Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition – Update 61213

Lunar New Year 2022 Event

💥February 1st – February 28th💥

Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition is celebrating the 2022 Lunar New Year with an all new and unique event! For a limited time, you can unlock new portraits, explorer skins, and cheats by completing the community challenges!

New Cheats

This time we’re providing two cheats! One can be obtained by completing the challenges and the other is available now!

Guardian Lion cheat – “the king of all beasts”

• Spawns two Guardian lions!

Lion Dance Parade cheat – “red pocket”

• Spawns a Lion Dance Parade at your Town Center gifting you resources!

New Rewards!

Starting TODAY through February 28th, complete daily in-game tasks within the time limit to unlock exclusive rewards!

Each of the following challenges must be unlocked in order and on separate days.

Keep it Forever!

Remember: if you sign in to Xbox Live at any point during the event, you get to keep all the mods and profile icons you unlock! Sign in, earn your rewards, and enjoy!

—The Age of Empires Team

Event F.A.Q.

Chinese: 7 NEW Cards

Tea Export (I)	“Ships 1 Consulate Rickshaw and 100 Export to spend. Also grants a steady trickle of Export permanently.” Export trickle of 0.4 per second
Year of the Tiger (I)	“For each 2 Disciples you have lost, a Pet White Tiger will be mustered to your homecity spawn point (up to a maximum of 12 units).”
Year of the Dragon (III)	“Each Town Center will muster 1 Flamethrower and each Village will muster 1 Monitor Lizard, to your homecity spawn point.”
Fire Dragon Manual (IV)	“Ships 1 Flying Crow and 2 Honored Flamethrowers. Slightly improves their rate of fire.” Activates the Disciplined and Honored upgrades for Flamethrowers Flying Crow rate of fire improvement: 10% Flamethrower rate of fire improvement: 10%
Koxinga (IV)	“Ships 11 Iron Troops and significantly improves their ranged rate of fire.” Rate of fire improvement: 25%
1 Flying Crow (III)	“Ships 1 Flying Crow.”
1 Flamethrower + 1 Castle Rickshaw (II)	“Ships 1 Flamethrower and 1 Castle Rickshaw.”

Stability & Performance

• Improved game start-up times.
• Improved the time taken to load into a game when the Record Game option is enabled. This is especially noticeable when playing an 8-player game.
• Fixed a crash that would occasionally occur when hosting or joining a Multiplayer game lobby.
• Fixed an issue where, if you accepted a game invite while choosing a file to host a Saved MP game from, the file dialog would remain open and the game would crash if you tried to close it.
• Fixed a crash to desktop which happened if you minimized the splash screen.
• Overhaul of UI and model asset loading for memory usage optimizations.
• Fixed a crash that would occur when viewing the playback of a recorded game when it was set to loop.

Graphics

• Fixed an issue with obscured unit alpha where, on some older hardware, it would not render correctly.
• Cruzob Infantry now has a walking animation in Defend Mode and Stand Ground stances.

Audio

• Fixed an issue that caused the civilization jingles to be cut short when the game starts.
• Fixed an issue that caused the first track in the in-game music playlist to be skipped when starting a game.
• Fixed corruption in a couple of the music tracks: Get Ye Sum and Felonious Junk.
• Goats now make a noise when created from the African Livestock Market.
• Surgeons now have voice lines when playing as the Inca, Hausa, or Ethiopians.
• Villagers now have voice lines when building Walls.
• Petards now have voice lines when being selected.
• Added voice lines to various campaign-exclusive units.
• Fixed an issue that caused Artillery sounds to be audible to the player despite the unit being hidden in the Fog of War.

