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DevBlog: Our Vision
With a nearly 20 year history for the Anno franchise and 6 games in the series, creating the vision for Anno 1800 was not an easy task. We would like to take you on a journey with us, showing where we are coming from, our promise for Anno 1800 and how we want to achieve our goals for the game.
For almost 2 decades now, the Anno name has been synonymous with deep, high-quality city-building games made in Germany. While the first four games in the series all took place in historic settings, we took a step to the future with the release of Anno 2070, exchanging beloved series staples like fishing huts for futuristic metropolises on land and even under the sea. And in Anno 2205, we allowed players to settle simultaneously on various points around the globe as well as on the moon.
While many of our players enjoyed the new technological possibilities that these futuristic settings allowed for, others were asking for a return to the series historical roots, and the classic Anno gameplay of titles like 1404.
When working on the first concept, we created a list of all the beloved Anno features, based on our experience and especially the feedback from our community. The new Anno should combine the strength of classic titles with all the new possibilities coming from our experience with the latest games. We build the foundation for Anno 1800 out of these features and decided, that these features have to be in Anno 1800 from day one to create the game our fans are waiting for and possibly the biggest Anno game in the series.
Many of you stated that you enjoyed first hours of Anno 2205 but that you were missing complexity, replayability and the challenge for veterans of the series. Because of that, it was clear to us that we need to focus on rich and complex gameplay while making the game still accessible for new fans. With Anno 1800, the series not only returns to its historical roots, but also delivers the full Anno package on day one, including many of the features that long-time fans missed in Anno 2205, such as sandbox mode, physical goods, classic Anno multiplayer, randomly generated maps, trade routes and a military fully integrated into the main game. Third party AI, an in-depth diplomacy and trading system will allow you to engage characters as allies, enemies or partners while competing over different islands and trade routes together on one big map. We will furthermore explore the 19th century with a story rich campaign, which will touch in many of the important aspects of that era. We cannot wait to give you more details about the story next year.
With the next articles on our Anno Union hub, we will dive in to certain aspects of these features and will give you insights about the current state of the game. While we have a clear vision about the complexity and features of the game, we want your experience and feedback to make a truly great Anno game. Please keep in mind that the game is over a year away from launch and that means that many of the features we mentioned here are all work in progress. It was important for us to show you the game as early as possible but that also means that a lot of content we will show is not representative for the final game, and that we won’t be able to show you new trailers or screenshots every week.
That said many of you are curious how we will use and implement your feedback. With upcoming blogs, we will talk about certain features and aspects we are working on and that is a good way for us to gather your ideas and input. We frequently mentioned live feedback sessions via voice chats such as Discord or Skype, that we will answer your questions in frequent video updates an invite you to talk to us in live podcasts and streams directly from our studio. As some of you might know, all that requires a lot of tech and organization in the background, so bear with us when it needs a bit more time until everything is ready to go.
What we would like to know from you now is what kind specific development insight would you like to see in future Anno Union blogs?
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Its good that Anno is going back to things that most Anno fans liked most!
I hope that we get continuous mode beck because it was for me and many others best gameplay mode in Anno series!
I completely understand the idea for peaceful uninterupted city building (I completely love that, seriously) But there are so many details missed, and there is some type of void for the land combat (honestly I love the city building without fighting) but even to build up a force with your recources is fun, there needs to be something. There needs to be that risk of land units embarking and raiding your land or making a force to go to another island, and not only to be annoying but to make it eventful and risky, it urges you to build defences, and have forces of your own to protect your masterpiece of hard work. (this could even have events like rebels attacking with infantry etc)
At least be lazy and make 1 line infantry unit, 1 calvary unit (for flanking the infantry), and 1 canon unit (for long range indirect fire) That is all everyone wants… Developers you can even be lazy and include the old mechanics with base-to-base combat (Like Dawn of Discovery), maybe make the infantry directional (line men face forward and shoot forwards) The fact that this won’t even be ATTEMPTED shows undesire for a game company, this shows lack of detail, what do you think most strategy gamers love? Attention to detail, and this is not it! Not to mention it is about the 7th game and you still do not have animations for carts going into buildings yet? Or building animations, or animations for the seprate recources pooled in warehouses? It’s cheap! And now no land combat either? The Devs are cheaping out on us and being lazy!
