ELECTIONS

In ANNO1777, elections are held every month. During the first three days of each month, one can submit his candidature and make his plans for his country known to the public. On the fourth day, the people vote and decide who runs the country for the next 30 days.

Every citizen has the right to vote for a fellow citizen candidate, wherever he may be. Moreover, every citizen may submit his candidature for a place in the parliament. In order to do so, one must pay 5 gold pieces and fill in a questionnaire in time. After that, citizens will be able to read the candidate's answers by clicking Presidency&Government>Elections in order to decide who to vote for. There are other ways to promote one's candidature, such as newspaper articles, in-game advertising, etc.

All citizens may vote only once (and not themselves). The citizen who gets the most votes becomes the country's president. 18 governors get also elected through the very same process. These 19 players become the country's legislature (and parliament). If the last runnerups get the same number of votes, the one with the greater wellness wins.

Once a governor, the player gains access to a special menu in the main page (bottom) titled Congress Interface, where he can review or suggest new laws. For a law to pass, it must be voted for by at least 5 governors within 24 hours. The country's President may vote five times, whereas governors only once. However, neither the President nor any governor may vote, if they happen to be abroad.

 

Since no official may resign until end of his office, you must vote carefully. The ones you choose will make important decisions (bonuses, taxes, wars, alliances), through which they can make the country prosperous or ruin it. In ANNO1777, all citizens can comment on each bill before it gets voted as well as see who voted for or against the bill.

MEANS OF TRANSPORT

You can travel freely anywhere in the ANNO1777 world. And there are quite a few reasons to do so: for instance, you may need to make a research for a specific product's price or availability abroad.

In case you decide to travel, all you have to do is click "Change Region" in the Statistics&Summary menu, then choose the country and/or region you want (you instantly get the distance in kilometers) as well as the means you want to use.

In ANNO1777 you can travel:

on foot, which is free of charge but also time-consuming. It also decreases your wellness: you lose 1% wellness for every 10 kilometers travelled.

by carriage, which is much quicker and doesn't affect your wellnes. You can rent a carriage from another player or buy one by clicking Goods and then Transport. However, you can travel by carriage only within a country's borderline.

by balloon, which is much faster and can get you abroad. You can access one the same way as the carriage. A balloon will not affect your wellness, but it's a little bit more expensive than a carriage.

THE IMPORTANCE OF WELLNESS

Wellness is by far the most important element in the game. It affects everything: your productivity, your income, even your bonuses. As long as your wellness is close to 100%, you get great income and bonuses and you are more effective in battles.

Raising your wellness and keeping its percentage as high as possible is rather difficult, especially for beginners, but there are many ways to do so:

1. Food consumption. you can buy food by clicking Goods on the left side of your screen. Food restores up to 5 units of wellness, depending on its quality. If your food's quality is 2 (that's food with 2 stars), you will restore 2 wellness units, if it is 3 (3 stars), you will restore three wellness units and so on. You may eat once every 6 hours.

2. Wine consumption. By clicking Goods, you may also buy wine. Its quality depends on its age and it can restore up to 25% of your wellness. You can only consume one bottle of wine per day.

3. Buying clothes and footware. You can buy clothes the same way as wine or food. You may have up to ten different kind of clothes in your possession and that will restore 1 to 50% wellness per day (that depends on both their quantity and quality). Clothes only last for a specific amount of time, according to their quality.

4. Living in a house. Of all goods, a house is the only one that lasts indefinately. Depending on its quality, it may restore from 5 to up to 25 units of wellness per day for ever. In case you cannot afford a house, you can rent one. In all cases, you can access all available houses by clicking Real Estate.

 5. Reading newspapers. Every time you read an article for the first time, you get from 0.2 to 1 unit of wellness. The highest amount of wellness you can get this way is 10.

Almost everything you do in ANNO1777 will decrease your wellness. In duels, you lose 1% of your wellness' percentage. So, if you get into a duel with 50% wellness, you'll come out of it with 49.5%. For every working hour, you lose 1%, so working costs you 8% wellness daily. Travelling on foot costs you 1% wellness for every 10 km, but if you use a carriage or a balloon, you lose no wellness at all. But even if you remain idle, your wellness decreases by 0,05% of your wellness percentage (WellnessX0,05). For example, if your wellnes is 50%, you lose 50 X 0.05 = 2.5 per hour.

