- Anno 117
- Union Update
Union Update: News roundup and Q&A
Hey Anno Community,
Welcome to a rather lengthy Union Update with news and information. We’ll be talking about next week’s livestream, what happened in the last two weeks and have a Q&A section at the end.
Short reminder here that we had our very first livestream, a dev talk about our vision for Anno 117: Pax Romana and the reveal itself, last week. If you missed it, you can watch the VOD here.
Let’s dive right in:
Livestream on Branding
On July 2nd, we’re tackling questions that are likely also close to the heart of many Anno veterans: What even is Anno? What makes Anno games special and what are the key aspects and emotions an Anno game has to transport?
Those questions we have to ask ourselves from a creative, and from a brand point of view every time we start working on a new game. Anno by now is a series with a long tradition, a tradition that must be upheld but that also requires occasional self-reflection.
Together with Haye, Brand Director on Anno, and Wayne Deakin, Global Principal at Wolff Olins, we’re discussing Anno’s 26-year-old identity and how it translates into the new branding and logo for the series in general and Anno 117: Pax Romana in particular. Join us at 4:30PM CEST / 10:30AM EDT / 7:30AM PDT over on Twitch.
Behind the scenes of our trailer
If you watched our livestream last week you will already have seen it: We released a little video with behind-the-scenes footage of our trailer shoot. You can watch it below:
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Scroll of Fame
While we certainly were nervous before the reveal on June 10th, we were rather sure about one thing: Our community seemed to be very keen about “ancient Rome” as a setting for an Anno game. In fact, we went and gathered dozens of comments from you and your wishes and requests for a Roman setting. Those comments are now immortalised on the Scroll of Fame, and we also asked our Town Crier to respond to several of them directly:
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Statue Contest
On Monday we launched our very first Community Contest: Design an Anno 117: Pax Romana statue!
With just a rough outline, you can decide about the look, shape and colour of the statue that we’ll later implement into the game. Find all the information here in our dedicated blog. The contest runs until July 14th.
We highly encourage you to give it a try and are excited with what kind of ideas you’ll surprise us!
Q&A
Understandably, with the reveal just having happened, you have A LOT of questions on Anno 117: Pax Romana, the story, the characters, features, tech and many other aspects.
Broadly speaking, we are only at the very beginning of our journey when it comes to telling you more about our game. Over time, we’ll give you insights into the world and setting, the player’s role as a governor, the choices you can make and much more. But – and that is no different to our approach on Anno 1800 – this will happen over the coming months until release, based on our production plans.
Today, let’s dive into some topics you asked about:
When will you show gameplay?
We very much understand your impatience to see Anno 117: Pax Romana “in action”. However, we can already tell you that we won’t be showing any gameplay in 2024. We want to make sure we show you the game in a representative state, and since we are still very much in development, there are plenty of moving parts left: features and mechanics that might change – even drastically -, or are still missing, unfinished visual elements etc. etc.
By no means does that mean that we won’t have exciting insights for you in the meantime. Both in terms of game content as well as behind the scenes information on how we develop games. Especially the latter will hopefully also give you a better understanding of our production and communication plans.
Okay, but when will you tell us more about the game??
Very soon, July is right around the corner. Upcoming topics will first revolve around the world of Anno 117 and how we approach creating an Anno world, the research we’re doing etc.
After that, we’ll take a look at the work of the Production department and the planning and organising of a project like Anno 117: Pax Romana.
Having established the basis like this, we’ll move further into the world of Anno 117 with a closer look at both regions – Latium and Albion – and the gameplay differences between the two.
There’s more to come, this is just to give you a first taste.
You said you’re not showing gameplay for now, but how do you want to gather community feedback?
Our main source of very specific gameplay and UI feedback are playtests. We’ve organised a few already over the past months to make sure we are:
- Fulfilling the fantasy of a builder game in a Roman setting, and
- On the right track when it comes to creating an Anno game that ticks all the boxes our veterans would expect.
Receiving such positive feedback was a great relief for us, and reassured us in our plans for Anno 117. Of course, there are still features or mechanics that were (and others still are) not ready and, for example, during our very first playtest, we have never seen so many of our veterans go bankrupt so quickly – the balancing very much was, and still is, a work-in-progress.
