Category: Anno 1800

DevBlog: New World Expansion and New Islands

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hey Anno Community,

In this second DevBlog for “New World Rising” we will take a closer look at what we only briefly mentioned before: The expansion of the New World region and the new islands that are getting added.

While Anno games tend to give players relatively large freedoms to build as much and how they want, there are still a few limiting factors. One main factor, of course, is space. There are only so many islands in a region and the islands have only so many tiles.

While some of you have proven over the years, that one can squeeze many more people on those islands than we originally thought, eventually a ceiling is hit, and either space for residences or space for production runs out. Space management therefore also is a key challenge of the Anno games – even more so if you’re playing with opponents.

In Anno 1800, the New World itself also acted as a limiting factor to a certain degree, considering the goods that other regions, primarily the Old World, needed. Season 4’s focus on the New World therefore meant a) to provide engaging new mechanics and b) simultaneously offer additional ways to increase efficiency and save space (e.g. Hacienda farms or workforce commute via the Airship Platform).

A larger New World

New World Rising is adding an additional population tier as well as several new production chains, as we detailed in the previous blog, and the Lifestyle Needs may also require additional production capacities in this southern region. It accordingly made sense to take an additional step to address the above-mentioned space topic, a “simple” one, actually: Giving you more building space!

And that’s what we’re doing with this last DLC of Season 4: The New World region expands on its two northern borders, adding another strip of space for more islands. That’s an increase of about 30%, making the map now larger than the Old World. There are of course still some general limiting factors for map size, first and foremost it’s performance.

New islands to settle

To increase island variety, especially now that the New World is quite a bit bigger than before, our Level Art team also created several new islands that are getting added to the overall map pool for the region. You can expect 3 new small islands, 4 new medium islands and 3 new large islands.

By popular demand, we added additional riv… no, just kidding, we reduced the number of rivers on these new islands. Plus, we’re also adding riverless variants of the existing islands to the overall map pool.

In existing savegames, these new islands will be placed in the expanded area in the north, giving you fresh building challenges to face. The exact number of islands (5 to 7) depends on your chosen region size for your savegame. Therefore, some of the new islands you may only see if you start a new game.

When you start a new game, the islands will be randomly placed together with the already existing New World islands. There is one twist, though: While only owners of DLC 12 will profit from the expanded region, the new islands and riverless island variants will be added to the general map pool, and therefore be available for all players, regardless of which DLC you own.

Our process for creating islands has not changed drastically from what we described a looong time ago back in 2018 in a blog before Anno 1800’s release. We recommend checking out the mentioned DevBlog by our Level Artist Simon if you want some more insights in our processes.

Space for your New World capital

But wait, we talked about new islands, but haven’t mentioned Mānola yet! In addition to the new regular islands that we talked about in the previous section, New World Rising is also adding a larger landmass in the very North of the map. Similar to Crown Falls in Cape Trelawney, it offers you more building space on a single island as well as some unique details – but it also comes with its own monument! This monument gets its own section below, so, let’s first talk about the island itself.

First, the name: As you can see on the screenshot above, Mānola is an island with many waterfalls! The name then was inspired by the Manoa Falls on the Hawaiian island of Honolulu, an impressive 46m waterfall surrounded by rain forest. There were additional inspirations for some of the island’s geographical features, of course: We have long beaches framed by mountain peaks (inspired by Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and many, many waterfalls (inspired by the Iguazu Falls, Argentina/Brazil).

Considering this is the finale of Season 4, we wanted to give you a similar place to create your capital city as we did back in 2019 with Crown Falls – especially since the New World also is one of the regions that are part of the base game.

Aside from the waterfalls, you of course get plenty of building space on this island – making it a great candidate for your New World capital. While there’s a large mountain chain further inland, the area near the coast is split by a large river and slightly rises on several levels up to the mountain region. Several beaches provide space for your industry and harbour area, but also for the new beach module that we introduced in our previous DevBlog.

Several large rocks dot both the landmass itself as well as the coastal area, and a part of the island on the left is semi-detached from the mainland but can be connected via bridges. In addition to coasts and building space, Mānola offers multiple mine, clay and oil deposits to suit your needs.

Our Level Artists also added a few environmental details (and secrets?) as well as stories into this island, we heavily recommend taking the time to take a closer look yourselves.

 

Note, that this continental island is (in contrast to the other new islands) only available for owners of “New World Rising” with the expanded New World map.

