Tag: DevBlog

DevBlog: Docklands

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

The “Speicherstadt” of Hamburg, a UNESCO world heritage site, translates merely as “city of warehouses”—  a near-unbroken chain of upright red brick structures, standing proud and composed on the waterfront, behind whose facade lie carpets, cocoa, tea, spices— you name it!
It is often captured at dusk in photographs, under mellow orange lamplight, when the day’s tumult has subsided, its alleys and avenues of water lying smooth and still, its wares securely under lock and key.
There is a particular pragmatism and confidence to Speicherstadt’s arrangement, with its neat canals and lifting bridges, that speaks to an era of Hanseatic free trade— commercial agreements brokered with efficacy between Hamburg and ports along the chilly Baltic coast. Such places evolve only by necessity, when there is really nowhere else for the vast and collected goods of the globe to go! Such a place can surely be justified in dubbing itself the heart of maritime trade.

What are the Docklands?

With the “Docklands” DLC we’re focussing on one of the central points of every Anno empire: the harbour area and trade. To help you turn your ports into massive trade hubs, Season 3’s first DLC gives your access to the modular Docklands.

As with so many things in Anno, the Docklands’ art design is a happy medium between real-world buildings and those of the Anno world: In order for the player to visually distinguish the different parts and functions, certain features of the buildings had to be exaggerated in a way you wouldn’t find if you were to visit Hamburg.

Considering the historical success and distinctive architecture of these Docklands, it’s a perfect fit for the world of Anno 1800. Especially since we know how many fans the historic warehouse monument in Anno 1404 still has.

 

In Anno 1800, however, the Docklands are not a single monument but a modular one, like the palace. After constructing the “Main Wharf” (unlocked with 250 Artisans) you can add a variety of modules via its menu, each with their distinctive own functions. Some of the modules are alternatives to already existing buildings like the Harbourmaster, the Depot or the Repair Crane – they are, however, more space-efficient than the regular versions. Others are new, like the Loading Wharf (reduces load times) or the Exports Office (increases number of Export/Import Contracts you can have).

You can increase the limit of how many of each module you can build by successfully exporting vast quantities of goods – but more on that later.

The Docklands Main Wharf and the modules have to be placed in your harbour area but differ in one key aspect from the palace: modules do not have to be placed next to each other but can stand separate! If you prefer to combine all modules to one big district, you will be rewarded with a bonus to your island’s attractiveness.

You can therefore design your Docklands district in any way you want, and we have already seen a lot of creative designs in previous tests.

An ever-growing Anno empire is made of a multitude of islands and trade routes, with hundreds of tons of resources being transported and unloaded at all times. To support all your trading needs, the Docklands can be built once on every island in both the Old World and Cape Trelawney.

Captain Tobias

No worries, though, we have made sure to provide you with an experienced guide to lead you through all the new mechanics in the game. Through a short series of quests, Captain Tobias will provide you with an overview over the construction of the Docklands and the aforementioned Export/Import Contracts.

There are few waters Captain Tobias hasn’t plumbed, and fewer ports he hasn’t berthed in. Armed with an amiable disposition and an insatiable curiosity, this grizzled old seafarer is something of a legendary figure among the close-knit world of global trade, and it just so happens he’s taken an interest in helping you bring your company to new, boundless lands of opportunity and profit.

He will, however, also request your aid in a matter of personal importance to him when you have convinced him of your skills as a trader.  Without wishing to spoil anything, let’s just say that as a reward, the Captain has a rare blueprint for your shipyard which you may certainly find interesting…

Export/Import Contracts

Now, we have mentioned these “Contracts” often enough, time to explain one of the core new features of the “Docklands” DLC.

Captain Tobias not only serves as your guide, but primarily is a traveling merchant by trade. Via the Docklands you can make use of a new trade mechanic that lets you exchange one good for another. Instead of selling or purchasing goods using money, you can create Export/Import Contracts by selecting one good to export and one good to import.

The exchange ratio partly depends on the “value” of the good (calculated via the complexity of the production chain and the amount of building space it requires), meaning, for example, that a single ton of sewing machines is worth several tons of raw fish. This opens up completely new strategies and, for example, allows you to specialise in certain goods based on local fertilities or deposits and trade them in for other goods you don’t produce enough of. Or even substitute whole production chains with imports – the choice is yours.

If you own “The Passage” or “Land of Lions”, you can also set up contracts with goods from those DLC.

By building Exports Office modules, you can increase the number of  Export/Import Contracts you can have active at the same time and the Captain will do his best to fulfill them all – based on how many goods (or how much free storage) you have left.

Tobias will enter your region at regular intervals and fulfill current contracts at each of your Docklands. His ship is a massive vessel and its stocks basically unlimited.

The second factor to impact the exchange ratio is your export volume. When you produce and export large numbers of a specific good, you will establish yourself as a serious business partner in this product and see it gain an “exporter level”. That means that this good becomes one of your export “specialties” and its exchange ratio against other goods improves— you will now receive more tons of other goods in exchange! Take a look at these specialty goods in the pyramid below— the higher the total export volume of a certain good, the higher the good will rise in the pyramid, and the better its exchange ratio will become. You can move and even remove goods from this pyramid to fill the limited bonus slots to your preference.

Even if all slots are filled, you can still export other kinds of goods of course, but you won’t profit from an improvement to the exchange ratio.

Better ratios are not the only advantages of mass-exports, though:

The more your reputation as a respectable trader grows, either via the number of active trade contracts or your exporter level, the more goods will unlock for you to import. You can see the requirements you need to meet to unlock a good in the overview on the right of the Export/Import screen.

Furthermore, you will also increase the building limit of each module by unlocking more “specialty” slots in the pyramid, allowing you to add more and more modules to your Docklands and create a massive trading district.

It’s worth keeping in mind that you can build a complete Docklands on every single island, allowing for potentially vast amounts of imports and exports of goods that you can then still transport within your empire via normal trade routes.

 

Don’t want to produce soap but prefer to have a clean population? Then Import soap in exchange for that beer you’re producing and make your citizens (and most likely Tobias’ crew) very happy!

Since we know this new feature might need some getting used to, we’ve developed a completely new type of in-game help. Clicking on the “question mark” icon at the top of the Export/Import Menu will open a tutorial screen with explanations of all steps involved in setting up Export/Import Contracts.

Ornaments

Now, we all know how much you all love ornaments and we may have seen one or two comments about having a lighthouse in your own city – maybe…

The “Docklands” DLC is a great opportunity to combine both, so we’re happy to announce that you can look forward to not just one, but two types of lighthouse and a sea of additional ornaments for your harbour – both in the Old as well as in the New World!

We’re excited to see your new harbour layouts with Docklands and its new ornaments!

As announced in our Season 3 live stream as well as the Season 3 Pass trailer (you should re-watch them, just in case), all DLC releases will be accompanied by a Free Game Update. Game Update 10, which is going to release alongside “Docklands”, will for example make changes to your trade route menu and allow you to build streets onto the water in your harbour area.

We’ll go into detail on all these topics later this week.

 

This leaves only two questions, right, “when” and “how much”?

Well, the “Docklands” DLC will release on February 23rd at 6PM CET / 12 PM EST in the Ubisoft Store, the Epic Store and Steam for 6,99€ and is also included in the Season 3 Pass which is available for 19,99€.

Make sure to check out our blog with an overview to the Season 3 Pass and last week’s live stream where you can already see some gameplay from the DLC.

 

Stay safe, take care – and keep an eye on the Anno Union for the latest news.

 

 

*Please be aware all screenshots of the Export/Import UI are taken from a development-in-progress version of the game and may contain unfinished elements and placeholders.

DevBlog: “City Lights” Pack Cosmetic DLC

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hey Anno Community!

In this blog we want to give you some insights into the development of the “City Lights Pack” Cosmetic DLC, how it got its final name and what kind of ornaments you’ll soon be able to build in your city.

