The Settlers III is a real-time strategy

Real-time strategy

Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....

 computer game developed by Blue Byte Software

Blue Byte Software

Ubisoft Blue Byte is a video game developer based in Düsseldorf, Germany, founded in 1988. The company has produced popular titles like Battle Isle and The Settlers. In 2001, the company was purchased by Ubisoft.-History:...

, being the second sequel to The Settlers, making it the third game in The Settlers series

The Settlers

The Settlers is a slow-paced simulation computer game by German developer Blue Byte Software, first released in 1993 for Commodore Amiga and in 1994 for the PC...

. This isometric

Isometric

The term isometric comes from the Greek for "having equal measurement".isometric may mean:* Isometric projection , a method for the visual representation of three-dimensional objects in two dimensions; a form of orthographic projection, or more specifically, an axonometric projection.* Isometry and...

 city-building game was released on November 30, 1998.

The most notable difference between this game and its two predecessors is that there are no more roads—all units, including carriers with goods, can walk around freely. This simplifies the building of a settlement, since only the distances between buildings are relevant, and not how roads can be constructed between them. Military units are now directly controlled, making fighting more similar to games like Command & Conquer

Command & Conquer

Command & Conquer, abbreviated to C&C and also known as Tiberian Dawn, is a 1995 real-time strategy computer game developed by Westwood Studios for MS-DOS and published by Virgin Interactive. It was the first of twelve games to date to be released under the Command & Conquer label, including a...

or Age of Empires, than to the previous Settlers games.

Settlers III was also famous for its peculiar copy protection

Copy protection

Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy obstruction, copy prevention and copy restriction, refer to techniques used for preventing the reproduction of software, films, music, and other media, usually for copyright reasons.- Terminology :Media corporations have always used the term...

: in pirated versions of the game, iron smelters would only produce pigs instead of iron, which made weapon production impossible.

Plot

The game begins with a cartoonish cutscene

Cutscene

A cutscene is a sequence in a video game over which the player has no or only limited control, breaking up the gameplay and used to advance the plot, strengthen the main character's development, introduces enemy characters, and provide background information, atmosphere, dialogue, and clues...

 depicting three gods: Jupiter (leader of the Roman Pantheon), Horus (the falcon-headed Egyptian sun god) and Ch'ih-Yu (the legendary Chinese dragon). A messenger arrives with a message from the god's god telling them they must find a worthy leader or the universe and everything in it will be destroyed. The player assumes the role of a leader trying to prove they are talented enough to impress their god by conquering other civilizations and capturing as many territories.

Building

As in the original game and its sequel, Settlers II, a Settlers III game is played by building up a working economy to produce military units, and then going to war against enemies. Iron and coal is needed to produce weapons that are needed to 'recruit' soldiers, which in turn requires mines and food production. All buildings require wood and stone to build, and all settlers need living space, which results in a complex chain of infrastructure required before big armies may be produced.

Order

Usually, the player will start by building forester

Forester

250px|thumb|right|Foresters of [[Southern University of Chile|UACh]] in the [[Valdivian forest]]s of San Pablo de Tregua, ChileA forester is a person who practices forestry, the science, art, and profession of managing forests. Foresters engage in a broad range of activities including timber...

s, woodcutters

Lumberjack

A lumberjack is a worker in the logging industry who performs the initial harvesting and transport of trees for ultimate processing into forest products. The term usually refers to a bygone era when hand tools were used in harvesting trees principally from virgin forest...

, stonemasons and sawmill

Sawmill

A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....

s to get base building materials. Residences

House

A house is a building or structure that has the ability to be occupied for dwelling by human beings or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of different dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to free standing individual structures...

 are important to get enough settlers to carry around goods and build buildings. Fishermen

Fisherman

A fisherman or fisher is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishermen and fish farmers. The term can also be applied to recreational fishermen and may be used to describe both men...

, water works

Water supply

Water supply is the provision of water by public utilities, commercial organisations, community endeavours or by individuals, usually via a system of pumps and pipes...

 and farm

Farm

A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single...

s provide the base of food production, where crops

Harvest

Harvest is the process of gathering mature crops from the fields. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulse for harvest, typically using a scythe, sickle, or reaper...

 need to be either processed by a windmill

Windmill

A windmill is a machine which converts the energy of wind into rotational energy by means of vanes called sails or blades. Originally windmills were developed for milling grain for food production. In the course of history the windmill was adapted to many other industrial uses. An important...

 and a baker

Baker

A baker is someone who bakes and sells bread, Cakes and similar foods may also be produced, as the traditional boundaries between what is produced by a baker as opposed to a pastry chef have blurred in recent decades...

