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!

Hey Anno Community,

In the midst of a new DevBlog about “Empire of the Skies” and the good news about Anno 2070, we want to share a look at our presence at gamescom last week.

From Thursday till Saturday, we not only presented our upcoming DLC to to our fans there (shout-out to everyone who visited us at the Community Lounge!) but also offered you an opportunity to directly ask us questions. We also brought some questions of our own, however, since we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to ask our community about their preferences on military usage and multiplayer as well as their feedback on Anno 1800’s scenarios.

Here are some impressions from our time at gamescom this year:

 

Community Questions

Our audience asked us a variety of questions after each of our presentations and we wanted to include some of them – with their answers, of course – here, since we think they’re also interesting for the rest of our community.

• How do airship vs ship battles work?

The armed airships can only attack other airships. But they can attack regular ships via drop actions: bombs and sea mines both damage regular ships (if you aim well). Normal ships can’t attack airships with the exception of the new Flak Monitor.

• Can airships escort each other? Can ships and airships escort each other?

Airships can escort each other, like normal ships. Ships and airships, however, cannot use the escort function on each other. You can of course group them and send them on their way together, of course.

• Does the AI use the drop actions? How?

They do, their usage depends on the AI’s character. Some might prefer propaganda, while others happily use bombs as part of their strategy.

• What is the maximum number of skyscraper inhabitants with the new lifestyle needs?

A level 5 skyscraper can house 730 investors, with full panorama effect and all needs and lifestyle needs fulfilled. Items are not part of this calculation.

• Do consumption affecting items affect lifestyle needs?

We did not add any new items specifically targeting the lifestyle needs and existing effects were not adjusted to also target lifestyle needs.

• When will “Empire of the Skies” release?

The new DLC as well as Game Update 15 will release on September 20th

• Are you planning to limit the research costs or add a way to further speed up research in the institute?

No, currently it’s not planned to adjust anything related to the research system.

• Will we ever see land units?

There’s no land combat planned for Anno 1800, as discussed a few years ago already before release. This does not mean land units are ruled out for all eternity for the Anno brand, however.

• Will there be a Season 5 or more content for Anno 1800? What about a new Anno game?

Our team is focused on developing the upcoming DLCs of Season 4 and the next Cosmetic DLC for Anno 1800.

As in the previous few years, we plan to give more updates regarding our plans end of this year or beginning of next year.

Anno Union Anniversary

Last but not least: The Anno Union recently celebrated its 5th anniversary! Established in 2017 and announced at gamescom of that year, the Anno Union has since been our central hub for all news on Anno, before and after release.

Back in 2017, we certainly did not expect to celebrate the Union’s 5th birthday in the middle of a Season 4 for Anno 1800!

We want to say thank you for your passion in sharing ideas, feedback and wishes, as well as letting us know when you weren’t so happy with how we were handling things. We’re extremely happy that we had decided to walk this route with all of you.

Events like our livestreams or the recent gamescom just confirm for us that this has indeed been the right approach for our team and our game.

Hello Annoholics,

We hope you’re enjoying the summertime!

Last week we released the “Industrial Zone” Pack Cosmetic DLC with several new ornaments related to construction, industry and the railway. We’ve already seen A LOT of fantastic screenshots and videos since then, so, of course we had to bundle up some of our favorites in a Community Spotlight. Just scroll to the end of the blog if you need some inspiration for your own cities.

Empire of the Skies & Old Town Pack

As we said above: It’s July, summer already! That means DLC 11 – Empire of the Skies – is coming closer and it won’t take too long anymore until we start talking about airships, mail delivery and the features the new Game Update will bring. Expect first details in late July!

But before we launch our airships, we want to give you a first status update for the “Old Town Pack”, the winner of this year’s community vote. So, expect a first glimpse in the next two weeks – we’re sure you’re going to love it.

Community Spotlight

Since the release of the “Industrial Zone” Pack Cosmetic DLC we have seen many screenshots portraying your Anno 1800 cities: from very elaborate industrial districts to railway stations and busy construction sites. Your creativity really shows from those captures, and we are amazed by the way you adapted some of the ornaments in different ways.

Our first pick of the day is this collection of screenshots by One_King_4900, portraying different districts of their Anno 1800 city. Everything is perfectly organised: the Loading Yard, the Packing District, Metro Central Station and more! The screenshot below shows the Steelworks District, and we think it is a perfect representation of the Industrial Revolution.

Speaking of using ornaments in different ways, Pyronite shared this screenshot on Discord, where you can see the Railway Hall used right next to the Commuter Pier, linking it to the city. Can we talk about how great all these ornaments from different CDLC fit perfectly together?

Desman2k6 did an outstanding job with this Train Station – and it only took them 2 hours of Twitch live stream to build it! You can find anything you need in this train station, from pizza to a chestnut stall and tiny market stands here and there. Something seems to be under construction in the background… What is it going to be?

Not long after, desman2k6 has shared an updated version of the Train Station. The sun setting on the horizon simply creates a peaceful atmosphere and brings everything together for this lovely train station! Adding the canals was a great idea, as they frame the station perfectly.

Wow, this part of the city seems to be very busy! Neufsgdv did a great job, putting all this together! Not only is there a railway guard hut to check that everything is on order for the trains, but check those pedestrian bridges from the Pedestrian Zone Pack CDLC, perfectly fitting the style of the railway hall!

This is all for today’s Union Update. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them in the comments below or reach out to us on Twitter and Facebook!