eventually run its economy into the ground.

''Heritage of Kings'' dropped the quirky, adorable presentation in favor of more realistic looking Settlers. Territory is no longer limited by borders and more emphasis was placed on a story-driven campaign centered around a young prince reclaiming the kingdom once ruled by his father. Hero units with special abilities also become important to combat, and research is introduced to the series. The economy on the other hand is simplified - there are only five resources, as well as money, which are stored in pools and no longer need to be refined, thus removing the production chains from the predecessors.

The seven mainline titles were rereleased as part of a "History Collection" in November 2018, featuring additional features such as support for higher resolutions and more recent operating systems (getting the third game to run on current systems required some tinkering before, and running the first two games required an emulator or a separate (virtual) system). Reception varied depending on the game, with some actually gaining new bugs in the process, and eventually it became clear that the rerelease had been handled by individual developers who were not familiar with the inner workings of the games.

** Justified in ''The Settlers IV'': Regular settlers and builders require a bed to sleep in, else they will go on strike. This isn't a big deal though, as beds are provided by the houses the settlers spawn from and only exist so players don't just demolish their houses once it has spawned all the settlers it can provide. Most other civilians live in the buildings they work in and soldiers as well as specialists don't require beds at all.

** In ''Heritage of Kings'', the limit is as arbitrary as it can get. How many units (both civilian workers and soldiers - only heroes are excluded) you can own depends entirely on how many city centers you own, which you can't even build whereever you want - they can only be constructed on special locations.

*** In missions where you have to protect your allies, they can be even worse. One such mission requires you to protect a roman and a trojan settlement for two hours, which in this case means making sure both of them retain more than ten settlers. Now, the trojans will actually try their hardest and only require a little military support to make sure their barracks (which are inconveniently placed near Dark Tribe territory) don't get blockaded. The romans on the other hand will not finish building their houses even if you give them the resources to do so, and the two large towers that protect them from the Dark Tribe are manned by one lone archer each, compared to the three each of those towers could house.

* CoolButInefficient: Guardhouses in ''II''. They house more soldiers than barracks and are still a small-size building... but they take 3 stones to construct and still only can have three soldiers inside. A Watchtower, a medium building, costs only 1 stone more, construct the exact same amount of time, has almost twice the border radius and houses twice as many soldiers. Meanwhile, if you need just most basic military building, [[BoringButPractical barracks is more than enough]]

* ConstructAdditionalPylons: Not only is this trope in effect, it is actually the whole point of the game (at least early in the series), and its application is what set ''The Settlers'' apart from its direct competitors (early RealTimeStrategy games as we know them today). Instead of building an elaborate field base, the player is building a whole kingdom from scratch - and the objective is usually to expand that kingdom (often, but not necessarily, through violence) to the point where it edges out all competition. This requires careful placement of a very wide variety of buildings, each of which is absolutely necessary for victory. You must create a long economic chain where which slowly converts raw resources step by step into military units. These units occupy guard huts, thereby increasing the size of your territory and allowing you to build more and more buildings. Although military force is often required to actually push your enemies back and eventually raze their castles, the primary skill being tested is your ability to build the kingdom and its economy properly; battles themselves are almost unremarkable in comparison.

* CosmeticallyDifferentSides: In the first game , the only different thing between each side is the colour of units, while in ''II'' there are four main culture groups with their distinctive aesthetics, but each playing the same. From ''III'' onward, the differences became anything, but cosmetic - building taking different amount of space and resources, nation-specific building and resources, completely different spells and special units and so on and forth.
* DamnYouMuscleMemory: Every single game in the series has different means of making and promoting soldiers, which requires different gameplay style and focuses to pursuit.

** The first game had really, really quirky controls, being made for Amiga mouse. Playing the game on any other machine (or with just other type of mouse) leads to a serious case of DamnYouMuscleMemory.

** Got entire industry chain set up to produce weapons in ''II''? Even secured gold production for promotions? But did you remember to produce beer to get recruitment going?
** Resources can't be captured in first two games and are lost once you conquer enemy territory. And in ''III'', if you gain special resources of another nation, they remain useless for you.

