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Author: UbiCecce

Union Update: CDLC Vote Winner, Game Update 14.2 and Community Spotlight

Posted on by UbiCecce

Hello Anno Community,

The voting has just ended, and it is time for us to reveal the winner of the Cosmetic DLC Community Vote! Furthermore, we will take this opportunity to speak about Game Update 14.2 and share our favourite screenshots in the Community Spotlight.

Cosmetic DLC Community Vote: The winner!

And the winner is…

[drumroll]

The Old Town Pack!

It became quite obvious since day one of the vote that this was going to be the Community’s choice for the third Cosmetic DLC of 2022. A great choice, Anno Community! The Old Town Pack will be released in autumn of this year, as the third and last CDLC of 2022. Just like other CDLC, it will be a standalone purchase for the price of 4,99€ and is not be part of the Season 4 Pass.

Many of you have also voiced what kind of content you would like to see for this theme, and we’re planning to give you a status update on our rough plans in summer.

Game Update 14.2

Today we released Game Update 14.2. This patch retroactively fixes the problem with all achievements being unlocked after GU14 and the missing Clay Pits in the “Seasons of Silver” scenario. You can find the Release Notes here.

Community Spotlight

For today’s Community Spotlight, we decided to go with a collection of screenshots that perfectly capture the beauty of the warm and soft tones of the New World. Here are our picks, enjoy!

Mydriase shared this amazing collection of screenshots, with the first one capturing a snapshot of their New World city. We love the contrast between the orange tones of the building and the fresh and lush green trees all around the city!

Aestris seems to have also spent a significant amount of time on beautifying his New World island using DLC 10. The Hacienda, its farms and residence areas are all surrounded by the new ornament wall, hopefully keeping some of the noise and smoke of the railway.

While modded, we love Ionovia’s layout – and the tilt shift effect really creates a miniature world atmosphere. Very cool screenshots.

Meanwhile, Carpo_VP has greatly enjoyed the “Seasons of Silver” scenario and shared some of their impressions on Twitter.

You might have already noticed, but we’re entering a slower period right now when it comes to news while the team is busy working on DLC 11 – Empire of the Skies – right now. You can expect more news in the second half of June when we start talking about the “Industrial Zone Pack” Cosmetic DLC.

Union Update: DLC 10 feedback, Community Challenge update & Community Spotlight

Posted on by UbiCecce

Hello Anno Community, 

Last week we kicked off Season 4 with “Seeds of Change” and its related scenario, “Seasons of Silver”. Now it is time for us to give you an update on the feedback we have received from you all and the steps we will take from here. 

Feedback, bug reports and patch information 

First, we would like to thank you for all the feedback you have shared with us so far. We have taken notes of your feedback related the Hacienda and some of its modules such as the new residences, alongside the fertiliser production cycle. As we said last Thursday, we are investigating potential changes and their impact for some of the mechanics and features, while we keep an eye on others. We can already confirm that the production time of fertiliser will be lowered with the next update. 

Furthermore, we updated our Known Issues List with the bugs you have been encountering after Game Update 14, such as all achievements being unlocked or increased multiplayer desyncs after the update. Please check this list to stay up to date on issues we’re working on. 

We will address some of the issues in a patch, that will be released in the first week of May. Stay tuned for more details and the full release notes! As always, thank you so much for your patience and support.  

Community Challenge 

To kick off Season 4 and spice things up a bit, we launched a challenge to the Community: we asked you to come together and reach a global target of 60.000 fertiliser modules built. Well, Anno Community, you did us proud. So far, you have built over 70.000 fertiliser modules! WOW – that is a lot of… dung! 

Clearly, the next challenges need to be more…. challenging. 

Community Spotlight 

We decided to fully dedicate this Community Spotlight to some of the amazing guides and videos you created and shared with us and the rest of the Community. Whether you are struggling with the “Seasons of Silver” scenario or would like to know some tips and tricks about the Hacienda and its modules, here are some guides we recommend!  

Let’s start off with a complete guide to the Hacienda mechanics by Takarazuka – a very detailed guide to know about the Hacienda, its mechanics and modules, but also advice and suggestions.

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Struggling with that gold medal for the new scenario? Here is a video by StratGamer with 10 tips for “Seasons of Silver”!

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Another great and quick guide for “Seeds of Change”, this one by Colonel Damneders.