Green Energy – The Dam

The monument you can construct on Mānola is a giant dam, that you might be familiar with when you played the “Eden Burning” scenario. Since the island has plenty of water(-falls), as you’ve seen, you can use this dam to harness the water’s energy to provide electricity to your people on the island.

First, you will have to construct the dam in multiple phases – as you’re used to from other monuments – which will require you to import some goods from the Old World, namely: concrete. Upon completion, the dam provides electricity on the island just like a Power Plant does – but without needing any input goods and with significantly higher range: all of Mānola profits from the electricity generated. No need for power plants and intricate railroad networks.

Additionally, there’s no pollution penalty, making the dam a decidedly more environmentally friendly solution. And it just looks really cool!

That’s it on the topic of New World expansion that’s part of “New World Rising” and the new islands that are getting added alongside it. Next week you can expect a DevBlog for DLC 12’s scenario: Pride and Peddlers – it’s gonna be all about trading!

Do you have any additional questions on the topic of islands and world creation? Leave them in the comments!

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.

DevBlog – “New World Rising” DLC

Posted on by UbiCecce

Hello Anno Community,

Throughout Season 4, your New World empire has reached new heights. You started from the ground, by revolutionising the agricultural sector thanks to the Hacienda, and then took off to the sky and new horizons with Paloma and her airships. Now, it’s time for Season’s 4 grand finale: “New World Rising” opens a sea of possibilities for your Anno cities and their residents, who will experience first-hand an industrial and economic boom.

With December approaching, it means that the release of the third and last DLC of Season 4 is upon us – and what better way to set the mood than a deep dive into its content?

A new Generation: Artistas

Raw talent is both a blessing and a curse. It leads to sleepless nights, excessive ice cream consumption and truly exceptional results. The Artista has the heart of a poet and the hands of a musician, always coming up with new and exciting ways to change the world. Pursuing his endeavours with genteel manners and childlike enthusiasm, it is easy to think him a simple man at heart – but there’s a shrewd mind hiding underneath all that glitter.

At the centre of the New World revolution, a new generation is blooming: the Artistas. With refined taste and an ambitious desire to strive towards their dreams, Artistas will change the New World from the inside out, with your help. They are the new Resident Tier in the New World, coming right after the beloved Jornaleros and Obreros. Once reached 1000 Obreros in your cities, you will need to upgrade one Obrera house in order attract the first Artistas to your island. This new residence houses up to 40 Artistas, and could potentially go up to 85 with fulfilled Lifestyle Needs. Furthermore, once you have attracted the first Artistas to your island, a new building will be available to house them in the Hacienda quarters, that brings a sparkling pop of colour amid the warm tones of the New World. The Artistas Hacienda Quarters can house up to 80 Artistas, double the residents of the standard counterpart – but with Lifestyle Needs activated and fulfilled, it can get up to 165.

Of course, to attract more Artistas, you need to fulfil their needs – which can sometimes be quite out of the ordinary. As a result, new needs mean new production chains, which will require a mix of existing products and new ones.

A bright new start

The future of the New World has never been brighter! And we mean this literally, because Electricity will now be available in the New World with “New World Rising”. You know the drill when it comes to electricity: just like in the Old World or Cape Trelawney, you will need Oil Refineries, Power Plants and Oil Harbours to bring Electricity on your New World Islands. Once supplied with electricity, each factory and production building will receive a boost in productivity. But that’s not all – when it comes to New World farms, on top of the boost, something else happens: farms’ pastures will produce bonus goods. This is the case of cattle pastures, that will produce milk, whilst alpaca pastures produce saltpetre as bonus goods.

However, you should also know that oil refineries and power plants might not the only way to supply electricity in the New World. There is the special case of Manola, a large island that has been recently discovered in the northern part of the New World. We hope we got your attention with this, because you will have to wait another week to know more about Manola and its secrets. Stay tuned!

From Mezcal and Jalea…

One of the first recipe you will notice once you unlock Aristas, is a brand-new product: footballs! Quite the hint for the Monument you will build in the near future… but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. A new farm will be available for you to produce the leather required for the balls, the Nandu Farm. The leather will then be tooled and assembled into balls in the Ball Manufactory.

