Games PC PATRICIAN 3 User Manual

4.4 (12)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1

1 PREFACE

9

2 INSTALLATION AND STARTING A GAME

9

2.1

INSTALLING THE GAME

9

2.2

STARTING A GAME

10

3 SUPPORT

10

3.1

IF YOU ARE EXPERIENCING PROBLEMS

10

3.2

CONTACTING US

10

 

3.2.1 Website

10

 

3.2.2 Forum

10

 

3.2.3 E-mail

10

 

3.2.4 Post

10

4 QUICK START

10

4.1

TUTORIAL

11

4.2

QUICK START AND GAME CONTROLS

11

 

4.2.1 Playing Speed

11

 

4.2.2 Game Controls

11

 

4.2.3 Screen Layout

12

 

4.2.3.1 Sections of the Screen

12

 

4.2.3.2 Town View

12

 

4.2.3.3 Sea Map

12

 

4.2.3.4 Sea Battle View

12

4.3

TRADE

12

 

4.3.1 How to Trade

12

 

4.3.2 What to Trade

13

 

4.3.3 What Next?

13

5 THE GAME WORLD

13

5.1

TOWNS

13

 

5.1.1 Hanseatic Towns

14

 

5.1.2 Hanseatic Trading Offices

14

 

5.1.3 Hanseatic Trading Stations

14

 

5.1.4 Founding Towns

14

5.2

INSIDE A TOWN

14

 

5.2.1 The Town’s Citizens

14

 

5.2.2 Goods Supply

14

 

5.2.3 Infrastructure

15

 

5.2.4 Events

15

5.3

WEATHER

15

6 MAIN MENU

15

6.1

TUTORIAL

15

1

6.2

CAMPAIGNS

15

6.3

SINGLE-PLAYER GAME

15

 

6.3.1 Player Settings

15

 

6.3.2 Difficulty Level

16

 

6.3.3 Define your Goal

16

6.4

MULTI-PLAYER GAME

16

6.5

LOADING

16

6.6

OPTIONS

17

6.7

CREDITS

17

6.8

EXIT

17

7 CONTROLS

17

7.1

MOUSE CONTROL

17

7.2

MORE CONTROLS

18

7.3

SEA MAP

18

7.4

MINI-MAP AND TITLE BAR

19

 

7.4.1 Mini-map

19

 

7.4.2 Title Bar

19

 

7.4.2.1 Town View Title Bar

20

 

7.4.2.1 Sea View Title Bar

20

7.5

BUTTON BAR

20

7.5.1 News Menu

20

8 TRADE AND GOODS PRODUCTION

21

8.1

BASIC CONCEPT

21

 

8.1.1 Towns and Supply Needs

21

 

8.1.2 Production and Prices

21

 

8.1.3 Information

21

 

8.1.4 Trading

22

 

8.1.5 Ships and Transport

22

8.2

YOUR TRADING OFFICE

22

 

8.2.1 The Trading Office Menu

22

 

8.2.1.1 Total

22

 

8.2.1.2 Stock of Goods

23

 

8.2.1.3 Stock of Weapons

23

 

8.2.1.4 Warehouse

23

 

8.2.1.5 Trading Office

23

 

8.2.1.6 Personal

23

 

8.2.1.7 Move

23

 

8.2.2 Limitations to building trading offices

23

 

8.2.3 Warehouse

23

8.3

GOODS PRODUCTION

24

2

8.4

TRADE ROUTES: AUTOMATIC TRADING

24

 

8.4.1 Selecting Towns

24

 

8.4.2 Choosing Goods and Trading Methods

24

 

8.4.3 Price Limits

24

 

8.4.4 Goods Quantities

24

 

8.4.5 Goods Priorities

24

 

8.4.6 Activating Trade

25

 

8.4.7 Loading and Saving

25

 

8.4.8 Blocking Towns and Repairs

25

 

8.4.9 Goods Menu

25

 

8.4.10 Prices

26

 

8.4.11 Town and Action Order

26

8.5

OTHER TRADES

26

 

8.5.1 Loans

26

 

8.5.2 Trade with the Hinterland

26

 

8.5.3 Imports

26

9 SHIPS

26

9.1

SHIP TYPES

26

9.2

SHIPBUILDING AND REPAIRS

27

 

9.2.1 Repairing Ships

28

 

9.2.2 Building a Ship

28

 

9.2.3 Order List

28

 

9.2.4 Repair List

28

 

9.2.5 Upgrading your Ship

28

 

9.2.6 Changing a Ship’s Name

28

9.3

HIRING A CREW

28

 

9.3.1 Hiring Sailors

28

 

9.3.1.1 Crew’s Morale

28

 

9.3.1.2 Mutiny

29

 

9.3.2 Recruiting Captains

29

 

9.3.2.1 Special Skills of all Captains

29

 

9.3.2.2 A Captain’s Attributes

29

9.4

ARMING SHIPS

29

9.5

SHIP MENU

29

9.6

SPECIAL CASES

30

 

9.6.1 Transfer between two Ships

30

 

9.6.2 Blocked Ships

30

 

9.6.3 Wear and Tear

30

9.7

CONVOYS

30

 

9.7.1 Putting a Convoy Together

30

3

 

9.7.2 Public and Private Convoys

31

 

9.7.3 Dissolving a Convoy

31

 

9.7.4 Joining a Convoy

31

 

9.7.5 Leaving a Convoy

31

 