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If you would like to sit back and relax while watching some scenario gameplay, Nivarias has uploaded not 1, but 8 episodes of “Seasons of Silver” gameplay. You can find the playlist here, enjoy!

DevBlog: “Seeds of Change”

Posted on by UbiCecce

Hello Anno Community,

Last week was packed with news, revealed during our Season 4 unveiling stream. If you missed that, don’t worry! You can find a detailed overview blog here on the Anno Union. As we are getting closer and closer to the release of the first DLC of Season 4, it is time for us to give you an overview of the content that you will soon be able to experience first-hand.

As you probably guessed from the title, this DevBlog focuses on the first DLC of Season 4 “Seeds of Change”: its features, mechanics, and anything else you need to know to be fully prepared for your upcoming adventure in the New World!

White stucco walls, topped with red clay tiles; heavy wooden doors and shutters; a spacious courtyard, shimmering in the sun — the unmistakeable features of the hacienda.

By day, this place is bustling with activity: carefully cultivated crops cross the courtyard by the cartload, brewers engage in animated conversation about whether oak or acacia wood makes for the best rum cask, and rugged farmers haul sacks of fertiliser to the fields — granted a wide berth by white-trousered hacendados.

In the evening, when the day’s work is done, a gentle serenity descends. Gathering round fountains or leaning against the pillars of colonnades, the townspeople relax in the soothing light of dusk, sharing a comforting cup of atole or conversing with the curious parrots perched atop the adobe walls.

Life is good here.

The heart of “Seeds of Change”: The Hacienda

Heart of this DLC is the Hacienda: A special building that can only be constructed in the New World. Why is it special? You might ask. First of all, it functions as a central hub for different production buildings, or “modules”, that can be placed around the Hacienda itself. In addition, the Hacienda allows you to enact island-wide edicts, while it also functions as a warehouse. It can be unlocked once you reach the Obrero population tier. However, there is something important to keep in mind: You can only build one Hacienda per island.

Radius

Another important factor to always keep in mind for the Hacienda is the radius. In order to function, each Hacienda module must be placed within the Hacienda radius: this means that buildings that are placed outside the range will be automatically paused. But do not worry! This radius can be extended with population: the more your population grows, the more the Hacienda range will expand.

Modules

The Hacienda has various optional buildings that can expand its functionality. These buildings are called modules and serve different purposes: highly productive Hacienda Farms, additional storage buildings, space-efficient residences, and the Hacienda Brewery. They can be selected from the Hacienda menu and in order to function, these modules must be built within the Radius and must be connected to the Hacienda by roads, either the special Hacienda roads or the normal ones – it’s your choice! Let’s go through each modules, shall we?

Space-efficient residences

There are two different residence modules, one for each tier: Jornalero Quarters and Obrera Quarters. Both buildings can house significantly more residents but are also bigger than their standard counterparts (4×4 instead of 3×3).

Highly productive Farms

One of the most interesting modules is the Hacienda Farm, which allows you to cultivate a wide range of crops, including non-local ones such as grain. Hacienda Farms offer high space efficiency, requiring fewer farm modules than their standard counterparts: no matter which crop you choose, they will always require 64 farm modules. After you have built a Hacienda Farm, you can select the crop you would like to start growing from the Recipe Book. Just like the other modules, Farms must be built within the Hacienda radius to function properly; however, the crop modules can be placed outside the range: this allows you to save up quite a lot of space! The Farm’s production can be boosted by two features: the well-known tractor barns from Bright Harvest, and fertiliser, which comes from an additional module.

Brewery

The Brewery is quite useful, since it gives you the chance to produce some goods previously unavailable in the New World. For example, Beer, which you would normally need to import via Trade Routes, or the new and spicy Hot Sauce. Just like with the Hacienda Farms, you need to select the desired output from the Recipe Book.

Storeroom

The Hacienda Storeroom will be a huge help, especially when boosting the productivity of your farms with tractors and fertiliser. By placing them in the Hacienda’s range, they will increase the overall storage capacity of your island. In this way, you will have the option to increase storage capacity on land, and not only via harbour storage building. Quite handy, isn’t it?

Fertiliser Works

This is where the magic happens. This module will allow you to produce fertiliser, which is then consumed by farms as an additional good that boosts their productivity. Just like the Hacienda building, the Fertiliser module has an influence radius, in this case used to collect… dung, of course. However, how is Fertiliser produced and used? It’s time for us to dive into this new process (not literally, though).

