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Anno 1800 Update 4 releases on July 30th, will improve camera zoom out, will optimize performance

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Ubisoft has announced that a brand new update for its latest strategy game, Anno 1800, will release on July 30th. According to the team, game update 4 will allow players to zoom the camera significantly further out, will bring performance optimizations and improvements, and will feature a new and improved minimum stock system to the Trading Post.

Ubisoft has also reworked and rebalanced Expedition rewards to make them feel more rewarding across all difficulty levels, and improved the usability of the trade routes menu by adding a text filter and a toggle for other ships displayed in the trade route menu strategy map. In addition, the team has reduced the notifications spam for low threat incidents.

It’s also worth noting that patch 4 will sport some balance tweaks. For instance, the quality of rewards granted by resident quests has been rebalanced, the rewards for a variety of activities has been improved, and the moral value for difficulty level three expeditions has been rebalanced.

UPLAY will download this update once it becomes available next week, and you can find below its complete changelog.

Anno 1800 Update 4 July 30th Release Notes

Highlights

  • You can now zoom the camera significantly further out, giving you a better overview of your majestic islands (which you can activate in the Gameplay options menu).
  • We have further improved and optimized game performance, leading to smoother gameplay across most graphics settings. As part of this, users will now also note an improved viewing range.
  • A new, improved minimum stock system has been added to the Trading Post. In order to replace the old system, we need to remove the old settings from all your existing trade routes.
  • We have reworked and rebalanced Expedition rewards to make them feel more rewarding across all difficulty levels. New expedition reward tiers per difficulty are now:
    Easy => only uncommon or rare rewards.
    Medium => Only rare or epic rewards.
    Hard => Only epic or legendary rewards.
  • We have improved the usability of the trade routes menu, adding a text filter and a toggle for other ships displayed in the trade route menu strategy map. You can also select these ships to add them to your trade routes from the strategy map. Hovering over a trade route entry will now immediately show the trade route on the map. Finally, trade routes are now sorted alphabetically to make them easier to keep track of.
  • We have reduced the notifications spam for low threat incidents. Incidents such as small fires which are no major threat will no longer trigger a notification.
  • After several bargaining rounds, we have convinced the workers responsible for loading and unloading oil onto your trains to work faster, resulting in these operations happening twice as fast.
  • Incoming trade ships will now make full use of all harbors on an island, trying to avoid lengthy traffic jams in front of one harbor while others remain unused.
  • Architectural expos in your world fair will now reward you with more than three ornaments at a time.
  • Previously defeated pirates will now bring a small fleet instead of a single ship upon their return to the game. It now takes them 30 minutes to rebuild.
  • The multiplayer chat has been completely reworked.

Balancing

  • Rebalanced the quality of rewards granted by resident quests.
  • Generally improved the generation of rewards for a variety of activities (quests, drops etc.). This can lead to some items appearing less often, while some previously very rare items will appear more frequently.
  • Rebalanced the moral value for difficulty level three expeditions. The morale bar should now fill up faster.

Bug Fixes

Quests:

  • Fixed an issue with missing objectives for “Open Book 2” voluntary quest provided by George Smith.
  • Fixed a missing icon in quest tracker/book for Princess Qing’s voluntary quest “Shadow Puppets: Part 3”.
  • Fixed the “jump to location” button for Princess Qing’s voluntary quest “Shadow Puppets: Part 3”.
  • Fixed the “Hostage Rescue” campaign quest where buyable frigates would fight Pyrphorian ships.

Items:

  • Fixed the specialist items “Actor” and “Sarah Bartok” which previously had an invalid effect for the Theatre building.
  • Fixed the “Poster of the Leader” item not having any effects (it now provides additional workforce and a bit extra happiness, but reduces taxes).
  • The “Footman” specialist item now provides more taxes.
  • Fixed items increasing the maximum residents being inactive after loading a save file. The item effects are now also calculated slightly different than before. Affected items are “The Withdrawal Amendment”, “Contraception Regulation”, “Papal Paper of Prenatal Preservation”, “Jakob Sokow, The Charitable Banker”, “Louis P. Hecate, Arm-Puncturing Pioneer”, “Chief George Doughty, Smouldering Hero”, “Saint D’ Artois, Vision of the Valley”.

Multiplayer:

  • Fixed an issue where a player could not be re-invited to a saved multiplayer match if they were not on the Uplay friend list of the player loading the save file.
  • Fixed the cancel invitation button having no icon in the “Invited Friend” section of the multiplayer lobby.
  • Added an error message for the client if the host leaves the multiplayer lobby.

UI:

  • Fixed an issue with the electricity icon being shown in the World Fair’s Foundation menu before electricity is needed.
  • Fixed text input in the trade route menu being reset if the player didn’t press the ENTER key.
  • Fixed “session transfer” or “expedition assigned” text overlapping the cargo slots in ship menus.
  • Fixed truncated text in ship menus when transferring to another region.
  • Fixed debug text being shown in trade menu tooltips if the camera was moved to another island in the background.
  • Fixed an UI issue in the charter route setup that occurred when dragging the amount slider out of the box, which could accidentally close the goods selection window.
  • Steam ships and sailing ships now have different icons to make them more distinguishable in the trade route menu.
  • The edit screen of the newspaper now shows the currently available influence (previously the publish button would just be greyed out when the cost exceeded the available influence).
  • Fixed an issue with overlapping icons in the marketplace menu when only artisans, engineers and investors were present on an island.
  • Fixed the working conditions menu sometimes not remembering values if the player would change the productivity by typing in the text field instead of using the slider.
  • Fixed the construction menu not remembering the category sorting when loading a save file.

Graphics:

  • Fixed an issue with flickering dirt roads while zooming the camera.
  • Fixed firework effect persisting after loading a save file

Localization:

  • Fixed a typo in the German localization of “Die Amazonen” expedition screens.
  • Fixed a German localization issue with Margaret Hunt’s reaction to one of their buildings being destroyed.
  • Fixed a typo in the English localization of the “Iron Dragon” expedition event.
  • Fixed English text shown in the German localization of the ship object menu if the player would send a ship to another session.

Misc.:

  • Oil ships should now approach the correct coast when multiple oil ships are assigned to a trade route.
  • Improved visualization of ships traveling between sessions on the world map.
  • Fixed ships moving at their individual fastest speed even if the “grouped” option was selected.
  • Fixed an issue with defeated pirate ships still being shown on the mini map.
  • Improved display of highlighted buildings when using the demolish tool.
  • Added three new filters for notifications when ships set on a trade route encounter a problem.
  • Fixed buffs granted by animals in the Zoo staying active even after the main building of the Zoo was demolished.
  • Fixed an issue in the newspaper after a war declaration where the player’s name was shown instead of the name of the AI declaring war.
  • Fixed several misleading tooltips in the World Fair menu.
  • Fixed visitor pathfinding around the Bank building.
  • Fixed the “Load Game” entry in the main menu being visible without a save file being present.
  • Fixed an issue where the last playable game profile could not be deleted without restarting the game.