9.7.6 Blocked Convoys

31

10 ACTION BUILDINGS

31

10.1

YOUR TRADING OFFICE

31

10.2

DOCK CRANES

32

10.3

MARKET HALL

32

 

10.3.1 Stock

32

 

10.3.2 Production

32

 

10.3.3 Consumption

32

10.4

TOWN GATE

32

 

10.4.1 Presents

32

 

10.4.2 Selling Goods

32

 

10.4.3 Delivery Agreements

32

 

10.4.4 Loans

32

 

10.4.5 Overland Route

32

 

10.4.6 War

32

10.5

BARN

32

10.6

TAVERN

33

 

10.6.1 Contract Brokers

33

 

10.6.2 Ordinary Trader

33

 

10.6.3 Sailors and Captains

33

 

10.6.4 Weapons’ Dealers

33

 

10.6.5 Pirates

33

 

10.6.6 Thieves

33

 

10.6.7 Informers

33

 

10.6.8 Travellers

33

 

10.6.9 The Side Room

33

10.7

SHIPYARDS AND REPAIR DOCKS

34

10.8

WEAPON SMITH

34

10.9

MONEY LENDER

34

 

10.9.1 Take out a Loan

34

 

10.9.2 Repay a Loan

34

 

10.9.3 Grant a Loan

34

 

10.9.4 Granted Loans

34

 

10.9.5 Buy Shares

34

 

10.9.6 Sell Shares

34

10.10 THE GUILD

34

4

10.10.1 Joining

34

10.10.2 Auctions

34

10.10.3 Auction Room

35

10.10.4 Convoys

35

10.10.5 Members

35

10.10.6 Goods Trading Centres

35

10.11 TOWN HALL

35

10.11.1 Public Notices

35

10.11.2 Outrigger

35

10.11.3 Town Info

35

10.11.4 Hanseatic Info

36

10.11.5 Council Chamber

36

10.11.6 Town Hall Cellar

36

10.11.7 Town Coffers

36

10.11.8 Alderman’s Office

36

10.12 BATH HOUSE

36

10.13 CHURCH

36

10.13.1 Pray

36

10.13.2 Feeding the Poor

36

10.13.3 Donation for Church Interior

36

10.13.4 Extending the Church

36

10.14 MARKET SQUARE

37

10.15 COMPETITIONS TRADING OFFICES

37

10.16 HARBOUR MASTER

37

10.17 ARSENAL

37

11 BUILDING

37

11.1 BASICS OF BUILDING

37

11.1.1 Building Contracts

37

11.1.2 Construction

38

11.2 TRADING OFFICE BUILDINGS

38

11.2.1 Warehouses

38

11.2.2 Town Houses

38

11.3 CITY BUILDINGS

38

11.3.1 Wells

38

11.3.2 Roads

38

11.3.3 Hospitals

39

11.3.4 Chapel

39

11.3.5 School

39

11.3.6 Mint

39

11.3.7 Monument

39

5

11.4

PRODUCTION FACILITIES

40

 

11.4.1 Businesses Producing Raw Materials

40

 

11.4.2 Finishing Businesses

41

11.5

TOWN FORTIFICATIONS

43

 

11.5.1 Bombards (port and gate)

43

 

11.5.2 Cannons (port and gate)

43

11.5.3 TOWN WALL

43

11.5.4 PITCH SHOOTS

43

12 CAREER AND POLITICS

43

12.1

RISE AND REPUTATION

43

 

12.1.1 Career Development

43

 

12.1.2 Types of Reputation

44

 

12.1.3 Checking and Raising your Reputation

44

 

12.1.4 Your Reputation

45

 

12.1.5 A Family

45

12.2

COUNCILLOR

45

 

12.2.1 Member of the Town Council

45

 

12.2.2 Contacts with the Region’s Prince

45

12.3

PATRICIAN

46

12.4

LORD MAYOR

46

 

12.4.1 Town Council Decisions

46

 

12.4.2 Vote

46

 

12.4.3 The Town Coffers

46

 

12.4.4 Troops

47

12.5

CANDIDATE FOR ALDERMAN

47

12.6

ALDERMAN

48

 

12.6.1 Hanseatic League Day

48

 

12.6.2 Events

48

 

12.6.3 Calling a Hanseatic League Day

48

12.7

BRIBING

49

 

12.7.1 Influencing Elections

49

 

12.7.2 Trials

49

13 FIGHTS AND BATTLES

49

13.1

PREVENTATIVE MEASURES

49

 

13.1.1 Town Defences

49

13.2

SEA BATTLE

49

 

13.2.1 Identifying the Enemy

50

 

13.2.1.1 View Radius

50

 

13.2.1.2 Attack Radius

50

 

