- Anno 1800
- Season 3
- Union Update
Union Update – Community Page & New Forums
- 01.07.2021
Community Page launching
Today, we’re launching the “Community Page” here on the Anno Union!
Its main purpose is to be a place where you can find links to all important community resources like the Anno Wiki, Subreddit and various tools created and maintained by you. We’re extremely proud to have such an active, passionate community and therefore want to highlight the things you do here on the Anno Union.
You will also find links to all our channels as well as the download for the most current wallpaper pack there.
Finally, we feature a “community spotlight of the week” in addition to the ones in our Union Updates. So make sure to let us know about all your video and fan art projects! Since we’re starting on a Thursday, we’re running this “weekly” for 1,5 weeks till July 12th and feature two creations instead of just one.
This page is by no means considered final and we’re planning to expand on it with additional sections as well as links to even more community content in the future.
So, if you’re missing a specific link or have a suggestion for what else should be on the Community Page – let us know!
Anno is getting new forums
We also have an announcement regarding the official Anno forums which are available in English, French and German:
On July 20th, we will be switching to new Anno forums. This is part of a wider initiative to slowly move all Ubisoft forums from the old forum software to a new system, which is done in waves. You can already have a look at the new forums for e.g. Assassin’s Creed and The Division here.
What does this mean for you?
Firstly, the current forums will be switched to “Read Only” on July 20th. You can still access them and read all old posts but can’t create new posts or reply to threads.
Secondly, with the switch to the new forum software, we will not automatically transfer any existing threads to the new forums. We will manually take a few threads that were pinned anyway and re-post them in the new forums.
Private messages, visitor messages, post counters and ranks are also not transferred. Everyone is starting with a fresh slate.
Thirdly, the new forums are accessible as usual with your Ubisoft account, you can login and continue there as you used to.
We will keep you updated on this topic and link to our shiny new forum as soon as it’s ready.
If you have any questions in the meantime, feel free to post them below this post.
The Green Game Jam voting has ended
The voting for the different concepts presented for this year’s Green Game Jam has ended on Monday.
You can have a look at the top 5 and their concepts here on the Playing For The Planet website.
We want to say a big Thank You to everyone who voted for Anno 1800 in the Player’s Choice Award! Our “sustainable cities” concept came in 3rd, and we can’t wait to show you more later this year. Stay tuned!
Cosmetic DLC #5 – A first tease…
After the end of the Community Vote – which the “Pedestrian Zone Pack” and the “Vibrant Cities Pack” decided for themselves – we slowly started working in more detail on the two Cosmetic DLC. While their release is planned for after “The High Life”, we thought you might appreciate a first glimpse at the “Pedestrian Zone Pack”!
These are some early scribbles for possible ornaments. They might not end up looking just like this in the end and, as you can see on the example of the underpass, our Concept Artists create several different versions for each idea, before we then decide which of them should be turned into the 3D model for the game.
If you want to get some more insights into the development process of a Cosmetic DLC, have a look at this older DevBlog.
Hi, I’ve been an anno player for a long time and I have a suggestion for a future DLC. I would love to see in this series the disasters of nature as they existed in the year 1701 and 1404 for example, tornadoes, volcanoes and so on.
Hey! I’m a long-time anno1800 I have some suggestions for future anno1800 DLC!
1.Great Lakes/Mid Atlantic session
Instead of a typical island in total water, this area would consist of Lakes linked by various narrow inlets. The land would be mostly peninsulas with a few traditional islands in the center. Imagine the Crown Falls island but like 4-6 long, wavy triangles that start off wide but end at a point. Rivers can make a boost to production buildings with a special water wheel building (almost like the modules in Anno2205) that needs artisans to produce. The worker type would be old world, with special worker tiers of Pathfinders and Chiefs that boost production when supporting other worker types. You will have to deal with the newly independent “United Cities”, A former royal colony that is hostile that to any player who has more than 2 islands settled, and the only way to safely expand is to trade with them to a certain level and gain trust. The other people group you will deal with is Running Water( a chieftain struggling with the developmental pace of the United Cities). Pretty much these two parties can go to war with each other, and possibly you at the same time, the challenge is maintaining a diplomatic balance between these two parties’ interests, your own, and your competition.
2. An East Asian session. This area will be inspired by Japanese, Chinese, and Korean culture( with the possibility of India if they don’t get their own session). The main challenge here is the tensions building between Princess Qing’s brother, the (child) Emporer, his Mother( his reagent), and Eli Bleakworth/ Archibald Blake. Opium is being grown at the royal colony city of Little Dragon Nest, and being traded illegally for this sessions gamechanger, BLACK TEA ( you can grow it yourself, and it can satiate the need for coffee in all worker types twice as well as coffee, so its a powerful boost). Eli is secretly forcing this opium into the land as Archibald is under the impression that the Emporer and his mother are all fine with this as he is repeatedly kept busy in a bureaucratic mess by Eli. You must find evidence that Eli is not being honest about the illegal trade he is conducting while keeping both parties from going to war.
