Plenty of changes are coming with the release of our latest minor patch. The Wild Man and Dragon Turtle have faded back into legend, and we hope you enjoyed the monstrous start to Season Five! Here is a peak at what is included:
- Updates to Ranked Season Rewards!
- Upcoming seasonal events!
- Changes to address Queue Dodging & Cheating in Ranked.
- … plus bug fixes and balance changes.
Thanks again to our amazing community members, all of whom have helped to make Age of Empires what it is today!
—The Age of Empires Team
Remember that you’ll need to update your game in the Microsoft Store:
- Open the Microsoft Store.
- Click the [∙ ∙ ∙ ] symbol next to your profile picture.
- Select Downloads and updates.
- Press the Get updates button to automatically detect, download, and install the latest changes to your game!
- Open the game. The title screen should show you on Build 7.1.113.
If you are unable to launch the game after downloading the update, make sure you add (or re-add) the Age of Empires IV client or folder as an exception to your firewall and antivirus program. That’s it; you’re ready to play!
Remember that you’ll need to update your game in Steam:
- Open Steam.
- Click on Library to see your games list.
- Click Downloads at the bottom of the Library window.
- [If the new build does not download automatically,] click the Download Now button to manually download the new update.
- Open the game. The title screen should show you on Build 7.1.113.
That’s it; you’re ready to play!
Remember that you’ll need to update your game in the Xbox App for Windows.
- Open the Xbox app.
- Games that are installed show up on the left side of the app.
- Hover over the game or click it, and then select Update.
- [If the new build does not download automatically,] hover over the game, select More Options (…), choose Manage. Under the Files tab, choose the option to Check for Updates.
- Open the game. The title screen should show you on Build 7.1.113.
That’s it; you’re ready to play!
Still having trouble? Visit our support site!
Please Note: As part of updating to this latest build, any saved games and observable matches made on previous builds will be unable to be loaded or replayed.
New! Seasonal Event: Summer Vacation
For our next seasonal event it’s time to grab your sunscreen and head to the beach! Beat the heat with new challenges and in-game rewards from July 25th to August 21st!
| Challenge | How to Unlock Reward |
| Future’s So Bright I Gotta Wear Shades | 🔒 Construct 10 Toll Outposts, then defeat 5 units with Toll Outposts as the Malians. 🏆 Profile Icon – SUNglasses |
| Hey! Over here! | 🔒 Win a Multiplayer match with at least one friend in which you used a Taunt. 📣 Taunt – *whistle* |
| Pack Your Trunks | 🔒 Research the Howdahs technology, then produce 10 Tower Elephants as the Delhi Sultanate. 🧱 Monument – Blow-Up Elephant |
| Rising Tide | 🔒 Win a Multiplayer or Skirmish match in which you constructed 5 Docks. 🧱 Coat of Arms Banner Pattern – Currents |
| Siege Engineering | 🔒 Build 20 Stone Wall segments in a Skirmish or Multiplayer match. 🧱 Coat of Arms Sigil – Sand Pail |
Ranked Season Updates
Map Pool Change
Since our Map Monsters have left for the season, they will no longer be appearing on ranked maps. The ranked map pool is otherwise unchanged. Battle your way up the ranked ladder before the season ends on October 23rd at 11:59 pm PDT (Oct 24th at 06:59 UTC)!
Ranked Rewards
Mentioned in both our Season Five release notes, and our follow-up post, progress continues to be made on changing the Ranked Rewards system. Starting with this patch, players should now see the highest rank they’ve achieved this season on their profile and on the multiplayer ranked screen.
Queue Dodging
We’ve updated the game servers’ backend to better detect when a player purposefully disconnects from their match. The system should now apply queue dodging cooldown punishments more instantly than previous configurations. Purposefully disconnecting from a Ranked Team or Ranked 1v1 lobby or load screen, as well as any time during Ranked 1v1 matches, will now also count as a loss for the disconnecting player in addition to the cooldown punishment.