13.2.2 Sea Battle Commences

50

6

13.2.2.1 Automatic Battles

50

13.2.2.2 Manual Battles

50

13.2.2.3 Captain and Crew

50

13.2.3 Controlling your Ship Manually During Battle

50

13.2.3.1 Sail Automatically

51

13.2.3.2 Sail Manually

51

13.2.3.3 Weapons and Tactics

51

13.2.4 Damages sustained during Sea Battles

51

13.2.4.1 Ship Damage

51

13.2.4.2 Weapon Damage

51

13.2.4.3 Loss of Crew

51

13.2.5 Battles to Board another Ship

51

13.2.6 Taking a Ship over after a Sea battle

52

13.2.7 Attacking Convoys

52

13.3 PIRATES

52

13.3.1 Hiring Pirates

52

13.3.2 Turn Pirate Yourself!

52

13.3.3 Pirate Hunt

53

13.4 ATTACKS ON TOWN (LAND SIEGE)

53

13.4.1 First Skirmishes

53

13.4.1.1 The Besiegers Set Up Camp

53

13.4.1.2 The Town Reacts

53

13.4.2 The Town Gate Functions during a Siege

53

13.4.2.1 Attack

53

13.4.2.2 Surrender

53

13.4.2.3 Buy Freedom

53

13.4.3 The Attack Starts

53

13.4.3.1 Behaviour of the Attackers

53

13.4.3.2 Behaviour of the Defenders

54

13.4.4 Final Decision

54

13.4.4.1 Victory goes to the Besiegers

54

13.4.4.2 Victory goes to the Town

54

13.4.5 The Citizens’ Behaviour

54

13.5 ATTACKS ON TOWN FROM THE SEA

54

13.5.1 Opponents

54

13.5.2 Defenders

54

13.5.3 The Attack from Sea

55

14 EXPEDITIONS

55

14.1 DESTINATIONS

55

14.2 GOODS AND GOLD

55

7

14.3

ORDERS

56

 

14.3.1 Explore

56

 

14.3.2 Trade

56

 

14.3.3 Contracts

56

14.4

RISKS

56

14.5

THE EXPEDITION RETURNS

56

15 MULTI-PLAYER MODE

56

15.1

HOT SEAT

56

15.2

NETWORK GAME (LAN)

56

 

15.2.1 Setting up a Network Game

57

 

15.2.1.1 Game Description

57

 

15.2.1.2 Personal Settings

57

 

15.2.1.3 Players

57

 

15.2.1.4 Chat Area

57

 

15.2.2 Joining a Network Game

57

 

15.2.3 Loading a Game

57

 

15.2.4 Special Features of Network Games

58

 

15.2.4.1 Saving a Game

58

 

15.2.4.2 Removing or Adding Players

58

 

15.2.4.3 Chatting during Game

58

 

15.2.4.4 Fast Forward

58

15.3

PLAYING OVER THE INTERNET

58

 

15.3.1 Connecting through the Main Program

58

 

15.3.2 Connect through Ascman

58

 

15.3.2.1 Ascman Interface

58

 

15.3.2.2 Starting a Game

59

16 CREDITS

60

17 APPENDIX

62

17.1

GAME HOTKEYS

62

17.2

PRICE OF BUILDINGS IN GOODS

63

17.3

PRICE OF SHIPS IN GOODS

63

17.4

TYPES OF GOODS

64

8

1 Preface

The Hanseatic League was founded in the middle of the 13th century to protect its members trading interests. Initially it was a loose organisation of a few daring traders. Over time, however, it developed into a very powerful trading concern. North Sea and Baltic traders had to be a part of the Hanseatic League if they wanted to have any chance of succeeding. In its heyday, the Hanseatic League was much more than a community of merchants or towns. It held strong political sway and was something of a predecessor of the European Union. In other words, it was one of the first global players in the history of economics - even if only Europe and parts of Africa and Asia were known at that time, and America and Australia had not been discovered yet.

Of course, not everyone could join the Hanseatic League. This was usually restricted to the patricians. This class of wealthy and proud merchants ruled most towns in the Holy Roman Empire and even pushed the jealous nobility into the background.

Patrician III let’s you join this exciting world of discovery and new beginnings. Protected by the Hanseatic League, traders travel between Luebeck and London, Cologne and Bergen, Riga and Novgorod. You are a small, but ambitious trader, bent on succeeding and shaping your own empire. To this end you gather information, set up trading offices in other Hanseatic towns, take on various assignments for which you are not always best qualified, and indulge in as much bribery as your purse will withstand. However, it is not just base self-interest driving you in this. You also desire wealth for your home town and toil for recognition and prestige, dabble in local and national politics, ensure your competition is left standing and confront evil pirates and unreasonable princes. In a word, you are busy.

This is why Patrician III has really developed beyond being just a trading simulation. Apart from offering the various elements of construction, you also get to take part in some real action and battles. Fight real-time sea battles or lay siege to a town - not a particularly genteel way of maintaining your interests, but highly effective and quite common for the times. Please take a look through this manual to learn what you need to do to become a successful and respected member of the Hanseatic League. We hope you have fun!

The Patrician III team wishes to thank all who have participated in the Patrician III forum on the ASCARON web site, shared their ideas with us and discussed them with us and others. They have made this game what it is now.

This manual represents the current state of play. All additions and rule changes are incorporated.

2 Installation and Starting a Game

2.1 Installing the Game

Minimum system requirements

Pentium II - 233MHz, 32MB RAM, 4-speed CD-ROM, 4MB graphics card compatible with DirectX 8.1, OS Windows98/98se/ME/2000/XP.

Recommended system requirements (for all graphics options to be available)

Pentium II - 450MHz, 128MB RAM, high-speed 32MB 3D accelerated graphics card compatible with DirectX 8.1

To install Patrician III insert the CD into your disk drive. The set-up program should start automatically. If you have deactivated the autorun option, you can start the program manually by double-clicking on Setup.exe on the CD. Follow the on-screen instructions.

Patrician III has been optimised for DirectX 8 or higher. If you already have this installed, skip this part of the installation.

The Patrician Setup program is launched after installation and tests possible graphics card resolutions for Patrician III. You can also run this program separately (e.g. after installing a new graphics card).