“City Lights” is the third Cosmetic DLC for Anno 1800 and focuses on giving you plenty of smaller ornaments to beautify your cities with markets, plazas and other recreational opportunities. Coming in close second after the “Amusements Pack” in the community vote in spring, your feedback as well as the success of the previous Cosmetic DLCs lead to the decision to also work on the back then still called “City Life” pack.

As we are aware of the big number of min-maxers and record builders who would rather cram a few more houses in the last corner of the island than “waste space” by building parks, Christmas markets or rollercoasters, the Cosmetic DLC can be purchased separately – à la carte, as we called it in the past. We think this flexibility allows every type of player to focus on the kind of content they want to see in their game.

Let’s now talk a bit about the development of the “City Lights Pack” Cosmetic DLC. The focus this time was on providing a variety of smaller ornaments to enable you to beautify spots all over your city, create markets and bring more variety to inner-city parks – instead of using the ornaments to create one or two big areas filled with ornaments, like the “Amusements Pack” often tempted players to do.

This meant that it was clear for the team that for example market stands needed to be part of this pack, together with food stores, tables and other objects that you will find all over any city, to improve the “City Life” feeling (hence the original name).

This brought with it its own challenges, since even seemingly unimportant objects like fences or a phone booth had to be designed in a way that enables players to give their city its own special character. The regular presence of phone booths, for example, will give a city a more modern, technologically advanced feeling – even if the object itself is merely decorative.

 

As you’ve noticed, during development we renamed the Cosmetic DLC, with “City Life” being replaced by “City Lights”. This happened rather organically, since it was during development, that one of our artists decided to attach lanterns to the new fence elements. After playing around with it, we quickly realized that adding additional light sources to the city was too cool to not implement – especially considering the awesome day and night system!

With these fence elements as well as stand-alone lanterns you can now bring some beautiful light sources to your cities’ parks and public spaces – and light up darker areas, to make sure your citizens do not get lost on their way home from the Pub.

Even though the “City Lights Pack” primarily consists of many smaller ornaments which can be placed in bigger numbers across your city, we knew we had to also create a big showpiece, an ornament that can be the centre piece of a vast park – or just stand on its own in a busy city centre, to help the residents relax from the busy world around it.

In contrast to for example the “Amusements Pack”, where it was clear pretty much from the start that a Ferris Wheel simply had to be part of the DLC, the “City Lights” showpiece idea (the large pond with swan paddleboats) only developed over time. In the end it combined several elements: decorative parts like statues and fountains, paths for your citizens to stroll along, a pond to not only bring a feeling of nature into your cities but also open up densely packed city environments and the paddleboats as a recreational activity for your residents.

Both the idea of an inner-city pond as well as the swan boats are not new, but inspired by real developments of the 19th century.

Now that they developed three different Cosmetic DLC, we had to ask our art team: What’s your favourite of the three, which did you enjoy the most creating? The answer came quickly: The “Amusements Pack”. Not only did they like the theme itself, we also have amusement park enthusiasts in the team, who enjoyed creating an Anno 1800 counterpart to the modern ones they’re usually visiting. Additionally, this DLC gave them more creative opportunities concerning the design of the individual buildings – while for example the look of a Christmas market is much more set in stone in comparison.

Now that you learned about the development of “City Lights”, you might want to have a full list of all ornaments of this DLC? We can help with that:

  1. Farmer’s Stall
  2. Florist’s Stall
  3. Grocer’s Stall
  4. Fishmonger’s Stall
  5. Cheesemonger’s Stall
  6. Pizzeria
  7. Bread Confectionary
  8. Drinks Shack
  9. Sandwich Shack
  10. Couples’ Table
  11. Solitary Table
  12. Family Table
  13. Steelwork Fence (5 different elements)
  14. Sandpit and Slide
  15. Children’s Playground
  16. Water Trough
  17. Public Timepiece
  18. Steel Clockhouse
  19. City Light
  20. Telephone Box
  21. Clearwater Pool

 

The last thing to cover in this blog is the exact release… and we’re happy to announce that our third Cosmetic DLC will release next Thursday, November 12th, at 6PM CET/12PM ET for a price of 4,99€.

As we tend to do it, alongside the DLC we will release Game Update 9.1, addressing several issues you reported since the release of “Land of Lions”. More on that early next week.

Stay safe,

The Anno Team

DevBlog: Land of Lions – Scholars and Research

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

To the hallowed motto of the Old World’s greatest university, « Ardua Veritatem » many a young, aspiring Scholar has amended their own witty epigraph, one of which remains, etched in pale strokes, to this day: « Ex sapientia immodus ». Through hardships, truth; from wisdom, immoderation.


Though these ambitions have never failed to leave a trail of flustered supervisors and browknitted deans in their wake, there is no arguing the spirited genius of the countless young prodigies whose tireless labour and many sleepless nights consistently push against the frontiers of human knowledge and understanding for the greater glory of Science – and a modicum of personal glory, naturally.


Scholars are infused with the passions and trailblazing fire of youth. To live, to dream, perchance to inspire or set a trend, whether in the quest for knowledge or that for a fashionably dandified wardrobe – these are the waters within which a Scholar’s heart blooms. To these fascinations and wild ambitions, they have sacrificed much, leaving families, friends and lovers behind, in their distant homelands, to heed the call of that Magna Mater – Science!


Easily smitten with novelty and extravagance, Scholars are nonetheless remarkably hard workers, readily expending much of their time and energy to the pursuit of the tantalizingly obscure minutia of wisdom and progress, working together towards a brighter, better and sharper-dressed future.

Hello once more, dear Anno Community!

In this last DevBlog for Land of Lions we will focus on the influence of Enbesa on the Old World.

If you have missed any of our previous blogs, have a look at the dedicated ones for:

  1. The Shepherd population tier and the irrigation system
  1. The Elder population tier and the story of “Land of Lions”

Already in our overview blog we mentioned that besides creating a new world for you to explore and a new story for you to discover, we also wanted to incorporate a specific point of feedback we received from you after the release of “The Passage”: Having closer connections between the different sessions to offer more than just a one-region-specific challenge.

With “Land of Lions”, this comes in the form of the Scholars.

When you’ve upgraded your first Shepherd Residences and the initial Elders are moving in, you unlock the last new feature of the “Land of Lions” DLC: With an influx of students from Enbesa and the rest of the globe to the Old World, first the construction of the Research Institute (requires 300 Elders) and later housing for the new Scholar population tier (requires 1500 Elders) is unlocked.

The Research Institute is a new, 3 stage monument that can be constructed once per player in either the Old World or Cape Trelawney. It is a place of study and research, a place where your eager scholars analyze artefacts and plants – and where they come up with technological breakthroughs known as Major Discoveries.

Aside from requiring plenty of workforce for the construction, you will need large amounts of building material – but will be rewarded in turn with a beautiful new landmark for your city which in addition unlocks the new research feature, allowing your brightest minds to engage in what they like doing most: science!

Before we jump into the details of the research system, let’s first take a look at the Scholars.

Being a separate population tier, they will require their own appropriate housing. Scholar Residences have a size of 4×4 fields and – due to their love for academic research – require immediate access to a university. Due to their larger size, these residences also house significantly more people (120 eager students of science) than, for example, an Investor residence does.

It takes time and effort to build up a reputation as a Research Institution. Scholar Residences are tied to permits: Only by acquiring more permits via research in the Institute will you be able to build more of them and be able to invite more Scholars. This will also open up further research options, and unlock additional needs for Scholars.

 

The scholars represent a typical international student: hailing from distant Enbesa and other parts of the world, but living in the Old World. The duality is reflected in the Scholar’s needs: They will ask for fancy Old World clothes, requiring you to build new production chains for Leather Boots and Tailored Suits, as well as increasing your output of Bombin Hats. And while as students they enjoy a social Rum and the convenience of Canned Food, nothing tastes better than a memory of home. Their loved ones in Enbesa will only be too glad to ship Seafood Stew and Hibiscus Tea over to the Old World to assuage any feelings of homesickness.

The Scholars’ keen interest in new technologies and inventions means they also desire gramophones, the newly developed telephones and a cutting-edge new public building: The Radio Tower.