Traditions are important for Artistas, even when it comes to food. Mezcal is a traditional beverage served by the Mezcal Bar and loved by Artistas; it will require Orchards for Citrus trees, Sugar cane plantations, and Herbs from the colourful Herb Gardens. Once you reach 900 Artistas, a new recipe will be unlocked, Jalea, a gourmet dish made with Calamari, which are now produced by the Calamari Fishery. Upon reaching 1800 Artistas, a refreshing product will be available: Ice Cream! Perfect for those torrid afternoons in the New World. As a dairy product, ice cream needs milk, which is now produced by cattle farms’ pastures as a plus good, if supplied with electricity.

After all this food talk, it is time to focus on a different type of products. As we have mentioned before, Artistas have quite an exquisite taste when it comes to their needs. Among these, we can find Perfumes, produced by the Perfume Mixer: in order to get the perfect fragrance to please the Artistas’ refined taste, you will need Orchids, Coconut oil, and Ethanol.

Artistas will also demand ventilators to fight against the warmth of the New World. This is where things start to get complicated, Annoholics. This new product will see the introduction of two new factories: the Cable Factory and the Motor Assembly Plant.

Towards the beginning of the 1900s, the first motorised scooters started appearing around the world. Of course, Artistas cannot resist this marvellous piece of technology, which makes their life a lot easier. Together with the Ventilators, Electric Scooters represent the most complex product needed by Artistas: from the mechanical parts like cables and motors, to the pigments needed to create the wonderful different varnishes for the scooters.

… To the world of entertainment!

Yes, Entertainment is a huge part of the Artistas’ life: amongst their hobbies, they enjoy spending their time at the Cinema, when they are not practicing dancing in the Samba School. Obviously, for the Cinema to work, you will need to produce roll films, the recipe of which will be available in the Chemical Plant (NW), a multi-factory that you may already be familiar with if you own “Tourist Season”. For the Samba School, instead, you will need to craft colourful Costumes with cotton, pigment and nandu feathers, produced in the nandu farms, if the farm is supplied with electricity.

With the presence of Artistas in the New World, entertainment has now become a new lifestyle need for all your New World resident tiers.

With “Empire of the Skies” we introduced Lifestyle Needs, additional goods and resources that you can provide to your residents. They act like normal needs but are completely optional. If fulfilled, Lifestyle Needs will grant bonuses and extra residents. Furthermore, they are purely beneficial and do not increase the consumption of your residents’ base needs. Once unlocked, Lifestyle Needs are deactivated by default: therefore, you will need to manually activate them in the designated Lifestyle Needs Tab in the Residence menu.

For DLC 12, we’re not only adding some additional ones but are also rebalancing them slightly. More on this in the Release Notes.

Emergency Services upgrades

With higher tier residents and bigger islands, comes even greater responsibility. With “New World Rising”, you will be able to upgrade the emergency services on your island, to assure greater safety for your residents than before. By reaching the required number of Artistas, you will unlock a new button in the menu of the Police Station, Fire Station, and Hospital, which will allow you to upgrade the selected service. Once upgraded, those services will require input goods, but will become fully automated: this means that once an incident occurs, they send out all available units. Furthermore, they strongly reduce the chance on incidents and have a larger street range than the regular ones.

For example, the upgraded Fire Station will need to be supplied with fire extinguishers, produced by a new Multi-factory: the Laboratory. This building will also produce Medicine for the upgraded Hospital, and pigment, used for Costumes and Electric Scooters. Finally, the upgraded Police Station will need to be supplied with Police Equipment, now produced in the Arsenal. However, if any of these input goods are missing, the emergency services will respond to incidents like a traditional city institution – requiring your input to recruit volunteer units instead of instantly sending them out.

If necessary, you can downgrade the emergency service at any time with just one click, from the service’s menu.

By the sea

There is nothing more relaxing than chilling on the beach after a long day, enjoying the sun setting on the horizon. Well, New World residents love spending their free time on the fresh shores of their islands, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. By building the Beach House, you will provide an additional public service for your residents, whilst making your island look even more beautiful and welcoming. Just like other public services, the Beach works within a specific radius, which can be increased thanks to the beach ornaments: a parasol picnic for your residents to enjoy some food in the shadow, an ice cream parlour for a refreshing snack under the sun, a life-guard tower to keep your residents safe, and more! Each ornament you place provides attractiveness to the beach building, proportionally increasing its range.