9

2.2 Starting a Game

Please ensure your Patrician III CD is in the CD drive. Start the program from Programs > Autorun or dou- ble-click the Patrician III icon on the desktop.

You can skip the intro by pressing ESC.

3 Support

Due to the large number of hardware and software components on the market and different system configurations, installation and software problems can never be completely eliminated.

We would like to help you solve any difficulties you may encounter with our software.

Ascaron offers you help via the website, forum or by e-mail (see below) if you need hints, tips or solutions for one of our games or if you have difficulties with our software.

3.1 If You are Experiencing Problems

Please refer to the Readme.txt file if you hit on any problems. It is installed along with the game and you will find solutions for any known configuration and networking issues in it.

3.2 Contacting Us

If the Readme does not contain the answer you need, you can contact us in one of the following ways.

3.2.1 Website

You will find product information, current updates, patches and solutions for all Ascaron games at: http://www.ascaron.com

English fan sites are available at: http://www.patricianworld.com and http://www.thecrayer.com. These sites contain hints, tips, help with getting started and charts on the Hanseatic League’s world.

3.2.2 Forum

The Forum contains more hints & tips and technical assistance. Access it via: http://www.ascaron-forum.com

Or from the website by following the “Forum” link.

3.2.3 E-mail

You can email us via: service_p3@ascaron.com

Please send us a full description of your problem and we will reply with assistance as soon as we can.

To assist us in providing you with technical support, please include the following information with any technical query:

title and, if known, version of your Ascaron product your system (processor, RAM, operating system)

your computer hardware (make and model of sound card, graphics card, CD-ROM drive, etc.) software versions (DirectX, graphics driver, etc)

3.2.4 Post

If you wish to contact us by post, please do so using the following address details: Ascaron Entertainment UK Limited

Chantry House High Street Coleshill

Birmingham B46 3BP

4 Quick Start

The five-part tutorial explains the main aspects of operating the game. We recommend that you use this tutorial for all relevant topics. If you want to start a campaign or normal game straight away, the following pages will give you the most important information. For further details see the following chapters of this manual:

6

Main Menu

different ways of playing, setting options and difficulty level

7

Controls

buttons and operating the interface

8

Trade and Goods Production

purchasing and selling goods, the trade interface

9

Ships

ship types, equipment and crew

Appendix

all hotkeys

10

4.1 Tutorial

Click on Tutorial in the Main menu to select from one of the five sections: Game Interface

Describes the interface and different views, shows you how to switch views and demonstrates the main operating elements.

Ships

Explains how to interpret the information provided on the ships, how to control, repair or build a ship and how to hire your crew.

Trade

Provides a lot of general information on how the game works and shows you how to trade goods and obtain information.

Towns

Explains what the function of trade buildings, town houses and production facilities are, how to build and produce goods, and how these elements affect a town’s population.

Sea Battles

How to manoeuvre at sea, shoot and board ships.

A commentator provides step by step instructions on playing the game. Each tutorial can be stopped at any time.

Note:

The tutorial is best viewed at a resolution of 1024x768.

4.2 Quick Start and Game Controls

Click on Campaign in the Main menu and select the first campaign, “Rise”. Your task is to rise and become a patrician. You will receive regular hints on trading and information on your reputation.

If you prefer to play independently select Single-player game from the Main menu. In the following screen, enter your playing name and click on Start. The other settings are not required yet (they are explained in Chapter 6).

4.2.1 Playing Speed

The game clock can be stopped or resumed by pressing Pause. When the clock is stopped, orders can be entered. A click on the Fast forward button forces time to jump forward to the next event.

4.2.2 Game Controls

More details are available in Chapter 7: Controls.

The game starts in town view. You move and perform simple trade through the sea map. The town view allows you to trade, build, get more information and carry out many other actions. Simple commands can also be given via the mini-map.

Hovering the cursor or mouse pointer over an object or button will display its tool tip.

Mouse Control

Left-click on

Resulting Action

Your own ship, convoy or building

Selects it, shows commands available

Action building

Enter building, shows commands available

Foreign objects (ships, buildings, citizens)

Shows information

Mini-map

Main view jumps to map area selected

Right-click on

Resulting Action

Sea, river or town (with ship selected)

Moves to destination

Town on the mini-sea map or sea map

Trade window opens

(with ship/trading office activated)

 

Enemy ship (in ship view)

Enemy ship is attacked

Foreign convoy/ship (in ship view)

Transfer window is opened

(with info window open)

Closes window

To scroll the main view, move the mouse pointer to the edge of the screen or press the arrow keys.

11

Games PC PATRICIAN 3 User Manual

4.2.3 Screen Layout

4.2.3.1 Sections of the Screen

Icon menu/Title bar

Toggle

Mini-map

Upper and lower toolbar

Selection screen

Main view

4.2.3.2 Town View

The game starts in this view and in town you can make use of all the town’s amenities, as well as trade and build. Clicking Own buildings allows you to view your own houses and trade buildings in the town, by temporarily hiding the rest.

Clicking Leave town on the toolbar or the mini-sea map switches you over to the sea map.

4.2.3.3 Sea Map

Leaving town automatically switches you onto the sea map, showing the whole Hanseatic League region. This shows pirates, storms and all your ships, enabling you to continually monitor their routes and change them as required.

4.2.3.4 Sea Battle View

You will automatically be switched to sea battle view whenever you engage in a sea battle. At the end of the battle, unsurprisingly, you will be automatically returned to the sea map!