Dung & Fertiliser

To acquire Fertiliser, you must construct animal farms within the radius of the Fertiliser Works. Besides their usual goods, those animal farms will start “producing” Dung, which will be later transformed into Fertiliser in the Fertiliser Works. Fertiliser acts as a normal good, and it is then transported to your warehouse. From there, you can use it on your island’s farms or transport it to other islands – and to the rest of the world! To enable the use of Fertiliser in your farms – both standard and Hacienda ones – you need to attach the fertiliser module to them, just like you would normally do with tractor barns or silos. The farm will then start consuming Fertiliser as an additional good, increasing its productivity. If this is still not enough for you and you would like to boost your productivity even more, then tractors are the way to go: by building a tractor barn adjacent to the farms, the number of fields required by the farm will go from 64 to 96 and the productivity will be boosted to 400%!

Tutorial Menu

Need a hand with modules and understand how the Hacienda works? Do not worry, we have the perfect solution for you. Just like the previous DLC, you can access an in-game Tutorial Menu by clicking the “?” symbol in the top left corner of the object menu you want to know more about: here you will find an overview of all the new mechanics and features.

Edicts

Another important feature of the Hacienda is the possibility to enact policies that will affect the whole island on which the Hacienda has been built. Only one decree at a time can be active, by selecting it from the specific Hacienda menu. You can choose from a range of edicts and revise it as necessary. Here are a couple of examples:

  • Dietary Education Initiative: reduces residents food consumption
  • Local Assemblies: Hacienda Obrera Quarters produce influence

Some of the edicts, however, require a specific level of Attractiveness of your island (e.g., it’s the case for the Local Assemblies mentioned above). Therefore, don’t forget to make your cities beautiful, Annoholics!

Ornaments

Speaking of making your cities beautiful: “Seeds of Change” adds 11 Hacienda ornaments that can be placed on your island and give the perfect Hacienda vibe to your cities: Flowerbeds to make your cities even more colourful, colonnades and walls to elegantly frame the Hacienda, and pools for a splash of crystalline blue.

This is all for today’s DevBlog – but we got more coming this week! We will publish another DevBlog on Thursday, this time about the first Scenario of Season 4: “Seasons of Silver”. Make sure not to miss it!

We hope you are excited as we are for the release of the first DLC of Season 4! As a reminder, “Seeds of Change” will be released on Tuesday, April 12th at 6pm CEST / 9am PST. If you have any question about a specific feature of the Hacienda or would like to know more, please feel free to leave a comment below or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook and official Forums.

Happy city-building!

Development of Anno 1800 – Season 4 is supported by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action within the framework of computer games funding.

Union Update: Annoverse Roundtable, Community Challenges and more

Posted on by UbiCecce

Hello Anno Community,  

Two days ago, we revealed our plans for Anno 1800’s Season 4. We hope you enjoyed the surprises and are excited to explore the new content throughout 2022! We are less than two weeks away from the first DLC “Seeds of Change”, a good time for a quick recap of our latest news and of our upcoming events. 

Season 4 Unveiled 

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Season 4 consists of three DLCs that will be released throughout 2022. At the center of Season 4 is the New World, and each DLC will focus on different themes. “Seeds of Change” (April 12th) focuses on agriculture and ways to improve and revolutionise this sector. “Empire of the Skies” (planned for Summer 2022), as the title suggests, will focus on the Age of Airships. Finally, “New World Rising” (planned for late 2022), will revolve around the industrial and economic boom of the New World. And did you know that each DLC will come with a new scenario?  

If you would like to know more about Season 4, we have a detailed overview here on the Anno Union. Oh, and of course, next week we will publish two DevBlogs with everything you need to know about “Seeds of Change” and the “Seasons of Silver” scenario. 

FAQ 

During yesterday’s stream we received a lot of questions related to our upcoming content. Here are the answers to the most common ones we have seen popping up: 

 

Q: When will I receive the Bonus Ornaments that come with purchasing the Season 4 Pass?

A: If you purchase the Season 4 Pass, you will receive the three Bonus Ornaments upon the release of DLC 10, “Seeds of Change” – that is April 12th at 6pm CEST / 9am PT. 

 

Q: Will the world expansion in DLC 12 be compatible with my old savegames? 

A: Yes! The world expansion will be compatible with your savegames. We will expand the current region and add new islands.

