Botanica, the Anno Soundtrack and the Winner of the Day Night Contest

Today marks the release of our second season pass DLC “Botanica” and Game Update 5. We are eager to see your comments on our latest content update and if you plan to share your marvelous gardens or just want to create content with the free Game Update 5, do not forget to let us know by commenting or mentioning our official social media channels such as @Anno_EN.

 

https://youtu.be/u_oq8Lfj9JQ

With five big updates as well as three DLC’s in total, the journey of Anno 1800 is far from over yet. With “Passage” sending you on a venturesome journey to the cold north and free updates like the upcoming Coop Mode and Statistic Overview, we will continue to expand the world of Anno 1800 until the end of the year. You will not have to wait too long, as we will share some details about our plans for the next big game update soon.

 

Anno 1800 Piano Suite

Our new Botanica Music Pavilion is a throwback to old classics and the perfect occasion to celebrate over 20 years of Anno history. And as a thank you for all the support over the years, we want to share something special with you. In partnership with the Anno 1800 composer Tilman Sillescu and Dynamedion, we present to you the music sheet to the original Anno 1800 piano suite.

Get the Anno 1800 Piano Suite notes here

 

If just for the collectors heart or for talented musicians (or the ones striving to become one) in our community, the music notes of the piano theme give you some exclusive insight in the work of the talented composer and invite you to create your own Anno 1800 music piece. Let us know if you are hungry for more, and don’t forget sharing your interpretations of the Anno 1800 music with the Anno Union. On that special note, how do you like the idea of a dedicated music stream, maybe with the composer Tilman himself as a special guest?

 

Anno 1800 vinyl and digital soundtrack

Our special vinyl edition of the soundtrack was in high demand since launch. And we are happy to tell you that this well looked after collector’s item is still available on the store of our friends from Black Screen Records.

And if you just can’t get enough of the Anno 1800 soundtrack, we also made it digitally available on various platforms.

• Soundtrack on Spotify
• Soundtrack on Youtube
• Soundtrack bei iTunes
• Soundtrack bei Google

 

 

Day Night Contest

With our free Anno 1800 week during this year’s gamescom, we allowed everyone to try out Anno 1800 and experience the new day night cycle, which is now available for everyone in Game Update 5, for the first time. Anno 1800 is already a dreamland for screenshot artists and we realized quickly: the new day night cycle is the perfect feature to challenge you with a contest.

Together with Corsair Gaming, we asked you to use the new lighting options to capture your city in a new light. And today, we happily announce the winner of our big Corsair Day&Night contest!

First place goes to: Karacolidea’s sunset in the new world!
Like in real photography, it is all about the right time of the day to get a painterly shot like this one, where the last light of the day transforms this new world settlement into a scene right out of a fairytale. Congratulations Karacolidea for this wonderful shot and the first place of our contest.
You will never be left in the dark with your new Nightsword RGB Gaming Mouse, MM800 RGB Mousepad and the ST100 RGB Headset Stand.

 

Second place goes to: Neckarmann’s under the full moon
It is almost too quite in that moody harbor piece and it is hard to tell if the scene is romantic or if the glooming full moon creates a feeling of unease. But that is the magic about Neckarmann’s screenshot and why we decided it is a well-deserved second place! The Nightsword RGB Gaming Mouse and MM800 RGB Mouspad will find its way to you!

 

Third place goes to: Carpo’s rising inferno
A quite scenery, villagers peacefully resting under the dark night sky….and a full on catastrophe in the making! We had a few great entries with spitting flames in the night but this one captivated us most.
Congratulations for the third place and for winning the Nightsword RGB Gaming Mouse.

 

Keep an eye out for a DM in the forum or on twitter from our community team, as we will need your address to send the Corsair gear and your Anno goodies on the way.

And without further ado, happy gardening everyone and until next time!

 

Union Update: Live Streams and City Promotion Winner

We are currently testing the content of the new DLC “Sunken Treasures” with a selected group of players from the Anno Union and will provide the exciting details about the big update and the DLC in an upcoming DevBlog and AnnoCast livestream.

 

We have started to implement a few changes to the Anno Union page, which should it make easier for you to keep track of all our Anno 1800 updates (and soon upcoming content).

In the top menu, you will now find a new category called “Game Updates”. Hovering over the category will give you a drop-down including pages for all of our Game Update notes.

 

For our latest round of the Community Corner AMA stream, many of you followed the call once more and the result are two hours full of fun, gamedev insights and answers to your questions.

You can watch the recording of the AMA stream now here:
Community Corner AMA July

But behold: the next streams are on the horizon. This Friday, we bring back our Anno Afternoon stream with Ubi Guddy and Ubi John, this time with 100% more anarchy and backseat gaming.
Beside community streams, we will also return with our AnnoCast development show later in July.

Anno Afternoon – Right into Anarchy!
Friday 5th of July at 4pm CEST

Watch it live on: twitch.tv/ubisoftbluebyte

 

We were amazed by the amount of videos, the level of quality and crazy ideas behind some of your City Promotion Contest submissions. Dr. Hugo Mercier would be proud of you, or depending on your message, truly offended. Deciding for our favorite three entries was an incredibly tough choice.
We want to encourage everyone in the Union to check out all the entries of the contest and we will continue to put your contributions into the limelight of our social media channels.

Without further ado, let’s lift the curtain on the winners of our big City Promotion contest.

First Place – Radlerauge – Utopia

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-lTyvYyMU4&feature=youtu.be

Combining a speech inspired by Charlie Chaplin’s best performance with powerful visuals of a sprawling 19th century metropolis and industry was a truly moving experience. Radlerauge created a strong message not only for fans of the Anno series, which relates to the world back then, of today and probably of tomorrow. The video has English subtitles available!