It is the peak of this franchise and you’re telling me it isn’t going to be included? Are you mad? To avoid the annoyance of land combat on your own island you can have strong defences, but more importantly the OFFENCE, that is why it is a great idea. To be able to build up and show off your strength, and eventually conquer, endless amounts of infantry quests could be added too, as well as exploring an Island with infantry too)
How great is it to have that risk and build up a great land force to see all your effort and have a big land force on your island (not only to PROTECT but to expand your empire), and then you can embark them and go on small missions with your navy, or all together on a huge mission to land on other islands, to explore and maybe fight out others? It is incredible.
To not have that with the line men and horsemen of the 1800’s is insane. Completely lazy, and don’t get me started with the lack of details on a peak game of it’s franchise that is just lazy, I am loosing hope with this franchise that I was starting to love. I might not purchase this game now because it is a reskin of the LAST 4 games! Shock me with military and new animations and I will buy this game.
I wish:
– possibilites to translate the game to other languages (not everybody understand english or german). Here in Hungary there are lot of people who couldn’t play the lasts Anno because lack of translation possibilities.
– change the Anno 2070 and 2205 blue interface to other color (like 1404, 1701)
– random maps
– more advanced diplomacy
I for one would love to see Dynamic day and night and weather and season cycles along with more types of natural disasters and different climate zones/areas with their specific mechanics/disasters/fertility. Would love to see a complex research mechanics like in anno 1701, 2070 and 2205 where we would have to perform research to unlock certain items/buildings and other stuff. Also would love to see alot of production chains and consumer goods, and when I say alot, I mean ALOT. Also more types of buildings, ornamental structures, harbor structures, ships, monuments.
I really hope that the game world in this new anno is even bigger than the old ones.
Are pirates/corsairs making a return in 1800? I quite enjoyed Hassan’s quests in 1404.
Is it possible to get cloud saves for your savegames and your account? It’s a handy feature when playing on different computers (for example when LAN playing). In 1404 we couldn’t progress our account on our other computer, neither did we have access to the saves of that account without copying the files to a portable device.
I would like to see even more diplomacy features than we had in 1404. For example ask AI players to declare war on your enemy and help you in a fight. Offer a trade/peace/Alliance treaty in exchange for money. Ask for goods or send him out after other targets like pirates, to get a reward. (like a quest system but you ask the AI instead). These are only a few things that came to my mind while playing older Anno titles. But there are a lot more ways to improve the diplomacy system.
There was one thing that really bothered me in last 2 games : When you start a game, play it for hours, and let it some months. It’s not “normal” that it becomes unplayable because of a patch.
Players should be able to keep a save with the version of the game they started (at least from a balance point of view), even if some stuff is not well balanced.
I would like to have manual saves back and drop the cloud saves. I always made a huge amount of saves so I could go back to any time in the game (if I wanted it). I really missed that in 2205.
Suggestion to develop team
1-) It will be good if new Anno 1800 allow the use of advanced AI controlled trade route like in Anno 2205 that could be switched off any time to use manual trade route management,
AI control will let the player focus on the big picture rather than micromanagement,
2-) it will be very good idea if the div team implement complex transport options which allow inhabitant to move between work and home,
3) NPC or residence management with text clouds showing status in the city could be good option
4) game specific language similar to simcity
Khaled
Will it be a vast map, or will there be regions along the lines of 2205?
Instead of just islands, how about a vast landmass with mountain ranges with few passes that can be joined after you build a railway line or drill a tunnel. I don’t want to play Railway Tycoon, but it would be interesting to have a rail line instead of a ship trading between two points. The underlying dynamic would be very similar.
