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Beginner's Walkthrough

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Welcome to The Settlers Online This a guide in progress to assist new players in navigating the beginning quests. Sections will be added as completed.

--> Last edited by mod_Magenta; 12-03-15 at 08:31 am .

Magenta Community Moderator Homepage - | - News & Announcements - | - Help Forums - | - Test Server Contact Support - | - Code of Conduct TSO on Twitter & Facebook

Table of Contents

Level 1 Pinewood Plank Production - Your First Building Level 2 Pinewood Plank Production - Build a Sawmill Pinewood Plank Production - The Mayor's House Level 3 Pinewood Plank Production - Replanting Trees Pinewood Plank Production - Economy Overview Level 4 Stone Production - The Tavern Instant Build (Side Quest) Pinewood Plank Production - Perfect Wood Production Pinewood Plank Production - Surplus of Wood Pinewood Plank Production - Making Production Chains Perfect Level 5 Stone Production - To Hire Specialists Stone Production - The Geologist Time is Money (Side Quest) Stone Production - Masons

--> Last edited by mod_Magenta; 12-05-15 at 12:55 pm .

When you first start the game, your island will look like this: It does not look like much yet, but with a lick of work, it will grow. The Mayor house is a combination of residence and storage house; it has space for 50 settlers and starts with a storage of 500 units of each type of product you can have. To grow your settlement, you will need to place additional buildings. For now, you will be given quests that will activate additional buildings and instruct you on how to place them and manage your economy. As a reminder, until your settlement is producing all you need to make buildings or you can actively trade for resources, follow the guide strictly and avoid the unnecessary use of resources. At the start, you should receive your first quest chain: This chain will teach you how to make the first resource needed for your island, pinewood. There are several quests in this quest line, and following this line will bring you through the next several levels. Here are the individual quests in the quest line: The first quest in the series is Your First Building, where you will construct your first pinewood cutter: To access the building menu, you must select the build menu icon from the bottom of your screen: The build menu icon looks like a scaffolding house, and is first on the row of icons. As shown here, during the early quests, new areas and features will be highlighted with a flashing amber outline. This will help guide you until are familiar with the location of these buttons. When you click on the build menu icon, the building menu will pop-up: You will notice that the first icon, the pinewood cutter is highlighted and is the only building available. This will close the menu and allow you to place the building on your island. Advanced Note : Cutters and Foresters use deposits in their operations. Wood deposits are scattered throughout the island. The products of the building are brought to the closest storehouse, which in the beginning of the game is only the Mayor's House. The overall speed of production depends on the distances the workers travel as well as the baseline speed of production. Placing these buildings on the straightest route will provide the fastest production in buildings of this type. After placing the cutter, the island now looks like this: The choice of position of the pinewood cutter is based on advanced knowledge of what will be required in future quests and game mechanics. Future building placement will be based on similar choices and will be be shown progressively. Placement of the pinewood cutter will complete the quest: And will provide enough experience to complete the level and start level 2.

--> Last edited by mod_Magenta; 12-05-15 at 12:57 pm .

The next quest in the Pinewood Plank quest line requires you to build a sawmill that converts the pinewood logs that are being harvested by the cutter you made in first quest: To build a sawmill, you need need to access the building menu through the build menu icon, as shown: The pinewood sawmill icon is highlighted for the quest, and can be selected and the building placed on your island. The ideal place to put the sawmill is close to the Mayor's House. When placing, you will want to minimize the travel time, which with the Mayor's house will be 40 seconds in the best position. Later in the game, the sawmill can be moved to a better location that will suit your developing economy more. Advanced Note : Workshops that do not use a deposit have a total production time that varies on the distance from the entrance of storehouse to the entrance of the workshop. Proper placement of buildings will be important when trying to optimize production. The next step in the quest chain is to take a closer look at the Mayor's house. The Mayor's House is the first storehouse for the game, although will be able to build other storage units later on. From the Mayor's House, you can see the total inventory of your storage, grouped by the category of the resource: These are the steps of the quest: The tabs are highlighted on the Mayor's House pop-up, and can be opened sequentially to complete the tasks of the quest. All five resource tabs must be opened. Opening the last section will complete the quest: And will provide enough experience to move to the next level.

--> Last edited by mod_Magenta; 12-05-15 at 01:15 pm .

