Tag: Anno 1800

Union Update: Happy New Year & Community Spotlight

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hey Anno Community,

A happy New Year from the Anno team – we hope you all had a great start into 2024!

 

We’re back at work after our holiday break, time to let you know what’s coming up in the next months.
First of all: expect a slower start in terms of news and blogs from us this year.

In early Spring we’ll have more information on the next Cosmetic DLC (including a livestream with our artist Laura), the theme of which may or may not have been “leaked” at the end of last year.

The boardgame enthusiasts among you can also look forward to an expansion to the Anno 1800 boardgame, also coming in Spring 2024. We’ll keep you updated on any news our friends at Kosmos have on this.

On the Twitch side of things, we would also love to continue some of the (multiplayer) savegames – for example for 2070 and 1800 – from last year. Let us know what you’d like to see from us on Twitch!

Finally, we still want to continue featuring anything YOU are creating, so, there will be Community Spotlights on specific mods, screenshots and videos shared by you and any other type of player created content.

In this spirit, here’s the first spotlight of 2024:

Community Spotlight

Let’s start with some mods recently uploaded to mod.io:

First, the “Balanced responders” by NumberNegative. A small mod in itself, but likely useful for fans of Muggenstuermer’s Fire Station, Police Station and Hospital. It rebalances the automatic responder units of those building.

For a little bit of additional British-ness, jje1000 has a new church skin for you: Wibblesock’s Parish gives you yet more visual variety – and you’re likely making Willie very happy!

For owners and fans of the “Land of Lions” DLC, the “Safari to Old Enbesa” mod by Lion053 has already been a go-to mod for a while. Reason enough to highlight it again now that it’s on mod.io – together with the “Enbesa Tourism” mod by the same author.

Over on Reddit, wannabegansta123 shared impressions from several of their cities, all with a unique twist and style. We decided to feature the one titled “Engineer’s Respite” here today, but make sure to check the post on Reddit for more examples.

And last but not least, we loved this cute little “potato island” that Nikolai Dante shared on Discord. As you know, potatoes are extremely versatile: you can boil them, mash them, put them in a stew…

The header image for today’s blog is courtesy of Chris92 from the Annoverse Discord.

Union Update: Happy Holidays 2023

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hey Anno Community,

This is it, our last Anno Union blog for 2023. It has been quite a year for us (even though mostly behind the scenes) and for Anno – which celebrated its 25th birthday this year! And we had Anno’s first full console release, as well as a big Annoversary update and mod support for our loyal PC players – together with Anno’s first ever modding contest.

From Anno 1602 to Anno 1800, Anno players could travel through history into the future; and to celebrate the end of this Annoversary and take a laaarge dose of nostalgia, we have a special trailer to commemorate the occasion:

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Throughout the year, we have also covered all Anno games in dedicated livestreams with various guests from the team on our Twitch channel. The latest happened just a few days ago, on Tuesday, when we had Jannika (Game Writer) and Christian and Rico (UI Programmers) live on stream to talk about Anno and their work on Anno 1800 specifically. If you missed it, you can watch the VOD here.

2023 also marked the year for another milestone: Over 3 million players have joined the ranks of the Annoholics across PC and Console for Anno 1800 now! By popular request and for tradition’s sake, we have summarized some the achievements (and some incredible numbers!) in the image below:

Last but not least: Wallpapers! As usual, we’ll have all of this year’s artworks bundled together for you as a download. Just follow this link.

 

And… was there a teaser in our livestream on Tuesday? Maybe…

Could it lead to a page here on the Anno Union – when added to the URL – with some hints to the first Cosmetic DLC theme of 2024? Maybe…

Let’s just put this random video clip here:

Well, that was 2023! We’ll now be taking some time off over the holidays to recharge our batteries and wishing you all a great end of the year, happy holidays and a fantastic start into the new year.

See you in 2024, and thank you for being an awesome community!

All the best from Mainz,

The Anno Team

The winners of the Anno 1800 modding contest

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hey Anno Community!