With their needs fulfilled and the construction of the Research Institute finished, your scholars will get to work and generate a constant stream of research points. The more Scholars you have attracted, the faster they accumulate research points and the more research points you can “store”. More advanced research requires points in large quantities, a feat, small research groups simply won’t be able to accomplish.

Another way of acquiring research points is by donating items – for science! The amount of points received depends on the rarity of the respective item.

Researching items and especially Major Discoveries takes time, even for such a talented bunch as your Scholars. To speed things up, you can assign parts of your Engineer workforce – the Scholars’ tutors. Just make sure they’re not needed elsewhere.

 

Now, a variety of exciting research options are opened up to you, providing plenty of advantages for your empire. Let’s go over what kind of options the bright minds in the Institute came up with.

First, the item research. A recurring feedback since the release of Anno 1800 has been the wish for more direct ways to get items for specific purposes. Item crafting with Old Nate in Cape Trelawney and the Artic provide one alternative to purchasing and questing, while the item overview with details about the sources gives you a clearer idea where you need to look for that last missing zoo animal. Game Update 9 will change the number of items offered by AI parties from 8 to 12, which means less re-rolling to get the one you want. Owners of “Land of Lions” will have to live with a small restriction here, though, to balance the option of donating items for research points: Only 20 items can be purchased from a single NPC trader in a 30-min window.

With the Research Institute you can now develop almost any item in the game and this way specifically focus on the ones that make the most sense for your islands and for your overall strategy.  The items have to be discovered and analysed by your researchers first, requiring research points, and you can choose between Cultural Science (Animals, Cultural Items and Plants), Technological Advancements (all kinds of machines and tools) and Talent Development (Specialists).

Secondly, there are the Major Discoveries. These present you with more ways to specialise aspects of your economy, but they also address existing community feedback.

For example, the appropriate research allows you to move Oil Springs and Clay Deposits to another place on the island, change the fertilities to grow hops instead of paprika or change the ore of a mineral deposit to one you need more of. This will help you to further specialise existing islands and e.g. move that one oil spring just in range of the refinery, while also helping with layout creation and city beautification.

Furthermore, via a Research Kit you can directly identify items you already own and then develop them in the Research Institute, while additional Great Eastern Permits allow you to… well, build more of these magnificent ships!

Pier Upgrade Permits let you upgrade existing piers to Advanced Piers, increasing their loading speed and allowing you to specialise them: You can now dedicate these piers to a single type of good which helps you with directing your trading ships to specific places on your coast.

And don’t worry: If you, for example, create a dedicated coffee pier, all other goods on trade routes transporting coffee to your island will of course also be handled by the Advanced Pier.

 

Finally, to continue with the coffee topic from above, there’s something for all coffee lovers on your islands: Modern technology will enable you to produce New World goods in the Old World, by using replacement products. Specifically: You can unlock Advanced Coffee Roasters, Rum Distilleries and Cotton Mills to help you with any shortages.

Running out of space for high quality coffee beans in the New World? Don’t worry, just mix in some locally produced malt coffee – your investors won’t notice!

 

To round off, Land of Lions will of course also bring new item sets for your cultural buildings, for example a Lion (quelle surprise) or a Giant Snail for your zoo. On top of that, there will of course be some region-specific items for Enbesa, to for example boost local production, like the Tea Selector for your Tea production or Flood Gates to increase your pump’s irrigation capacity.

 

All of this will be open for you to explore as part of the “Land of Lions” DLC on October 22nd, available via the Ubisoft Store, Epic Store and Steam.

As usual, we will release a free update alongside the DLC including a bunch of quality of life improvements alongside plenty of bug fixes and tweaks. The full release notes will be posted next week, but if you haven’t done so, you should definitely check out our DevBlog detailing all the improvements of Game Update 9 which we posted a few weeks ago.

DevBlog: Land of Lions – Elders and Story

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

“He is the shepherd of the flock, Who gives life and age. Tell me now: Yes, His laws are boundless.” To these tenets of the spiritual poem Al-Muthallathu none are more faithful than the Elders of Enbesa. Shaped in the crucible of indomitable belief, wrought by the creeds of a culture older than the time of legends, they know much and ordain more.

The Irenya, as they are referred to in Enbesa, are the ever-vigilant guardians of their land’s storied traditions and history. Stalwart in their faith and their conviction that the fundamental truths of Life can only be sought across the span of ancient laws and a millenial religion, they care little for the bustle and blare of progress. Why seek to change that which has seen generations past live a devoted and orderly life?

The Irenya command great respect from the people of Enbesa, though there are those who would resent the harshness with which they hold to tradition, toiling away fervently at the crafting arts while the ‘lower’ Shepherds work the land and more menial charges. Few complaints ever reach the keftanya moots – the city-ruling, Elder-held councils – however, as Elders seldom fail to show compassion and care to the people of Enbesa under duress – so long as they respect the Ancient Ways.

Hey Anno Community,

and welcome back to the third installment in our series of DevBlogs about “Land of Lions”. This time, we want to focus on Enbesa’s Elders, and the strong narrative elements of our final Season 2 DLC.

If you missed them, you can catch up on our previous blogs here:

DevBlog 1: A “Land of Lions” overview

DevBlog 2: Shepherds and Irrigation

Always respect your Elders

The Elders are the second of Enbesa’s new residential tiers and represent a completely different aspect of life in their region from the Shepherds. Whereas the latter enjoy their time in nature and work the land with the freedom of youth, the Elders’ experiences in life have given them an altogether dourer outlook on things. This is especially true for their representative, an elderly widow who has seen her fair share of grief in life. While she can be harsh and judgmental (especially towards outsiders like yourself), her poignance belies a caring nature towards those who manage to earn her respect.

A long life of working hard has taught the Elders many useful skills which they apply to seven new production chains such as Ceramics (a basic need), Tapestries (a luxury good contributing to their happiness) or Seafood Stew. Unlike the self-sufficient Shepherds, some of the Elder’s production chains also require goods from other sessions, requiring you to expand your network of trade routes to supply them. The Elders also produce the Mud Bricks needed for more advanced construction in Enbesa, alongside the Shepherd’s traditional Wanza Timber.

In total, the Elder tier will introduce 17 new buildings, including of course some public buildings like the Monastery, which contributes to their Happiness.

Let me tell you a story…

While last week’s DevBlog and this one have so far focused on the new gameplay Elements that Enbesa will introduce to Anno 1800, there is a lot more for you to experience. So, let us talk about story and narrative elements. This is one aspect of the game we have steadily been honing and improving throughout the development of Anno, starting with the original campaign, across the “Sunken Treasures” story and up to the icy world of “The Passage”. This DLC specifically received a lot of praise for creating an atmosphere that was quite unlike the usually bright and cheerful Anno world, taking on a more somber and tense tone. Basing the story on the infamously tragic events of Franklin’s ill-fated expedition to find the Northwest passage (albeit with a slightly happier ending, and less cannibalism) and the introduction of heat as a quintessential replacement for the happiness of other sessions helped to create an atmosphere unlike anything else in Anno, replacing the usual cheerfulness with a grim fight for survival. Seeing player reactions to the Arctic emboldened us to try to go one step further when it comes to creating a believable, breathing “Land of Lions”.

To put it simply: The story of Enbesa presents one of the biggest narrative efforts the Anno Team has ever undertaken (and we are not just talking about 1800, either)! We expect that first-time players will take a good 10-15 hours of playtime to experience all the story threads introducing the cultures and people of Enbesa. These story elements come I two distinct flavors: the main story, and story islands.

 

For the Emperor!

The concept of the main story should be a familiar one to Anno 1800 players, as it follows the same structure as previous DLCs like “Sunken Treasures”, slowly introducing you to all the major new characters, as well as gameplay elements like residential tiers, irrigation and the Research Institute. As with these other new sessions, your journey to Enbesa begins with an Expedition that becomes available at the Artisan tier.

