Hey Anno Community,

Welcome back to part two of our in-depth look at the games included in this month’s Anno History Collection. Today we want to tackle Anno 1701, which is a special game to the team in many ways. But before we get into the specifics of 1701, let us recap our general approach to the Anno History Collection and the improvements that have been made across the board on all the games. Should you have missed our first blog on Anno 1602 History Edition, we would encourage you to give that a read first.

Classic gameplay on modern PCs

As outlined before, our priority with this collection and the four games included (History Editions of Anno 1602, 1503, 1701 and 1404) was to maintain the classic gameplay that we have all grown to love over the past two decades, while ensuring that playing these games on your current PCs is smooth and hassle-free. This is of course also true for Anno 1701 History Edition:

The game has been completely ported to be 64-bit only, meanin...

Hey Anno Community,

Last month we announced the release of the Anno History Collection arriving June 25, which will update the beloved first four games in the Anno series to take better advantage of modern PCs, while maintaining the gameplay we all know and love. As promised at the announcement, we will have a separate blog post for each of the games to not only talk about the new improvements, but also about the games and their place in Anno history themselves. As this is the first blog, we will take this opportunity to talk a bit about the History Collection in general, before diving right into Anno 1602 History Edition!

Our goals for the History Collection

The first question that came to many minds upon our announcement was of course “why?”, so let us start with that. As you know, Anno 1800 has been a huge success for the team, becoming the fastest-selling Anno game right out of the gate, and attracting more than a million players within its first nine months on the market...

Game Update 8 will release Tuesday, June 2 at 6pm CEST/ 12pm EST/ 9am PST.

The download will roughly be 1.8GB.

Game Update 8 adds support for our second Season 2 DLC, “Bright Harvest”, for all Season 2 Pass owners. “Bright Harvest” will also be available as a stand-alone purchase from June 2 onwards.

Added an Item Overview system within the statistics screen. With this much requested feature, we are giving you an easy to use overview of all your current items, and where they currently are being used or stored. This includes extensive filtering options by their effect or what buildings they can be socketed into, as well as text search (which has also been added to the Trading Post and expedition preparation menu). Finally, you can also use the item overview to search for any missing items, and information on how to obtain them!

Trading Posts and War...

Hey Anno Community,

today we are very excited to share the announcement of the upcoming Anno History Collection with you all. With this collection, we are updating the first four Anno games (1602, 1503, 1701 and 1404) to take advantage of modern PCs, while keeping the classic gameplay we all know and love. Among the more notable improvements to all four games are:

• All games being ported to 64-bit to improve performance and stability (say goodbye to Anno 1404 running out of memory)
• Support for new resolutions all the way up to 4k, making your empires look better than ever before
• Improved multiplayer, with all games now running through Uplay, with comfort features such as quickmatch and desync recovery (as seen in Anno 1800). And yes… ANNO 1503 MULTIPLAYER IS OFFICIALLY HERE!
• Full save game compatibility, so we hope you have held on to those beloved saves from years past
• Of course, all games include their expansions, as well as any other official content that may have been released ov...

In an office environment “working in silos” seems rarely a good thing, but out there among the buttercups and daisies these silver sentinels must surely be a reassuring sight to a farmer. Though the word comes to us from ancient Greek, Levantine silos for holding grain have been found dating back over 7000 years. The modern farm silo appears to have been the brainchild of one Fred Hatch, who in 1876, finally managed to convince his old man to let him build a grain store in the barn for green corn fodder. Hatch’s cows quickly became inflated distortions of themselves, living out the winter in luxury, and becoming the envy of any neighboring farmers.

Imagine then the effect, at a similar time, of the “portable” tractor, putt-putting its way nonchalantly about the place, undercutting millennia of peasant toil and hardship. Steam-driven, petrol-driven it didn’t seem to matter; the efficiencies were great, and drastic of course in their implications for Frank and Felicity the farmhands...

Hey Anno Community,

while it is still a while to go before Bright Harvest will further expand your Anno 1800 experience, we want to take this opportunity to already make you aware of two important changes that will happen at the same time as part of Game Update 8.

Changes to map generation and seeds

As some of you may know, there is an issue during map creation that can result in maps not having certain fertilities, which players would sometimes only realize after playing for some time, or when reaching the New World. This can make for a frustrating experience, so we are making some changes to the map generation to ensure that every fertility will be present in newly generated maps.

And while we are at it, we will also tackle the issue of some maps having significantly more copper than zinc mines, despite game balance dictating that you should always have both resource nodes at a 1:1 ratio. With Game Update 8, this will be changed to ensure that copper and zinc mines wil...

Release: May 8, 12pm CEST/ 6am EST/ 3am PST

Download: 1GB

Release Notes

Fixed several potential game crashes.

Fixed several issues that could cause Desync errors in multiplayer.

Fixed an issue that could result in the game not starting (or crashing immediately after starting) if started in offline mode, or without an internet connection present.

