DevBlog: The “Pirate Cove” Pack Cosmetic DLC

Ahoy me hearties,

It’s yer Cap’n speakin’! Get yer spyglasses out, be it treasure wha’ ye see? Aye ‘tis, all the shiny loot ye see ‘ere is part of the “Pirate Cove” Pack Cosmetic DLC! Avast ye, enough wit’ the useless natterin’ now, weigh anchor and hoist the mizzen! Let’s ‘ave a closer look at dis mighty good treasure. Aaaarghhh!

Ahoy t’ the Red Herring!

Splice the mainbrace, ye old salt! At the Red Herring we spare no grog or rum. Whether you need a drink to refuel yourself after a long time lost at sea or simply need a hiding spot from your sworn enemies, the Red Herring is the place for you. Be careful, though! Even walls have ears in this place, so make sure not to reveal where you stashed your treasure, savvy? You might need to use some War Cannons and Nautical Rope Fence to protect it from other buccaneers.

X marks the spot

Speaking of treasure – what “Pirate Cove” Pack would it be without Legendary Loot? According to a treasure map we found, a treasure has been buried next to an Interesting Rock Formation. Dis cap’n said too much already… ‘n we all know dat dead men tell no tales.

Pirates need to relax, too

After a long day at sea, sailing and plundering, ’tis time to relax. Yes, pirates need peace ‘n sleep too, sometimes. Whether you seek shade under the palm trees of the Hammock or some food at the Beach Barbecue, remember to first pay a visit to the Captain’s Tent to get your share of the bounty.

Fire in the hole!

Cap’n! Be ye ready t’ sail the High Seas wit’ the Ominous Octopus? Her infamous sails can be spotted from miles away and her reputation precedes her. Will you be brave enough to venture through dangerous seas and face other Man-O-Wars? The Ship-of-the-line has never looked this… ominous, indeed. Me think this look does suit her mighty well, doesn’t it?

The “Pirate Cove” Pack will be available just in time to celebrate International Talk Like a Pirate Day, that means starting 19th September – on PC and consoles, for the usual price of 100 Pieces of Eight… err, 4.99€ or your regional equivalent.

We look forward to seeing your infamous creations with the “Pirate Cove” Pack – we’re sure you’ll make Anne Harlow and Jean La Fortune proud!

List of all loot

  • Abandoned Rowboat
  • Mutinous Crew
  • Captain’s Tent
  • Hammock
  • Beach Barbecue
  • Shipwreck
  • Interesting Rock Formation
  • Guardian of the Cove
  • Tiki Torch (2 variants)
  • Legendary Loot
  • Crow’s Nest
  • War Cannon (2 variants)
  • Sand (modular system)
  • Nautical Rope Fence (modular system)
  • Palisade Gate
  • “Red Herring”
  • “Pirate Shack” skin for tier 1 residence (4 models)
  • “Infamous Outpost” Trading Post skin (3 tiers in New World, 4 tiers in Old World)
  • “Ominous Octopus” Ship-of-the-Line skin

Union Update: It’s Steampunk Pack release day!

Hey Anno Community,

It’s May 14th and we have to let off some steam – with the Steampunk Pack Cosmetic DLC releasing today!

Find out more about this latest bundle of ornaments and building skins in our DevBlog. Watch researchers test an experimental dragonfly-suit, give your Investor residences a steampunky new look or build dreamy plazas with the celestial ground tiles.

The Steampunk Pack is available on all platforms for the price of 4,99€ or your regional equivalent.

In addition to the new Cosmetic DLC, we also released a few bug fixes. You can find the Release Notes here on the Anno Union, both for PC as well as for Console.

Friendship Ornament

We’ve mentioned it about a month ago at Anno 1800’s birthday: To celebrate both said birthday as well as the incredible milestone of 4 million players, we’re adding a free ornament for everyone – the Friendship Ornament. We’re sure you’ll find a great spot in your cities to place it.

Thank you for your support!

Board game livestream

We have another livestream coming up this week as well: on Thursday, May 16th, we’ll be playing the Anno 1800 board game and its soon-to-be-released (German) expansion live on Twitch. Join us from 5PM UTC+2 onwards!

Anno Leadership Team Livestream

And one more livestream coming up: As part of our ongoing mission to give you more glimpses behind the scenes and the different people and teams involved in creating the worlds of Anno, next week’s livestream will look at the daily work of the heads of our team. With recurring guest Manuel (Creative Director), as well as Haye (Brand Director) and Stephane (Executive Producer) we’ll be talking about topics like their way into gaming, the scope of their work and what kind of games they like to play to relax.