It is during this expedition that you will meet one of the key characters, Biniam. A gifted young academic, Biniam serves as a diplomat to the ruler of Enbesa, Emperor Ketema. Through his service, he hopes to one day bring abut his dream of a research institute in which the brightest young scholars from around the world can work. It is Biniam who introduces you to Emperor Ketema, based on your proven credentials as a skilled city-builder.

Ketema is a warm-hearted yet ambitious ruler, who dreams of Enbesa entering a long-lasting era of peace and unity through diplomacy and trade, earning the recognition of other powers.  As a symbol of these efforts, he asks the player to enter his service as the architect of Enbesa’s new capital city, Taborime. This leads to a unique setup among the islands of Anno 1800: while we normally separate player and Ai islands, you will actually be building Taborime for Ketema on his island, surrounding his already existing magnificent palace (which will also visually evolve throughout the story). Of course, it would not be an Anno story if things ended there, and you can expect a few plot twists. We will leave it at that, as we don’t want to spoil any surprises for you…

Unity, but at what cost?

As mentioned earlier, this classic story structure is only one part of “Land of Lions”’ storytelling, with the other being our three “story islands”. These are essentially lovingly crafted, visually unique islands that each offer an additional optional storyline, all of which are entwined with the larger history of Enbesa (for example, one of them is the birthplace and home of Biniam). These islands will not only offer new quests for you to undertake to help their residents, but will also call upon you to make some tough decisions, which can have some dramatic consequence (including, but not limited to, these islands looking very different from how they started out…).

With that said, let us introduce you to these three locations and their people:

Angereb is a mighty fortress rock on a rocky island, inhabited by a fiercely independent people who see no reason to join forces with Emperor Ketema.

Kidusi Anitoni is an ancient monastery and library, home to a group of religious scholars who are doing archaeological work to uncover Enbesa’s past.

Waha Desher was once a flourishing Oasis and center of commerce that has since fallen on harder times but may yet be reawakened.

The quest structure of these islands is much looser and non-linear than the main story, leaving it up to you how and when you want to meet the residents of these three islands. We will leave it up to you to find out much more about them come October 22. Between DevBlog 2 and this one, you should now have a good idea of all the new content awaiting you in Enbesa. But, as you know, that is not all, so make sure to tune in next time for a deeper look at our new Old World goodness: The Scholars and their Research institute!

In the meantime, why not let us know your thoughts in the comments?

Stay safe,

The Anno Team

DevBlog: Land of Lions – Shepherds & Irrigation System

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

“Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone’s soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd.”
None are more faithul to this creed, laid down in contemplation by philosopher Mawlānā Rumi than the selfsame Shepherds of Enbesa. The Meniga, as they are known by other populations in Enbesa, revel best in the open heartlands, the bountiful beauty of Enbesa, stretching across valleys and dells, with boundless horizons across the water.

A people of the land, respectful of all that came before them but ever intrigued by new opportunities, new prospects of peace and betterment for their peers. Kind-hearted and hard-working, Shepherds look to those who rule to guide Enbesa to a united future, one of justice and consideration for all. Long centuries of unhindered pastoral life draw to a tantalizing close as the Emperor raises his mighty capital from the ground, drawing all in Enbesa to him, birthing a new culture and a novel way of life.

Though they relish the deceptively simple arts of landwork and animal care, Shepherds are well aware that a new age is dawning upon Enbesa, one which they hope will see mirth and tenderness and friendship be held high in the hearts of the mighty –manifold lights to guide and heal the people of Enbesa.

Earlier this week we gave you an overview of what you can expect regarding Anno Union content up until the release of Land of Lions. It shouldn’t come as a big surprise therefore that this week we’ll be talking about the beginnings of your Enbesan settlement: The Shepherds and the irrigation system!

Shepherds are the first of two residential tiers in the Enbesa session (the second being the Elders). Similar to the farmers in the Old World, they live in smaller houses, usually a main dwelling with a stable, outbuilding, storage hut or small workplace attached. Together these houses form small communal places where the Shepherd population can, for example, gather around a fireplace.

The Shepherds loves nature and stories by the campfire. City life and politics seems to tire them, much as it does the game’s Farmers and Artisans in the Old World.

Instead they prefer to spend time out in nature with their animals, because the Shepherds’ skills lie in agriculture and animal husbandry; for example, herding goats and sanga cows for milk and meat or growing linseed to darn clothes and hibiscus flowers for hibiscus tea. The Shepherds rely solely on the goods they produce locally, and do not require any imports from the other sessions. Though they have many talents and much wisdom, they are always quick to play these things down, being modest and humble.

To satisfy their needs for community and culture outside of the company of family and friends, they will, however, ask you to build a musicians’ court to enjoy some music together with their fellow Enbesans.

At the heart of all construction and expansion in Enbesa is the new building material Wanza Timber. The Wanza trees do not require fertile soil but their wood is needed for most buildings in the new session. This means you cannot rely on old-world timber imports but must plan for sufficient local production to fuel your construction needs. Later on, will you also need to produce mud bricks for advanced buildings… but the Elders and their production chains will get their own DevBlog.

And while the use of these local goods and the Enbesan architectural traditions influence the construction and style of all buildings, you will see and easily recognize familiar buildings like the Trade Union, various harbor buildings or the Fire Station, which are buildable at the first residential tier. The last building already does provide us with a good segue to the next topic, since the Fire Station now has a special requirement: it needs a water connection!

So, let’s talk about Land of Lions new irrigation system.

Veterans will remember the irrigation system of Anno 1404 in which norias were responsible for pumping water up from below ground and watering the desert or savannah in a certain radius around them. This created fertile green spots in otherwise dry land that allowed for the cultivation of e.g. dates, indigo and almonds. Some might also remember that these norias had to be refilled manually, creating a lot of busywork.

Therefore, when approaching the design for Land of Lions, we knew that a) we wanted to include an irrigation system as a regional challenge due to its popularity with our community and b) we wanted to improve on Anno 1404’s system, reducing unnecessary micromanagement, while on the other hand providing another kind of challenge.

In Enbesa this challenge comes in the form of water canals, using the various rivers crossing the islands as a source for irrigation. Under their Emperor Ketema, the Enbesans use self-developed water pumps that are placed on dedicated river slots. The water taken from the rivers is then distributed via the canals, which fertilize the soil within a certain radius. The lush green areas that have been watered can then be used to grow Hibiscus or Indigo flowers, among other things.

This of course brings with it the challenge of creating an efficient canal system, squeezing in your farms and fields, and making the most of what little fertile ground you have, in addition to the usual limitations of building space on the islands. We’re sure min-maxer will have a great time working out the best layouts.

Each water pump can only pump its water so far, so there’s a limit to how many canal tiles you can place. However, combining two pumps also combines their irrigation capacity, allowing you to build a much longer canal than a single pump would’ve been able to support.

 

While most Enbesan farms require fertilized ground to function, animals can also graze on the dry savannah – though they prefer fresh green grass, which will directly improve the productivity of the relevant building.

Given the importance of water for agriculture, make sure to check for the number of available river slots on each island: it’s worth keeping in mind that aside from the irrigation pumps, these slots can also be occupied by clay collectors, and later, paper mills – prioritization of the valuable river slots is another water-related challenge you will face in Enbesa – just to ensure you won’t get bored!

 

Finally, when talking agriculture: Owners of the Bright Harvest DLC will also be able to bring the knowledge and advantages of modern farming to the lands of Enbesa by constructing silos and using tractors. However, this does require the import of oil.

Next week we’re going to look at the second residential tier, the Elders, and present you a bit more about the setting and story of Enbesa which sets it apart from previous DLC.

 

Land of Lions livestream

But wait, don’t leave quite yet. We still have one more announcement!

Next Thursday, October 15th, we will be holding a Land of Lions livestream, showing you the beginnings of an Enbesan settlement and talking about what’s currently happening in the world of Anno.

Join Ubi-Volty and Ubi-Thorlof at 5PM CET over on twitch.tv/ubisoftbluebyte

We’re looking forward to chatting with you!

