Your population is always demanding something new: food, clothes, public buildings, … what do you get from it? Why fulfil all these demands?

Well, alright, because it’s part of the core gameplay-loop of course; but also cause each need you fulfil gives you something in return: citizens pay more taxes, have a lower chance of setting their own houses on fire or are simply happier and less prone to rebel against your glorious governorship.

These bonuses of needs and – as you’ll soon see – also buildings we call “Attributes”.

In today’s DevBlog we will take a look at how we handle these attributes in Anno 117: Pax Romana and how we spice it up with a new little puzzle system.

If you haven’t watched our livestream on the topic, we also recommend to check it out here.

Attributes General

Anno veterans know: attributes are nothing entirely new, things like income, happiness or population have already been a part of past Anno’s and picki...

Let the “Bright Harvest” begin

Last Tuesday, June 2, marked the release of the “Bright Harvest” DLC and Game Update 8!

Boost your agriculture by building silos and state-of-the-art tractors, and beautify your islands with additional farming and industrial ornaments. The farming revolution is already well underway!

Game Update 8 additionally provides you with a convenient item overview, bigger warehouses, the Great Eastern steamer and many smaller improvements and fixes which you can find here.

Thanks to your feedback following the release, our team is currently working on Game Update 8.1 to address some of the concerns you voiced. We will have more info on it closer to its release around Mid-June.

Get ready for analogue Anno 1800

And another kind of announcement was made last week which we are extremely excited about: On Thursday Kosmos Spiele (whom you may be familiar with from games such as “Catan” and “Legends of Andor”) announced “Anno 1800: The Board Gam...

All of the Anno games are inspired by history and our team spent a significant amount of time researching the era of Anno 1800. History buffs across all departments of the team spent countless hours going through hundreds of photographs and pictures as a reference for the design of ships and houses, researching on the societal changes and struggles of the time and discussing how to implement those as a gameplay feature. So while we are not and don’t want to be historically accurate, plenty of references can be found in the game.

The 1800s have also been an era of technology and innovations. Take “The Great Exhibition” that took place in London in 1851 as an example, which inspired the World’s Fairs in the game. Ground breaking innovations of the time found their way into Anno 1800, like railroads, electricity or steam ships, while Old Nate and his inventions are of course a small venture into early science fiction.

When we’re talking about expeditions, many of you were also curi...

With all the tools necessary to construct a palace worthy of an industrial magnate at your disposal, we are sure that many of you have already created some amazing and lavish palace complexes! The ideal time to start another creative contest and ask you to share pictures of your architectural marvels with us.

Simply share your screenshots with us on Twitter using the #seatofanno hashtag or post them in this dedicated forum thread.

And while it is not mandatory and will not be part of the selection process, feel free to tell us more about your palace! Did you model it after any real-world monument? Is there any cool story behind it? We want to know!

The submission deadline is May 8th, 11:59pm CET. We will announce the winners in an upcoming Union Update after our team had some time to browse through all your magnificent screenshots.

Of course, palace-building is hard work, and needs the right tools. Thankfully, our good friends at CORSAIR (no business or family relations...

To prepare you for all architectural challenges of our upcoming Season 2 Pass DLC “Seat of Power” as well as Game Update 7, we will run another Twitch Drop Event beginning this Friday.

The whole event takes place from Friday March 20th and – to give you some time to pick your favourite streamer – will last until March 29th.

During the Event, you will be able to watch how a variety of selected Twitch Streamers construct their first palace to not only beautify their cities but also boost culture, production and more.

Anyone watching them struggle during their attempts can grab two brand new ornaments, the Seat of Power Flag and the Seat of Power Billboard. The only thing you need to do is link your Uplay to your Twitch account and watch the streamers during the event for up to 3 hours to receive your loot. You don’t have to watch these hours consecutively to receive your drop; watching them accumulated on participating streamers will also grant you the ornaments.

If...

Sometimes playing Anno feels like being a bird parent trying to fulfil the needs of the ever-demanding offspring: Your citizens want clothes, they want sausages, beer, carpets, pasta and energy drinks. Let’s also not forget the marketplace, tavern, laboratory or the concert hall.

Granted, your citizens pay taxes (usually) to make up for the hassle, but they really make you work for that.

In short: needs are a core aspect of Anno gameplay loop, you fulfil them to make money, to make your people happy and to level up residences in order to progress through the game.

Needs in general

This hasn’t changed much in Anno 117: Pax Romana, on first glance: We still separate needs into two types: consumption needs and service needs.

The former require the player to produce goods (e.g. Porridge) in certain quantities which are then consumed by the residence. As long as enough goods are produced, the need fulfilment slowly rises to 100% and ...