4.3 Trade

And now to the central questions: how to trade and more importantly, how to make a healthy profit. Firstly: don’t start building production facilities straightaway. To begin with trade will offer you much higher margins than production.

4.3.1 How to Trade

The trading interface is described in much more detail in Chapter 8.

In order to trade you need to select a ship, a convoy or a trading office. Initially, the main differences between ships lies in their storage capacity. Patrician III has two units of measurement: load and barrel. One load equals 10 barrels. So a 15-load snaikka will hold 15 loads or 150 barrels.

When you are in town view you can open the trading window by clicking (left mouse button) on the dock crane or if you are on the sea map or mini-map you just right-click on a town.

When starting to trade with a ship from a town with a trading office, the selection window (right) allows you to select whether to trade with the town or move goods between trading office and ship.

The trade window (see page XX) displays the trading parties, goods in stock and the current purchase and

12

selling prices. You can adjust the number of items per transaction at the bottom of the screen. After this has been adjusted, each click on the price button will be purchasing or selling the set number of items.

The average purchase price for your goods is displayed in the right margin. This allows you quickly verify whether you are still making a profit or whether the price is too high.

The fewer goods a town has in stock, the more it will pay for them. In the same way, if you purchase scarce goods you have to pay more.

The effects:

Selling goods lowers their price, as every sold unit contributes to satisfying demand.

When purchasing goods, on the other hand, their price rises, as every unit purchased makes the goods more difficult to obtain in town.

Frequent problems:

You are trying to buy, but nothing is happening.

-Do you still have enough storage space on board (see top right in the trading window) and enough money for the transaction?

The ship sets sail but the goods you have purchased have disappeared.

-Maybe you forgot to select the ship and you purchased the goods with the trading office?

The prices displayed in the trading window aren’t right.

-When you set a large number of items per transaction the average price sinks.

4.3.2What to Trade

Buy cheap and sell high! You may well be thinking to yourself “well that’s easier said than done, right now I wouldn’t know a bargain if it came up and bit me.” So here are a few hints while you are familiarising yourself with trading the high seas:

On route planning:

Look at the sea map and you will notice demand icons next to town names. These indicate which goods are in high demand and are therefore likely sell at a good price.

Towns generally have some stocks of the goods they produce locally, but there will be demand for all other goods. To find out what is produced locally, simply left-click on the town button in the sea map or on the statue in the town centre.

Purchasing and selling:

The difference between the buying and selling price can tell you lots. A small differential (< 10%) indicates the goods are readily available. It is also seldom wise to buy goods with a high differential, as it is often difficult to sell these goods at a profit.

Check out what goods are in stock at the town’s market hall. If there are sufficient supplies for several weeks you can purchase at a low price. If there are only enough supplies to last a few days, prices will be high. The average price of your own goods can serve as a fast reference point. It shows your own purchase price. Sell your goods at a higher price than this and you will have at least made a profit.

4.3.3 What Next?

Now you know enough to start trading. Your wealth and fleet will grow, and soon you will start building workshops and houses and send expeditions to far-away lands. And then?

In order to gain the reputation you need to attain political power; you need to invest your hard-earned money for the benefit of the people. You may also choose to live a double-life as a pirate. Because if you want to be known and respected in your hometown and all over the Hanseatic League region, being a clever trader alone will not suffice.

5 The Game World

Patrician III is set in all twenty-four of the big towns in the Hanseatic League era. The town’s surrounding countryside only plays a minor role. If the town is doing well, people will migrate from the countryside to the town. If the town is low on supplies, citizens will migrate to the countryside.

Wars and greedy princes often pose challenges to the Hanseatic League, but on the whole hold little sway on the game engine.

The Mediterranean holds more towns just waiting to be discovered and enter trade with you. These towns differ from game to game.

5.1 Towns

Not all the towns of the Hanseatic League have the same importance. Although you can set up trading offices

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and buildings on all twenty-four sites, a career is only possible in the larger towns. You need to make one of these your hometown to get anywhere.

Inland towns such as Cologne, Novgorod and Torun play a special role, as they can only be reached via a long river journey with small snaikkas and crayers.

5.1.1 Hanseatic Towns

Choose your home from amongst the twelve Hanseatic towns. This is where you will be able to trade and build, strive to improve your reputation or seek to be elected lord mayor. The Hanseatic towns include the North German cities of Hamburg, Bremen, Rostock and Luebeck as well as Cologne, Stettin, Gdansk, Visby, Riga, Reval, Torun and Stockholm.

5.1.2 Hanseatic Trading Offices

Bergen, London, Bruges and Novgorod basically offer you the same opportunities as the Hanseatic towns, but you cannot become lord mayor there.

5.1.3 Hanseatic Trading Stations

The eight trading stations of Malmö, Edinburgh, Scarborough, Groningen, Ripen, Oslo, Aalborg and Ladoga only play a minor role. They have neither guilds nor shipyards, and only offer small docks for repairs.

5.1.4 Founding Towns

If you become an experienced lord mayor at a later stage of the game you will be offered the opportunity to establish production sites for the Hanseatic League (see Chapter 12.5, Candidate for Alderman).

These are historical places where you can set up further production facilities. However you will have to start from scratch, erecting the entire town’s key buildings, as well as houses and businesses so that the town attracts new residents.