DevBlog: A “Land of Lions” overview

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hey Anno Community,

If countless comments and questions are anything to go by, some of you are rather keen to learn more about our final Season 2 DLC, “Land of Lions”. So, you will be delighted to hear that we will finally start revealing more today, starting with this first DevBlog. “Wait a minute”, I hear some of you shouting, “what do you mean starting and first?”.

See, the thing is that “Land of Lions” is by far our biggest DLC for Anno 1800, including a lot more content than “The Passage” last Fall! To properly present all the good news and to tide you over until its release on October 22 we will instead have…four DevBlogs for you all!

Part 1: “Land of Lions” Overview

Part 2: Shepherds and Irrigation

Part 3: Elders and Story

Part 4: Scholars and Research

 

And that’s it for toda…wait, you wanted more of an overview? Alright then…

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New Residential Tiers in Enbesa

Let us first talk about Enbesa, the eponymous “Land of Lions”. Enbesa will be a session in the Southern part of the world map once you have unlocked access to it via an expedition (as with our other additional sessions).

The similarities to sessions like the New World and Arctic do not end there; much like them, Enbesa is also the home of two residential tiers, with their own associated housing, production chains and trade goods!

First, we have the Shepherds. The Shepherd’s representative is humble and loves nature, but he is also a keen poet and storyteller who will share his insights into the events around him with the player. In gameplay terms, Shepherds are focused on the agricultural production of new goods like Teff Grass or Hibiscus. As such the Shepherds will of course also play a central role in the new irrigation system.

Enbesa’s second resident tier are the Elders. They are represented by a devout but stern widow, who is an appreciated leader in the community and key to its social life. The Elders are focused on the crafting in Enbesa, producing important goods such as lanterns or tapestries for their people.

Making the Savannah fertile

As hinted at during the announcement of Season 2, “Land of Lions” is revisiting a classic element from Anno 1404: making the land bloom via irrigation. Instead of using the Noria again, the trick to making things grow in Enbesa are rivers and irrigation canals. Rivers on islands have a limited number of river building slots, which you can use not only for some production buildings, but also as the starting point of a new canal. Whereas the land of Enbesa is often dry and infertile, tiles next to water will become green and fertile, allowing you to grow fields on them.

A land of culture and history

Beyond all the sandbox game elements mentioned above, “Land of Lions” is also offering a lot to any players who want a side of story with their city-building gameplay. This starts with the main storyline, which sees you enter the services of Emperor Ketema of Enbesa, who enlists you to construct his mighty new capital, Taborime. As with previous DLCs, the main storyline will introduce you to all the new gameplay elements in the DLC, while also giving you insights into the people of Enbesa.

Besides the traditional story, we are going a step beyond to deliver one of our most elaborate narrative experiences in an Anno game yet, which will give curious players ample opportunity to learn much more about Enbesa’s culture and history. To achieve this, we have created three unique story islands that will serve as quest hubs and may even pose some tough decisions for the player to make.

Old World? New Research!

When we released “The Passage”, we received a lot of feedback from players who said that while they loved the atmosphere and vibe of this frozen session, they wished that it had been more closely entwined with the Old World, and the rest of the game outside the arctic. When we set out to come up with ideas for “Land of Lions”, we knew that we wanted Enbesa to be more closely entwined with the rest of the game. Meet the Scholars!

The Scholars are a new late-game residential tier based in the Old World (but unlocked as part of the “Land of Lions” storyline in Enbesa). So, who is the Scholar? As stylish as he is gifted, he is representative of the well-educated international students coming to the Old World to work in the newly founded Research institute.

Which brings us to the Research Institute itself. Not only is this impressive new building our latest monument in the game (which means that it is being built in several lengthy stages), it also fits in well with our existing university, which served as the artistic touchstone for the Scholars and all related buildings. The Research Institute also serves to tackle several issues we have seen come up in your feedback since launch. For once, it allows you to research and subsequently craft almost every item in the game, giving you an endgame alternative to hoping to get lucky with rewards. It also allows you to use your research points to make “Major Discoveries”, which are powerful abilities such as moving a claypit across your island to another spot!

And that’s just the overview!

As you can see, we were not bluffing when we said that “Land of Lions” is the biggest DLC for Anno 1800, bringing with it not only a ton of new content, but also the much requested research feature many of you have been asking for. We look forward to revealing much more to you all over the coming blogs and weeks.

Until then, stay safe!

The Anno Team

DevBlog: Amusements Pack Cosmetic DLC

Posted on by Ubi-Thorlof

Hey Anno Community,

Today we want to take you a bit behind the scenes and magic of your very own future amusement park, which will open its doors next week thanks to the release of the eponymous “Amusements Pack” Cosmetic DLC.

Before we dive into the process of bringing these new ornaments to life, let us go far afield to talk about ornamentation and the concept of Cosmetic DLCs in general. One thing that makes the Anno community so special is that the games manage to attract many different types of players, who all manage to carve out enjoyable niches within the games’ plethora of systems to find what they are looking for. Traditionally, two of the most prominent tendencies within the community have been the min-max-ers who don’t mind their citizens living in abject squalor as long as they can manage to cram just a few thousand more onto an island to reach that next record- and then there are the self-styled “beauty builders” who use Anno games as interactive dioramas to realize their wildest modelmaking fantasies without too much worry about the efficiency of it all.

When coming up with ideas for our post-launch strategy and DLCs, we always have these different playstyles in mind, and try to think up with new content that will offer something for everyone. Both of our currently available Season 2 DLCs, “Seat of Power” and “Bright Harvest” are good examples of this philosophy, as they offer new gameplay mechanics for the economically-invested crowd, and add stunning new sights to the beauty builder’s toolbox.

The downside is of course that such fully featured DLCs will take several months to develop, which inevitably means that there are always some lulls between new Anno 1800 content coming out. This is where Cosmetic DLCs come in, as they allow us to deliver some new Anno 1800 content in-between the major DLCs. Where a DLC like Land of Lions takes months of work from a sizeable team, the Cosmetic DLCs will take a few artists a couple of weeks to design and implement. This also gives us the opportunity to create some strongly thematic content that may not appeal to everyone (for example, anyone who is not into Christmas themes id unlikely to enjoy the Holiday Pack).

This is also why we do not include the Cosmetic DLC Packs in the Season Passes, as we do not want to drive up the price with content that we know won’t appeal to a big part of the community (the min-max’ers). That is why we think that an à la carte approach is the best way to go with the cosmetic packs, allowing everyone to get exactly the content they want to see in their cities.

These were some of the considerations we had in mind when we came up with the Holiday Pack last December, which was the first such DLC for Anno 1800. Following its release, a few things quickly became clear from your feedback: 1) Anno players love more ornaments but would 2) prefer content that would feel right at home throughout the year, rather than just in the run-up to the Holidays. We also immediately received lots of feedback and long wishlists for future cosmetic packs (these lists were the origin of the agricultural and industrial ornaments that were added to the Bright Harvest DLC).

As a next step, we took this list of community ideas to our artists to see where they saw the potential for a nice themed pack of 15-25 ornaments (depending on their size and scope), and to check the feasibility. For example, we saw a lot of players asking for some form of harbor ornaments, and we actually did some technical tests to see what form these could take, but found the idea clashing with the general lack of harbor front building space.

In the end, the team came away with three topics that we could see making for visually interesting Cosmetic DLCs: a circus, general props for urban life, and the amusement park. With this list, we decided that it would be cool to give the Anno Union who has been so supportive of the game throughout its development the choice of which pack we should tackle next.

That’s why we launched our latest Anno Union vote in April, to give you all the deciding vote between the tentatively named “Bustling City Life, “Trip to the Big Top” and “A Day at the Amusements” DLCs. Of course, every one on the team had their own favorite they were rooting for, so rest assured that we kept close tabs on the voting, and every change at the top of the polls was immediately shared in various chats! In the end, the Amusements Pack took the day, with the slimmest of margins over the City Life Pack.

With that decision out of the way, our artists immediately got to work on ideas, starting with a series of quick concept scribbles. These sketches are intended to quickly produce a wide range of potential ideas, allowing the team to get a feeling for what things could look like inside the game.

