Play in the Anno 1800 Free Week from December 11 to 18 It has been 8 months and many Game Updates and improvements since Anno 1800 first set sail. To show any of you still on the fence how far the game has come since launch (and to give you the perfect excuse to invite some friends to try the new co-op mode together) we are running another Free Week for Anno 1800 later this month. From December 11 to 18, everyone can download and play the Free Week version of Anno 1800 from Uplay or the Epic Games Store. As with our first free week back in August, keep in mind that this is a stand-alone build of Anno 1800 that you must be separately downloaded. In addition, it is for technical reasons not possible to carry over any save games from the Free Week version to the regular game.
The free version of Anno 1800 will include the first three residential tiers in sandbox mode as well as all free Game Updates, which means multiplayer and co-op for everyone (alongside previously released content like the day & night mode). The content of the Anno 1800 Season Pass won’t be included in the Free Week version of Anno 1800.
And if you have some friends that you always wanted to play some co-op with who have yet to get the game, we have some good news for them: as part of the Free Week, all three editions of the game will be discounted by up to 55% on the Epic Games Store and Uplay!
As we get closer to next week’s update hattrick of The Passage (available as part of the Anno 1800 Season Pass or as a stand-alone purchase), co-op mode and new statistics system (available as a free update to all players), one question has become prevalent within our communities: “What`s next for Anno 1800?” Does The Passage mark not only the end of our Season Pass, but of development overall? Or can Annoholics look forward to more industrial adventures in 2020? Today, we want to answer that question by raising the curtain just a little bit…
Bring the Holiday Spirit to your cities on December 10
First, we have one more surprise in store for next week- the release of our “Holiday Pack”. This standalone DLC Pack (not included in the Season Pass or any editions of the game) adds a total of 23 new ornaments to the game, allowing players to build their very own Christmas Markets in their cities- including huts, Christmas trees and even a carousel featuring some vehicles from the game!
If all this sounds familiar to you as Anno fans, you are right; we did similar content packs for Anno 2070 as well, like the “Eden Series Package”. So why bring them back now? We know that Anno players love few things more than having new buildings to add to their cities, and there can never be enough variety when it comes to decorations and ornaments! At the same time, feature-rich DLCs like The Passage take several months of development, making it impossible for us to release them as frequently as we would like to deliver new content to you all to keep Anno 1800 exciting and fresh.
As a compromise between these aspects, our talented art team has created this pack of Holiday-themed ornaments to see if this is a content format that will appeal to the Anno community. Should the Holiday Pack prove popular with players, we would love to create more such themed packs in the future. Who knows, we could even run a vote on the Anno Union to decide on future themes to give you all something to look forward to as we work on new gameplay content!
And speaking of which…
There is more Anno 1800 on the way!
Enough teasing, here is what you all wanted to hear: The Passage is not the end for Anno 1800, and we are working on new gameplay content and features to further expand the world of the industrial revolution in 2020!
There is however a caveat: The team has been busy finishing The Passage and Game Update 6, and it will be some time before we will be able to share more concrete information with you all.
With that said, we hope you are as excited about this news as the team is, and we look forward to talking more about the future of Anno next year!
We are just one more week away from embarking on our big arctic adventure, making it the perfect time to give you some more updates on The Passage and Game Update 6, and what content you can expect for the rest of this week.
While last week’s Devblog and live streams already gave you a good overview of what to expect from the new update, we know that many of you are looking forward to seeing the full release notes for Game Update 6. You will soon be able to do so, as we will release them here on the Anno Union on Friday, December 6.
Originally, we had also planned to publish a dedicated statistics and co-op DevBlog, but after showing of many of the features in the last AnnoCast, we realized that, given the nature of the statistics feature, showing it in action is worth more than a thousand words of DevBlogs.
So, if you want to pass the time until you ca get your own hands on all the new statistics, you can relive last week’s AnnoCast live stream, where a group of developers spent almost two hours showing off a lot of the new content and features, right here.
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Once again, we will send a group of brave explorers on their way into the frozen north to broadcast their adventures on Twitch. During this Event, you will be able to watch how a variety of selected Twitch Streamers try to open the Northwest Passage. Doing so can reward you with two brand new ornaments: the Anno Union flag and the Passage billboard.
The only thing you need to do is link your Uplay to your Twitch account and watch the streamers during the event for up to 3 hours to receive your loot. But wait, there is one change to the last events: you won’t have to watch consecutive hours anymore to receive your drop; watching the hours accumulated on participating streamers will grant you the ornaments.