 

Q: How many Haciendas can be built per island? 

A: One Hacienda per island. More info coming next week! 

 

Q: Are all the airships shown in the trailer going to be released with DLC 12?! 

A: The airships you see in the image in the Season 4 trailer are just scribbles. They are not final concepts but just for us to get a feel for what can work. 

 

If you have got more questions related to Season 4 – ask away! However, keep in mind that answers to questions related to DLC 11 and DLC 12 will generally come later this year, when we get closer to each release. 

Community challenges 

We know that the Anno Community loves challenges – so we decided to spice things up for Season 4! Throughout 2022 there will be three Community Challenges in total, one for each DLC. They will focus on each DLC’s content and once completed, the whole Anno Community will be rewarded for the amazing work! 

Would you like some spoilers about the first Community Challenge of the Season? Alright, alright… Well, of course it will involve fertiliser and maximising its (excessive?) usage. More details in our “Seeds of Change” release day blog, so stay tuned for that! 

Free week 

What better way to lure your non-Annoholic friends into the Anno universe? From April 12th to April 20th, Anno 1800 will be playable for free! The Free Week will include the full base game without the DLC and will be savegame and multiplayer compatible. 

And did we mention our Friend Referral program? By getting your friends to play Anno 1800 you will both receive the “Seasonal Decorations” Pack CDLC for free, if your friends purchase the game! 

Twitch Drops 

The DLC 10 release will be accompanied by a Twitch Drops event, that will last from April 8th to April 20th – more details coming next week! Just one little spoiler from us: this time, our Twitch Drops event will be open for all streamers! 

Anno 1602 Annoversary 

In the past few days, we have been talking a lot about the future and our upcoming content for Anno 1800. However, we cannot forget an important milestone: Today, Anno 1602 turns 24! Happy Birthday to the game that started it all!

Annoverse Q&A session 

Last but not least, a couple of weeks ago we announced our Roundtable on the Annoverse Discord that will take place tomorrow, April 1st. During this Q&A you will have the chance to ask all your questions about Anno in the text chat, that will be then answered by the Anno Team in the voice channel. The session will be split into two parts, German and English.  

German session: 7pm– 8pm CEST/UTC+2

English session: 8:30pm – 9:30pm CEST/UTC+2

You can join the Annoverse Discord server via this link – there you will find a channel dedicated to the Roundtable (Annoverse Stage) and later on also a dedicated channel to post your questions. Again, a huge thank you to the Annoverse team for organising this event. We hope to see you all there! 

This is all for today’s Union Update. Quite a lot to unfold, right? As usual, if you got any question do not hesitate to comment down below or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, or our official Forums. 

Happy city-building! 

DevBlog: “Seasonal Decorations” Pack Cosmetic DLC

Posted on by UbiCecce

Hello Anno Community,

As you might have seen already here on the Anno Union, last week we communicated on our overall Cosmetic DLC plans for 2022. Today, instead, we would like to focus on the first Cosmetic DLC of this year: “Seasonal Decorations Pack” Cosmetic DLC!

Back in 2019 we released the first “seasonal” CDLC, the “Holiday Pack”, which gives you the chance to fully embrace the holiday spirit and decorate your cities with Christmas markets (and more!). You loved it, and we heard it. However, it does feel slightly out of place in summer or spring, doesn’t it?

Well, with the “Seasonal Decorations Pack” you will be able to decorate your cities with fitting ornaments to any of the four seasons. Spring, Summer, Autum, or Winter: it is your choice!

In total, the “Seasonal Decorations Pack” contains 24 brand new ornaments, that means 6 themed ornaments for each season of the year. Let’s have a look at them more closely, shall we?

Spring

Flowers, flowers everywhere! Let your city bloom with fresh, springtime colours and flowers. We think these ornaments would go in perfect harmony with the Colourful Theme of “Vibrant Cities Pack”, don’t you think?

Summer

Would you like some wine? Summer’s the perfect time to hold a Wine Fest in your Anno cities. Just make sure not to drink too much! With the Summer-themed ornaments, you can place wine stands and tables all over your cities. There is even a May Pole!

Autumn

Bring your biggest pumpkin – Autumn is here! Nothing can beat the warm colours of this season. Leaves start falling, the air gets colder and colder: it is the perfect time to build some bonfires around your cities and drink some warm cider by the pumpkin competition stand.

