Community Challenge

The first Community Challenge for this year has ended, and you crushed the target: We asked you to build at least 60,000 Fertiliser Modules in the two weeks after the release of DLC 10 – and you built a whopping 145,166!

Clearly, we underestimated your fascination for fertiliser (even with the currently still long production timer) – we will keep that in mind for the challenge for DLC 11.

As announced, for reaching the target we will add two new company logos for all players to the game. This will happen with a future update (not next week’s Game Update 14.1) but you can already take a look at them below:

 

We also received some feedback on expanding the idea of the Community Challenges to non-DLC-owners. That’s something we will keep in mind for next time.

Cosmetic DLC Vote

As announced in February, we are once again planning a community vote for the theme of the third of this year’s Cosmetic DLC!

This vote will start on Tuesday next week with three topics to choose from. After two weeks we will start development on the winning topic, the release is planned for autumn.

More details on this next week – we’re excited to see the outcome.

Video Game Music concert

We mentioned it a few weeks ago, and here’s your reminder:

This Saturday, April 30th, at 8 PM CEST you can listen to “Game Music in Concert”, a Twitch live stream by the Augsburger Philharmoniker orchestra, directed by Domonkos Héjas. The orchestra will play the soundtracks of various video games from classics like Tetris over Assassin’s Creed and Anno to Stellaris and Civilization.

Have a listen on Saturday over on Twitch.

Amongst all the Season 4 news and new details on “Seeds of Change”, there are some smaller news we also want to make you aware of.

Annoverse roundtable recordings

Let’s start with the “Roundtable”, the Q&A session that happened on Friday last week on the Annoverse Discord server.

Thank you to everyone who used the opportunity to ask us questions the game and our work – and also a big thank you to the Annoverse team who organised and moderated the event!

If you missed it, you can download a recording of the German and the English sessions of the Roundtable to catch up.

Until next time!

Anno soundtrack composer releasing first symphony

Secondly, for all lovers of the Anno 1800 soundtrack, we might have something that interests you:

Tillman Sillescu, founder of “Dynamedion” – the company that is composing fantastic Anno soundtracks for us since Anno 1404 – has composed his first symphony “Nachtlichter”.

The symphony was recorded by the Staatskapelle Weimar (symphony orchestra of Weimar), directed by Christian K. Frank. If that got you interested, you can also check out the whole symphony over on Spotify.

Video game soundtracks in concert

Up for more orchestral music? Perfect, cause fans of classical music and video game soundtracks should mark April 30th in their calendars:

The Augsburger Philharmoniker (orchestra of Augsburg) is playing parts of the soundtrack of several video games including Anno, Assassin’s Creed and Civilizations and will be live streaming the concert on Twitch.

And no worries, we’ll remind you in time so you won’t miss it 😉

Scenario DevBlog and Release Notes

Tomorrow we’ll be continuing with our DevBlog for the “Seasons of Silver” scenario and on Friday we will have the full Release Notes for Game Update 14 for you. Stay tuned!

Hello Anno Community,  

Two days ago, we revealed our plans for Anno 1800’s Season 4. We hope you enjoyed the surprises and are excited to explore the new content throughout 2022! We are less than two weeks away from the first DLC “Seeds of Change”, a good time for a quick recap of our latest news and of our upcoming events. 

Season 4 Unveiled 

Season 4 consists of three DLCs that will be released throughout 2022. At the center of Season 4 is the New World, and each DLC will focus on different themes. “Seeds of Change” (April 12th) focuses on agriculture and ways to improve and revolutionise this sector. “Empire of the Skies” (planned for Summer 2022), as the title suggests, will focus on the Age of Airships. Finally, “New World Rising” (planned for late 2022), will revolve around the industrial and economic boom of the New World. And did you know that each DLC will come with a new scenario?  

If you would like to know more about Season 4, we have a detailed overview here on the Anno Union. Oh, and of course, next week we will publish two DevBlogs with everything you need to know about “Seeds of Change” and the “Seasons of Silver” scenario. 

FAQ 

During yesterday’s stream we received a lot of questions related to our upcoming content. Here are the answers to the most common ones we have seen popping up: 

 

Q: When will I receive the Bonus Ornaments that come with purchasing the Season 4 Pass?

A: If you purchase the Season 4 Pass, you will receive the three Bonus Ornaments upon the release of DLC 10, “Seeds of Change” – that is April 12th at 6pm CEST / 9am PT. 