Hello! When I first saw there was a new Anno coming out I almost flipped out of my chair. I also love the idea of the Anno Union, it will hopefully lead to a better Anno 1800. Most of my ideas have already been stated but here they are:
-Neutral Buildings
-Beautiful and huge monuments
-Historical factions like GB, France, and Germany. They can be like the Ecos, Tycoons, etc in 2070
-Big harbors and large building areas
-Different island environments/biomes to represent the nations taking over Africa and other lands
-Ability to beat others with money (hostile takeover, ability to buy islands)
Hi, I’m a big fan of Anno series and would like to share my initial notes to be considered.
1- Add ship routes simulation as in pre Anno 2205 games
2- ability to add goods manually into ships as pre Anno 2205 games.
3- effect area of community buildings to be same as Anno 2205 game, circle area was a bad idea.
4- allow player to know if any good is increasing or decreasing in numbers as in Anno 2205.
5- more factions, hopefully orients included
6- please add more residential building shape varieties, not just 3 types of each faction
7- Big beaches to allow building big rich harbors
8- customize player profile such color, theme, qoute …
9- military to be optional
Best regards.
As announced during the gamescom presentation, we are in fact bringing back the classic shipping routes 🙂
Seem to be really good, I say yes !! 😀 As everybody here (I suppose ^^), I’m a huge fan of ANNO. Features I want to see are (if it’s possible :p )
– as others ANNO (without 2205 ^^) : NPC like Yana or Northburg (and maybe like
Hecata, and others little npc we can found on island in 1404), monuments,
research (I suppose 19th century is a good era for research 😉 ), and different island
where we can make our ships navigate.
– as ANNO 1701 : if there will be wars, ground units. It missed me to see little men
targeting ennemy buildings ^^ (that’s all :p )
– as ANNO 2205 : no area for buildings like information buildings and others (I forgot
the words >< ), possibility to move buildings without destroying, possibility to see
our production (positive or negative).
It's all for the moment ^^ I wish you all the best, I'm sure it will be a really nice one 😀
anno 1800 reminds me of Urban Empire
I find it would be interesting to add representatives of great historical power (German Empire, UK, …) who has force to fulfill missions (system of offering to the Sultan) would give advantages to the player such as order ships, troops, rare items, etc.
(Sorry if the translation is not very good, I use google translate :)).
As someone who spent many hundreds of hours on Anno 1404 and 2070, I am really happy to hear that you guys are developing a new Anno game. In fact I had kind of expected that the Anno series would die out.
My feedback:
One thing I missed from Anno 2070 and 2205 was the unique little islands of the NPC players (Northburough, Al Zahir, Garibaldi). They were really nice-looking.
One thing I really liked about Anno 2070 was the Arc. Or rather, the research aspect, and unlocking global perks as you go along.
One thing I really liked about 2205 was that service buildings weren’t based on range, but on population based on range. (Its always annoying when that one little house won’t get covered haha)
As a fan of continuous mode, I have always been a great fan of Monuments. I loved multi-stage works that require a great deal of time and resources to make. I hope we see more of that (like the Historic Warehouse).
I really enjoyed the Neutral Powers from Anno 1404 and missed them greatly in 2070. They add to the atmosphere of the islands and tell their own story and they let me better immerse in the world.
I hope we see lots of option to make a beautiful harbour, as its really the main functional place of your city. I also hope the bug(?) that causes less people to spawn in the city as more and more spawn in the harbor is not present in 1800. Cities should be more bustling over time, not more empty. It was the only real problem I had with Anno.
Also I hope there are a lot of fun interactive buildings, like the tournament, the baliwick, the statistics building etc. And lots of statues, fountains, gardens, road types to beautify our towns.
Anyways, I wish you the best of luck!
Hi team !
