Dawn of Discovery (Anno 1404) Gold Edition - only $5 at Gamer's Gate (today only!)

I picked it up early this morning. Used to have the vanilla edition but sold the hard copy after playing the heck out of it for a few months. The campaigns aren't that good but it really shines in freeplay mode. The key code you get only seems to work with the Venice edition so don't panic if you try to apply it to the basic DoD file. Just do a search for Venice in your start menu and open the program from there; it will prompt you to enter the code and will work with that file.

I averaged over 4 MB/Sec on the download speed so it was nice to see a digital distributor with adequate server capacity for a change.

Quote from Shroomer : I picked it up early this morning. Used to have the vanilla edition but sold the hard copy after playing the heck out of it for a few months. The campaigns aren't that good but it really shines in freeplay mode. The key code you get only seems to work with the Venice edition so don't panic if you try to apply it to the basic DoD file. Just do a search for Venice in your start menu and open the program from there; it will prompt you to enter the code and will work with that file. I averaged over 4 MB/Sec on the download speed so it was nice to see a digital distributor with adequate server capacity for a change.

With some research, the original version used Tages and was limited to 3 activations. It was subsequently patched out but according to the wikipedia article it remains in the downloadable version. Can you tell if it's still there?

Yeah - it's still there. There is another problem as well. Since the key only works with Venice you can't launch the vanilla edition as Gamersgate didn't provide the second code. I just submitted a ticket. Not a big deal for me as everything that was in the first is included with Venice but if someone wanted to start at the beginning they wouldn't be able to - kind of misleading by Ubisoft to sell it as two games. Apparently this has been a problem for a while.

According to a few threads I've read; The Steam version gave you the option to launch DoD when you clicked on the Venice icon even though their key for the original game didn't work either. Might be why Steam pulled the game from it's catalog.


Edit: Gamersgate has a help section called the game tutorial where you can see open ticket complaints. There were 2 cases that popped up about the key issue on the board about an hour ago and I see they've now been pulled lol.... a few more just got posted and mysteriously disappeared. This is going to be fun to watch.

Besides the shitty DRM (which was cracked w/i a month btw) the game has a brutal learning curve. The missions in the original try and teach some basics, but if you've never played a game in the series you are in for a brutal awakening as you deal with the interface.

Quote from travathian : if you've never played a game in the series you are in for a brutal awakening as you deal with the interface.

Really? I might not have the same perspective (since I've played former titles in the series), but it seems like the controls are similar to a lot of other city builders that I've played.

At least on a basic level...

Quote from ArmoredCavalry : Really? I might not have the same perspective (since I've played former titles in the series), but it seems like the controls are similar to a lot of other city builders that I've played. At least on a basic level...

It's not a hard game to grasp - what's hard about the game is the A.I. NPC's at higher levels. Their efficiency is awe inspiring at times and leaves you shaking your head. A lot like Civ 4 in that aspect.

Is it the 3.1 version? The only place I have been able to find with the patched digital version is Impulse.

Quote from Shroomer : It's not a hard game to grasp - what's hard about the game is the A.I. NPC's at higher levels. Their efficiency is awe inspiring at times and leaves you shaking your head. A lot like Civ 4 in that aspect.

luckily the AI can't save and load

Quote from mr2cool : luckily the AI can't save and load

Haha, yeap. It always feels like cheating when I save/reload after something doesn't go my way in this, or Total War.

Basically, the AI can never win.

Quote from travathian : Besides the shitty DRM (which was cracked w/i a month btw) the game has a brutal learning curve. The missions in the original try and teach some basics, but if you've never played a game in the series you are in for a brutal awakening as you deal with the interface.

I woulod say that most people familiar with strategy games, specifically city builders, would be fine with the game right away. Everyone else would just have a learning curve, but I wouldn't call it brutal.

Thanks to all your info SDers I'm going to give it a shot. I'm an old school AoE2 player - Civ III through Civ V and every Sim City in between fan. I also agree with the comment about enough bandwidth! 3MB/sec (my whole connection)

If anyone could boot up the each of the games (vanilla and venice) and list the version numbers for each (bottom left corner) that would be awesome. I want to see if it's the updated version or the old version most places have.