The town will automatically be passed over to the Hanseatic League once it has reached a certain size. This means you have fulfilled your mission. Your reputation will be greatly enhanced, but the downside is that you have to finance all the building work yourself. The new town will however earn you a tidy profit. Bear in mind that the Hanseatic Council has selected the site according to which goods are most in demand.

In contrast to other towns, founding towns offer fewer production possibilities and therefore have more or less the status of a Hanseatic League Branch. The one difference is that is no lord mayor in these towns and the builder remains the town manager and thus has privileges resembling those of a mayor. (You can also be a mayor in another town at the same time.)

5.2 Inside a Town

5.2.1 The Town’s Citizens

Every town has poor, well-off and rich people, and each of the three strata of society has its own interests and needs. Even a very wealthy town still has poor elements of society, who typically do the hard work.

A growing town will attract migrant beggars from the surrounding countryside. In order to rise from beggar to citizen the migrant needs work and a home, otherwise he will move on. New workers may only be recruited from this group.

Clicking on the Inhabitants button in the icon menu shows information about each social group’s size and level of satisfaction. The citizen’s level of satisfaction will change very slowly, as a prolonged period of need tends to stick in people’s minds.

If you want to expand you need to focus on satisfying the needs of the poor, as they are the foundation the town’s population is built upon.

The number of workers in the town indicates the degree of economic activity. Click on individual citizens to find out any needs they might have and your reputation with this group.

The roads that lead in and out of town can also provide you with helpful information. Watch who is arriving and who is leaving the town. The people will tell you their reasons for travelling if you click on them.

5.2.2 Goods Supply

Whether or not a town does well depends essentially on whether it receives the required amount of goods. People will leave if there aren’t enough goods in the town, even if plenty of work and housing are available. Different groups have different requirements for basic food items and consumer goods:

Poor citizens need plenty of grain, beer, fish and wood. Once that is covered, they are interested in pottery, oil, leather and wool.

Well-off citizens are more interested in beer, fish and wool, and then meat, grain, wood, oil and cloth.

The rich want meat, wine and cloth as their main priority, and then quite like to have wood, furs, pottery and oil.

The good citizens are very keen to see several days’ worth of supplies in stock; after all, deliveries don’t come

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every day.

Clicking on the market hall will show you the quantities the citizens and businesses consume per week. This will enable you to judge how long supplies will last.

5.2.3 Infrastructure

As long as supplies are abundant, the population’s satisfaction level is dependent on development and enlargement of the town.

Chapter 11 on Building covers the various building options in more detail. If you want the town to grow, you need to provide enough housing for all sections of society to thrive.

The larger the town, the greater its need for good, paved roads, wells to provide for better hygiene and to help fight fires, as well as hospitals and chapels for preventing epidemics.

The citizens also like the church to reflect their wealth. The costs for these things are usually covered through voluntary donations and donors are always highly respected for their generosity.

Finally, a town also needs enough guards and soldiers to protect the population and a town wall to shield the majority of businesses and houses from outside enemies. Which is also part of the lord mayor’s task...

5.2.4 Events

A celebration can often raise a town’s spirits. The people will honour you highly for this, especially after the successful survival of a famine, an epidemic or a siege. You may prepare for such a celebration in the Market Square.

War and famine will make everyone within the town walls very depressed. It may also come to pass that you are held personally responsible. The citizens have a special dislike for sieges, be they from land or sea. However, if the town manages to survive a siege unscathed, the general mood rises very quickly.

5.3 Weather

The town view now shows several different weather effects (rain, frost, frozen port, snowfall and snow on the ground), each of which affect game play in their own particular way:

Rain in town indicates that there is a storm not very far out at sea.

Frost: The ground in all towns is prone to freezing from December through to February. Agricultural production is reduced over this period.

Frozen port: During particularly hard winters it is known for ports freeze up, especially in towns lying further east. No ships will be able to dock in or sail from the port. During this time you will see small icebergs floating in the harbour.

6 Main Menu

6.1 Tutorial

The Tutorial gives step-by-step introductions for playing Patrician III. For more detailed instructions see Chapter 4, Quick Start.

6.2 Campaigns

There are seven scenarios to choose from. When you have clicked on a campaign you will see a short task description appear in the window below. Select the difficulty level under Details (see next section) and begin the game by clicking Start.

6.3 Single-player Game

Patrician III is usually played in Single-player mode. Enter your character’s information, select the game type and then click on Start. The data entered here will be used for the entire game. The only parameter you can adjust later is game speed. Further settings can be made via the menu options as follows.

6.3.1 Player Settings

You entries under first and last name will determine how you are addressed in the game.

Your gender will determine the gender of prospective spouses. World map: Choose from the standard map or a map created by you or somebody else.

Under Hometown you can choose from all Hanseatic towns in the map. This option provides a rough overview of what goods are produced where.

