Hey Anno Community!
Today we want to give you an overview of our efforts in terms of mod support on release, and a brief look into the future and what we’re planning for postlaunch.
Mod support at release
As previously announced, the mod loader is integrated into the PC version of the game right from the start. This means, mods in the mod folder are automatically detected and loaded when you start the game.
There are even a few example mods already pre-installed. You can find them and a small how-to textfile in your game installation folder under mods/
However, we’re not yet supporting mods with a dedicated in-game UI or in-game browser. That is planned for a later update (see further below in this article).
For now, you can install and activate mods the old way by extracting. zip files into the mods/ folder as outlined above.
The mod loader comes with nice improvements and a few changes over the previous version in Anno 1800. Namely:
ModOp improvements
additions for Lua scripts
built-in support for activation profiles and options (similar to iMYA tweaks in case you know them).
More details about the changes are documented in the mod loader GitHub repository which we highly encourage you to check out:
https://jakobharder.github.io/anno-mod-loader/
Partnership with mod.io
We’re excited to confirm we’re partnering with mod.io on our mod support plans. mod.io is an industry-leading middleware solution for mods and user-generated content (UGC) support, used in hundreds of games.
After our collaboration on Anno 1800, mod.io will again become the home for mods for Anno 117: Pax Romana – and your way to easily both share your creations and download mods others created. You can find the dedicated Anno 117: Pax Romana page on mod.io here:
https://mod.io/g/anno-117-pax-romana
This is just the beginning of this collaboration and we’re looking forward to sharing more in the coming months.
State of Tooling
Further, for the mod creators out there: the engine of Anno 117: Pax Romana is a continuation from Anno 1800, thus many community tools continue to work as is or need only some smaller adjustments.
RDA tools to unpack data work unchanged, e.g.
The Visual Studio Code plugin has been updated to support Anno 117: Pax Romana. A new addition are templates for empty mods with the standard file structure:
The Blender plugin still needs some work, but should be able to open most CFGs at this point already thanks to community efforts:
And finally, like in the past, we recommend visiting the modding Discord server for more resources and discussions with fellow modders:
A big shout out to all who have contributed to tools and documentation in the past: taubenangriff, xormenter, lukts30, Serpens66, Hier0nimus to name a few.
Road Ahead
There are two missing pieces when compared to Anno 1800: in-game UI with info tips and popups for activation, and a mod browser with download platform.
Both are topics we’re looking into bringing to the game in postlaunch – we’ll keep you updated.
If you’re wondering about mod support on console: for now, we’re focused on PC mod support.
We do expect new needs, requests and ideas raising in the modding community following the release. There is still some potential especially around the new Lua scripting options. Therefore, we plan to gradually improve the support here and are welcoming your input on this topic.