The next quest in the pinewood plank quest chain asks you to build a pinewood forester. The forester replaces the contents of a deposits, working on the closest deposit in need of refilling. The build menu is accessed through the lower icon row: The pinewood forester, as highlighted above, can be placed on your island. For overall efficiency, the forester is placed near the previous placed cutter, as shown here The next step in the quest chain is to improve the production of pinewood logs by increasing the number of cutters. The method for placing pinewood cutters is shown in the level 1 quest where it is first placed. The cutter is selected from the build menu, then placed on the island. Next, the game will introduce you to the Economic Overview, which will be used throughout the game. The economy overview is accessed through the abacus icon on the lower row, as shown here: Pinewood planks are building materials, and end products in a production chain. You can open the list of these resources by selecting the group on the left side of the interface. Pinewood planks are the first resource of the list. The details of the chain are opened by clicking on the item on the list. The chain shows the three resources in the chain for producing pinewood planks: pinewood deposits, pinewood logs, and pinewood planks. The economy overview uses a colour coded system to show the net production of the chain. Green signifies that the net production of the end-product resource is positive, and all resources required to produce that end-product also have a net positive production. Yellow signifies that the net production of the end-product is positive, but one or more for the resources required to make that end-product is being consumed more than it is produced. Red signifies that the end-product is being consumed more than produced, for a net negative balance Clicking on the pinewood deposit will show the building that contribute to its production and consumption. As you can see here, there is a negative balance for pinewood deposits. Over time, this will mean the appearance of stumps on your island. This will be addressed in future quests. Completion of this quest will provide enough experience to move to the next level.

--> Last edited by mod_Magenta; 12-05-15 at 01:16 pm .

A new quest chain, Stone Production, is given at the start of the level. This quest chain will be continued in the next level as well. The portion of the quest chain for this level involves building a tavern. The tavern takes ten minutes to build. The tavern icon is located in the basic building section of the build menu. This shows the building tavern. Once this quest is started, the side quest for Instant Build will be given. You can use this to instantly complete the tavern, assuming you have already completed the New Settlers mail quest. Clicking on the building tavern will open a pop-up which will show you the time and allow you to use the Instant Build function. This can also be done from the building queue on the right side of the screen, by clicking the gem icon on the in-progress building. When the tavern has been built, both the side quest and the tavern building quest will be completed. You will return to this quest line in the next level, but for now we will return to the Pinewood Plank Production quest line. The economic overview icon is located at the bottom of the screen, the second from the left icon depicting an abacus. Click on this to open the overview. Pinewood logs is located under resources; click that section to open it. Pinewood logs is the first resource on the list. Click on it to open the overview screen. This shows the production chain from pinewood deposits to pinewood logs. The overall balance of pinewood deposits is shown;clicking on it will provide more detailed information. The detailed view of pinewood trees (deposits) is shown here. Each side can be opened to show the specific buildings that are affecting the resource. Once opened, the overview portion of the quest is complete. All that remains is to build two more pinewood foresters to complete the quest and move to the next one. The next step is to build a second pinewood sawmill. The next quest is Making Production Chains Perfect. This is one of the more difficult quests for beginners as it has some confusing terms. Beyond what has already been completed, the main purpose of the quest is to ensure your pinewood production is in balance before moving to more advanced stages. The first requirement is that the pinewood logs be even or net positive; in other words, you need to be harvesting as many logs as you are consuming. The second requirement is that the overall production of pinewood planks be over 360 logs every 12 hours, which is the normal way the game reports the productivity of structures in economic overview. Fortunately, the positioning of the buildings shown in this guide provides for the requirements without additional work, so these elements have already been met when the quest is issued. All that remains is to again look at the economic overview, this time for pinewood planks. Open the economic overview. Open the building materials section of the overview. View the pinewood plank chain. And the quest is complete

--> Last edited by mod_Magenta; 12-05-15 at 01:23 pm .

