Union Update: Closed Beta and a special Announcement

In today’s Union Update, we reflect on the Closed Beta. Plus, make sure to read all the way to the end for a special announcement!

Thank for making our Closed Beta a full success
Wow, what a week it has been for all of us on the Anno Dev Team! So, where to start? First by saying “Thank you” to every single one of you who has participated in our Closed Beta- you managed to not only help us reach, but actually crush our expectations for this test. From the number of players, to how often you came back and how long you played during these few days, we were truly humbled by your dedication to helping us test Anno 1800.

We also want to thank everyone who created content for the game, be it live streaming, videos, screenshots or even creating the first cheat sheets and tools to calculate the most efficient production chains. Many of us on the team were glued to our various screens to watch streams and videos throughout the test, and we have to be honest with you: seeing “our baby” reach the #5 spot for most viewed games on Twitch on Friday night was more than just a little bit surreal. Fair to say that you all made our day(s), and that seeing all this excitement will be a great morale boost for the team as we tackle the feedback reports in the weeks to come.

But of course, it is not just about making us feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Watching so many different players of all experience and skill levels was also very helpful for our game and UX designers as they were able to check many of our assumptions and guesses how players would behave as they get familiar with Anno 1800 against real player behavior.

Your Feedback, and how we will act on it
Which brings us to your feedback. Not surprisingly, we have received plenty of feedback from you, ranging from crash reports to bugs, wishes for improvements and praise for new gameplay elements you love (like the blueprint mode).

While we will not be able to comment on all of them, there are a few hot topics for Closed Beta testers:

  • Game Balance: As you know, we recently made the difficult decision to delay Anno 1800 to April 16. Between these additional weeks of development and all the feedback from our testers, you can safely assume that nothing you have seen balance-wise should be considered final. This is also true for the influence system (more on that in a second).
  • Desyncs: First, a big thank you to everyone who helped test the multiplayer mode. A test at the scale of this Closed Beta is immensely helpful for us when it comes to testing multiplayer functionality, as having so many players (on many different ISPs, routers etc.) out in the wild helps to find lots of issues we would never come across in our internal testing. Thanks to your help, we have received a lot of valuable data to improve the multiplayer experience at launch. One thing to keep in mind here is that a lot of different behind the scenes issues can result in a desync error for the player (for example, you could still experience desyncs after our Closed Beta Update 1 fixed several different issues causing them, though we managed to dramatically decrease their frequency).
  • Performance: Another topic that we saw many questions around was in-game performance. This is another aspect of the game where we are hard at work optimizing and improving to ensure that as many people as possible can enjoy playing Anno 1800. This large-scale test helped us to get much more insight into the plethora of system configurations in our community.
  • Influence: We addressed this topic in our notes for the Update from Friday, but want to reiterate our points here. We know that your experience with the influence system during the Closed Beta was not optimal, for a variety of reasons. Three of them are especially noteworthy.
    • As you know, the game is still in development, and this is especially true of the influence system. The current balance you have seen in the Closed Beta is not final, and we will keep iterating on it, as we get closer to launch. You have already seen some live changes to that during the test.
    • One important aspect to keep in mind when evaluating the influence system in the Closed Beta is that due to the content being limited to tiers 1-3 and lacking the endgame, the player behavior was artificially changed from normal play patterns. Watching players engage with the full content, they are more likely to try to make vertical progress by reaching tier 4, rather than spending many hours creating their own endgame on tier 3. To give you an idea about the influence balancing in the full game: The fifths residential tier, the Investors, will provide a huge boost to your influence pool which will allow players to customize their experience way more freely in the late game of Anno 1800.
    • We absolutely agree with your feedback that the game needs to do a better job giving players the right information and context to make educated decisions on how to invest their influence points. Internally, we have already made some improvements here with better tooltips, though they sadly did not make it into the CB build in time.

Announcing the Anno 1800 Open Beta
With all that said, we want to leave you all with a special treat to show our appreciation- the Anno 1800 Open Beta, coming April 12th-14th. So what does Open Beta mean? Just what it says on the cover- it will be open to anyone interested in testing the game prior to launch! No need to sign up, no need to cross your fingers to receive a key- just download the Open Beta client, and start playing once it goes live on the 12th.

