• Anno 1800
  • Union Update

Union Update: Technical Test concluded

  • 03.12.2018

Our big Technical Test of Anno 1800 has concluded, so today we want to give you a brief production update on how the test will help us in the final months of development leading up to our launch on February 26th.

First things first: We want to thank all members of the Anno Union who participated in the test.
Once again, you demonstrated that getting you in as early as possible on the game’s development was the right call, with thousands of comments providing constructive feedback and reports during the Technical Test week.

While we will be busy checking all your comments to filter out actionable feedback, what were the biggest takeaways for us? And how will they help us to improve the game?

A first brief look at our learnings
Besides reporting bugs, balancing was a very important topic for Anno veterans out there. Ranging from the “vicious Schnapps cycle” to fierce discussions about how demanding production chains should be in a classic Anno title, your voices will help us to find the right balancing for the game. Our vision is that Anno 1800 will be a callback to old classics such as 1404, offering great complexity and replayability while also allowing a satisfying first experience for players new to the series.

The new workforce feature was also a welcome change for most players, as it offers many new intricate ways to play around with Anno 1800’s mechanics. However, as the content was limited to Tier 3, players spent a lot of time playing the same game loop again, settling and expanding their empire to various islands without being able to transfer their workforce. To shed some light on that matter, workforce transfer will be available via the commuter harbor, which becomes available with Tier 4 (the Engineers).
In the full game, we expect players will likely advance to tier 4 earlier, instead of heavily expanding during tier 3. In order to get more quality feedback across the entire gameplay loop (including the late-game portion of Anno 1800), we will continue to make use of our focus tester program.

So what’s next for the development of Anno 1800?
As mentioned, we have received a ton of feedback, so these are just a few examples. But there are still new things to look forward even for our stalwart testers who played Anno 1800 during our Technical Test.
What could those things be? Well, how about our naval combat system- which we will unveil and explain in our next DevBlog towards the end of this week! We are very much looking forward to giving you an exclusive first look at our new naval and siege combat.

With that said, please keep in mind that the NDA for the test is still active, so please refrain from making any comments about the content of the Technical Tests in the comments.

Comments

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28 Comments
  1. s schafenberg

    I was amazed at how intricate the games details were for a test demo. The schnapps cycle got me confused but I knew you, The Masters of Anno would iron it out by February. I have played all the Anno games since 1602 and think that everyone of them had their special parts I liked the best. Micromanagement at it’s finest. As I am retired so I got to log many hours in the test and am looking forward to Anno 1800.
    Thank you.Steve.

  2. k kling0n2013

    thank you ubi and bluebyte for letting me in for the test run.
    i loved the way you made anno 1800 and can’t wait till februari, also i hope the ost wil also be given, i always love the music.

    looking forward in the development of anno.

  3. H HannesDS

    I loved to test the game, and provide feedback.
    Looking forward to the devblog about the naval combat system.
    (Which can come any moment now.)

  4. g gun224

    Het was een enorme ervaring in het testteam te mogen deelnemen in 1800!
    De balans was soms moeilijk te vatten maar viel achteraf toch mee;
    grote game in vooruitzicht. Nice…

  5. S Swiss-Don69

    Thanks for the invite to the technical Test. It was a great pleasure to play the new Anno 1800. Now i cant wait for the launch in february.

    And I hope to be part of further playtests of this great game!

    Thank you very much and kind regards

    Don

  6. f fabius1111

    Thank you to let me to test Anno 1800. It is not difficult but non easy to master, really a lot of goods and situations to handle, but mostly a very, very enjoiable game.
    Anno serie is the best. Will be Anno 1800 the best of all ? It looks really promising !

    Go on Anno team , complete it !!

  7. A Alpenmerlin

    Hi,

    I just wanted to provide my final feedback as you requested in your email today at noon. While I was writing my post the forum went offline and I wasn’t able to submit my feedback anymore. I think the forum for the technical test has been deactivated in the meantime. Any possibility to send my feedback independently from the forum to you guys?