Fixed some UI issues that could appear in DirectX 12 mode.

Fixed an issue with carts deleting their loaded goods if they were unable to unload them at their destination building.

Solved an issue where hovering the mouse over tiles such as ornaments or farm fields could cause its position to appear offset, making it harder to use.

Hey Anno Community,

it has been a while since we ran our last Anno Union vote— high time to do so again! This time we want your input on the topic of our next Cosmetic DLC Pack, giving you the choice between three themes. Once the voting ends, we will begin development on the new content, which we plan to cover with blogs on the Anno Union to show you how the Union’s chosen topic comes to live.

So, what exactly is a “Cosmetic Pack”? As you know, we released the Holiday Pack last December, giving you the option to turn your cities festive with an assortment of Christmas-themed ornaments such as Christmas Market stalls. While many of you loved the Pack, we also received a lot of feedback that if we were to do another such pack, you would prefer to have something a bit more general that you can proudly display in your empire all-year-round. You also provided us with many suggestions about potential themes, which inspired us to turn the decision about the next pack’s theme over to ...

Game Update 7.2 is now available, with a download size of roughly 1GB.

Further improved game stability by fixing several potential crashes and desyncs.

Improved reporting on desync errors.

Note
While Game Update 7.2 fixes several issues that could cause crashes and desyncs, we cannot, in the interest of transparency, promise that it will fix these issues for all affected players. We are still in the process of investigating recent error reports, and are not always able to reproduce the issues during our own tests. To help with this, the Game Update also includes further improvements to crash and desync reporting so we can narrow down the potential causes for these issues. 

Hey Anno Community,

Time sure flies! Has it already been a year since you all first joined us in the age of the industrial revolution? Turns out the answer is yes, and what an incredible year it has been for all of us. So, let us look back at the first year of Anno 1800 together!

April 16, 2019: Anno 1800, the seventh game in the equally beloved and long-running Anno series is released, inviting PC gamers worldwide into the age of the industrial revolution

April 29, 2019: Thanks to all of you, we can announce that Anno 1800 is officially the fastest selling game in the franchise’s 20-year history! Thanks everyone

June 5, 2019: “The Anarchist” Dr. Hugo Mercier joins the party as the first new content release for the game, including a new NPC opponent (or ally), new quests and items. Alongside Hugo come new menus for construction projects like the world fair, dig site and court of justice.

July 30, 2019: Annoholics start the hunt for “Sunken Treasures” with our first D...

Hi Anno Community,

we are currently working on our next Game Update, 7.1, to tackle many of the issues that you have been reporting to us in the past week. We are currently testing Game Update 7.1, and will share details on the release timing with you all in the coming days. Until then, stay safe!

Update: We are currently expecting to release Game Update 7.1 today, Friday April 3rd, at 2pm CET. The download will be roughly 1GB.

Game Update 7.1 Release Notes

An issue with disappearing infotips while the right-click menu was pinned has been fixed.

An issue that could cause ships to remain stuck in transition mode after entering a session while new DLC was being activated has been fixed.

Fixed a multiplayer desync caused by selecting a blueprint building while owning a Palace.

Fixed an issue with certain menu windows (such as transfers, options etc.) preventing players from scrolling all the way to the bottom.

Fixed an issue where policies slotted in the Pala...

Game Update 7 will release Tuesday, March 24 at 6pm CET.

The download will roughly be 2.2GB.

Game Update 7 adds support for our first Season 2 DLC, “Seat of Power”, for all Season 2 Pass owners. “Seat of Power” will also be available as a stand-alone purchase from March 24 onwards.

Added three exclusive ornaments – the “Palatial Column”, “Ploughman’s Glory” and “Elephountain” – for owners of the Anno 1800 Season 2 Pass to the game.

We are introducing three separate difficulty levels for the influence system, which dictate how much influence can be earned. Easy has you earning more, medium remains the same and hard less influence. This can be selected during game creation, or when loading an existing save game for the first time. Please note that this selection is permanent and cannot be changed after.

Improved the multi-copy feature so that streets can now also be copied in the same manner as buildings.

Introduced the ability to block needs supply in the Marke...

“Be thine own palace, or the world’s thy jail,” wrote poet John Donne, an idea many a royal and tyrant appear to have refigured over the centuries, constructing extravagant and self-aggrandizing Palaces as an extension of the self— a demonstration of the power and freedom of divine privilege. The masses would look on in awe of what beauty and grandeur was possible, while they themselves grew ever more miniscule.

By constructing vast and lavishly-adorned palaces, rulers presumed they had the personal heft and prestige to fill the yawning emptiness within. Their gold oozed along every rim and chamfer, their Objet d’art cluttered the mantelpieces, and the oil paintings of their illustrious ancestors gussied up the walls. But mere appearance of power and status will never be enough.