I am a true fan of Anno 1602 and I also liked 1404. I love anno because it is primarily a game of management of economy, I’m not really a fan of war side.
In anno 1602, I loved to maintain my fields, to develop my city and to colonize islands to recover new resources.
I played mostly sandboxed, because I like to be free in a management game and be able to advance at my own pace.
I sincerely hope Anno 1800 will be closer to the spirit of 1602 in outline 🙂
By the way this music is for the best soundtrack that best represents the Anno saga : https://youtu.be/c8l7K67idZc
Thanks team and good luck for next !
I really can’t wait to play this game. I have been an avid Anno fan since 1602 AD (North American title). I love working with a storyline in my gameplay and having to create many scenarios (tasks) to complete an entire campaign.
I tend to focus on the economic reality of the game. It would be awesome if war (with exception of pirates) could be turned off and the game become a competition of economic policy.
Thank you for the many years of enjoyment with this franchise.
I really can’t wait to play this game. I have been an avid Anno fan since 1602 AD (North American title). While I usually play in the sandbox mode, I really enjoy the short term goals of campaigns/scenarios. I don’t really include the tutorial campaign here. I love working with a storyline in my gameplay and having to create many scenarios (tasks) to complete an entire campaign.
I tend to focus on the economic reality of the game. It would be awesome if war (with exception of pirates) could be turned off and the game become a competition of economic policy.
Thank you for the many years of enjoyment with this franchise.
Thanks for being with us for so long, teasercat. 🙂
We’re looking forward to show you more of the new Anno in the coming months.
I really liked the comment about losing a ship on a trade route. You may want to consider adding storms that would destroy a ship and maybe even damage a colony.
Bringing back sharing an island with an NPC would be a positive.
I really like Anno 1404 and 2070. The divide between east and west was nice, it forced the player to make many trading routes, calculating the shortest path and managing the goods to be used by the citizens. In 2070 i liked the pollution mechanic, causing to use filters, to build on other islands, etc. It could be used in 1800 (steam machines). I also like the fact that anno is going back to “historical” games. Can’t wait to see a playable version :).
I really want to have more info on Anno 1800 !!! If it takes all the good ideas of ancient and new Anno games, it will be awesome !
I just have few questions :
– Are we going to have proper game mode for the campaign or it will be include in the sandbox mode (maybe an optional setting) ?
– “competing over different islands and trade routes together on one big map” : Will we have only one “big map” or some sectors like Anno 2205 ? And if we have sectors, will we be able to fight in all of them ?
We are bringing back the multi-session gameplay from Anno 2205, so there will be different sectors.
Ok ^^ And I hope the game will contain different regions of the world (different biomes) for example for colonies in Africa.
And I can’t wait to see how will work the randomly generated maps with the sectors… No in fact i just can’t wait to play the game x)
And can’t wait also for the multiplayer because for me, it was really a lack for 2205. It was because of the multiplayer than I played hundreds (or thousands maybe ?) of hours on 1404 and 2070.
And so far, the communication seems a lot of better than the previous Anno games !
I’m really glad to hear that multi-session gameplay is returning. I really enjoyed playing the largest maps in 2070 and that aspect of 2205.
Wishful thinking: I’m imagining if multi-session gameplay is coupled with randomly generated maps that I could conceivably add (explore) more and more sectors over time until my self-inflicted level of complexity is sufficient.
i have played anno1404 for quite a long time, bought more than 5 copies on steam to share with my friends, what i really like about 1404 is that we can share a same “color”
as in 2-3 friends we can play as 1 character, so we can split the job up easier and and each of us will expand on different island creating resource on different island then bringing it back to the main island to expand, sort of like a multitask, and i believe thats how anno should be played, its really enjoyable this way, thus i believe by polishing how multiplayer works it would be great, like how we share ships, sometimes one of us accidently move a trade route by accident then it would take us alot of effort to find out which one is not working and also the hotkey is what the main player selects (meaning if the host bind a ship to hotkey 1, then that ship will be bound to 1 for all players), which is sometimes confusing so individual selection hotkey should be created for each player. Is there a combat system in anno1800? if there is hope i would be a faster pace one and player have to put more input, the old combat system in anno1404 is too slow, moving troops on land takes such a long time.
