The Settlers

About The Settlers

The game is set in a medieval milieu, and controlled via a point and click interface, with the primary goal on each map being to build a settlement with a functioning economy, producing sufficient military units so as to conquer rival territories, ultimately gaining control of the entire map. To achieve this end, the player must engage in economic micromanagement, construct buildings, and generate resources. The game can be played in one of two modes; a series of thirty sequential missions against computer controlled opponents of increasing difficulty, or a free-game style mode, in which the player competes in individual games involving either computer-controlled opponents, human opponents, or a combination of both.

Originally envisioned as a standard god game, similar to Populous, the concept of The Settlers was altered by the game's designer and programmer, Volker Wertich, after development had already begun. Wanting to create something unlike other titles available at the time, Wertich decided to focus on creating a game which could simulate a complex economic system, and which would feature gameplay built around a simulation of real-world supply and demand. However, due to the complexities of writing a codebase which understood and could realistically duplicate such a system, as well as ensuring the computer could handle military and economic matters simultaneously, the game required over two years of development. Wertich worked on the programming for a year, writing 70,000 lines of code, before any work began on the graphics.

The game can be played in one of two modes. The first is a series of thirty sequential missions where the player, either alone or teaming with a second player, competes against computer controlled opponents of increasing difficulty. The second is a free-game style mode, played on either a randomly generated map, or a pre-built map, based on data input by the player prior to commencing. The player can then refine the game by selecting the number of races (from two to four), choosing which commander should lead each race (there are ten different commanders, ranging from peaceful and placid to warlike and aggressive), refining the amount of raw materials available to each player at the start of the game, setting the intelligence of the settlers and knights in each race's service, and determining the rate at which each race's settlers produce items. Games involving two human players are played in split screen, with the second player using a mouse on the same PC. Two-player mode allows two players to either team up together to compete against one or two computer opponents, or compete against one another and up to two additional computer opponents.