UI

• Resources (Gold Mine, Treasures, Fish banks) will now be highlighted when right-clicked by a Villager when the resource is outside of the player’s LOS (Line of sight).
• Postgame summary now correctly sorts stats when clicking on their header. (e.g. to see who gathered the most Coin during a match).
• Readability and formatting of text in Hindi has been significantly improved.
• The “News” dialog has been replaced by the new “Community” dialog which, along with news, contains links to external Age of Empires related resources.
• Berries spawned by a Torp now correctly show their remaining resources instead of HP.
• Updated the Game Settings panel in Single Player/Multiplayer Lobbies.
• ‘Los Colorados Battalion’ card now correctly states it sends 10 units instead of 11.
• Both Japanese explorers now show their stats on the UI in the same order.
• ‘Dia de Muertos’ tech from the Cathedral will no longer always display +0.00 XP in the tooltip
• Updated various Compendium entries to be adjusted for various balance changes.
• Fixed various issues in the Compendium as highlighted by the community.
• Fixed various tech tree inaccuracies.
• Fixed various tooltip issues.
• Fixed various keyboard navigation issues.
• The rollover text for the Chinese Village now shows the correct value for the amount of supported population after it has been upgraded.

Hotkeys

• Tambo Travois can now be found with the “Find an idle Villager” hotkey.
• ‘Mansabdar Sepoy’ now gets selected when using the “Find all of selected type” hotkey on a regular Sepoy unit.
• ‘Chimu maneuver ability’ has been added to the Abilities Hotkeys menu.

Fixes

• Villagers can now build a building from any angle, without the need to walk to a specific spot on a building foundation.
• War chiefs can no longer kill cattle using Eagle Eye.
• Cree Coureur can now be trained in the Native Embassy.
• Fixed an issue where the Mini Deck UI could be open in the Home City shipments view, allowing an exploit where shipments could be sent twice.
• Fixed an issue where Petards would immediately die without doing any damage to the enemy if you selected a new target to attack while in the middle of the attack animation.
• Aztecs: ‘Calmecac’ card effect now reduces the Age up time correctly.
• Ethiopians: ‘Big Benny’ & ‘Zebu Cattle’ cards now make cattle spawn at the Livestock Market.
• Haudenosaunee: Light Cannons no longer have a Limber and Bombard mode button (there was never a difference between both modes).
• Indians: Indians can now send non-military cards when they’re fully pop-capped.
• Japanese: Fixed an issue where Shoguns who would die while training units, would sometimes not correctly return population slots.
• Mexicans: Chaac Canoe and War Canoe are now affected by the Armor Plating and Carronade upgrades.
• Mexicans: Militiamen are now upgraded after Revolting with Texas.
• Mexicans: ‘Conscription’ tech now sends 12 Militiamen instead of 15.
• Mexicans: ‘Aztec Initiation’ and ‘Tlaxcaltec Chocolate Recipes’ are now added to the Native Embassy after sending the ‘Tlaxcala Alliance’ card.
• Mexicans: Mexican Generals no longer lose abilities when too many cards and upgrades are sent.
• Mexicans: ‘Team Louisiana Purchase’ USA card now sends the correct units for Mexico.
• Mexicans: ‘California Haciendas’ (California Revolt) card can now be sent if 6 Haciendas are already built.
• Mexicans: Sennar Horsemen and Askari now appear correctly when playing as the Mexicans.
• Mexicans: Maya units sent by card and trained in the Mayan settlement are no longer considered different.
• Spanish: Missionaries affected by the ‘Unction’ card will no longer grant their bonus while garrisoned.
• Swedes: Sending a military shipment while you’ve sent the ‘Dominions’ card, will now refund the shipment if your “Home City point” is destroyed during shipment.
• United States: ‘Missouri River Expeditions’ card can now be sent if you’re at your Town Center build limit.
• United States: Infrastructure Wagons can no longer build Haciendas if ‘Team Alta California Territory’ card was sent first.
• United States: Wagons can now build Blockhouses after sending the ‘Russian American Company’ card.
• United States: ‘Rhode Island’ Age Up now provides the correct wagon.

General

• Queenston Heights: Native Embassies can now train Lenape Warriors when allied with the Lenape.
• The Burning of USS Philadelphia: Fixed various minor issues spotted by the community.
• Battle of the Three Kings: Ahmad Al-Mansur no longer takes up a population slot.
• Art of War – Artillery: Fixed an issue where the AI names were swapped between players.
• Learn to Play: Fixed various issues to accommodate for past balance changes.
• Fixed various icon transparency issues in Story Mode & Historical battles.