** After being freed and waging a second war against the Settlers in ''The Trojans and the Elixir of Power'', Morbus manages to avoid this fate, though not entirely by his own accord. While Morbus manages to collect all the ingredients for the titular Elixir, which is supposed to cure him of his allergy, the Settlers also managed to manipulate the final ingredient. As a result, Morbus is also cured of his hatred for nature, and is last seen tending to his new garden.

** The fact wonders continously increase in their mana price isn't mentioned anywhere in the manual for ''III''. Hope you didn't just plan to spam a single wonder.
** In the ''III'' and ''IV'', thieves have the passive ability to appear to other players as their own carriers as long as they avoid getting to close to enemy soldiers. When it comes to fooling AI players, however, they are not as consistent. Terrain appears to play a role in this, but there can be situations where a thief can walk right past an enemy tower without drawing attention, while most of the time, the AI will immediately send a soldier to dispatch any thief who crosses the border.

* IdleAnimation: The first four games used these to give the settlers more personality. Carriers in ''II'' can be seen reading newspapers and jumping rope while waiting for goods to cart about. The fourth game has settlers wiping their noses, juggle with stones or blow bubble gumsl, among other things.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: In ''II'' you have the highest count of specific craftsmen than can't be then put into a different job: a gold minter can't work in an iron smelter, an armorourer can't be a metalworker etc. On top of that, they all require specific tools (from ''III'' onward, many jobs stopped having a tool requirement and simplified remaining ones).

* MookChivalry: In the first two games and their remakes, all fights are one-on-one, and the rest of the knights will simply stand around waiting for the opportunity to step in and pick up where the previous one left off. Since standing knights occupy space, [[ZergRush bum rushing the castle with low to mid-level units]] can be enough to clog up the area and stop them from moving goods and people around, crippling their economy.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: At the end of the "Cleycourt" mission in ''Heritage of Kings'', the heroes assist in the construction of a weather machine. It was supposed to be used to end a year-long drought, which it did. Unfortunately, the summoned rain simply doesn't stop, eventually causing a flood. To make matters worse, the first weather machine was not made to withstand water, so it breaks down before it can be used to reverse it's effects when it becomes apparent that the rain won't stop on its own.
* NoPronunciationGuide: The name of Morbus' assistant in the fourth game (who also happens to be the goddess of the Amazons in the third game), Q'nqüra, is pronounced slightly differently in most cutscenes of the fourth game. Since her name is never seen in print in that game, this doesn't make it easier to call her anything other than "that women in red".

** A fully-upgraded soldier in ''II'' can plow through dozens of freshly conscripted ones. Has higher evasion, [[OneHitKill kills with a single hit]] and any attempt to ZergRush against them is bound to fail - they can easily put down entire offensive of 15+ soldiers on their own. Of course this only works when they face the most basic soldiers - the smaller tier disparity, the more fair the combat.

* BackToBackBadasses: Promotional material for ''Heritage of Kings'' depicts Dario and Ari in such a situation.

* ChewingTheScenery: Kerberos in ''Heritage of Kings''. And his english voice is actually relatively subdued compared to his german voice actor.

''The Settlers'' is a series of {{RTS}}/empire-building computer games from Blue Byte Software, which premiered on the UsefulNotes/{{Amiga}} in 1993.

** The mission "The Big Rain" requires you to collect a variety of resources for a scientist, so he can build a weather machine. This combines this trope with StealthBasedMission, since the only way to get enough sulfur-resource is to sneak in your rival city and get a key for a sulfur merchant, so he can trade with you.

* ResourceGatheringMission: In the mission "Barmecia" from ''Heritage of Kings'', you have to deliver 12000 stone-resources to the eponymous city so they can complete their cathedral. You must do so before their rival city Cleycourt attacks so the two of them can make peace. You also have no means to defend any city, since both of them are your allies.

** In the ''The Settlers IV'', thieves have the passive ability to appear to other players as their own carriers as long as they avoid getting to close to enemy soldiers. When it comes to fooling AI players, however, they are not as consistent. Terrain appears to play a role in this, but there can be situations where a thief can walk right past an enemy tower without drawing attention, while most of the time, the AI will immediately send a soldier to dispatch any thief who crosses the border.