Join us on Twitch – next Wednesday, May 22nd, at 5PM CEST.

DevBlog: The Steampunk Pack CDLC

Hey Anno Community,

Prepare yourself a cup of steamy tea and get ready for a nice read because today, after much teasing, it is finally time to dive into our upcoming Cosmetic DLC: the Steampunk Pack! If you watched our End-of the-Year livestream back in December, you might have noticed a small teaser that redirected you to a mysterious page set up by none other than Old Nate, who was secretly “leaking” important information and clues on the content of the Steampunk Pack. Safe to say we got that situation under control now… right?

Unreal new skins

The focus of this Cosmetic DLC is innovation and progress, which perfectly marries with the overall vibe of Anno 1800 and the Industrial Revolution era. However, with the Steampunk Pack, you’ll discover a new peculiar side to the age of innovation: steam-powered machinery and aesthetics, highly advanced, but quite unnecessary in application. This was the humorous twist that Laura – Prop Artist on Anno and self-appointed CDLC Overlord – wanted to give to this pack, and we are all for it. The Dragonfly Man taking off to the sky from the “Unreal University” is a perfect example of this, don’t you think?

The idea with this is not taking ourselves, as humanity, too seriously. Sometimes we have this new technology, and we try to implement it everywhere, whether it makes sense or not, and most of the time it doesn’t with these ornaments.  And this is my kind of humour!

Laura, Prop Artist

The University building is not the only one receiving a new skin with the Steampunk Pack. This pack also includes skins for the Investors’ residences and the Church, that will be transformed into the “Temple of Progress”: considering the huge telescope towering over the building, the name sounds like perfect fit. Who knows what they will find?

It’s all in the details

Is it getting steamy in here or is there a bath house in your city? The biggest ornament of this CDLC is the Steam Spa, the place that will make your residents relax and forget about their daily worries. Plus, it’s all automated! Of course, the Steam Spa is only one of the many ornaments in this pack, all characterised by moving clogs and wheels, almost mesmerising your residents: from a beautiful Celestial Fountain surrounded by bubbly steam to a small aquarium hosting the most exotic underwater creatures. However, one statue reigns supreme in this pack: Eva.Porator, an ornament that emblematically symbolises one of the biggest inspirations of this pack, Metropolis – a German science-fiction film from the 1920s.

Celestial tiling and bronze lining

Needless to say, we are obsessed with the colour theme in this pack: from the metallic shades of bronze and gold shining under the light of the sun to the celestial blues of the ground tiles and building windows. This colour  in the different tiles, as well: not just one, but three different tiles for you to build the perfect paths and plazas around your cities.

 

All aboard the New Era Express!

It wouldn’t be a Steampunk Pack worthy of its name without a train skin, don’t you think? Well, in this CDLC you get two of them! The “Steamliner” and the “New Era Express”. And speaking of means of transport, the flagship is completely unrecognisable with the “Nautilus” skin, a beautiful reference to the fictional submarine belonging to Captain Nemo in Jules Verne’s “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas”.

The Steampunk Pack will be available starting 14th May on PC and consoles, for the usual price of 4.99€ or your regional equivalent.

If you’d like to see the new ornaments in action before that, we recommend watching our birthday livestream VOD, where we had a first look at the full pack with the guidance of its creator, Laura.

We cannot wait to admire your cities decorated with the Steampunk Pack!

List of full content

  • Eccentric Overpass
  • Celestial fountain
  • Eva.Porator
  • Steam O’Clock
  • Aquarium
  • Adver-Turner
  • Steam Spa
  • Celestial Tiles, three types
  • Steam Pipe
  • Investors residence skins
  • “Temple of Progress” Church skin
  • “Steamliner” Train skin
  • “New Era Express” train skin
  • “Nautilus” Flagship skin
  • “Unreal University” University skin

DevBlog – The Eldritch Pack CDLC

Boo, Anno Community – happy Halloween!

What better day to finally showcase one of the most awaited Cosmetic DLCs of all time in the history of Anno 1800? This is not a drill, you read that right in the title – our next Cosmetic DLC will be the Eldritch Pack! Those of you who have been following us for a long time have probably seen this name pop up a couple of times in the past, mostly during the Community Vote for CDLCs – and you probably know that it holds a special place in the hearts of the Anno team.

