DevBlog: Land of Lions – Scholars and Research

Hello once more, dear Anno Community!

In this last DevBlog for Land of Lions we will focus on the influence of Enbesa on the Old World.

If you have missed any of our previous blogs, have a look at the dedicated ones for:

1. The Shepherd population tier and the irrigation system

2. The Elder population tier and the story of “Land of Lions”

Already in our overview blog we mentioned that besides creating a new world for you to explore and a new story for you to discover, we also wanted to incorporate a specific point of feedback we received from you after the release of “The Passage”: Having closer connections between the different sessions to offer more than just a one-region-specific challenge.

With “Land of Lions”, this comes in the form of the Scholars.

When you’ve upgraded your first Shepherd Residences and the initial Elders are moving in, you unlock the last new feature of the “Land of Lions” DLC: With an influx of students from Enbesa and the rest of the globe to the Old World, first the construction of the Research Institute (requires 300 Elders) and later housing for the new Scholar population tier (requires 1500 Elders) is unlocked.

The Research Institute is a new, 3 stage monument that can be constructed once per player in either the Old World or Cape Trelawney. It is a place of study and research, a place where your eager scholars analyze artefacts and plants – and where they come up with technological breakthroughs known as Major Discoveries.

Aside from requiring plenty of workforce for the construction, you will need large amounts of building material – but will be rewarded in turn with a beautiful new landmark for your city which in addition unlocks the new research feature, allowing your brightest minds to engage in what they like doing most: science!

Before we jump into the details of the research system, let’s first take a look at the Scholars.

Being a separate population tier, they will require their own appropriate housing. Scholar Residences have a size of 4×4 fields and – due to their love for academic research – require immediate access to a university. Due to their larger size, these residences also house significantly more people (120 eager students of science) than, for example, an Investor residence does.

It takes time and effort to build up a reputation as a Research Institution. Scholar Residences are tied to permits: Only by acquiring more permits via research in the Institute will you be able to build more of them and be able to invite more Scholars. This will also open up further research options, and unlock additional needs for Scholars.

The scholars represent a typical international student: hailing from distant Enbesa and other parts of the world, but living in the Old World. The duality is reflected in the Scholar’s needs: They will ask for fancy Old World clothes, requiring you to build new production chains for Leather Boots and Tailored Suits, as well as increasing your output of Bombin Hats. And while as students they enjoy a social Rum and the convenience of Canned Food, nothing tastes better than a memory of home. Their loved ones in Enbesa will only be too glad to ship Seafood Stew and Hibiscus Tea over to the Old World to assuage any feelings of homesickness.

The Scholars’ keen interest in new technologies and inventions means they also desire gramophones, the newly developed telephones and a cutting-edge new public building: The Radio Tower.

With their needs fulfilled and the construction of the Research Institute finished, your scholars will get to work and generate a constant stream of research points. The more Scholars you have attracted, the faster they accumulate research points and the more research points you can “store”. More advanced research requires points in large quantities, a feat, small research groups simply won’t be able to accomplish.

Another way of acquiring research points is by donating items – for science! The amount of points received depends on the rarity of the respective item.

Researching items and especially Major Discoveries takes time, even for such a talented bunch as your Scholars. To speed things up, you can assign parts of your Engineer workforce – the Scholars’ tutors. Just make sure they’re not needed elsewhere.

Now, a variety of exciting research options are opened up to you, providing plenty of advantages for your empire. Let’s go over what kind of options the bright minds in the Institute came up with.

First, the item research. A recurring feedback since the release of Anno 1800 has been the wish for more direct ways to get items for specific purposes. Item crafting with Old Nate in Cape Trelawney and the Artic provide one alternative to purchasing and questing, while the item overview with details about the sources gives you a clearer idea where you need to look for that last missing zoo animal. Game Update 9 will change the number of items offered by AI parties from 8 to 12, which means less re-rolling to get the one you want. Owners of “Land of Lions” will have to live with a small restriction here, though, to balance the option of donating items for research points: Only 20 items can be purchased from a single NPC trader in a 30-min window.

With the Research Institute you can now develop almost any item in the game and this way specifically focus on the ones that make the most sense for your islands and for your overall strategy.  The items have to be discovered and analysed by your researchers first, requiring research points, and you can choose between Cultural Science (Animals, Cultural Items and Plants), Technological Advancements (all kinds of machines and tools) and Talent Development (Specialists).

Secondly, there are the Major Discoveries. These present you with more ways to specialise aspects of your economy, but they also address existing community feedback.

For example, the appropriate research allows you to move Oil Springs and Clay Deposits to another place on the island, change the fertilities to grow hops instead of paprika or change the ore of a mineral deposit to one you need more of. This will help you to further specialise existing islands and e.g. move that one oil spring just in range of the refinery, while also helping with layout creation and city beautification.

Furthermore, via a Research Kit you can directly identify items you already own and then develop them in the Research Institute, while additional Great Eastern Permits allow you to… well, build more of these magnificent ships!

Pier Upgrade Permits let you upgrade existing piers to Advanced Piers, increasing their loading speed and allowing you to specialise them: You can now dedicate these piers to a single type of good which helps you with directing your trading ships to specific places on your coast.

And don’t worry: If you, for example, create a dedicated coffee pier, all other goods on trade routes transporting coffee to your island will of course also be handled by the Advanced Pier.

Finally, to continue with the coffee topic from above, there’s something for all coffee lovers on your islands: Modern technology will enable you to produce New World goods in the Old World, by using replacement products. Specifically: You can unlock Advanced Coffee Roasters, Rum Distilleries and Cotton Mills to help you with any shortages.

Running out of space for high quality coffee beans in the New World? Don’t worry, just mix in some locally produced malt coffee – your investors won’t notice!

To round off, Land of Lions will of course also bring new item sets for your cultural buildings, for example a Lion (quelle surprise) or a Giant Snail for your zoo. On top of that, there will of course be some region-specific items for Enbesa, to for example boost local production, like the Tea Selector for your Tea production or Flood Gates to increase your pump’s irrigation capacity.

All of this will be open for you to explore as part of the “Land of Lions” DLC on October 22^nd, available via the Ubisoft Store, Epic Store and Steam.

As usual, we will release a free update alongside the DLC including a bunch of quality of life improvements alongside plenty of bug fixes and tweaks. The full release notes will be posted next week, but if you haven’t done so, you should definitely check out our DevBlog detailing all the improvements of Game Update 9 which we posted a few weeks ago.