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.