To conclude: as long as you dress nicely, read your daily paper, eat the best there is, drink the oldest wine and live in a 5-star villa, you may gain more than 100 wellness per day. Bear in mind, though, that having 100% wellness is not profitable in all cases. Your ideal wellness percentage depends on the way you choose to play the game but that will be discussed in upcoming posts.

BONUSES

Working and slavetrading are not the only ways to raise your income in ANNO1777.The state, through your elected government, gives extra money to all citizens who accomplish certain achievements. These bonuses come from your country's budget. So, as long as your country's budget is on a positive balance (in other words, as long as your country's public expense is less than its income), there's no way you ' re losing your bonuses.

There are 5 kinds of bonuses:

1. The Attack bonus. Each time you win a duel, you get money, depending on your percentage of wellness. For example, if your government gives 4 LC (local currency) for each succesful attack and your wellness is 50%, you'll be getting 2 LC. This bonus is collected automatically at the end of each duel.

2. The direct slaves bonus. For each slave acquired in duels, you get a bonus depending on you wellness, as long as the said slave is still your property. This bonus is increased by the number of slaves you acquired through the slavemarket. You may collect the Attack bonus every 24 hours by clicking Bonuses in the main page.

3. The referrer bonus. For each friend you invite in the game, you get a bonus. The referrer bonus is also affected by your wellness and may be collected every 24 hours by clicking Bonuses.

4. The Complete Profile Bonus. This is considered the easiest bonus to get. Click Profile&Inventory, then Profile and you will find a form in which you must answer 10 questions about yourself and upload 10 pictures. That's it: after completing your profile, you collect your bonus. Its amount depends on your wellness percentage.

5. The Work bonus. Your government encourages you to work by giving you a bonus if you work for five days in a row. This bonus is wellness-dependant too.

- All bonuses are paid in your local currency.

- In ANNO1777, you may travel anywhere without the risk of losing your bonus.

YOUR FIRST DAY IN ANNO1777

So you've just created your Anno1777 account and landed on its home page. Feeling buffled? It's only natural: your pockets are empty and your wellness is about 10% but don't you worry: although it couldn't get worse, things can only get better and they will.

The first thing to do is get yourself a slave (sounds harsh? Come on! Don't forget: we are in a 18nth century society!). On your left, find the bar with the Fight button and click to bring up a list of players you may target. Pick one of them and click Attack. Congratulations: you' ve just got your first slave, along with your first pieces of local currency! Now, you can get even more money by selling your slave in the slavemarket. Bear in mind that each battle for a new slave is 20 minutes long, during which you and your new slave are invulnerable to third party attacks. You may repeat this 20-minute attack as many times as you like.

When you are done attacking for slaves, all that's left to do is work. How can you do that? That's easy: just get to the Jobs Market tab, select the company with the highest salary per hour and click Work. Working keeps you busy for the next 8 hours and increases your income and productivity.

VERY IMPORTANT: In case the game assigns you to a region other than your country's capital, I strongly suggest that you get to the capital asap, where you' ll find better jobs and more players for you to turn into slaves. You can get to the capital by clicking Statistics&Summary in the home page, then Change Region, selecting your capital and clicking Walk. Don't let distance or time of arrival worry you: in ANNO1777, your wellness can't get below 10%. EVER!

WHAT IS ANNO1777?

ANNO1777 is an on-line browser game. You can access it through any browser (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, etc), no further software required. ANNO1777 simulates a real-world economic, political and military model and is completely free of charge.

In Anno1777, you become a 18th century citizen who struggles for social advancement. You need to make a difference in every aspect of this virtual world, helping both yourself and your country. You can be a successful businessman, a prominent politician or a renowned warlord. The choise is yours!

Unlike most browser games, your ANNO1777 virtual currency can be traded into real-life money. To put it plainly, succeeding in the game's virtual economy may turn into a real-life benefit. Of course, no-one ever got rich by playing browser games (I think), but there's absolutely no harm in having fun while earning a little money as well!

Open your ANNO1777 account now, become a member of your community and lead your country to success, because:

• it's the first browser game where you can trade your virtual currency with real-life money

• it's absolutely free

• opening up your account will only take up to 2 minutes tops

• you get to play in real time and with real people

• you get to publish your own in-game magazine, covering any topic you like without restrictions

• there are 20 different business types you can get involved with (ranging from banks and restaurants to lotteries)

• you may buy or sell anything you want (including other players!!!)

• you can even become your country's leader and make important decisions on taxes, war and social administration
• there is no harm in checking it out! ;)