Time to get the ball rolling: a new Monument

Back in September, during Ubisoft Forward, we let you take a small glimpse at the Monument for “New World Rising” in our CGI teaser. Many of you shared with us your guesses on the Monument, however, none of you got the answer perfectly right. Well, it is finally time to reveal what your most ambitious project will be with “New World Rising”: the Grand Stadium! Just like any monument, the Stadium will be built in phases, three in total. Be aware that, as usual, it will require a great number of materials and workforce, so be prepared! Once built, everything will be ready to host football games. To launch your first event, simply access the Championship panel in the Stadium menu. Based on your population you will unlock three different levels of events: Local, Regional and World, and they all provide additional Influence as a reward at the end. An event lasts 20 minutes, and during its preparation you have the chance to deliver goods to the Stadium to increase the quality of the reward.

“The new Stadium was by far the most challenging but also the most interesting building. Monuments are always a big effort, because the assets are much bigger than anything else. We never had that many feedback units in such a small space, so we had to make sure we could do this without having a performance drop. The soccer game was another challenge for us, because we needed some completely new animations to make this happen.”

-Raphael, Art Team Lead

We hope you enjoyed today’s DevBlog and are thrilled as we are for the release of “New World Rising” on December 8th at 3 PM CET / 9 AM ET. Keep an eye on the Anno Union, because more DLC 12 DevBlogs are coming your way – one dedicated to the New World expansion and one dedicated to our third Scenario, Pride and Peddlers. In the meantime, if you have any question on the new content or would like to know more on a specific feature, feel free to leave a comment below or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook and our 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: New World Rising Teasers and Livestream

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hey Anno Community,

Is it really this close to the end of the year already?

Well, then it’s time we start telling you more about “New World Rising” soon. Very soon, in fact, since we’re already starting next Tuesday: On November 15th, we will once again hold a live stream, showing off the contents of DLC 12. You can expect a first look at the new population tier, new production chains, the expansion of the New World and Anno 1800’s fourth scenario.

Tune in next Tuesday at 5PM UTC+1 on Twitch and join us in the chat!

To get you in the right mood, if you aren’t following our social channels, we have two small teasers already for you to give you a glimpse at what you can expect in the livestream and with DLC 12. Have a look!

Community Spotlight

We have a slightly different Community Spotlight today, since we’ll again highlight a few recent mods that took our liking. Before that we want to highlight Tour-Petronas’ screenshot of their city center (that also decorates the header of today’s blog) which they described with the words “I would genuinely love to be there”. Beautiful atmosphere!

Anno 1800 Mod Manager

If you are looking to use any of the mods below, don’t forget to check out the Anno 1800 Mod Manager – a mod manager, game launcher, and news hub for Anno 1800 created by LemonDrop1228. You can find all the information about the Anno mod manager here, so be sure to check it out! And thank you LemonDrop1228 for creating this tool!

Halloween Decorations Pack

Let’s start with the very recently released Halloween Pack by Mrkoekie and Taludas that adds several spooky ornaments for your cities – from Halloween-themed trees to a significantly spookier church, we’re sure this would (pumpkin-)spice up your autumn.

Palace Expansion & National Civic Hall

For the ones among you who love building grand: jje1000 both has a mod for you that expands your options when it comes to building a massive palace construct, there’s also a separate mod adding the National Civic Hall, a new building just for your investors.

Specialist and Items Pack

The last one is the “Perfect Specialist and Items Pack” by Hier0nimus. And we totally didn’t include it here only because a certain Pirtylo, Cecce and Thorlof were added as new items…

Disclaimer: Like last time, we want to clarify that, while we love seeing such an active modding scene, we do not officially support mods for Anno 1800.

That means that using/installing any of the mods listed above happens at your own risk. If you encounter bugs or other technical issues while using mods, we will not be able to offer official technical support for these modded savegames and recommend getting in touch with the mod creators.

DevBlog: “Old Town” Pack Cosmetic DLC

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hey Anno Community,

Just a few weeks ago we shared a first glimpse of the upcoming “Old Town” Pack Cosmetic DLC with a picture of a well-known fountain. Today, we’re going to present you what exactly the “Old Town” Pack contains and how we let ourselves get inspired by our previous titles for this Cosmetic DLC in particular.

Let’s not forget: This theme is the winner of the Community Vote we held in May, coming out on top against the Nature Pack and the Eldritch Pack. You clearly hold our older games dear to your hearts, that’s always great to see for us.

That, of course, also made it clear to us that the nostalgia of our players is still very strong, and we would need to see what the best ways were of providing you options to create a little bit of a “medieval heart” in your cities. Cities, that otherwise clearly show the advancements of the 19th century.