Do we get more information about the gameplay :)?
Can’t wait for testing! ^^ I’m glad you guys are focused on “historic” Anno 😀
Dear Anno developers, this comment will be long 🙂
I always wanted a really complex game with lots of different goods and production chains while you don’t have to produce everything to make your population happy. It also connects to my idea of groups of goods our population needs. For example we need food, but we could produce bread, fish, vegetables, fruits, meat etc. which all would just sum up to supplying our people with food. Higher civilization stages would just need more diverse types of food. So maybe stage one will be happy with only bread, stage three would need three different types of food. The same could be with drinks, clothing, possession etc. And if we have more goods available than we really need to produce – then that will be just awesome.
I don’t understand an idea of ships or military limits. In Anno 1404 and 2070 there was a maximum limit of ships you could build. After achieving certain number of people you reached a maximum limit and further increase of population didn’t increase this limit – I think that’s stupid. If I have more and more people (certainly some of them would be able to work on ships) in my cities and I have building materials then why can’t I build any more ships?
What about multiple sectors like in Anno 2205? I read somewhere that you plan to implement this but settling different sectors would be optional. I loved this feature in Anno 2205 and I think that it could be well connected with the idea of colonialism and imperialism in Anno 1800. And we would have to build huge ships to transport goods between sectors, building such ships could take like 10 minutes or maybe even more.
I also want to refer to randomly generated maps. In old Anno games we always had different set of islands of different sizes and fertilities. But I would love to also see some continental areas with a few islands around like Wildwater Bay in Anno 2205. So If the game includes the multiple sectors feature then it would be great to have at least one such continental type of sector available.
I hope that Anno 1800 will feature some research projects such as steam engine, we should have many research options which would unlock some buildings or allow us to upgrade production facilities so that they can produce more goods maybe also with lower upkeep costs.
I also really liked the idea of workforce in Anno 2205. That can also be connected with research so that with more advanced technologies we need less workforce.
You asked what kind of development insight we would like to see. I am always interested in types of goods and production chains that will be included in the game. So I would really appreciate some information about this. But I am also curious about trains as we saw one in some vidoes from gamescom. What will be their purpose, how important will they be?
I spent over 1000 hours in Anno 1404 and lot of time in Anno 2070 and 2205 so I really hope to be able to test Anno 1800 during alpha and beta stages.
Right now after we’ve heard about features you already want to include in Anno 1800 I really think it might be the best Anno game 🙂
I forgot one thing. In Anno 1701 there were two buildings satisfying one building need like theatre and opera both satisfying entertainment but opera with larger influence radius. I loved that we had an option to build only one of those or both of them. I would love to see that in Anno 1800.
At the graphic point the game look pretty good but I hope that railtrack will change and not make rights angles anymore !
I think this is a big problem in Anno, how a game can be realistic if all the roads, and even more the railtrack, are shaped like this ?!
It appeared in the video that the game engine for 1800 is very similar to 2205 which had the grid system for building.
It would be conceivable if that remains a limitation the designers could build a 4×4 sized asset with a 4x radius 90 degree road bend.
I kind of disagree that it is a big problem, and more of a nice to have, straight roads have been the Anno norm. I’m biased because I wouldn’t use curvy roads because my gameplay style is to pack everything in tight.
All the features you guys listed is all that makes an Anno game an Anno game to me! 🙂
I would like to know more about the train I saw in the trailer and how that is going to work out in the game. Will it have any transportation function, and does that mean that islands are so big we need trains to haul our goods around the island? And if there are big islands, does that mean you can found multiple cities and villages on one island and you can use the railway to supply them with goods?
