Category: Contest

Union Update: Vote for your favourite Quest

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hello Anno Community,

Here we are, at the end of October, ready to launch the final phase of our second Community Contest: the voting!

Back in September, we challenged you to write a little in-game quest for Anno 117: Pax Romana – tied to the region of Albion and featuring buildings, people and themes of this region.

 

We ended up receiving so many entries that we had to adjust our internal timeline for the start of the voting. It took us longer than planned to settle on our five favourites from the far over one hundred quests that we received.

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who submitted their story, we could clearly see that you all added what you wanted to see in Anno 117: Pax Romana into those stories: from references to Anno 1800, pop culture or ancient mythology to stories with dramatic turns and humour-filled episodes.

 

To ultimately settle on the five finalists our main criteria were: originality, feasibility within the game features and narrative tools at our disposal and if the quest/story fits within our world.

So, after going through your submissions, we chose our favourite entries. Find below a short summary for each quest and a link to a PDF with the full quest.

IMPORTANT: Entries have been annonymized for the voting and translated into English if needed. Otherwise, the content has not yet been adjusted to fit the exact realities of the game. That means that any characters, features, buildings etc. mentioned in said quests that have not yet been confirmed by us are pure speculation by these authors The winning entry will be adjusted afterwards if necessary.

  1. In Vino, Veritas

A teacher at the local Grammaticus requires the assistance of the governor to prepare a meeting with scholars, including the delivery of suspiciously large quantities of wine.

Link to full quest

 

  1. Weapons from the Stars

A local smith argues the metal from a fallen star could be used for some very special weapons – assuming you can assist him finding and retrieving a piece of the fallen star in the first place.

Link to full quest

 

  1. Traditional Beer in Danger

Do Romans not also deserve beer? Balance the worries and needs of the local population with those of traditionalists and your requirements as a governor when it comes to the age-old tradition of brewing beer.

Link to full quest

 

  1. Spatha, no, Spathae!

New weapons for the Romans sound like a lucrative business – but the smith will need the support from the governor to start their ambitious project.

Link to full quest

 

  1. Intercultural Exchange

Find the right balance on the topic of Romanization by intervening in the education in Albion and providing the Grammaticus building with the means to teach the young and old.

Link to full quest

Had a thorough look and picked a favourite? Well, then it’s time to vote and have the concept of your choice turned into an actual in-game quest!

The voting is open until November 5th, end of day – you have one vote and your vote is completely annonymous.

 

Once again, a big shout out and thank you to everyone who participated, from all of us – and the Narrative Team specifically.

Have a fantastic week!

Union Update – Vote for your favourite Statue

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hello Anno Community,

Here we are, ready for the next phase of the first Community Contest dedicated to Anno 117: Pax Romana! In case you’ve missed it, here’s a little refresher for you all.

Back in June, we challenged you to design your own statue based on a silhouette we provided and submit your creation for a chance of your design to be transformed into an ornament for the upcoming Anno game.

First of all, a huge THANK YOU to each of you who submitted their statue – we were extremely happy to see our inbox getting filled with your art!

In fact, there was so much cool stuff, we didn’t have an easy time choosing. Our main criteria were: originality within the given constraints and how well it fits within the (narrative and artistic) vision for Anno 117.

So, after going through your submissions, we chose our favourite entries – 5 in total:

1 – The Jorgensen Fountain

Bente and Leif reimagined as Venus and Amor. We loved the idea of romanising two existing Anno characters – not sure the Romans know what a “Jorgensen” is, though.

2 – Mysterious Figure

A trusty advisor? A time traveller? We don’t know, but it piqued our interest!

3 – Latona

In reference to the myth related to Latona and her children: Apollo and Diana. We loved the creative potential of having 3 characters “merged” into one statue.

4 – Annocius

Doesn’t Anno deserve its own divine representation? Turning Anno into “Annocius”, the god of the 9, sounded good to us.

5 – Ocean Figure

Of course, the sea is a major element in any Anno game. If this is a monument to brave fishermen or more – we loved the statue casually holding the squid’s arms.