Conceptualising the Old Town Pack

Therefore, let us dive into the research and inspiration process that followed the Community Vote. After all, we had to align both our vision and ideas for the theme as well as your expectations to have a pack that scratches that nostalgia itch while fitting into the world of Anno 1800.

The first step was to gather some inspirations and get a feel for what an “Old Town Pack” should look like. Accordingly, our Art Team looked at old medieval German towns and castles first (which we got plenty of), and this part of the research ultimately led to the decision, that the pack should have walls and towers for some castle-feeling.

Other aspects came more naturally with the name of the pack: An Old Town would need buildings with a medieval look, meaning we would have to work on skins. While the exact number as well as the types of buildings receiving these skins were still discussed later, these two aspects (a wall system and various building skins) created the basis for the Old Town Pack. This is important to decide on early for us, since we of course want to offer a similar amount of content for each Cosmetic DLC.

Additional inspiration was drawn from Anno 1404 specifically. With Anno 1404 regularly being rated one of our players’ favourite titles, it became our focus, and we ultimately chose two particular ornaments from that game that we then recreated for Anno 1800. More on this in a bit.

From city walls…

We’ve mentioned a wall system, and it being a key feature of this pack, let’s take a closer look.

The town wall is a modular system like hedges or canals and allows you to, for example, create distinctive districts within your city or emphasize your city centre. Walls come in two variants: A covered and an open version. Plus, there are of course some gate houses and archways. The wall system even allows you to build small castles (we tried it!), especially in combination with the towers.

After all, no city wall would be worth its name without a few towers to stand guard from. Alternatively, you can also set them down on their own, serving as a reminder of older times in the middle of your town square, for example. And talking about reminders of the olden times: Nowadays, these towers serve primarily as an attraction for the local population, a great way to survey the town and feel the wind in your face when you can’t afford an apartment in one of those modern skyscrapers.

Furthermore, we also created a few smaller ornaments for your old town: Build the Hildegarden (a reference to “Hildegard of Bingen”, who you may not know about but should certainly read up on) for all your local herbal needs, build banners, cobblestone ground plates… and two references for the Anno 1404 veterans among you.

The “Large Statue” (that could very well be seen as a homage to the aforementioned Hildegard) and the “Fountain” (which simply took our fancy after seeing it in 1404) make their comeback in Anno 1800. Two old ornaments but freshly re-created for the 19th century!

… to medieval Skins!

For the first time, this Cosmetic DLC comes with a mix of both ornaments as well as building skins. For that, we picked the Worker and Artisan residences, providing them with new skins for some medieval flair, emphasizing the half-timbered construction style very common still in older German houses, for example. And in Anno 1404 or 1503, of course!

Similarly, we read some comments about different skins for public buildings. And while the Market Place received a few new ones with the Vibrant Cities Pack last year, the Old Town Pack now allows you to put your Town Hall, Trade Union as well as some other buildings into the right style. For all these buildings you can try to imagine how they evolved from their medieval look to the one you’re used to from Anno 1800. The kids will surely appreciate the retro-look of their school!

And finally, one candidate we’re sure you’ll be looking forward to using in your cities:

The church receives a full model variation, with two instead of one church tower, different roofs and some changes to the surrounding park and cemetery. This rework, accordingly, was the most difficult part of the Cosmetic DLC, since it meant creating an entirely new building. However, it will probably also fit well into the non-medieval parts of your cities, don’t you think?

To conclude: No matter if you want to create a small “castle town” somewhere in the countryside or add some elements to your existing cities (like a city wall!) which remind your citizens of their town’s historic roots: We’re sure this pack will give you plenty of options to work with.

The “Old Town” Pack Cosmetic DLC will release on December 8th for the usual price of 4,99€.

We can’t wait to see the screenshots of what you’ll be creating with these new ornaments and skins!

Happy city-building, Annoholics!

Union Update – Old Town Pack Teaser & Console Edition Technical Test

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hey Anno Community,

Time for another Union Update to update you on current events. Also, we want to use this opportunity to point out that in the coming weeks a total of four Anno games are celebrating their anniversaries – Anno 1503, for example, will be 20 years old very soon!

Cosmetic DLC 09 – Old Town Pack

Talking about older Anno titles: We have seen some questions about the winner of this year’s community vote: The Old Town Pack! No worries, our team has been hard at work bringing some medieval flair to your cities. We have a first small teaser for you today and will have more news and impressions in a few weeks. Do you recognise this fountain?

