Category: Anno 1800

Our Cosmetic DLC plans for 2022

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hey Anno Community,

In January, we gave you a first short preview of our plans for 2022 and as also already communicated last year, we’ll have a looot of information about Season 4 in late March.
In the preview we also already revealed that we’re planning more Cosmetic DLC this year after the success and the extremely positive reception of our previous CDLC.

Generally speaking, we will follow a similar strategy as we did last year: We’re once again planning with 3 Cosmetic DLC spread over the year and there will be once again a Community Voting for one of the themes. Let’s take a closer look:

The very first CDLC is going to be the “Seasonal Decorations Pack”, giving you multiple options to celebrate each period of the year in your game. We’ll go further into our DevBlog next week, no worries. The release of the “Seasonal Decorations Pack” as well as Game Update 13.2 is planned for February 15th.

For now, we’ll leave you with a small teaser:

In May, we will hold this year’s Community Voting for the third and last Cosmetic DLC of this year. We haven’t quite agreed on the four candidates yet but can already tell you that the Circus will not make a return after clearly losing both previous votes while Marcel’s beloved Eldritch Pack will most likely be part of this year’s voting again. We’re looking at providing a mix of different types of Cosmetic DLC, more on that in May.

The release of the winning CDLC is currently planned for autumn, more details to come later this year.

You may have noticed we skipped the second Cosmetic DLC in our chronological order: That’s because it will release AFTER the voting mentioned above but BEFORE the winner of said vote.

A big part of video game development is planning (one of the main tasks of our Production Team) and with the Season 4 DLC also in development we ultimately decided it’s making our lives significantly easier to decide on and start working on the first two Cosmetic DLC.

The voting in May is too late for us to start working on two CDLC afterwards, while we figured that having a voting directly in January would have seemed rather rushed considering we haven’t even gone into detail on the Season 4 content.

So, with that out of the way: This year’s second Cosmetic DLC is scheduled to release in June and will focus on more ornaments for your industrial and production districts – something we have seen discussed and requested multiple times in the past.

This should provide you with even more ways to beautify the… not so beautiful parts of your islands 😉

Those are our rough Cosmetic DLC plans for this year, with more details still to come in the next months. – Or, in the case of the “Seasonal Decorations Pack”: Already next week!

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

It’s Game Update 13 Release Day!

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hey Anno Community,

We have just released Game Update 13, our last big update for the year, and it should be available for you momentarily.

The full Release Notes with all changes and bug fixes can be found here.

 

That’s not all, though, since GU13 also includes Anno 1800’s first scenario, “Eden Burning”, which is the result of our participation in the Green Game Jam. Learn more about it here in this DevBlog and visit the Play4Forest website to sign the petition to protect our Earth’s forests.

Another part of this project is our collaboration with Ecologi to support reforestation efforts: By buying the “Plant a Tree” DLC in the Ubisoft Store you’re supporting the planting of more trees since we’re forwarding all net proceeds (i.e. everything after taxes and other fees are deducted) to Ecologi. On top, you’re getting a new Ceiba Tree ornament to place in your cities.

 

Also releasing today is Cosmetic DLC 6: The “Vibrant Cities Pack”. Change the look of your cities by providing your residence buildings with a fresh coat of paint!

Be it a colorful paint job, a more traditional brick theme, or the neon-lit nightlife version for Investors and Engineers – each allows you to further individualize your cities.

More details about its development can be found in this DevBlog – and you can purchase it here in the Ubisoft Store.

We’re nearing the holidays but are not quite done yet – we do have one more blog and a little Holiday gift for you Tuesday next week. So stay tuned!

 

Until then: Enjoy the new content!

We can’t wait to see screenshots of your vibrant cities, so please share them with us on Reddit, Twitter or any other of our platforms.

And of course, let us know your thoughts on the “Eden Burning” scenario: How many attempts did you need? How is your eco balance looking like? Share it in the comments!

Community Spotlight

We also want to use today’s Union Update for a small Community Spotlight, considering we have once again seen some great content created by you!