Any such seat of power must also have some connection, no matter how moot, to the important business of state. Such an immoderate edifice as a palace must be more than the oppressor’s great white elephan...

Hey Anno Community (bet you missed hearing those words over and over, eh?), we hope you enjoyed your first glimpse at Season 2 as much as we did! It is safe to say that your enthusiasm for the reveal has fueled the team since, as we are busy putting the finishing touches on Seat of Power, our first Season 2 DLC which is already releasing on March 24.

As we announced during the Season 2 reveal stream, every DLC will once again be accompanied by a free Game Update to improve the game for all our players, regardless of whether they have bought the DLC. This will start with Game Update 7, coming on March 24. However, before we share the full release notes with you closer to release, we wanted to make you aware of a few important balancing changes that may affect your cities, so you have enough time to prepare before the update hits!

So, let us talk about balancing. Seeing how Anno is mostly played as a single-player game where players spend dozens (if not hundreds) of hours slowly b...

Prior to the release of The Passage last December, we excitedly announced our plan to deliver even more Anno 1800 to our 1 million+ pioneers of industrial revolution throughout 2020. This presents a unique opportunity for the Anno team, as it means that Anno 1800 will be receiving more postlaunch support than any previous game in the series! In the past, development of content has ended a year or so after the release of an Anno game, with the team moving on to the next title. With Anno 1800, we are excited to have the chance to flesh out the world of the industrial revolution even further, with new systems, citizen tiers and yes, even a new continent. Enter stage right: The Anno 1800 Season 2 Pass, which will be adding three exciting new DLCs to the game this year!

Seat of Power (March 24)

It all begins later this month with our next DLC pack, Seat of Power, which allows you to construct a magnificent palace fit for the ruler of an industrial empire. And while we know that o...

We will see all of you next Monday, March 9th, at 5pm CET/ 4pm GMT/ 11am EST/ 8am PST on Twitch!

Hey Anno Community,

As we are getting ready to reveal our 2020 plans for Anno 1800 next month, we want to inform you about some changes in the Anno development team. At the end of last year, we said goodbye to two long-time veterans of the franchise, Burkhard Ratheiser and Dirk Riegert. While we are sad to see them leave Anno, we can appreciate that working on the same gaming series for over 15 years is a long time and that the huge success of Anno 1800 makes this the perfect time to hand the scepter over to our new leadership. Rest assured that both are staying with Ubisoft Mainz, exploring new ideas for future projects!

Burkhard is not only one of the co-founders of our studio here in Mainz but has been instrumental in Anno’s transition to full 3D as the Lead Programmer of our game engine during the development of 1701. Following that, he worked on Anno 1404 and 2070 as the Head of Graphics and R&D, before moving into game production with Anno 2205. Over the last years, he le...

We are currently working on Game Update 6.1, which will fix the issues you can see below. We will share more informaton on the releasem timing and download size once they are available, so keep an eye on this spot!

Bug Fixes

Fixed a potential crash that could occur at game start.

Fixed an issue that could cause performance drops when a lot of ships were simultaneously switching sessions, which would have especially affected larger save games.

Fixed an issue with the fog of war returning to islands after loading a save game.

Fixed an issue that could cause performance issues in co-op games specifically.

Fixed a visual issue with fire effects not being correctly aligned on the affected ships.

Today we want to give you an update on what is next for Anno 1800. We have received a lot of community feedback on Game Update 5, including some issues. The Anno community is at the heart of everything we do, so we are of course committed to improving the quality of all upcoming updates. As such, we have made some changes to our roadmap, which you can find detailed below.

Game Update 5.3 (mid-October)

We are currently working on Game Update 5.3, which we are planning to release in mid-October after extensive additional testing. For this update, we will be focusing on fixing the following issues:

• Trains getting stuck inside the oil harbor
• Ships getting stuck at the session border
• Anarchist Main Story Quests appearing too rarely for some unlucky players
• NPC characters having large fleets of duplicate ships
• Ships in the ship list flickering/ switching around
• Issues with selecting ships when preparing for an expedition
• Ships returning to the wrong island after an expedition
• The Shift+V...

Our last Union Update for May not only brings you all the information you could ask for regarding next week’s Game Update 3, but also news on our next live stream. Finally, the Anno 1800 team is looking for some new blood, so let’s get right to it!

As you saw when we announced our Season Pass, we have some big plans for Anno 1800. To realize all of them, we are currently looking for some reinforcements to join our industrial revolution. So if you have experience working in game development and would like to help us shape the future of Anno, you should definitely check out our career portal!

We currently have the following openings:

3D Engine Programmer

Tools Programmer

Gameplay Programmer

Senior Game Designer

Lead Narrative Designer

Senior QA Tester

And right before the content launches, we will have another Community Corner Live-Stream with our Community Developer Bastian.
Tun in next Tuesday June 4th to have a closer look on the the Anarchist’s is...