Both of these sessions would be great in a season 4 themed around diplomacy, “Diplomatic Ties and Revolution”.
3. As for various small things that would be great, a project that “links” 2 close islands into one entity economically, workforce-wise, resource storehouse-wise, available one time per player per session. a bridge inspired by the Brooklyn Bridge built in 1883. This can be acquired from going through the Great Lakes session from the artisans and workers being “Inspired” to link your first two islands there with a brick and steel bridge. One bridge can be built in each session but only if a certain distance is small enough between two islands.
Airship combat would also be cool for the late game. An airship could drop a bomb every 5 seconds with a DPS of 40. also, a machinegun can engage the airships with a DPS of 20. the Big betty can engage this automatically, but with a special harbor item, typical cannons can too, with less effect
A national bank building that you pay into and will dispense funds if you enter a certain negative profit level, making sure you have a net profit of 0 (until funds run out the clock, the more time spent preparing, the more time could go on bleeding out) this would be built in the investor work.
And this is a long shot… Have an option to have each village hall in your empire elect a representative. these don’t do anything, but they will in turn together elect an island rep that could go to a parliament page set in the palace menu. Policies can be introduced and voted on every 10 minutes( having a tax system, what kind, further boosts to expending the electric grid empire-wide, museums/ zoos/ gardens costing less to build, if a consumer product exceeds a +5 in production it would produce more happiness in a “subsidies and welfare” type policy) but they can also force you to end a war if it’s too unpopular (all the rioters around and all), force you to provide goods to a certain workforce type, or other detriments if you mismanage the societal system. this can also make pushes in easier island settling and pullbacks in island expansion(don’t spread yourself too thin!).
Hi! When it comes to the next anno game you plan, whichever it is (Anno IX ;)), one of the most important updates the community would like to see is the ability to curve roads – much like in Manor Lords. Anno 1800 is an extremely beautiful and complex game and has truly pushed the limits of a city builder; however, the only limitation placed on the game is that road and building construction is entirely ‘modular square grid based’ as I would call it, whereas the islands are not – they are fluid, there are edges, there are cliffs, and there are intricately snaking rivers. Wouldn’t it be cool if roads in the next anno game actually could follow and hug the rivers and coastline and look as if they were naturally there? Wouldn’t it be awesome looking if you could actually incorporate houses and buildings into a mountain side and have a road winding up? What about buildings that stretch across a river? This obviously presents design challenges and would definitely test the team’s ability; however, I believe it is a challenge the Anno team would be up to. Further to add, if you decide to build the next anno IX title, you should put resource limitations in place per island, much like you did in Anno 2070. Knowing your island will run out of resources of coal or iron forces you to expand. Additionally, water should be a natural resource you make a big focus in Anno IX (if you go for it). Sewer systems as well, but their construction should be seen as taking many days (in Anno time). I believe slowing down the pace of building creation would make the game feel more real and create a challenge for players. They need to begin laying water and sewer lines for new parts of the map (outlaying cash) before an area is fully developed. The challenge comes in if an area of a city has grown too quickly and basic sanitation and water resources cannot keep up with demand, but the construction of new facilities takes many days and is even more costly given the build of buildings and population. Okay I’ve said my peace 🙂 Things to consider! I appreciate how you truly listen to the communty!!
One final thought to overcome the challenges of curving roads. Instead of a “square” 3×3 or 2×2 tile footprint, all buildings tiles should be circular – regardless of size. The building would still be square buildings though, but its tile footprint would be a circle, as such you can then place a building wherever you want and could snake roads in circles around it, have them cut between buildings, and place buildings neatly right up against a road by a river. A circle footprint for any building, object, or ornament makes your job a lot easier as placement of a circle building footprint can take place along any dimensions of a curved road – pure mathematics like a tangent line. This would also make a lot more sense as city layouts many thousands of years ago were not ‘grid-like’ as they are today. Streets then wind and snake through the cities, and roads were not always straight. This new feature would bring a level of realism to the game never before seen. The city would truly feel as if it belongs on the island, and is not simply built on top of it in squares. Thanks!!! Please acknowledge that you would at least take part of this into consideration 🙁
When it comes to future Anno projects, we will of course take our learnings as well as the community feedback from previous titles into account.
That will include various aspects, from the setting, to game modes, mechanics and more: items, the grid system etc.
Most have pro and cons and we will need to check what weighs heavier in the end. And, of course, how it ties in with other mechanics and elements.