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AnnoAfternoon – The Age of Steam – February 8th 4PM GMT
Save the date once more, as our Community Team takes to Twitch again to play Anno 1800 with you. We’re going through the Closed Beta Build and will be happy to follow suggestions from the community as to how we should build.

When: February 8th, 4PM GMT
Where: twitch.tv/ubisoftbluebyte

And that’s it for this week’s Union Update. Thank you, and se… oh, you want one last final teaser? Okay then: the Open Beta will give you access to some new content that was not playable in either the Technical Test or Closed Beta.

Anno 1800 releases April 16th

Today we have an important update for all our Anno Union members: The release date of Anno 1800 will now be April 16, 2019.

This wasn’t an easy decision for us because we know how much you are looking forward to the release, and we ourselves can’t wait to have you all experience the full game. Since the announcement of the game at Gamescom 2017, we have always been committed to deliver the best Anno experience possible at launch.
We are very happy with where the game and its wide mix of new and classic features are today, but we know that it can be even better with a little additional polish and tuning. These extra weeks will allow us to deliver a game that fully lives up to its potential.

Of course, you don’t have to just take our word for it! Starting next week on January 31st, our Closed Beta test will allow many of you to get your hands on the game to see for yourself how we are bringing the world of the industrial revolution to Anno. On that note, we are also happy to confirm that the Closed Beta won’t have any NDA- so feel free to discuss, create videos or to stream the game to your heart’s content.

In the coming weeks to launch, you can look forward to more news and details regarding Anno 1800 right here on the Union, as we discuss an all-new feature, give you more details on the multiplayer, lift the curtain on Anno 1800’s campaign and preview the game’s orchestral soundtrack. You should also keep an eye out for previews from a variety of websites who recently got their hands on the game.

Finally, we wanted to let you know that the Anno 1800 journey won’t end at launch. We will share more details closer to April 16th but can assure that we have some cool ideas for future post-launch content for the game.
We are humbled by your excitement and passion for the game, and hope you support our decision to take a little more time to make it as polished as it can be.

Best regards,
The Anno 1800 Dev Team

Union Update: 2019 – Road to Launch

We are back from our short holiday break and ready to tackle the last 7 weeks before Anno 1800’s launch on February 26th. With this first blog in the year 2019, we want to give you a brief outlook on the content to come until launch.

Road to launch
Last year’s Technical Test provided us with lots of valuable data, from player behavior up to bug and feedback reports. Fixing, fine-tuning and polishing is now our top priority for Anno 1800’s Beta period. After the TT, we followed up with another focus test session to get feedback on recent changes but also allowing us to get in-depth detail on other aspects such as balancing and overall gameplay experience, including progression through all residential tiers.
With the upcoming Closed Beta on January 31st, you will be able to see the changes and improvements for yourself as once more, we will invite a large number of players from the Anno Union to test the game.

However, it’s not all bug smashing and polishing- we are also putting the final puzzle pieces together, including one all-new feature we haven’t even announced yet! Between that feature, as well as upcoming DevBlogs about City Incidents, Ornaments and of course Anno 1800’s story-driven campaign, there is still a lot to talk about on the Union.

You can look forward to the first of these DevBlogs to come next week, alongside more information about our Closed Beta. And if you haven’t done so already, keep in mind that you can still register for our Closed Beta by signing up here on the Anno Union.

And if you want to get reminded if a new blog comes fresh from the press or stay in the loop about anything #Anno, you can just follow our official Anno Twitter and Facebook channels.

Winner of the Expedition Event Contest: The Lost Civilization
It was a neck-and-neck race between Hexagon19’s “Isla De Los Muertos” Event and Hojny87’s “The Lost Civilization”, with Argurino’s “Voyage Of The Beagle” also mobilizing many fans rooting for a throwback to Darwin’s journeys.