At this point, our island looks like this: The next step in gathering stone is getting a Geologist, who will be needed to find stone deposits on your island. The tavern will give you the ability to purchase a Geologist, one of the specialists used throughout the game. Click on the tavern to open up its interface: Once you have bought your Geologist, your quest is complete. Next, to harvest stone for your settlement, you will need to find a stone deposit. There are several hidden on the island, and are in a fixed location. The Geologist will find it for you. Once purchased, your geologist will be in your star menu. You can access the geologist by clicking on his icon. Clicking on the geologist will open up the geologist interface. From here, you can sent him out to find one of a number of deposits. Right now, he can only find stone, which is highlighted below. Click on the icon for 'Find stone deposit' and then the green check-mark to send him out. Once you send out your first Geologist, you will get the side quest 'Time is Money'. This will show you how to use gems to speed up your explorer searches. You can see your geologists in the star menu even when they are out searching. When the geologist is searching, you get a different interface when you click on him. From this interface, you can speed up his search time by using gems. Congratulations, you have found your first deposit. Now that you have a stone deposit, the next step is building a mason to harvest it. The button on the building menu for stone masons is the rightmost icon on the basic buildings tab: For our walk-through island, the mason is placed near the stone deposits, to the north of the Mayor's house. As the mason uses both the deposit and the Mayor's house, the production time is the same anywhere in the same pathway. We will use this feature in later quests. While you are building your first mason, there will be a side quest to find additional deposits. As your geologist is not being used currently, it is a good time to send it out again to find another stone deposit. Both the quests for building your mason and finding additional deposits will be complete at about the same time. And our walk-though island now looks like this.

--> Last edited by mod_Magenta; 12-05-15 at 01:26 pm .

--> Last edited by mod_Magenta; 05-11-17 at 07:25 pm .

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Apply for a travel document

To get a travel document, you must be a recognised refugee under the 1951 Geneva Convention or be stateless and meet the requirements of the 1954 New York Convention. If you have become a Swedish citizen you should contact the police to apply for a Swedish passport.

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Requi­re­ments for getting a travel docu­ment

To get a travel document, you must

• be a recognised refugee under the 1951 Geneva Convention, or be stateless and meet the requirements of the 1954 New York Convention.

You cannot receive a travel document if you

• are a Swedish citizen or EU/EEA citizen.

If you are not a refugee, in some cases you may be able to get an alien’s passport.

Read more about how to apply for an alien's passport.

Requi­re­ments for using the e-service

To use the e-service, you must

• be resident and registered as living in Sweden
• have an e-identification
• have a copy of your Swedish ID card
• have a copy of any previously issued travel document (copies of the personal page and all pages with stamps) or a police report stating that you have lost your travel document.

Read more about how to attach a copy of your passport to your application

Read more about how to apply for a travel document for a child under the heading Children under 18 years of age

If you have not previously proved your identity, you can also attach a copy of your national passport or other documents proving your identity (if you do not have a passport). Some examples of other documents are an ID card, birth certificate, or military service record.

Keep in mind that it may take longer for you to receive your decision if you do not submit the documents we need with your application.

Book an appoint­ment in the e-service

Before submitting your application via the e-service, book an appointment to provide fingerprints and take photographs. The appointment is included as part of the e-service.

You will receive information on how to cancel or change the time you have booked in the e-service in your confirmation email.

Children under 18 years

Children under the age of 18 years cannot apply for a travel document themselves. It is the child's parent/legal guardian or guardian who applies for a travel document for the child.

If your child has two parents/legal guardians and you apply through the e-service, you must complete and attach the form Consent that the Swedish Migration Agency issues a passport (alien’s passport or travel document) for a child under 18 years, form 247011. Both parents/legal guardians must give their consent and their signatures must be witnessed.

If you are applying as a guardian, you must attach proof of your appointment and a copy of your ID card.

If the child does not have any parent in Sweden, the guardian must go with the child when the child has his/her photograph and fingerprints taken.

Applying for a travel document does not cost anything but you must pay a fee when you collect the travel document. You can pay the fee by card when you come to the Swedish Migration Agency to collect your travel document.

If you cannot pay by card, you can pay the fee by bank giro or ask for a payment slip when you have your photograph and fingerprints taken. Pay the fee after you receive the decision that you have been granted a travel document.

The Swedish Migration Agency does not accept cash and cannot give you your travel document until the fee has been paid.

Travel document fees

If you cannot apply for a travel document online

If you cannot apply for a travel document online, you must apply by filling in the form Application for a travel document and handing it in when you go in person to visit one of the Swedish Migration Agency's Service Centres. Fill out the form before your visit.