Technical Test – A new way to play Anno 1800

We also have something completely different, however, and something we’re very excited about: An announcement!

Part of our team has been working hard on bringing the base game experience of Anno 1800 to Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5! And we would love to get your help for a Technical Test in November.

Sign up for the Technical Test by following this link. To participate in the Technical Test, you will need to own either an Xbox Series X|S or a PlayStation 5. And you will need to sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) before being accepted.

You probably have more questions, but we will have to ask you for a little bit more patience: We will have more information on the Anno 1800 Console Edition in early 2023.

 

*Please note that the test took place in November. You can find all info on the console version here

Community Spotlight

To complete this Union Update, we have a Community Spotlight for you with some of our favourite pictures of the last weeks:

Our first pick of the day is this panoramic shot by Velaurius on Reddit. “Sometimes it just takes your breath away” – well, this screenshot definitely left us breathless! The he full moon and the dim light reflecting on the calm see make the picture just perfect.

From full moon to Solar Eclipse in this shot by AnnoEffect shared on the Annoverse Discord! And look at that amazing city, perfectly balanced with ornaments and nature.  

Gustav156 clearly does not like pirates, as you can see from this screenshot shared on the Annoverse Discord. And those sea mines! Who do you think won this battle? We think the answer is fairly obvious. 

Aestris is quite famous on the Annoverse Discord for his Anno screenshots and his puns, too. This time he at least said sorry for his Enbesan screenshot: “I apologize if this picture is irrelephant”. Thank you, Aestris! 😀

Let’s close this Community Spotlight with a collection of screenshots by TravellerFvantom on Reddit. Out of the five pictures, we picked a close–up of the marketplace as it captures the perfect atmosphere of a small town at sunset: quiet and lively at the same time. 

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

Union Update – Community Challenge and GU 15.1

Posted on by UbiCecce

Hello Anno Community.

With the release of “Empire of the Skies” we kicked off the second Community Challenge of Season 4. Today, after two intense weeks of building airships, we are finally at the end of the challenge! Without further ado, let’s see how you did this time.

Community Challenge results

In the past two weeks, you have kept your hangars quite busy building Airships, while protecting your harbours behind those Flamethrower Monitors and new towers! However, this time around you have not quite reached the goal we had set for the main Community Challenge, “The Sky is the Limit”. As of today, you have built 227.493 Airships. For the second challenge, “Fire on the Water” you have built 180.540 of the new Towers and 23.396 Flamethrower Monitors. Even though you did not reach the set number of Airships for the main Challenge, we think that you all achieved an impressive result, as a community. So, we still want to celebrate your collective effort with the rewards we promised two weeks ago: A brand new artwork themed around “Empire of the Skies” as in-game billboard ornament and as wallpaper.

You can download the new wallpaper here, while the billboard ornament will be added to the game with the next update, GU15.1.

Game Update 15.1

Speaking of game updates, GU15.1 will be released in about two weeks. This patch will provide fixes for different issues that you have been meticulously reporting following GU15, such as the trade route menu not showing the preview of routes on map while hovering over them, the Local Department effects duplication, as well as the missing Season 4 Pass Bundle ornaments. We will share the full patch notes in the coming days, closer to the release of GU15.1 – so keep an eye on our social channels and the Anno Union.

You can also always stay updated on currently known issues via our dedicated Trello Board.

Thank you for all of your reports and feedback since the release of the latest update.

Union Update – Empire of the Skies feedback & Community Spotlight

Posted on by UbiCecce

Hey Anno Community,

Empire of the Skies released just a little over a week ago and we’ve seen plenty of discussions and feedback as well as great livestreams, videos and many screenshots.

Thank you for your feedback and help with our investigations. We’re currently working on some changes to make the mail system feel smoother, specifically when it comes to the Airship Platform and the loading/unloading.

We’re also working on fixes for the issues with AI expansion, the trade route preview and the missing Season 4 Pass ornaments as well as other bugs you forwarded to us.

Make sure to keep an eye on our Trello board for updates on reported issues as well as cases, where we would need some additional information from you for our investigation.

We’re planning a patch for October and will have an update and more precise date soon.

