Hey Anno Community,

Not too long ago we told you about Attributes and Needs in Anno 117: Pax Romana, and how fulfilling them will grant you bonuses for your island. In that DevBlog we hinted at 8 different attributes, but didn’t reveal the full list to enjoy the suspense for a little bit longer.

Well, it’s now time to reveal one of those previously hidden attributes: Belief! What does Belief do and what is it connected to? Well, as the word suggests, it is connected to Religion: this is a brand-new feature added for the first time to an Anno game.

The Background

There are different reasons why Religion and Belief have been added to Anno 117: Pax Romana. Firstly, this will allow an additional level of customisation for our players, who will have the chance to strengthen their island identity by choosing which deity to worship on their islands. Secondly, it was important for us to portray the polytheism and cultural diversity of the ancient world which Anno 117 is inspired by.

As you might already know, Roman religion was primarily polytheistic, involving the worship of numerous deities who were believed to influence all aspects of life, by playing an important role in daily events. Among these deities, for example, we can find Jupiter – also known as Jove – god of the sky and thunder, who was worshipped in Rome itself. Or if we think of the “home” of Anno, Ubisoft Mainz: did you know that our office is built above a Roman Sanctuary of Isis and Magna Mater?

How is this been translated in Anno 117: Pax Romana? Let’s now take a closer look at this new feature and its impact on your settlements.

How does it work?

You’ll be able to unlock the Religion feature as soon as you have settled a few Plebeians on one of your islands: this will allow you to place a small temple in your city – the sanctuary.

Once you’ve built your sanctuary, it will be time for you to choose the patron deity of this very island, aka the primary deity you want your residents to worship on that island. You’ll be able to do so from accessing the Religion menu from any religious public building. Every island you have settled can have its own patron that its population worships.

At first, you will only have the option to choose among four deities, but you will unlock more by reaching specific conditions in the game and discovering them via the Discovery Tree. More on that feature in the next DevBlog.

Your starting deities will be Ceres, Neptune, Minerva and Mars; based on your playstyle and what you would like to achieve, it’s important for you to pick the right one: each deity will have its own unique effects for your cities, production and units.

Buff effects

These Patron god effects are unlocked by gathering Devotion over time – with Devotion being tied to the Belief (more on that in a second) in the chosen island Patron. To unlock a buff effect, you will need to reach a specific threshold of Devotion on the progress bar in the dedicated menu. Whenever the Devotion passes a marked threshold, you unlock an improvement to the primary or secondary Patron effect.

What if you would like to change your Island Patron, switching from a peaceful farming community to a war economy? Don’t worry, you can still do that. However, changing the Patron resets the Devotion to zero.

Let’s look together at an example: Neptune, protector of freshwater and the sea. If you choose Neptune as your island Patron, your fishers will feel significantly more courageous: you will notice an increase in productivity of all sea food. Additionally, you’ll attract master craftsmen who not only construct ships faster but also make them more durable.

Ceres blesses your agriculture and population! Her worshippers can increase the yields of farms and the production and storage of farming goods.

And Mars… well, he’s not so much a deity of growth and construction but your troops will have higher morale and fight better when global devotion to Mars is high enough.

Local vs Global effect

Not only do Patrons have a local effect on your islands, but they also have a global effect on all provinces, affecting all islands under your control. This is the effect of your dominant Patron. A Patron becomes “dominant” when its global devotion is larger than a certain threshold: the Patron that has the most added-up devotion on all islands you control becomes the dominant Patron.

Let’s go back to the Neptune example: his global bonus will affect your ships speed, making them faster when sailing the high seas across the map.

The Belief Attribute

Alright, let’s take one step back and talk about HOW you increase Devotion – and Belief.

As we mentioned at the beginning of this blog, Belief is one of the new attributes introduced in Anno 117: Pax Romana. The two main ways of increasing the Belief attribute are:

• Public buildings (like the Sanctuary we showed earlier) which affect building in their radius, resulting in them each providing Belief
• Goods which you provide via the Needs categories (like for example Wine)

There may be some other way (e.g. via items), but let’s keep it at that for now. In short: the more buildings are affected by various effects like these, the higher your Belief.

Devotion in turn comes from your island’s Belief. Over time, Devotion will rise to the same value as the island’s Belief. Therefore, the more Belief you have, the more Devotion will result from it, unlocking the higher buffs mentioned above.

Where do gods live?

As you probably have gathered from the paragraphs above, Anno 117: Pax Romana doesn’t feature “physical” deities which roam your cities or throw lightning bolts at people who offend them.

What we wanted to represent in our game is rather the psychological effect: your people are worshipping certain deities, and find courage and motivation in doing so. They believe that this worship has an effect and work harder (e.g. farmers worshipping Ceres) or fight better (when worshipping Mars).

The sanctuary we showed you earlier is a rather humble place of worship. Later, you will be able to construct mighty temples to dedicate to your Patron of choice. Not only do they influence a much larger area of your island, but they also provide much higher Belief buffs to the surrounding buildings.

No matter which Patron you choose for your respective island: the sanctuaries and temples, as well as the priests they spawn will visually change to fit the worshipped deity.

The ancient time we were inspired by was a polytheistic one, and while each island can only dedicate itself to one dominant Patron god, you can still construct shrines to other deities. These shrines will buff buildings in their vicinity and increase your attributes like fire safety, happiness or income further. It pays off to be a devoted governor.

“What about Albion?”, we hear you ask. Well, let’s say the Celts have their own deities and places of worship. More on that later this year.