General

TECHNOLOGIES

• Quechuan Mountaineering: Infantry movement speed improvement reduced to +10% (from +20%); cost improved to 250f 250c (from 300f 300c)

UNITS & BUILDINGS

• Tavern, Saloon and Monastery: Tooltip in the construction panel UI now display which Outlaws and Mercenaries will be available if constructed
• Granadero: Range reduced to 12 (from 14); cost increased to 150f (from 120); population increased to 2 (from 1) – Note: Granaderos can obtain +2 range from the Ranged Cavalry Caracole Arsenal upgrade
• Mercenary Landsknecht: Cost increased to 250c (from 240)
• Mercenary Gatling Camel: Damage per projectile reduced to 13 (from 15); range reduced to 14 (from 16); multiplier against heavy infantry reduced to 1.25x (from 1.5x) — Note: this stacks with general Infantry multiplier for 2.5x total against Heavy Infantry (down from 3x)

British

UNITS & BUILDINGS

• Manor House: Cost increased to 140w (from 135)

Dutch

CIVILIZATION:

• Starting Resources: Adjusted to 50f 400c 200w (from 100f 400c 200w)

UNITS & BUILDINGS

• Bank: Build XP bounty adjusted to 105 (from 140); kill XP bounty adjusted accordingly

Chinese

CIVILIZATION:

• Starting Resources: Starting Goat is now semi-fattened (contains 70 additional food)
• Consulate (German Relations): Adjusted as follows
  • Food Trickle (I, 250e): Export cost reduced to 200 (from 250)
  • Coin Trickle (III, 250e): Trickle increased to 1.65 c/s (from 1.25)
• Consulate (Russian Relations):
  • Passive Bonus: Now improves Villager train time and cost by 10% (previously just train time)
  • Blockhouse (II, 250e): Now available in Age I; Export cost reduced to 225 (from 250); now properly trains all War Academy and Castle units (Flamethrowers and Hand Mortars were previously missing)
• Consulate (French Relations):
  • Food Crates (II): Moved to Exploration Age, now ships 300 food (down from 500); Export cost reduced to 150 (from 300)
  • Wood Crates (II): No change
  • Coin Crates (II): Moved to Fortress Age, now ships 700 coin (up from 500); Export cost increased to 450 (from 300)
• Temple of Heaven (Age-Up Wonder): The Villager Age-up reward theme has been reworked to a more general economic one
  • Age 1 → Age 2: 3 Villagers (no change)
  • Age 2 → Age 3: 1 Town Center Rickshaw (previously 6 Villagers)
  • Age 3 → Age 4: 3 Rice Paddy Rickshaws (previously 9 Villagers)
  • Age 4 → Age 5: 1200 Export (previously 11 Villagers)

The changes to the Temple of Heaven are intended to address a prevalent gameplay issue in the Treaty game mode where it was possible to get well above the 99 Villager limit which contributed towards the Chinese civilization’s economy being more productive than felt fair.

TECHNOLOGIES:

• Exalted Steppe Rider (V): Attack and hitpoint improvement reduced to 40% (from 50%)

CARDS:

• Unit Card: Added colors to all Chinese unit card icons for better recognizability
• [NEW] Tea Export (I): “Ships 1 Consulate Rickshaw and 100 Export to spend. Also grants a steady trickle of Export permanently.”
• [NEW] 1 Flying Crow (III): “Ships 1 Flying Crow.”
• [NEW] Fire Dragon Manual (IV): “Ships 1 Flying Crow and 2 Honored Flamethrowers. Slightly improves their rate of fire.” (10%)
• [NEW] Year of the Tiger (I): “For each 2 Disciples you have lost, a Pet White Tiger will be mustered to your homecity spawn point (up to a maximum of 12 units).”
• [NEW] Year of the Dragon (III): “Each Town Center will muster 1 Flamethrower and each Village will muster 1 Monitor Lizard, to your homecity spawn point.”
• [NEW] Koxinga (500c, IV): “Ships 11 Iron Troops and significantly improves their ranged rate of fire.”
• [NEW] 1 Flamethrower + 1 Castle Rickshaw (II): “Ships 1 Flamethrower and 1 Castle Rickshaw.”
• 2 Flamethrowers (III): Updated to 2 Flamethrowers and 1 Castle Rickshaw
• 4 Flamethrowers (IV): Updated to 4 Flamethrowers and 1 Castle Rickshaw