In April and August this year we did our two mod support updates, and in late October we launched Anno 1800’s first ever modding contest. Today, we’re excited to announce the five winning entries!

They are not in any particular order and all participants will receive the same prize: The Clutch GM51 Lightweight Wireless Mouse and the Agility GD72 Gleam Edition Mousepad which MSI graciously sponsored us for this contest.

And now, without further ado: The winners! Congratulations to all of you!

Tisogno’s “Maya Treasures”

A mid-game mod that lets you “discover the remnants of ancient Maya culture” and “experience the enriching effects of traditional wisdom and bizarre myth”. Making good use of the Hacienda mechanic from “Seeds of Change”, multiple modules can be attached to the Mayan temple, both ornamental ones as well as ones with gameplay functions. Use them to craft goods like “Love Powder” or “Rejuvenation Essence” (with its very own sets of new input goods) to fulfill new Lifestyle needs.

Add to that special temple policies and a silver production chain if you want to want to fill your coffers with some extra cash and you’ll certainly have a great bundle of new production chains to discover.

The mod is now also available on mod.io for the ingame mod browser.

Flatlex’ and Finchen’s “Gnome Pottery”

We’re sure you missed some good old garden gnomes in Anno 1800 – that’s changing now! The ornamental mod adds “Harry’s Pottery”, the New World’s first gnome pottery and painting company. Appropriately outfitted with sombreros, we’re sure these garden gnomes will be a great success for Harry.

The mod is now also available on mod.io for the ingame mod browser.

HerrTurTur’s “Jungle Expedition Ornaments”

Likely inspired by some of the ornaments of the “National Park” Pack, HerrTurTur delivers you all you need for your very own jungle expedition scenery: A wild jungle path with dangerous events along the way including wild animals and a mysterious skull-shaped rock, but also a full expedition camp and resting places. On top of that, the lake system was revamped into a swamp system, complete with mangrove trees. Plus, there are some ruins for you to place.

The mod is now also available on mod.io for the ingame mod browser.

Taludas’ “Colossus of the New World: Finding Mayabeque”

Probably the most colossal (hah!) of the creations we were sent, this mod adds a whole new region that you will first need to discover, with a new mega-island (a total New World conversion of Crown Falls) as well as a new monument and a quest chain to tie things together. This mod will surely please everyone among you who wants to build yet another massive New World settlement – and enjoy a good story along the way. There are also some “airship-only” islands in this world with their very own bonuses – and don’t forget to finish the monument!

The mod is now also available on mod.io for the ingame mod browser.

Hier0nimus’ “Music to my ears”

Last but not least, this one is all about music: It adds several instruments and their dedicated production chains to the game – from simple flutes over banjos to harps – that serve as new happiness needs. They’re not exclusive to the New World, but each region (including DLC regions) received their own instruments and population needs.

This all culminates in the New World with a building that brings all these things together: The Music Hall! If you transport instruments from all across your empire towards your cities in the New World, you can hold great concerts – not only fulfilling a Need for your population, but also providing buffs to all residences in its area.

The mod is now also available on mod.io for the ingame mod browser.

Big thanks from the whole team to all of you for participating in Anno’s first ever modding contest! We’re happy to both have such an active modding community, and so many players now using and discovering mods for their playthroughs.

The five winners and everyone else who participated is of course free to provide their mods to the public via mod.io, Nexus, GitHub or any other platform of their choice.

Congratulations to you once again – we’ll be reaching out to you via e-mail in order to send you your prizes!

Union Update: End-of-Year Livestream and a Community Spotlight

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hey Anno Community,

Decorations everywhere and it’s getting rather cold (at least here in Mainz) that can mean only one thing: the end of the year is near!

Before that, however, we have one last livestream planned:

Livestream – December 12th

On Tuesday, December 12th, we’ll be holding our “End of Year Livestream” from 5PM CET/UTC+1 to 6:30PM CET/UTC+1. We’ll be playing some Anno 1800 but most importantly – we’ll have a fantastic guest lineup!