Winter

Grab your skates, time to have some fun on the ice-skating rink, after grabbing some roast chestnuts from the stall. We think this will be the perfect way to get your cities into the Holiday mood and fight some of the cold brought by Winter.

Q&A

Now, it is time for our favourite part of the DevBlog: the Q&A! This time, we had a chat with Raphael, Lead Artist on Anno 1800.

What were your main “real world” references?
Mainly markets and street festivals that are happening during the different seasons. For example, being in Mainz, the wine festival theme was an obvious choice because it is rooted deeply in the culture of this area.

What was the hardest ornament to work on and why?
The ice rink, because we had to make sure the ice looks good. It was a bit tricky to get the glossiness right with our shader. In the end it turned out very nice, especially during the nighttime and with all the feedback units running.

How hard was it to decide on the final ornaments when covering 4 entire seasons has SO MUCH potential? ?
Of course we had many more ideas because it is such a rich topic. In the end it came down to making a nice package for each season, taking things like ornament size and variety into consideration.

What is your favourite Season theme and your favourite ornament for this CDLC?
I really like the summer season, if I look at the wine stand, I immediately want to sit down with some friends and have a good time.

As an Anno player, do you consider yourself a beauty-builder?
Yes absolutely, I love making my cities look pretty and adding little details wherever I can.

Outro

The “Seasonal Decorations Pack” will be available for purchase for the usual 4,99€ (or your regional equivalent) starting from February 15th.

If you have further questions related to the Cosmetic DLC, feel free to ask them in the comments below or reach out to us on Facebook, Twitter, or our official Forums.
Happy city-building!

Full Ornament List

Spring:

  • Flower Pavilion
  • Flower Shop
  • Balloon Stand
  • Flower Sculpture
  • Blumenbogen
  • Flower Gate

Summer:

  • Small Wine Stand
  • Large Wine Stand
  • Wine FestivalTable
  • Wine Barrel
  • May Pole
  • Wine Festival Entrance

Autumn:

  • Pumpkin Cart
  • Pumpkin Barrels
  • Bonfire
  • Pumpkin Competition
  • Cider Stall
  • Autumnal Gate

Winter

  • Chestnut Stall
  • Ice Rink
  • Christmas Pyramid
  • Christmas Arch
  • Snow Globe
  • Winter Gate

Union Update: Game Design MainzFrame & Community Channels

Posted on by UbiCecce

Hey Anno Community,

 

The first month of 2022 is almost over, if you believe it, and it has been a relatively quiet month on the communication side of things for Anno so far.

This will change in February, when we first tell you more about Cosmetic DLC plans for this year (next week) and then right into the first of these CDLCs (in two weeks) that is going to release in mid-February.

 

With this Cosmetic DLC we will also release another patch to, amongst other things, fix the missing consumption statistics for buildings like Power Plants and Arctic Heaters.

MainzFrame – Game Design

In the meantime, we heavily recommend you checking out the latest episode of “MainzFrame”, a series of video podcasts by Ubisoft Mainz. Each episode is taking a look at different aspect of our work and often also talks about the professional backgrounds of the involved team members. This might be especially interesting for anyone of you who is interested in working in the video game industry one day, too.

For the latest episode, our Communications Manager Basti has invited two of our Game Designers who many of you will probably recognize: Andrea and Dominik talk about their work in Game Design and how they ended up in their jobs here in Mainz.

Check it out below!

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Community Channels

As we have just entered the new year and are getting ready for the months to come, we thought it was the perfect moment to remind you of some useful pages, created and maintained by our amazing Community.

If you are looking for Anno 1800’s features, mechanics, and stats, then this is the right place for you. Extremely useful for new players looking for some answers, but also for veterans, who can share their immense knowledge of the game.

This is a subreddit completely dedicated to the Anno series. It is the perfect place for you to share screenshots and fanarts, start very insightful discussions, and ask questions.

The place to go to discuss any Anno title, find other Annoholics for a multiplayer match, share screenshots, videos etc., and have a chat with other players while competing for the Community challenges.

Not enough for you? Do not worry, we got your back. Check our Community Page on the Anno Union for more and let us know if you think we forgot something important!

Since we mentioned the Community Challenges in the Discord section above, the second Community Challenge is happening right now in the Annoverse – if you have not participated yet, be quick! You have time until January 30th. Task for this challenge, wisely called “The name is the game”, is to create the word “Anno” in the game using ornaments or other buildings. Here are some of the entries we’ve seen so far.