 

Q: Will the world expansion in DLC 12 be compatible with my old savegames? 

A: Yes! The world expansion will be compatible with your savegames. We will expand the current region and add new islands.

 

Q: How many Haciendas can be built per island? 

A: One Hacienda per island. More info coming next week! 

 

Q: Are all the airships shown in the trailer going to be released with DLC 12?! 

A: The airships you see in the image in the Season 4 trailer are just scribbles. They are not final concepts but just for us to get a feel for what can work. 

 

If you have got more questions related to Season 4 – ask away! However, keep in mind that answers to questions related to DLC 11 and DLC 12 will generally come later this year, when we get closer to each release. 

Community challenges 

We know that the Anno Community loves challenges – so we decided to spice things up for Season 4! Throughout 2022 there will be three Community Challenges in total, one for each DLC. They will focus on each DLC’s content and once completed, the whole Anno Community will be rewarded for the amazing work! 

Would you like some spoilers about the first Community Challenge of the Season? Alright, alright… Well, of course it will involve fertiliser and maximising its (excessive?) usage. More details in our “Seeds of Change” release day blog, so stay tuned for that! 

Free week 

What better way to lure your non-Annoholic friends into the Anno universe? From April 12th to April 20th, Anno 1800 will be playable for free! The Free Week will include the full base game without the DLC and will be savegame and multiplayer compatible. 

And did we mention our Friend Referral program? By getting your friends to play Anno 1800 you will both receive the “Seasonal Decorations” Pack CDLC for free, if your friends purchase the game! 

Twitch Drops 

The DLC 10 release will be accompanied by a Twitch Drops event, that will last from April 8th to April 20th – more details coming next week! Just one little spoiler from us: this time, our Twitch Drops event will be open for all streamers! 

Anno 1602 Annoversary 

In the past few days, we have been talking a lot about the future and our upcoming content for Anno 1800. However, we cannot forget an important milestone: Today, Anno 1602 turns 24! Happy Birthday to the game that started it all!

Annoverse Q&A session 

Last but not least, a couple of weeks ago we announced our Roundtable on the Annoverse Discord that will take place tomorrow, April 1st. During this Q&A you will have the chance to ask all your questions about Anno in the text chat, that will be then answered by the Anno Team in the voice channel. The session will be split into two parts, German and English.  

German session: 7pm– 8pm CEST/UTC+2

English session: 8:30pm – 9:30pm CEST/UTC+2

You can join the Annoverse Discord server via this link – there you will find a channel dedicated to the Roundtable (Annoverse Stage) and later on also a dedicated channel to post your questions. Again, a huge thank you to the Annoverse team for organising this event. We hope to see you all there! 

This is all for today’s Union Update. Quite a lot to unfold, right? As usual, if you got any question do not hesitate to comment down below or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, or our official Forums. 

Happy city-building! 

Hey Anno Community,

 

Today we’re re-launching our public known issues list for Anno 1800 to provide you with better visibility on reported issues and their current status.

You might remember the previous list on the old forums which ended up being a bit hard to read for you and inconvenient to maintain for us. So, for the new list we decided to go for a different solution:

You can now find the new known issues list by following this link.

As you can see, the Trello board is split into different categories – the top cards give you a few more details on each of them if you’re unsure what the categories mean. Please also check our DevBlog about the Game Update Process for further details on which phases a bug report passes through.

If you click on one of the cards, you will get more info like a more detailed description, a workaround (if available), and a comment from the team if needed. If we need more information from you about a reported issue, the card is marked with a “Need Community Help” label.

Our goal with this board is, to provide you with visibility and additional information on some of the issues that are most important to our community. For this, we take both the severity into consideration as well as how important an issue seems to be for our players based on the number of reports and discussions (e.g. even a smaller issue can appear here when we see many of you talk about it).

Please also note that this overview does NOT cover all the things we’re investigating and will not include every single bug you discover.

Below you can find some answers to potential questions about the Known Issues list.

If you have any further questions, let us know in the comments. If you have any feedback or suggestions on how to improve the board, feel free to also share those with us – we’re happy to further changes to the board to make it as useful as possible for you.

 

How do I report an issue I encountered?

There are multiple ways, be it via the official Anno forums or via the Ubisoft support. Find below links to all these channels.

Create a ticket or start a live chat:

Contact Ubisoft Support on Twitter or Facebook

Report the bug on the official Ubisoft Player Support forums.

 

Why don’t you give an exact date for a fix?

