Author: UbiCecce

Hello Anno Community,

We are getting closer and closer to the end of the year – only 5 days until December, how is that possible? As Annoholics, there is no better way to get ourselves prepared for the end of 2021 than looking at our end of the year plans. It is time to dive into this Union Update to find out more!

GU 13, Green Game Jam & CDLC Vibrant Cities Pack

Save the date, Annoholics: on December 14th, Game Update 13 will be released! This free update will include several more quality of life improvements and bug fixes. You might be wondering: is that all there is? And the answer is, of course, no. Game Update 13 will also include a new game mode and there is our brand new Cosmetic DLC, Vibrant Cities Pack, releasing alongside it.

Vibrant Cities Pack is the second Skins Pack released for Anno 1800, and the third and last Cosmetic DLC for this year. The theme for this CDLC was chosen by the Anno Community during our Community Vote, together with the Pedestrian Zone Pack that was released back in September. Would you like to know more about the upcoming Cosmetic DLC? Fear not, Annoholics! Next week we will have a full DevBlog dedicated to it. Visit the Anno Union on December 2nd for a full overview!

Last, as you might already know, back in June we announced our participation in the Green Game Jam, and our “sustainable cities” concept ended up winning the UNEP Choice Award! If you would like to know more about this new mode, then do not miss our Green Game Jam Overview that we will share here on the Anno Union on December 6th.

And, of course, keep an eye on our Twitter and Facebook channels if you do not want to miss some juicy teasers of the upcoming content!

End of the Year Livestream

Another date to add to your calendars: on December 6th we will be live on Twitch! This time to present you the Green Game Jam mode, the Cosmetic DLC Vibrant Cities Pack, and much more! Tune in if you do not want to miss our news and a chance to hang out with the Anno Team.

Community Spotlight

Finally, our favourite part of every Union Update – the Community Spotlight!

Our first pick is this glorious Megabuild Timelapse video by HappySheep242 shared on YouTube. Minecraft ft. Anno 1602? We do not need to add anything else, go check it out!

Another video, but this one is a great guide created by Itroo Twitch. It is a three-part guide that focuses on the Stores you get access to with The High Life DLC. We are sure many of you will find this super helpful!

SouthRefrigerator553 shared this amazing collection of screenshots dedicated to New York City – we are blown away by the beauty and accuracy of this creation. Bravo!

Finally, here is a celebratory post for vonWistalia who, after ten years, finally beat all maps with 3 stars on Anno 1701 on Nintendo DS. Congrats!

That is all for today’s Union Update. We hope you are excited as we are for our End of the Year plans. If you have any question, do not hesitate to ask them in the comments below.

Hello Anno Community, 

This week we would like to give you some *juicy* teasers of what is going to happen in the next few weeks. What are we talking about? Annoversary Weeks, of course! Let’s see what we have planned to celebrate in the next few weeks. 

Annoversary Weeks 

Exciting times, Annoholics! We are about to enter a period that marks different anniversaries… Annoversaries, as we call them! Four of our beloved Anno titles were released between October and November in the past years. Let’s go through them all with order. 

19 years ago, on 31 October 2002, Anno 1503 was released. Developed by MAX Design and published by Sunflower Interactive, it is the second title of the Anno franchise and a direct sequel to Anno 1602. 

Four years after Anno 1503, another title was released: Anno 1701. The 26 October marks the 15th Annoversary of this gem. It was developed by Related Designs, that – spoiler alert – is now known as Ubisoft Mainz. This makes Anno 1701 the first Anno title developed by us.

Now, let’s jump a bit further into the future (in every way). Anno 2070 was released on 17 November 2011, exactly 10 years ago.  

Finally, the youngest among these four titles, is Anno 2205, which was released 6 years ago, on 3 November 2015. 