In the end, “The Lost Civilization” secured the 1st place and we congratulate Hojny87 for making the cut with his exciting expedition event.
This community-chosen event will now get the same treatment from our design team and together with the Union island and the ship variant, will find its way into the game itself.

While we want to continue to funnel the creative power of our communities in future contests after the launch of the game, we want to utilize the voting feature more in the future to allow you to voice your opinion on various topics like favorite game element or balancing.

Streaming schedule update
With more information out in the open and the big launch at our doorstep, we will start a new series of community streams, with the first show starting shortly after the Closed Beta has concluded.
Different from the AnnoCast, the show will be mostly run by our Community Developer and focus on answering your questions while playing the game rather than highlighting a specific feature in detail.
And to give as many Anno fans as possible a chance to direct their questions at us, we will host not only English but also a German episode.

But there is also the next episode of our AnnoCast game dev stream on the horizon: at the end of this month, we will have Narrative Designer Marie on board to demonstrate how we breathe life into the 19th century world of Anno with a great variety of quests and expedition events.

Speaking of streams- we know that many of you liked our ship preview during our naval stream. Hoist the flag and all hands on deck, as the video is now available on our Twitch channel. What is your favorite ship and will you rely on a bulwark of huge battlecruisers or a versatile wolf pack of fast gunboats?

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That’s it for this week’s peek at the upcoming content. See you next week, as the final march to release begins in earnest!

Announcement: Closed Beta and 1602 for free!

The release of Anno 1800 is almost at our doorstep and a before we go into our final sprint for the big finale on February 26th, our team will take a short but well-deserved holiday break.
But before we recharge our batteries during our short winter break, we decided to go all in and pack the final Anno Union week of 2018 full of exciting content:

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Get your free copy of Anno 1602 until December 22nd
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the famous City-Building video game series, you can play Anno 1602: Creation of a New World, originally released in 1998, for free. The game is set in the Early Modern period of history and invites players to discover an island world, to colonize and expand it and to trade with other islands – along with protecting it against potential enemies. As the first game in a long series of successful city-building video games, Anno 1602 was a true pioneer in its genre 20 years ago. Starting today and running until December 22nd, you can claim a free copy of the classic game on your Uplay account. All you have to do is to click here:
Claim your free copy of Anno 1602

Announcing the Anno 1800 Closed Beta
But that is not all! Today we are also very happy to announce the Closed Beta of Anno 1800, which will begin on January 31st and allow an even larger number of Anno Union members to help us test the game in the lead-up to its release. So if you haven’t signed up yet for our testing, make sure to do so straight away.If you have previously signed up or participated in our Technical Test, you are all set and can enjoy the time until invitations go out in late January by rediscovering Anno 1602!

AnnoCast: Annoversary Special
If last week’s Naval Combat stream wasn’t enough, we will bring you two more AnnoCast livestreams to celebrate our anniversary this week.

We will start tomorrow with our first-ever German episode of the AnnoCast, guest-starring popular German YouTuber and certified Annoholic, Vallegaming. Tune in for some Anno 1800, our favorite stories of 2018 and perhaps even cookies (for us. Not you. Sorry!).

On Wednesday, the party keeps rolling with yet another AnnoCast, this one in English and featuring big-time strategy fan and part-time Viking Belannaer from beautiful Finland. To make things more interesting, he will have to keep playing from the save game that Valle starts the day before, so let’s see how that goes.

We are looking forward to you guys joining us (and bringing some party spirit with you):
AnnoCast: Annoversary Special with Vallegaming (German) – Tuesday 4pm CET
AnnoCast: Annoversary Special EN with Belannaer – Wednesday 4pm CET

But that’s not all, as this Thursday, our Anno 1800 community team will host the last AnnoAfternoon episode for the year! Join Chris and John in their Anniversary celebration when both do a serious trip down to memory lane with the one legendary game that started it all: Anno 1602
AnnoAfternoon: 20th Annoversary Special – Thursday 5pm CET
And to finish of that crazy Anno week, we have another throwback for our long-time fans on Friday! What could it be? You will have to find out for yourself, I am afraid…

We hope that this week’s Anno marathon gets you excited for the holiday season and of course, for the upcoming launch of Anno 1800. It has been a while since we announced the game at gamescom 2017 and with the Anno Union still going strong, what was your most memorable Anno Union momen
t or anecdote from 2018?