Last week, you might have seen a small teaser of what you will find in this new Cosmetic DLC, but are you ready to be spooked and let yourself get carried away by glimmering lights, twisted trees and gargoyle statues? If your answer is yes, then…

… Something wicked this way comes!

Forgotten places, mysterious statues and Gothic architecture

Let’s start with one of our favourite ornaments from this pack: nothing screams Eldritch (pun intended) more than the Forgotten Abbey you saw in our teaser, don’t you think? It seems that this place has been abandoned for years, becoming a distant echo of the past. Left in ruins, now overrun by nature and eerie tranquillity. Is that all there is? Those green, flickering lights on the quiet surface of the water suggest something else…

The Eldritch Pack would not be complete without gothic statues: did anybody say Gargoyles? Not only is there a Gargoyle statue in the pack, but you can also spot some gargoyles on the Gothic Fence, standing tall and peering into your deepest thoughts. Not to mention the majesty of the Statue of Lady Morningstar. Look at all that grace! 

For all the fans of gothic architecture and style in the Anno Community: this pack will be undoubtedly a dream – or a nightmare, if you prefer – come true. Once you decorate your cities with the new ornaments, you will find yourself wandering around the Dreamspire at dusk or sitting at the Wishing Well hoping for your desires to become reality.

Gothic ornaments call for Gothic building skins

Do not get fooled by the cheerful atmosphere around the Old Inn, as the thick fog can bewilder anyone when they least expect it. The Worker and Artisan residences, on the other hand, are surrounded by a strange tranquillity. However, we heard rumours about… ghosts? Weird figures have been spotted creeping into the night, making our residents’ dreams less sweet and more frightening.

Even the Hospital now seems to be changed, somehow. Is it just us, or does it look even more imposing than before? A thick, mysterious haziness surrounds it, hiding all its secrets from prying eyes. 

After all this ornaments & skins talk, it is time for our favourite part: Q&A with the Art Team! We asked some questions to Laura, Prop Artist on Anno, to get some insights on the creative process behind the Eldritch Pack.

What was the main source of inspiration for this pack?

It was a bit of a strange mishmash, on one hand all those lone Victorian spooky villas with their gorgeous windows, towers and verandas. On the other hand, the ornamental charm of gothic architecture and statues. It was clear we wanted Grotesques and Gargoyles and a lot of fog to surround suspicious standalone villas. From that point on, ideas just popped up and this CDLC happened.

What was the hardest ornament/skin to create? Why?

The hardest were the residence skins. This time around we decided to not only paint the skins, but to as well alter the geometry. We deleted most of the second buildings, leaving only one standalone house and then created a geometry kit to add new windows, verandas and towers. Designing those was quite challenging, especially the Artisan houses, since those have quite a different base building structure.

We have noticed there are quite a few secrets hiding in this pack. Although we won’t spoil the surprise here for the players, could you talk about your approach in their creation?

It was super fun obviously, it is always nice, after being dedicated to one strong theme for such a long time, to add some funny little details to bring it to life. There is not really one inspiration or anything, it’s more like… my mind is a huge alive Pinterest of all the stuffs I’ve seen, read and listened to, basically a culture melting pot of my time and circumstances and if prompted with a certain theme it just delivers back to me.

Are you an Eldritch/spooky stuff fan yourself?

Whilst I love the ornaments and the architectural designs as well as the general mood and colouring of it all, I can’t take anything remotely spooky myself. Real life and human beings are spooky enough as it is, no need for more horror than that. 😉

Which ornament and/or skin from this pack do you consider your favourite? Is there a particular reason?

I really love the Ruined Abbey. I love the idea of nature taking back those places, and I appreciate the beauty of those buildings. The idea of those grand architectural achievements coupled with wild overgrowing nature fascinates me. Also, I really love the set dressing, placing plants everywhere and making it look all green and wild… just love that.

I really like the big spooky tree, too, since it’s based of one of the 1000-year-old oaks from Ivenack, a childhood place I used to go to a lot, so it holds a special place in my heart.

And then there is the Asylum. I just love how it turned out so imposing and it was a great fusion of minds between our concept artist Damian and me. I really love how working on assets together and having great concept art like that one takes a design to a whole other level.