We’ll continue with such playtests until release.
In addition, we have all the input you gave us before (and are now giving us after) the reveal across all kinds of channels and here on the Anno Union – especially when we start diving into more details about Anno 117: Pax Romana.
You missed out on the opportunity to make the 9th Anno a Roman one and call it “Anno 9”!
Admittedly, it would’ve been a nice little joke – but ultimately, we really wanted to make a Roman Anno now. Plus, releasing it in 2025 still keeps the 9-joke alive, doesn’t it?
Will you have (quality of life) feature X and Y?
Ah, now we’re getting specific. For the reasons outlined above, we won’t be going into detail on Anno 117’s exact feature-set quite yet. We’re not going to reinvent the (Anno-)wheel with Anno 117: Pax Romana, and you can expect the return of many beloved core features and mechanics. You can also expect improvements and changes to said features and the addition of new ones – to fit the setting and vision of the game. Trains and electricity just don’t make a lot of sense in ancient Rome, for example.
There are also a bunch of quality-of-life features in Anno 1800 that we know you love and of course those are also on our list of things for Anno 117. Blueprint mode, anyone?
In the end, we are working with a detailed production plan and a certain limit of working hours. Which features and mechanics (and in which way) will be present in Anno 117 is something we will be able to confirm at a later date.
I love the Town Crier character, will you add him to the game?
We also love our Town Crier – and are extremely happy that both the reveal trailer as well as the scroll of fame video were so well-received by our community! We’re not quite sure yet what the Emperor has to say when it comes to commemorating someone else than himself but we’ll see.
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Hello, will there be a Ukrainian language in the game? I really like the whole Anno series of games, but none of your games support my native language, and this is very disappointing for me and thousands of Ukrainians.
I would love it if I didn’t have to manage the 1×1 fields. Can there be a system that does the placement and moving them around automatically for me? When I move a farm, I have to redo the placement of the fields that collided with other buildings. If I activate an specialist that changes the number of fields or I add the tractor barns to my farms, I have to redo the whole setup of fields. These are chores that some people don’t enjoy doing. My enjoyment of Anno 1800 has gone since I got bored with field placement.
I think it would also be interesting if the AIs that manage other areas of the empire have the possibility of consuming the same goods as the main player for their needs and/or production, even if they are very elaborate goods that are reached very late in the game. This would give greater dynamics to the entire economy of the game. Something that I didn’t like about Anno 1800, perhaps one of the few, is that the Export Port DLC did not force us to use the money we earned, but other goods. The correct thing would be that at least there is the option of using both the coins and other goods for exchange. On the other hand, the voices of the characters should speak in the original languages that were used in ancient times in my opinion. It is an addition that enriches and makes a difference. I believe that the social consequences of not covering the consumption needs of the inhabitants should continue. The mines should have a depletion limit like in 1404, which requires paying a sum of money to “dig deeper” and continue exploiting with some automated function so as not to have to do so. I mean, let it not be something infinite and without cost.
It is interesting that it can begin in one region or another, such as those already described and anticipated by you. But it would also be interesting, perhaps, later in some DLC, to expand the possibilities of starting from other new regions, for example: Greece or Egypt and for each area to have the architectural characteristics of each province. That would give an innovation to the game that does not modify the traditional possibility and at the same time gives it an air of freshness that would be enriching. In addition to the pirates, the barbarians stalking the empire from the borders should be annoying. It would return to the system in which an island can be partially invaded by another player, that gave more difficulty to the game in 1404. Anno 1800 became somewhat too peaceful in this sense and Anno 117 could take advantage of the period of constant wars and confrontations. Items are a fundamental element that Anno 117 should continue to support and apply to all buildings.
Without a doubt, the first thing that should be done is to transfer all the mechanics of 1800, added to the historical ones of the Anno saga, to the base game of Anno 117. With the difference that on this occasion they should once again include the war system that I had the Anno 1404, certainly simple but very successful. Perhaps camps could be included in which Items can be introduced with generals or centurions that give more strength or other elements that increase the abilities of the Roman centuries. Using an item system similar to that of unions or warships, which, by the way, should also be included. I think that after having that base, everything that offers more possibilities with DLCs will be very well received.
You can use the Town Crier as the journalist in Anno 1800 with the same mecanic. 😉