Inca

CIVILIZATION

• Starting resources: Reduced food to 300 (from 400)

UNITS & BUILDINGS

• Tambo: Fixed an issue preventing the Chasqui from garrisoning in them
• Kancha: Now supports 15 population (down from 16)
• Bolas Warrior: Cost increased to 75f 45c (from 65f 45c); damage against Infantry reduced to 0.5x (from 0.67x)
• Chincha Raft: Build limit now increases by +6 in the Fortress and Industrial Ages (down from +8) – maximum build limit is 20
• Chasqui: Can no longer pick up treasures by default

CARDS

• Quipu Kamayuks (I): Now also enables Chasquis to pick up treasures
• INF 6 Huaraca (III): May now only be sent once (previously infinite)
• INF 7 Bolas Warriors (III): May now only be sent once (previously infinite)
• Renegade Spanish (All): May now only be sent once (previously twice)
• Schooners: No longer have access to this card
• 10 Bolas Warriors (III): Reduced to 8

Mexico

CIVILIZATION

• Starting resources: Increased to 400f, 200w and 100c (from 300f, 200w and 100c)
• Settler: Build limit increased to 85 (from 80)

UNITS & BUILDINGS

• Salteador: Cost reduced to 60f 60c (from 70f 60c); Damage against villager units reduced to 0.75x (from 1x)
• Hacienda: Build limit increased to 7 (from 6)
• Bandido: Dynamite Demolition charged ability now inflicts 0.25x to Artillery and 0.5x to Hand Cavalry; Hand Shock Infantry adjusted accordingly

TECHNOLOGIES

• Imperial Salteadores: Attack and hitpoint improvement reduced to 40% (from 50%)
• Second Guarantee: Attack and Hitpoint improvement reduced to 15%; Soldado trainspeed reduction decreased to 30% (previously 40%)

CARDS

• Observers (II): Now also improves Salteador movement speed by +5% (in addition to usual effects)
• Machetes (II): Insurgente attack damage improvement increased to 15% (from 10%)
• Dueling School (I): No longer available to Mexicans
• Liberation March (III): Trainspeed improvements increased to 35% (from 30%)
• Man of Destiny (IV): The Mexican General now takes twice as long to train Soldados compared to Military Buildings
• Refurbished Firearms (IV): Grenade launcher attack used against units is now a charged action with an 18 second cooldown; now inflicts 0.5x to Artillery; minimum range removed
• Reservistas (IV): Now also improves Insurgente trainspeed by 20% (in addition to usual effects)
• Seven Laws (III): Moved to Commerce Age (from Fortress); effect tweaked to “All seven unique Mexican units and buildings grant 50% more XP when created, but only if you have created at least 1 of each this game” (previously required 1 of each to always be present on the map or the effect stopped working: Insurgente, Soldado, Salteador, Chinaco, Padre, Cathedral and Hacienda)
• Tzotzil Uprising (Chiapas, II): Now ships 3 Maya Holcan Javelineers for each Hacienda (down from 4)
• Maya Crops (Chiapas, II): Maya Crops crate now contains 300 food (down from 350)
• Rancheros (I): Cuatrero spawn rate increased to 80 seconds (from 70)
• Native Warriors (IV): Now available in the the Fortress Age (previously Industrial)