Joining us first will be Laura, Prop Artist – giving us insights into the work of a 3D Artist and the creation of the Cosmetic DLC.

Then we’ll be welcoming Jannika, Game Writer, and talk about hidden references in ingame texts.

And rounding things off are Rico & Christian, our two UI Programmers, giving you an overview over their work and the challenges with such a UI-heavy game like Anno.

We hope to see you there – this will be a great opportunity to ask our experts questions you always wanted to know the answers to!

And… there might be a giveaway?

Modding Contest

The Anno 1800 Modding Contest ended last week and we’re currently looking at the entrants. Thank you to everyone who sent in their creation – we’ll have a separate blog with the winners at the end of this week, latest next week before the holidays.

Community Spotlight

Last but not least, we’re happy to highlight just a few more creations by our community!

We start with something nostalgic: A map for Anno 1602! This absolutely HUGE map by SirVesanus features multiple islands, large landmasses and places to explore.

 

Secondly, this mod caught our attention: It’s a new church skin inspired by the great Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, created by Mrkoekie.

When talking tourist attractions: MSC111 created these beautiful menus based on the dishes from the Tourist Season DLC restaurants.

 

And lastly, fitting to the current season, we also want to share this little old town Christmas market created by Finchen on Discord.

Union Update: It’s Eldritch Pack Release Day!

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hey Anno Community,

Today’s the day Eldritch horrors make their way into your cities! With the “Eldritch” Pack Cosmetic DLC you’ll not only receive several Gothic ornaments, but also appropriately spooky building skins for Worker and Artisan Residences, as well as the pub and hospital.

Watch the video below for some impressions from the Cosmetic DLC:

This also is an excellent opportunity to once again highlight the eldritch fan art Dulcamarra shared last week. Not sure how Bente got roped into all of this, but Eli certainly looks very heroic. We only have one question: Where is Lady Hunt?

 

Alongside the new Cosmetic DLC we also released patches on PC, Xbox and PlayStation. You can find the patch notes here.

The Eldritch Pack CDLC is now available on PC, Xbox Series and PlayStation 5. 

Celebrating over 3 million Annoholics

Earlier this year we also passed a milestone for Anno 1800: Over 3.5 million players have joined us on PC and Consoles since the game’s release in April 2019!

As a thank you to all of you, our fantastic community, and to celebrate the occasion, we’re adding a new ornament to Anno 1800 for everyone.

Livestreams

It’s mid-November and only a few more weeks to the holidays. But before that, we are still planning three more livestreams for the Annoversary.

On November 23rd (Thursday next week) we’ll be diving into an Anno 2070 multiplayer match

On December 1st, we’re taking a look at Anno 2205 together with our guest Frank from the 3D Programming team.

And finally, on December 12th, we’ll be doing our “End of the Year Livestream” with several guests.

All three streams will be hosted on our usual Twitch channel: twitch.tv/ubisoftbluebyte

We hope to see you there and are, as usual, happy to answer any game dev questions you might have!

Modding Contest Reminder

Last but not least we want to add a small reminder regarding the Anno 1800 Modding Contest!

Running until November 30th, this is your chance to hone your modding skills and get a chance at winning some great hardware prizes by MSI!

You can find more information and the official rules document here.

DevBlog – The Eldritch Pack CDLC

Posted on by UbiCecce

Boo, Anno Community – happy Halloween!

What better day to finally showcase one of the most awaited Cosmetic DLCs of all time in the history of Anno 1800? This is not a drill, you read that right in the title – our next Cosmetic DLC will be the Eldritch Pack! Those of you who have been following us for a long time have probably seen this name pop up a couple of times in the past, mostly during the Community Vote for CDLCs – and you probably know that it holds a special place in the hearts of the Anno team.

Last week, you might have seen a small teaser of what you will find in this new Cosmetic DLC, but are you ready to be spooked and let yourself get carried away by glimmering lights, twisted trees and gargoyle statues? If your answer is yes, then…

… Something wicked this way comes!