, or fed to pig

Pig

A pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus, within the Suidae family of even-toed ungulates. Pigs include the domestic pig, its ancestor the wild boar, and several other wild relatives...

s who then are brought to a butcher

Butcher

A butcher is a person who may slaughter animals, dress their flesh, sell their meat or any combination of these three tasks. They may prepare standard cuts of meat, poultry, fish and shellfish for sale in retail or wholesale food establishments...

, before resulting in bread

Bread

Bread is a staple food prepared by cooking a dough of flour and water and often additional ingredients. Doughs are usually baked, but in some cuisines breads are steamed , fried , or baked on an unoiled frying pan . It may be leavened or unleavened...

 and ham

Ham

Ham is a cut of meat from the thigh of the hind leg of certain animals, especiallypigs. Nearly all hams sold today are fully cooked or cured.-Etymology:...

. After food production, mining

Mining

Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...

 for iron and coal can start. The resulting iron ore is processed by an iron smelter, and a weaponsmith

Weaponsmith

Weaponsmith is a broad term relating to a professional weapon maker. This may refer to swords, axes, and any other metal hand-made weapon, though it can also refer to firearms and any other weaponmaker who builds weapons in a non-industrial manner. The weaponsmith would generally have specialized...

 can then finally produce weapons, which are used in barracks

Barracks

Barracks are specialised buildings for permanent military accommodation; the word may apply to separate housing blocks or to complete complexes. Their main object is to separate soldiers from the civilian population and reinforce discipline, training and esprit de corps. They were sometimes called...

 to train soldiers.

Additional buildings

In parallel to the above, it is also important to increase the owned lands to have room for building – this is done by constructing towers

Watchtower

A watchtower is a type of fortification used in many parts of the world. It differs from a regular tower in that its primary use is military, and from a turret in that it is usually a freestanding structure. Its main purpose is to provide a high, safe place from which a sentinel or guard may...

 and castle

Castle

A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...

s. Also, mining and processing of gold is necessary in order to increase the motivation of soldiers, as well as building temple

Temple

A temple is a structure reserved for religious or spiritual activities, such as prayer and sacrifice, or analogous rites. A templum constituted a sacred precinct as defined by a priest, or augur. It has the same root as the word "template," a plan in preparation of the building that was marked out...

s and supporting them with sacrifice

Sacrifice

Sacrifice is the offering of food, objects or the lives of animals or people to God or the gods as an act of propitiation or worship.While sacrifice often implies ritual killing, the term offering can be used for bloodless sacrifices of cereal food or artifacts...

s in order to get powerful mage

Wizard (character class)

The Wizard is a type of magical character class in certain role-playing games and computer role-playing games. Wizards are considered to be spellcasters who wield powerful spells, but are often physically weak as a trade-off. Wizards are commonly confused with similar offensive spellcasting...

s who are important in battle.

It also is possible to build additional things, like ship

Ship

Since the end of the age of sail a ship has been any large buoyant marine vessel. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size and cargo or passenger capacity. Ships are used on lakes, seas, and rivers for a variety of activities, such as the transport of people or goods, fishing,...

s and port

Port

A port is a location on a coast or shore containing one or more harbors where ships can dock and transfer people or cargo to or from land....

s, war engines

Siege engine

A siege engine is a device that is designed to break or circumvent city walls and other fortifications in siege warfare. Some have been operated close to the fortifications, while others have been used to attack from a distance. From antiquity, siege engines were constructed largely of wood and...

 with ammunition

Ammunition

Ammunition is a generic term derived from the French language la munition which embraced all material used for war , but which in time came to refer specifically to gunpowder and artillery. The collective term for all types of ammunition is munitions...

 factories, storage places, trading posts, and several others.

Warfare

The goal of attacks is to capture enemy towers and castles. When capturing such an enemy building, the land ownership is transferred, and all enemy buildings in the newly owned land are destroyed. This allows tactics such as sneaking in a group of soldiers to an enemy tower which protects important buildings, and if successful, thereby destroying the enemy's economy – which is hard to recover from.

