Loading screen tips

Loading screens extracted using the external tools 1404 explorer and GIMP

Loading screen tips are shown on the loading screen.

• Provided you have left-clicked to select your Ship, you can right-click to sail it anywhere on the Map.
• Explore the game world with your Ship and discover new Islands and different Peoples.
• Computer players will assign you different Quests and you will generally receive rich rewards for completing them.
• Left-click on the Tax load to bump the Tax rate up to the maximum value for a particular Civilisation level.
• Processing plants have an Influence area. All the Goods required will be picked up directly from Plants or Market buildings within this area by a Journeyman.
• When you complete certain Quests you will receive unusual Items, which cannot be purchased.
• Stone quarries, Quartz quarries and Trapper's huts must be built near the relevant Raw material deposits. Only one Plant can operate productively at each Deposit.
• Mines are built directly on a Raw material deposit. Think about picking up the extracted Raw material or processing it on site.
• Norias are Oriental water wheels which turn the barren Deserts of the Southern islands into fertile Soil.
• If you upgrade Warehouses and Market buildings, you can increase the number of available Market carts.
• Build Roads to connect Buildings to satisfy the Needs of your Population and to enable you to pick up Goods.
• Plants, Ships and Military units incur constant Maintenance costs. You can shut Plants down to save a portion of the existing costs.
• You can fill your City coffers by collecting Taxes, conducting Trade or completing Quests.
• When you settle new Islands, bear in mind that Warehouses can only be built on flat stretches of Beach.
• The Info bar provides details on your supply of Goods and the Fertilities and Raw materials on an Island.
• Activate the Goods transfer button to unload Goods between Ships and Warehouses.
• Press the right mouse button and move the mouse to move the display window in any direction.
• Click on a Quest icon in the News system to open the Quest log containing a full description of the relevant Quest.
• Hold down the "[BINDING /game/togglegamespeed()]" button to increase the game speed.
• Hold down the central mouse button and move the mouse to rotate the world in any direction.
• Use the mouse wheel to adjust the camera height.
• Use the "[BINDING /game/Rotate(-1)]" and "[BINDING /game/Rotate(1)]" buttons to orient your Buildings before you build them.
• You will receive Gems for Achievements and Medals you unlock, which you can then exchange for rewards in the Main menu.
• Beggars on the Streets regularly cost you Gold coins. You can build Hospices to counteract this.
• Press the "[BINDING /quicksave]" button to Quicksave your savegame and press the "[BINDING /quickload]" button to "Quickload" it.
• Use your Gems to unlock Ornamental objects, portraits, new Coats of arms and player colours for the continuous game in the profile screen in the Main menu.
• Use Items to increase your Prestige with Grand vizier Al Zahir to attain diplomatic ranks. Each rank will give you access to new Oriental Buildings.
• Lord Richard Northburgh sells Items which will enhance your Prestige in the Orient. The more Honour you pay for them, the higher you will rise in Grand vizier Al Zahir's favour.
• Check Lord Northburgh's range of Goods before you settle an Island; he may be offering the Fertility it lacks for sale as Seeds.
• Select one of your Ships and then use the right mouse button to click on enemy Ships to attack them.
• Issue an Escort command by selecting one of your Ships and then right-clicking a friendly Ship or one of your own Ships.
• You can build Warehouses from your Flagship or a Trading ship provided you have the required Building material on board.
• To change the name of a Ship, click on it in the Ship menu and press Enter to confirm your entry.
• To change the name of a City, click on it in the Warehouse menu and press Enter to confirm your entry.
• Computer players notice for whom you complete Quests, so you will either enhance or diminish your Reputation with them.
• Rewards such as Goods, Gold coins, Honour or Items beckon if you successfully complete Quests.
• To prevent your Population from helping themselves to Goods needed to advance a Civilisation level, you can use the button in the market place's Building menu to block the release of Ascension rights.
• Press the Shift key to adjust the Tax load to set a precise level of Taxation.
• Build a Road connection between the Neutral powers and your Settlement to take advantage of their positive features.
• If you build a Road connection between the Academy of Wisdom and your Settlement and supply it with Goods, the Scholar Ibn al Hakim will supply you with Construction plans for Buildings, amongst other things.
• Once you have connected the Alchemist's tower to your Settlement, you can commission the Alchemist Izmir to manufacture some rare and even unique Items for you.
• If you build a Road connection between the Old Tree and your Settlement and supply it with Goods, Hekata and her sisters will weave a Spell that will protect your Settlement against the Plague.
• Build a Road connection between the Assassins' fortress and your Settlement to allow the leader of the Assassins, Al Rashid, to train special Troops.
• Build a Road connection between the Mountain monastery and your Settlement so that you can buy the Goods produced by Brother Hilarius.
• If you build a Road connection between the Excavation site and your Settlement, you can commission the Excavation leader, Cuno von Remboldt, to carry out Excavations for unusual Items.