What’s left to say? Get ready for a treat – no tricks here, promise – because the Eldritch Pack Cosmetic DLC will be available starting from 14th November on PC and consoles, for usual price of 4,99€ or your regional equivalent.

We cannot wait to see your spooktacular creations with the new Eldritch ornaments, we can sense they are going to be terrifying – in the most amazing way, of course.

We hope you are looking forward to the CDLC release as much as we are! For the bravest and the detectives amongst all of you, a quest awaits: will you find all the secrets hiding within the Eldritch Pack?

List of full content

  • Forgotten Abbey
  • Dreamspire
  • Cathedral Square
  • Wishing Well
  • Dead Tree
  • Twisted Tree
  • Gargoyle
  • Statue of Lady Morningstar
  • Fiery Lantern
  • Fire Pit
  • Stone Bench
  • Nostalgic Pavement (3 variants)
  • Ornate Pavement
  • Gothic Fence (modular system)
  • Black Gate
  • Victorian Skin for Worker residence (4 models)
  • Victorian Skin for Artisan residence (4 models)
  • “Old Inn” Pub Skin
  • “Asylum” Hospital Skin

DevBlog: The “National Park” Pack Cosmetic DLC

Hey Anno Community,

Please grab your walking sticks and the picnic basket, we’re going on a hiking trip!

With the “National Park” Pack we’re leaving the city completely and are looking at the wild side of your islands – you left some space for recreation, right? In the Cosmetic DLC vote in 2021, the “Nature” Pack received many positive comments – and we also loved the idea of doing something different so much that it soon ended up in our plans for this year.

Along the hiking trail you might meet people sitting down to catch their breath or spot some wild animals, curious about who is making all the noise in their forest.

There also are some majestic trees to discover, as well as old ruins and grand rock formations.

And if the terrain just gets a little bit too rugged or swampy: Don’t worry, there are elevated boardwalks to keep your feet dry while providing a slightly better view on your surroundings.

Sometimes, however, you just want to sit down and grab a snack or simply rest for a moment. For that, you have multiple different options: A picnic in the forest, maybe even with pizza? Or do you rather want to sit down at the Hiker’s Hut and enjoy the reassuring feeling of having a roof over your head?

These more spontaneous rests aside, you certainly should not miss a visit to the “Eagle’s Nest” Café. Not only do they serve the probably the best coffee and cake in the whole national park, but the eponymous tower also offers a fantastic view over the area.

And what if it starts getting dark? Don’t worry, find a nice place to set up your tents, start a little fire and enjoy the sounds of nature. And if you made some friends along the way, why not set up a proper large campfire to share both food as well as spooky stories with them?

The lake system

Walking through the forest all day may of course become a bit tiring – you will want a refresher! And is it even a proper hiking trip if you’re not getting attacked by mosquitoes while camping? So, let us visit the lake now:

The “National Park” Pack comes with a modular lake system that lets you create both small rivers as well as larger bodies of water. Leave small islands in the lake – and maybe connect them with bridges for any adventurous hiker to reach. You can pick between 3 different bridge sizes, crossing 1, 2 or 3 tiles of water.

A lake with such a mountain panorama makes for a great view, don’t you think? Simply plop down a few tents for the full camping experience. Just beware of bears…

“How long is the hike going to last? Are we there yet?” we hear you asking. Well, the “National Park” Pack is planned to release on Tuesday, August 22nd. It’s going to be available for the usual price of 5€ – or regional equivalent – on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, the Ubisoft Store, Steam and Epic.

And as usual, we encourage you to check the descriptions of the individual ornaments by selecting them – only this way you learn about the great lightning storm of 1602!

We’re looking forward to what you’re going to create with these new ornaments. Maybe the “National Park” works well with elements of the “Old Town” Pack?

List of all ornaments

Below you can find a list of all ornaments of the “National Park” Pack Cosmetic DLC.

  • Trail Brunch – a picnic with friends and family
  • Pizza Picnic – What else would you bring on a hiking trip?
  • Campsite – Two tents and a little campfire
  • Tent
  • Campfire
  • Majestic Rock
  • Eroded Rock
  • “Eagle’s Nest” Café – Large forest café with watchtower
  • Ruined Tower
  • Feeding Station
  • Hiker’s Hut
  • Observation Point
  • Wanderer’s Rest
  • Gnarly Oak
  • Ash
  • Willow
  • Trail Sign
  • Small Wooden Bridge – crosses 1 tile of lake/canal
  • Wooden Bridge – crosses 2 tiles of lake/canal
  • Long Wooden Bridge – crosses 3 tiles of lake/canal
  • Hiking Trail
  • Boardwalk – a hiking path on stilts
  • Lake – with dark or light grass
  • Grass tile – light and dark

DevBlog: The “Dragon Garden” Pack

As part of our “What’s next for Anno 1800” blog from December last year, we also talked about our Cosmetic DLC plans – and teased the first of this year’s topics: The “Dragon Garden” Pack!