Announcement: Upcoming Technical Test (Updated)

Brace for the Anno 1800 Technical Test

As previously alluded to, we are currently preparing a much larger Technical Test than our previous Diary Studies. And if you are be one of the chosen many, you won’t have to wait much longer, as this test will take place end of November!

A few things to keep in mind:
–          It’s a Technical Test: You should expect that some things in the game will (and sometimes even should!) break. This test is intended to give us valuable insights into topics like balance and game performance. It won’t be representative of the final polished game you will be able to enjoy next year (and which will be even better thanks to all of you helping us with this test).

–          NDA: Should you be selected to participate in the Technical Test, you will have to agree to a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). That means that you are not allowed to talk about the game outside our special Technical Test forums, and you are not allowed to post any pictures, videos or to stream the game. We appreciate that you are excited to play the game and to share your experience with others, but given that this is a Technical Test where we know things will break, this is not the time to do so.

–          The Technical Test won’t include the entire game. Players will be limited to Citizen Tiers 1-3, and the Campaign won’t be playable.

We will send out invites to Union members a few days prior to the Test’s start, so keep an eye out to see if you are among the chosen ones. We look forward to seeing many of you in the game, and are thankful for your help in making sure Anno 1800 will be the best possible experience for all Anno fans when it ships on February 26th.

Update: 

Registration

As we are seeing a lot of questions around the registration process for the Technical Test: Anyone who has registered here on the Anno Union using their Uplay-Account has a chance to be invited. You can do so here: https://www.anno-union.com/en/register/

This is also true for new registrations. So if you haven’t registered for testing yet- now would be an excellent time to do so 🙂

System Requirements for the Technical Test

We have also been asked a lot about the system requirements for the Technical Test. So here is what we recommend for participating in the test:

Current Minimum Specs:

CPU: Intel i5 3470 or AMD FX 6350

RAM: 8 GB

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 670 GTX or AMD Radeon R9 285

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 (all 64-bit)

Hard Drive: 46 GB

Current Recommended Specs:

CPU: Intel i5 4690k or AMD Ryzen 5 1400

RAM: 8 GB

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 970 GTX or AMD Radeon RX 480

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10 (all 64-bit)

Hard Drive: 46 GB

DISCLAIMER: THERE ARE NOT THE FINAL REQUIREMENTS! As Anno 1800 is still in the middle of development and performance optimization, you should not consider these specs to be representative of the final game. This test specifically should help us to find some areas where we can further improve the game’s performance.

Language

We are also in the middle of game localization, which means that the Technical Test will unfortunately only be available in English. Once Anno 1800 launches next year, you will be able to lead the industrial Revolution in the following languages:

Fully localized text and audio: English, French, German, Russian

Fully localized text: Italian, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Chinese (simplified and traditional)

Union Update: Time to recuperate

Another week has passed, and gamescom 2018 is in the books- and what a gamescom it has been! After countless presentations, interviews and stage shows – not to mention an award (Best PC Game of gc 2018) that we are as you can see very proud of – the Ubisoft Blue Byte team has mostly unscathed returned to the studio to tackle the final 6 months of development before Anno 1800 ships globally on February 26th, 2019.

However, we do need a little bit more time to rest our vocal chords and to read your hundreds of comments on the Union, our forums and social media, so there won’t be any new Union content this week. Starting next week, we will return to our regularly scheduled programming as we start to review gamescom with you, and take a closer look at some of our newly announced features like South America and the expeditions. In the meantime, feel free to share some of the questions you would like us to tackle over the next few weeks in the comments!

Anno 1800 release date and pre-order

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Anno 1800 wants to set sail worldwide on February 26th, 2019! With that in mind, let’s take a look at the various ways you want to enjoy the game, and at the special pre-order bonus we’ve prepared.

