Community Developer
Dear Anno Fans!
A plan was mentioned in the announcement a couple of days ago and now it's become reality:
The developers will test the next update together with community members before its release. We will support you to communicate with the dev team about possible changes you might want. Let’s get this started!
How does it work?
- Spots - 12 players can participate in the playtest (minimum age: 18).
- Application - You want to join? Apply on the forums! Details are listed below.
- Playtest Start - Friday, 18th of March (presumably)
- Playtest End - Wednesday, 23rd of March (presumably)
- Playtest Location - You can test it from the comfort of your own home and you can allocate your time however your prefer!
- Feedback - Tell us anything, not just tricky aspects or bugs. Suggestions are welcome as well!
- Language - The game is available in the same languages as the original version. Feedback will be collected in English.
- Confidentiality
The requirements include, besides being at least 18 years old, signing a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). This means you may not distribute any information, screenshots, videos or similar things.
Application & Selection
- Deadline - Wednesday, 16th of March 2016 (inclusive)
- Who? - Any Anno 2205 player who is at least 18 years old can apply once.
- Selection - The Ubisoft/Blue Byte-Team will select the participants based on all correct applications provided in time.
- How candidates will be contacted
The chosen participants will be contacted by the community team via email. Please check beforehand if your Uplay email is correct. You will be informed about the next steps, communication channels, access to the test version and the feedback procedures. There is no general entitlement to participate.
Good luck to all applicats!
Your Anno 2205-Team
Community Manager
Greetings, Anno fans!
Thank you for the many contributions!
More than 100 community members applied to get one of the 12 test slots.
Status Update
- The application period is now over and the application thread was closed accordingly.
- The candidates were selected, all e-mails were sent. Please make sure to check your e-mail inbox
- The testers will not be named, to ensure they can test the update with as few distractions as possible, as of Friday.
- More info to follow
To all who were not able to participate: There are further tests of this type planned for the future. Your desire for more test slots will be discussed internally considering the results of the first preliminary test. The team has every intention of delivering a great game experience to all of you. The Community Team will inform you about upcoming tests and additional steps once known.
Your Anno team
Community Developer
Dear Anno-Fans
The first preliminary test, where some community members could participate, is coming to an end. Yesterday evening every tester had the chance to take part in a final (optional) skype conference call with colleagues from the development team.
A big thank you to all community members who invested their time to post intensive feedback. Additionally, a big “thanks” to the moderation-team who supported us with the execution of the test.
Numbers, Data, Facts
- 7 different nationalities were represented through testers
- 200+ hours were played by testers with the new version
- 241 posts created to provide us with feedback
How do we continue?
Test
The team already started compiling the feedback, as well as error messages and suggestions.
Some of the suggestions and adjustments are already implemented in the upcoming version or being worked at.
Everything else, if it is not possible to implement in time, will be delivered in other upcoming versions.
Update release
A final release date for the “Veteran” update is not here yet.
We should have a final date in the beginning of April.
Future tests
We are planning to have more tests like this and we will involve community members as well.
The community-team will inform you as soon as we have a new date.
Impressions from the testers: next week
As a small thank you for the participants, everyone who took part can continue testing during the Easter holidays.
The community profits from this initiative as well. In addition to suggestions, which are currently be implemented, some testers also agreed to share impressions with you.
The short review will be published after Easter.
A small quote:
Originally Posted by UniMatrixXB
Community Developer
Impressions provided by some of the test participants
Originally Posted by ReneXXL
I really like the new hardcore mode. Besides the poor record in general, the overpriced vendors and the tough, but now destructible fleet:
- replace buildings with fee: the height is orientated towards the kind of the building, it get’s more expensive if further afar
- building refund with fee
- buildings in paused modus are charging about half of maintenance costs (like balance, workforce, electricity) just logistics is tending to zero
To set everything on hardcore and see how far you can get (population). It’s a dream! Thank you! Only the crisis sectors should be adjusted to the veteran modus and a little bit harder.
I really liked the way the developers gave us the opportunity to test this upcoming update. Our feedback was read and in some cases commented on. Even during the tests there was an update. All testers gave their best and helped each other with problems. Highlight was a skype conference call with the developer team. Everyone was able to give direct feedback and ask some questions. Thanks to the opportunity to play during Easter I was able to test the upcoming update around 50 hours. I’m very grateful I was chosen to be part of the testing team.
.Originally Posted by IppoSenshu
Trust is good, control is better.
Finally you get the full control over which sector is allowed to use the certain goods. It’s very easy to block the goods for some of the residents and transfer them into other sectors where they may be needed more.
