negative feedback from fans who felt Settlers III was too combat-orientated, the designers intended the new game as a return to the core supply and demand-based gameplay of The Settlers and The Settlers II. They also revealed the game would feature three playable races (Romans, Vikings and Mayans) and a new non-playable race (the Dark Tribe). Speaking of the importance of the Dark Tribe to the economic-based gameplay, project manager and co-designer Hans-Jürgen Brändle explained: In an interview with GamesZone, Brändle further stated, "we have made sure there is a balance between settling and combat with virtually every rule change and new feature". Addressing why the game would feature nearly identical economic processes as Settlers III despite the refocused gameplay, he explained: "The majority of the feedback gave us a clear understanding that the economy in Settlers is simply great as it is, and that the game should not be artificially inflated with new goods or people. The fun, the ease of playing, should not be overwhelmed by unnecessarily complex contexts". Speaking to IGN later in the year, Brändle reiterated the designers' hopes that the game would more fully integrate economic-based settling with combat than had the previous title: Of the three races in the game, Brändle explained the developers chose the Romans as they were a "traditional" Settlers race, the Vikings as they were the most fan-requested race, and the Mayans as they needed a race than used more stone than wood in their construction industry, and because the developers felt that the Mayans are a somewhat historically mysterious culture. Graphics In the GamesZone interview, Brändle also addressed the issue of the similarity in graphics between the new game and Settlers III: "We have deliberately programmed an engine that is very much like the previous one. We wanted to make the fans feel like they were back in the familiar world of The Settlers". As with Settlers III, the buildings in the game were created using 3D Studio Max, with Adobe Photoshop used to create the textures. Each race was assigned their own specific artist, who worked on nothing except the buildings for that particular race. According to lead artist/co-designer/co-writer Torsten Hess, this was done "so that the style of the buildings within a people is uniform". However, there were certain overriding rules to which the individual artists had to adhere. One of the most important was a technique