Digital Standard Edition
Anno 1800 ™ – Lead the Industrial Revolution!

THE DAWN OF A NEW ERA
Welcome to the 19th century, a time of industrialization, diplomacy, and discovery. Rich with technological innovations, conspiracies and changing allegiances, this era presents the perfect setting for classic Anno gameplay. Anno 1800 provides players an opportunity to prove their skills as a ruler as they create huge metropolises, plan for efficient logistics networks, settle for exotic new continents, send out expeditions around the globe and dominate their opponents by diplomacy, trade, or warfare.

A CLASSIC ANNO EXPERIENCE
Anno 1800 takes over 20 years of Anno history. It delivers a rich city-building experience, including a story-based campaign, a highly customizable sandbox mode, and the classic Anno multiplayer experience. Anno 1800 wants to see the return of beloved features, such as individual AI opponents, shippable trade goods, randomly generated maps, multisession gameplay, items, and more.

NEW FEATURES FOR A NEW AGE
To bring this pivotal historical era to life, Anno 1800 introduces many new features to the franchise’s rich tradition. While the new workforce feature makes it more challenging and more realistic than ever, expats allow players to send their work to the world. Finally, players want to settle South America as they lay claim to the black gold powering this new age of industry.

Digital Deluxe Edition *

For those who want a little bit more out of their Anno 1800 experience while staying digital, we are also offering a Digital Deluxe Edition:
– Full Anno 1800 ™ Game
– The Anarchist DLC: Meet Dr. Hugo Mercier – the Anarchist – and decide whether he wants to become a powerful ally or a mighty opponent. This new character comes with new quests and new items. Dr. Hugo Mercier brings a new player portrait and a new logo for you to customize your profile. Available Spring 2019
– Company logos: Make sure your opponents know you mean business when you start your adventure with one of these exclusive logo logos
– The Art of Anno 1800 Digital Artbook:Fully enjoy the world of Anno 1800 with this 120-page digital Artbook featuring the stunning artwork created by Ubisoft Blue Byte Studio Mainz during the development of the game
– Digital Selected Game Soundtrack: Enjoy your favorite tracks from the 1800s soundtrack anywhere you go, thanks to this digital version of the game’s orchestral soundtrack

Pioneers Collector’s Edition

Finally, we have a collection of Anno 1800. On that note, we are happy to announce the Pioneers Edition, which will be available from the Ubisoft shop in select countries:

Physical content:

– Full Anno 1800 ™ game
– An exclusive Victorian-style Collector’s Box
– The Art of Anno 1800: Fully enjoy the world of Anno 1800 with this 120-page art book created by Ubisoft Blue Byte Studio Mainz during the development of the game.
– Exclusive Steelbook ™ featuring a unique Anno 1800-inspired design
– Lithographs : Three exclusive, large-scale lithographs (27x21cm) created by fan-favorite Karakter Design Studio
– Letter from Hannah: Relic the game’s story driven campaign with this sealed replica of the letter that starts your journey
– Game Soundtrack: Enjoy your favorite tracks from the Anno 1800 soundtrack anywhere you go, thanks to this 2CD set of the orchestral soundtrack

Digital Content *:

– The Anarchist DLC: Meet the Anarchist Dr. Hugo Mercier and decide whether he wants to become a powerful ally or a dangerous opponent. This new character comes with new quests and new items. Dr. Hugo Mercier brings a new player portrait and a new logo for you to customize your profile. Available Spring 2019.
Company logos: Make sure your opponents know you mean business when you start your adventure with one of these exclusive company logos

Pre-order bonus

And finally, our pre-order bonus, which you will receive by pre-ordering any of our editions from one of our participating partners: the Imperial Pack!
1602 Memorial: Celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Anno franchise in style with this exclusive throwback to the beloved memorial from the first game, Anno 1602. The memorial can be freely placed in your cities and will contribute to their cultural value, thanks to Anno 1800’s all-new City Attractiveness feature.
Imperial Train: The railway is a crucial component of your industrialized logistics network, and thanks to this richly ornamented alternate model, your trains will be the envy of your opponents.
Imperial Command Ship: Stand out as you conquer the world of the industrialization thanks to this Pre-order exclusive model of your trusted command that you will start your Anno 1800 adventures with.