Now that the trip down memory lane is over, you might be thinking: How are we going to celebrate? First, we will have a “birthday blog” for Anno 1701 here on the Anno Union. Second, for these occasions we will have not one, but three Anno streams! The first one will take place on 29 October and we will be playing 1701. Then we will go live on 5 November with some Anno 2205 and finally, on 19 November, we will play Anno 2070. We cannot wait to hang out with you on Twitch to celebrate all together! 

Last but not least, we prepared a little surprise for you. More info coming soon! 

DevBlogs: The Role of QA & From Bug Report to Game Update 

In case you missed it, we published two DevBlogs dedicated to work of the QA teams. The first DevBlog focuses on the role of QA: which roles do each team fulfill? Is there a difference between the work before and after the game release? The second DevBlog gives some insights into which steps are taken from finding an issue to a fix being released.  

Mainzframe 

A new episode of Mainzframe went live last Friday, this time with Marcel, Brand Manager, and Oliver, Community Developer, sharing some insights about working on Anno. 

You can also check the previous episode with two of our UI Designers, Farah and Jaq. 

Community Spotlight 

Our first pick is this screenshot shared by Goldene_Gans on Reddit. Look at those Skyscrapers! The spotlights create an amazing effect on them and the rest of the city. 

NobleX35 shared this picture on our Discord server: excellent job on the palace layout! Everything seems in perfect harmony.  

Finally, look at this pixel art works created by Australis: we love every single pixel of it! It makes us feel very nostalgic.  

That is all for today’s Union Update. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to write a comment below or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook or our official Forums. 

Hey Anno Community!

Our latest Cosmetic DLC, the “Pedestrian Zone Pack” was released a little bit over a week ago, and since then we have seen so many beautiful screenshots you shared with us and the rest of the Community. We hope the reworking of your cities wasn’t too hard, but we can definitely say that the results are amazing!  

Without further ado, let’s dive into this Union Update. 

Jumping trains and other feedback

In the wake of the Cosmetic DLC release, we have received reports that whenever a train or any type of feedback unit gets close to a Pedestrian Bridge, the units will then “jump” instead of moving below the bridge. We would like to thank you for all the reports regarding this bug and we can confirm that our teams are investigating the issue.

You also provided feedback on some elements of the “Pedestrian Zone Pack” which we will have another look at regarding their technical feasibility (e.g. allowing road-bridges longer than two tiles over the canals), since everything involving the road logic always comes with a bunch of technical challenges.

As soon as we have news regarding any of these topics, you will read them here on the Anno Union.

DevBlog: From Bug Report to Game Update 

Next week we will dive again into the world of QA with a new DevBlog, this time focused on the interesting and rather intricate topic that is the bug fixing process: From your bug report to us releasing a new Game Update.  

Issue prioritization? Golden Ticket phase? If you are curious to know more about our internal processes, then don’t forget to visit the Anno Union next Thursday!

Community Spotlight

As pointed out at the beginning of this Update: There are so many fantastic screenshots! Time to share some of them here in this week’s Community Spotlight.

Our first pick is this screenshot taken by Mithaladriel: here we can see this lovely residential district crossed by canals. We recommend checking the whole thread on Reddit, we know you’ll love it as much as we do!

“I could spend all day making little marketplaces” said Takarazuka on Discord. We share the same feeling! This marketplace looks so lively and colourful.

@MrTNT1970 used the new canal system in a very peculiar way and… YES, we approve it and love it!

LeGeektateur shared a new series of screenshots on our official forums, but this picture in particular caught our eyes. What a beautiful pedestrian zone and such a wonderful view!

Finally, our last shout-out goes to DerBaronTV for creating and sharing his “Anno Bible”. The whole team has been blown away by the work done on this, bravo! We think this will be a great resource for the Community – we definitely had to share it on the Anno Union. You can find the Anno 1800 Bible here.

It’s all for today – we hope you enjoyed this Union Update! If you have any question, do not hesitate to ask them in the comments or ping us on our social channels on Twitter and Facebook.