Since this is becoming a trend, I'd like to add some suggestions that in my opinion would improve the QoL and just overall enjoyment of Anno 117.
And before I start, don't get me wrong: I really really really enjoy the game, having spent around 130 hours on just my current save. Some of it might be minor QQ, but since the devs read at least some posts here, these are just ideas and wishes.
1. Make the Amphitheater's range global.
And the Hippodrom's as well, when it comes out. I really liked the last update giving us more space on Cinis to work with, but some areas just can't be reached. And seeing as the Amphitheater is limited to 1 building per island that kinda sucks.
2. Improve the trading and ship interface.
Several complaints here:
- When a ship is between Latium and Albion it can't be interacted with. Just give me the option to issue a command like "as soon as you reach the target region, do xyz"
- Let me fully disable the "minor issue" alarms. One of my trade routes has a ship with 4 and another with 6 slots. So I always see this red exclamation mark saying that one of my ships can't fully operate on that trade route... yes I know.
- I want to be able to jump to a ship when I'm managing a trade route. Or at least give it commands. Right now, I have 60+ ships. It's a complete nightmare to find that exact ship in the current ship menu.
3. Remove the randomness of the specialist research
It sucks that I can only get certain and very important specialists through random research luck. Most notably the one that improves the aqueduct efficiency (Auqila something) and the gold mine efficiency (Minas Orlamh I think). Right now, the research takes 14 hours (having done it like 10 times or so) and since I don't want to waste it with useless specialists, I have to savescum right before the research finishes. The system from Anno 1800 was much better, eliminating the randomness of the research. A system that encourages savescumming is inherently flawed.
The same could be said for rerolling a merchant's specialist stock until you find the one you're looking for, but that's not big of an issue since money really doesn't play a role later in the game.
4. Implement a less tedious "jump to building" option.
Let's say I have 10 bakeries on an island and I want to find a specific one. Right now, I have to go into the island menu (shift Q), look for the bakeries, click on buildings and then jump to one. And if that's the wrong one, I have to repeat all of that. It's just inconvient.
A simple solution could be that you just select the specific good the building produces from your warehouse and then have an option to jump to every building that produces said good, e.g. in our case bread -> bakeries. We have the option for river slots and mine slots, so this would work in a similar way.
5. Make prestige more.. prestigious
So far, it's rather useless. Yes, you need it in the early game to unlock some research. But afterwards? Additional specialist slots in your villa. That's nice, but it's not really that impactful, especially since the villa's influence is rather limited. Compare this to faith, where each new tier unlocks useful bonuses.
Several ideas here, just in random order: more prestige could mean...
- less consumption of certain goods (e.g. luxury goods)
- random specialists as a reward (similar to 1800)
- increased productivity on certain buildings
- use it as currency for.. whatever. Settling new islands, receiving certain specialists..
My favorite idea would be that it increased the amount of specialists for your officia. But I know that's incredibly busted and/or impossible to balance properly. So maybe just increase the effictiveness of specialists? For example: specialists that increase productivity get a 1% bonus for each tier.