    I actually expected to have more than four hours after the email. I was in office and not able to submit my post immediately.

    Thanks in advance!

    Best regards
    Alpenmerlin

    • S Swimming-Paul

      Hi Alpenmerlin!

      Thank you for your message! The forum for the Technical Test will be active until next Monday, 10th of December, so you still have time to share your thoughts with us! In case you don´t have access to that forum, you can send a message to Ubi-05 by clicking on this link:

      https://forums.ubi.com/private.php?do=newpm&u=2335501

      We´re looking forward to your feedback!

      • A Alpenmerlin

        Hi,

        I was looking for the forum again just a few moments ago and I was able to access it again. Either I was blind yesterday or there was a temporary issue so that I couldn’t access the forum.

        Anyway, I was able to join the forum again and leave my feedback there. Thank you for your help and sorry for the inconvenience.

        Best regards,
        Alpenmerlin

        • U Ubi-O5

          No worries, time to get that feedback written out then!

  8. M MZmatt

    It was a pleasure testing it.
    Like you stated, there’s a bit of an imbalance in chains and work force, which was frustrating to try and make it work, but overall it looks like a fantastic game!

    Thank you so much for the chance to help you guys out in such a way, I hope we can do this at least once more before the official release!

    Thank you, and keep being awesome 🙂

  9. M Mendahor

    Very happy for contributing to make this game the greatest Anno we want 🙂

    Thank for you great job, keep going on ! I’m already ready for the next technical test.

    As a suggestion : you may add all Anno Union members in the credits of the game 😉

  10. r red8ee

    Hello devs!
    Thank you for inviting me to participate in the test!
    Despite my extremely low specs (3.20 GHz INTEL Pentium, 4GB RAM, VGA GT610) the game actually played! Windowed and with everything lowered on graphics, lagged like hell, but played!
    Keep up the good work!

  11. P Peeru4anoo

    I love anno game and spent max hours everday on anoo 1404 venice version, still i want to share my ideas regarding anoo 1800, how can i proceed will you please let me know……..anoo rocks.

  12. J John.w.Patts

    merci à tous
    j’espère avoir fait de mon mieux, j’ai réagi en tant qu’ancien joueur d’Anno

  13. C CrocNW

    Thank you. Can not wait for final game 🙂

  14. K Knurr_

    Thought i would leave a comment to share my appreciation about being able to join the test. I’m usually not lucky with these things but i managed to clock a good amount of hours to try it all out! Had a great experience.

    One question, will the people that tested it now be able to join later tests that are mentioned in this blog?

    Thanks! 😀

  15. s somers.bay

    Hi Ubi

    My faith has been restored in this franchise, and I want to thank you for allowing me to be a part of the Technical Test.

    See you all in February for the whole shebang!

  16. R Rayuno

    I feel so stupid. I completely missed it because I didn’t bother to check my e-mail in the past week.

    • O O_oKongo_O

      I feel so stupid like you. I forgot to check my e-MAIL T_T . haiz waiting the next test OMG

  17. U Underworld89

    Thanks ubi to let us test the game.. It was a great experience and it’s always a pleasure to help dev to improve games. Ty again and see ya in february. All i can say is that’s gonna be the best anno since 1404 😉

  18. P PabloXXVI

    Hello,
    Is there any way to purchase the Anno 1800 Pioneers Edition? Is this version (game) also in Polish? Will the standard version be on DVD? I have all the series on CDs or DVDs and I can not imagine not having 1800 as well.

  19. B BlueBreath

    Glad to help, and also it was an enjoyable experience for me. Looking forward to the launch.

  20. b banan1996.1996

    Thank you for the possibility to test the game. I left walls of text with feedback from me, hopefully it will be useful and that you have enough time to make all needed changes. 🙂
    I am looking forward to future devblogs, more testing opportunities and of course to the release of Anno 1800 😀

  21. S SirDavidFirst

    All I want to say is thank you, I was not a good tester, but still, love it, thank you again.

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