Last but not least, our friends from the Annoverse Fan Discord made the recordings of our AMA session from November 25. available for everyone. If you missed the event or want to listen to the lengthy AMAs again, you can do so now here: To the English Roundtable Recording To the German Roundtable Recording
And if you like the idea to get in touch with like-minded Annoholics, even though it could mean that you loose one or more evenings in lengthy chat discussions about your favorite title of the series, consider joining the Annoverse community.
End of October, we invited the Anno Union to go with us on an expedition to test the waters of the upcoming DLC The Passage as well as Game Update 6. Over the last couple of weeks, hundreds of Union members tested the upcoming content inside out and provided a huge amount of valuable feedback and reports. After weeks of analyzing your feedback and working on improvements and polishing, it’s now time to break the silence and open the doors of our testing vault, sharing the next steps for the Union and the upcoming content for Anno 1800.
AnnoAfternoon: The Sunken Dragon – Friday 22.11 at 5PM CET After barely escaping a burning city with their settlers, Community Manager Oli and Anno veteran Wolfgang are looking for a new home in Anno 1701. And wasn’t there also something about a mysterious artefact…?
AnnoCast: The Passage – Wednesday 27.11 at 5pm – 7pm CET Don’t forget to pack your parka as it is about to get cold. We thought “Show don’t tell” is the best approach and therefore, we will bring you the next AnnoCast already next week! Join us on an adventure to our arctic outpost to see the Passage and Game Update 6 (this includes a lot of sweet statistics) in action while we answer your most burning questions. You really don’t want to miss this one, as we plan to have a bunch of developers on camera in this almost two-hour long episode.
AnnoAfternoon: “In den kalten Norden” – German Episode – Friday 29.11 at 5pm CET And right after our developer stream, our community team will follow up with a new stream, this time with a special German episode in the frozen wasteland. So not only a good chance to take a look at the Passage after our developer stream, the team is eager to answer your questions or pass your feedback on to the developers.
And as we love that outside window from our studio into the outside window, we are always eager for feedback about our content. Give the channel a follow if you don’t want to miss any future episodes.
Union Talk Episode 4 With the Anno Union, we invited you all to help us developing the next big Anno game. And in that spirit, we love to share as many development insights as possible. In the now fourth episode of our developer podcast, we talk about the postlaunch journey of Anno 1800, conceptions and misconceptions about developing content after the big release and how we continue to work with your input and feedback.
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And as this is a passion project from the development team for the Union, let us know if you would love to see more Union Talks in future and feel free to share your opinion on the topic matter of the latest podcast.
We will also drop new DevBlog’s in the upcoming weeks, where we talk about the development and show gameplay elements of the Passage as well as Game Update 6. Keep a keen eye on the Union for upcoming blogs and of course, we will soon share when The Passage and GU6 lands on your PC.
Annoverse Discord Roundtable Monday 25.11 at 7pm CET And because feedback and communication matters, our Community Developer Basti and Community Manager Oli join another round of the Annoverse Discord Roundtable. The Roundtable is an AMA session in our Anno Fandiscord, where everyone can join asking us anything while the team answers your questions in Voice Chat, if it is development or community related.
The Annoverse Discord is an great meetup place for great Annoholics new and old and we want to say thank you for the continues community support and for the hosting of the Roundtables. In that vein, we strongly encourage you to jump in the Discord yourself, as you will find hundreds of like minded Annoholics there to chat about anything Anno (and more)!
And that was it for this weeks Update but as you can see, it was mere the beginning. You can look forward to a lot of new and insightful content in the upcoming weeks to get you all prepared for journey into the frozen north – Winter is coming, after all!
Once again we want to share a community update with you, showcase some great Anno 1800 impressions from our community and let you know about our streaming plans. Let’s go!
Anno Afternoon Stream – Retro Edition
This Friday, we’re changing things up with the Anno Afternoon. After noticing that Ubi-Thorlof has never played Ubi-Trenchcoat’s favourite game of the series – Anno 1701 – they spontaneously decided to do a retro stream! Tune in on the 8th at 4PM UTC (5PM CET) when they’ll be diving into the The Sunken Dragon campaign.
Playtest und Game Update 6.0
The Game Update 6.0 playtest has started last week and is going very well. A big thank you to everyone who already provided their feedback in the dedicated forums. If you haven’t already – let us know your thoughts!
And if you have signed up for the playtest but haven’t received an invite yet: Do not worry. We will send another wave of invites in the coming week.
Parallel to the test our team continues their work on the Update including the third DLC, coming out in December. We will share more information regarding all the features and a precise date closer to release.
Community Spotlight
Let’s again round things up by featuring some the cities you built and the experiences you shared.