Today, let’s take a look at what you can soon add to your cities to celebrate the new Lunar Year.

Light up your city and create the right mood with a variety of lanterns: Both Lantern Gates as well as individual ones are highlights especially at night. The Wishing Tree, the perfect place to hang your New Year wishes, is also decorated with a set of bamboo lanterns.

And, of course, let’s not forget the (literal) highlight of the DLC: The Great Dragon itself, easily outshining the rest and making a great centre for the overall celebrations.

Nothing stands in the way of having the best start into the new Lunar Year (the year of the rabbit, by the way, not to be confused with the Rabbids).

Additionally, there are also some ornaments that don’t have as much of a festive character but can be used to create a (dragon-) garden or dedicated district. Starting with the Forbidden City Wall and Gate to frame such an area, you can place mighty stone Lions to protect the entrances. The Garden of Serenity or the Pagoda, on the other hand, are wonderful places to relax or to meet good friends.

With these new ornaments in your bag, you’ll be able to celebrate Lunar New Year in style – and can probably make Princess Qing very happy. We can’t wait to see your creations and designs!

The “Dragon Garden” Pack will release next week, on January 19th, for the usual price of 4,99€. You can find a list of all its ornaments below.

List of all ornaments

  • Lantern gate (2 variants)
  • Lamp Post
  • Lucky Bamboo Lanterns
  • New Year’s Lantern
  • Fortune Coin Stand
  • Wishing Tree (3 colour variants)
  • Bronze Bell (with and without roof)
  • Gong (with and without roof)
  • Wishing Gate
  • New Year Stall
  • Peaceful Pagoda
  • Forbidden City Wall (modular)
  • Forbidden City Gate
  • Garden of Serenity
  • Stone Lion
  • Great Dragon

DevBlog: “Old Town” Pack Cosmetic DLC

Hey Anno Community,

Just a few weeks ago we shared a first glimpse of the upcoming “Old Town” Pack Cosmetic DLC with a picture of a well-known fountain. Today, we’re going to present you what exactly the “Old Town” Pack contains and how we let ourselves get inspired by our previous titles for this Cosmetic DLC in particular.

Let’s not forget: This theme is the winner of the Community Vote we held in May, coming out on top against the Nature Pack and the Eldritch Pack. You clearly hold our older games dear to your hearts, that’s always great to see for us.

That, of course, also made it clear to us that the nostalgia of our players is still very strong, and we would need to see what the best ways were of providing you options to create a little bit of a “medieval heart” in your cities. Cities, that otherwise clearly show the advancements of the 19th century.

Conceptualising the Old Town Pack

Therefore, let us dive into the research and inspiration process that followed the Community Vote. After all, we had to align both our vision and ideas for the theme as well as your expectations to have a pack that scratches that nostalgia itch while fitting into the world of Anno 1800.

The first step was to gather some inspirations and get a feel for what an “Old Town Pack” should look like. Accordingly, our Art Team looked at old medieval German towns and castles first (which we got plenty of), and this part of the research ultimately led to the decision, that the pack should have walls and towers for some castle-feeling.

Other aspects came more naturally with the name of the pack: An Old Town would need buildings with a medieval look, meaning we would have to work on skins. While the exact number as well as the types of buildings receiving these skins were still discussed later, these two aspects (a wall system and various building skins) created the basis for the Old Town Pack. This is important to decide on early for us, since we of course want to offer a similar amount of content for each Cosmetic DLC.

Additional inspiration was drawn from Anno 1404 specifically. With Anno 1404 regularly being rated one of our players’ favourite titles, it became our focus, and we ultimately chose two particular ornaments from that game that we then recreated for Anno 1800. More on this in a bit.

From city walls…

We’ve mentioned a wall system, and it being a key feature of this pack, let’s take a closer look.

