the war, and call a meeting of all four races. They are all shocked, however, when they learn the Dark Tribe are now using aerial vehicles, dubbed manacopters, to easily infiltrate their lines and inflict huge losses. After the Romans, Vikings, and Mayans are all attacked, the Trojans are tasked with destroying the Dark Tribe's research lab and, with it, the manacopter blueprints. When they raid the lab, they discover Morbus's plan; his dark gardeners are attempting to create an elixir to cure his inability to touch greenery by using a complex combination of herbs, and are only one herb from a final breakthrough. The four races divide the land up into sectors to search for the final herb, and shortly thereafter, the Vikings locate it. Their priests begin to harvest it, but the Dark Tribe soon arrive, and the Trojans develop a poison to use on the herb should the Vikings be unable to harvest it in time. The Viking priest is ambushed and killed, and the Dark Tribe acquire the herb, but it remains unclear if the priest was able to use the poison before his death. Meanwhile, Morbus's temple is located, and the Trojans lead an assault. They succeed in destroying it, but not before Morbus is able to create and drink the elixir. Emerging from the ruins of his temple to see the greenery surrounding it, he laughs and declares "nothing can stop me now". Suddenly, he sneezes, leading to him being engulfed by mist and also revealing that the Vikings succeeded The game then cuts to some time later; on the site of the temple now stands a small cottage with a garden full of blooming flowers. Morbus then emerges from the cottage and happily attends to his garden, fully cured of his hatred of foliage. Development Announcement and gameplay The Settlers IV was announced by Blue Byte at the ECTS in August 1999. Volker Wertich, who had created The Settlers series, and designed and programmed both the original Settlers and The Settlers III, was not involved in development, because, as he later explained, "Blue Byte wanted to have it ready for release by Christmas 2000, which, in my opinion, was not sufficient time to create a worthy title". The game was first shown at the E3 event in May 2000, where Blue Byte stated that gameplay would emphasise economic planning over military conquest. Citing