ClassicReddltor is extremely happy about finally getting the Extravaganza Steamer, posing in front of his massive city. How many of you already managed to get hold of this proud ship?
For friends of grapes and champagne, a visit to Conschbourg – the Green City – might be a good idea. Spacer176 also provides you with a tourist guide and a history lesson of this town.
If you’re more of a fan cities, you should probably plan a trip to DerGrindelwutz’s and RegalSeagull’s versions of Crown Falls. With plenty of parks, promenades along the river islands and bridges in front of the waterfall panorama, these cities simply invite you to take a long walk.
As a stark contrast to these peaceful views, cjnewson88 seems to have a few issues with his rioting populace.
But he later explains his city setup and the strategy behind his success – well worth a read.
That’s already it for this week’s Union Update!
Feel free to share your adventures and achievements with us on social or reddit and don’t forget to tune in to tomorrow’s stream.
We’re back once more with a community update and some info on what to expect from us in the near future.
Anno Afternoon Stream
This Friday, Seraxia and Thorlof will put their creative hats on (most likely not literally) in another Anno Afternoon and try something completely different. You want to know more? Then don’t miss out this special livestream episode and tune on the 25th at 4PM UTC+1 (5PM CEST).
And if you got any cool or funny ideas for future streams, what better opportunity to share them with us than this Friday?
Playtest beginning next week!
As you all know the next playtest is just around the corner and as we work together with the community to get a jam-packed Game Update 6 ready for December, we will take a short break from Union blogs in the upcoming week. But worry not, we will be back soon with community news and new game information.
And we already got some exciting news this week! Keep an eye on your inbox, cause for a first wave of players the the playtest will already start next week – more invite-waves will follow.
We’re very much looking forward to your feedback. So, when we’re already talking about GU6 and The Passage, why not hop over to Reddit. Some of you already started a discussion about the content of the DLC there. We might have some theories ourselves but it’s far more exciting to read your predictions. Which features and production chains do YOU think will be added with The Passage?
Community Content
Something that impressed all of us quite a bit was jasperwillem not only managing to get this settlement to house Engineers without ever visiting the New World but shortly after also luring Investors into ‘Golden City’.
How many of us spent long nights outsourcing production chains and setting up new trade routes. Or planting hedge rows for hours for that perfect inner-city park or the world’s best botanical garden. We bet there are some quirky challenges or legendary achievements you set yourself in the past or future. So, share them with us in the comments below!
Fitting to last week’s blog about the Day & Night Cycle, we also want to use this blog to share some impressions from the community. Apparently some of you have a weird fascination with exploding factories…but admittedly, fires look very cool at night:
That’s it for this Community Update. Did you already share your favourite moments with us? Be it day or night, dusk or dawn, we always love to see what fantastic scenes you manage to capture.
Today we want to give you an update on what is next for Anno 1800. We have received a lot of community feedback on Game Update 5, including some issues. The Anno community is at the heart of everything we do, so we are of course committed to improving the quality of all upcoming updates. As such, we have made some changes to our roadmap, which you can find detailed below.
Game Update 5.3 (mid-October)
We are currently working on Game Update 5.3, which we are planning to release in mid-October after extensive additional testing. For this update, we will be focusing on fixing the following issues:
Trains getting stuck inside the oil harbor
Ships getting stuck at the session border
Anarchist Main Story Quests appearing too rarely for some unlucky players
NPC characters having large fleets of duplicate ships
Ships in the ship list flickering/ switching around
Issues with selecting ships when preparing for an expedition
Ships returning to the wrong island after an expedition
The Shift+V command not working on depots
Ships of quest givers not despawning after the quests are finished, which can crowd NPC harbors
The Sunken Treasures session of Cape Trelawney being available without first doing the respective expedition
Ships drifting/ leaving their positions by themselves
Ships duplicating on the world map by registering multiple times for session transfer
Influence point balance being affected by saving and loading a game
Issues with manually loading/ unloading oil tankers
Quest objects spawning in water
Game Update 6 (December)
Game Update 6, including the previously announced co-op mode and statistics system, will be released alongside our third DLC, The Passage, in December. Combining all these content drops into one update will allow us to focus all of our polishing efforts into one release, giving us extra time for additional extensive testing of all the new content and new features. We are also planning to involve some of our Anno Union members in these tests, similar to the co-op technical test we conducted last week (more on that later this month).
We appreciate that some of you are very keen to get your hands on the co-op mode as soon as possible, but we hope that you will agree that getting the most polished experience possible is worth a few more weeks of patience.
We are as committed and focused on improving Anno 1800 as ever, and are looking forward to sharing more news on everything included in Game Update 6 – including the new arctic session, resident tiers, production chains and airships from The Passage, as well as the free co-op mode and new statistics features – in the weeks to come. Thank you all for your patience and ongoing support.