Forgotten places, mysterious statues and Gothic architecture

Let’s start with one of our favourite ornaments from this pack: nothing screams Eldritch (pun intended) more than the Forgotten Abbey you saw in our teaser, don’t you think? It seems that this place has been abandoned for years, becoming a distant echo of the past. Left in ruins, now overrun by nature and eerie tranquillity. Is that all there is? Those green, flickering lights on the quiet surface of the water suggest something else…

The Eldritch Pack would not be complete without gothic statues: did anybody say Gargoyles? Not only is there a Gargoyle statue in the pack, but you can also spot some gargoyles on the Gothic Fence, standing tall and peering into your deepest thoughts. Not to mention the majesty of the Statue of Lady Morningstar. Look at all that grace! 

For all the fans of gothic architecture and style in the Anno Community: this pack will be undoubtedly a dream – or a nightmare, if you prefer – come true. Once you decorate your cities with the new ornaments, you will find yourself wandering around the Dreamspire at dusk or sitting at the Wishing Well hoping for your desires to become reality.

Gothic ornaments call for Gothic building skins

Do not get fooled by the cheerful atmosphere around the Old Inn, as the thick fog can bewilder anyone when they least expect it. The Worker and Artisan residences, on the other hand, are surrounded by a strange tranquillity. However, we heard rumours about… ghosts? Weird figures have been spotted creeping into the night, making our residents’ dreams less sweet and more frightening.

Even the Hospital now seems to be changed, somehow. Is it just us, or does it look even more imposing than before? A thick, mysterious haziness surrounds it, hiding all its secrets from prying eyes. 

After all this ornaments & skins talk, it is time for our favourite part: Q&A with the Art Team! We asked some questions to Laura, Prop Artist on Anno, to get some insights on the creative process behind the Eldritch Pack.

What was the main source of inspiration for this pack?

It was a bit of a strange mishmash, on one hand all those lone Victorian spooky villas with their gorgeous windows, towers and verandas. On the other hand, the ornamental charm of gothic architecture and statues. It was clear we wanted Grotesques and Gargoyles and a lot of fog to surround suspicious standalone villas. From that point on, ideas just popped up and this CDLC happened.

What was the hardest ornament/skin to create? Why?

The hardest were the residence skins. This time around we decided to not only paint the skins, but to as well alter the geometry. We deleted most of the second buildings, leaving only one standalone house and then created a geometry kit to add new windows, verandas and towers. Designing those was quite challenging, especially the Artisan houses, since those have quite a different base building structure.

We have noticed there are quite a few secrets hiding in this pack. Although we won’t spoil the surprise here for the players, could you talk about your approach in their creation?

It was super fun obviously, it is always nice, after being dedicated to one strong theme for such a long time, to add some funny little details to bring it to life. There is not really one inspiration or anything, it’s more like… my mind is a huge alive Pinterest of all the stuffs I’ve seen, read and listened to, basically a culture melting pot of my time and circumstances and if prompted with a certain theme it just delivers back to me.

Are you an Eldritch/spooky stuff fan yourself?

Whilst I love the ornaments and the architectural designs as well as the general mood and colouring of it all, I can’t take anything remotely spooky myself. Real life and human beings are spooky enough as it is, no need for more horror than that. 😉

Which ornament and/or skin from this pack do you consider your favourite? Is there a particular reason?

I really love the Ruined Abbey. I love the idea of nature taking back those places, and I appreciate the beauty of those buildings. The idea of those grand architectural achievements coupled with wild overgrowing nature fascinates me. Also, I really love the set dressing, placing plants everywhere and making it look all green and wild… just love that.

I really like the big spooky tree, too, since it’s based of one of the 1000-year-old oaks from Ivenack, a childhood place I used to go to a lot, so it holds a special place in my heart.

And then there is the Asylum. I just love how it turned out so imposing and it was a great fusion of minds between our concept artist Damian and me. I really love how working on assets together and having great concept art like that one takes a design to a whole other level.

