I’ve seen a lot of discussion about where the Anno series could possibly go next, and without intending to seem ungrateful for 117 (which I am not, I love it) I’m gonna take the plunge and weigh in because I’m a long time Anno enthusiast and excitable person.
What I would love to see next is another stab at a futuristic concept, but different to 2070 and 2205.
What about: Anno 4050 (or whatever in the sense of the naming convention).
The premise is building megacities which use a lot of vertical real-estate for things like vertical high-tech farming where you have to “plant” your modules in a vertical way (although I think ground level farming should still be possible but only in certain geographical areas).
Upgrading residences might involve conjoining multiple large buildings into mega complexes or skyscrapers which create unique designs depending on location and building material factors and gain unique properties when joined. Perhaps there’s also interplanetary travel, with planets having lore-heavy megacities and towns of different cultures with different materials, tech trees and possibilities.
Think for example of a neon Tokyo of the future with flying vehicle trade routes across cities to supply industrial areas within the same megacity, but also how the concept of futuristic cities might differ between cultures. Let’s have some madness like The Line city idea in Saudi Arabia and some kind of south Asian floating city because everything went underwater at one point in history, so each would have unique challenges based on the landscape and topography.
I know we touched on underwater and the moon within the previous futuristic-based titles, but I would love it if they would take the brilliant parts from various titles (the uber complex production chains and cultural richness and diversity of 1800, the beauty building and military and quality of life upgrades of 117) and let us have some dauntingly massive spaces to build in a truly 3D sense; upwards, underneath, and out of all sides.
I want to camera swoop around my cities and get shiny eyes.
I want to see enhanced simulation of my citizens walking around on the pathways I create (a bit like CS1?) and have to manage “congestion” factors of big cities and high populations to a degree through my design choices (without delving too greedily or too deeply into that territory).
Don’t get me wrong either. I have a massive boner for 117, diagonal building, and the delicious enhancements to the military aspects that we are seeing in PaxR. I just think I would love to see the future done again, taking all of our favourite mechanics and bundling them into a game that I would set calendar alerts for every dlc release.
Does this kind of thing appeal?
What could you see added to this idea to enhance/extrapolate the concept? Am I bonkers?
TLDR: Anno 4050, you heard it here first!
Did I hear Anno 40k ???
In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only trade routes.
What is the significance of this? Is it related to warhammer?
I’m not a warhammer person so you may have to eli5 😅
Long awaited total war: warhammer 40k got announced recently and I was just meme‘ing
I doubt they will do it because it strays too far from their bread and butter which is cities from the past and recent past. That's what people really enjoy. 4050 would be so conceptual and out there, it would be fundamentally different than every other anno game
Would be cool if they outsourced that game to a sister studio and collaborated with them so they make this game in tandem with the next Anno game.
4050 would be cool as the Devs could truly be as creative as they want. Who knows, developing a game like that would create new mechanics and ideas for a future Anno game.
Although, in 4050, we're all gonna be living in those Matrix sacks like Neo in the Matrix with ChatGPT controlling everything
If people really want something cool, they should do Ancient India. Would be so cool and educational for us and the products and items used would be so different from what we've normally seen. Establishing a spice trade for the world would be a goal. Using elephants and all this tech at the time is so insanely different from European culture which is cool but we've seen it all now.
I would be so down for ancient India!
India was the center of the world for a while before the British came. Would be cool to set up an Anno society where the ultimate purpose is trade and not warfare. Would be cool if the economy meant something mid to late game. I've got nothing to spent my 1 billion dollars in 1800 or 117 lol. Cash quickly becomes irrelevant.
Completely agree with you about money becoming irrelevant. Once I hit the billion in 1800 I would spend through my nose on nothing in particular but then never dip below 983m or whatever it was.
Being more of a builder and aesthetics enthusiast than a warmonger myself I would be SO up for an extra “tier” of the game that becomes available and relevant to master economists and like you say gives something to spend the money on.