Well, Annoholics, it’s now up to you to decide which entry will make its way into the game as an ornamental statue – that you will be able to personalise your cities in Anno 117: Pax Romana with! You can submit your vote here.

The voting is open until August 4th, end of day – your vote is completely annonymous.

A big shout out and thank you to everyone who sent their entry – it really means a lot to us, and it shows the love you have for the Anno series (we will share all of them after the voting is over).

If your entry wasn’t selected this time, or if drawing is not your favourite creative outlet, fear not – there will be more contests coming up! In the meantime, don’t forget to vote for your favourite statue and share with us any question or feedback you might have in the comments below.

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.

Vote for 2022’s third Cosmetic DLC!

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hey Anno Community,

 

As we announced earlier this year when we talked about Cosmetic DLC plans for 2022, we still want to leave the third of this year’s CDLCs up to your vote!

While the first released on February 15th (the “Seasonal Decorations” Pack) and the second one (the “Industrial Zone” Pack) will release in June, the third one is planned for Autumn.

And for this, we are planning to once more put the decision on the topic into the hands of you, our Anno Union community!

 

In total, we’re presenting you with three possible Cosmetic DLC topics. As you will see, we also considered your feedback on topics that you would like to see more ornaments about.

And now enough of the introduction, here are the 3 themes you can vote on! Keep in mind that those are only our current plans for the Cosmetic DLC topics. The exact content and scope depend on the theme of the pack which we will further explore as soon as the result is clear.

And now enough of the introduction, here are the 3 themes you can vote on! Keep in mind that those are only our current plans for the Cosmetic DLC topics. The exact content and scope depend on the theme of the pack which we will further explore as soon as the result is clear.

 

 “Nature Pack”: Ornaments that can be used in larger inner-city parks or maybe as part of a bigger recreational nature park outside the city. It would focus on nature objects like special trees, natural monuments, rock formations and maybe places for hikers to rest.

“Eldritch Pack”: Century-appropriate gothic elements for your cities with darker and potentially slightly spooky ornaments. These could be gargoyles, twisted trees, graveyard pieces and other gothic architecture.

“Old Town Pack”: The age of industrialization is upon us, but that doesn’t mean forgetting about the more medieval roots of your cities from previous Annos. This pack would focus on leftovers from older times for your city centres.

Of course, all of us on the Anno 1800 team have our own favourites that we are crossing fingers for (did someone say “Eldritch Pack”?) and we sat down to discuss our Cosmetic DLC plans and this year’s candidates:

 

That’s not all, though: Three Anno characters will do their best to convince you for their personal favourite – keep an eye on our social channels Twitter and Facebook for their takes!

As before, the Cosmetic DLC will be a standalone purchase for the price of 4,99€ and will not be part of the Season 4 Pass to give our players maximum flexibility over their Anno 1800 experience.

 

The voting will run for two weeks and end on Monday, May 16th at 11:59pm CEST / 5:59 PM EDT. You can click on any of the images to view them in full size. Happy voting, and stay safe!

[totalpoll id=”16703″]

*Please note that as before, all content will be cosmetic and will not change Anno 1800’s gameplay. The names of the packs are “working titles” and might change later on.

Union Update: Voting winners and today’s live streams

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Winners of the Cosmetic DLC Voting

Let’s start with the big news of the week:

The community vote has concluded and we got our winners! It ended up being a significantly clearer victory than what we had last year.

On first place with 35.87% of the votes we have the “Vibrant Cities Pack”, followed by the “Pedestrian Zone Pack” with 29,43%.

The “Big Top Pack”, for the 2nd time in a row, ended up in last place with only 6,67% of the votes.

 

So, as we said during the initial announcement, our team will now start working on the two winner topics and we’re planning to release them later this year. More info on the dates to follow.

We will, however, give you the occasional insights into what we’re working on for both Cosmetic DLC.