Children under the age of 18 years cannot apply for a travel document themselves. It is the child's legal guardian or guardian who must make the application for a travel document for the child.

If there are two legal guardians, both must approve the application by signing the child's application form. If only one of the legal guardians goes with the child to the Swedish Migration Agency to hand in the application, the other one must sign the application form in advance. The signature must be witnessed by a third person.

If the child does not have any parent in Sweden, the guardian must go with the child when the child has his/her photograph and fingerprints taken. The child's guardian must take his/her ID card and proof of appointment with him/her.

Book an appoint­ment

Before you go to the Swedish Migration Agency to hand in your application, you must book an appointment. Keep in mind that all the people applying for a travel document, including any children, must go to the Swedish Migration Agency in person. Each person who is making an application will be given their own appointment. You can book several appointments one after the other.

Book an appointment

Handing in your appli­ca­tion

When you hand in your application, you must have the following with you:

• your Swedish ID card
• the application form, completed and signed (one form per person). Remember that both legal guardians must sign the form if you are applying for a travel document for a child.
• any previously issued travel document or copy of a police report stating that you have lost your travel document.

If you have a national passport or an older travel document, you must hand them in to the Swedish Migration Agency. Sometimes the case officer may accept that you hand in copies of your passport along with your application, but then you will be asked to hand in the actual passport when it is time to process your application or when you go to collect your new passport.

The Swedish Migration Agency will take your photograph and fingerprints when you hand in your application. Your photograph, fingerprints and personal data are stored in a computer chip in the travel document. These data are not stored at the Swedish Migration Agency; they are only stored in the card's chip. Children under the age of six years do not have to provide fingerprints.

You may need to answer questions about your chances of getting a national passport or other document that functions like a passport. In that case, you will be given a questionnaire to fill in when you visit the Swedish Migration Agency to hand in your application.

After the application has been made

You will find up-to-date information about processing times on the Swedish Migration Agency’s website. The decision may take longer if the case officer has to ask you for more information.

Once the Swedish Migration Agency has processed your application, the decision will be sent to your home address by post.

Current processing times

After the decision

The decision will be sent to your home address by post. If the Swedish Migration Agency has decided that you are entitled to a travel document, you will be notified when your travel document is ready to be collected. It may take up to 14 days from the date you receive the decision until you can collect your travel document from Service Centre where you made your application.

If your application for a travel document was refused, you can appeal against the Swedish Migration Agency’s decision.

If your appli­ca­tion has been refused

If the Swedish Migration Agency has refused your application for a travel document, you can appeal against the decision.

If you want to appeal, you must write a letter in which you state what decision you want the Swedish Migration Agency to change and why you think the decision is wrong. In the letter, you must provide your personal data and your case number and you must sign the letter yourself.

Make sure that the Swedish Migration Agency receives your appeal no later than three weeks after the day you received the decision.

If you want someone else to appeal on your behalf, you must give that person a written power of attorney.

Collect your travel document

You must collect your travel document at the same Service Centre where you handed in your application (unless you have been told to collect the travel document in another town).

If you want to collect your travel document in another town, you must inform the staff about that when you have your photograph and fingerprints taken.

If you have been granted a travel document, you must book an appointment before visiting the Swedish Migration Agency. Be sure to book an appointment for each person who is collecting their travel document. If you are going to collect passports for your children, you must book an appointment for each travel document you are collecting.

You must collect your passport in person. For children under 18 years, the legal guardian or guardian can collect the travel document without the child being present.

Children over 15 years can collect their travel document themselves if the Swedish Migration Agency has noted that the legal guardian informed them about that at the time of application.

You must have a valid form of ID with you when you collect your travel document. If you have a previously issued travel document that you have not already handed in, you must return it when you collect your new one.

You must pay a fee to collect your travel document. You pay the fee by card at the Service Centre when you visit the Swedish Migration Agency.

If you are unable to pay by card, ask for a payment slip and pay the fee before collecting your travel document. The Swedish Migration Agency does not accept cash and cannot give you your travel document until the fee has been paid.

If you have paid in advance, you must present a receipt showing that you have paid when you collect your travel document.

About the travel document

Travel­ling with a travel docu­ment.