The town wall is a modular system like hedges or canals and allows you to, for example, create distinctive districts within your city or emphasize your city centre. Walls come in two variants: A covered and an open version. Plus, there are of course some gate houses and archways. The wall system even allows you to build small castles (we tried it!), especially in combination with the towers.

After all, no city wall would be worth its name without a few towers to stand guard from. Alternatively, you can also set them down on their own, serving as a reminder of older times in the middle of your town square, for example. And talking about reminders of the olden times: Nowadays, these towers serve primarily as an attraction for the local population, a great way to survey the town and feel the wind in your face when you can’t afford an apartment in one of those modern skyscrapers.

Furthermore, we also created a few smaller ornaments for your old town: Build the Hildegarden (a reference to “Hildegard of Bingen”, who you may not know about but should certainly read up on) for all your local herbal needs, build banners, cobblestone ground plates… and two references for the Anno 1404 veterans among you.

The “Large Statue” (that could very well be seen as a homage to the aforementioned Hildegard) and the “Fountain” (which simply took our fancy after seeing it in 1404) make their comeback in Anno 1800. Two old ornaments but freshly re-created for the 19th century!

… to medieval Skins!

For the first time, this Cosmetic DLC comes with a mix of both ornaments as well as building skins. For that, we picked the Worker and Artisan residences, providing them with new skins for some medieval flair, emphasizing the half-timbered construction style very common still in older German houses, for example. And in Anno 1404 or 1503, of course!

Similarly, we read some comments about different skins for public buildings. And while the Market Place received a few new ones with the Vibrant Cities Pack last year, the Old Town Pack now allows you to put your Town Hall, Trade Union as well as some other buildings into the right style. For all these buildings you can try to imagine how they evolved from their medieval look to the one you’re used to from Anno 1800. The kids will surely appreciate the retro-look of their school!

And finally, one candidate we’re sure you’ll be looking forward to using in your cities:

The church receives a full model variation, with two instead of one church tower, different roofs and some changes to the surrounding park and cemetery. This rework, accordingly, was the most difficult part of the Cosmetic DLC, since it meant creating an entirely new building. However, it will probably also fit well into the non-medieval parts of your cities, don’t you think?

To conclude: No matter if you want to create a small “castle town” somewhere in the countryside or add some elements to your existing cities (like a city wall!) which remind your citizens of their town’s historic roots: We’re sure this pack will give you plenty of options to work with.

The “Old Town” Pack Cosmetic DLC will release on December 8th for the usual price of 4,99€.

We can’t wait to see the screenshots of what you’ll be creating with these new ornaments and skins!

Happy city-building, Annoholics!

Union Update – “Industrial Zone” Pack Release Day

Hello Annoholics,

Today is “Industrial Zone” Pack release day!

Bring the “dirty” parts of your cities to life with new ornaments revolving around construction and industry like scaffolding, a waterpipe network and a crane. Or add some spice to your industrial railroad with railway halls, railway signals and a coal tower.

For a first impression, check out DevBlog for the “Industrial Zone” Pack . You can buy the Cosmetic DLC here in the Ubisoft Store.

Also releasing today is Game Update 14.3, addressing amongst other things a memory leak issue for Steam players and adding two new company logos, unlocked by you by fulfilling the DLC 10 Community Challenge.

You can check out the full Release Notes here.

Community Spotlight

It has been a while since our last Community Spotlight, so we thought that this was the perfect occasion for us to share some of your amazing screenshots in preparation for today’s release. As usual, we are impressed by your creativity and dedication in building your Anno cities, and we cannot wait to see what you create with the “Industrial Zone” Pack Cosmetic DLC – so feel free to share your screenshots with us!

Disclaimer: some screenshots might contain mods.

Let’s get the ball rolling with our first pick of the day, a wonderful University Campus created by MoonFernTreasures. They designed the whole campus, dorms included, and each building represents a different college: from Law and Politics to Naval Academy and Botany. Go check the whole collection on Reddit, where you can also find the full list of buildings.

Another great collection of screenshots, this one shared by AnnoHolicKorean on Reddit. They tried to recreate early Boston in their Anno world, and this particular screenshot pictures the commercial area of the city, where everything started.

The next screenshot is a project by 9ersGaming and moldebort in co-op: a recreation of Berlin in 1963. 9ersGaming built the West part while moldebort built East Berlin. Once done with the building, they walked across the border together in first person mode.