These changes, in congruence with some of our other changes, should reduce the frequency of queue dodging. We are continuing to monitor this closely and may further tighten queue dodging punishments to be more in-line with other Age titles.
Additionally, we remain aware queue dodging is more frequent at the high and low extremes of ELO levels and are continuing our work to address the matchmaking process for these extremes, to further reduce the frequency of queue dodging for these players.
Ranked Cheating
In our update kicking off the start of Season 5, we mentioned our continued investigation of cheating on the Ranked ladder, especially in Teams games. Thanks in part to reports sent in from players, we have taken some keys steps to reduce cheating in Ranked.
- Fixed issue where mod creators on the Windows Store game version were unable to publish newly created mods using and see them on the Mod Publisher page.
AI Updates
- Fixed a rare issue where the AI would build too many Lumber camps on some maps.
- Fixed a crash bug related to AI trading.
UX/UI & Menus
- Fixed an issue where the user was unable to zoom while in replays when using Caster Mode.
- When launching the game in Malay or Hindi languages, the Daily Challenges, News Feed and Events will now be in the correct language.
- Fixed the alignment of the Season Four painting sigil frame, which was off-center.
- Fixed a bug to ensure that if a player’s communications are set to blocked no one will be able to chat to that player in-game.
- Thanks in part to players sending in their warning logs, we were able to quickly identify and implement a fix for another set of conditions that were causing a crash on age up for several players. If you continue to encounter crashes, please reach out to Customer Support so that we may investigate.
Campaign
- Fixed a crash that was preventing campaign save files from loading.
Map-Specific Changes
Prairie
- Fixed an issue on Prairie where one of the neutral markets would sometime not spawn.
Golden Heights
- Golden Heights now appears in the correct alphabetical order on the map selection list.
- Fixed an occasional unequal boar distance distribution issue on Golden Heights 1v1.
General Changes & Bugfixes
- Fixed a hitching issue seen when felling trees on certain maps.
- Fixed a potential crash that was linked to using Voice Chat.
Balance & Gameplay Changes (All Civilizations)
- Monks will no longer stutter when attack-move healing.
- Patrolling Monks will no longer heal while patrolling.
Developer’s Note: This is an unintentional change that we aim to fix in a future update.
- Keeps
- All civilizations’ Keep Stone cost increased from 800 to 900.
- Bombard Emplacement range reduced from 10 to 9.5.
- Boiling Oil range reduced from 2 to 1.5.
- Boiling Oil damage area changed from a 2.5×1.5 rectangle to a 1 radius circle.
Developer Note: Overall keep and bombard emplacements are too effective when comparing their costs to the costs of their counters. Making keeps more expensive means they will be a bit slower to hit the field and thus their positioning will be more important. Boiling oil changes are aimed at overall reducing the area a bit and making the damage area more consistent. In a future update we’re looking at a new visual effect to communicate the area more precisely.
- Bombard move speed increased from 0.62 to 0.75.
Developer Note: Overall we’ve been seeing a lot of ram play because of their low cost and ease of use, this change is targeted at helping the bombard which has to pack and unpack get into the action faster.
- Villagers no longer use Bow weapons to attack Boars, they now always use a Spear.
Developer Note: This change is aimed at making taking boars more accessible by reducing the micro requirement for fighting them.
- Selecting an active Trader displays the amount of gold that will be earned at its destination.
- Fixed a bug where previously idle units will move to the position of an enemy they defeated.
- Fixed an issue where ranged siege units would fail to reposition when too close to an obstruction, such as a Stone Wall, if their target was otherwise within their range. Ranged siege units will now pack-up and reposition to a better angled shot or find another target.
- Fresh Foodstuffs Technology cost reduced from 50 food/125 gold to 50 food/75 gold.
Developer Note: We like the decision point here of technology vs villager, but reduced the price so the technology payoff time is faster.
- Great Wall Landmark
- Great Wall Gatehouse damage reduced from 15 to 13.