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: At the end of the "Cleycourt" mission in ''Heritage of Kings'', the heroes assist in the construction of a weather machine. It was supposed to be used to end a year-long drought, which it did. Unfortunately, the summoned rain simply doesn't stop, eventually causing a flood. To make matters worse, the first weather machine was not made to withstand water, so it breaks down before it can be used to reverse it's effects when it becomes apparent that the rain won't stop on it's own.

* GreenAesop: The Dark Tribe campaign in ''The Settlers IV'' has the main villain be a banished dark god who wants nothing more than to destroy all of Earth's greenery. And you have to stop him [[EnemyMine by letting the three main tribes (Romans, Mayans and Vikings) work together]].

* FridgeLogic: At the end of third mission of ''Heritage of Kings'', "Crawford", the main antagonist of the game, Kerberos, is first seen, fleeing the scene. A later reveal makes it clear why he was there - [[spoiler:his father Helias lives there, so it makes sense that he would oversee the siege personally.]].

The seven mainline titles were rereleased as part of a "History Collection" in November 2018, featuring additional features such as support for higher resolutions and more recent operating systems (getting the third game to run on current PCs required some tinkering before, and running the first two games required an emulator or a separate (virtual) PC). Reception varied depending on the game, with some actually gaining new bugs in the process, and eventually it became clear that the rerelease had been handled by individual developers who were not familiar with the inner workings of the games.

** In fist two games, there is just one leveler and one builder working on each construction. Things can take forever to finish, especially when materials arrive infrequently.

*** Inverted with grain fields. In fist two games, the farm burns down, but the fields remain (and require building a new farm to harvest them). In later games, the fields are destroyed with the building and only already cut bundles remain.
** First two games had a detailed tool system, where almost every occupation requires specific tools, including things like crucibles for smelter workers, rolling pins for bakers and separate axes for wood-chopping and butchering animals. Those were either streamlined or removed entirely in later instalments.

** At the end of the main Game, Morbus is turned into a statue.

* IdleAnimation: Carriers in ''II'' can be seen reading newspapers and jumping rope while waiting for goods to cart about. The fourth game has settlers wiping their noses, juggle with stones or blow bubble gums.

* ResourceGatheringMission: In the mission "Barmecia", you have to deliver 12000 stone-resources to the eponymous city so they can complete their cathedral. You must do so before their rival city Cleycourt attacks so the two of them can make peace. You also have no means to defend any city, since both of them are your allies.

** The Trojan expansion to the same game has a mission where the Vikings and Mayans have turned on the Trojans and Romans, believing that the Dark Tribe was defeated. As you would expect, the Dark Tribe is still very much present (and is actually scripted to destroy the Romans, though the tribe is hidden in the statistics menu), and upon viewing the entire map, you will realize that the Dark Tribe was sitting pretty much next door to the Mayans and Vikings.
** The fifth game has a mission where you arrive to help protect an important city. The city's inhabitants are confident that their walls will protect them, and their defenses are actually quite formidable - unfortunately, they completely fail to realize that in winter, the sea around their main fortress will freeze over, completely exposing it. Unfortunately, while the protagonists are aware of this, they don't bother pointing it out.

** The first four games do not allow soldiers to attack non-specialist civilians (even the Dark Tribe adheres to this, though they can do much worse). In the fifth game, soldiers will not automatically attack workers, but can be ordered to do so.

** BleakLevel: In The Settlers IV, pretty much every level featuring the Dark Tribe can turn into this, if you don't stop the Tribe's expansion. Luckily, the damage can be reversed.
*** The last three missions of Heritage of Kings also take place in an environment like this.

** GreenHillZone: Your standard generic green island(s), including the first level of the campaign.
** LethalLavaLand: The wasteland maps, first introduced in level 5 of the campaign.

** In The Settlers IV, Sulphur is pretty much uselessium. The mayans and trojans can use it as ammo for warships and catapults, which are rarely useful. The trojans can also convert it into iron using magic. The romans and vikings have no use for it at all, making you wonder why the devs put sulphur on maps where you play as any of those two. Even the AI doesn't use it.