A travel document meets the EU's passport requirements and can be used for travel to all countries. However, if you are a refugee under the 1951 Geneva Convention, it will be stated in your passport that you cannot travel to your country of origin or the country from which you have fled.

If you have not been able to prove your identity, your travel document will state that your identity has not been proven which may make it more difficult for you to travel to certain countries.

Some countries may require you to have an entry visa. Please contact the embassy of the country in question for more information before you travel.

How long a travel docu­ment is valid for

A travel document is valid for a maximum of two years and cannot be extended. If you need a travel document after it has expired, you can apply for a new one.

When you want to apply for a new travel document, you must have your photograph and fingerprints taken again, since your photograph and fingerprints are not stored at the Swedish Migration Agency, only in a computer chip in the travel document.

If you lose your travel docu­ment

If you lose your travel document or if it is stolen, you must first of all report it to the police. If you need a new travel document, you must hand in a new application. When you apply for a new travel document, take with you a copy of the police report that you received by post or at the police station.

Last updated: 2024-03-28

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26.03.2024 Exciting News! Celebrate Content Update 3 for The Settlers: New Allies

Dear Settlers,

We're thrilled to announce the latest content update 3 for The Settlers: New Allies. Dive into the world of settlers and forge your path to prosperity in this beloved strategy game.

As a special treat for our loyal players on The Settlers Online, celebrate the latest update with two new Elari-themed skins for your Finesmith and Provision House, straight from the heart of the Elari itself.

Ready to explore new lands, build thriving settlements and conquer new challenges? Head over to The Settlers: New Allies now to join the adventure. 

The Settlers: New Allies is available on the following platforms: 

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Don't miss out on this exciting milestone. Gather your allies, claim your territory, and make your mark in The Settlers: New Allies.

Happy Settling!

15.03.2024 Dev Diary: Easter Event 2024

As this year's Easter Event is just around the corner, it's time to feast your eyes on the newly published Dev Diary and find out more about the upcoming features:

• New Easter Basket Colour : The Easter Basket has a new look!
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Read all the ins and outs of this year's Easter Event in our Dev Diary !

Happy egg-hunting! Your "The Settlers Online" Team

13.03.2024 Change Log 13/03/24

This game update includes the technical implementation of this year's Easter Event which begins on March 18th!

Read more about the version in our full Change Log on the forum!

Happy Settling, Your "The Settlers Online" Team

25.01.2024 Starfall content update out now!

This game update includes the introduction of our brand-new Starfall Event as well as Event Resource conversions! The Starfall Event includes plentiful quests and lucrative rewards for players between levels 40 - 80!

To celebrate this, exciting Starfall-themed decorations have arrived in our store! Read more about the version in our full  Change Log .

10.01.2024 Mayor Update - First Edition

Welcome to the first edition of our Mayor’s Update: the Mayor’s Update will provide you with a recap of what happened in the previous month and will also give you some insights into what the team is working on with sneak peeks into developments ahead.

Read the full post over on our forum and don't forget to let us know what you think!

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By: History.com Editors

Updated: September 30, 2019 | Original: December 15, 2009

In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson purchased the territory of Louisiana from the French government for $15 million. The Louisiana Purchase stretched from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from Canada to New Orleans, and it doubled the size of the United States. To Jefferson, westward expansion was the key to the nation’s health: He believed that a republic depended on an independent, virtuous citizenry for its survival, and that independence and virtue went hand in hand with land ownership, especially the ownership of small farms. (“Those who labor in the earth,” he wrote, “are the chosen people of God.”) In order to provide enough land to sustain this ideal population of virtuous yeomen, the United States would have to continue to expand. The westward expansion of the United States is one of the defining themes of 19th-century American history, but it is not just the story of Jefferson’s expanding “empire of liberty.” On the contrary, as one historian writes, in the six decades after the Louisiana Purchase, westward expansion “very nearly destroy[ed] the republic.”

Manifest Destiny

By 1840, nearly 7 million Americans–40 percent of the nation’s population–lived in the trans-Appalachian West. Following a trail blazed by Lewis and Clark , most of these people had left their homes in the East in search of economic opportunity. Like Thomas Jefferson , many of these pioneers associated westward migration, land ownership and farming with freedom. In Europe, large numbers of factory workers formed a dependent and seemingly permanent working class; by contrast, in the United States, the western frontier offered the possibility of independence and upward mobility for all. In 1843, one thousand pioneers took to the Oregon Trail as part of the “ Great Emigration .”

