Com_Raven How will the game compare in terms of complexity to other Anno games?
I don't like making bold claims like "this is the most complex Anno ever", especially as I think that complexity is something that can be perceived very differently by different people. With that said, our stated goal is definitely to create a very deep and complex Anno game (so a mix of city building, economic sim and other strategy elements like diplomacy, naval battles etc)- definitely much more so than 2205!
We have made big changes to some of the core gameplay, for starters. Every tier now has its own workforce, so even if you built an island over 100 hours, you will still need to make sure to have enough tier 1 farmers to work in the fields, etc. We have also split up basic needs (required to advance to next tier) and citizen happiness, allowing you to be an exploitative rubber baron while still making progress- both of those already add more complexity. And of course we have quite a few new features as well, like city attractiveness, expeditions etc.
I haven't had a chance to search around too much yet, but we hosted quite a few influencers at gamescom, so expect to see a lot more videos pop up soon. We will also definitely host a stream to go into detail on our gc announcements in the coming weeks.
Anybody know why the numbers in these games always add up to 9?
No one knows- not even here on the team^^ The reason and origin is lost to time, but we know it is important to fans, so we will stick with it :)