When selecting which scribbles, we want to take to the next stage, we consider a few things:

  1. Player fantasy: What are things that players expect based on the chosen topic? For example, it was obvious from the start that the Amusements Pack should include a ferris wheel, so we even put it into the artwork for the vote.
  2. Variety: We want our Cosmetic DLCs to have a good mix between different sizes of ornaments, to give players flexibility in how they can use them. In general, we want to have 1-2 big showpieces (like the Holiday’s Pack’s merry-go-round), a few medium sized ornaments, and several versatile small ornaments you can use to fill any gaps between other buildings.
  3. General fit: Despite rumors of an alleged first-person mode, Anno is of course played from an isometric perspective. This is of course also something we need to keep in mind, as not everything that looks cool when standing before it in real-life will translate well into an isometric game perspective.

It was during this phase that the idea for a rollercoaster as the second centerpiece of the DLC alongside the ferris wheel first came about, with everyone loving the idea of having such a massive ornament (one of the biggest in Anno history).

Next come the first rough 3d models for the chosen concepts. While very rough around the edges and untextured, they give the team a good feeling for how well they fit into the game world, and alongside already existing buildings and ornaments (see #3 in the list above). Once an idea passes this final hurdle, it is in for good, and we can get to finishing and polishing to be ready for its grand debut in the game.

Of course, it would not be Anno if the world weren’t bustling with life, so of course the Cosmetic DLC packs also call for some customized feedback units. If you are unfamiliar with the term, “feedback unit” is our internal term for any kind of citizen walking around your city to give you visual feedback for how things are going (like the groups of tourists gathering around the rarest zoo exhibits). For example, our Christmas market from the Holiday Pack just would not have been the same if the man himself, Santa Claus, hadn’t been making an appearance in it!

Once all ornaments and their respective feedback units are finished, all that is left to do is to create the thumbnails for the construction menu to allow you to place these all over your burgeoning industrial empires, which is where our UI team comes in to help get the DLC over the finishing line. Speaking of the build menu, some of you may be curious about what exactly is included in the Amusements Pack? If so, look no further:

  1. Ferris Wheel
  2. Rollercoaster
  3. Ticket Booth
  4. Ice Cream Stand
  5. Cotton Candy Stand
  6. Tin Can Alley
  7. Shooting Game
  8. Food Stand
  9. Beverages Stand
  10. Strongman Game
  11. Face in Hole
  12. Barrel Organ Player
  13. Balloon Seller
  14. Portrait Painter
  15. “Welcome” Gate (with a second variation of it)
  16. Bar Table

And the best thing is that you won’t have to wait very long at all for your very own amusement park to open, as our second Cosmetic DLC will already be out on August 11, at 6pm CEST/ 12pm EDT/ PDT, for a price of 4,99€/$.

There is one last question to cover, and that is the “Bustling City Life” Pack, which put up a very brave effort in our Anno Union vote and came in an extremely close second. We have been receiving lots of questions about the possibility of doing this second pack as well ever since. The answer is that we would love to do so! Should the Amusements Pack prove to be as popular with players as we all hope, we would be very excited to do the City Life Pack for you all for release after Land of Lions, towards the end of the year, including a small pond with pedal boats to help your citizens cool down in the heat. For now, we cannot wait to see all our beautiful screenshots of the Amusements Pack next week!

Stay safe,

The Anno Team

DevBlog: Anno 1404 History Edition

Posted on by Ubi_MarcelH

Hey Anno Community,

Welcome to the fourth and final part of our series of DevBlogs covering the four classic Anno games included in the upcoming Anno History Collection. This time, we will cover perennial fan-favorite Anno 1404. If you did not get a chance to check out our previous three blogs yet, we would encourage you to do so before reading on (especially the first one):

DevBlog Anno 1602 History Edition, and our general philosophy behind the History Collection

DevBlog Anno 1701

DevBlog Anno 1503

Classic gameplay on modern PCs

As outlined before, our priority with this collection and the four games included (the History Editions of Anno 1602, 1503, 1701 and 1404) was to maintain the classic gameplay that we have all grown to love over the past two decades, while ensuring that playing these games on your current PCs is smooth and hassle-free. This is of course also true for Anno 1404 History Edition:

The game has been completely ported to be 64-bit only, meaning it can now take full advantage of the RAM in your PC, which helps improve performance and stability. This is especially relevant for Anno 1404, as we will discuss in a moment.

 

An idyllic countryside scene in Anno 1404 History Edition

As with the other three games, Anno 1404 HE will support screen resolutions all the way up to stunning 4k, with the game automatically scaling the user interface to remain comfortably playable even at such a high resolution.

Improved and enhanced multiplayer functionality via Uplay. In addition to the tried and true multiplayer setup you are used to, there will also be a quickmatch function and desync recovery like the one seen in Anno 1800.

Anno 1404: One for the ages

As we mentioned last week, Anno 1701 was a game of many firsts. Not only did it mark the franchise’s first foray into full 3D gameplay, but it was also the first Anno game from the current team at Ubisoft Mainz (née Related Designs). Having very successfully assumed the mantle of Anno stewards, the team set out to work on the “Empire” to their initial “New Hope”. When the game eventually set sail in Summer of 2009, it immediately captivated the imagination of players with its lovingly detailed worlds, allowing players to create picturesque renaissance cities that were bustling with life. Having proven their mastery of the classic Anno formula with 1701, Related Designs felt ready to introduce some big new features with 1404, many of which (or at least their influence) are still evident a decade later in Anno 1800.

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The most eye-catching new element was of course the Orient as a second new playable culture in addition to the European-inspired occident. Having an architecturally, culturally and geographically distinct second part of the game, with two separate residential tiers as well as new production chains and goods was not only mind-blowing to players of Anno 1404, but will also sound familiar to avid industrialists who have been spending time in 1800’s New World or the Passage. The Orient even had its own major building project with the Sultan’s mosque (as a counterpart to the Occident’s Imperial Cathedral), and special regional gameplay with the Norias. These machines came in two variations and were used, much as in the real world, to help water the land, allowing players to construct farms in the otherwise arid land. Rumor has it that you may soon see a new spin on this established concept when it is time to travel to the “Land of Lions” in the last DLC of Anno 1800’s Season 2 this fall. The game also put a bigger emphasis on building a living world for players to get lost in with its ensemble of beloved AI characters such as the benevolent Lord Northburgh and his wise oriental counterpart Grand Vizier Al Zahir, the despicable Cardinal Lucius or the fan- and meme-favorite Leif Jorgensen, as well as a huge selection of quests to further flesh them out. As Anno tradition at the time demanded, the game received a popular expansion the following year, called “Venice” (one of the rare references to a real country or city in the otherwise fictional Anno series). The expansion not only added the highly anticipated multiplayer mode, but also some impactful new features. Chief among them was the espionage system, which gave players some interesting ways to mess with their opponents in covert ways, and the assembly, which could be used to buy out other islands (similarly to Anno 1800’s island shares).

 

Norias can be used to make the orient bloom

Having been well received before, the “Venice” expansion raised Anno 1404 to the level of an all-time city-building classic, and the game has generally been considered the franchise’s high-water mark prior to Anno 1800. It is certainly no coincidence that the next two Anno games would explore futuristic new frontiers instead of continuing to explore the middle-ages. It would be a full decade between Anno 1404’s release, and Anno’s return to a historically inspired setting with 1800 in 2019.