Annoversary multiplayer stream

We also want to remind you once more that later today, at 5PM CEST (11AM EDT) Oliver and Nele are hosting an Anno 1800 multiplayer stream with several members from the Anno community. So, grab a coffee and join us later today for belated birthday celebrations on twitch.tv/ubisoftbluebyte

And yet another stream

But that’s not all! For more streaming goodness, tune in right after the previous stream at 7PM CEST (1PM EDT) on twitch.tv/ubisoft/! Our Game Designer Andrea joins the Ubisoft News team to support them with some tips and share anecdotes from her time working on Anno 1800.

Finally… we shared this little GIF yesterday for Earth Day: A short glimpse at what you can expect to come to Anno 1800 with an upcoming Free Game Update.

 

Union Talk – Cosmetic DLC and current Voting

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Marcel and Oliver used one of those rare occasions they’re at the office at the same time to sit down and talk about Anno 1800’s Cosmetic DLC and their personal favourites of the current voting in this new Union Talk.

 

But hey, what are Union Talks again?

Since it has been over a year since the last episode, during which a lot of new players have joined the Anno community, it is worth reintroducing our Union Talk videos to you all.

Unlike our tightly scripted and focused trailers, Union Talks are not intended to deliver breaking news about upcoming content, but instead, take a longer format to take you behind the scenes of Anno development and to explain how and why we do things we way we do.

Do you have any questions about the topic of Cosmetic DLC or are there any topics you’d like us to cover in a Union Talk? If there’s something you have always been curious about regarding the development of the Anno games or the inner workings of our team, let us know in the comments, and maybe we can cover it in a future episode!

 

And now: Grab a coffee or some hibiscus tea and watch the two ramble on.

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(Also: Who watched the full 27min?)

Vote for this year’s Cosmetic DLC!

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hey Anno Community,

One lesson we learned over the last years is that there’s no such thing as “too many ornaments” for our beauty-builder community. We can see this being reflected in both the reception of, for example, the new harbour ornaments added with “Docklands” as well as the success of the three Cosmetic DLC we havereleased up until now.

For 2021, we’d love to expand on this and work on two more Cosmetic Packs for you. And as announced last week, we are planning to once more put the decision on the topics into the hands of you, our Anno Union community!

In total, we’re presenting you five possible Cosmetic DLC topics, of which we’re planning to develop and release the top two. More precisely, we plan to release both packs later this year in the same way we have done in 2020. As you will see, several of the topics are inspired by your feedback and suggestions while others are the result of internal brainstorming.

The exact content and scope depend on the theme of the pack, especially since we also have another Skin Pack for you to vote on. As before, the packs will be standalone purchases for a price of 4,99€ and will not be part of the Season 3 Pass to give our players maximum flexibility over their Anno 1800 experience.

And now enough of the introduction, here are the 5 themes you can vote on!

 

“Vibrant Cities Pack”: Change the look of your city with new skins for various buildings.

“New World Pack”: Enhance your New World session with dedicated ornaments and decorations.

“Pedestrian Zone Pack”: Make your pedestrian’s life more comfortable with over- and underpasses, statues, wells, and more.

“Eldritch Pack”: Introduce fantastical and gothic horror elements to your city with some spooky ornaments.

“Big Top Pack”: Have the circus come to town whenever you feel like it!

 

Of course, all of us on the Anno 1800 team have our own favourites that we are crossing fingers for, and we can’t wait to see which theme will emerge as the community’s favourite!

The voting will run for two weeks and end on Thursday, April 22nd at 11:59pm CEST / 5:59 EDT. You can click on any of the images to view them in full size. Happy voting, and stay safe!

[totalpoll id=”12713″]

*Please note that as before, all content will be cosmetic and will not change Anno 1800’s gameplay. The names of the packs are “working titles” and might change later on.

Vote for the next cosmetic DLC

Posted on by Ubi_MarcelH

Hey Anno Community,

it has been a while since we ran our last Anno Union vote— high time to do so again! This time we want your input on the topic of our next Cosmetic DLC Pack, giving you the choice between three themes. Once the voting ends, we will begin development on the new content, which we plan to cover with blogs on the Anno Union to show you how the Union’s chosen topic comes to live.

