- Anno 117
- Union Update
Union Update: Patch 1.5.2 and our plans for June
Hey Anno Community,
It’s patch day! Today we’re releasing Version 1.5.2 with several more fixes – including the issue with ships renaming themselves (which didn’t get properly fixed last time), flickering ground plates and some adjustments to rivals’ behaviour related to wars.
Please have a look at the full Patch Notes here!
Upcoming updates
The next planned update will be on June 18th and include some more fixes as well as the second cosmetic DLC: Blooming Cities.
We’ll follow that up with another update in early July. More details on those closer to their release date.
Livestream
On June 10th we’ll be holding a livestream to show you the “Blooming Cities” Pack in action with Art Director Reiko, Project Coordinator Dennis and Clémentine, Junior International Product Manager.
Aside from talking about the very flower-y content, we’re also looking forward to updating you on our plans and answering your questions.
The stream will start on June 10th at 5PM CEST | 3PM UTC on our Twitch channel.
Upcoming and what we’re working on
Looking further into the future, August is, as previously announced, the time of the Hippodrome! Our second gameplay DLC will release around mid-August letting you build an enormous monument in your cities and hold races to entertain your population. You won’t have to wait too long until we start talking about it.
This release will be accompanied by an update as usual, Update 2.0, further improving the game for everyone. To give you a little teaser:
- An often-requested feature is making a comeback: the note function!
- Leave notes for yourself as reminders for later in your play-session or when you load your savegame a few days or weeks later and attach them to specific objects (e.g. ships).
- Take even more phantastic screenshots with the photomode
- We have seen and admired what you can do with the postcard mode already – with a free camera and some effects you will have even more possibilities
- Time limited challenges will be available via Ubisoft Connect
- Aside from the challenge aspect itself, you will get XP for your Ubisoft Connect profile level and Fame points to use in the Hall of Fame
Additionally, we are working on a bunch of further fixes and improvements. Please note that these can still move into later updates depending on their complexity or in case of unforeseen issues. As usual, we will confirm the final changelog for Update 2.0 closer to the actual release in August. To mention just five things currently being worked on:
- We’re planning to add field workers to farms/plantations after adjustments to the feedback unit system
- We’re working on a solution to increase the value of the proconsul title, in order for it to be less easily lost upon taking actions the Emperor doesn’t like
- In the first-person easter egg, groundplates/roads shouldn’t disappear anymore in certain angles
- We’re looking into Raiders not being defeatable/spawning without their main building
- Sandarac Tree Nursery will be reclassified as plantation
Talking about both DLC and patches, in the last weeks we’ve held both playtests for “The Hippodrome”, as well as a very early playtest for “Dawn of the Delta”.
Like the playtests we’ve done in the year leading up to the release of Anno 117: Pax Romana, our goals here were to gather feedback on both the overall state, but also the aspects “fun factor”, balancing and UI/UX.
These types of closed playtests will continue for all future gameplay content, and while we can’t go into the details of the provided feedback here, we received valuable input on the UI/UX side of the Hippodrome DLC and its connection to the rest of the game, as well as the province layout of DLC 03 and the clarity/onboarding of its features.
Community Spotlight
Closing the update with a Community Spotlight once more, starting with this website DukeEntropy created: it lets you pre-plan trade routes in preparation for our next Anno 117: Pax Romana session.
To quote them: “I made a website to plan my Anno 117 island and trade routes. Since I cannot play anno during work hours, but I can go to the internet and plan my anno game during work hours.”
Check it out here: https://antondemeester.github.io/anno-planner/
Finally, we also want to feature here some of the awesome screenshots you took for “Prophecies of Ash”, capturing both the island itself as well as the volcano and its eruptions in particular.
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Is there a chance to reintroduce the Anno 1404-1800 “puzzle” missions. Not related to the capaign. For instance : to find an object or help find some inhabitants.
Do you have plans to re-introduce both the statistics storage tab as well as the specialists tab? Not implementing these in 117 after getting everybody used to them in 1800 is something I don’t understand.
It sounds very promising and I can’t wait, good work 😉 .
I’m just curious how the time-limited missions will work.
1) Will they be repeated? If we don’t make it, will we have to try again after a week?
2) If we complete them and they repeat, will we be able to do them again for the same reward, that is, if they repeat.
3) If they don’t repeat, how many will there be in total?
Hey, the challenges in Ubisoft Connect repeat in regular intervals, and while progress doesn’t carry over, every time the repeat, you can fulfill them again.
Can I just say I just recently found Anno 117 and I love it!! But can I suggest an improvement on how the Ceasefire treaty works with the raiders? It makes no sense for me to be the one paying for a treaty with the enemy when I am the one burning down their city. If we have to pay them to stop attacking us for a few minutes may be they should also pay us when it’s vice versa.
Like the changes. Especially the change to the farm workers feels like you´re listening to what the community is saying. For future DLCs and balance patches I would really love for the biggest weakness of 117 to be addressed – the Late-game. From personal experience and reading through the reddit communities, the following seem to be big underlying issues:
1. The Patrician Tier feels not very rewarding: 1) Patrician workforce isn´t very useful 2) Only few of their needs increase their population but rather other attributes of your city, that don´t feel consequential to the game play experience 3) They don´t unlock any/ very much new gameplay mechanics or content like engineers or investors did
2. A lot of attributes of a city don´t feel consequential and therefore not worth addressing: You can easily live with very high negative Fire Safety, Health and Happiness. If you don´t want to constantly micromanage events on your island you keep them above 0. If they are much higher than that, then you get more festivities, which you can always only have one of and which mostly give you money (which tends to be irrelevant late game) or boosts other attributes (which again don´t feel worth addressing). Prestige expands how many specialists you can slot in your villa, which boost other attributes (but again, they don´t feel worth boosting…). You address attributes by providing needs. This leads to a weak incentive to fulfill your citizens’ needs
117 is a fun game and you guys are doing so many things right and better than in previous titles. Keep up the good work and use the feedback that people are giving you, using their free time (I think that´s the most unbiased and valuable one). There are great suggestions in the according Reddit communities if you want to hear ideas on how to address the mentioned issues