Fog of War

Such surprise attacks are possible because Settlers 3 employs a Fog of War display – only areas of the map around own units are visible. Special spy units can be used to try and spy into enemy lands, which will appear as own units to other players - but the camouflage does not work for enemy soldiers, and it is possible to let soldiers patrol around a settlement to ward off spies. (But it is also possible to distract such patrols with a feint attack and sneak in spies that way.)

Units

For actual battles, there are three types of units: Sword

Sword

A sword is a bladed weapon used primarily for cutting or thrusting. The precise definition of the term varies with the historical epoch or the geographical region under consideration...

 fighters, Archers

Archery

Archery is the art, practice, or skill of propelling arrows with the use of a bow, from Latin arcus. Archery has historically been used for hunting and combat; in modern times, however, its main use is that of a recreational activity...

, and Spear

Spear

A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head.The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with bamboo spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastened to the shaft, such as flint, obsidian, iron, steel or...

men. Archers are effective against spearmen (because the spearmen are slow), spearmen against swordsmen (because of their stronger melee attack), and swordsmen against archers (because of their speed). This balancing often requires to quickly adjust tactics during battle, which is made possible by keyboard shortcuts to select all units of one type. Each unit type also comes in three versions, from weakest to strongest. The type and strength of a unit is determined by the barracks building. If it is delivered a sword, bow, or spear, a corresponding unit is created. The strength of the unit depends on the global upgrade level of the player, which is affected by manna production. The more manna, the more upgrade possibilities. Each unit type needs a separate upgrade, and upgrade cost is not linear – instead higher upgrades require more manna production. To reach the highest upgrade for all three unit types, six upgrades are necessary. Gold and gems also increase your soldiers strength in enemy territories.

Each unit is initially created with full health, and can be wounded in battle, as indicated by a little dot above each selected unit, which changes color from green over yellow to red. Players can retreat wounded units to regain full health in the healer building.

Controlling of units by the player is possible in ways typical to most RTS

Real-time strategy

Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....

 games of this time, by selecting them with a rectangle drawn with the mouse or by selecting all visible units, then assigning a target. Selected units can also be put into up to 9 groups, which players can quickly select again with keyboard shortcuts.

The size of battles varies a lot depending on type of map, resource settings, and play time. Early battles using only initial units consist of ten to twenty units, while in a typical map good players have recruited hundreds of units after an hour of play time. Battles often can involve several thousand units in longer games.

Defense

It is possible to build stronger defenses by building bigger defensive structures. There are three different sizes for those, a small tower, a medium tower, and a castle, but bigger buildings are considerably more costly in terms of needed building material. When attacking such a building, the troops occupying it can only be attacked one by one, and archers can shoot at the attackers from a safe position.

Strength

The strength of soldiers depends on two factors - the amount of gold a settlement had stored, and whether they are fighting on friendly or enemy territory. The strength on friendly land is always at least 100%, while the strength on enemy land without gold is initially very low, for example only 25% in a four player game. This makes it hard to attack early in the game. By producing more gold, the strength can be increased to over 100%, possibly making the attackers stronger than the defenders in their own land.

Support units

Soldiers can be supported by priests and pioneer units. Priests can cast powerful spells, for example converting a group of enemy units to a player's own units, by making the own units fight with greater strength, or by making enemies weaker. More powerful spells cost more manna points, which are gained by sacrificing beverages to temples. Pioneer units transform unowned land or unguarded enemy land into owned land. That way, they can claim mineral-rich land or enemy stashes. Additionally, when used as support units of an army, the changed land ownership results in a strength boost for soldiers standing on owned land.

War machines

Each nation can also produce war machines. The Romans use catapult

Catapult

A catapult is a device used to throw or hurl a projectile a great distance without the aid of explosive devices—particularly various types of ancient and medieval siege engines. Although the catapult has been used since ancient times, it has proven to be one of the most effective mechanisms during...

s, the Egyptians ballista

Ballista

The ballista , plural ballistae, was an ancient missile weapon which launched a large projectile at a distant target....

, the Asians cannon

Cannon

A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...

s, and Amazons a magical gong

Gong

A gong is an East and South East Asian musical percussion instrument that takes the form of a flat metal disc which is hit with a mallet....