Union Update: gamescom 2018 preview

Time is flying and it is only two weeks until gamescom will open its doors for hundreds of thousands gaming enthusiasts. An event with quite some significance for Anno 1800 and today, we want to share quite some exciting news about our presence at gamescom 2018!

Anno 1800 casts it’s anchor in Cologne
This year’s convention will be truly special as Annholic’s will be able to play the seventh title of the 20-year-old strategy series at our Anno 1800 booth.
And if playing the game is not enough, we will also return with our Union UbiLounge presentations, where we will give you an exclusive look on the game and also answer questions from our communities.

But it’s not just playing the game, we will also lift the curtain on never seen before features, which you can not only try out for yourselves but also watch during our daily Anno 1800 stage presentations. For anyone who is not able to visit us in Cologne, do not worry: we will share an overview with all the big announcements in a blog update in the Anno Union followed by detailed DevBlog coverage coming after gamescom.

Community Dinner Invitations coming this week
Our Anno Union community initiative saw the light of day during our big reveal at gamescom 2017 and what better way of celebrating than with our gamescom community dinner?
We will send out the invitations via e-mail this week, which will also include all necessary details for the event. Please keep in mind that seats are limited, so only people who get an invitation via mail this week are eligible to participate.

Ship Design Contest has closed
On another note, the submission period for our Union Ship Design Contest is officially over. Again, the amount of creativity and great design ideas coming from our Annoholics managed to impress the team. It will take some time to go through all the submissions and we will keep you in the loop in a future Union Update.

Upcoming Content
As we are currently busy with the final preparations for gamescom, we put this week’s DevBlog on hold. Instead, we will have a very special blog next week where we give you a very detailed look behind the scene of Anno 1800’s audio design. We will also share the exact schedule for our UbiLounge and stage presentations at gamescom 2018 in the upcoming week.

We are looking forward to see you at gamescom!

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Union Ship Design Contest

You have an artistic eye and can’t wait to give the imperial pride a new coat of paint? That one great idea for a design haunts you seemingly forever? Your pencil is ready to bring us a cool story revolving around an infamous ship or you just want to get crazy with a design paper?

The Anno Union island contest has shown that the Union is a creative force to reckon with and this time, we want you to design your own model variation of the Imperial Pride.
To utilize all talent from our communities, we allow you to use any medium you like to shape and illustrate your idea: You want to overpaint our concept art or create your own true piece of art, go for it! How about going all in with a 19th century style blueprint, a cool  story about the vessels history or something which feels like an description right out of an RPG sourcebook, including fictional stats and skills?

Use any medium you like to pitch your idea, here are some things to keep in mind:
– As the design will be implemented as a model variant of the Imperial Pride, your submission needs to be based on the community vote winning cruiser.
– Even though the Imperial Pride is a steam cruiser with medium defensive capabilities, you can decide if your variant is a fierce battleship, true pack mule or something entirely different.
– While we like you to go all in with your cool ideas, keep in mind we are still talking about a ship design, which should fit into the setting and to Anno’s gameplay.
– If you want to work with loose stats or special skills, you can just use definitions like “HP – Medium / DMG – High / MANOUVERABLILTY – Weak etc.” or just work with some sort of a points system.
– Surprise us!
And here the “Imperial Pride” in all her glory! Just click to get concept art in high resolution.

The deadline for submissions to the Ship Design Contest is Monday 6th of August.

Just post your entry in the dedicated contest topic in our Anno 1800 Ubisoft forum:
International Ship Design thread

After the contest has ended, our team will sit together and browse through the ideas from our Union hobby designers. We will then decide on which submission will get the full development treatment and makes it as a model variant into the game. There also might be a scenario where two submissions complement each other so greatly that we make use of both for the variant.

Additionally, we will make sure that the coolest submissions will get a true community spotlight on our Anno Union and Anno 1800 channels.
Have fun and good luck!