Give me an expansive shop feature somewhere/somehow where I can buy my heart’s content of cosmetic skins for buildings and decorations and stuff, and you just may not get me out of it.
I mean - the zoos, botanics and museums of 1800 were definitely up this street but confined to their perimeters, but I think I would go wild for lots more decorations that I could spend my money on it would allow for different players’ cities to look truly unique.
Great Idea! Would love that! Especially the vertical building aspect and the merging .
I get the feeling people arent satisfied with 117, or why is everyone talking about the next one already?
Honestly after ~80 hours so far in 117 I would definitely say from my personal side that I’m not not satisfied (especially for a base game at launch) it’s just that there’s a permanent city-building itch for me, so I’m kinda in a perpetual state of longing 😅
Honestly I wish that 117 had been in a different era so that the 9th series could’ve been anno 9 set in the Roman period.
Hear me out: Anno 1602 remake
Releases 2028, exactly 30 years after the first one.
I would definitely go in for another spin round 1602!
I hope they rather remake 1602 than go back to a future setting. 2070 was okay, but already too conceptual and it was weird that you still relied on ships alone to transport goods. And ships are the thing that make Anno Anno. I‘d much rather have more ‘golden age of sail’ games than anything futuristic or modern.
I know what you mean. I was thinking that the soul and mechanic of ships could still work even if it was applied to more futuristic vehicles if that makes sense.
It sounds cool, but the issue of managing congestion would be a huge departure from Annos identity. Maybe a need for different kinds of transportation would fit better. Like in tier 1, you have walkways, on tier 2, they need access to public transportation and on tier 3, they need access to speedways - and the speedways could have the challenge that they can't have intersections or sharp turns - but since you can build on several layers, it becomes manageable. What would also be cool would be a higher resident tier for sunlight - so that lower population tiers reside at the upper level or at the side of the city while you put industry and lower tier population on the lower levels.
I think going that far in the future does have enormous potential. One of my biggest complaints about Anno 2205 is that its sci fi is just too careful. That said, I expect Ubisoft to stay clear of the future because of the bad reception 2205 got.
Some really great points there! Love your population tier idea.
And yes, 2205 is probably the title I spent least time with for whatever reason. I had about 50 hours in 2205 compared to over 1000 in 1800 for example. It had a bit less charm than other titles I feel, although I did love the concept. I’d revisit at some point to see if I would feel any differently about it now than I did at the time.
Or ... 40,000 BC
I imagine production chains might be shorter but if I can do trade routes via mammoth I might be in!
I am in! So many possibilities! Lets make spinoff - Anno 3000 (without 9). Just like some overpriced test. Robot workforce yeaah
relax, we will have 117 for quite a while
Yeah I would really like another future one, far future like you said would be neat. 2205 was alright except for the awful minigame to get the unique resources, but 2070 was great. There is SO much they can do with the future. Space ships, air, massive verticality like you said. I fail to see where they can go with Ancient Rome. They could add a ton of provinces I suppose but there won't be any roman skyscrapers like with Anno 1800 or airships. I just don't see much expansion room on 117.
Please return to the future, Ubisoft! Of course it wont be until like 2030 or later we get such a game, if at all but we can hope.
I enjoyed the combat missions in 2205...
Yes, it was stupidly easy, but it broke the monotony of endgame at least a bit, where your cities were pretty much running on autopilot. And with the Orbital DLC, I loved casting Ion Cannon strikes all over the place.
1800 had expeditions for that "something" to break endgame monotony, 117 is so far sorely missing anything like that, as the quest triggers are weird, and not really much about anything.
I think I didn’t even get that far in 2205 - definitely gonna go back for another snoop at some point.
No more sci-fi Anno, please.
What a completely stupid idea. Must come from someone new to the series. Be grateful for the recent part and "mach n Kopp zu" (shut your head) as we say here in Germany.
I’ve played the entire series, but thanks for your input anyway.
Very well. Then you're familiar with the perception especially of 2205.
Yes, but I do think a lot of things could’ve been done a bit better in 2205 - I definitely replayed 2070 more.