Tristan891 decided to use trees for this task. An evergreen choice… we might say. Beautiful and eco-friendly!

 

Annoholiker submitted this colorful screenshot for the Challenge, and what can we say? We love Anno 1800 too! (Totally not biased)

Ionovia created this majestic “Anno 1800” that takes up the full island. Wow!

This is all for today’s Union Update. For any question, feel free to ask them in the comments below or reach out to us on Facebook, Twitter, or our official Forums.

Union Update: We are back & GU 13.1

Posted on by UbiCecce

Hey Anno Community, 

We hope 2022 has been treating you well so far. What better way to start the New Year than having a quick look at our plans for the weeks and months to come? Let’s have a look at them together!  

GU 13.1 News 

Game Update 13.1 will be released next Tuesday, January 18th. GU 13.1 will address several of the issues you have been reporting GU 13. The full release notes will be shared here on the Anno Union closer to its release since we’re currently still running final tests. 

A huge thank you again for helping us with reports, screenshots and descriptions of the issues occurring since GU 13. 

Short 2022 Preview 

As you might already know, Season 4 is coming to Anno 1800 this year! 2022 is all about the New World and we cannot wait for you to see what we have in store for you. We will share more on Season 4 in March – so, watch this space! 

In the meantime, get ready for some exciting news related to our upcoming Cosmetic DLCs. We might reveal something very soon… 

Livestream 

Let’s kick off the new year with a livestream: Join us on Friday, 14th January, on Twitch for this year’s first Anno Afternoon. Community Developer Oliver and Community Manager Celeste will play some Anno 1800 co-op. The stream will start at 5PM CET, see you there!  

Community Spotlight 

Our first pick of the day is this lovely screenshot shared by Pyronite on Discord: the depth of the shot and the dusk atmosphere make those neon signs pop – we think this is a great way to use the skins of the new Cosmetic DLC “Vibrant Cities Pack”. 

Augustus_Johnson titled “Fresh Colours” this collection of screenshots – we love the contrast of the different colours! And right at the centre of this screenshot you can see a Ceiba Tree ornament, available through the “Plant a Tree” DLC. 

Last but not least, Rooonaldooo99 shared this amazing screenshot on Reddit, showing off most of the new skins for the buildings. Great job! 

That is all for today’s Union Update. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to write a comment below or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook or our official forums. 

Union Update: Happy Holidays

Posted on by UbiCecce

Hey Anno Community,

Here we are at the end of 2021. It has been a year packed with content and surprises for Anno 1800 and lots of amazing screenshots, videos and creations shared by you. We are getting a bit nostalgic, so, before we get to the part with the gifts, let’s walk through 2021 for one last time, in this Union Update.

The Anno Year 2021 in Review

2021 started with a bang: our first big step of the year was sharing with you the first Season 3 Pass trailer, to let you have a glimpse of what 2021 had in store for you on the Anno 1800’s front.

Not too long after that, Season 3 kicked off with the first DLC of the Season, “Docklands”, followed by “Tourist Season” and finally “The High Life”.

The first Cosmetic DLC of the year was released in April, the “Vehicle Liveries Pack” – it was all about skins and new model variations for your airships, trains and ships.

Later that month, you voted for your favourite Cosmetic DLC themes, which were then implemented in the game: September was the perfect time to add some canals and new ornaments with the “Pedestrian Zone Pack”, while last week we released the “Vibrant Cities Pack”, a total of 69 skins for residence buildings as well as 3 new model variations for the Marketplace. Now you can express your creativity in many ways and make your cities look even more lively and vibrant!

Between October and November, we celebrated several Annoversaries: Happy birthday again to Anno 1503, Anno 1701, Anno 2070, and Anno 2205! We loved reading your memories related to your favourite Anno titles, so keep them coming!

And then there was one more celebration: This year, we also reached a particularly important milestone – there are now more than 2 million Anno players around the world! We celebrated this with two ship skins, one for the Ship of the Line and one for the Battle Cruiser.

 

Our big end of the year update, GU 13, was released last week and included Anno 1800’s first scenario, “Eden Burning”, which is the result of our participation in the Green Game Jam, organised by the UN under the “Playing for the Planet” umbrella. If you would like to know more about the project and the new game mode, we wrote a dedicated DevBlog here on the Anno Union.