Impressions in general:
The developers have really listened to the community and finally implemented a new level of difficulty, which really challenges the settled fans. With little “tricks” (like a fee for taking down buildings and moving them, vendors have overpriced products etc.) the level of difficulty is clearly increased. Besides there are new ornamental elements (hopefully more coming) and finally a overview for all of the buildings. Every player can look forward for this update!
Originally Posted by jerrylee1965
By the end of the preliminary tests, I played the new version every day for several hours.
Positive
- Bailiwick - Building Overview absolutely GREAT, brings much more visibility and saves some time; would be better to already had that in the main game, though.
- Veteran Mode - very challengeing, extensions or expansions costs are immense, risk of "collapse" extremely high. - as a result game got more depth.
- Excellent teamwork between testers, moderators, developers and other employees of BB
Neutral
- Too few new ornaments (3) - It is of course a step forward, but more ornaments would be much appreciated.
- Unfortunately, no answers to questions in regards of any upcoming tests and extensions,
Comprehensible, but we are still curious.
Negative
- No new businesses, which could possibly affect the game settings from Veteran (Moon). For example, Protections for the shield generators or the spaceport, so in the end a disaster. But if I already filed a proposal for it!
- The immense consumption values were not reduced for raw materials after alll, which is ok in veteran mode, but you could made it more easier for other modes.
Conclusion: A great experience, which will make the difference for the community in the future.
Originally Posted by xvraptor
I was honored to be part of the community testing of a new Anno 2205 feature and I would also like to share some feelings with you. I like the update and spent around 12 up to 18 hours for testing. I like it is also optional so current Corporations won't have to suffer. It will definitely bring some challenge [...]. You will now be able to adjust more options regarding difficulty settings, upon starting a new corporation and some of them on the fly, such as the ability to move a building for a fee, construction refund for buildings, quest rewards, assignment time and many more which you will have to discover yourselves soon. Things will now evolve very slow and balance might turn red in a second if you don't pay much attention to it. You will have to take things slow literally and expand with caution because overproducing of goods isn't always good.
One thing some of you might not like will be the increased maintenance costs among your corporation so make sure you have a top notch income. Losses will be around 10% among your current corporations, taken from your total revenues. Add that to the total expenses and see how things will evolve. But don't worry updating the difficulty settings will be fully optional. Certain features might require a better explanation to why they were implemented in a way or another, or missing from the game.
The part I enjoyed the most was the assignment time for quests, some of them turning in quite a challenge now, especially the ones from the conflict zones. Another feature I liked was the maintenance fee for paused production buildings. Last but not last you can discover yourselves in the pictures bellow. All I can say about test is that I feel overwhelmed with happiness since the day I joined in. Didn't encountered any technical difficulties with the installation and testing.
People behind the testing, fans, community and developers alike, were nice, helpful and very kind. I would like to thank you all for giving me the chance to meet you, exchange ideas and help improve the game, although I was a bit silent in the conference and I'm looking forward more chances to throw a look upon upcoming patches and content and exchange more ideas. I would also like to thank you for listening to the community and improve this game further.
Originally Posted by Annothek
Finally there is a tooltip showing you the consumption of needed goods in a factory when a module is attached. This feature didn't make it to the Tundra update, but is now implemented.
I tested the update for approx. 50 hours. It introduces the new veteran mode [...] and new time critical quests that will be challenging for many players. On top, many bugs have been fixed and feature requests from the Community are part of Veterans. [...]
It is nice to see that the team is listening to user feedback, even though not everything can be realized immediately. [...]
Originally Posted by Noroele
General impression: The veteran mode is super. You will be busy for several months.
The new ornaments are chosen well, especially the lanterns or bus stop.
The game starts much faster now. The time critical quests in the crisis sectors are pretty nice.
I like the idea that moving buildings is connected with fees. This way you are rewarded for proper planning. A positive aspect is the new option to block specific goods from consumption.
If you start a new game in veteran mode, you need to consider well where to place which building, because every demolition and/or replacement needs to be payed. But you get used to it quite soon. Hint: Use the world market right with administrator level to sell a specific good to gain some extra money.
Furthermore I liked the opportunity to discuss problems and solutions together via skype conference. Support was available any time and we had no limits, every kind of question was possible.
Originally Posted by Dorimil
Release plan for the new update
The release of VETERANS update is currently planned for Wednesday, 06th of April.
New ornaments will be introduced to the game.
Based of a tester request, you can even modify the logo of the statue.
