Hey Anno Community,

With the first month of 2023 already coming to an end, let’s update you on what’s coming in the next weeks!

Game Update 17 & Playtest

Firstly, let’s talk bug fixes and patches.

While we continue working on the Free Game Update we briefly mentioned at the end of last year (currently internally dubbed the “Jubilee Patch”), we’re going to have a playtest for said update in mid-February, both to test the stability of the version as well as to get feedback on the new features we’re implementing.

There are still some issues that we want to iron out, including of course bugs that you have reported like the Anarchist quests, issues with the music or regarding the targeting behaviour of the AI – all of which are planned for the mentioned update.

We’ll have more news on the playtest soon and will follow this up later in February with more details on the “Jubilee Patch” – stay tuned!

Console Edition Reveal – FAQ

Following our reveal of the Anno 1800 Console Edition last week, we’ve seen a few questions pop up multiple times, so, let’s answer some of them today. Next week we’ll have a slightly longer FAQ blog that will then hopefully also answer the remaining ones. As a reminder: Anno 1800 Console Edition releases on March 16th on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

Cross-play & Cross-progression

The Anno 1800 Console Edition allows multiplayer matches with a maximum of 16 players, with up to 4 players per team in co-op mode. However, the console version does only support multiplayer between players on the same platform.

Cross-progression between Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 is supported.

DLC content

For Anno 1800 Console Edition, we have decided to focus on the base game experience of Anno 1800 which already provides many hours of content, especially since we’ll be including the Free Game Updates that have been released for the PC version so far. Upon its release, the first 9 Cosmetic DLC will be available for purchase. The recently released “Dragon Garden” Pack as well as the three remaining Cosmetic DLC that are planned to be released in 2023 will become available later this year.

Controls

Our main focus during the development of Anno 1800 Console Edition was to achieve a smooth experience with a controller, for which the UI and controls were redesigned. It will therefore not support mouse and keyboard.

Since the PC version is optimized for mouse and keyboard input and with all the additional DLC released there, we are currently not planning to add controller support to the PC version.

Missed our livestream? – No worries, you can see the console version in action in our recording.

Community Spotlight

Rounding off this Union Update and with the “Dragon Garden” Pack having released one week ago, let’s feature some of the creations you posted using the new ornaments.

Let’s start with this this GIF by L_Q_Nguyen on Twitter, celebrating the Tết Festival: what a lovely composition! It’s great to see how the atmosphere changes between day and night, bringing out the bright colours of the lanterns and the Great Dragons in the centre.

My Tết festival in #Anno1800 pic.twitter.com/1Oqwv5zGyy

— LQ Nguyen (@L_Q_Nguyen) January 22, 2023

If you would like to see some beauty building in action, then we recommend checking out Nivarias video, showcasing the whole Cosmetic DLC pack. Such a nice and peaceful idea to build a beautiful district to celebrate the Lunar New Year next to the river!

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Pyronite shared a dreamy screenshot on the Annoverse Discord. The contrast between the dark skyline and the Dragon Garden ornaments creates an amazing atmosphere for the perfect night shot. Bravo!

We love to see combinations between ornaments from different Cosmetic DLC, and PeterMaywald shared a great example of these combos on Twitter. The lovely Ceiba tree from the “Plant a Tree” CDLC and the Hildegarden from the “Old Town” Pack CDLC blend perfectly together with the “Dragon Garden” Pack CDLC!

Hey Anno Community,

Happy New Year! We hope you had a great time over the holidays and started well into 2023.

Let’s take a look at what’s planned for the coming weeks in the world of Anno 1800:

Upcoming Game Update 16.1

Firstly, we’re currently in the validation phase for Game Update 16.1, a patch that will address several of the issues you reported to us following Game Update 16 and DLC 12. For example, the duplication of item effects when using the multi-move feature, several text issues for the Stadium and the problem that the game was not starting under certain circumstances.

The Game Update is planned for January 19th, we’ll have the full Release Notes for you closer to that date.

Celebrate Lunar New Year in style

Talking about January 19th: On the same day, we’re going to release the “Dragon Garden” Pack Cosmetic DLC.  Celebrate the New Lunar Year with the Dragon Garden Pack and create stunning lucky-dragon-themed districts in your empire with new ornaments. More details and screenshots on Thursday in a dedicated blog.

Revealing Anno 1800 Console Edition

Before these releases, however, there’s one more big event: On the 17th at 5PM UTC+1 we will reveal the Anno 1800 Console Edition in a live stream on twitch.tv/ubisoft

We’re excited to show you what we’ve been working on and how you will soon be able to experience Anno 1800 on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5. Mark the day, we’ll see you there!

“Cultural Boom” Community Challenge

Last but not least: The DLC 12 Community Challenge!

As we already said before the holidays, you smashed the goal of settling 81 million Artistas with ease. In fact, in the two weeks the challenge was running, you achieved three times that: a total of 242 million! Incredible, your New World cities must be very crowded by now and we hope you built some parks for them to relax.