- Keeps
- Damage reduced from 50 to 25.
- Attack speed increased from 3.12 to 1.37.
- Ancient Techniques Technology gather bonus reduced from 5% to 4%.
- Dome of Faith Landmark
- No longer has a 50% production speed penalty.
- Gives a discount of -50 gold instead of –65 gold.
Developer Note: We wanted to give the Dome of Faith more tempo with faster train time on Scholars. Additional it generates increased resources per minute while constant training. This is balanced by the fact that the building generally has more idle time than other production buildings as it’s creating a more specialized unit.
- House of Learning Landmark
- Hearty Rations carry capacity increased from 5 to 10.
- Hearty Rations research time reduced from 5:00 to 3:45.
- Tranquil Venue Technology healing increased from 2 to 4 per second.
- Griot Bara Landmark
- Siege Festival no longer affects the Springald, Mangonel, and Culverin.
- Siege Festival help text times corrected to read 60 seconds.
- Musofadi Warrior health increased from 85/105/130 to 90/110/135.
- Sipahi train speed increased from 24 to 28 seconds.
- Anatolian Hills Technology mining speed bonus increased from 10% to 15%.
- Kremlin Landmark
- Levy Militia lifetime reduced from 80 to 65 seconds.
- Levy Militia automatic torch scaling by Age removed.
- Fixed a bug where Hunting Cabins built adjacent to no Trees generate negative gold.
- Boyar’s Fortitude Technology health bonus reduced from +30 to +25.
Bluetooth Audio Device Support
We are aware that the game switches audio device settings when players are using Bluetooth-enabled speakers, headsets, and/or microphones as their default audio devices. We are working on creating in-game settings for selecting audio input and output devices, however that feature is still in development.
For players with Bluetooth-enabled speakers and headsets, we have made some quick changes such that disabling Team Voice Chat should now be a usable temporary workaround for correcting the audio-output aspect of this issue.
Voice Chat Reporting
See our FAQ for more information on Voice Chat features including How to Report a Player. Please include as much information as possible including the date & time of your match. If you have a recording or stream of your match, please include this in your report too. Thank you.
Coming Up…
Late Summer Patch
Work continues supporting Season Five with additional minor patches like this one. We are currently eyeing our next minor patch to align in late summer for lighting up seasonal events, more balance fine-tuning, and additional bug fixes.
Animal Lover Login Event
Do you love animals? Login to Age of Empires IV between 10:00 am PT on August 28th (17:00 UTC) and 11:59 pm PT on September 1st (September 2nd at 05:59 UTC) to earn the Animal Lover profile portrait.
World Gaia Appreciation Event
We love our planet along with the plants, animals, peoples, and civilizations that have graced it throughout the ages. Come celebrate all this planet means to us as part of our World Gaia Appreciation Event from September 5th through 29th.
| Challenge | How to Unlock Reward |
| Animal Kingdom | 🔒 Win a Skirmish or Multiplayer match in which you haven’t killed any animals or Fish. 🧱 Coat of Arms Sigil – Animal Kingdom |
| Cute Cattle | 🔒 Produce 10 Cattle before you reach the Castle Age(III) in a Multiplayer match playing as the Malians. 🏆 Profile Portrait – Cute Calf |
| Make it grow | 🔒 Play with a friend in a 2v1 Multiplayer match and build 20 Farms. 🧱 Coat of Arms Sigil Frame – Holding the Planet |
| Watch out | 🔒 Win a 2v2 Multiplayer or Skirmish match while playing on the map Marshland. 🏆 Profile Portrait – Marsh Alligator |
| What is out there? | 🔒 Gather 1000 Fish as a Food Source with Fishing Boats in a Skirmish or Multiplayer match. 🧱 Coat of Arms Sigil – Not a Fish |
DISCLAIMER
Please note that this list is subject to change and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all the known issues we’re tracking. The above is to inform you of the team’s current priorities, which will change as other issues arise or take precedence.
For the latest updates and announcements, please visit our social channels.