Second Place – Tutadventures – The Anarchist Competition Film

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VIpmCDwWCs&feature=youtu.be

This one took us by surprise: a skillfuly executed blend of real life camera footage, 3D animation and game footage. Short, powerful and impressive, Tutadventures’ movie managed to become one of the team’s favorites.

Third Place – BixelBG – Island Propaganda Weekly News

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shiuBH_Gh8c

A fittingly classy one-pager, hot off the press of Bixel Daily News, gave us ideas for future contests or even a whole section of community contributed Anno news articles. The best in the west, surely worth more than 2 cents.

We could only pick three winners but we won’t end the contest without one honorable mention, even though every single entry deserves attention. Our Honorable Mention goes to: Lord_Janok – Stadt Propaganda

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6KsefafJwk

Once again, Lord Janok died his best in displaying true passion for the series. A great speech combined with stunning city backdrops, well done Lord Janok!

We will soon get in contact with the winners of the contest to send them their Gaming Gear sponsored by our friends at Corsair.


And until we are back with another contest, what kind of competition would you love to see us doing here in the Anno Union?

 

Union Update: Anarchist and City Promotion

Dr. Hugo Mercier just arrived in the world of Anno 1800, bringing with him not only a lot of new content for owners of the Digital Deluxe Edition, but also the free Game Update with its more than 200 improvements to the game.

Owners of the Anno 1800 Pioneers Edition or Digital Deluxe Edition can now include the Anarchist, who comes with new content such as 50 additional quests and items as well as new propaganda and a defection system, as a second party character when creating a new sandbox game.

And if you don’t want to miss out on Mercier, owners of the Standard Edition can also upgrade to the Digital Deluxe version to get access to the DLC as well as digital items such as the soundtrack and additional company emblems.

But there is more: Just in time for Game Update 3 and the Anarchist, you can save 20% on your Uplay purchase of Anno 1800’s Standard and Digital Deluxe Edition, thanks to the Ubisoft E3 Sale! If you have been on the fence, now is the perfect time to dive into the industrial revolution!

And in celebration of Mercier’s arrival, we also invite you all to participate in our new City Promotion Contest! Together with our friends of Corsair, we ask you to create a video to promote your metropolis.

Here are the rules:
– No time limitations but it must be at least 15 seconds long.
– It should include gameplay content
– Additionally, you can use video footage of yourself, text mockups or other graphics, audio effects or anything you can think of. Get crazy!
– It must be a retro style promotion of your city, such as a nice invitation for tourists to visit your city or a full-blown propaganda piece demonstrating that your empire is the one to rule them all!
– Deadline is June 21, and you can link your submissions in the City Promotion thread in the forum or via Twitter mentioning @Anno_EN and the hashtag #Anno1800Anarchy

So what’s at stake? For the best three entries of the contest, you can win top gaming gear from Corsair to stay ahead of the competition.
1st Place: K70 RGB MK.2 Keyboard Low Profile
2nd Place: GLAIVE RGB Gaming Mouse
3rd Place: MM800 Pro Mousepad

Good luck everyone!

Yesterday, we hosted another session of our Community Corner live-stream, a streaming format where we showcase content while also answering your questions. If you missed the show, you can watch the VOD here:

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Watch Community Corner – Anarchist Preview and AMA from ubisoftbluebyte on www.twitch.tv

And to follow up on questions from the stream, here are the answers:

Question: Do the new sea mines cause friendly fire when blowing up, causing damage to your or allied ships?
Answer: Sea mines are not causing damage to your own or allied/neutral ships. In Anno 1800, where you have a variety of neutral or allied characters and the game world is heavily used for trade by all these factions, friendly fire could cause many issues affecting the player’s enjoyment. Harbor areas would be inaccessible and players would likely soon stop using the item, as the chances of entering an unintended state of war with the AI or damaging their own ship would be too high. However, even without friendly fire, the sea mines add a lot of strategical variety to the naval combat, allowing you to expand your harbor defense or to blockade areas of the map.

Question: If I wipe Dr. Hugo Mercier from the map, will I lose access to all his items and propaganda news articles?
Answer: If you wipe the Anarchist from your map, you will not have any access to his item pool anymore nor able to use his propaganda articles. When the music is over, turn off the lights.

Anno 1800 Closed Beta Screenshot Challenge

While the Closed Beta is understandably on every Annoholic’s mind right now, we are already setting our eyes on the future to ensure that some of you can enjoy the full game in style come April 16th. To this end, we have joined up with our friends and fellow sailship-enthusiasts at CORSAIR, who are providing some of their great gaming peripherals as prizes. Introducing- the Anno 1800 Closed Beta Screenshot Contest!

To participate in the contest, all you have to do is play the game all the way up to tier 3 (the Artisans), cross the ocean and share your most beautiful New World screenshot with us. Moreover, if you did not get the chance to get an Anno 1800 Closed Beta code yet, CORSAIR got you covered.

Get all the details on the contest and code giveaway here!

The screenshot challenge starts today and ends February 5th at 23:59 CET. To give our team some time to browse through your scenic New World shots, we will announce the winners on Friday,  February 8th.

And here is the loot table for the New World screenshot challenge:

1st prize:

  • K70 RGB MK.2 keyboard (Cherry MX Red switches)
  • IRONCLAW RGB mouse
  • MM800 RGB Cloth Edition mousepad
  • VOID PRO RGB Wireless headset

2nd prize:

  • STRAFE RGB MK.2 keyboard (Cherry MX Silent switches)
  • IRONCLAW RGB mouse

3rd prize:

  • IRONCLAW RGB mouse
  • MM800 mousepad

Thanks again to our friends at CORSAIR for sponsoring this contest. Enjoy the Closed Beta, give us feedback aplenty and good luck for all participating photographers!