With Game Update 16.1 next week, we’ll add two rewards to the game for everyone: Two new company logos themed after DLC 12 (orchid and bird) and two new player colours (Bordeaux Red and Orange).

Hey Anno Community,

We’re super close to the holidays and the end of the year, time for one last blog post here on the Anno Union.

This year’s focus was very much on the New World region, with “Seeds of Change”, “Empire of the Skies” and “New World Rising” all adding new options and possibilities for the New World – with DLC 12 even expanding the region further and adding Manola, a large continental-style island.

That said, we have also seen many happy comments (and screenshots!) in regard to the “Old Town” Pack Cosmetic DLC and admired all the little castles you built. We are not only happy that the Cosmetic DLC continue to be so well-received, but are also amazed by seeing what you create with all these options in the game now!

In addition to our livestreams (as usual with a very wholesome chat), 2022 marked the first time since 2019 that we could bring Anno to a large physical event again! Gamescom 2022 was a great experience for us, and we loved meeting some of you there.

And while we love seeing the comments, screenshots and videos you posted about “New World Rising” and the things you discovered in the DLC, we’re aware that some of you are still encountering issues with starting the game, even after the hotfix from Friday last week. For our investigation, it would be great if you could get in touch with Customer Support and provide your DxDiag file as well as your Ubisoft Connect launcher log. 

There are also several other bug reports we’re investigating following the release of DLC 12, like missing translations for certain menus or a problem with item effect duplication. We’ll keep you updated on the most notable problems via our Known Issues Board.

Therefore, looking into 2023, our first focus in January is ironing out those issues with a patch. As we communicated in early December, we’re also working on a larger Game Update for Spring and will have more news on it and its contents early next year.

Additionally, expect news on the Anno 1800 console version next year, too!

As some of you have already asked, we’re as usual sharing this year’s artworks as wallpapers with you. You can download the whole bundle here. Enjoy artworks from “Seeds of Change” over the “Industrial Zone” Pack to “New World Rising”! 

We’re wishing you Happy Holidays and a great start into the New Year.
See you in January!
The Anno Team

Hey Anno Community,

It has been a week since the release of “New World Rising” and we hope your New World is thriving with happy Artistas! We thought it was the perfect moment to stop and have a look at the awesome content you have been sharing with us, as well as giving you an update on what has been going on in the past few days.

Issues with Anno 1800 not starting after Game Update 16

While we are extremely happy to see so many of you experiencing cultural boom in the New World and building amazing Medieval citadels with our latest DLC and CDLC, we are also aware that some of you are currently facing issues with the game not launching since Game Update 16. As stated in this forum thread, we think we have found a fix for the problem and are currently in validation. We should be able to tell you a timeline for the fix tomorrow. We recommend following our forum thread to stay up to date with the latest news, as we will update it as soon as we have more information.

Once again, we apologise for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience.

“New World Rising” Twitch Drops

One last reminder for our current Twitch Drops campaign, as you still have 3 days to grab two fancy new ornaments dedicated to “New World Rising”! All you need to do is grab a snack and a cup of coffee (or tea if you prefer) and watch your favourite Anno livestream for 2 hours.

Community Challenge – Cultural Boom

We are halfway through the “Cultural Boom” Community Challenge. First of all, wow! There is still a week to go, but you already passed it with over 107 million Artistas! You have done an excellent job in welcoming new residents to your New World islands, so we decided to add something else as a reward: two new profile colours – congratulations, Annoholics!

And now we wonder – will you get to 200 million by the end of the Challenge and show off your outstanding city-building skills?

Community Spotlight

With the release of “New World Rising” and the “Old Town” Pack CDLC at the same time, we decided to dedicate today’s Community Spotlight to these two themes and the wonderful screenshots you have shared so far.

We start with Maulwurf_Viking2371, who shared this amazing screenshot on the Annoverse Discord: this seems like the perfect location for a small Medieval town, plus the idea of building it next to the fortress makes it even more special. Great shot!

When it comes to beauty building in Anno 1800, Aestris never disappoints. Aestris has been sharing a lot of screenshots portraying life on Manola – it was difficult for us to choose only one screenshot, as every one of them looked stunning! Therefore, we decided to go for an overview of Manola. Mixing the ornaments from different packs, including the “Old Town” Pack is a great way to spice things up.

We love screenshots that tell us a story in some way, and we thought that this collection of screenshots by Hippimichi on Reddit does exactly that. We chose to highlight a close-up of the old town and the merchant, while you can also see a parade about to enter the old town walls, but we recommend checking out the whole collection on Reddit!

Artistas bring wonderful colours to the New World, and One_King_4900 has captured this splash of colours by night. We love the contrast of the quiet darkness surrounding the bright and colourful Artistas residences, enhanced by those faint streetlights. What a lovely combination!

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.

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.

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.

 

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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!

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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!

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!

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!