. Such machines are costly to build, and they need a constant supply of (also costly) ammunition (except of the Amazon gong). Furthermore, they are hard to move and cannot defend themselves against enemy troops. But they allow taking down enemy defenses from a distance and without fighting, which still makes them effective in many situations.

It also is possible to build ships to transport units and goods across continents. The number of units transported on a single ship is limited, and therefore it requires many ships to transport a big army. It also is risky, since war machines can sink ships. But ships can be used to transport small groups of soldiers far behind enemy lines, or even build up a second settlement.

Nations

The player can choose between four different nations, all with different capabilities. The original game comes with the Romans, Egyptians and Asians. An addon later added the Amazons as fourth nation. Each nation has differences, which are important for the strategy of a game.

Romans

The Romans need wood as well as stones for their buildings. They are the only nation whose priests have a spell which turns enemy soldiers into their own, and easily produce manna by offering wine. Wine can be produced in wineries, which need no other goods or support buildings. Romans can also turn wood into coal.

Egyptians

The Egyptians require a lot of stones for all buildings. This means that they have a disadvantage in long games, since stones will eventually run out and they will no longer be able to build residences. On the other hand, they can build very quickly at the beginning of the game. Their buildings take much space and they are the only nation that can build on desert terrain. Producing manna is difficult for them, requiring water and grain to brew beer.

Asians

The Asians require few stones and much wood for their buildings. This means that in very long games they can still expand their settlement, even when the Romans and Egyptians have already run out of stone. For Asians, like the Egyptians, it is expensive to build manna – rice and coal are required to distill rice wine. However, they have access to a relatively cheap spell that speeds up the fighting of their troops, which can be very effective. It is also possible for them to gain manna from building many temples, which proves easy if they have a good wood production. This gives the Asians the advantage of being able to upgrade their troops without having to produce sacrifices first. Perhaps the biggest advantage for the Asians though, is the ability to manufacture cannons, which is the most effective among the siege weapons of the 3 represented nations. Cannons require sulfur mining.

Amazons

The Amazons in general need less stone than the Romans, but more than the Asians. Their manna production is relatively cheap, requiring just honey and water. They have the only war machine which can use manna as ammunition, enabling them to destroy enemy buildings without fighting.

Multiplayer

One of the biggest changes to the game compared to the two predecessors is the multiplayer capabilities. It is the first Settlers game with full support for Internet

Internet

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 play. There is an official game lobby which can be entered by the player from within the game. BlueByte was also running an official ladder, where individuals or clans could compete by marking games as ladder games.

Development

The Settlers III was announced in April 1998 with a prospective release date for September of the same year. The game would feature updated graphics from The Settlers II

The Settlers II

The Settlers II: Veni, Vidi, Vici is a real-time strategy computer game, released by Blue Byte Software in 1996. Its gameplay is very similar to that of its predecessor, The Settlers, albeit with a Roman theme and improved graphics...

, a new combat system, and online support including a dedicated server located in the UK.

Reception

The game was moderately well received as a typical RTS game which focuses on micro-management. Many reviewers thought The Settlers III didn't add anything new to the series and that replaying the game was too repetitive.

A review by IGN Staff described the game as good but not ground-breaking. The swapping between two discs was disliked and they found the artificial intelligence to be poor and noticed units didn't obey commands. An Allgame review by Nick Smith described the gameplay as having a "sedate, relaxed pace" but thought it was the same as earlier Settlers titles. A GameSpot review by Ron Dulin appreciated the game's graphics but thought the cutscenes and menu interface were lacking. He liked not having to build roads and the inclusion of gods in the game was good but felt overall it wasn't much of an improvement on its predecessor and that some might find it "immensely repetitive".

A GameBoyz review by Nick Burger described the graphics as "very well presented" but noted that The Settlers III lacked depth. The reviewer did not like the combat sounds and found very little difference between missions. He also noticed a glitch in sea vessel and catapult unit's pathing logic. The GameVortex reviewer liked the animations and the ambiance that the sounds produced. Robert Perkins thought the game would be daunting for those unfamiliar with the intricacies of resource management found in the game.

External links

• The Settlers III Official site
• The Settlers III for Windows MobyGames