REVOLUTIONS

• Central America: Revolution cost reduced to 350 food, wood and coin (from 400)
• Baja California: Adjusted as follows
  • Revolution cost reduced to 350 food, wood and coin (from 400)
  • Fixed an issue preventing Huntables attracted to a Hacienda after sending the ‘Baja California Territory’ card (R) from improving the production speed of units (such as Cows, Cuatreros, etc)
• Yucatan: Return to Mexico cost reduced to 2500 food, wood and coin (from 3000)
• Rio Grande: Adjusted as follows
• Return to Mexico cost reduced to 2500 food, wood and coin (from 3000)
• Fixed an issue with Factories where the Heavy Artillery tactic would not spawn any units
• California: Adjusted as follows
  • ‘Lancers of California’ card (R) now allows Imperial Cavalry upgrades to be researched for free (previously costed 1500w 1500c)
  • Fixed an issue with the California Robber Barons card (R) preventing it from being sent if at the Factory build limit
  • Fixed a bug where California Haciendas card did not increase Hacienda build limit as indicated by the tooltip
  • Fixed an issue preventing 1600 Coin card from being affected by the ‘Pánuco Waterway’ card (Tampico, IV)
• Texas: The ‘Texas Navy’ card (R) now properly makes ‘Imperial’ naval upgrades free
• Maya: Adjusted as follows:
  • British Weapons Trade (R): Now also improves Light Cannon hitpoints by +70% cannons (previously didn’t) – note: this change means that Light Cannons must now be shot twice by a Culverin to be destroyed
  • Maya Holcan Javelineer: Build limit corrected to 10 (from 7)

United States

UNITS & BUILDINGS

• Cowboy: Cost increased to 140c (from 130); Bulls Eye Charged Ability range reduced to 16 (from 18) and cooldown increased to 40 seconds (from 30)

New African Map

Lake Victoria: Fight for control of one of Africa’s great lakes! Description: Lake Victoria, which lies between the Swahili Coast and the Congo Basin, is one of Africa’s great lakes. Although this region is resource-rich, huntable animals are limited. Choose between fighting for control of the lake as a source of food later on or trying to end the match early before the huntable animals run out. If you choose to fight for control of the lake, be warned – your home city will not be able to deliver naval support shipments this far inland. Settlements: Somali, Sufi Outlaws: Desert Warrior, Desert Archer

Map Updates

• Standard Maps Set:
  • Added Lake Victoria
  • Removed Painted Desert
  • Removed Sonora
• Team Maps Set:
  • Added Great Rift
  • Added Lake Victoria
  • Added Ozarks
  • Removed Cascade Range
  • Removed Dunes
  • Removed Highlands
  • Removed Pampas Sierras
• Treaty Maps Set:
  • Added Bahia
  • Added Guianas
  • Added Ozarks
  • Added Texas