For example, abandoning the grid system has many big implications for various other aspects of the game and the game logic. So, a step like that would have to be considered carefully.
So, full circle to my first sentence: We of course take such feedback into account, but how and if it might be implemented remains to be seen.
I appreciate it 🙂
Will the mercer dlc bugs be fixed next patch?
Are you referring to certain Anarchist Quests not providing Items as reward anymore?
It’s currently under investigation, but we can’t say yet if when we will have a fix.
Just in time for my (finally) concluded calculator!!! Thanks 🙂
Would the underpass ornaments also fulfill the function of a regular road?
As with the other ornaments, these will be purely ornamental and not serve any gameplay purpose.
Then can I place a road under them like with the industrial arch gates ornaments?
Sorry, “these will […] not serve any gameplay purpose” ):
You can’t negate it would make the life of “beauty builders” (the ones who buy these DLCs) easier.
You can place a road in between the two lampposts shown at the top, yeah.
Has the idea been tested?
I for one would love to build underpass systems that actually worked for practical layout purposes. Isn’t that the whole idea of why underpasses exist in the first place?
I can see how it might be a little overkill and unrealistic to allow infinitely long underpass tunnels, but perhaps if the maximum length of a tunnel was limited to a more realistic size then it could add a very interesting new depth to possible layout configurations. Something like a maximum length somewhere between 8 to 12 tiles could work very nicely (would also fit under a cab assembly line). I could easily imagine clicking on a tunnel building icon and placing them like roads, to connect two underpass entrances within range of each other, with buildings under the mouse cursor turning transparent like a blueprint so the tunnel sections can be seen and placed.
On the other hand I could also understand why adding anything more than purely ornamental content might not be appropriate for a DLC that is advertised as ‘cosmetic’. So perhaps the feature could be considered for inclusion in the upcoming High Life DLC or as part of a general future update, with a more basic / industrial design. That way these Pedestrian Zone designs could maintain their purely cosmetic intentions, by simply providing the more basic underpass entrance with a more pedestrian design.
If the idea actually worked then maybe something similar could even be extended to some form of limited train underpass system as well. Heck I would pay pay extra for a DLC that implemented any underpass system. At least one can dream of such features and pray that the Anno gods are listening 😛
Yeah, we don’t want to add anything with gameplay impact in these Cosmetic DLC, so that’s why such a feature won’t find its way into any of those.
In general: A new system like this can pose all kinds of risks and issues with existing system. Right now, carts are always visible when traveling on your roads, and different roads are never on top of each other without “touching”, i.e. a bridge or an underpass. They always touch.
We’ve quickly touched on a similar topic when talking about tram systems in the Tourist Season blog.
It would be a very work-intensive system for the post-launch period and definitely too big for “The High Life”, which is releasing in late summer (i.e. pretty soon from a development point of view).
We can definitely have a look at this topic to estimate the efforts, but currently I wouldn’t judge an implementation to be very likely.
Such a system might likely pose as many brain twisters to program as it would to build new subterranean layout connections. A good challenge is usually where the fun is at 😀 plus I’m sure a determined enough mind would certainly find a way to make it work 😀 😀
After seeing the first screenshot for the underpass I got so excited by the prospect of exploring such an interesting new way to layout and connect residences & industries, only to be so hugely disappointed to learn that the underpass was nothing more than skin deep. It could seriously add such a cool new dimension to optimizing city & industry layouts if balanced right.
Totally get it if it doesnt fit into High Life.
However if I’ve understood the timeline correctly, then Pedestrian Zone should be releasing sometime after High Life (and likely after Vibrant Cites too), which could perhaps leave room to experiment with the feature for a base game update well before then. Just a thought 🙂
Bottom line is, I love Anno 1800! One can never get enough Anno amazingness!! 😀 😛 🙂
Not saying it’s not possible. But the question is: Is it possible within the time and budget? And is the result worth this effort? Or could be use that time to create something with higher gameplay value for all players?
Some topics are also simply too big for now, but might be something for a future Anno project.
Our current plans are to first release Pedestrian Zone and then Vibrant Cities. But we’ll go into detail regarding our plans for the rest of the year at a future date 😛
I among many other Anno1800 players would like a system to maximize our services for ordinary worker tiers. It would be a period-appropriate thing to build either an elevated electric tram system to “lay over” road systems, or just a subway system to put in a nonvisible ( even easier) way, and connect all stations to a city center with one of each all appropriate city services instead of 3 universities, 4 churches, etc. This would make building larger cities and therefore larger economies easier. I would also say also in The High Life DLC, the ability to stack residents should really apply to all worker levels above worker, and especially all above artesian, maybe not to the same max height( worker can stack 2 residents, artisan 3, etc) but that was what cities were becoming at the turn of the 1900’s.