First comes this absolutely stunning beauty building attempt by Laudica, once again, creating architectural marvels out of Skyscrapers:

Following our Season 4 announcement, we greatly enjoyed following the various speculations, for example on Reddit, as to what the teaser trailer did show – and what it didn’t. An interesting watch in this regard is also the video by Takarazuka featured below:

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And with 2021 slowly coming to a close, Johnnyvanderzwaag shared some early Holiday greetings on Reddit:

If you worked on a cool video or have a great screenshot to share, we’d be happy to share it in a future Community Spotlight!

 

Until next time, and enjoy today’s Game Update!

Union Update: 2 million players and lots of news

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hello Anno Community,

Yesterday has been a day packed with news during our End of the Year stream: a new game mode, the upcoming Cosmetic DLC… and, wait a second, the Season 4 announcement? Let’s go with order.

The GGJ Scenario – Eden Burning

As you might know already, back in June we announced our participation in this year’s Green Game Jam. Our plan was to create a new, alternative game mode to raise awareness for environmental issues and to support the “Play 4 Forest” campaign.

Yesterday we published a DevBlog dedicated to the Green Game Jam mode that, during development, turned into a scenario called Eden Burning. This overview will provide you with all the information you need to be prepared for this new challenge which will release together with GU 13 on December 14th.

If you cannot wait until then and would like to have a first look at the early game, check out the VOD of our livestream.

Also part of this green initiative is the “Plant a Tree” Cosmetic DLC. The proceeds from this Cosmetic DLC will go to Ecologi – you can find more info here at the end of the linked DevBlog.

Game Update 13 & CDLC06 

On December 14th we will also release our latest Cosmetic DLC, “Vibrant Cities Pack”. Want to know more about it? Check this dedicated DevBlog for all the info you need. 

What about GU13 you might ask. This Game Update will contain as per usual some bug fixes and improvements based on Community feedback. Keep an eye on the Anno Union for the Release Notes, which will be published by the end of the week. 

Ubi35 and Anno 1404 Giveaway

Earlier in November Ubisoft started their celebration for their 35th anniversary, with various giveaways and contests. As part of this celebration, you can now redeem a copy of Anno 1404 History Edition for free, until December 14th! Click here to get your copy – and tell your friends!

2M players

We’re not done with celebrations: We are proud to announce that there are now more than 2 million Anno 1800 players around the world! To celebrate this very special occasion, we will release two resplendent ship skins, one for the Ship of the Line and one for the Battle Cruiser. Both ship skins will be released on December 14th, with GU13.

Here is an overview of some your achievements – thank you for your constant and amazing support, Annoholics!

Season 4 Announcement

Last but not least, the moment we were all waiting for. Yesterday we announced that Season 4 is coming to Anno 1800 in 2022! The new Season will consist of three new DLCs and focus on the New World. At the moment there are only a few things we can share with you, and you can find everything in this blog.

This is all for today’s Union Update. We hope you are as excited as we are for the year ahead of us. Today, more than any other day, happy city-building!

Season 4 is coming in 2022

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hey Anno Community,  

if you watched today’s news-packed Anno stream, you will have already seen our big announcement: Season 4 is coming to Anno 1800 in 2022! It’s true- thanks to your overwhelming passion and support, we have decided to support Anno 1800 for another year of industrialized city-building. 

As we are just getting started on this journey, there are only a few things we can share with you today:

  • Season 4 will once again consist of three new DLCs, which will arrive throughout 2022
  • Following Season 3’s focus on further fleshing out the Old World, we will now turn our eyes to the New World
  • As such, we won’t be adding an all-new session to the game
  • We are, however, aware of the building space issues in the New World and have kept that in mind for our plans for Season 4
  • Following today’s announcement of scenarios making their return to Anno 1800, we plan to ship at least one new scenario with each Season 4 DLC
  • As always, each DLC will be accompanied by a free Game Update that will improve the game for all our players

For the full details on Season 4, you will have to be a bit more patient, as we plan to unveil them in March 2022. To tide you over until then, you can not only look forward to all the goodness coming next week (Game Update 13 with our first scenario, the “Vibrant Cities Pack” Cosmetic DLC and our “Plant a Tree” DLC), but also our first Cosmetic DLC of 2022, which is planned for February.