We are in love with the quiet atmosphere of this screenshot by evergreen94 that captures the beauty and lushness of these farm fields. And the rain falling just adds the perfecting touch: we can almost smell the wet grass and crops after a summer storm.

Finally, we would like to end this Community Spotlight with a video that left us speechless for the whole 5 minutes and 11 seconds. Breadom created and dedicated this video to Anno 1800’s Season 3 and it is based on the content of three DLCs: Tourist Season, Docklands and The High Life. The whole video is such an amazing journey!

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This is all for today’s Union Update, we hope you enjoy the new Cosmetic DLC. Whether you decide to expand your industrial district or build construction sites around your cities, we would love to see what you create – so share with us your screenshots on Twitter!

Happy city-building!

DevBlog: “Industrial Zone” Pack Cosmetic DLC

Hello Anno Community,

We are slowly but steadily getting closer to the release of our new Cosmetic DLC, so you know what this means: a dedicated DevBlog with some juicy details and insights while waiting to decorate your Anno cities with the new ornaments!

The “Industrial Zone” Pack is the second Cosmetic DLC of 2022 and marks the eighth Cosmetic DLC release for Anno 1800. As the name clearly suggests, the focus of this new CDLC will be the construction and industry districts of your cities. You, the Community, have been quite vocal about the need of some ornaments dedicated to this topic. Afterall, it is a quite fitting theme for a game that takes place during the industrial revolution, isn’t it?

This CDLC consists of 28 brand new ornaments and, as mentioned in our previous Union Update, it is divided into two main themes: Construction and Railway. Let us take a closer look at them together!

Construction Ornaments

Construction and work sites are extremely common in the real world: scaffolding hiding the faces of a building during renovation, construction sites on roads slowing down the traffic, while curious kids try to peep through the construction fences, fascinated by those big cranes destroying and moving materials around. With the Construction-themed ornaments, you will be able to recreate the busy life of construction workers in your Anno cities.

A construction trailer, a construction crane, and even a sawing station! All these and more for you to recreate the perfect atmosphere in your industrial districts. In total, there are 15 Construction ornaments, with some of them having different variants. Construction fences and water pipes are among the most interesting ones, as they allow you to build “modular” structures, as you can see in the screenshot below. Intriguing, isn’t it?

Railway Ornaments

Railways and transportation are essential for construction and your industry as a whole, as they help you to keep things running – and literally keep the lights on. Among the Railway ornaments you will find two types of Railway Halls, a Railway Platform, and a crane to make the loading process easier for the Anno workers.

But that is not all, Annoholics – together with the ones mentioned above, there will be even more railway-themed ornaments! In total, there are 13 cosmetic pieces for the Railway theme, and some of them have different variants, just like the Construction Ornaments. Oh, and of course, safety is important, so do not forget to place the Guard Hut and Railway signs in your industrial district, too!

And now our favourite part of the DevBlog, the Q&A with our Art Team, who are of course the minds and hands behind our CDLCs. We asked some questions to Raphael, Lead Artist on Anno, to get some insights on the creative process behind this CDLC.

Generally speaking, what is the process behind the creation of an ornament?

First we do some research and then we start with a lot of small 2D scribbles. We then choose the best ones and make a rough 3D Version to check dimensions and how they look and feel in the game. Once we decide on the final design, we use a traditional 3D workflow to create the ornament.

Which ornament was the most challenging to create and which the most fun?

The construction crane was the most challenging but also the most fun. It was difficult to find the right design that fits the time and make sure the scaling works with all the buildings and other ornaments. We had to make sure it is high enough, so it is still visible when placed in the middle of the residences. It was a lot of fun to create all the little details like bolts and welds that make the asset more believable and bring it to life…

The industrial theme could be considered quite wide and open; how did you decide on the final ornaments for this CDLC?

For us it is always important to make a good selection for the player and give them the possibility to combine the ornaments in many interesting ways. Because we already have a lot of ornaments in the game, we also need to make sure we do not repeat ourselves too much, this also plays a key role in the selection process.

If you had to pick one favourite ornament for this CDLC, which one would it be and why?

I like the scaffolding because it lets me change the look of the existing buildings and really brings that construction vibe across.

To sum it up, with the “Industrial Zone” Pack you will be able to bring out the dirty, grey side of your cities, that represents the heartbeat of the Industrial revolution and development. Plus, here’s a tip from us: this new CDLC works wonder together with the Sewers cosmetics from the “Pedestrian Zone” Pack CDLC and the Industrial ornaments from Bright Harvest.