• Build a Road connection between the Caravanserai and your Settlement if you wish to trade with the Caravan driver, Karim.
• If you build a Road connection between the Robber barons' castle and your Settlement you can conscript special Troops from Barnabas, the Robber baron.
• The Place of pilgrimage is the site of divine miracles. Connect it to your Settlement and supply the wise lady, Lady Benedicta, with Goods to spread the news and thus enhance your Honour.
• If you need some Goods urgently, you can press the button in the relevant Plant for immediate collection. The Goods will immediately picked up by the next free Market cart.
• If you want to halt Production of all the Plants of the same type on an Island simultaneously, hold down the Shift key and press the Shutdown button.
• You can grant Credit and Loans to other computer players or demand Tributes from them in the Diplomacy menu. However, too frequent gifts of Money or outrageous demands may anger many players.
• All the Raw material deposits on Islands are finite. Meanwhile however, you can upgrade the relevant Manufactories as often as you like to use the depleted Resources again.
• The Water supply to a Noria is restricted; you should replenish it regularly by pressing the button to upgrade the Well shaft in the Building menu.
• When you reach a new Civilisation level, you can only build a few Buildings from this level. Other Buildings will only be unlocked as your Population grows and their Needs increase.
• Warehouse and Market buildings provide an overview of all the Goods stocked on an Island. The Warehouse stocks are sorted by Civilisation level.
• You can build Storehouses to create a larger supply of Goods on an Island. However, these can only be built in the Influence area of a Warehouse or a Harbour master's office.
• If you complete Quests for computer players, this will have a positive effect on your Reputation with this Quest-giver.
• Buildings and buttons that you drag into the middle of the screen using Drag & Drop will then be available to you in the Right-click menu.
• Buildings and buttons that you can drag to the bottom of the screen using Drag & Drop will then be available to you in the Action bar.
• You can use Drag & Drop move the entire contents of your Goods storage bay when unloading Goods between your Warehouse and Ship.
• Left-click on any House in a Civilisation level to obtain detailed information on the various Needs of your Population.
• You can sort all the Buildings in the Construction menu by Civilisation levels or by types of Goods. You can use the button to the right of the tabs to toggle between the two sort modes.
• Press the watering button in the Building menu to automatically create the Fields around Farm buildings. This button will also place Trees in the Forests.
• You can use the button in the Building menu to temporarily shut down Plants to save on Plant costs.
• Use the "[BINDING /game/wm/toggleships(0)]" button to toggle between the Ships in your fleet.
• Toggle between your troops with the key "[BINDING /game/wm/toggletroops(0)]".
• Use the "[BINDING /game/wm/togglewarehouses(0)]" button to toggle between all your Warehouses.
• Hold the Shift key down while building a Wall to build it diagonally.
• A certain number of oriental Envoys will provide a bonus to the Ascension rights of your Citizens.
• Beggars in the City will provide a bonus to the Ascension rights of your Peasants. So it is irrelevant whether they are sheltered in Hospices or live on the Streets.
• Beggars on the Streets cost you a portion of your Tax income and reduce the Satisfaction level of the rest of the Population.
• When you build Hospices you prevent the loss of both Tax income and the Satisfaction of the rest of the Population due to Beggars in the streets. In turn, these Buildings must be supplied with * certain Goods.
• In ANNO 1404, not all the Inhabitants in one Civilisation level can advance to the next level.
• Activate the Postcard view using the "[BINDING /game/togglepostcardview]" button and move freely through your Settlement in the first person perspective.
• When you build a Tournament arena you can obtain more Honour from the Tournaments you organise.
• You will obtain additional Honour by trading intensively with other parties.
• You increase your Honour by successfully completing Quests.
• Make screenshots using the "[BINDING KD_HARDCOPY]" button; these will be saved in the [SCREENSHOT_PATH] folder.
• You can block individual Consumer goods for each Civilisation level and then make them available again.
• Farm buildings require Fields in which to produce Goods. These can be placed individually using the "Create Fields" button in the Building menu.
• Raise the storage capacity of an island by building Storehouses.
• If do not allow Beggars into your City, you run the risk that they will later return as Bandits.
• In multi-part Production chains the ratio between the Plants is not necessarily 1:1. Check the productivity of the individual Plants from time to time.
• Derelict Peasant houses are automatically repaired when the Needs of the Peasants are satisfied again, and new Inhabitants will move in.
• Derelict Nomad houses are automatically repaired when the Needs of the Nomads are satisfied again, and new Inhabitants will move in.
• Enemy Troops can only attack you if the Influence area of both your own and the enemy Armies overlap.
• Trebuchets, Cannon positions and Towers will attack all enemy Units located within your Influence area.
• Trebuchets, Cannon positions and Towers can also attack enemy Ships and Army baggage trains.
