[60] Settlers in produce buildings have wants under two headings (prosperity and decoration), and as the city grows, they acquire increasingly diversified needs. Whilst the graphics and sound effects were generally praised, and the designers were lauded for retaining so much of the original game's mechanics, some critics felt it was too reverential to the original, and, as a result, seemed dated. "[154] Pocket Gamer's Tracy Erickson praised the "deep economic strategy gameplay. [161] By June 2002, that number had increased to 3.5 million;[162] by March 2004, it had reached 5 million;[163] by August 2008, it exceeded 6 million;[164] by September 2009, it reached 8 million;[165] and by September 2014, it had topped 10 million units. [89] However, Wertich was not working on the title, because, as he later explained, "Blue Byte wanted to have it ready for release by Christmas 2000, which, in my opinion, was not sufficient time to create a worthy title. [111] Hoping to rectify this with Rise of an Empire, he explained that, for the first time in the series, combat is "not the ultimate goal of each map."[112]. [64][65], In Heritage of Kings, military recruitment is substantially different than previous titles. [54] Workers, on the other hand, need both lodgings and sustenance (provided by farms), and the closer the lodgings and farm are to their workplace, the more productive they will be. Especially lauded were the graphics, Victory Points system, mission variety, and map design. [104][105] Speaking prior to the release of 10th Anniversary, Ubisoft's business development director, Ralf Wirsing, attempted to put the overall franchise into context, stating; with the five parts of the series published so far, three different generations can be defined. Just because of a little uprising, Morbus has been banished to Earth by HIM, the highest god of all. [19][24][25][26][27][28] In Heritage, serfs are differentiated from workers - serfs are the only units capable of constructing new buildings, repairing damage to pre-existing buildings, gathering wood, and extracting resources by hand, whereas workers occupy buildings. [97] Ultimately, however, the PlayStation 2 and GameCube versions never materialised. "[59], The Settlers HD received positive reviews, and was lauded for replicating the original game on a portable device, and for successfully adapting the controls to a touchscreen. In June 2001, they revealed the next game, The Settlers: Heritage of Kings, would be a milestone in several senses - it would be the first to use 3D graphics and it would be released simultaneously for Microsoft Windows and the console market. "[143] Eurogamer's Kieron Gillen called it "brutally average. Work yards which do require food can be supplied with fancy food, which will double production. PC Gamer's James Flynn called the economic system "perfectly designed. [77], The original Settlers game was conceived, designed, and programmed by Blue Byte's Volker Wertich, who was inspired by titles such as Little Computer People, Populous and SimCity. So, with Heritage of Kings, there is little focus on micromanagement, daisy-chain economic processes, or construction, and more on technology trees, combat, taxation, and workers' motivation. Workers, however, cannot be controlled. "[139] On the other hand, GameSpot's Ron Dulin argued that it played almost identically to The Settlers II, citing "surface changes [which] make only a moderate improvement. [91], Speaking to IGN later in the year, Brändle reiterated the designers' hopes that the game would more fully integrate economic-based settling with combat than had the previous title; "we are mainly concentrating on getting the balance between settling and fighting just right.