If they decide to build any military units at all, they mostly do so as a deterrent to their neighbors. For these players, the threat of potential war is a more important aspect than the actual warfare itself. Just as in real life, it asks players to consider what the possible price of their behavior could be, and if they would be willing to pay it. The knowledge that war could break out is a deterrent to many players and AI alike, as it puts additional importance on their actions. These players view peace as an active process the direct result of their behavior towards other players, be they human or AI-driven. Even many of those players, who would never declare war themselves and who prefer playing with more passive AI characters, like the notion that war could be a potential consequence of their actions.
The presence of the military and warfare in the peaceful Anno world increases the realism and believability, topics that have always been very important to Anno players. The answer to that question lies in the overall “feeling” of Anno.
In other words, even those players who preferred not to use combat in the game feel that warfare is an important part of Anno. While we had some players who wanted to avoid any kind of conflict via game settings (an option that will once again be available in Anno 1800), the military feature in general seemed to be of importance for many of our players, despite their stated playstyle preferences. Things get more interesting once we take a closer look, however. Finally, we have a small group of players (5-15%) who feel that large-scale warfare is that extra something and who prefer to permanently get rid of their opposition. Another big group of players (35-45%) prefers a more flexible approach, where things can be resolved peacefully or turn to war, depending on the situation at hand. Whether in the past or the future, the art of war has always been a part of Annoĭuring several surveys, we identified three major ways how players approached combat, each of which questioned tens of thousands of Anno players at various times (ranging from all the way back to the development of Anno 1701, to shortly after the release of Anno 2070).Īnd indeed, the majority of our players (between 45-55%) prefer an ostensibly peaceful approach to playing Anno, with very few skirmishes at sea (those pesky pirates…), while avoiding any planned-out warfare. While the world seems familiar, it is also idealized you could easily be forgiven for thinking that combat feels out of place in such a world. Secondly, it shows that despite all these challenges, combat has still managed to become an important aspect in every one of the Anno games.Īt its core, Anno is a rather peaceful and serene game, with an optimistic and upbeat outlook.
This anecdote helps to illustrate two things: firstly, that combat was not part of the original idea for Anno, which helps to explain some of the conceptual challenges with it that every game in the series has since faced. But of course, they did, what started as a last-second addition turned into a series regular. Even then, they were not sure if they would bring combat back for any of the eventual sequels. It was only shortly prior to release that they changed their mind and ended up integrating a trimmed down real-time strategy (RTS) aspect into the game. It was only a few years back that I learned, during a lovely chat with one of the original Anno creators at Max Design, that Anno 1602 was originally not even supposed to have any combat elements whatsoever. The military aspect of Anno games and its interesting history. In fact, it ended up being so in-depth that we decided to split it up into two parts! Today’s Part 1 looks back at the history of the military across the various Anno games, while next week’s follow-up will explain how we will handle it in Anno 1800. As announced earlier this month, our Creative Director Dirk Riegert will tackle this topic in an in-depth DevBlog. You have asked in countless comments and forum posts for more details on the military aspects of Anno 1800.