What’s left to say? Get ready for a treat – no tricks here, promise – because the Eldritch Pack Cosmetic DLC will be available starting from 14th November on PC and consoles, for usual price of 4,99€ or your regional equivalent.

We cannot wait to see your spooktacular creations with the new Eldritch ornaments, we can sense they are going to be terrifying – in the most amazing way, of course.

We hope you are looking forward to the CDLC release as much as we are! For the bravest and the detectives amongst all of you, a quest awaits: will you find all the secrets hiding within the Eldritch Pack?

List of full content

  • Forgotten Abbey
  • Dreamspire
  • Cathedral Square
  • Wishing Well
  • Dead Tree
  • Twisted Tree
  • Gargoyle
  • Statue of Lady Morningstar
  • Fiery Lantern
  • Fire Pit
  • Stone Bench
  • Nostalgic Pavement (3 variants)
  • Ornate Pavement
  • Gothic Fence (modular system)
  • Black Gate
  • Victorian Skin for Worker residence (4 models)
  • Victorian Skin for Artisan residence (4 models)
  • “Old Inn” Pub Skin
  • “Asylum” Hospital Skin

Play Anno 1800 for free from November 2nd – 6th!

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hey Anno Community – and everyone who wants to join it!

You can try Anno 1800 for free on PC from November 2nd to November 6th!

The ideal opportunity to tell your friends and acquaintances about your time in the 19th century. Build cities together, set up trade networks, discover new regions and vie with competitors for the control of the seas.

With this Free Weekend on Ubisoft Connect, Epic Games Store and Steam you will be able to access the full base-game of Anno 1800 and play solo, PvP or co-op with others!

Love it so much you want to keep playing – or successfully convinced your friends? – Just make use of the current discount on the store and simply continue your savegame where you left off!

And if you’re looking for additional challenges or more options to beautify your cities, there’s loads of content to discover. Grab the full Anno 1800 experience with the Definitive Annoversary Edition or pick and choose which DLC and Cosmetic DLC you want to add to your game!

Enjoy the Anno 1800 Free Weekend – and don’t forget to tell your friends!

The Anno 1800 Modding Contest

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hey Anno Community,

With great excitement we’ve followed the growth of the Anno 1800 hub on mod.io in particular, and the discussions about mods and modding in general that our August-Update created.

We’re very happy that both the mod creators in our community, as well as our players were so quickly on board with the mod browser we added together with the great team at mod.io.

Plenty of fantastic creations have been added since and we would love to see even more!

So, as a little incentive, we’re starting Anno 1800’s first ever modding contest!

Even better: You can win fantastic hardware prizes from MSI!

Let’s first give you a quick summary of the contest and its rules, however:

  • The modding contest will run from today (October 23rd) until November 30th
  • The theme that your mod will have to be at least partially related to is “the New World”.

Additionally, there are some restrictions for legal reasons, and we ask you to carefully read the official rules by following this link. You will need to accept these rules in order be eligible to win. In short:

  • You will need to create a completely new mod to participate and can’t enter with an existing mod.
  • Participants will have to live in Europe (see rules document for the full list of countries).
  • Participants will need to be at least 16 years old.

What can I win?

As mentioned at the beginning, MSI has graciously sponsored the prizes for this modding contest.

In total, together with our friends at MSI, we’re awarding the 5 best mods each with a mouse and mousepad combo: The Clutch GM51 Lightweight Wireless Mouse and the Agility GD72 Gleam Edition Mousepad.

In case you’re teaming up with another modder (see participation rules below) and your mod wins, each of you will get the MSI prize bundle.

How do I participate?

Below we’ve listed the requirements for participating in the modding contest and to for you to eligible for a prize.  Make sure to also check the full rules for the contest.

Step 1:
Create any type of mod for Anno 1800. The only limitation is that the mod has to be in some way related to the “New World” but in which way is up to you.

Step 2:
You can team up with up to 1 other person (i.e. you can form 2-person teams) to create your mod.