With Anno 1404 still looking great and playing just as well, we focused our efforts for the History Edition on making the multiplayer work properly via Uplay (as discussed above), and the late game crash that has been plaguing some players for years. First, let us clear up a misunderstanding we have seen surface a few times since the announcement of the History Edition: the late game crashes in Anno 1404 are not the result of a “bug” in the game, but a consequence of the inherent inability of 32-bit software to address more than 4GB of RAM in your PC. In other words: once your empire reaches a certain magnitude, the game will run out of usable RAM, which will lead to a crash. It is also worth pointing out our general philosophy for Anno, as we do not put hard limits on buildings or units the way many other strategy games do. Instead our approach was always that you can keep building until you max out your hardware or run of out of space in the game world, and we are often deeply impressed by resourceful players finding some tricks to cram just a few hundred more citizens into their cities (you are very lucky that there are no building safety inspectors in Anno!). In the case of Anno 1404, the game unfortunately came out at a time when 32-bit software and operating systems were still the standard, and so players had to contend with the limits of their hard- and software at the time. With the 64-bit version that is the History Edition, the issue of the game running out of Ram will be one of the past, and you should be able to reach new levels of building uninterrupted. Let the citizen-cramming begin! Please note however that due to this change, the system requirements of all History Edition games are much higher than for the original games (though still very modest compared to today’s games, of course). The system requirements for the Anno History Collection are:

 

  Minimum Recommended
Operating system Windows 7, 8.1, 10 (64-bit) Windows 7, 8.1, 10 (64-bit)
Processor Intel Core i3-3220 3.3Ghz AMD FX-4130 3.9Ghz Intel Core i5-4460 3.2Ghz AMD Ryzen 5 1600, 3.2Ghz
Memory 4GB RAM 4GB RAM
GPU NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 (2GB) AMD Radeon R7 265 (2GB) NVIDIA GeForce 770 4GB AMD Radeon RX 470 4GB
DirectX DirectX 11 DirectX 11
Hard Drive 30GB 30GB
Sound DirectX-compatible DirectX-compatible

Other improvements to Anno 1404 History Edition include:

First, because we all know the question is coming: Yes, everyone gets access to the silver ship. You are welcome.

 

The highly coveted silver command ship

Multiscreen support, so you can not only have a globe- but also a monitor-spanning empire.

Borderless Window mode, in addition to Fullscreen and Windowed

Optional multi-placement of residential buildings, to make painting down new housing for your citizens quick and painless

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/655249185

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Anno 1404 HE will of course also have save game compatibility, meaning that you will be able to take your old save games and pick up playing where you last stopped.

You will also be able to create new custom scenarios or to import and play old scenarios created with the editing tools. One small caveat though: We will not be bringing back the old “Gate to the World” portal for scenario sharing, though there are of course plenty of ways to share your scenarios with other players these days.

Finally, languages. Anno 1404 History Edition will support English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Czech, Polish, and Russian languages.

Bonus Content

As mentioned in the Anno 1602 HE blog, we have asked Dynamedion to compose a new History Edition Suite encompassing the main themes of all four games, which you can of course also enjoy with Anno 1404 HE, alongside the rest of the game’s digital soundtrack. Beyond that, buyers of this version can look forward to a special commemorative Anno 1404 wallpaper, and a company logo for use in Anno 1800. Keep in mind that anyone who buys the full Anno History Collection on Uplay will also get an additional fifth company logo, plus a special ornament for use in Anno 1800.

And with that, our series of DevBlogs/ retrospectives comes to an end. All that is left for us to do is to share a list of all versions and where to buy them next week, before the Anno History Edition launches globally on June 25! Stay safe and stay building!

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DevBlog: Anno 1503 History Edition

Posted on by Ubi_MarcelH

Hey Anno Community,

Welcome to the third part of our series of DevBlogs covering the four classic Anno games included in the upcoming Anno History Collection. This time, we will cover Anno 1503, and a black mark on the Anno franchise that we are incredibly happy to finally erase after 18 years! If you did not get a chance to check out our two previous blogs yet, we would encourage you to do so before reading on (especially the first one):

DevBlog Anno 1602 History Edition, and our general philosophy behind the History Collection

DevBlog Anno 1701

Classic gameplay on modern PCs

As outlined before, our priority with this collection and the four games included (the History Editions of Anno 1602, 1503, 1701 and 1404) was to maintain the classic gameplay that we have all grown to love over the past two decades, while ensuring that playing these games on your current PCs is smooth and hassle-free. This is of course also true for Anno 1503 History Edition:

The game has been completely ported to be 64-bit only, meaning it can now take full advantage of the RAM in your PC, which helps improve performance and stability.

An Anno 1503 city in its full 4k glory (low UI scaling)

As with the other three games, Anno 1503 HE will support screen resolutions all the way up to stunning 4k. As with Anno 1602 HE, you will be able to manually select a UI scale to ensure that the UI remains comfortable to use even at 4k.

“Now hold on a minute”, we can hear you shout, “what about the improved multiplayer?”. Well…why don’t you grab a cold (or warm) drink of your choice, get comfortable, and we dive into another history lesson together?

Anno 1503: A great sequel with a glaring omission

While small Austrian developer MAX Design had developed several decently successful games like Oldtimer before, nothing could have prepared them for the meteoric success of Anno 1602 when they first released it in Spring 1998. Between rave reviews and stellar sales in German-speaking markets, Anno did right out of the gate become a heavy hitter in the then-burgeoning PC strategy market. Of course, with great success comes great expectations, so when it was time for the team to plot a course for their next game, they had to do so with the newfound burden of developing a sequel to Germany’s best-selling PC game of the year.

With that in mind, it should not be too surprising that Anno 1503’s development took unusually long for its time, coming out more than four years later in Fall 2002. When it finally did come out, it not only offered a plethora of new content (such as several different biomes and hundreds of building models), but also some big shake-ups to 1602’s tried-and-true gameplay.

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For example, rulers in Anno 1503 could no longer rely on taxes from their citizenry to fill their coffers. Instead, the game followed a more mercantile setup where players had to build market stalls where they sold wares to residents to finance their empire. While some of these changes proved highly controversial, no one could accuse MAX Design of playing to safe with their 1602 follow-up! More impactful changes that first made their way into the series were different cultures such as Venetians or Inuit and the fact that some traders now had their own island rather than just a periodically visiting ship.

While the execution of course varies, you can still see many of these ideas living on in Anno 1800, with our geographically varied sessions and traders like Madame Kahina or the Inuit in “The Passage”. And of course, Anno 1503 stayed true to the form established with 1602 by being a stunningly beautiful game, with highly detailed 2D graphics that were filled with small details that brought the world to life. Much like its predecessor, the game also became an instant success in Germany, immediately topping the charts and becoming one of the biggest hits of the year. In other words, everything could have been perfect for MAX Design, Sunflowers and Anno 1503… if not for that pesky multiplayer mode.

1503 managed to be even more detailed than Anno 1602

During development, it was promised that Anno 1503 would come with a multiplayer mode that would allow players to compete for resources as they built their empires. However, it turned out that with this promise the companies involved may have bitten off more than they could chew, as they struggled throughout development to get the multiplayer mode to be stable with the amount of data being sent back and forth between players. Come release, players found that the “Multiplayer” button in the main menu was greyed out, with a promise of it coming later down the road as a free update. Weeks became months, and when even the game’s expansion pack “Treasures, Monsters & Pirates” (which is of course part of the History Edition) was released without the promised multiplayer, Sunflowers had a proper scandal on its hands.

In the end, it was announced that work on the multiplayer mode was scrapped roughly 1 ½ years after Anno 1503’s release, bringing the inglorious saga to a sad ending. Despite all the work and even a beta test, the team were unable to reach the level of performance and stability required to release the multiplayer mode officially, instead opting to remove the previously greyed-out button from the menu. The resourceful Anno community eventually made the mode available via mods and fan patches, but the black mark of the long-promised and ultimately cancelled multiplayer mode has stuck with the game and the Anno series ever since, to the point where people still brought it up when Anno 1800 was announced more than a decade later by a completely different developer and publisher!

When we started talking about doing the Anno History Collection, this quickly became the crucial point- could we finally erase the black mark and officially release the Anno 1503 multiplayer mode after all these years? If not, there would be no point in doing this collection, so the first step for our programmers was to dive into the old source code to see if we had everything needed. Once we managed to get it running and performing well, we knew that we could offer long-time Anno fans special surprise with the History Collection.