Your start year influences the town size and the number of facilities already built by other traders. From 1350

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6.4 Multi-Player Game
This allows you to play Patrician III with friends. For more details see Chapter 15, Multi-Player Mode.
6.5 Loading
You will see a list of all save games appear in the right hand window. On the left you can toggle between single player save games and campaigns. Click on the game you want to play to display a short description of it in the left-hand window.
The left-hand window allows you to delete or resume a game with Delete Game and Load, respectively.
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Hanseatic League Population
Balance of Wealth
Play with no particular goal in mind. Become lord mayor within a given time. Become alderman within a given time.
The game ends after a set amount of time and each trader’s success is calculated. The trader with the highest point score wins.
The game ends after a set amount of time and the wealth of the traders are compared.
The game ends as soon as the game world reaches a certain popula tion count.
The first trader fulfilling the game’s goal wins. This can be a player or computer-controlled trader. You are then asked whether you want to continue playing.
Define the objective of your game: None
Lord Mayor
Alderman Balance of Points
onwards you have the added advantage that Hulks are available right from the start - any earlier and the Hulk is only just starting to be built by a few experienced shipyards.
6.3.2 Difficulty Level
You can choose between five different difficulty levels: small shopkeeper (very easy) through trader, merchant, and councillor up to patrician (very difficult). The Details option shows the settings of different game aspects. They can be changed manually.
The player can usually select from the options low, normal or high. Trade
This difficulty level reduces the trade margin. It lowers the sales prices by approx. 10% per increment and raises the purchase prices by 10%. Note: After changing this setting you may have to become used to the new prices!
Reputation
Your efforts towards maintaining the town’s supply of required goods or giving donations will ensure your reputation rises. The higher you set this difficulty level the more efforts you will need to make for your recognition to increase amongst the citizens.
Citizens’ needs
This indicates the amount of goods the citizens need in order to be satisfied. The higher their requirements, the more different goods you need, and slower the towns will grow.
Sea battles
This option determines the ship’s manoeuvrability and the cannons’ targeting accuracy.
Pirates activity
Allows you to adjust the number of pirates that roam the seven seas and the rate at which new pirates join them.
Activities of the Prince
Determine how often the Prince approaches the Hanseatic towns with demands. You can also configure the army size during sieges.
Start-up Capital
Your start-up capital can be 1,000, 10,000 or 30,000 gold pieces.
Number of Ships
At the start of the game you can choose between having either just a snaikka or a snaikka and a crayer. Clicking on OK returns you to the game settings. You will now see the difficulty level resulting from your settings displayed.
6.3.3 Define your Goal
Colour depth Details
Weather effects
Volume: Music, Sound, Video Game speed
Event videos on/off Tool tips on/off Convoy ships
Autosave

6.6 Options

You can choose between many different display options:

Resolution Choose between 800 x 600, 1024 x 768 and 1280 x 1024 pixels.

Choose between 16-bit and 32-bit.

Adjusts the level of detail. The options are Off, Low, Normal and High. The higher the detail the more system resources will be required.

You will see rain, snow falling and frozen ports during game play. Please note that this option requires a high power computer. If the game display is jerky on your com puter, please try deactivating this option.

Adjust the volume by moving the sliders!

Normal makes a day last 60 seconds, on Very fast it will be over in approx. 20 seconds.

The game has a movie for every special event. Activate this option to watch them.

Activate this to have tips displayed, when you hover the mouse pointer over an object.

Choose whether all a convoy’s ships are displayed when docked in town or just the lead ship. The latter setting enables you to maintain an overview in town view if you have lots of ships or large convoys.

Set how often the game is saved automatically. Choose between ‘Off’ to every 30 minutes.

Clicking on Cancel deletes your changes and OK confirms them. Whatever you select you will be returned to the Main Menu.

6.7 Credits

Find out the team behind Patrician III.

6.8 Exit

Quits the game.

7 Controls

Controls and an overview of the game screens are also contained in Chapter 4, Quick Start. All hotkeys are listed in the appendix.

7.1 Mouse Control

Select objects on the main screen by clicking on them. Usually a menu or information will appear. Clicking

on an empty spot on the map deselects the object.

 

Left-button click on

Resulting Action

Own ship or convoy

 

selects the ship.

Route of own ship or convoys in the sea map

denote the route by click and dragging the mouse, e.g. to

 

 

pass around a storm.

Foreign ship

 

displays information on the foreign ship (this information

 

 

may not always be reliable).

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Resulting Action
ship travels to this position and waits there
sets a way point, route is then continued (a route can have up to 8 way points)
ship sails towards the town and calls at the port. (if the selected ship is already at anchor, this opens the trading window)
enemy ship is attacked automatically move captains, sailors and cutlasses adds the ship to convoy
trading window opens

Own convoy in town view

selects whole convoy (clicking on one ship in the convoy

 

selects it and displays its goods).

Own ship while pressing Ctrl

allows you to select several of your own ships

Pull square around several ships

selects several ships

Action building

enter building

Business or town house

displays information

Citizen

find out their opinion

Mini-map

main view jumps to selected map area

Use the right mouse button to perform certain actions. A summary of the most common ones is provided here:

Right-click on With ship selected

any position on sea or navigable river (with Ctrl pressed) any point on sea or navigable river

town in the mini-map or on the sea map

enemy ship during a sea battle own ship in town view convoy in town view

Without ship selected

town with trading office in mini-sea map or sea map

In contrast to normal windows, movies cannot be closed by right clicking.

Moving the mouse pointer to the edge of the screen scrolls the main view in this direction.

7.2 More Controls

Almost all icons are buttons: you can recognise them, because when you move the mouse pointer over them they have a white frame and a tool tip will appear. Clicking on an icon will do something. For instance if you click on the ship icons in the icon menu, you can toggle through all the ships/convoys. Several clicks on the news icon retrieves all news.

Clicking on labelled buttons in the game will also have an effect. By clicking on the arrow buttons in the ship list (in front of the ship names) you jump directly to the ship. Names appearing on lists (usually ship names) also allow you to select the object. To select several ships press Ctrl and left-click on the names in the list.

