Related Sections: Game Diaries
Dawn of Discovery: naval gazing
As you play Dawn of Discovery, you can be offered quests by neighboring cities, powerful civilizations, or even lowly citizens. These are mostly a chance to earn some extra resources, but one of the victory settings for a randomized game is to be the first civilization to accomplish a set number of quests. That's what I'm playing now. First to 25 completed quests wins!
The above screenshot is a pair of oriental warships I've been awarded by the Grand Vizier, an oriental ruler. They're named Jasmine and Topaz. I could change their names to something less stripper-like, but once they got some history, I didn't dare.
As you play, you earn honor which you can spend in a variety of ways (the honor system is one of the coolest things about this iteration of the Anno city builder series). I cashed in all my saved honor to get these warships from the Vizier. I was in a dire situation that would have sunk my game if I didn't have all that honor saved up. Even then, I had to hastily hold a tournament at the arena to get enough honor to ask the Vizier for auxiliary fleet.
It all started with a quest. A handful of hostile ships might appear. Would I sink them? Yes_. No_. Check one. I had several trading ships running routes to haul spice, indigo, silk, carpets, and quartz (the trade route interface is excellent, making it easy to manage the latticework of goods you have to exchange to keep a civilization flourishing). But I also had my flagship, which I figured was sufficient to handle the hostile ships. So I accepted the quest.
The hostile ships promptly sank my flagship. Then they hunted down my trading ships one by one. My empire began to crumble as the flow of goods among my islands was interrupted. You haven't seen civilization collapse until you've seen a few thousand people sulk because they can't get spice for their food.
Eventually, after a dark time of much blandness, I cashed in all my honor for the oriental warships from the Vizier. They secured the seas while I rebuilt my merchant fleet. It was an enormous setback and a valuable lesson learned: don't get uppity when you have only a flagship, which is a poor substitute for a navy.
And now that I have a navy, I can accept quests like breaking the blockade around Lord Northburgh's island of Kingsport. Click on the thumbnail below to see the Jasmine and Topaz at their blockade breaking angriest.
Tomorrow: a river runs through it
By Jerky at 4:41 PM ON 07/08/09
What sort of difficulty level are you on for your proletariat to be up in arms over their lack of myrrh?
By markgreyam at 7:17 PM ON 07/08/09
If you didn't refer to them as /the/ Jasmine and Topaz I'd be much more inclined to think of them as strippers. Then again, they are artificially inflated, move like they are made out of wood, and when they aren't in action can be full of balls. So the comparison is still valid. There is nothing like a good early morning, pre-coffee joke. And that was nothing like ...
Also, I'm not sure of exactly what is causing this, but I'm finding that in every one of your non-cropped shots, the game looks it's being played out with minatures, and it loses any real sense of actual scale. I'm certain you're getting a lower angle on the action than I can in the demo, is there some secret thing you're doing, or is there a photo mode or something, as I notice you've got no HUD either?
I'm picturing you crouched over the edge of the battlefield, looking down lovingingly as Jasmine and Topaz murder all the sailors on the opponents ships with large balls of metal, smiling peacefully to yourself.
By markgreyam at 7:18 PM ON 07/08/09
If you didn't refer to them as /the/ Jasmine and Topaz I'd be much more inclined to think of them as strippers. Then again, they are artificially inflated, move like they are made out of wood, and when they aren't in action can be full of balls. So the comparison is still valid. There is nothing like a good early morning, pre-coffee joke. And that was nothing like ...
Also, I'm not sure of exactly what is causing this, but I'm finding that in every one of your non-cropped shots, the game looks it's being played out with minatures, and it loses any real sense of actual scale. I'm certain you're getting a lower angle on the action than I can in the demo, is there some secret thing you're doing, or is there a photo mode or something, as I notice you've got no HUD either?
I'm picturing you crouched over the edge of the battlefield, looking down lovingingly as Jasmine and Topaz murder all the sailors on the opponent's ships with large balls of metal, smiling peacefully to yourself.
By markgreyam at 7:20 PM ON 07/08/09
Hmm, firstly my overly large comment on the most dissappointing games dissappeared into the ether, now I'm managing to double post without realising it.
Le sigh.
By markgreyam at 7:20 PM ON 07/08/09
Hmm, firstly my overly large comment on the most dissappointing games dissappeared into the ether, now I'm managing to double post without realising it.
Le sigh.
By Thrishmal at 7:45 PM ON 07/08/09
I just wanted to thank you, Tom, for doing these little game diaries. This is the second game you have gotten me to buy because of them.
The time investment really is epic in scale. I was doing a campaign mission the other day and I spent about six hours straight knocking it out...and that may be an understatement to the time spent. I just remember the announcer was really starting to get annoyed and tired, lol.
Thanks again!
By Tom Chick at 8:11 PM ON 07/08/09
Thrish, glad you're liking the game. It really does swallow up the hours, doesn't it? At this rate, I probably could have had a level 80 World of Warcraft character.
Mr. Greyam, quit hogging up all the comments space! There won't be room for anyone else!
But, yes, it does have a lovely little miniatures quality, doesn't it? It's called the "postcard mode". You can access it by pressing F1. If you don't have a building or unit selected when you press F1, you can fly around and admire your miniature civilization. Lovely, lovely stuff. Like Civilization meets Little Big Planet!
By joesocwork at 10:02 PM ON 07/08/09
LOL! Strippers?? Aww, just tell your wife that Jasmine and Topaz are the birthstones of her birthday & your wedding anniversary! :P (and hope she doesn't check!)
Well the ships are the first item that doesn't reminding me of The Settlers! It would be cool if the sea battle improves on Empire:Total War.
I think City Life had a postcard mode. Are we [i]really[/i] talking a Civilization/ Sim City hybrid?
And, speaking of HUD, how intuitive are the controls?
By Ben Abraham at 11:13 PM ON 07/08/09
Spice must flow!
Ben Abraham:
Spice must flow!...More »