I also love the ships that will be added to the game.
love to see* the ships that will be added
The train I find very interesting to speculate on!
I’m thinking the train stations will effectively be the warehouses. These warehouse will have an effective radius or similar be similar to depots in 2205. They will likely be upgradable though.
The trains and train tracks will be like ships in 2070, maybe a couple sockets for upgrades, and you can create routes between train stations. Similar to ships there would be a couple different trains to build.
Think about it like this: They are probably addressing the fact that you aren’t going to pull 20 tons of lumber by horse in 1800 and trains don’t go on roads
been playing since i was 9 ^^ u guys are doing a great job! and so far … the list you summed up is exactly what ive been missing. lets all make this anno great again, Together!
That’s awesome- I remember buying the first Anno when I was 14. Time flies…
Привет, спасибо за новую Анно. Хотелось бы увидеть в игре при военных действиях оборону внутри зданий.Выстрелы из окон домов. Самооборону мирных жителей. Интерессное управление отрядами армии.Процесс захвата города. И пассажирские поезда.
Hi, thanks for the new Anno. I would like to see in the game at warfare defense inside the buildings.Shots from the Windows of the houses. Self-defence civilians. Center of management units of the army.The capture of the city. And passenger trains.
I’m super pumped to dig in and give as much feedback and ideas for the next great title of the Anno series! I’ve been in love with Anno since 1602 back in the late 90s. One of the thing that I think will be important is multiplayer. I would like to see it more beneficial to trade with friends in a session and offering military aid in times of war. Also I would love to have a larger scale map, one where you can up to 4-6 players. I think it would be cool if you destroy a faction that later down the road a small fleet reappears and tried to settle on an island, giving the players more challenges during a session. I think it would be cool to see a more complex building system; where you start with a blacksmith for example then can upgrade to a factory..and it doesn’t have to be instantly built. It could take 20-30 minutes to construct some higher level buildings. Kind of like the cathedral or historical warehouse in 1404. Another idea would be to have colleges or University s like the tech towers in 2070, to researcher upgrades for ships, weaponry, production, etc…and also show the upgrade for some of them. Like if you upgrade a frigate ship to a destroyer or have a large trade ship that upgrades its storage, have it show a larger hull or more cargo art on deck. One big thing I don’t know if you have the capability of is terraforming to a minor degree…creating plateau, widening the docking areas of a settlement, etc.. these are just a few ideas I have. I hope you guys go all out and make the best Anno title yet! Good luck!
Hello guys,
Congratulations on the wonderful job you have done to accomplish all the Anno games up to now. Anno 2070 and Anno 1404 were among my favorite titles. Even Anno 2205 was a good game, but I think 2205 lost a bit of the spirit of Anno games… So congratulations on this initiative to engage us in the 1800 development. I have a question, is there a possibility that the new Anno be translated into Italian, at least the interface and the subtitles? In the Italian market, the lack of translation of the Italian texts of Year 2205 was a big problem.
Thanks.
Thanks for your kind words 🙂
We haven’t fully decided all the languages that will get fully localized versions of the game, so thanks for your feedback for Italy!
OMG! if there will be no Russian language, I will not be able to buy the game
Create a new Anno 1404. I played all the parts but was unbeatably the best dil 1404. Playability, dyplomacy, trading, sophistication, characters. Everything makes 1404 the best. Anno 2205 I played the day and quickly froze. Overall simplification of the game was not beneficial. Missing any challenge. No dyplomacy. Detailed work with ships and warehouse was not, and so the game quickly froze. I wish to improve the perfect Anno 1404
1.What I want to say is thank you for the Zoo project. I wanted something like this. I had my own natural reservations in 2205, islands left empty just to see the wildlife.
Please give us tons of stuff :). We could also have a whale or dolphins or even sharks sightseeing ship.
2.Me personally, I would enjoy heavy AI and diplomacy improvements.
I currently have an Anno 1404 game going.