7.3 Sea Map

Even experienced sailors need good maps. The main map shows the whole North European sea and land area and includes all towns of importance to the Hanseatic League. This map provides an overview of the towns you can travel to and trade with. To scroll through the whole map touch the edge of the screen with the mouse pointer. You can also use the arrow buttons on your keyboard or click on the desired area in the overview map. Apart from your hometown you can also select and enter any other town by left clicking on it. This only works if you have at least one trading office or a ship docked there. If this is the case, both maps switch to the town view and you can carry out your business or got to your meetings in peace.

Every town has a red button, which you have to press to enter the town. However you may only enter if you have at least one trading office or ship docked there. If this is not the case, clicking will just display general information on the town.

You can obtain a lot of information without needing to click the mouse once – just use your eyes! You will see various icons displayed next to the town names on the main map. These provide you with information on the town’s current situation. Move the mouse pointer over the icons to see a short message (such as “Beer required”).

The following icons are available:

If this icon is displayed, the town is suffering a famine and will be more than happy about your food delivery.

This icon indicates that an epidemic is raging in the town. To be avoided at all costs.

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There is a fire in this town.

This town is suffering from a lack of beer. For a complete list of the goods icons and their meaning look in the appendix.

This town is being besieged, and the port may be closed. Peaceful trading will be impossible.

A convoy is waiting for permission to leave from this town’s port. The colour of the icon shows you who it belongs to. Blue indicates your own convoy, red the convoy of another player, and any white ones are controlled by the computer.

Beware! A pirate ship is patrolling the waters outside this town’s port. Seek refuge or start polishing your cannons and get ready for battle. If you see a pirate ship docked at port, you might like to consider delaying your little promenade along the front. Pirates are invading the town!

One glance at the mini-map shows whether you have a ship or ships at anchor in this town.

Red dots in the sea map indicate towns.

Your hometown is marked by a contrasting blue dot.

You will see a blue dot appearing in the middle of the red, in towns in which you have opened a trading office.

7.4 Mini-map and Title Bar 7.4.1 Mini-map

The mini-map displays a small version of the current town or the Hanseatic League trading area. The rectangle on the map indicates the section currently displayed in the main view. The mini-map has the following functions:

Clicking on any point in the mini-map changes the area shown on the main view. By right clicking you can send any selected ship to somewhere else and trade in towns. This map essentially offers the same functions as the main sea map.

The Toggle map arrow next to the mini-map switches between town view and sea map, so that you can carry out trade in the town, whilst being able to see how your ships are progressing on the mini-map. The mini-map’s icons allow

you to keep a check on where your ships are and in which towns you are trading. Slow blinking icons indicate your selected ships.

Fast blinking squares indicate something happening, e.g. one of your ships docking or been caught in a storm. Mini-map Icons

Icon

Symbolises

Squares (blue, white, red, black)

Ships or convoys (own, computer-controlled, other players, pirates)

Red diamond

Town without trading office

Blue diamond

Town with your own trading office

Diamond with blue dot

Town with one of your ships at port

Diamond with white frame

Town currently in view

Blinking black diamond

Storm

7.4.2 Title Bar

The title bar above the mini-map always displays the following:

Your current cash quantity is displayed next to the pile of gold. Clicking on the pile will give you various statistics on your enterprise. For details on these see Chapter 8, Trade and Goods Production.

The chronicle contains official news on towns, events and traders.

The variable part of the icon menu above the main view is toggled along with the mini-map.

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7.4.2.1 Town View Title Bar

This displays the population of the town you are currently in. Clicking on the icon displays further information on how many of the three social groups and beggars are present. The satisfaction level of

each group is also shown.

The town name tells you where you are.

Displays the number of buildings in the town. Clicking here hides all buildings that are not yours from the main map (only shown as outlines).

7.4.2.2 Sea View Title Bar

The icon menu has four additional buttons in the mini-map’s sea view:

“Ships in port” shows the number of your ships currently docked in port. Clicking on this button will “jump’ to the first of these ships. Clicking again jumps through all ships at anchor.

Note:

Ships in convoys are not shown.

Ships at sea shows how many of your ships are currently sailing on their own. Selecting these ships works the same as with the Ships in port command.

‘Convoys in port’ gives information about your docked convoys. Select by clicking.

‘Convoys at sea’ displays your convoys currently at sea. Select by clicking.

7.5 Button Bar

This toolbar is situated between the mini-map and the selection window. The following are available (other icons are explained in the respective sections):

Ship overview displays information on all your ships. The icon bottom right allows toggling between weapons and trade information. Clicking the arrow icon takes you directly to the ship, clicking on the name selects it.

Fast forward. The map is displayed, while time elapses. The fast forward mode ends automatically, when an event occurs. Left clicking at any time stops the clock immediately.

News menu - these options are explained in the News Menu section below.

Build Menu is explained in Chapter 11, Building. This icon is not available in the sea map and will appear greyed out.

Clicking on the town gate transports you away from the town view and switches you to the sea map. This icon is not available in the sea map and will appear greyed out.

During the game the options only differ slightly from those of the Main menu. Apart from the options for Resolution, Colour Depth and Volume already covered, you will also have Save Game, Load Game and Exit Game available.

7.5.1 News Menu

These icons give access to the following information:

Displays official documents such as tax statements, fees, charges, court decisions as well as elections and letters.

Displays your personal news, including data about your business and family.

The trade icon shows special information and any offers you have received.

There are also filter options for you to determine how the news items are saved.

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