We hope you are just as excited as we are about embarking on another year of shared adventure and want to again thank you for enabling us to do so with your unwavering support.

The Anno Team

DevBlog: Eden Burning – The Green Game Jam Scenario

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Several months ago, in June, we announced that we’re participating in this year’s Green Game Jam.

Multiple video game studios pledged to brainstorm and implement something in their games to raise awareness for environmental issues like for example deforestation. All this was organized by the UN under the “Playing For The Planet” umbrella – you can find out more about it here.

We specifically decided to support the “Play 4 Forests” campaign with our participation in the Green Game Jam and highly encourage you to sign the petition on their website to protect forests worldwide.

During our gamescom stream in August, we shared a few details on our vision for the new game mode we were planning to add and revealed the final artwork for the mode.

Now we’re nearing the release of the new mode – a scenario we call Eden Burning!

Dear Isabel, …

Let’s set the scene for Eden Burning – what is this scenario all about?

You play as the famous Isabel Sarmento and receive an urgent letter from Yaosca Rodriguez (does the name sound familiar to you?): While the Pyrphorian occupation was ended thanks to your help, many of their buildings and factories remain, dealing continuous damage to the island’s ecosystem.

The main offender: A polluting generator.

However, Yaosca and the other citizens of the island of La Xultuna have now had a taste of modern times – enjoying the advantages of electricity – and do not want to go back to a (literally) darker time. They call for Isabel to take the wheel: Remove the traces of the Pyrphorian occupation and help the people build a hydroelectric dam as a greener source of energy!

 

You see: Plenty of work awaits you, plenty of challenges on the way to provide La Xultuna with a more sustainable form of energy. And you might want to also explore the smaller islands on the map…

Alright, let’s leave it at that for now because we want you to discover the remaining details for yourself when playing the scenario 😉

Game mechanics – what’s new?

You’re all familiar with how to build your early settlements and cities in Anno 1800. However, for this scenario, you will have to rethink some of your strategies.

 

First, some general mechanical changes which already up the difficulty: Demolishing buildings will not refund their construction materials (just a portion of their monetary costs) and you won’t be able to move buildings. You can still use the blueprint mode to plan your settlement, though.

Secondly, while “Eden Burning” takes place in a New World session with their two population tiers (Jornaleros and Obreros), we did quite a few changes to their needs: Their very first need is water, supplied by a pump acting like a regular public service building. Later, you will also need to supply them with fish, plantains and tools before being able to upgrade them.

The Obreros, of course, come with their own set of needs, for example Coffee Pots or Atole (a beverage made of corn, sugar, water and some spices – but you will only need corn and sugarcane in this scenario).

Some other mechanics, like influence or happiness aren’t relevant at all in this scenario and have been disabled.

The Eco Balance

So far, those are still mechanics you know, so let’s take a look at the real challenge of the scenario: The Eco Balance.

The Eco Balance displays the health of your island, split into three categories: Water Quality, Soil Quality and Air Quality. Each category can be positively and negatively impacted by your actions and is visualized as a “health bar”.

The main offender at the beginning will be the leftover Pyrphorian ruins scattered across the island. Removing them will not only improve your Eco Balance, but it will also free up valuable building space. However, this does take time and parts of your workforce which you will have to balance with your regular production needs.

Fishing also negatively impacts water quality, while cutting down trees (they’re not replanted by the lumberjack anymore) and generally all kinds of industry also aren’t great for your Eco Balance. You can always check which factors currently influence each category by opening the Eco Balance Overview, see below:

For each category there are specific negative events when the quality decreases too far, requiring you to intervene and (when it decreases even further) catastrophes like a draught might happen. You can also observe the current state of your island by simply looking at the water or the island itself: La Xultuna quickly stops looking pretty when the Eco Balance drops too low. If one of the three categories reaches zero, the scenario is considered failed.

