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The Settlers III

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games

This page is for the original game. For the 2018 re-release, see The Settlers III: History Edition.

The Settlers III
The Settlers III cover
Developers
Blue Byte Software
Publishers
1998-2000 Blue Byte Software
2001-present Ubisoft
Release dates
Windows November 20, 1998
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase, Expansion pack
Microtransactions None
Modes Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives Bird's-eye view, Isometric
Controls Point and select, Multiple select
Genres Building, RTS
Art styles Cartoon
Themes Asia, Classical, Egypt, Fantasy
Series The Settlers
The Settlers III on HowLongToBeat
The Settlers III guide on StrategyWiki
The Settlers III on MobyGames
The Settlers III on Wikipedia
The Settlers 1994
The Settlers II: Veni, Vidi, Vici 1996
The Settlers III 1998
The Settlers IV 2001
The Settlers: Heritage of Kings 2004
The Settlers II: 10th Anniversary 2006
The Settlers: Rise of an Empire 2007
The Settlers: Rise of Cultures 2008
The Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom 2010
The Settlers Online 2012
The Settlers - History Edition 2018
The Settlers II: Veni, Vidi, Vici - History Edition 2018
The Settlers III: History Edition 2018
The Settlers IV - History Edition 2018
The Settlers: Heritage of Kings - History Edition 2018
The Settlers: Rise of an Empire - History Edition 2018
The Settlers 7: History Edition 2018
The Settlers: New Allies 2023

The Settlers III is a singleplayer and multiplayer bird's-eye view and isometric building and RTS game in the The Settlers series.

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
CD key
ProtectDISC Software DRM. Copy protection would sabotage the gameplay after a while. It was known to malfunction with old CD-ROM drives or virus infected systems. The 1.23 patch fixes it.
Windows
GOG.com
CD key
Ultimate Collection. Serial key applied by installer or manually.
Windows
Free demo versions of the base game and Quest of the Amazons are available from Archive.org.

Version differences

The special edition of the Quest of the Amazons, released only in the German-speaking market, also comes with the base game.
The Ultimate Collection (also known as the Gold Edition) includes the base game, the Mission CD, and Quest of the Amazons. It comes updated to the latest official patch (1.60).

Monetization

Type Notes
Expansion pack The expansion packs include new campaigns and maps. The latter includes a new faction.
One-time game purchase The game requires an upfront purchase to access.

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
Mission CD
Windows
Quest of the Amazons Does not require the Mission CD.
Windows

Essential improvements

Patches

The latest official patch is 1.60. The Ultimate Collection/Gold Edition release is already updated to this version.
An official fixed executable was available from the developer's FTP server, which aimed to fix compatibility problems on Windows XP, among else the error message on startup reporting the game not finding KERNEL32.DLL. An archive can be found here.[1]

aLobby

aLobby is a community project that started out as a multiplayer server replacement, but now also incorporates bug fixes, extended settings, and widescreen support among other features.

Settlers United

A community driven project that main goal is to restore and improve multiplayer capabilities of The Settlers III and IV.
Compatible with History Edition, Ultimate Edition and Gold Edition.
Includes community fixes for most of the original game's bugs.
Adds support for widescreen resolutions.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
Windows HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Bluebyte\Siedler3\1.0\General[Note 1]

Save game data location

System Location
Windows <path-to-game>\Save[Note 2]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy

Video

External video settings.
External video settings.

Graphics feature State Notes
Widescreen resolution
Use F1, F2, and F3 in-game to switch between 640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768 respectively. See Widescreen resolution for widescreen support.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
The aLobby executable can do this.
Borderless fullscreen windowed
The aLobby executable can do this.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS

Widescreen resolution

Method 1: Standalone widescreen patch (1366x768 only, outdated)

A widescreen patch exists for the Gold Edition version. However, it can only support the 1366x768 resolution and is no longer updated as a standalone project. It is instead continued within the aLobby codebase.

Method 2: aLobby
  1. Download and install aLobby.
  2. In the game directory, run s3ce.exe as administrator.
  3. Choose the desired resolution and run the game from this application.

Input

External control settings.
External control settings.

Keyboard and mouse State Notes
Remapping
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Controller types

Audio

External audio settings.
External audio settings.

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio
Red Book CD audio
On Windows, CD music might not play correctly; see the troubleshooting guide for solutions.

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
German
Italian
Retail only.
Polish
[2][3]
Russian
Unofficial translation by 7 Wolf

Network

Multiplayer types

Type Native Players Notes
LAN play
20
Online play
20 The official multiplayer service has been shut down; use aLobby or Settlers United for a community-run replacement.

Connection types

Ports

Protocol Port(s) and/or port range(s)
TCP 2300-2400, 47624
UDP 2300-2400, 3343-3400
Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

Issues fixed

Game process starts, but never opens fullscreen/windowed on Windows 10

Download fixed winmm[citation needed]
Before continuing, make a backup of the file <path-to-game>\winmm.dll
  1. Download fixed_winmm_win10.zip.
  2. Extract the contents of the download to <path-to-game>, replacing existing files.

Notes

Some versions of the game may have winmm.dll named differently, eg. win32.dll

GOG.com version keeps asking for serial key

Repair the installation[4]
  • Option 1: Using GOG Galaxy, select the game, click the customization icon (next to PLAY), then choose "Manage installation", then "Verify/Repair".
  • Option 2: Go to <path-to-game> and run regs.cmd as administrator.

If both options fail, try starting the tutorial section. If it asks for the serial key, restart the game.

Cutscenes show a black screen, but audio plays

Set s3.exe to run in compatibility mode for Windows XP SP3.[5]

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
DirectDraw 6
Executable 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows

System requirements

Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 95, 98, NT 4.0
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium 100 MHz
System memory (RAM) 32 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 250 MB
Video card (GPU) 2 MB of VRAM
DirectX 6 compatible


Notes

  1. Applications writing to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE will be redirected to other locations based on various criterias, see the glossary page for more details.
  2. When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).

References

  1. Verified by User:Plok on 2023-10-03
    Tested on retail German Gold Edition v1.60. Thanks to Discord user Oplexitie for reporting!
  2. The Settlers III - Dubbingpedia - last accessed on 2023-07-18
  3. The Settlers III: Misja Amazonek - Dubbingpedia - last accessed on 2023-07-18
  4. Settlers® 3: Ultimate Collection - Game asks for CD-Key in singleplayer mode - GOG SUPPORT CENTER - last accessed on 2022-07-30
  5. Verified by User:Plok on 2023-10-03
    Thanks to Discord user Oplexitie for reporting!