Explore your artistic freedom. Build without costs or competitors.
Creative Mode is one of the single player game modes in Anno 1800, which allows to focus on planning and building cities without many restrictions or requirements included in other game modes. As stated in the game after selecting this mode, it does not represent core gameplay. Instead, Campaign or Sandbox are recommended for a proper Anno experience (beginners are recommended to play Campaign specifically). Due to the world generation and lack of mandatory story quests, Creative Mode is more similar to Sandbox but there are multiple significant differences regarding game settings and features. This game mode was added to the game on April 4, 2023 as part of the Game Update 17.
Gameplay rules and features[]
Creative Mode offers the most freedom and the fewest restrictions among all game modes. While typical gameplay in Campaign or Sandbox focuses on completing quests or expanding and fulfilling needs of population, Creative Mode is mostly about building cities. Because of that, it involves a unique set of rules and features, such as:
- The player cannot be defeated, cannot go bankrupt and can always get a new flagship for free.
- There are no competitors or pirates.
- Regions and buildings are available from the start and have no unlock conditions.
- Buildings have no construction cost, no maintenance cost and no workforce requirements. If they are upgradable, they can be upgraded for free. It works for monuments too - they will instantly proceed to the next phase of construction. If a building can be in a ruined state, downgrading it will turn it into ruin.
- Production has no requirements - it works without any input, modules (like farm fields), fertility, cultivation area, workforce, electricity or street connection - all buildings work at 100% productivity as soon as they are placed.
- Rerolling items at traders' harbours has no cost, although buying items does require and consume coins.
- Harbour areas are twice as big as in other modes.
- Residents move in quickly and residences do not turn into ruins even if no needs are fulfilled.
- Disabled features: working conditions, influence, newspaper and propaganda, quests, incidents.
- Many buildings which are unique to other modes or limited to one per island can be freely placed as ornaments. Additionally, there are some buildings which are unavailable in other modes but are available as ornaments in Creative Mode. There are also ornamental farm modules and ornamental culture modules (which can be freely placed without needing appropriate items).
The contents of several gameplay DLCs also behave differently in Creative Mode in comparison to Sandbox:
- Sunken Treasures DLC: Diving is generally unavailable, though diving with treasure maps can still be available in Enbesa and The Arctic. Multiple salvagers can be constructed at steam shipyards. Old Nate's items can be crafted for free.
- The Passage DLC: Old Nate's items can be crafted for free. No crates appear in the northern part of The Arctic.
- Land of Lions DLC: Research can be performed as soon as the Research Institute is built, there are no other requirements - it does not require electricity, scholars, research points or workforce, and it takes 10 seconds for every type of research to be completed. Major discoveries, such as building scholar residences, can be used without researching them and without any limits.
- Docklands DLC: All importable goods are immediately visible in the Export/Import menu but they still have their regular unlock conditions, like importing enough tons of specific good. World-Class Reefers (called Creative Reefer in this game mode) can be built at steam shipyards without requiring the blueprints.
- Tourist Season DLC: The Iron Tower can generate its effects without tourist customers, but they are still required to increase its radius.
- The High Life DLC: Shopping Arcades fulfill population's needs and generate their bonuses without electricity, but at only 100% productivity their bonuses are diminished, so electricity is required to achieve their full effects.
- Seeds of Change DLC: Modules of the Hacienda can be placed outside its radius and they will not turn into ruins. However, Hacienda Paving and Hacienda Pathway must still connect to the Hacienda building.
- Empire of the Skies DLC: Arctic Gas variants of the airships cannot be constructed
Creating a new game[]
For more information about every individual setting, see: Sandbox mode.
To create a new game in Creative Mode, click on the "New Game" in the main menu and then select Creative Mode on the right side. After seeing some general information about the game mode, proceed to creating the profile:
- Choose portrait
- Choose logo and colour
- Choose player's name and select desired DLCs
Once these steps are done, it is possible to start the game with the default settings or to customise them:
- World
- Random Seed
- Starting World Size - Large/Medium/Small
- Island Size - Mainly Large/Mainly Medium/Mainly Small
- Island Difficulty - Normal/Hard
- Fertility - Plenty (cannot be changed)
- Mineral Deposits - Plenty/Medium/Sparse
- Map Type - Random/Archipelago/Atoll/Island Arc/Corners/Snowflake
- Faction Customisation
- Madame Kahina - On/Off
- Eli Bleakworth - On/Off
- Isabel Sarmento - On/Off
- Anne Harlow - Off (cannot be changed)
- Jean La Fortune - Off (cannot be changed)
- Starting Conditions
- Starting Ships* - None/Flagship/Trade Fleet/War Fleet
- Starting Harbour* - Off/Standard/Full
- Starting Capital - Large/Medium/Small
- Revealed Map - Off/On
- Victory Conditions
- None of the victory conditions can be enabled, it is impossible to win or lose in this mode. This section only allows to load or save customised settings.
*It is required to start with either a ship, a harbour or both. It is impossible to start without a ship or harbour, so Starting Ships - None and Starting Harbour - Off are mutually exclusive.
Default settings[]
The default settings are:
- World
- Starting World Size - Small
- Island Size - Mainly Large
- Island Difficulty - Normal
- Fertility - Plenty
- Mineral Deposits - Plenty
- Map Type - Archipelago
- Faction Customisation
- Madame Kahina - On
- Eli Bleakworth - On
- Isabel Sarmento - On
- Anne Harlow - Off
- Jean La Fortune - Off
- Starting Conditions
- Starting Ships - Flagship
- Starting Harbour - Full
- Starting Capital - Large
- Revealed Map - On
Screenshots[]