Alongside with this new game mode, we teamed up with Ecologi to support reforestation efforts: We released the “Plant a Tree” DLC – all net proceeds will be donated to Ecologi to support the planting of more trees. Head over to the Ubisoft Store to purchase it, support our planet and receive an ornamental Ceiba Tree for your cities!

Issues related to GU13

As communicated last week, we are aware of the issues following Game Update 13, and our teams are actively investigating the reports made by you. We apologise for any inconveniences and frustration caused by the bugs introduced with the latest update and thank you for your patience. Please follow this thread on our Official Forum to stay updated on the matter and for a list of several of the issues we are currently aware of.

We worked hard over the last months to prepare a nice update bundle for our community before the Holidays, but acknowledge that GU13 did not release in the state we would have liked it to release.
This is a lesson that we will include in our planning for next year and Season 4, to e.g. allocate additional time for bugfixing and polishing before a release.

We will have more news for you in January.

Happy Holidays!

And here we are, at the end of this blog. Looking back at everything that happened, we can say it aloud: What a year it has been! We cannot wait for you to see what the Anno Team has in store for you. 2022 is just around the corner, and so is Season 4 for Anno 1800 – more info coming in March!

Thank you, dear Anno Community, for the amazing support you constantly show us. As an early Christmas present for you all, we combined all of this year’s artworks in a new Wallpaper Pack!

 

And to get all of us in the right mood for the Holidays, we requested the services of the one and only Dulcamarra – don’t you think this artwork perfectly captures the spirit of the (slightly chaotic) Anno family? We absolutely love it!

And with that: Happy Holidays, Annoholics, and a Happy New Year!

We’ll be back in January with renewed energy.

The Anno Team

DevBlog: “Vibrant Cities Pack” Cosmetic DLC

Posted on by UbiCecce

In the past weeks we have shared some teasers after the Reddit Community challenged us. Now it is time for a deep dive into the upcoming Cosmetic DLC, Vibrant Cities Pack!

This is the second Skins Pack released for Anno 1800, with the first being the Vehicle Liveries Pack last Spring.

Why the Vibrant Cities Pack? – you might ask. In Spring 2021, we opened the votes for five possible Cosmetic DLC. The choice was in your hands, and the Vibrant Cities Pack resulted to be the winner of the poll together with the Pedestrian Zone Pack. What a great combo, don’t you think?

With this brand new Cosmetic DLC, we will add some great skins to Anno 1800, that will make your cities look livelier and more vibrant than ever: three new skins for each residence building of each resident tier.

“We wanted to create different skin sets and some new models as variations. So, introducing it on the residence buildings was the logic step because these are the most important and most frequently placed building in every city.”

– Tim, Lead Artist

In total, the pack includes 69 skins – three new skins per building model of each population tier (Tiers 1, 2 and 3 each have four models, Tier 4 has six models and Tier 5 has six models, each receiving three new skins). Furthermore, the skins can be divided into four different themes.

Different themes

Now, let’s have a look at the different themes that will be available in the Cosmetic DLC.

Colourful Theme (Tier 1-5)
A great way to make your city pop with some pastel colours. Whether you like blue, red, green, pink, or orange… feel free to use all of them to experiment and express your creativity. This theme will be available for Tier 1-5.

Brick Theme (Tier 1-5)

If you prefer to go with a more “classic” look for your cities, then the brick theme is the one for you. It is something you see often on old buildings in American cities (like Boston, for example). Just like the colourful theme, the brick one will be available for Tier 1-5.

Inverted Theme (Tier 1-3)

This theme can be considered as a counterpart of the unique and new looks, like the Colourful Theme for example. It uses the same materials and colours as the regular asset, but in an inverted way. The roof colour is swapped with the colour of the walls. In this way you will be able to add more variation to the regular buildings, without changing their look too much.

Casino Theme (Tier 4 and 5)

Did anyone say neon signs? Oh yes. But first, a bit of a history class: neon was discovered by Sir William Ramsay in 1889, while the first neon sign was installed outside a barber shop in Paris in 1912. By the 1920s-1930s the first neon signs started glowing in the streets of Las Vegas. Well, now it is time for you to make your Anno 1800 cities shine with some bright and colourful neon lights. The Casino theme will only be available for Tier 4 and 5 residence buildings.

Eager to know more? Tim, our Lead Artist, answered our questions and let us have a peek behind the scenes of this Cosmetic DLC:

In terms of creation workflow, what is the difference between ornaments and skins?

