Union Update: Free Weekend start and upcoming blogs

Hey Anno Community,

It’s one week since the release of the “Marvellous Mosaic Pack” and it’s been great fun to observe in which ways you are using the various groundplates and mosaics.

Today, we have a bunch more news for you in this blog on what’s coming up in the next days and weeks, starting with…

The Free Weekend

As originally announced on Monday, today marks the start of the first Free Weekend for Anno 117: Pax Romana – lasting until Monday, March 2^nd!

You can play Anno 117: Pax Romana for free during this time period on Ubisoft Connect, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

This is a great time to convince some friends to try the game and make full use of Anno 117: Pax Romana’s coop-mode to teach them the ropes.

On top of that, the game is also on sale during this period on all platforms – the best opportunity to continue any savegame from the free weekend period.

Twitch Drops

Alongside the Free Weekend, you’ll also be able to get two new Twitch Drops between now, February 26^th, and March 12^th. These two player logos can be earned on any Anno 117: Pax Romana livestream on Twitch if you accumulate the required watch time:

• Watch 1 Hour: Callinectes Logo
• Watch 2 Hours: Venusian Shell Logo

How Do Twitch Drops Work?

Follow these steps to make sure you’re set up to earn Drops:

• Step 1: Link your Twitch account and Ubisoft account. Click here to link accounts now.
• Step 2: Watch eligible streams. You’ll earn progress toward various items by watching streams for 1 hour or more, see above for details.
• Step 3: Claim your rewards. When you’ve earned a Drop, be sure to claim it in your Twitch Inventory. Once complete, your rewards will be waiting for you in-game.

Tavern Trailer

We also want to make sure you didn’t miss this:

What happens if a Patrician, an Eques and a Libertus walk into a bar? – Well, they talk about all the rumours they’ve heard, of course! What else will happen this year? Did you hear about that volcano? Horse racing?

Watch our Year 1 Teaser Trailer for more:

Patch 1.4.1

Next week Thursday, March 5th, we’re planning to release patch 1.4.1 on all platforms.

This smaller patch will address several recent issues like for example:

• The desync that happens if a co-op partner doesn’t own the Cosmetic DLC but tries to move objects that are part of the pack
• The issue that resulted in raytracing being disabled on consoles since patch 1.4
• Issues with Albion-related construction menu entries both when using mouse & keyboard as well as when using a gamepad

The full patch notes will be published next week.

UI/UX Blogs

Furthermore, here’s a heads-up on what you can expect in March!

Over the course of the next weeks and before we start talking about the “Prophesies of Ash” DLC in more detail, we’ll take you behind the scenes of our UI team. Senior UI Designers Christoph and Eva as well as Lead UI Designer Alexander will tell you about how we tackle both UI Design in general and the design of all the icons in Anno 117: Pax Romana.

Annoverse Discord Contest

We also want to remind you of the screenshot contest the team of the “Annoverse” Discord server is holding right now – with a physical prize from Lexip: an Anno-branded mouse & mousepad combo.

Find our more on this dedicated thread on the Annoverse.

Discord Quest

Finally, we want to make you aware of another “Discord Quest” related to Anno 117: Pax Romana.

Starting today until March 12th you can earn additional “Discord Orbs” to unlock various cosmetic items on Discord by watching an Anno video. This requires a Discord account. Check out the Quest here.