Today marks the release of our second season pass DLC “Botanica” and Game Update 5. We are eager to see your comments on our latest content update and if you plan to share your marvelous gardens or just want to create content with the free Game Update 5, do not forget to let us know by commenting or mentioning our official social media channels such as @Anno_EN.
https://youtu.be/u_oq8Lfj9JQ
With five big updates as well as three DLC’s in total, the journey of Anno 1800 is far from over yet. With “Passage” sending you on a venturesome journey to the cold north and free updates like the upcoming Coop Mode and Statistic Overview, we will continue to expand the world of Anno 1800 until the end of the year. You will not have to wait too long, as we will share some details about our plans for the next big game update soon.
Anno 1800 Piano Suite
Our new Botanica Music Pavilion is a throwback to old classics and the perfect occasion to celebrate over 20 years of Anno history. And as a thank you for all the support over the years, we want to share something special with you. In partnership with the Anno 1800 composer Tilman Sillescu and Dynamedion, we present to you the music sheet to the original Anno 1800 piano suite.
If just for the collectors heart or for talented musicians (or the ones striving to become one) in our community, the music notes of the piano theme give you some exclusive insight in the work of the talented composer and invite you to create your own Anno 1800 music piece. Let us know if you are hungry for more, and don’t forget sharing your interpretations of the Anno 1800 music with the Anno Union. On that special note, how do you like the idea of a dedicated music stream, maybe with the composer Tilman himself as a special guest?
Anno 1800 vinyl and digital soundtrack
Our special vinyl edition of the soundtrack was in high demand since launch. And we are happy to tell you that this well looked after collector’s item is still available on the store of our friends from Black Screen Records.
And if you just can’t get enough of the Anno 1800 soundtrack, we also made it digitally available on various platforms.
With our free Anno 1800 week during this year’s gamescom, we allowed everyone to try out Anno 1800 and experience the new day night cycle, which is now available for everyone in Game Update 5, for the first time. Anno 1800 is already a dreamland for screenshot artists and we realized quickly: the new day night cycle is the perfect feature to challenge you with a contest.
Together with Corsair Gaming, we asked you to use the new lighting options to capture your city in a new light. And today, we happily announce the winner of our big Corsair Day&Night contest!
First place goes to: Karacolidea’s sunset in the new world! Like in real photography, it is all about the right time of the day to get a painterly shot like this one, where the last light of the day transforms this new world settlement into a scene right out of a fairytale. Congratulations Karacolidea for this wonderful shot and the first place of our contest. You will never be left in the dark with your new Nightsword RGB Gaming Mouse, MM800 RGB Mousepad and the ST100 RGB Headset Stand.
Second place goes to: Neckarmann’s under the full moon It is almost too quite in that moody harbor piece and it is hard to tell if the scene is romantic or if the glooming full moon creates a feeling of unease. But that is the magic about Neckarmann’s screenshot and why we decided it is a well-deserved second place! The Nightsword RGB Gaming Mouse and MM800 RGB Mouspad will find its way to you!
Third place goes to: Carpo’s rising inferno A quite scenery, villagers peacefully resting under the dark night sky….and a full on catastrophe in the making! We had a few great entries with spitting flames in the night but this one captivated us most. Congratulations for the third place and for winning the Nightsword RGB Gaming Mouse.
Keep an eye out for a DM in the forum or on twitter from our community team, as we will need your address to send the Corsair gear and your Anno goodies on the way.
And without further ado, happy gardening everyone and until next time!
In today’s Union Update, we get ready for the details about our Twitch Drop Botanica event before we follow up with Devblog: Botanica tomorrow and the next Annocast Devstream. Don’t forget to follow our Twitch channel to get notified when we go online with our developer stream this Thursday 4.30pm CEST. And as this week is already quite packed with Anno news and content, we will share the winner of the Corsair Day&Night cycle next week!
Twitch Drop Event: Botanica
To celebrate our upcoming Season Pass DLC Botanica and the Game Update 5, coming next week Tuesday on September 10, we will run another Twitch Drop event beginning this Friday. The whole event takes place from Friday September 6 and to give you some time to pick your favourite streamer, will last until September 15.
During the Event, you will be able to watch how a variety of selected Twitch Streamers wake their inner artist and demonstrate how inspiring or questionable they make use of Anno 1800’s beauty building features. Annoholics watching the shows can grab two brand new ornaments, the Anno Union flag and the Botanica billboard. The only thing you need to do is link your Uplay to your Twitch account and watch the streamers during the event for up to 3 consecutive hours to receive your loot.
