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 19^th 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 19^th 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 8^th 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!