 

In addition to the pollution through industry, you might also want to change your usual tactic of grouping all farms of the same kind around a Trade Union and Warehouse: Monocultures are not great for soil quality. Instead, plant farms of different types next to each other to improve the soil quality of La Xultuna.

But wait, there is more: Not only the number of trees is limited, mines and clay pits aren’t endless anymore either and you should also keep an eye on the fish population. Make sure to use the available resources wisely and don’t take too much time to tackle your main objective: One of your key challenges will be to maintain efficiency while keeping the environment intact.

Countering negative Eco Balance effects

That does sound tricky, doesn’t it? But don’t worry, there are ways to counter or at least slow down the deterioration of your island’s Eco Balance.

Some we already mentioned (avoiding monocultures, removing ruins) but let’s see what else you can do – at its centre: Crafting!

Thanks to the research centre in the nearby town, you can get your hands on some useful items for your challenge by crafting them at Yaosca’s harbor. Those are either slotted into a Trade Union or Town Hall to for example reduce the eco impact of a building or increase its productivity. They all come with clear downsides, though, so be aware.

Some other items are basically blueprints to unlock new buildings, like for example the water purification plant to help you improve the water quality. There are also methods to replenish certain limited deposits with items – and for trees, you can build a forester.

Finally, you can of course also e.g., pause some of your polluting industry to give the eco system a short breather. But keep in mind your people will still demand goods.

 

As if building a functioning settlement isn’t enough, there is still your main objective we mentioned at the start: The hydroelectric dam. It is constructed in several phases, each requiring a portion of your workforce and increasingly more advanced goods which require you to expand further and erect more industry.

Failing

Last but not least: Failing is part of the experience. Expect to fail and don’t be afraid to fail.

When restarting the scenario after a failed attempt, you can build on some of your previous achievements which should make your next run easier: The three ruins in the valley don’t reappear if you removed them and certain advanced technologies which you acquired previously will also stay unlocked.

Plus, you will most likely also have learned a thing or two to improve on your next attempt 😉

Wait, what’s a scenario?

Now, we dropped the term “scenario”, let’s talk a bit about the scenario system we developed for “Eden Burning”.

The scenario is separate from your campaign or sandbox games, having its own submenu on the starting screen.

On the overview screen for “Eden Burning”, you will be presented with an intro for the scenario itself, as well as the victory condition. There are different quality levels depending on how you finish the scenario – in this case it’s the time it takes you to construct the dam as well as the island’s health.

Each quality level also provides a certain reward. This reward is then unlocked for all your regular campaign and sandbox games.

While playing the scenario, you can always keep an eye on the victory conditions of the scenario via their separate tracker on the left side.

More on scenarios next year, when we’re looking at Season 4’s content.

The “Plant a Tree” DLC

Also releasing that day is the “Plant a Tree” Cosmetic DLC. This is a special one, since the money from this DLC is going to Ecologi, a social enterprise dedicated to the planting of trees. You can find out more about them here.

Available for 2,99€ (or your regional equivalent) this CDLC adds a new tree ornament to your game which is based on the Ceira tree you can also find on the island of La Xultuna. We are not making any money from this DLC: From each purchase, all net proceeds (that means after any fees or taxes are deducted) are going to Ecologi (at least $1/1€/1£ per purchase).

You will be able to purchase the “Plant a Tree DLC” to support reforestation efforts till the end of March 2022. After this date, it will be removed from the store. No worries, though, as the ornament will be added for free for everyone with an update at the end of 2022.

And in case you missed it: Earlier today we showed off the early stages of the “Eden Burning” scenario live on stream. Head on over to our Twitch channel and have a look at the VOD, if you want to see the new content ‘in action’.

 

What’s left for us to say? Ah, right: Our Green Game Jam scenario “Eden Burning” will release as part of Game Update 13 free for everyone on December 14th at 6PM CET!

Stay tuned for Friday when we will publish the full Release Notes for Game Update 13 – and in just a week you’ll be able to save La Xultuna yourself!

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.