So, what exactly is a “Cosmetic Pack”? As you know, we released the Holiday Pack last December, giving you the option to turn your cities festive with an assortment of Christmas-themed ornaments such as Christmas Market stalls. While many of you loved the Pack, we also received a lot of feedback that if we were to do another such pack, you would prefer to have something a bit more general that you can proudly display in your empire all-year-round. You also provided us with many suggestions about potential themes, which inspired us to turn the decision about the next pack’s theme over to you, the faithful Anno Union members.

More precisely, we plan to release the pack this Summer, at a price of 4,99€/$, which will include between 15-20 ornaments, with the exact number depending on the theme and scope (with the Ferris wheel, for example, being a lot more work than two smaller ornaments). This pack will be a standalone purchase, and not part of the Season 2 Pass. While ornaments and beauty building are super important for parts of our community, we also know that others don’t care for them as much, so we think that having these packs as à la carte purchase outside the Season Passes is the best way to give our players maximum flexibility over their Anno 1800 experience. Enough on that— here are your options! Please note that all content below is cosmetic and will not change Anno 1800’s gameplay.

“Bustling City Life”: Build playgrounds, coffee and ice cream kiosks, and similar novelties.

“Trip to the Big Top”: Have the Circus come to town whenever you feel like it!

“A Day at the Amusements”: Open an astounding amusement park for your citizens to revel in.

Of course, all of us on the Anno 1800 Team have our own favorites that we are crossing fingers for, and we can’t wait to see which theme will emerge as the community’s favorite! Voting will run for two weeks and end on Thursday, May 14th at 11:59pm CET. Happy voting, and stay safe!

 

[totalpoll id="6156"]

Vote: Community Expedition Event

Posted on by Bastian Thun

After reading through dozens of creative, smart, surprising and sometimes funny expedition events, we are ready to open the next Anno Union vote!

However, before we present our final entries, a few words about the amazing work of everyone who participated.  Once again, we had a tough time making the final decision which events should make it into the voting. Some stories amazed us with their incredible love for detail while others impressed us with their visual design and representation.
At the end, we had many favorites, so our narrative and design team had to come together to make a tough call: deciding for the finalists for the community vote. Decisions were made based on the general idea, flair and design of the event, while we also had to take into account if the entry would fit into the game and whether they would make a great addition to the existing roster of expedition events.

Therefore, without further ado, here are the final entries:
Argurino: “Darwin Expedition” or “The Voyage of the Beagle”
Follow the footstep of great scientific adventurers like Charles Darwin, on a curious hunt for mother earth’s last great secrets. In a seemingly unknown and wild archipelago, will your discoveries cause furor among fellow scientists back home or will your curiosity take its toll among your comrades? If you want to change the world, you have to be willing to take all risks necessary.
Editor’s note: As Anno is merely inspired by history, but does not use actual personalities, we renamed the event to “The voyage of the Beagle” to keep the reference to Charles Darwin.
Our team thinks:
“Interesting to have the crew face the different dangers related to the exploration of a tropical island in a single event. Moreover, it is related to a real life discovery.” – Marie Rouzié, Narrative Designer
Hexagon19: “Isla de los Muertos”
A tale of old legends and auspicious treasures. This event leads your crew to a mysterious island, haunted by the ghostly remains of the last unlucky soldiers of fortune who tried to unravel the island’s mystery.  Are you brave enough to press forward into the depths of an old pirate cave and will you be able to reap the riches and to uncover the truth about the “Isla de los Muertos”?
Our team thinks:
“This one convinced me as Hexagon19 clearly understood the Expedition system and how it works which evidently shown in the structure. It’s a “classical” pirate story and reminds me of Treasure Island.” – Sebastian Knietzsch, Senior Game Designer
Hojny87: “The forgotten civilization.”
With great power comes great responsibility. In an age of exploration, where the old world taps into the last unknown corners of the world, you brought something with you that might decide the fate of a once untouched paradise. A dramatic event with high stakes where your actions will decide the destiny of an old civilization.
Our team thinks:
“Great idea to have the event starting with a disease carried by the local population, probably caused by the crew spending time with them. This feels really different from other events we have already created and provides an interesting look at a very real problem: discovering new cultures at the risk of endangering them.” – Marie Rouzié, Narrative Designer

The voting will be open until January 2nd, giving you ample opportunity to cast your vote in favor of your preferred expedition proposal.