The “Industrial Zone” Pack will be available for purchase for the usual 4,99€ (or your regional equivalent) starting from June 28th.

If you have further questions related to the Cosmetic DLC, do not hesitate to ask them in the comments below or reach out to us on Facebook, Twitter, or our official Forums.

Happy city-building, Annoholics!

List of all ornaments

Construction Ornaments

  • Construction Trailer
  • Construction Crane
  • Construction Site
  • Pile Diver
  • Sawing Station
  • Sanitary Pipes
  • Copper Pipes
  • Water Pipes
  • Scaffolding
  • Construction Fence
  • Construction Fence Entrance
  • Water Pipe Network
  • Elevated Water Pipes
  • Water Pipe Connector
  • Pipe Passageway

Railway Ornaments

  • Large Railway Hall
  • Small Railway Hall
  • Railway Platform
  • Coal Tower
  • Railway Guard Hut
  • Railway Crane
  • Oil Tank
  • Water Tank
  • Railway signal
  • Railway Electric Pole
  • Railway Yield Sign
  • Elevated Railway Signal
  • Railway Warning Sign

Union Update: “Industrial Zone” Pack CDLC teaser and more

Hey Anno community,

Now that we reached early June, we think it’s a good opportunity to update you on a few things Anno: The two remaining Cosmetic and DLC 11.

Cosmetic DLC 8

As revealed in May, Cosmetic DLC 8 is called the “Industrial Zone Pack” and will release at the end of this month – more precisely: June 28th!

True to its name, you can expect ornaments focusing on construction and industry, the dirtier but nevertheless necessary parts of a city. The CDLC is split into two themes, the first is construction and adding things like scaffolding ornaments.

The second is focusing on your railroad system, one of the lifelines for any advanced city in Anno 1800. Fans of miniature railroads will certainly enjoy beautifying their islands with ornaments like a railway guard hut with its own little platform.

 

As usual, you can expect more details and a DevBlog with further insights and the full list of all ornaments in the coming weeks.

Cosmetic DLC 9

About a month ago, the community vote for this year’s third Cosmetic DLC was in full swing and in the end, it was the “Old Town Pack” that won the race. Going by the comments (and you left a lot of them), there’s also quite a bit of nostalgia connected to the theme of the CDLC.

After the end of the vote, our Art team started exploring the topic, incorporating both their own ideas as well as the feedback we received from our community. It is still a bit too early to talk about details, but we should have a first glimpse for you in July regarding what you can expect for this Cosmetic DLC.

DLC: Empire of the Skies

Lastly, there’s of course DLC 11 – Empire of the Skies.

The release of the second DLC of Season 4 is still further in the future (late summer) and will then allow you not only to expand your trading and war fleet with new airship variants but also profit from the advantages of the new mail system as well as other features to make your New World as well as your empire overall grow closer together.

Right now, we’re still in the production phase of the DLC, meaning assets are still being worked on, features (like the behaviour of the new airships) are finalized, and UI elements created. Soon, we will enter the polishing and fixing phase during which we can show you some first teasers of the new content – so keep an eye on our social channels!

Goodbye, Marcel

So much for the news on the upcoming content, however, there’s also a change in the team we want to inform you about:

At the end of June, we’re saying “goodbye for now” to one of our Anno veterans, our dear Senior International Brand Manager Marcel Hatam – also known as Com_Raven. Having joined in 2017 during the early production of Anno 1800, he has since steered the Anno ship on the Brand side successfully through the game’s release and till now 4 years of post-launch content.

You could also see him in many of our live streams and trailers – most famously playing the role of the architect in the “The High Life” trailer (however, we can confirm he’s not starting an acting career).

“One last time: Hey Anno Community! When I bought 1602 24 years ago, I would not have dared dream that I could one day help to develop a new Anno game myself. I am eternally grateful for the past 5 years, and proud how all of us together – you in the community and us on the Anno-Team – made 1800 not only the most successful, but also the best Anno ever. I know this incredibly talented team has a very bright future ahead, and I cannot wait to cheer them on as a fan myself.”

– Marcel

And while Marcel is sailing towards new adventures, his brand-sceptre has been handed to Lisa, our Junior International Product Manager, who you surely already know from previous live streams. 

Please give him a round of applause for his role in making Anno 1800 the success it is! We wish him all the best for his surely magical new adventures.