The fixing of some issues can take significantly longer than originally thought, while tests later may reveal additional issues or edge cases not previously considered.

If a specific issue is confirmed for the next Game Update, it will be marked accordingly, and you will be able to find the announcement of any upcoming Game Update as well as the respective patch notes here on the Anno Union closer to its release.

 

How often are you updating this board?

We aim to update this board on a weekly basis.

 

What happens to cards in the “Fixed” category?

We will regularly archive cards from the “Fixed” category after each major update. However, you can still find the full list of all previous bug fixes in the Release Notes section here on the Anno Union.

Hello Annoholics!

We are back with another Union Update, and it is getting busy! Let’s have a quick look at our upcoming events and our very special community spotlight.

Annoverse Roundtable – Ask the team!

We are very excited to announce that we will be doing a community roundtable on the Annoverse Discord on April 1 (No, this is not a joke!). During this Q&A, you’ll be able to ask all your burning questions about Anno and our work as the Anno team in the text chat. The Anno team will then go through your questions and answer them in the voice channel. The session will be split into two parts with an English and a German one on the same evening – we’ll have the precise times for you closer to the event.

You can join the server via this link and then hop in the dedicated roundtable channel.

A big thank you to the Annoverse team for organizing this event and we cannot wait to see you guys there!

And since we’re already talking about the Annoverse: They just started a new community challenge themed around International Women’s Day, requiring you to ally with your female competitors while creating a beautiful settlement.

Check the #challenge-board channel on their server for details and how to participate.

Plant a Tree DLC Reminder

A small reminder that our “Plant a Tree” initiative is still ongoing! The DLC will be available until 31 March 2022 after which it will be removed from our stores for new buyers. The DLC will be added to the game for free at the end of the year. From each purchase, all net proceeds (that means after any fees or taxes are deducted) are going to Ecologi – and in return you get a lovely Ceiba tree ornament for your city.

For this DLC we partnered with Ecologi, a social enterprise that funds reforestation and other carbon reduction projects. You can find out more about Ecologi here.

So, if you haven’t already: Go check our “Plant a Tree” DLC and help protect our beautiful planet!

Season 4 News – when?

We have seen the question appear across several of our channels recently – and share your excitement! You won’t have to wait much longer for news about Season 4.

As previously communicated, we’ll have a lot to share at the end of the month! (and maybe some teasers before that on our social channels, so make sure to follow our Twitter-Channel)

Community Spotlight

In this week’s special edition community spotlight, we wanted to take the time to appreciate and highlight the many amazing mods created for the community, by the community. As always, we are in absolute awe of all the hard work and passion put into our game by our community, so let’s take a look!

Disclaimer: Before we dive into your creations, 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 below 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.

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!

“Spice it Up” Mod Package

Our first pick of the day is the “Spice It Up” mod package by DaLexy and several other modders. With its various add-ons (including a sandbox mode and AI shipyard!), Quality of Life adjustments, ornamental mods, and more this mod package is sure to ‘spice up’ your gameplay. Just look at these beautiful ornaments! And are those new streetlights? You can find out more about the “Spice It Up” mod package as well as all contributing modders here. Thank you so much DaLexy and the others for this amazing creation!

The Colour Collection

If you are looking to add a splash of colour to your cities, why not try the colour collection mod by Lethani? The mod adds a large range of new rooftop colour options for your Old World buildings so you can let your artistic imagination run wild! For more information about this mod click here. And of course, thank you Lethani for this colourful creation!

Diagonal Road and Paving Edges

Next up we have the “Diagonal Road and Paving Edges” mod by jje1000 which allows you to cut through your city grids and create beautiful diagonal roads. Or to put it in jje1000’s own words: “Liberate your cities with these 45 degree tile edges for roads and plazas!”. Find out more about this mod right here – and thanks so much jje1000!

Jakob’s Collection

And of course, no diagonal road would be complete without diagonal buildings! Luckily Jakob has got you covered with his diagonal residences mod. And if that wasn’t enough, his mod “Jakob’s Collection” also includes upgradable workers residences and more. You can check it out here. Thank you, Jakob, for sharing this awesome mod!

All above mods and more are available on Nexus Mods. Go check them out to discover many more mods, from balancing, to gameplay, to ornamental. Again, a big thank you to all the creators of and contributors to these mods!

 

And that brings us to the end of this week’s Union Update! Don’t forget to share your favourite mods in the comments below! And, as always, feel free to share them below or contact us on Twitter, Facebook or our official forums.