Community Challenge

It’s time for an update on the current Community Challenge! As mentioned in last week’s Union Update, this time we have two challenges – “The Sky is the Limit” and “Fire on the Water”. For the first one, you have already built over 140.000 airships, wow! For the second, instead, you have already built over 105.000 Flamethrower Towers and over 15.000 Flamethrower Monitors. Remember, you still have one week (until October 6th) to win the Community challenge, so keep on building!

Community Spotlight

Today’s Community Spotlight is dedicated to “Empire of the Skies”, of course. So, let’s start with a couple of guides that will help you kick start your adventure with the new content!

Nivarias created a handy guide and overview of all the content available with “Empire of the Skies”, covering all features and mechanics: from the new production chains to the addition of the lifestyle needs and the various types of airships.

 

YouTube

YouTube has been deactivated. Do you accept the use of cookies to display and allow you to watch the video content?
Set Cookies

I acceppt Cookies

If you’re struggling with the “Clash of Couriers” Scenario and that gold medal, then StratGamer has the right guide for you – follow each step and become the true champion of the Grand Postal Derby with Paloma Valente!

YouTube

YouTube has been deactivated. Do you accept the use of cookies to display and allow you to watch the video content?
Set Cookies

I acceppt Cookies

We have also seen some beautiful shots of the airports you have built for your Anno cities. Particularly, we think that Aestris did an amazing job in incorporating and placing the airport in this New World island, surrounded by lush green farms and palm trees.

AnnoEffect took this close-up screenshot of an airship landing – it looks majestic! The airport seems quite busy, who knows where all this people are planning to go…

Last but not least, we close this Community Spotlight with one of our favourite artists – Dulcamarra! Her fanart always brings a smile to everyone’s face in the Anno Team. Plus, look how happy Anno residents look with their mail! We cannot say the same about Eli, though…

This is all for today’s Union Update – we hope you enjoyed it! As usual, if you have any questions feel free to comment below or reach out to us on our social channels.

Happy city-building!

Union Update – It’s “Empire of the Skies” Release Day!

Posted on by UbiCecce

Hello Anno Community,

While summer comes to an end, a brand-new adventure begins in the Anno world: “Empire of the Skies” is now available!

YouTube

YouTube has been deactivated. Do you accept the use of cookies to display and allow you to watch the video content?
Set Cookies

I acceppt Cookies

Game Update 15 & “Empire of the Skies”

Game Update 15 can now be downloaded! The “Empire of the Skies” DLC is now available on Ubisoft Connect and Epic, and will be available on Steam starting 7PM UTC+2 today. In the past weeks we have spoken a lot about the new content, so if you need some guides before diving into it, feel free to check our DevBlogs on the new Airships, all the new game features and content added with DLC11, and the “Clash of Couriers” Scenario!

Game Update 15 also features a long list of bugfixes, quality of life improvements and some balancing changes – you can read the full Release Notes here.

We want to make you aware of one Known Issue, however:

The Local Departments will unequip their departments and policy upon loading a savegame while their effect stays active. As you might imagine, this is going to be fixed, so we recommend not using and relying on said exploit to avoid any issues later down the line.

We will keep you updated on our planned patch.

Twitch Drops

Just like every DLC release in the past, “Empire of the Skies” comes with its own set of Twitch Drops: a banner and a mural, to show off the amazing Key Art of “Empire of the Skies” directly in your Anno cities. The Twitch Drops event will run until September 29th, so you have still got some time to watch your favourite Anno streamers and get yourself some fancy new ornaments. For more information check out our dedicated article.

A new Community Challenge

A new DLC also means a new Community Challenge for you, Annoholics! Last time you passed the Challenge with flying colours and built over 145000 Fertiliser Modules. WOW! Well, this time there are actually *two* Community Challenges – the main Challenge related to DLC11 and a side challenge. For “The Sky is the Limit”, you are required to build 500.000 Airships – combined amongst all players across the world, of course! “Fire on the Water” instead involves ships and harbour defences: you will need to build collectively 250.000 of the new Flamethrower Monitors and Flamethrower Towers.

Completing the main Challenge will lead to the reward, a new billboard ornament featuring a brand-new artwork related to the DLC. And, of course, we’ll also give you said artwork as a download to be used as a wallpaper. Rewards will be added with a future Game Update. Good luck on the Challenge, Anno Community!

This brings us to the end of this Union Update. We hope you enjoy “Empire of the Skies” and the “Clash of Couriers” Scenario! We cannot wait to see the transformation of your cities with all the new content – and the transformation of the sky, with all the new airships. So, feel free to share screenshots and videos with us!