All the AI’s in my game recognize that I am the most powerful but still settle on islands that I own. I would like for them to ask permission or to actually realize that they are walking on thin ice when they do that.
Helping a ship (or helping 10 ships) attacked by pirates should also give diplomacy points.
Starting a war because of my allies should give me the possibility to stop it also if they decide to make peace.
I would like Island sharing between 2 persons included. Something like that worked in Anno 2070 with some of the AI’s.
Trains used for land trading routes.
3. Don’t know if you gonna add island specific NPC like bother Hilarious. If the building is there give bonus to churches by example or to fertilities. What I am saying is islands to have regional bonuses like the sectors had in 2205 to add more depth to what you build and where. Also the NPC buildings present there to influence further those bonuses.
Hiya
Im reading through everything and waiting with anticipation and a bit of laughter, the comment section is interesting for the great ideas and feedback you at Anno are getting but also funny for me.
I see everyone commenting for 1404 and 1701, I started on 1602 AD when it first came out, I was 8 then, hadnt really played many full bodied games beyond the Civilization series. Playing 1602 was for a kid back then alot of fun, the depth that the game had was huge for me, starting with a single ship on a randomly generated map where I had a few moments to quickly find one of the few large “good” islands before the AI got them, fighting to be the first to claim the smaller islands with the best resource stats to allow for population growth on my “main” island. Building more ships to link trade routes and fight pirates, move the few troops you could produce to foreign islands taking them over after a very very long fight.
The best part was always how it started off easy at first, the basic gameplay was easy to grasp, settle an island, build your basic resource gatherers, enlarge your population and balance your budget, then as you grew from there it got complex quickly there was a constant challenge and real threat of a start over if you screwed up even the smallest thing.
I want to see that again in Anno, Ive played a few other Annos since then but im always going back to two of them, 1602 and 2070 for the rich immersion and challenge. 2205 I found was too easy and it just got easier, your just constantly map hopping to balance the resources coming into your main area, the maps arent randomly generated so downloading map data and planning in advance can be done, your trade ships are safe no risk of them being destroyed (thus resulting in loss of a commodity, half your population getting cranky and devolving, tax income goes belly up and you lose all your money, GG).
I hope in Anno 1800 we get back the complexity and challenge, I kept 2205 in my steam library in the hopes of DLC patching might bring a challenge to it rather then just refunding. If you chaps over at anno can give another “5 more minutes turning into 5 hours” game that would be epic.
Thanks and sorry for being a lil long winded 🙂
Hi there, it would be amazing to integrate a tech tree. From for example a library. Allowing to develop new technologies.
Hello! I am a fairly recent fan of Anno, I found a let’s play of 1404 and fell in love. I got 1701, but it was stylistically different enough that I didn’t get too far into it, but I adore 2070. My main focus for things I’d like to see from a new Anno, is more depth to ships, for one. I have always loved ships, and having the naval aspect to Anno is one of the things that first drew me to the series. I would love some way to make my ships more personalized. Even if it’s purely ascetic, I would love some way to change their appearance, outside a pre-order bonus. More parks and ascetic items would be great. After a while, a large enough city starts to look the same as any other, so some way to personalize them would be nice. I didn’t get very far with 2205, it felt like most of the things I enjoyed with the game (controlling my ships and routes, other factions, etc) had been shelved, leaving the parts of the game I tended not to enjoy as much, just adding more houses until you get a shortage, adding more production to it, repeat until you get too bored to continue.
Also, please don’t take too much of the feedback about not wanting the game accessible. Obviously we want the depth of a full Anno installment, but the community needs to grow as well.
– I would like to build the harbor myself in a place that will suit me
– I would like to expand the wharf
– I would like people to come back with strollers that brought the product to the warehouse
– I would like it to be as real as possible
– and I would like to invite you to play with you in “Anno 1800” 🙂 pre-alpha
I would love to see some nittygritty details of numbers, statistics and math for game, plotting and planing of maximum efficiency of throughput in manufacturing in a good blog from a math inclined developer 😀
Also, trade, I would love to be able to create massive trade network with the AI/players, make more options of intertwining the resource production/distribution, not doing it all on your own. And blog on trade ideas!