Step 3:
Within the time limit (until November 30th), send a us download link to the finished mod via email at anno-community@ubisoft.com

Step 4:
Do not publish your mod (on Nexus, mod.io, GitHub, etc.) before the winners have been chosen (afterwards you’re of course free to upload it on any platform of your choice).

The winners will be chosen by a jury within the Anno team based on creativity, use of the theme and “usefulness” of the mod for players. We’re open for any and all creations: From ornamental to gameplay mods and from serious creations to funny or silly things.

Additionally, the winners will of course be featured on our channels upon conclusion of the contest.

We’re excitedly looking forward to what you’re coming up with and once again want to thank both MSI as well as our modding community for their support.

Ubisoft Entertainment SA collects and processes your personal data to allow your participation in the competition and to send prize(s) to winner(s). Learn more about the use of your personal data and about your rights here.

Discover the new Definitive Annoversary Edition

Posted on by UbiCecce

Hey Anno Community,

It’s been a while since Anno 1800’s release and over the last years we released a lot of content. It’s time to bundle all those DLC in a “mega pack” of sorts, right?

Let us announce the “Anno 1800 Definitive Annoversary Edition” which includes all DLC content for the game, including all Cosmetic DLC. The perfect bundle for that one friend who doesn’t yet own Anno 1800!

Additionally, we’re releasing a new Gold Edition and a second Cosmetic DLC bundle.

When, you might ask? Well, today, October 17th!

Let’s take a more detailed look at these new digital editions and bundles:

Anno 1800 – Definitive Annoversary Edition

This new complete includes the Anno 1800 base game, all 4 Season Passes, all Cosmetic DLC and the Deluxe Pack. In short: it includes all types of DLC that we have released and will release for the game. The Definitive Annoversary Edition is priced at 129,99€ (or regional equivalent).

Anno 1800 – Gold Edition

The Gold Edition includes the base game, all 4 Season Passes and the Deluxe Pack. This means this edition focuses solely on gameplay DLC – but of course gives you the option to buy the Cosmetic DLC separately. The new Gold Edition is priced at 99,99€

Anno 1800 – Cosmetic Pack Bundle 2

This new bundle contains Cosmetic DLC 7 to 16 and is priced at 39,99€. This comes in addition to the already existing Cosmetic Pack Bundle that includes the first 6 Cosmetic DLC.

 

These new digital editions are available right now and the “Definitive Annoversary Edition” and “Gold Edition” will replace the “Anno 1800 Complete Edition Year 4” and “Gold Edition Year 4” in the Ubisoft Store, Epic Store and Steam Store.

Now, the ones of you with keen eyes will likely have spotted this very quickly: 16 Cosmetic DLC? And indeed, we can confirm that we’re planning to release three more Cosmetic DLC. These are already included in the price of the new editions and will release throughout 2024.

We can’t share more details on these future Cosmetic DLC quite yet – that will have to wait till 2024 – but maybe we’ll have a first little teaser at the end of this year? We shall see…

 

So, if you know someone who (shockingly!) does not yet own Anno 1800 or if you always wanted to give those Cosmetic DLC a try: This is as good of an opportunity as any!

Union Update: New date for the modding livestream

Posted on by UbiCecce

Hey Anno Community!

 

We wanted to give you a brief update on the modding-related livestream that we announced in late September.

The livestream has found a new home(-date): Tuesday next week (October 17th) starting at 5PM CEST / 3PM UTC / 11AM EDT. As usual, the livestream will happen on twitch.tv/ubisoftbluebyte

Community Developer Oliver will be joined by Studio Technical Director Kevin and Lead Tools Programmer Jakob, talking about the mod support update for Anno 1800 and showcasing some mods from the community.

 

We’ve also seen the occasional discussions about what the next Cosmetic DLC might be about… well, we have to ask for a little bit more patience but in late October we’ll drop the first teasers on our channels, so: stay tuned! We had a lot of fun with this one in particular.

 

That’s it in terms of news for now, but we’ll have a few more things happening till the end of the year. You’ll definitely hear about them here on the Anno Union.