As with the other games, Anno 1503 History Edition’s mode will be powered by Uplay and have not only all the originally envisioned features, but also a quickmatch mode and desync recovery. In addition, we even created all-new content in the form of three additional multiplayer scenarios, to round out the two from the original developers!

Other improvements to Anno 1503 History Edition include:

Three new optional mouse cursors to pick from in addition to the original style

Borderless Window mode, in addition to Fullscreen and Windowed

Optional multi-placement of residential buildings, to make painting down new housing for your citizens quick and painless

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Optional mouse-scrolling for smoother movement across the map

We fixed a graphical glitch that would appear on coastlines; as with the other improvements, this is entirely optional, in case you prefer to see how things looked back in the day

All these improvements can be select from a new options menu, which also offers an overview of all hotkey bindings.

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Finally, we fixed an old issue that put a hard limit on the number of available units in the game(the so-called “FIG value), which would result in a crash once that number was reached. That means that record builders will no longer be limited by this issue and can once again start the race for new citizen records!

The 1503 HE will of course also have save game compatibility, meaning that you will be able to take your old save games and pick up playing where you last stopped.

There is some bad news, however. We sadly will not be releasing an updated version of the Anno 1503 editor, as it was only released in German previously, and issues with the source code prevent us from localizing it. You can however still use scenarios that were made in the original editor in the History Edition. Also, three tracks from the original game’s soundtrack will not be coming back, due to licensing reasons.

Finally, languages. Anno 1503 History Edition will support English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Dutch languages.

1503 was the first game to introduce different biomes into the Anno series

Bonus Content

As mentioned in the Anno 1602 HE blog, we have asked Dynamedion to compose a new History Edition Suite encompassing the main themes of all four games, which you can of course also enjoy with Anno 1503 HE, alongside the rest of the digital soundtrack. Beyond that, buyers of this version can look forward to a special commemorative Anno 1503 wallpaper, and a company logo for use in Anno 1800. Keep in mind that anyone who buys the full Anno History Collection on Uplay will also get an additional fifth company logo, plus a special ornament for use in Anno 1800.

And that is it for today! Let us know about your favorite Anno 1503 memories in the comments and join us soon for our look at the History Editions crown jewel, Anno 1404.

DevBlog: Anno 1701 History Edition

Posted on by Ubi_MarcelH

Hey Anno Community,

Welcome back to part two of our in-depth look at the games included in this month’s Anno History Collection. Today we want to tackle Anno 1701, which is a special game to the team in many ways. But before we get into the specifics of 1701, let us recap our general approach to the Anno History Collection and the improvements that have been made across the board on all the games. Should you have missed our first blog on Anno 1602 History Edition, we would encourage you to give that a read first.

Classic gameplay on modern PCs

As outlined before, our priority with this collection and the four games included (History Editions of Anno 1602, 1503, 1701 and 1404) was to maintain the classic gameplay that we have all grown to love over the past two decades, while ensuring that playing these games on your current PCs is smooth and hassle-free. This is of course also true for Anno 1701 History Edition:

The game has been completely ported to be 64-bit only, meaning it can now take full advantage of the RAM in your PC, which helps improve performance and stability.


Anno 1701 History Edition making the lightning strike twice

Online multiplayer is back! Anno 1701 originally used the since deprecated Gamespy middleware, which means that playing the game online has not been easily possible for years. This History Edition will allow you to play via Uplay, with all the previously available options of classic Anno 1701 multiplayer coming back. In addition, there will be an option for quickmatches, and desync recovery (the error that occurs when the game state between the participating players is no longer synchronized), like what is offered in Anno 1800.

Higher resolutions: As with the other three games, Anno 1701 HE will support screen resolutions all the way up to stunning 4k. And of course, the UI will automatically adapt to your chosen resolution to make sure that the game remains easy to play, no matter if you chose 4k or keep it old-school at 1024×768.

Anno 1701: A game of many firsts

As mentioned above, Anno 1701 holds a special place, for two closely intertwined reasons: not only was it the first Anno game to be in full 3D, but also the first one to be made by the team that is today known as Ubisoft Mainz (that’s us!). Time for a little history lesson!

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As you may know, the first two Anno games were developed by a small Austrian developer called MAX Design, for their publisher Sunflowers. While both Anno 1602 and 1503 were tremendously successful, the way the industry was going was clear, with most other major strategy game franchises of the day making the jump to 3D graphics. This proved to be an issue, with the tiny MAX Design team being unprepared for the challenges of 3D development. And being based in the small town of Schladming, which is best known for winter sports, recruiting outside talent was not an easy solution either. At the same time, publisher Sunflowers had started conversations with a German developer called Related Designs about a potential collaboration on a military-focused realtime-strategy game codenamed “Anno Wars”.

Eventually, things came to a head between MAX and Sunflowers, with the latter instead opting to contract Related Designs to develop the next full Anno game. This would prove to be a major turning point for the Mainz-based studio, which had previously found some success with its 3D real-time titles Castle Strike and No Man’s Land. If this was a fairytale, we would be ending this history lesson with “…and they lived happily ever after”, but more accurately we should say “while they changed their name from Related Designs to Ubisoft Blue Byte and eventually Ubisoft Mainz, they happily developed all main Anno games ever since”.

So there you have it- Anno 1701 not only brought a beloved mix of city-building, trade, discovery, and warfare into the 3D dimension, but was also the first game from the same core team that is still hard at work on Anno more than 15 years later! In fact, if you were to compare the credits of Anno 1701 and 1800, you might notice that more than a dozen people from then are part of the Anno 1800 team, with even more working on other projects inside the Ubisoft Mainz studio. Finally, this was also the first Anno game to make use of the musical talents of Dynamedion for its soundtrack, with the studio becoming our partner for Anno music ever since.

While the switch to incredibly detailed 3D graphics has of course been the most eye-catching change to the previous games, 1701 also had some noticeable gameplay changes, like the central town square – with its visual feedback showing the happiness of your citizens, and the ability to set individual taxes for each residential tier. Avid Anno 1800 players may recognize how these concepts evolved into riots and tiered workforce in our latest title! As was tradition, Anno 1701 also received an expansion roughly a year after its original 2006 release, with the most notable addition of “The Sunken Dragon” being the single-player campaign that the core game had been missing. All expansion content is of course included in the History Edition as well.


“The Sunken Dragon” immerses players in an Asia-inspired setting

Building upon a classic

Here is what we are doing for the History Edition of Anno 1701:

Higher camera zoom: Zoom out further than ever before to get a better look at your sprawling empire (please note that this has to be optionally enabled by changing the game’s Engine.ini file)

Multi-placement of residential buildings: As with Anno 1800, you can now drag and drop as many residential buildings as you want (or your resources allow for) at a time

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Multiscreen support: Extremely rare when the game first released, multi-screen setups are commonplace these days, and now you can make full use of their screens. Anno 1701 History Edition goes even one step further by supporting three different UI styles for multiscreen setups: Compact UI, Split UI or Stretched UI. With these presets, any player is sure to find a style that meets their personal preferences!

Smoother scrolling when moving the camera

Borderless Window mode to make it easier to stream the game online

Anno 1701 History Edition is of course compatible with your existing save games, so you can keep playing right where you left off back when 1701 came out! This compatibility also extends to user created scenarios, as we are also shipping the updated 1701 World Editor with the game.

Finally, Anno 1701 History Edition will be available in English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Czech, Polish, and Hungarian.


A typical city in Anno 1701 History Edition

Bonus Content

As mentioned in the Anno 1602 HE blog, we have asked Dynamedion to compose a new History Edition Suite encompassing the main themes of all four games, which you can of course also enjoy with Anno 1701, alongside the rest of the digital soundtrack. Beyond that, buyers of this version can look forward to a special commemorative Anno 1701 wallpaper, and a company logo for use in Anno 1800. Keep in mind that anyone who buys the full Anno History Collection on Uplay will also get an additional fifth company logo, plus a special ornament for use in Anno 1800.

And that is it for today! Let us know about your favorite Anno 1701 memories in the comments and join us next week as we take a look at Anno 1503 History Edition, and the tale of the long-lost multiplayer mode!