Map Changes

• General:
  • Several types of Asian trees now correctly contain 300 wood (up from 150 wood) for consistency. This change affects several Asian maps. Standard trees now all contain 300 wood while the large trees (i.e. Baobabs) contain 600 wood.
• Atlas:
  • Treaty specific changes including but not limited to:
    • Players spawn closer to the edge of the map to have better access to the trees behind their base.
    • Trade routes now spawn outside the base, but the trade post sockets are still within the treaty build radius.
• Bahia:
  • Fixed an issue where units could walk into the Blackmap and hide.
  • Treaty specific changes including but not limited to:
    • Adjust the position of the native settlements to ensure they’re available during the treaty but also safer during fighting.
    • Adjusted player positions so that players can “close” the map with their walls.
    • Added in base resources.
• California:
  • Changed some silver mines to gold mines to more closely resemble the legacy map.
• Dakota:
  • Improved mine spawn consistency.
• Darfur:
  • Treaty specific changes including but not limited to:
    • Fixed issues with some trade post sockets and/or native settlements not being within the treaty radius as intended.
    • Added in base resources and trees.
• Deccan:
  • Treaty specific changes including but not limited to:
    • More consistent plateau ramps and cliff faces that don’t interfere with base-building.
    • Removed the tech treasures (such a decreased infantry cost or increased infantry HP).
    • Each team will always be able to build a trade post on a trade route and at a native settlement during the treaty period.
    • Adjusted the native settlements so that the same natives spawn on each side of the map.
    • Added a second pair of native settlements and remove one of the trade routes in team games.
    • Adjusted starting Town Center positions for more consistent starting conditions.
    • Added in base resources.
• Fertile Crescent:
  • Improved hunt and mine spawn consistency.
• Great Lakes:
  • Fixed an issue that could cause town centers not to spawn.
• Great Rift:
  • Adjusted cliff openings for more consistent spawns.
  • Adjust the position of team treasures.
• Guianas:
  • Treaty specific changes including but not limited to:
    • The cliffs behind team bases have been removed to allow for more space to build.
    • Removed one trade route and placed the natives to that side.
    • Removed or repositioned some of the middle cliffs to create more natural lanes for fighting.
    • Both teams will have access to the same minor native civilization during the treaty period as well as one trade post socket along the trade route.
• Hispaniola:
  • Updated the map for improved spawn consistency and improved resource distribution.
• Himalayas:
  • Adjusted how hunts spawn in 1v1 games so that players have one additional intermediate hunt that can be herded toward their Town Center.
• Honshu – Regicide:
  • Corrected an issue that could result in a player’s starting walls not to spawn.
• Horn:
  • Adjusted cliff openings to no longer spawn directly in-line with Town Centers.
• Ivory Coast:
  • Adjusted cliff openings for more consistent spawns.
• Mongolia:
  • Reworked to be more conducive for games with more than 2 teams.
• Orinoco:
  • Treaty specific changes including but not limited to:
    • The perimeter trees are less obtrusive, taking up less of your buildable space.
    • One native settlement per team is within the buildable treaty radius.
    • Players now spawn slightly farther from the edge and spread out more. However, players will still be able to close their bases with the map edge and/or river bank.
• Ozarks:
  • Adjusted how resources and treasures spawn for more balanced spawns.
  • Treaty specific changes including but not limited to:
    • Added additional native settlements for each team.
    • Added in base resources.
• Panama:
  • Fixed an issue that could cause the trade travois not to spawn.
• Rockies:
  • Adjusted cliff openings for more consistent spawns.
• Savanna:
  • Treaty specific changes including but not limited to:
    • Each team gets a trade post during the treaty period, however the trade route no longer interferes with walls.
    • Players spread out more in team games and moved from the map edge to allow more space to build.
    • The Baobab trees have been adjusted to allow for better pathing during fights and enough space to properly build a forward base.
    • Added in base resources.
    • One native settlement is within the treaty radius in team games and both natives are within range in 1v1s.
    • Added cliffs in 1v1 matches to create a more defined fighting lane.
• Siwa Oasis:
  • Reduced the size by about 12% in supremacy games.
  • Treaty specific changes including but not limited to:
    • Trees around the central oasis are denser.
    • Trees around the side oases have been removed, allowing players to wall to the edge of the map.
    • Teammates spawn farther apart, allowing for more space to build during the treaty period and allowing the pocket player(s) on each team better access to natural resources.
• Sonora:
  • Fixed an issue that could cause the trade travois not to spawn.
  • Adjusted how cliffs spawn so they are farther apart and slightly smaller in size.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause some hunts not to spawn when generating too near to trade post sockets.
• Texas:
  • Treaty specific changes including but not limited to:
    • Trade routes now spawn outside the base, but the trade post sockets are still within the treaty build radius.
    • Added in base resources.
    • Each team has access to one native settlement during the treaty period.
• Trans-Saharan Routes:
  • Fixed an issue causing the map to scale disproportionately large in team games.
• Unknown:
  • Improved spawn consistency of starting resources in team games.
  • Improved spawn consistency of spawns with lakes or ponds in the middle.
  • Added team treasures and adjusted he treasure sets used by some the different biomes.
  • Forest density and overall tree count increased for treaty games.
  • Fixed an issue where some native settlements couldn’t be allied with.
  • Fixed an issue where some bonus wagons weren’t useable for all civilizations.
  • Fixed an issue where the trade route would spawn closer to one team than the other.
• Yucatan:
  • Fixed an issue that could result in mines spawning atop inaccessible cliffs.

General

• The tooltip for a hosted multiplayer game now correctly shows the number of human players who have readied in the lobby.
• Fixed an issue where the Skirmish screen would not remember the previous map that was played if it was a Custom Map.
• Saharan Routes – LOST can now be randomly chosen with the “African Maps” selection (Multiplayer only).
• Whispers are now filtered for profanity.