Did you know? In 1853, the Gadsden Purchase added about 30,000 square miles of Mexican territory to the United States and fixed the boundaries of the “lower 48” where they are today.

In 1845, a journalist named John O’Sullivan put a name to the idea that helped pull many pioneers toward the western frontier. Westward migration was an essential part of the republican project, he argued, and it was Americans’ “ manifest destiny ” to carry the “great experiment of liberty” to the edge of the continent: to “overspread and to possess the whole of the [land] which Providence has given us,” O’Sullivan wrote. The survival of American freedom depended on it.

Westward Expansion and Slavery

Meanwhile, the question of whether or not slavery would be allowed in the new western states shadowed every conversation about the frontier. In 1820, the Missouri Compromise had attempted to resolve this question: It had admitted Missouri to the union as a slave state and Maine as a free state, preserving the fragile balance in Congress. More important, it had stipulated that in the future, slavery would be prohibited north of the southern boundary of Missouri (the 36º30’ parallel) in the rest of the Louisiana Purchase .

However, the Missouri Compromise did not apply to new territories that were not part of the Louisiana Purchase, and so the issue of slavery continued to fester as the nation expanded. The Southern economy grew increasingly dependent on “King Cotton” and the system of forced labor that sustained it. Meanwhile, more and more Northerners came to believed that the expansion of slavery impinged upon their own liberty, both as citizens–the pro-slavery majority in Congress did not seem to represent their interests–and as yeoman farmers. They did not necessarily object to slavery itself, but they resented the way its expansion seemed to interfere with their own economic opportunity.

Westward Expansion and the Mexican War

Despite this sectional conflict, Americans kept on migrating West in the years after the Missouri Compromise was adopted. Thousands of people crossed the Rockies to the Oregon Territory, which belonged to Great Britain, and thousands more moved into the Mexican territories of California , New Mexico and Texas . In 1837, American settlers in Texas joined with their Tejano neighbors (Texans of Spanish origin) and won independence from Mexico. They petitioned to join the United States as a slave state.

This promised to upset the careful balance that the Missouri Compromise had achieved, and the annexation of Texas and other Mexican territories did not become a political priority until the enthusiastically expansionist cotton planter James K. Polk was elected to the presidency in 1844. Thanks to the maneuvering of Polk and his allies, Texas joined the union as a slave state in February 1846; in June, after negotiations with Great Britain, Oregon joined as a free state.

That same month, Polk declared war against Mexico , claiming (falsely) that the Mexican army had “invaded our territory and shed American blood on American soil.” The Mexican-American War proved to be relatively unpopular, in part because many Northerners objected to what they saw as a war to expand the “slaveocracy.” In 1846, Pennsylvania Congressman David Wilmot attached a proviso to a war-appropriations bill declaring that slavery should not be permitted in any part of the Mexican territory that the U.S. might acquire. Wilmot’s measure failed to pass, but it made explicit once again the sectional conflict that haunted the process of westward expansion.

Westward Expansion and the Compromise of 1850

In 1848, the Treaty of Guadelupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican War and added more than 1 million square miles, an area larger than the Louisiana Purchase, to the United States. The acquisition of this land re-opened the question that the Missouri Compromise had ostensibly settled: What would be the status of slavery in new American territories? After two years of increasingly volatile debate over the issue, Kentucky Senator Henry Clay proposed another compromise. It had four parts: first, California would enter the Union as a free state; second, the status of slavery in the rest of the Mexican territory would be decided by the people who lived there; third, the slave trade (but not slavery) would be abolished in Washington , D.C.; and fourth, a new Fugitive Slave Act would enable Southerners to reclaim runaway slaves who had escaped to Northern states where slavery was not allowed.

Bleeding Kansas

But the larger question remained unanswered. In 1854, Illinois Senator Stephen A. Douglas proposed that two new states, Kansas and Nebraska , be established in the Louisiana Purchase west of Iowa and Missouri. According to the terms of the Missouri Compromise, both new states would prohibit slavery because both were north of the 36º30’ parallel. However, since no Southern legislator would approve a plan that would give more power to “free-soil” Northerners, Douglas came up with a middle ground that he called “popular sovereignty”: letting the settlers of the territories decide for themselves whether their states would be slave or free.

