[slightwinder]

There is also a modern continuation from the original Creator, called "Pioneers of Pagonia"[1]. It's Early Access at the moment, but v1.0 is planned for release in some weeks (11.12.2025). And so far it looks promising, seems to be a pretty good game for Settler-Fans. As I remember, it's a reaction on the catastrophic fail of the latest official Setter-Game, which is not with Ubisoft, so I guess serving the old fans is one of the goal.

[1] https://pioneersofpagonia.com

[oersted]

It's a shame that Pioneers of Pagonia doesn't stick to the same strict path-network mechanic, that was my favourite part of the earlier Settlers that later went away.

From the recommendation of another commenter, here's a more recent indie game that seems focused exactly on that style of path logistics:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/677340/The_Colonists/

[noxa]

As a Settlers 1/2 fan I spent quite a bit of time in The Colonists - can recommend it if you liked the road building/flag mechanics and the chill gameplay.

[lukan]

"strict path-network mechanic"

What exactly does that mean here?

[rendaw]

It's weird that so many pioneer game developers are publishing new games today independently. By name alone the game is going to get some attention. How are publishers so bad at retaining creators? Why isn't this being published by Ubisoft themselves?

[slightwinder]

In this specific case, it's because of creative conflicts. Volker Wertich, the creator of Settlers 1&3, was also supposed to be creator for the newest Game, Settler: New Allies (part 8(?) of the mainline). He left after Ubisoft was not convinced from his Vision, considered it too complex, ambiguous. They release the reworked final version some years later, and it flopped hard. He then went on to create Pagonia after it came to light how much the new part sucks.

I don't think we know in detail what his original vision was, we can only assume if Pagonia is aiming to manifest it. And there is the theory that Ubisoft didn't like to have two similar games in their catalogue. They already have the Anno-Franchise, which is very similar to settlers, and had a promising new game released around the time Wertich left Ubisoft.

So the answer is probably a mix between internal politics of big companies, risk-avoidance and creative minds being too creative for the average manager. The more money you push, the more the system strifes to controlled outcomes. And Ubisoft was pushing very big around that time, to the point that they killed themselves, it seems.

[StopDisinfo910]

Ubisoft strategy with The Settlers IP is very hard to understand.

They bought to the market a game with an akward positioning, which could be enjoyable if you see it primarily as a tablet oriented development, but with very little to do with the original The Settlers. Amusingly, it would probably have been better received with a different name.

Accordingly, I could see how the creator would feel uneasy with what's happening.

[nottorp]

I believe the people likely to want this title would stay away if Ubisoft was involved.

After all, they bought then dumbed down or canceled quite a few great game franchises. Everything from bluebyte for example.

If Ubisoft was involved I’d assume it’s a heavy combat oriented rts with a settlers skin.