General

• AI players now focus on destroying TPs when the Trade Route Monopoly condition is activated.
• American AI will use Minutemen Levy
• The AI will now wait longer before transitioning to farming, it will instead try to use up more of the natural resources.
• Fixed Villagers getting stuck when they’re trying to reach a resource that’s obstructed, they will now move on to a resource that’s accessible.
• The AI is no longer blocked from gathering the trees around their starting Town Center. (this was done in legacy because Villagers would get stuck, which is now resolved)
• Fixed a bug that was introduced with last patch which caused the AI to no longer prioritize cards from the pre-made HC deck. Resulting in decks with far too many unit shipments.
• Fixed a bug that would cause some house booming AIs to build multiple Houses and a Trading Post all in the Exploration Age which would slow its advance timing significantly.
• Fixed Wagons who are trying to build Farms getting stuck because of Villagers blocking the foundation.
• Fixed Villagers trying to attack enemy Explorers that were already knocked out.
• Fixed Villagers chasing down enemies when they’re not under attack.
• Fixed a bug that would cause enemy AI to not surrender, if you allowed it to, when 2 AI tried to resign at the same time.
• All buildings that can generate resources now use the proper method of calculating which resource should be generated.
• Buildings that generate resources will now always be put on wood when the AI has ran out of trees.
• The “Easy” AI will no longer attack, this was the original design of the difficulty but it unintentionally gained the ability to attack some time ago.
• The “Standard” AI will now only attack after it has reached the Industrial Age or if somebody has attacked the AI first. This was also the original design that got lost at some point.
• The AI will now attack Trading Posts if the enemy team has activated a Trade Monopoly.
• Fixed lag spikes during big battles with AI involved.
• Fixed the AI ignoring the King of the Hill objective.
• Army reinforcements will now respond if enemy units come close instead of just walking.
• Newly trained units will now immediately respond to attack whereas before they first had to walk to their gather point before being able to attack.
• The AI will no longer keep attacking the base of an enemy when it has resigned.
• Fixed a bug that could cause the AI to not consider multiple valid trading post socket locations in its search for a suitable spot.
• The AI now recognizes all buildings that have an attack when it evaluates which sockets to build a trading post on, previously some were missing.
• Improved how the AI handles wagons that can train Forts and Trading Posts.
• The AI can no longer build Forts forward on Easy / Standard difficulty.
• Hausa AI that aged up with the Songhai alliance can now use the levy Raiders ability if they’re under attack and have excess Influence.
• Hausa AI that aged up with the Songhai Alliance can now research the Mansa Musa Epic technology.
• Ethiopian AI that aged up with the Somali Alliance can now research the Somalia Coinage technology.
• Fixed multiple bugs which prevented the African AI from training their Levied units correctly.
• European civilizations will no longer create an Arsenal when they already have all the upgrades from it.
• African civilizations can now re-make an Arsenal after losing it and they will only do so when they haven’t gotten all the upgrades from it.
• Lakota can now get the two upgrades that improve their War Huts.
• The Inca AI now has sensible requirements for getting their Stronghold upgrades.
• Fixed a bug introduced with last patch that prevented the correct placement of Swedish Torps and Japanese Shrines.
• The AI will now only build a Capitol when it doesn’t have all the appropriate upgrades from it.
• The AI no longer trains Grenadiers, Outlaws, and Mercenaries in the Commerce Age. These units would disturb the gathering too much in the early game.
• Improved how the AI determines when it should age up and with what urgency it should do that.
• Adjusted which Federal States the United States AI ages up with.
• Adjusted which Wonders Asian civilizations age up with.

Diplomacy Menu Rework

1. Attack or defend command. Mark a spot on the map for the AI to attack or defend. The AI will scan your given spot for enemy and allied buildings.

• If it finds enemy buildings it will attack that enemy base. If it finds allied buildings it will come and defend that allied player.
• The AI will not accept commands issued in areas without buildings. The AI can also deny your command if it has too few soldiers available.

2. Ask for a tribute command. This option worked before this patch too. The AI will analyze its own resource situation and determine if he can make a one time tribute to you.

3. Feed resources over time command. The AI will always confirm it’s going to try and send you resources. Every minute it will analyze its resource situation and then decide if it can or can’t tribute to you.

• So it may happen that you request the AI to feed you food over time but the AI never has any spare food, it will then not tribute to you ever.

4. Train units of a specific type command. You can choose for the AI to focus on either Infantry, Cavalry, or Artillery. You can’t have it focus on 2 types at the same time, if you ask it to focus on Cavalry while it was already focusing on Infantry it will cancel the Infantry focus first.