• When you play using an online profile you can compare your Achievements to date on the ANNO portal on the Internet with other ANNO fans.
• When you play with an online profile, your screenshots will be uploaded to the ANNO portal on the Internet and can be admired by other ANNO fans!
• Castles form your Bridgehead when you attack enemy Islands and can only be built from on board a Transport ship. These appear automatically when you move your Troops over the Ocean to other Islands.
• Bandit raids are a nasty surprise, as they lay siege to one of your Islands and bring all the Plants in their radius to a standstill.
• You can fight Bandits with your Troops, wait until they go away again or allow them into your City as Beggars.
• You can form an Alliance with the Corsairs. However, the Corsair pact will cost you a small sum and is not permanent.
• The Corsairs also offer you Items for sale which would presumably be considered as illegal by honest, law-abiding People...
• If you have blocked the release of Ascension rights in the Marketplace, you can decide whether, and which, individual Buildings can advance to the next Civilisation level.
• When you hold the Shift key down to transfer Goods from a Ship to a Warehouse, a window appears in which you can enter the exact quantity you want to transfer.
• When you reach Metropolis status, Patricians, Noblemen and Envoys will crave new Goods. The Population level of this Civilisation level will not increase until you make them available.
• Hold the Shift key down while you are building a Warehouse to prevent any surplus Goods being unloaded from the Ship into the Warehouse.
• If you want to set yourself particular challenges in a continuous game, you can establish specific game objectives when you set a game up.
• Only some of the Titles and Medals you can obtain in ANNO 1404 will be listed in the Main menu. You will also encounter numerous hidden rewards.
• Drag Goods from the Warehouse into the Info bar at the top of the screen to view your Warehouse stock.
• Left-click on the displays for your Balance and number of Inhabitants to obtain a detailed breakdown of these values.
• All the Help Quests can be enabled or disabled using an option in the Main menu.
• Help Quests appear only once per profile. However, you can use the Options in the Main menu to restore them at any time to display them again.
• You can exchange your Honor for Credit or a Loan with Lord Northburgh and Grand vizier Al Zahir in the Diplomacy menu.
• Build Piers so that more Ships can trade simultaneously in your Harbours and unload their Cargoes.
• If your Miners enter an enemy Military zone their disguise is blown, and they will immediately be discovered by the enemy.
• Use the key combination "[BINDING /game/togglesubtitles]" to display all the entire audio commentary also as text.
• Use the pin to modify each of your Ship routes to circumnavigate any dangerous passages.
• You can build an oriental Warehouse using one of the oriental Trading ships. You must have the Building material required to do this on board.
• There are two ways of achieving a permanent Alliance with the Corsairs: either you trade with them regularly and show them some little favours from time to time, or you destroy Corsair ships until the Corsair leader respects you!
• You can also buy new Ships for your Fleet from the Corsairs and sell your disused Ships.
• When you socket and activate a Smoke screen on one of your Ships, this Ship cannot move, but it will remain invisible from your enemies for a limited period of time.
• Any of your Ships within the Influence area of a Smoke screen will be cloaked from your enemies, allowing you to conceal entire Fleets from your enemies.
• You can activate a Letter of marque in your Ship to attack other players' Ships regardless of your Treaty status.
• Ships that you have endowed with a Letter of marque count as Pirates and will also be attacked by your own Ships.
• You can force another player to sign a Trade treaty with you by socketing and activating a Trade edict in one of your Warehouses.
• You can force another player to sign a Peace treaty by socketing and activating a Peace edict in one of your Warehouses.
• You can force another player to sign an Alliance with you by socketing and activating an Alliance edict in one of your Warehouses.
• When you activate an Expedition map on a Ship, they will leave charted waters and go off in search for Treasures in unmapped regions.
• The success of an Expedition depends on the Expedition map and the Armaments and Equipment on board. Your Ship may never return.
• Use Seeds to add any Fertility to your Islands. Seeds are available for all the Fertilities and can be purchased from Lord Richard Northburgh or Grand vizier Al Zahir.
• If you want to weaken your enemy's Fleet formations very quickly, activate a Powder keg on one of your Ships and launch it into the middle of the enemy formation.
• Your Ship cannot be attacked by any other Ship for as long as it is flying a White flag.
• Use a Boarding crew to seize enemy Ships and to incorporate them into your Fleet.
• If you use "[BINDING /game/togglepostcardview]" to activate the Postcard view when you have chosen a Ship, you can accompany it on its voyage.
• Left-click on the Fertility display of an Island to show any Raw materials on that Island.
• You can sort the Goods view in the Warehouse and Market building either by Civilisation level by types of Goods. You will see the button for switching the two sort modes to the right of the tabs.
• You can select which profile you would like to use in the Profile management in the Main menu.
• You will require an account on ubi.com if you want to use an online profile.
• You can sell any surplus Goods at any time in the Harbours of the Orient and Occident and at the computer players' Warehouses.