If you entertain yourself with Anno 1800 during the event for one hour, you will get the „Anno Union Flagpole” ornament and if you binge a channel for three hours, you will obtain the „Botanica“ Billboard to advertise your new botanical garden.
As you might know already, Anno 1800 will become part of the new Uplay + subscription service, where subscribers can play a vast amount of Ubisoft title, among them Anno 1800 including all DLC content.
If you are owner of the Anno 1800 base game and decide to join Uplay + or to test our new service for the first month, you will be able to enjoy our DLC content. However, please keep in mind to back up your save games, as activating the DLC’s will not be revertible on your saves. After your trial and subscription ends, these saved states of the game where DLC’s are enabled will not be playable anymore until you own the DLC or get access to the content via subscribing to Uplay +.
We are back from gamescom 2019, but there’s no rest for the wicked, as the next DLC drop is just around the corner. Today, we give you an overview of what happened during the world biggest game convention and some info about what is yet to come in the upcoming weeks.
As many of you already know, we revealed our new Season Pass trailer during the opening ceremony of gamescom 2019, giving you not only a glimpse at upcoming DLCs like Botanica or the icy The Passage DLC, but also revealing the new day & night cycle that you will all be receiving as a free Game update alongside Botanica on September 10!
Our second Season Pass DLC, Botanica, drops September 10, alongside the free Game Update 5. You can look forward to a detailed DevBlog about your personal botanical garden next week!
Game Update 5 will bring you the free day & night cycle and the much improved return of certain plaza tiles you may have seen during our beta phases. As always, we will share the full release notes next week.
Our third Season Pass DLC, The Passage, will be appropriately released this winter. We don’t want to share anything beyond what was seen in the trailer… but have you see those airships?
Ubisoft Lounge
During our Ubisoft Lounge presentations at gamescom, we showcased the new day & night cycle in detail, provided some information about the development of the content and invited you to extensive AMA sessions. As always, we got a lot of feedback, ideas and impressions to take back to work with us, and it was once again a delight to be able to speak and to discuss face to face with some of our Annoholics.
During gamescom, we were told that it would be interesting to learn more about the development of the Day & Night cycle, including challenges and interesting insights from an art and overall development perspective. How does that sound for the rest of the Union- are you hungry for more behind the scenes content to learn more about the development of the game?
Botanica Devblog, Live-Stream and Twitch Drops
Next week, we will not only share the Game Update 5 notes, but also bring you the DevBlog: Botanica- but that is still not enough! That’s why we will also show you the new content in another live-stream hosted on twitch.tv/ubisoftbluebyte
Tune in next week Thursday, September 5th at 4.30pm CEST when Game Designer Natacha and ComDev Basti demonstrate the beauty of the botanical garden while answering questions from the chat as well as from our Union comments section.
And one last bit of Botanica news is that our Twitch Drops Event will return with a new billboard and an Anno Union flag obtainable from September 6 until September 15. Stay tuned and save the date, as we will share the exact details and participating channels next week!
Contest Winners! #Annogeil
While we are still going through the illuminated screenshots of our #AnnoDayNight screenshot contest, we had another small contest going during gamescom: #Annogeil (which roughly translates to #crazyforanno or #thisisreallyhardtoltranslateliterally). While we need some more time to choose the #Annodaynight winners, here are the best #annogeil (#crazyforanno) pictures from our small gamescom contest.
First Place goes to Smoper! Congrats Smoper, the Corsair Ironclaw Wireless RGB Mouse and a Anno 1800 surprise bag will find a new home as soon as you are back from your vacation!
Second Place goes to: Mr. Tnt1970 A Corsair M350 Premium Mouse Pad and a Anno 1800 goodie bag will find their way into your collection! (we are a bit jealous of your Annoholic shirt, though!)
Third Place goes to the master collector Silvio himself! And you can look forward to a Corsair M300 Premium Mouse Pad as well as some Anno goodies (be honest here, you have everything by now, don’t you?)
Special Mention goes to Beulemann As your #Annogeil experience was hindered, we decided to also throw in an Anno Union care package for you!
Congratulations to all winners; we will get in contact with you via Twitter to send your prices on their way. We will now assemble a team to go through all the submissions of the #Annodaynight contest!
“Annohol” – German Cover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-puLSi-J-oU
It doesn’t matter if you are a fan of German singer and songwriter Herbert Grönemeyer or whether you understand German. Just lean back and listen to this amazing cover of Grönemeyers “Alkohol”(“Alcohol”. Well. That was easy. Congrats, you’ve learned German!) by Radlerauge. It’s worth it!
