I had never played that game before, actually i had never played a Settlers game before (except for the Settlers online) but i bought it on sale and i am loving it. It's a really cool game. Sad that the multiplayer servers have been taken down. Could use a bit more variety, though. I am on mission 4 and so far every single objective has been to get to the portal, lol

It is possible to play with others via GameRanger, Hamachi or LAN.
You can also find some mods on sites with mods :)