Hey Anno Community,

 

The first month of 2022 is almost over, if you believe it, and it has been a relatively quiet month on the communication side of things for Anno so far.

This will change in February, when we first tell you more about Cosmetic DLC plans for this year (next week) and then right into the first of these CDLCs (in two weeks) that is going to release in mid-February.

 

With this Cosmetic DLC we will also release another patch to, amongst other things, fix the missing consumption statistics for buildings like Power Plants and Arctic Heaters.

MainzFrame – Game Design

In the meantime, we heavily recommend you checking out the latest episode of “MainzFrame”, a series of video podcasts by Ubisoft Mainz. Each episode is taking a look at different aspect of our work and often also talks about the professional backgrounds of the involved team members. This might be especially interesting for anyone of you who is interested in working in the video game industry one day, too.

For the latest episode, our Communications Manager Basti has invited two of our Game Designers who many of you will probably recognize: Andrea and Dominik talk about their work in Game Design and how they ended up in their jobs here in Mainz.

Check it out below!

Community Channels

As we have just entered the new year and are getting ready for the months to come, we thought it was the perfect moment to remind you of some useful pages, created and maintained by our amazing Community.

• The Wiki

If you are looking for Anno 1800’s features, mechanics, and stats, then this is the right place for you. Extremely useful for new players looking for some answers, but also for veterans, who can share their immense knowledge of the game.

• Reddit

This is a subreddit completely dedicated to the Anno series. It is the perfect place for you to share screenshots and fanarts, start very insightful discussions, and ask questions.

• Annoverse Discord

The place to go to discuss any Anno title, find other Annoholics for a multiplayer match, share screenshots, videos etc., and have a chat with other players while competing for the Community challenges.

Not enough for you? Do not worry, we got your back. Check our Community Page on the Anno Union for more and let us know if you think we forgot something important!

Since we mentioned the Community Challenges in the Discord section above, the second Community Challenge is happening right now in the Annoverse – if you have not participated yet, be quick! You have time until January 30th. Task for this challenge, wisely called “The name is the game”, is to create the word “Anno” in the game using ornaments or other buildings. Here are some of the entries we’ve seen so far.

Tristan891 decided to use trees for this task. An evergreen choice… we might say. Beautiful and eco-friendly!

 

Annoholiker submitted this colorful screenshot for the Challenge, and what can we say? We love Anno 1800 too! (Totally not biased)

Ionovia created this majestic “Anno 1800” that takes up the full island. Wow!

This is all for today’s Union Update. For any question, feel free to ask them in the comments below or reach out to us on Facebook, Twitter, or our official Forums.

Hey Anno Community, 

We hope 2022 has been treating you well so far. What better way to start the New Year than having a quick look at our plans for the weeks and months to come? Let’s have a look at them together!  

GU 13.1 News 

Game Update 13.1 will be released next Tuesday, January 18th. GU 13.1 will address several of the issues you have been reporting GU 13. The full release notes will be shared here on the Anno Union closer to its release since we’re currently still running final tests. 

A huge thank you again for helping us with reports, screenshots and descriptions of the issues occurring since GU 13. 

Short 2022 Preview 

As you might already know, Season 4 is coming to Anno 1800 this year! 2022 is all about the New World and we cannot wait for you to see what we have in store for you. We will share more on Season 4 in March – so, watch this space! 

In the meantime, get ready for some exciting news related to our upcoming Cosmetic DLCs. We might reveal something very soon… 

Livestream 

Let’s kick off the new year with a livestream: Join us on Friday, 14th January, on Twitch for this year’s first Anno Afternoon. Community Developer Oliver and Community Manager Celeste will play some Anno 1800 co-op. The stream will start at 5PM CET, see you there!  

Community Spotlight 

Our first pick of the day is this lovely screenshot shared by Pyronite on Discord: the depth of the shot and the dusk atmosphere make those neon signs pop – we think this is a great way to use the skins of the new Cosmetic DLC “Vibrant Cities Pack”. 

Augustus_Johnson titled “Fresh Colours” this collection of screenshots – we love the contrast of the different colours! And right at the centre of this screenshot you can see a Ceiba Tree ornament, available through the “Plant a Tree” DLC. 

Last but not least, Rooonaldooo99 shared this amazing screenshot on Reddit, showing off most of the new skins for the buildings. Great job! 

That is all for today’s Union Update. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to write a comment below or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook or our official forums.