As a fan of the Anno series I have played since I discovered Anno 1503. The great evolution of the game while keeping its originals roots is something that has always pleased me deeply. Probably, in my personal view, Anno 1404 had the greatest balance between a deep gameplay, a RTS/adventure/quest game, and a city builder.
That balance between the detail and the “action” allowed players to enjoy the conquest of the enemy island as we could spend hours measuring and creating an avenue or plaza trying to be original and aesthetic. Both these were lost with 2070 were the quality of the detail diminished slightly as the complexity of the game decreased too. Not to say what Anno 2205 did…
Probably the best path the blog could follow is to recover the old player’s trust while keeping the new one interested. Answering to what can be done and not, and why, will allow players to feel part of the game as there is a back and forth communication between the community and the developer.
Of course pleasing everyone is impossible and I do not expect an answer to one thousand comments but, in any case, following the communities demands or even refusing them in public will allow us to know that we are being listened.
For example: someone proposes that, as a monument-kind (3-4 stages of construction) of structure we could create a huge boat (“Titanic steam-vessel thing”) in order to go on expeditions for tourism (income). You could answer saying: why this is a good idea or not, why this can be done or not, why this is interesting or not. Instead of just stating that it is difficult or simply crap.
This kind of “developer answers” are, from my point of view the best entries we could have in the Union. I wish we will see some news soon.
Stopped reading at this point:( “making the game still accessible for new fans”
The older annos were too pretty accessible for new fans. I started playing Anno 1701 when I was 8 and Anno 1404 when I was 10.
I really want to see graphic development, because all of Anno games were very beautifull !
Hi, thank you so much for making a new Anno 😀 In am absolutely buzzing 😀 I would love to get to know some new characters in the game, get updates on what ships will look like and what kind of production chains we can build. Are you limiting yourselfs to the goods of that time or can we expect some imaginary surprises? Personally I hope we can build a good foundation at the home ground, set sail and explore the exotic world like Anno1404. I would love it if we could experiment with Train routes! Have more decorative options, really liked the green parcs in 2205! We do need extra room for building beautifully. Build production chains neat and tight like 2205. I could go on and on 🙂
Меньше войн, однобокого техногенного развития. Больше, разнообразней виды, формы развития построения стран, государств, цивилизаций. Задачи развития духовности, творчества, взаимовыгодного сотрудничества, на основе любви, добра.
While I like that anno is going back to randomly generated maps to increase playability, I hope this does not sacrifice one of the good points of anno 2205: The ability to create large cities. In the games before anno 2205, a city could only be big if it was the only thing on one of the few small islands. This changed with the introduction of sectors, which allowed larger islands and thus bigger and more impressive cities. While I definitely don’t want the sectors with their passive, when away nothing changes, system back, I hope you figure out a way to incorporate these enormous islands into rng maps, and thus allow for both replayability and large cities and extreme long duration, games.
Yes! My thought as well!
ANno 1404 used to have really big islands. I doubt we will have small islands 😉
With the current technologies in software and hardware, I doubt there won’t be huge island. (And neither doubt the possibility to play on only small islands as an option!)
Really looking forward to this, I love Developer Diaries 🙂
I’m interested in the way the map will depict the North / South divide (which I gather will be part of this). All on one map, or different instances? (1404 vs. 2205)
Hi!
We are waiting!
Personally, I would like to know about campaign and “a military fully integrated into the main game”.
As we said at gamescom, we won’t go into details about the campaign before 2018, so I’d have to ask you for a bit of patience there 🙂
Ок 🙂
I was not at the gamescon
Can’t wait on updates, so hyped that a AAA developer is interacting with the community in such a way. Can’t wait to give feedback.