Union Update – Ubisoft Forward & other news

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hey Anno Community,

As we are getting closer to the release of “Empire of the Skies” and after an interesting weekend with Ubisoft Forward, we thought it was time for a quick recap on our news and more.

Ubisoft Forward

Last Saturday, you might have noticed two friendly faces during the Ubisoft Forward Pre-Show: Oliver, our ComDev, together with Lisa, our Junior International Product Manager, presented a teaser for “New World Rising”. In case you missed it, you can watch our segment right here!

 

What do you think is hiding under that veil? Let us know in the comments below!

A recap on everything “Empire of the Skies”

In the past few weeks, we’ve published three different DevBlogs dedicated to DLC11, to give you all the information you need to start your sky-bound adventures on September 20th.

The first DevBlog is entirely dedicated to Airships: from our concept art to 3D models and the different types of Airship you can build.

The second DevBlog, instead, is dedicated to “Empire of the Skies” as a whole: new production chains, airship platforms and modules, drop goods and mails.

Last but not least, a DevBlog dedicated to the second Scenario of Season 4, “Clash of Couriers”: learn all about the goals and challenges of this new scenario and help Paloma Valente win the Grand Postal Derby!

Release Notes & Early Access phase

Game Update 15 will be released next Tuesday, September 20th. It will add support for DLC11, together with bug fixes, balancing and general improvements. Furthermore, some new features and content will be added, such as new Items (tied to different DLCs), new Harbour weapons, and the brand-new Lifestyle Needs we mentioned in our DevBlogs and DevStream. The full Release Notes will be published next Thursday, so keep an eye on the Anno Union!

On Friday, the Early Access phase for DLC 11 will start, together with a Twitch Drops event. Read here for all info.

Anno 2070

Since Update 3.0, we have seen some reports of owned DLCs being missing for some players. We are aware of the issue, and we are currently investigating it. Thank you for your patience.

Twitch Drops & Early Access: Empire of the Skies

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hey Anno Community, 

Over the last weeks we revealed the contents of the upcoming “Empire of the Skies” DLC, and now, the release is just a little over one week away! 

As usual, the release will be accompanied by a Twitch Drops event – from which you can earn two DLC-themed ornaments – as well as an Early Access period for selected streamers. 

Early Access Period

These streamers will be able to play the content of the new DLC – including the scenario – from Friday, September 16th, until the release on Tuesday, September 20th. So, if you can’t wait to see more of DLC 10 as soon as possible, that’s the way to get a look at even more gameplay. You can find a list of all streamers participating in the Early Access period at the end of this blog.

Twitch Drops

Additionally, there will the chance to earn Twitch Drops from September 16th until the 29th.

These will already be available during the Early Access period for the selected streamers. All other streamers will be able to also activate the Twitch Drops on their channels after the DLC’s release on September 20th.

As a streamer not part of the Early Access, to sign up for the Twitch Drops, simply head to this page for your Twitch account, make sure to connect it with your Ubisoft account, and opt-in to the drops. You can find more info on Twitch Drops in this official FAQ from Twitch. When you stream Anno 1800 during the mentioned period, your viewers will be able to earn drops.

Earning Drops

Anyone watching any of the streamers who signed up for the Twitch Drops event for the mentioned periods will receive two new ornaments:

An “Empire of the Skies” Banner for watching 1 hour and an ” Empire of the Skies ” Mural for watching 3 hours.

The only thing you need to do is to first link your Ubisoft account to your Twitch account and then watch the streamers during the event for the mentioned time to receive your loot. You don’t have to watch these hours consecutively to receive your drop; watching them accumulated on participating streamers will also grant you the ornaments.

After receiving a drop, you need to claim it via the Twitch inventory. You can find more information on Twitch Drops in general in this official FAQ.

Please be aware that all rewards will only be delivered to you after the release of DLC 11.

If you haven’t already done so in the past, make sure to first link your Ubisoft and Twitch account by following the steps outlined on this website.

Below you can find a list of all streamers participating in the Early Access period.

Please be aware that you can also earn Twitch Drops from any other streamer playing Anno 1800, who has enabled the Drops on their channel, after the release of DLC 11. Just have a look at the Anno 1800 category on Twitch between September 20th and September 29th.

English

Spanish

French

Chinese (NOT on Twitch/No Drops)

German