With regular skins we provide texture variations for the already existing assets in the game. Therefore, we create new texture maps (diffuse, normal maps etc.) for these buildings. For the new marketplace variations for example, the workflow is quite the same as for the ornaments, for which we create completely new assets based on our Concept Art.

Speaking of inspiration and reference, have you looked at something specific?

For the colourful theme for example, you can find colourful houses all around the world: Burano (Venice, Italy) or La Boca (Argentina). Also, a lot of old fishing villages are often very colourful.

How did you decide on the different styles for the themes?

For the different themes, we wanted to have some unique ones, like the colourful skin for example, and some themes that add slightly different variations, to make sure you can decide how unique you want your city to be.

Now on a more personal note, what is your favourite skin?

I like the colourful skin the most. This really brings a very new and fresh look to your cities.

The marketplace

Last but not least – yes, there is even more! – three new alternative models for the Marketplace have been added, more fitting to Tier 1, 4 and 5.

The original Marketplace we have in the game is a great asset, but it did not work too good in the late game from a visual point of view, especially with the content of The High Life DLC, like the Skyscrapers. With the new Marketplace alternative models, we wanted to create new markets that fits every tier, from the farmer’s Market to the city Market Hall.

The Vibrant Cities Pack will be available for purchase for the usual 4,99€ (or your regional equivalent) starting from December 14th.

We cannot wait to see your cities come to life with the Vibrant Cities Pack Cosmetic DLC. If you have further questions related to the Cosmetic DLC, feel free to ask them in the comments below or reach out to us on Facebook, Twitter, or our official Forums.

Happy city-building!

Union Update: Cosmetic DLC, Green Game Jam and Anno 1602 in Minecraft

Posted on by UbiCecce

Hello Anno Community,

We are getting closer and closer to the end of the year – only 5 days until December, how is that possible? As Annoholics, there is no better way to get ourselves prepared for the end of 2021 than looking at our end of the year plans. It is time to dive into this Union Update to find out more!

GU 13, Green Game Jam & CDLC Vibrant Cities Pack

Save the date, Annoholics: on December 14th, Game Update 13 will be released! This free update will include several more quality of life improvements and bug fixes. You might be wondering: is that all there is? And the answer is, of course, no. Game Update 13 will also include a new game mode and there is our brand new Cosmetic DLC, Vibrant Cities Pack, releasing alongside it.

Vibrant Cities Pack is the second Skins Pack released for Anno 1800, and the third and last Cosmetic DLC for this year. The theme for this CDLC was chosen by the Anno Community during our Community Vote, together with the Pedestrian Zone Pack that was released back in September. Would you like to know more about the upcoming Cosmetic DLC? Fear not, Annoholics! Next week we will have a full DevBlog dedicated to it. Visit the Anno Union on December 2nd for a full overview!

Last, as you might already know, back in June we announced our participation in the Green Game Jam, and our “sustainable cities” concept ended up winning the UNEP Choice Award! If you would like to know more about this new mode, then do not miss our Green Game Jam Overview that we will share here on the Anno Union on December 6th.

And, of course, keep an eye on our Twitter and Facebook channels if you do not want to miss some juicy teasers of the upcoming content!

End of the Year Livestream

Another date to add to your calendars: on December 6th we will be live on Twitch! This time to present you the Green Game Jam mode, the Cosmetic DLC Vibrant Cities Pack, and much more! Tune in if you do not want to miss our news and a chance to hang out with the Anno Team.

Community Spotlight

Finally, our favourite part of every Union Update – the Community Spotlight!

Our first pick is this glorious Megabuild Timelapse video by HappySheep242 shared on YouTube. Minecraft ft. Anno 1602? We do not need to add anything else, go check it out!

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Another video, but this one is a great guide created by Itroo Twitch. It is a three-part guide that focuses on the Stores you get access to with The High Life DLC. We are sure many of you will find this super helpful!

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SouthRefrigerator553 shared this amazing collection of screenshots dedicated to New York City – we are blown away by the beauty and accuracy of this creation. Bravo!

Finally, here is a celebratory post for vonWistalia who, after ten years, finally beat all maps with 3 stars on Anno 1701 on Nintendo DS. Congrats!

That is all for today’s Union Update. We hope you are excited as we are for our End of the Year plans. If you have any question, do not hesitate to ask them in the comments below.