• Focus here implies that the AI has a greater chance if training said unit type, it’s not a 100% guarantee it will.

5. Set a strategy command. This option sort of worked before this patch too. Asking the AI to turtle causes the AI to build a lot of towers instantly. Asking it to rush causes the AI to build 0 towers.

• On top of the Towers the AI’s decisions are influenced towards a specific strategy in all kinds of places.

6. Cancel all current commands. You can cancel all of your commands at once at any time. Only the attack / defend command can’t be cancelled. Because that could leave the units of the AI on the battlefield without proper guidance on what to do which isn’t ideal.

Handy to know: This diplomacy menu doesn’t work inside of campaigns, historical battles, or scenarios. That content has custom AIs made specifically for said mission. This menu could drastically alter how those allies behave which isn’t the point of those AIs.

The AI will always decline your request while that AI is in the Exploration Age. The AI first needs to set itself up without interference so it can properly function.

As a nice addition a lot of AI voice lines have been re-implemented with this rework!

For Modders

Interesting information for scenario designers who want to utilize the AI:
The aiHeader.xs file has been updated to better explain what each variable does and how to use them.
On top of that 2 new options were added to the header for you to adjust:

• Added cvMaxTowers via which you can determine precisely how many Towers an AI should make.
• Added cvCreateBaseAttackRoute via which you can hardcode an attack route the AI should take. Look inside of age3zHB11p06.xs for an example of how it’s used (AI for Historical Battle Grito de Dolores)

Interesting information for AI modders:
3 New configurations have been added to the user.cfg file which you can find here: C:\Users\YOUR_USER\Games\Age of Empires 3 DE\A Lot of Numbers\Startup\user.cfg (you may have to create the file still, when you do so make sure the file’s type also changes to cfg and doesn’t remain on txt)

• aiEchoes are no longer generated by default. You must now put showAiEchoes in your user.cfg to see them again.

The following 2 configs create files located in: C:\Users\YOUR_USER\Games\Age of Empires 3 DE\Logs

• You can now obtain all the AI constants + possible syscalls by putting generateAIConstants in your user.cfg. A ton of new syscalls for the AI have been added during DE development, you can find all of them there. The text files will be named like “Age3DEAIConstantsPlayer1.txt”.
• You can now generate text files with all the aiEchoes per AI of the previous game you played by putting generateAIEchoesOutput in your user.cfg. Text files will be named like “Age3DEAIOutputPlayer1.txt”.

General

• The Winter Wonderland mod has been updated so it is now marked as “safe for multiplayer”. This means that if you have the mod enabled you can still play Multiplayer games against people who don’t have the mod enabled.
• Custom maps now support map-specific data mods. This is done by including a .mods.xml file along with the custom map files. See the updated Winter Wonderland mod for an example.
• Map mods can now be shared with other people from the Multiplayer lobby. If you host a lobby with a Custom map from a mod the clients will be asked to download the mod when readying up if they don’t already have the mod enabled.
• When an update for a mod is downloaded it will now be immediately installed instead of waiting until the next time the game is restarted, if the mod is currently not enabled.

Scenario Editor

• “Extreme” difficulty can now be selected in the editor Playtest drop-down menu.

Investigation

Community-Reported Issues:

• Your reports continue being crucial to our prioritization and implementation of fixes and features in the game. Keep them coming!

For other known issues, please visit this page to see what’s being tracked!

What's on the Horizon?

Hotfix

Today’s patch contains a fix that addresses a performance issue reported by some players after our 61213 update, along with a potential OOS when playing with AI. We’re continuing to monitor performance and investigating additional changes that may help further – if you’re still experiencing a performance issue following today’s patch, please provide feedback through our Support Channels & Forums – we are definitely listening!

Hotfix 63727

This update released on February 18, 2022 contains an additional fix to address the performance issues experienced by some players with our previous patch release. As with the previous hotfix, we’ll be continuing to monitor performance and investigate any additional reports that may come in after this update. If you’re still experiencing a performance issue following today’s patch, please provide feedback through our Support Channels & Forums.