We say thank you to all members of the Anno Union who participated in the contest. While we had to decide on three final entries based on a variety of factors, including how they would fit into the existing game, we are proud that there is so much creative power in our Anno community.

And before we go, a small reminder for all Admirals out there: save the date for the upcoming AnnoCast this Thursday at 4.30pm CET, if you want more details and answers to your questions on our Naval combat system – twitch.tv/ubisoftbluebyte

Anno Union Ship Vote

Posted on by Bastian Thun

“If I may say, an excellent day to visit. A lot of new stuff came in only last night… by moonlight. We have all sorts, something for every taste. I can’t just give them away – I have a family to look after! – but we can’t afford to hold on to this stock too long either!”
The Imperial Pride
“Stunning to look at and surprisingly well-armored, this steamer is a showpiece of Imperial power”

We had to pull quite a stunt to snatch it from the empire’s greedy hands. You can tell they have spared neither expense nor effort, from that swanky design to the absurdly powerful steam engine, all wrapped up in enough armor and firepower to make the enemy think twice. As if its teeth weren’t enough, it also has a capacious hold for storage.
The Iron Dragon
“Some like it hot!”

Armed with weapons that spit fire straight from the pits of hell, this beast comes with a monstrous engine and such thick steel plating; you’d wonder how it ever swims. But it swims fine; as we learned the hard way. I’m surprised we managed to get hold of one! Don’t worry though, I’ll get you a discount for all those strange symbols scratched everywhere.
The Black Pearl
“Sailing under the black flag is a commitment to an alternative lifestyle.”

She looks a bit worn, but I’ll get you those sails stitched and decks scrubbed of blood stains. I’ll be honest, this here is one of my favorites: reliable, fast and easy to repair; I often take her for personal use. Doesn’t have the most guns, but she’s quick and deadly. Leaves our enemy regretting they bet their lives on some new-fangled steamer.

Tourist Boat
“A real dandy. For those leading a life of leisure.”

Talking of new-fangled, here is a fashionable paddle steamer. Longing to leave the promenade for a tour around the bay? Here’s your chance. And if for some reason you want a ship with no chance of defending itself, you get a whole host of accessories as compensation. Deck chairs, parasols, and colorful pennants. It’s a proper showboat.
Tug Boat
“I have no idea how it ended up here.”

Ah, the crown jewel of the collection… Okay forget it, we woke up aboard this tug one morning, don’t ask how. She may be small, but she’s mighty, and you should never write off an underdog; especially one with a steam engine, storage enough for a good bit of contraband, and maybe even a nasty surprise or two.

The Anno Union ship vote

Presented here are five ships that are normally reserved for use by various NPC factions in the game. While you won’t be able to construct these AI ships in your shipyard, there will be a chance to acquire some of them during gameplay, such as buying stolen ships from pirates.

Today, we want to know which of these ships is your favorite, before we enter the second stage of our contest.
The second phase will challenge your creativity, as we want you to design a ship variant of the first stage’s winner. Similar to the island contest, you will be able to go all in with ideas, drawings and descriptions of the model variant. Whether you envision a mix of speed and transport space or an interesting combination of weapons of special features, we will gather all your submissions at the end to put the best design ideas up for the second stage of the vote. The winner of that contest will make it as a true community ship into Anno 1800!

The first stage of the vote will be up until July 2nd. After the end of the first phase, we will provide further details about the upcoming ship design contest!

After you hit that vote button, let us know what your favorite of the five concepts is, and why you would like to get your own hands on it in Anno 1800.