Northerners were outraged: Douglas, in their view, had caved to the demands of the “slaveocracy” at their expense. The battle for Kansas and Nebraska became a battle for the soul of the nation. Emigrants from Northern and Southern states tried to influence the vote. For example, thousands of Missourians flooded into Kansas in 1854 and 1855 to vote (fraudulently) in favor of slavery. “Free-soil” settlers established a rival government, and soon Kansas spiraled into civil war. Hundreds of people died in the fighting that ensued, known as “ Bleeding Kansas .”

A decade later, the civil war in Kansas over the expansion of slavery was followed by a national civil war over the same issue. As Thomas Jefferson had predicted, it was the question of slavery in the West–a place that seemed to be the emblem of American freedom–that proved to be “the knell of the union.”

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The Settlers Online Review: A Pleasant Surprise

I’m going to say this now: I was asked to review this game, and I complied. I complied, put it off for as long as possible, and ultimately regretted my decision to postpone playing.

Not due to deadlines (which are never a factor), but because I actually found myself enjoying the odd little gem that is The Settlers Online .

I have never played social browser games that require you to add friends, and I had not even played The Settlers series in the past despite having a fondness for resource management, real time strategy, and city-building games. I unfortunately missed the Settlers boat until now. The Settlers Online does a good job combining social and gameplay aspects, even with the long building and production timers that progressively get longer as the game goes on.

Why You’ll Start: Solid Gameplay

The gameplay found here should be familiar to anyone who has experience with The Settlers series or RTS titles:

• Amass resources
• Refine them
• Spend them on structures meant to gather and refine other types of resources
• Gather troops
• Send them to battle
• Claim new lands
• Gather more resources

This sounds simple, but there is a great deal you need to keep track of as you progress in order to keep your gathering and production optimal. In and of itself this is all fine, and  just what someone who enjoys these kinds of games looks for (and I loved) — but because of the “free to play social” aspect of The Settlers Online , you are also given the monumental task of waiting.

Everything but the game’s social aspects, quests, and trading requires waiting.

As you progress, your building durations will go from minutes to hours. The only way to get around this ever-present hurdle is to cough up some real dough for the cash shop currency known as Gems, which you can spend on-point on structures or units you would like to receive immediately.

One would not expect The Settlers Online to be the type of game for the impatient, and thanks to the long waiting times it really is not geared toward the type of player who wants to have their cake and eat it too (unless they have some spare cash).

Why You’ll Stay: Outstanding Community

Community is important to me, and this game has one of the best I’ve experienced in recent years.

What really makes the waiting less of an issue — besides buying Gems — is what I referred to a friend as being the game’s “hyper-friendly” community.

The Settlers Online is packed with friendly people just looking to chat and help out other players. The game may appear empty at first glance, but in-game players are talkative and looking for other people to chat with. This may be attributed to all the waiting, but what matters here is the end result:

The Settlers Online has a fantastic community .

I don’t say the above lightly. Community is important to me in any online game I play, and this game has one of the best I’ve experienced in recent years.

This is one exception where I am all right with the quests that require me to add people to my friend list and give them buffs for quests. I have no issue asking for assistance in the Help chat channel or asking people to add me as a friend because I have yet to meet a single all-around negative person in-game.

Does this say something about the RTS or city-building communities? Just maybe. I’ve never seen such a large talkative bunch of neckbeards in my entire life, and I basically only associate myself with that demographic.

1 + 1 = I’m impressed

I don’t like throwing out unnecessary praise, and in this instance it is not unwarranted.

Blue Byte, being the original development studio of The Settlers , has done a very good job of transitioning the style of gameplay fans expect into a social setting. The game’s visuals are appealing and get the job done, the gameplay itself has some oomph to it, and the community is amazing.

It’s a shame that The Settlers Online isn’t more popular because of the positive aspects I list above, but the RTS/city-builder niche has never been huge blockbusters. What I can hope is that the game picks up at least a little, just enough to encourage Ubisoft to continue supporting this hidden gem of a social game.

Are you a friendly resource management junkie? Give The Settlers Online a shot. I bet you’ll be surprised.